SECOND EDITED PROPOSAL: Frostbone Naga and Gnasher both need re-designs in compensation for the changes to Blistering Skorn which occupies the same 4 Mana cost slot, creating an obvious illusion of choice.
(A second round of edits focused on adjusting both Gnasher and Frostbone Naga have been implemented, making both a bit more fair/easy to deal with during early plays over the course of the first 2 turns.)
Both should cost 3 Mana while having stats adjusted, not 4. As the thread eveolved, a stat-line comparison to Blistering Skorn was suggested by @paralykeet, later this evolved into multiple suggestions for tweaks due to the first two turns needing time for players to utilize their hands, After reviewing many suggestions, I’ve decided to leave things like so, With
FROSTBONE NAGA
COST: 3 Mana,
STATS:2/3,
OPENING GAMBIT: Deals 2 Damage to all adjacent Minions Generals, Including itselt
(Changed to be similar to Blistering Skorn, in that now you aren’t left with a powerful 3/3 after it procs.)
GNASHER
COST: 3 Mana,
STATS:2/3,
DYING WISH: Deals 3 Damage to all adjacent Enemies.
(@eternamemoria made mention o changing Gnasher to a 2/3. While I initially liked the idea of Gnasher being a glass cannon. At 2/3, Inner Focus can’t lead to an immediate 6 face damage to the opponent’s General on the 1st or 2nd turn (on top of also possibly killing minions in the process). The opponent can respond by trading minions to eliminate him quickly while maneuvering out of his way after he’s played. And any spells that can sacrifice him to proc his ability (IE: Darkfire Sacrifice, and Consuming Rebirth for example) destroy him outright either way.)
NIGHTSORROW ASSASSIN
COST: 3 Mana,
STATS:2/3,
OPENING GAMBIT: Destroy a nearby Enemy Minion with 2 or less Attack.
(EDITED: Nightsorrow is now included in this thread, in order to really run the gamut of these types of creatures in balance with each other. I have her Buffed to 2/3, to make it balanced against Frostbone Naga and Gnasher. Since it only destroys one reletively weak creature, at least it leaves a toughish body on the field. Whereas, Naga is now weakened to 2/1 after being played, and Gnasher of course still has to die to proc. The more I thought this out, the more I realized all four should really be in balance.
BLISTERING SKORN (CURRENT STATS/COST POST PATCH)
COST: 4 Mana,
STATS:4/5,
OPENING GAMBIT: Deals 1 Damage to all Minions and Both Generals, including itself.
REASONING: Even at 4 Mana, Blistering Skorn is a more universal AOE over both Frostbone Naga and Gnasher, and he leaves a body on the field after it taking effect which can take a hit while becoming an obvious threat. Now that Skorn is in the 4 slot rather than the 3 slot, Frostbone Naga, and especially Gnasher whom is hard to pull off as it is, simply can’t compete with Skorn, at competitive levels.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH GNASHER VIA EXTENSIVE TESTING AT DIAMOND RANK:
Even with Lurking Fear in an Abyssian deck, Gnasher is hard to justify. He becomes decent when in tandem combination with Darkfire Sacrifice or Consuming Rebirth, but it’s rarely fast enough even at that point, since you either had to spend a lurking fear first turn if you’re lucky to get him out on turn 2 when going first, or you need to spend several cards to cast him on turn 1 when going second. Plus that only only gets him into a decent range for one faction.
Yes he is decent with short range AOE with 3 damage and fairly nice stats, but you very rarely get to play him in time to hard counter much of anything due to this cost.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH PLAYING FROSTBONE NAGA AT DIAMOND RANK:
Frostbone Naga is a bit more straightforward, and is another 3/3 body like Gnasher who can take a hit. Skorn obviously has better stats than both Nada and Gnasher at the same cost to start. But I also think Frostbone Naga is again over costed by comparison, since 1 damage on every tile is far stronger than 2 damage to all nearby tiles. He takes immediate effect like Skorn, but this is far, or at least it would be if she costed 3 instead of 4, for all of the same mana curve reasons listed for Gnasher.
EDITED CONCLUSION:
While the thread below opens a dialog to discuss power Vs mana curve, people started to reply with general thoughts on redesigns at a stat-line level if the point costs were lowered, in order to preserve game balance. I’m completely for those suggestions, and will continue to update the original post if general consensus leads me to think even more adjustments would be a good idea.
Gnasher has the biggest potential payoff for damage, but takes planning and resources, and Naga would work great as a hard counter to stock 2 drops like Ooz, Gro, Windblade Adept, Chakri Avatar, Tusk Boar, Bur, Crystal Cloaker, etc. But both of them are just too slow, making the wait for Skorn easy to accept, and putting them into direct competition with Skorn for the 4 slot…giving the illusion of choice.
I know I’m not an S-Rank player, but I take competitive play seriously, and I’d like to see more cards having greater flexibility in the meta.
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