Originally announced as being a thing last Tuesday, the Hearthstone nerfs have officially been detailed! We were promised nerfs that targeted Mage, Paladin, Rogue, and Neutral Cards and we were not disappointed.
- Deck of Lunacy now costs 4 mana (Up from 2).
- Sword of the Fallen now has 2 durability (Down from 3).
- Jandice Barov now costs 6 mana (Up from 5).
- Pen Flinger can now only attack minions.
- Far Watch Post now has 3 health (Down from 4)
- Mor'shan Watch Post now has 4 health (Down from 5)
All these changes arrive in Patch 20.0.2 which hits Hearthstone tomorrow, April 13.
Quote From Blizzard Deck of Lunacy
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 4]
Dev Comment: Deck of Lunacy moves up to 4 mana, removing its ability to provide a game-warping effect on turn 1 or 2. When we create cards like Deck of Lunacy, we're aiming for an experience that lets you do wacky, over-the-top things at the cost of power. There's a large audience for that (Spell Mage's play-rate shows!), but Deck of Lunacy very clearly crosses the power threshold we set for these types of cards.
Sword of the Fallen
- Old: 1 Attack, 3 Durability → New: 1 Attack, 2 Durability
Dev Comment: Sword of the Fallen is not only powerful, but also creates early-game situations with too many Secrets in play. We're moving Sword of the Fallen down to 2 durability to reduce the overall value of the card and make those turns against 3-4 Secrets less common.
Jandice Barov
- Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 6]
Dev Comment: Jandice Barov benefitted greatly from the Core Set refresh and the rotation of weaker 5-Cost minions. Looking ahead, we don't intend to dilute Jandice's pool of summoned minions and that's not something we'd want to rely on for her balance. With that in mind, we are nerfing Jandice Barov to 6 mana where her total stat output is much more appropriate.
Pen Flinger
- Old: Battlecry: Deal 1 damage. Spellburst: Return this to your hand. → New: Battlecry: Deal 1 damage to a minion. Spellburst: Return this to your hand.
Dev Comment: Pen Flinger equips some classes with large amounts of chip damage, whether it be to minions or to the opposing hero. This flexibility makes Pen Flinger an attractive option for many decks, but when that utility is combined with repetition it takes over the story of a match. Pen Flinger takes out your minions, might deal 10 damage to your face over multiple turns, and even had the gall to call you names throughout all of it. We're nerfing Pen Flinger to now only target minions, positioning it as a removal option rather than a dual-threat card.
Far Watch Post
- Old: 2 Attack, 4 Health → New: 2 Attack, 3 Health
Mor’shan Watch Post
- Old: 3 Attack, 5 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
Dev Comment: Watch Posts are meant to act as an interesting tech-package when dealing with certain gameplans. Currently though, they act as go-to options in many classes, sporting quite high winrates for disruption-based cards. In order to cut into their power, we're reducing the Health of both Far Watch Post and Mor'shan Watch Post. This change will make them easier to deal with on turns 2 + 3, lowering the investment barrier for removal to better match the options available on those early turns.
Comments
Then they should actually have Taunt, because as I said, they are no longer playable in this state.
They are still alright as niche, but they shouldn't be auto includes in top tier decks. They are neutral and restrictive. And the taunt is there, look harder, nobody leaves them up.
That no one leaves them up is what creates the illusion that they are OP. If people were less psychotic about clearing them, they'd see how balanced they actually are (were, before the nerfs). I have won many, many games by ignoring them when they weren't actually a threat. The trick is knowing when that is.
It was nice when there were cards that punished people for wasting resources mindlessly clearing things that didn't need clearing. Oh, well.
These are good nerfs. Spell mage was already winning games when it didn't draw DoL and the match felt pretty fair. Paladin still looks strong but no more Flinger to accompany 0 mana libram anymore is going to hurt more than people might realize. Watch post nerfs will hopefully incentivize more minion combat and given that rogue would have likely been instant tier one with mage and pally nerfed, I'm glad she was hit as well. Hopefully I see significantly less Jandice shadowsteps in the future.
