It's a very cool card but it's barely used (only in Ritual decks since there aren't many 7+ mana anti-air options).
How about if the gong would automatically gong every few seconds? Its balance could be adjusted by both frequency of gongs and card's cost.
It would make the card an enabler for poison decks, something that doesn't exist right now. The removal of its ability card would make the card more pleasant to play as well (who doesn't hate having ability cards in hand?).
I had thought about making it 8 mana, striking the gong every 8 seconds and maybe reducing its health to 700 or 750.
Wouldn't it be nice?
#Akinlep's Gong
wind osprey
haughty mountain
it is quite a strong card already
eternal geyser
removing the gong card would remove the least amount of skill you need to use Akinlep
+1 mana and health reduction sounds like a straight downgrade, even with free gong, since it would never trigger when you need it.
Buffing Akinlep is dangerous ground, high hp ranged aoe is exactly what made Wartrack so menacing.
I think he is fine as he is, probably more a 2v2 card.
summer maple
it's rarely used because it's a more niche expensive unit, it doesn't need to be buffed, that would make it unbalanced
haughty mountain
it's rarely used because it's a more niche expensive unit, it doesn't need to be...
As I keep saying, usage is more about meta, balancing based on usage only brings more imbalances