What the fuck at the Hex nerf?? Not one post ever complained about Hex. As long as I have played this game I have never once considered Hex to be too powerful. It is a Shaman ability. The Fiery War Axe cost nerf should have come with a raise to the amount of use from 2 too 3. This would have have at least put it more in line with every other 3 cost weapon. I agree that Innervate was powerful but it only became real powerful when Druids also got the ability to recover their hand so easily. Now the card is equal to the rogue card. Why not just give every class the ability to ramp one?
I like how Ice Block will be banned in the future...........sigh.
Hex has always been powerful, it's still going to be powerful. But Shaman don't often have the other tools for a Control list. Hex has still made its way into Aggro or token lineups.
Axe is a loss, but I don't think it'll be as detrimental as people think for the non-Aggro lists. Nerfing aggro boosts Control more than anything. The new weapon is good, even though it's 4 mana, and they've printed other really good weapons in the past. Even King's Defender would have seen play if not for FWA, it wasn't a bad card, just overshadowed. We'll definitely see more warrior weapons in the future. Maybe they can actually get a decent 2-drop now... they've actually had some decent ones: Alexstraza's Champion, Armorsmith, Cruel Taskmaster... PIRATES. They could use a more proactive 2-drop, everything they have right now is defensive (public defender too). Alex' Champ was proactive, they need something that poses a threat on 2. Something with a 2/3 statline preferably. Cornered Sentry is kinda that 2/3 but ... yea.
Innervate has been the strongest druid card forever, way way before UI. It's been a constant complaint forever, especially in competitive. Common analysis is "Innervate in opening hand is a win". It sees play even when their other ramp cards don't (aggro/tokens). Cheating mana is super strong. The fact it compares with the new rogue coin is not very consequential. It's not unheard of for a couple classes to share a similar card. Holy Smite = Arcane Shot for example. Also, Counterfeit Coin won't be in Standard forever. Innervate may be in standard forever if the nerfed version doesn't go to HoF.
---
Savjz has a reasonable take on the nerfs and I pretty much 100% agree with his assessment. I do think UI needed a tweak and everything else is reasonable. Plague probably not nerfed hard enough still.