Addressing the heavily criticized state of the game mode, Team 5 makes an unprecedented move.
Of late, the Hearthstone Arena hasn't been the go-to place if one looked for diversity. Popular Arena streamer Octavian "Kripparian" Morosan tweeted a picture of his statistics: in one run he came across 1 Paladin, 3 Rogues and 10 Mages. The result comes at no surprise since Mages have long had many strong common cards in [card]Fireball[/card], [card]Flamestrike[/card] and many others. To make the situation even worse, in Hearthstone's most recent expansion "One Night in Karazhan", [card]Firelands Portal[/card] was introduced: a very strong common tempo card as well.
Many Arena players were upset, to say the least, with the rarity given to the card. It being a common means it'll appear far more often than when it was given a different rarity. Others took it as far as to wonder why the card was even granted to Mages at all, as the class was in no need of strong Arena cards. Following the critique many questions were put to the developers and Ben Brode briefly addressed the issue during a Q&A. Today however, the developers revealed their full plans for Arena in a blog post. 45 more cards will no longer be able to be picked, following [card]Purify[/card] and all [card]C'Thun[/card] cards in their tracks. Looking at the selected cards it is obvious the developers are mostly aiming at the weaker cards in the suboptimal Arena classes. The exception is [card]Faceless Summoner[/card], which is the third best common Mage card according to Hearth Arena's tier list.
Card bans on such a large scale are unprecedented in Hearthstone, but might open new doors for the future of the game. As for the community, the response to the announcement has been generally positive. Most Arena players are already glad with the fact that the developers are actually acting in favor of them, rather than continuously saying they're thinking of a solution.
Full list of banned cards:
Mage
- [card]Forgotten Torch[/card]
- [card]Snowchugger[/card]
- [card]Faceless Summoner[/card]
Rogue
- [card]Goblin Auto-Barber[/card]
- [card]Undercity Valiant[/card]
Paladin
- No changes
Shaman
- [card]Vitality Totem[/card]
- [card]Dust Devil[/card]
- [card]Totemic Might[/card]
- [card]Ancestral Healing[/card]
- [card]Dunemaul Shaman[/card]
- [card]Windspeaker[/card]
Warlock
- [card]Anima Golem[/card]
- [card]Sacrificial Pact[/card]
- [card]Curse of Rafaam[/card]
- [card]Sense Demons[/card]
- [card]Void Crusher[/card]
- [card]Reliquary Seeker[/card]
- [card]Succubus[/card]
Druid
- [card]Savagery[/card]
- [card]Poison Seeds[/card]
- [card]Soul of the Forest[/card]
- [card]Mark of Nature[/card]
- [card]Tree of Life[/card]
- [card]Astral Communion[/card]
Warrior
- [card]Warsong Commander[/card]
- [card]Bolster[/card]
- [card]Charge[/card]
- [card]Bouncing Blade[/card]
- [card]Axe Flinger[/card]
- [card]Rampage[/card]
- Ogre Warmaul
Hunter
- [card]Starving Buzzard[/card]
- [card]Call Pet[/card]
- [card]Timber Wolf[/card]
- [card]Cobra Shot[/card]
- [card]Lock and Load[/card]
- [card]Dart Trap[/card]
- [card]Snipe[/card]
Priest
- [card]Mind Blast[/card]
- [card]Shadowbomber[/card]
- [card]Lightwell[/card]
- Power Word: Glory
- [card]Confuse[/card]
- [card]Convert[/card]
- [card]Inner Fire[/card]