First of all: I wouldn’t even run Ego, this card is sub par removal and has opportunity cost.
Second of all: If transforming/dispelling/bouncing malicious wisp was my only play I would pass as:
Well said, so for cards other than ego, I can see why it’s bad, thank you for your wisdom.
And Ego is bad for even putting it in your deck, there are just so many better cards you can play.
Unless they really enjoy using ego on their malicious wisp. Running pure ramp without removal is risky but has a high payoff.
Btw - even though wisp giving you and adventage you still needs to play fairly defensive for keeping it safe.
So you beeter off with good old permanent ramp.
Playing Malicious Wisp aggressively might be the correct play most of the time with faster.lists but slower ones definitely.
so this isn’t about malicious wisp in a bubble it’s about the malicious wisp/aspect of ego combo making it impossible to recover the mana, something your proposed nerf wouldn’t even prevent.
ezily removeable :>
The proposed nerf is at most a half measure compared to current iteration.
Currently, the wisper gains wispee’s lost Mana to use next turn, effectively netting a 2 Mana shift for the wisper.
The proposed reduces to a Mana shift of 1, on par with Crystal wisp and death grip as only the wispee loses 1 and future action of any opportunities they would usually play.
A Mana shift of 1 before transform seems more fair, again pointing to deathgrips and wisp.
the reason crystal wisp and mana deathgrip are played is because they allow a higher mana cost play to be made earlier. any suggested nerf to malicious wisp that removes that benefit might as well say delete the card. a more relevant nerf that specifically addresses the combo with aspect of ego would be to change the opening gambit to an onboard effect.
How does this sound? Before, Wisp gave you a +2 advantage over the opponent summoned, but this gives you a +2 advantage over the opponent only when killed. When summoned, it gives you a mana crystal, so it’s still very powerful for Ramp players, although the opponent gets it as well.
This is Slightly underpowered. The ablility of giving your opponent a free mana crystal to use immediately next turn is pretty bad for you actually, especially factoring in dispel, transform, and just plain old not being able to trade this in fast enough.
Mali wisp has very little room for balance, because everything about its design is either integral or it doesnt matter in the slightest.
Because playing mali aggressively is like playing a 4/3 for 4 mana, you should really almost always play it defensively, despite objections. This renders attack useless, and the hp is no tas important because a competent person will always body block for wisp, keeping it out of general reach, and too much removal is not damage based, although hp is more important than attack by far. Mana cost changes make it too op or useless for more in depth reasons I dont care to explain rn, and changes to the effect just change the card fundamentally or making it worse to the point of unplayable.
Because duelyst has a board with body blocking, stat changes are inherently much more difficult to use as balance tools. Either because it makes a card too op, or too weak, or doesnt effect it. This is similar in other card games, but much more evident and amplified in duelyst
this version of the card is a straight buff since the person playing it will likely have a deck built to benefit more from equal mana acceleration than the opponent. then to double down on their mana acceleration all they need to do is have the thing die which means they no longer have the tempo loss of not being able to attack with the minion if they want to retain the mana advantage.
No its actually a nerf. As I previously stated, extra mana leads to better tempo leads to board control leads to snowball. You just gave your opponent mana to use immediately. Its a nerf, albeit a softer one.
Also, @kirabi and @raputha if you guys want it, I can always write articles on examination of card balance, places in the meta, and what they need to be good or weakened to fairness. Same for deck archetypes.
Not in this case it is used a rear line minion. It doesn’t need 3 health. A simple change 4/3 to 4/2 makes it easier to kill and harder to trade into something and then cheap transform.
@loliconartist Yes I want content like that pm me and we can work something out
See if I wanted to go into it, I could explain just how many different ways that body blocking raises the bar for stat changes.
Turning it into a 4/2 would be a good nerf, because its soft while allowing more things like rashas curse w dervishes to kill it, and some more im too tired to think of rn, so I would be open to that idea. However, I feel mali wisp isnt that powerful right now compared to the meta. Lack of strong vanar support this expansion has really led to the neccessity of them to lean on mali, for this reason, I feel mali is fine as is, or you will break the crutch vanar has rn. From a design standpoint though, it would have been better to have provided a few more supporting cards and less of a crutch such as this single one.
Also,i never said ho changes are insignificant. Why do you think its a 4/3?because that not only makes it more fair tempo and value wise, but also because its now an accessable target for songhai with thunderbomb and pho fire 
If you talk about Mali I want to peak my head.
In my opinion, that’s decent card design. It gives you an advantage but also gives you a disadvantage, the latter of which could be nullified. There are many factors to consider when playing the card, it’s strategically multifaceted.
Then why can’t we play Mali offensively? A health nerf and an attack buff could be in order. I do understand my suggestion is a nerf, but I don’t think it will be underpowered. It will merely make Mali step down from her position as a staple in Ramp/Aggro decks to a strong tech option.
All decks benefit from more mana. A Ramp deck doesn’t use mana most efficiently, it just earns more if it. Furthermore, original Mali gives more of a mana advantage over the opponent than my suggestion. You’re claiming that a +0 advantage is stronger than a +2 advantage.
But killing Mali either way still deals straight 4 damage, regardless of her effect. It’s not like my suggestion nerfed Mali to 0 attack or something.
please let me know what any other faction can do with 7 mana that is as efficient as ghost seraphim + luminous charge or ghost seraphim + spirit of the wild.
you’re arguing the opening gambit of your design as if the dying wish isn’t part of it. the fact that i need to point this out to you is a pretty clear indication that this discussion is a lost cause.
Aspect of Shimzar was never used before Thunderhorn- it was still a bad card but it was worth the slot for this combo, and I argue that the same principle can be applied to Wisp + Aspect of the Ego. That it is sub par doesnt mean there isnt a scenario in which it works pretty well.
Spending mana and cards to keep the buff may not sound efficient at first, but really, your opponent’s efficience is so crippled by losing mana that it may as well be worth the cost, especially if you’re running other forms of ramp. Its a tempo loss now, but if next turn you have 7 mana and the opponent has 4, then, what the heck, you are probably winning regardless of losing one card. In the long run, the advantage you gain by abusing Wisp is probably better than casting a 2 or 1 drop.
Is it the biggest thing out there? Clearly not as big as Brome or Sajj. Is it the most infuriating? I’d say so.