Time to kill some cards again...

[Cheater Hater]

The main thing about the nerfs is that it means they have room to print cards in the new set that can take the place of those old cards--that's a consequence of keeping the old cards in Classic forever (which still feels like a bad decision--now Wild doesn't get things like Force of Nature/Savage Roar). It also opens design space--Silence nerfs mean cards can have interesting text without requiring Battlecry, "at end of turn" or Charge while being decent, while the Master of Disguise means that new cards don't have to be balanced around possibly being Stealthed forever. Granted I haven't touched Hearthstone in months, but Standard/Whispers of the Old Gods will get me to try it again at least.

Some changes are good and some are ridiculous. They took a very popular aggro card in knife juggler and just barely changed it. People will still play it but it becomes more of a situational card. That's what they should do for the vast majority of nerfs. But in cases like blade flurry and ancient of lore they had all of the subtlety of a sledge hammer. OK those cards were a bit too much, but the reason everyone played those cards is because they fill needs those classes have trouble addressing. These cards are clearly not at the proper cost for what they do now and yet it will be hard for rogue and druid players to find efficient alternatives.

In the meantime we have a classic card which is 5/4 taunt for 5 mana while there is a newer common neutral minion which is 5/4 taunt for 4 mana?! And Dr. Boom is basically pay to win at 7 mana although it is now relegated to Wild mode.

Again, what they probably should have done was make a new version of the classic set, put some rotating cards in it, then retire a bunch of old classic cards to Wild. But Blizzard instead wants the classic set to be legal in Standard forever for some reason, so this is what happens. Expect every card that sees meaningful play in the Basic/Classic sets to be either nerfed or obsoleted via power creep at some point--it's how Blizzard continues to sell new cards.