So I’m actually really happy about the changes that are coming. Every lasting card game has some form of rotation to maintain at least a semblance of balance as the card list gets more and more bloated by incoming cards. Magic: The Gathering, for better or for worse, is the shining example of this. They have Standard and Legacy(Or Type 2 and Type 1 for old fogies) formats, which are pretty much the exact same as the Standard and Wild formats for Hearthstone. Legacy format games in MtG are dominated by people who have either been playing for years or can dump massive amounts of money on cards, and they allow for some really crazy overpowered combos, but in return it’s not the tournament format. Standard has a restricted card list, and the much lower barrier to entry and better balance that comes with it, and so it is the tournament format. Both exist, both can be played independently of each other, and it benefits everyone who plays the game by catering to every type of player from casual to professional.
What I don’t like is that they’re killing the old solo adventures entirely. I just don’t see the point in it. The adventures are a fun way to pass the time, and there’s really no reason to pull them from sale. Cycle their cards out of Standard, sure, but don’t kill the actual adventure. Heck, I also don’t really see a strong reason for pulling the old card sets from sale, because unlike physical cards there’s no production/distribution logistics involved. It’s certainly a way to avoid confusion over which sets are Standard and which are Wild, but I think they could find some other way to make that apparent. Like a separate area under the shop for Wild sets. Continuing to sell the cards that have fallen out of Standard is basically a way of using them to milk the folks who want to play Wild. I guess they’re trying to use card crafting as a way to milk them even more, since crafting is tedious and slow unless you’re dumping tons of cash into cards, but I think that’s going to backfire in a way that they don’t expect. Maybe make packs from Wild sets only available for cash, rather than continuing to allow them to be bought for gold. That way they’re still available, but if you want them you’ve got to drop real money.
All told, I’m a supporter of this move. The barrier to entry for me, having just started playing a few months ago, was incredibly high. And even after I dropped way more money than I should have(over $200, because card games manage to bend me to their will) I can still barely manage to build a deck that gets a decent win rate. Running into deck after deck that runs multiple legendaries across all sets to incredible effect, and not having some of the “must have” legendaries(Dr. 7 is in EVERYTHING, and is pretty OP imo) that go into just about every deck under the sun, makes playing a frustrating experience to say the least.
Edit: I do wish they would increase the deck limit more though. Only 18 decks? Gimme 30. Minimum.