No problem with Big Game Hunter: You’ve got wrong in your insights!

I read this: http://t.co/joBIzrPXwD recently (when it was retweeted by a Hearthstone player I respect, @kripparrian). In it, games player and maker @bmkibler lays out his problems with one particular card: the Big Game Hunter. The more I read, the more I found I disagreed with, which prompted me to write this.

A disclaimer: I’m not a games designer. That being said, Hearthstone isn’t the only CCG (electronic and real world) I’ve played. I’ve even participated in tournaments internationally, so I feel able to offer at least a reasonable level of insight.

The piece begins by laying out the motivation of Hearthstone players as typified by the psychology of MtG players here — http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr11b and @bmkibler describes himself as a “…Timmy-Spike. I play games to win, but I like winning in dramatic fashion. I derive far more enjoyment out of crushing my opponents with giant dragons than anything else.” He continues: “Big Game Hunter is the enemy of that kind of fun. Big Game Hunter is Timmy’s worst enemy. One of the biggest challenges of a game like Hearthstone is the way that card effects are split between the different classes. As the Head Developer of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game during its first few years, this is a challenge with which I am quite familiar. There are certain kinds of effects that are fairly core to any given game engine, and it can be difficult to split those up in a way that is both coherent and balanced.”

Timmy’s fun is ruined because BGH stops his grand flourish dead in its tracks. The flip side being that his opponent gets to pull off a potentially dramatic turnaround and epic win of their own, of course. Given the acknowledgement that there are different types of players, changing the effect of a card that affects only a small percentage of rare cards to accommodate the fun of a subset of players seems a bit drastic. Further, if the idea of winning DESPITE your grand flourish being thwarted is unappealing, then I suspect the win is less important than the flourish, and @bmkibler is more Timmy than Spike.

He then goes on: “In Hearthstone, every class has a way to deal with a big opposing minion. Rogues have the simplest incarnation with Assassinate. Priests have Shadow Word: Death. Shaman have Hex. Mages have Polymorph. Warlocks have Siphon Soul. Warriors have Execute. Hunters have Hunter’s Mark. Paladins have Equality. And even Druids have Naturalize, if they really want it.”

That’s not *quite* accurate. Execute won’t deal with a big minion without another card. Neither will Equality or Hunter’s mark. For a one-shot method of dealing with that big minion, Warriors would need Crush. Hunters can use Deadly Shot (sometimes). Paladins would have to use…err….um…they don’t have a single card that instantly deals with a large minion. Twocard combos sure, but nothing on its own.

Ok, I may be taking a really narrow view of “deal with” there, so let’s expand it. Rogues get Sap (which deals with the minion for a turn and time to prepare for its return). Priests get Mind Control (thanks for the big minion!) and maybe Lightbomb. Mage and Shaman get spells capable of doing 6 damage unmodified. Mages also get Vaporise. Warlocks get Twisting Nether and Corruption (albeit with downsides). Hunters can ruin a 9 drop’s day with a Freezing Trap or charge a lot of big things down with a King Krush. So on and so on. The point I’m trying to make is that there are MANY ways of dealing with a big minion as it’s played Why the ire for BGH then? Surely with so many tools to handle large surprises, the BGH isn’t so damaging to fun that it alone is a problem? The reason it’s been picked up as having the “fun in its sights” is, I suspect more complex than because it takes Timmy’s showboating and shoots it between the eyes.

@bmkibler believes BGH was created as a counter to the giants (stone, molten and now clockwork). I can’t comment on that, I can’t speak to the designers original intent that specifically. I will say that I think the reasoning behind BGH is simpler than that — it’s a counter to a big minion, be that a giant, a legendary, or even a murloc buffed to the point of gleaming. It’s there to put the brakes on, to stop one player running away with a game simply because they have a bigger minion. Indeed, BGH’s special is *so* specific, than in the majority of situations it’s really not that good. The percentage of minions that drop onto the board is low as a part of the whole. Come up against a Zoo deck? Yeah, he’s useless. Face hunter? No good. Even in a deck where he has a purpose (say against a dedicated Handlock) he has to sit there, jamming your hand uselessly until a minion you can target is played, or you decide to play it without a target to get a minion on the board, or he arrives too late to save you. In any case, his 2 health means he doesn’t live much longer than a turn. It’s only that the battlecry is that specific that picks it out the BGH over any of the other one-shots I mentioned. Your Ragnaros gets offed by an opponent’s lucky Deadly Shot? Well played. BGH though? Waaaarghbl. BGH is so *noticeable* because of its one-purpose special that it’s a problem.

Another reason I believe BGH comes under fire is the age and nature of the game. I agree with @bmkibler *unequivocally* that BGH is a balancing item. It does more than counter giants, however, it allows a level of parity between new players and seasoned ones, and between those throwing real world money at the game, and those playing without spending anything. Hearthstone is established now, and has players that have been around for the entirety of the year it’s been in existence. Those players have the most experience, and crucially *more cards*. They’re more likely to have giants, legendaries and golden legendaries. They may even have made some big minions from dust simply because they’ve been playing longer. Likewise with the player with a lot of disposable income. They’ll have a significantly greater pool of cards to draw from. What then is a new player to do (other than hope for lucky draw, or good timing from any of the one-shots I mentioned previously)? The answer is to craft a relatively cheap card that gives them a fighting chance. One that’s not locked to any given class.

