Blizzard has decided to change Warsong Commander yet again, no longer granting charge to creatures as they are played, which destroys the popular Grim Patron Warrior deck. Is that the best call? Over on renevatium.com, blogger renevatium has a few words about these drastic changes:
In my opinion, there are three distinct reasons why Patron is both loved and hated. Firstly, the state of the game is irrelevant if you are able to draw into a full Warsong, double Frothing combo. The comeback potential is incredible, but painfully frustrating for an opponent who may have played a perfect game until that point. Secondly, the deck contains a ridiculous number of slightly less devastating OTKs achievable through various combinations of Emperor Thaurissan, Warsong Commander, Grim Patron, Frothing Beserker, Death’s Bite and the other attendant tech cards. Thirdly, the deck is versatile, formidable even without OTK. The draw, weapons, removal, armor and cheap minions provide for almost any situation, and make reading the game very difficult for an opponent.
The most common argument against Patron Warrior surrounds a post made by Hearthstone Community Manager Zeriyah in November 2014:
Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. Fighting for board control and battles between minions make an overall game of Hearthstone more fun and compelling, but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not particularly fun or interactive.
Obviously this applies to Patron, but it hasn’t been enough to persuade Team 5 to implement a change. When asked about this in an interview last month, Ben Brode said:
It’s a very hard deck to play correctly, and we can see the win rates behind the scenes. They’re good, but they’re not quite at the level of the decks we’ve seen in the past where we’ve had to do nerfs.
So why are we seeing these changes if there is no need for them? Has the community really pushed Blizzard to the breaking point? Check out the full article here for a good look at both sides, in what renevatium presents to us as The Grim Patron Paradox.
