My take on nerfs to Ogroids.
First, I will not be voting to nerf Ogoids because I have chosen to focus my votes on non-meta cards — if all people choose only to vote on meta quality decks, we will never see anything truly new. These comments would apply if I were to vote on nerfs.
I would start by identifying targets for nerfs —cards that create problems: usually cards that play for too much value, but they could be cards that are binary or parts of broken combinations. Cards I have heard discussed (or would add to discussion) include:
- Chrum -- too much carry-over / too much tempo
- Speartip -- too much value / graveyard carry over
- Tugo -- too much potential engine value (outside true Ogroid decks)
- Riptide -- too much value for removal
- Jotunn -- too much value
- Golyat -- too much value
- Enraged Cyclops -- too much value
Except for Chrum, Tugo, and Riptide, these are all essentially pointslam cards, easily evaluated by their position of the point/provision curve.
Speartip -- in its basic form, Old Speartip is 12 points for 11 provisions (with tall punish liability). This is bad return on an 11 provision card. The only way he plays above the provision curve is if he is summoned with the base power boost, but then he should be considered an 18 for 13 as one should account for the provisions (above four) spent on Old Speartip: Asleep. This is competitive, but not great -- especially since it is easily denied. The only way one can argue that Old Speartip is OP is by counting graveyard carryover. And since this is only accessible by either Witched Sabbath or Ozzrel. I would argue that if graveyard carryover is an actual problem, the blame fits more on the cards that access it.
Jotunn -- Jotunn is 15 for 8 -- well above the point/provision curve. But one should also count extra provisions spent on Ice Giants (cards you generally hope to mulligan and never play) to make Jotunn 15 for 10. This is still good. But I would argue that with Jotun's vulnerability to both reset and tall punish, he would not be a priority.
Golyat -- At 12 for 7, Golyat does give about two more points that I would normally expect from a good 7-provision card. But the deathwish can be problematic -- a risk that I think offsets the 2 points.
Enraged Cyclops — 10 for 4 is well above the typical 7 (or less) for 4 of typical cheap bronzes. But I think it would be healthier for the game if all 4 provision cards were buffed to this level as that would reduce the RNG from drawing fewer gold cards than one’s opponent.
And that takes us to the cards that are not “just” pointslam. But please note that these cards add spice to Ogroid decks.
Chrum — at roughly 20 for 14, Chrum is nowhere near as strong as most scenarios; any real problem is with the resilience and no nerf will handle that. A 20 point resilient card is just too big. It is binary in that it loses significant value if not found by round 2, it’s tempo is so great that purify as a response typically loses a card and no response typically loses more than that. Tall punish or lose situations are very binary. I would support nerfing Chrum just on principle — even if the nerf is relatively useless.
Tugo — in Ogroid decks, Tugo is probably a one point per turn engine. But in many (usually non-Ogroid) decks he can really be abused by the likes of Arachas Queen and Witches Sabbath. But the problem here is really not Tugo — it is Arachas Queen and possibly Sabbath.
Riptide — Riptide is a minimal 10 for 8 and often 16 or more for 8 with significant removal. Even at 10 for 8, it out performs any other 8 provision removal and is hence used in any deck desiring this level of removal. It would be my first choice — probably for a power nerf.
Honestly, except for nerfing Riptide, the specific card chosen for a provision nerf is largely irrelevant. No other decks will benefit significantly by including these cards — and none will be left out of Ogroid decks. Thus any provision nerf has the exact same effect on decks. I would argue that nerfing a bronze might make sense as this impacts the deck twice — unless that would be over-nerfing.