“Creating cards that offer a “safety valve” in case particular strategies become very popular is a common tactic in TCG development. In general, it’s a good philosophy, because it rewards format knowledge and intelligent deck building, and encourages the ebb and flow of the metagame as different strategies come in and out of prominence. Kezan Mystic is a great example of this. As Mechmage and Midrange Hunter decks have grown in popularity, players have started using the Mystic in response to the popularity of traps.

The problem is that Big Game Hunter is a bad safety valve. A good safety valve is something like like Kezan Mystic, or Acidic Swamp Ooze. They’re cards that a player who is struggling with a particular strategy can look to include in their decks to help, but that come with a cost in matchups where their abilities aren’t useful.”

This is complete nonsense. I’ve not seen Kezan Mystic played outside of Arena since GVG’s release. Swamp Ooze is incredibly rarely in constructed. What I’ve seen countering Mechmage and FaceHunter is more Mechmage and Facehunter. The reason is obvious — they’re good enough to beat most decks. Even if you’re facing Aggro Warrior stacked with weapons, or a secret-heavy mage deck, Kezan and Swamp Ooze are no silver bullet. Sure they’ll help a little, but only in the same way BGH does. If your deck can’t handle losing one secret, one weapon, or one 7 attack minion, it’s a bad deck. Saying “Secrets and weapons are fairly narrow categories of cards, so the number of cards and decks impacted by the popularity of Mystic and Ooze is limited. Big Game Hunter, on the other hand, impacts every big minion in the game. It hunts down giants and dragons and elemental lords alike. That’s an extremely broad swath of cards to be targeted by what is likely intended to be a narrow metagame option.” I concede makes some sense, but only because buffs exist. You can make a 1 drop a 7 drop, but you can’t make them a secret (yes, silence deals with the buffs, but it leaves the minion. BGH kills them and gives you your own minion) and as covered previously there are lots of ways of dealing with big minions. Outside of Counterspell and Flare, I can’t think of a way of dealing with secrets. Pretty much nothing springs to mind for dealing with weapons instantly.

“When I was originally building MechMage, I tried using Fel Reaver, in part as an attempt to prove to the community that its drawback was not as bad as they thought. Ultimately, I ended up cutting it, not because I was losing to fatigue, but because it kept dying to Big Game Hunter. Big Game Hunter distorts the playability of every big minion in the game. Any minion with seven or more power has a bullseye on its head.

Look at Mech BearCat, or Druid of the Fang, Mogor the Ogre, or even Bolvar Fordragon. They’re all cool cards that have seen virtually no play since their release in Goblins vs Gnomes, at least in part due to their vulnerability to Big Game Hunter. The same is true of classic cards like Prophet Velen.”

<sarcasm>Right, so players are supposed to take it up the proverbial so that Timmy can get his jollies playing a card he finds fun? That sounds wonderful. Please, let me sacrifice my own fun for the sake of yours. </sarcasm>

The cards listed above don’t see competitive play because there are better alternatives. “Cool” != useful.

Like almost all TCG/CCGs Hearthstone has a deck size limit. Each and every card therefore has to earn it’s spot. Each one needs to have enough value in either being payload, delivery method or defence to justify not just a slot, but the mana you spend on it. Mechbearcat doesn’t see competitive play because it’s special isn’t that useful, it doesn’t combo well with other druid cards and (for the same cost) it’s competing against Force of Nature, one of the best spells in the game. Druid of the Fang isn’t a good card. If you’re making a deck with beasts in, go Hunter. Otherwise you’re hamstringing yourself by packing your deck with activators that aren’t by themselves great, or playing the inferior version because you can’t activate it. Mogor messes with your own ability to deal/prevent damage, so outside of trinket decks, he’s pretty cornercase. Bolvar is ok, but *requires you to have minions die whilst he jams your hand* if you’re *planning* on having your own minions die, maybe rethink your deckbuilding strategy. If you’re planning on having 6 minions die and are worried about Bolvar getting sniped by BGH, I have no words for you. Even @bmkibler’s Fel Reaver example I disagree with. I’ve played Fel Reaver in a silence-heavy deck and it’s eminently usable. I don’t recall BGH sniping it once (it’s on one of my videos, so I can check). I was playing 2 copies of Fel Reaver too. Want a flourish? Put Bolvar, Fel Reaver and Mogor in your deck. That’s two 5 drops and a 6. If Fel Reaver and Mogor both die to a 2x BGH sniping deck, congratulations, Bolvar is all the better. Enjoy your flourish.

This leads me to another reason I disagree with the anti-BGH stance. I’ve played to draw out BGH. I’ve played decks where I’ve presented stalking horses, or employed safety mechanisms — BGH isn’t insurmountable. You play around it in the same way you play around Flamestrike, or Mind Control or Explosive Trap. You could even (if you were desperate to) play MechBearCat and team it with a Crazed Alchemist. Or give it “deathrattle resummons this minion”. Or play Kel’thuzad. Etc. I guess this whole section could be pejoratively summarised as a Spike-type “L2P, noob”.

I think in conclusion I’d just finish pointing out that every minion runs the risk of instant destruction, no matter what type. The fact that Timmy finds Alexstraza more “fun” than a Bloodfen Raptor shouldn’t mean that it’s any more or less valuable pound for pound in-game, not should instakilling it come with any extra baggage. Fireball kills anything up to health 6, can be buffed beyond that to the point it’ll kill almost anything, AND can target a hero. Y U NO SAY Nerf Fireball?