Harlemura said:
As sad as it is to see cards like Warsong Commander basically removed from the game, I feel like Dr. Boom deserves the treatment. The amount he's been used, I'd much rather never see him again than have him balanced into a fair card.
I mean seriously why is he not at least 8 mana?
I think Dr Boom is good as he is for a few reasons. Mostly because he is good for new players.
First, Dr Boom happens so late in the game that you cannot rely on him to win you games consistently. And even if you do get him out coming so late means there are many viable counters. He is certainly powerful, but he is by no means unbeatable.
Second, he is an obvious legendary choice for a new player. People who don't really understand the game are often hesitant to begin using dust to craft, they don't want to craft cards for all sorts of reasons: They don't want to get cards that seem powerful but for some reason they do not understand are weak, they don't want to buy into a narrow strategy that they might not like, etc. Dr. Boom is just lots of value though, it is clearly a good card and it fits into basically any strategy or deck that a new player is likely to build. It is the perfect first legendary.
Third, because it is the perfect card for new players it is good that it also teaches new players how to deal with RNG. It is easy as a new player to just curse the gods of RNG and think there is no way to improve your play, that you just got unlucky. But even though the boom bots ability is based on RNG it is so obvious that you can manipulate the board to improve your chances of them doing what you want to do. The card teaches new players to be better at the game.
Fourth, it teaches new players how to deck build, both when they are using him and when they are working on how to counter him. They learn that they should have plans on how to deal with powerful strategies they will see consistently, and once they manage to craft him they learn how to build a deck with a strategy in mind (the boom strategy being to survive until you can cast a finisher) and to build a deck that works toward that strategy instead of just filling your deck with cards that happen to be good but don't do anything together.
Fifth, Dr. Boom is an equalizer. For new players the game can seem massively stacked against you at all times. Everyone else seems to have a pile of legendaries and they can just bury you in pure value, no skill required. Dr Boom is an out. If you can just survive until you drop boom he could save you. Not always because of the random nature of the card, and it is entirely possible he will be countered, but often enough that it removes a lot of the frustration of playing with a weaker pool of cards.
Last, he is really fun to both play and play against, unlike many cards I think actually significantly damage the meta. sludge belcher is basically a pay to win card, it is so much more powerful than any other taunter in the game and locked behind an unreasonable amount of gold or a pay wall and piloted shredder has dominated the 4 drop slot since it was printed. Both of these cards are mid cost and can be played in doubles, so they tend to overshadow other strategies or cards that might be viable if these cards did not exist. They are not as flashy as Dr Boom, but I think they cause much more damage.
