They were probably worried about Unbirth combos but they forget they were going to print Metaltooth.
Rush on a Neutral is very risky from a balance perspective so I’m fine with it.
Although it does beg the question: why wasn’t Windblade Adept changed back to a 4/3?
I could explain to you how powerful rush is. I could explain to you how uninteractive and “unfun” rush with no conditions is. I COULD explain to you how flexible tiger was before the nerf, but what I cannot explain to you is why CPG decided to nerf tiger. Maybe it was a push against easy rush decks?
I don’t know. At the very least you can’t be stuck as player 1 vs a 5/2 tiger so that’s a plus
I think their objective was to slow the game even more or to be precise support minion/board based decks (whether they are aggro decks or not doesn’t matter). By nerfing tiger they reduce the possibility of an unwanted burst deck being created. To add to this, saberspine was too flexible of a card. It could be used as removal or burst damage depending on the situation. Basically, a neutral 3 mana fenix fire that sometimes dealt more damage. Lastly, Tiger was INSANELY powerful in gauntlet as a player 2 or 1 answer to any threat. The same goes for ranked games. All in all, I am in favor or nerfing the card since it promoted a very fast style play which in turn destroyed any hope of board based decks becoming good.
Katara needed a buff.
I think that CP tried to nerf aggro decks a little bit. If they succeeded only meta will tell.
Tiger is a really great card an a staple for many decks. It made a lot of two drops not viable. Vale Hunter meta incoming!
Every other patch Tiger breaks the game one way or another. It’s been a problem card since Duelyst went on public beta.
Cough rev cough
Rev is consistently an asshole, but he’s never been low curve enough to break the game. He definitely deserved the bump to 8 mana though.
Tyger Tyger, nerfed tonight,
In the meta at its height;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could give a 4 drop this stat line?
In what ancient meta games,
Burnt the rushcats, with borrowed flames?
On what movement spells did he soar?
Of what the lethals with Argeon’s roar?
And what fluid pixel art,
Could clear the two drops at game’s start?
And when the noobs first join the game,
What the finisher, to make their decks less lame?
What the Immolate? what the range,
What of tryhards who play Faie?
What the first wish? what deadly grasp,
What will Aggro Faie play now, white asp?!
When the forums threw down their salt
And @kevin2hard’s nerf threads came to a halt:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who nerf the fox nerf thee?
Tyger Tyger, nerfed tonight,
In the meta at its height;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could give a 4 drop this stat line?
This…
…is excellent. 
Good -^
Real good
…This is poetry. I mean, this is literal poetry, but this is beauty in written words. This might be the best thing I’ve read in weeks. This is glorious. Amazing play on the original, hilarious references, if anyone ever tells you you’re not funny or clever they’re wrong. This is some comedy platinum you’ve unearthed here. I’m still laughing.
…Seriously, this is so damn good!
Tyger. Was. Oppressive.
The devs couldn’t design powerful buff spells, without risking a high number of anticlimactic games at the paws of a buffed Tyger. Rush is too complicated, and too strong to make universally available AND efficient.
Like many artifacts from earlier designs, the developers likely didn’t play Duelyst the way that people do on the ladder. To them, Tyger was probably a trading tool- more than a “count to 10 burnspell”.
So yeah, open up design space for buff spells, by making Tyger properly costed as a tech card.
Could you like, rap this as well as big shaq???
dwl awesome bro
They could’ve altered the text to not allow damaging to generals. We have assassin protocol. Not a complaint, just an option.
However, hedgekitties are now too weak for cost. They should be 3/4’s for four mana. That way, they have plenty of targets they can survive hitting, leaving the opponent with a small threat to mop up. Seems reasonable.
Also, I’d be okay with rushers not being able to hit generals the turn they hit the field as a permanent change to rush itself. For that matter, change celerity so that celerity minions can’t hit the same target twice in one activation. That would allow for much more freedom in designing celerity minions and buffing the currently existent ones. Designing overpowered keywords inevitably leads to having to restrict how many minions get those keywords and what can be done with those minions. Ahem. Ranged.
There’s value in having keywords that are stronger than others. Sure, they’re powerful, but you can restrict what gets them. It’s another way to add strength outside of just numbers. Just want to add that super-strong keywords aren’t inherently bad for the game.
I really like your change to celerity. It would allow rippers to still be safely summoned far away from battle but not otk you so easily. Also like you said it would allow for there to be more celerity minions