Paladin seems still strong.
I'm not a huge fan on nerfing flinger, is the same problem with edwin, is not the card, is the support that he have in this current set, Lunacy suffers from the same problem, was a meme card but the pool of spells is small compared to before rotation. Like ppl said before, maybe they will revert when lunacy rotates.
So you'd rather nerf every single cheap Rogue and Paladin spell, the entire Libram mechanic, and Rogue's burn spells just so Pen Flinger is allowed to be used as face damage?
I'm not saing this, I'm just saing that blizz printed a card that is busted because of support on some classes like 0 cost librams on pala or 0 spell cards on rogue, and not a huge fan because flinger is a hard card to nerf whitout making him unplayable
But they literally nerfed him without making him unplayable. Flinger will still be a core card in Libram Paladin because it has amazing synergy with Libram of Justice, Lord Barov and just generally helping to maintain the board.
It might also still see play in Rogue if there's ever some sort of value deck that works on card generation and needs to keep the board clear.
All they did was remove the incredibly unbalanced ability to create up to 10 extra burn damage out of nowherefor decks that should not have that kind of reach.
Precisely. These decks had FAR more reach then they ever should have. And it took them WAY too long to nerf pen flinger. We've been dealing with him for 2+ expansions.
Pen Flinger will still be a strong card due to the "Evasive" minions, avoiding costly trades, and certainly to wear down a minion to do a good trade.
Deck of Lunacy will still be used, although substantially slowed the F-down. The fact that it could fire off first turn was kinda stupid. Making it slower by a couple of turns was necessary.
Sword of the Fallen we all called this nerf. This was WAY too solid at 3 durability. It will still be used pretty heavily given that it thins your deck efficiently. AND with a lot of secret synergy going on with Paladin right now, it is still a viable card to be used.
The watchpost nerfs will make them much more killable. They will probably still be used, but keeping them on the board for numerous turns is not as likely.
i get that im the minority here but damn man that pen flinger nerf is really upsetting. probably my favorite card they released last year, i really wish they could've found a better way to deal with it. the high apm turns with libram paladin were always my favorite part of the deck, and the recent miracle rogue lists using it have been really fun. every other nerf is fine, but man this one really makes the game a lot less fun for me, and i hope im not entirely alone.
Hearthstone should never, ever reward high apm.
why not? being able to play quickly to execute a combo or tempo off has always been a deciding factor in certain matches, theres no reason why it shouldnt be something worth rewarding. being able to act and think quickly is imperative in a ton of decks, this point makes no sense.
Because this is not a twitch game. It's a strategic turn-based game where deliberate consideration of all the angles is more important than speed. Not to mention, there are members of the player base with actual disabilities, for whom high-apm plays are impossible. There is no reason to exclude those players by needlessly catering to apm-worshippers.
If you want a high-apm variant of Hearthstone, you have Battlegrounds.
I think the issue was that, despite the core refresh and new expansion release, it continued to be one of the most played cards in Standard. Factor in the unrivaled abuse of (as you mentioned) libram decks, and the card was due for a change. I think most players will agree that the design is interesting and the effect is fun, but something had to give at this point.
It's also quite unusual for a very low-cost neutral card to drive deck construction as strongly as PF did, which I have to think partially influenced the decision to nerf.
yeah, i can absolutely understand why it needed to be nerfed, i just wish they could've found a better way, like making it cost 1 more every time you play it in one turn. i was really looking forward to brewing with it in the coming expansions
Finally the nerf hammer has fallen on Flinger, this machinegun "combo" was as dumb as easy to abuse of.
Deck of Lunacy: Wow this is a HARSH nerf, add this to the "cards that will 100% get reverted when they rotate next year" list. I was personally hoping they would change it so it would give you both standard and WILD cards instead, which would have made the deck a lot less reliable AND also double down on the fun aspect of the card. But even at 4 mana, i don't think the Lunacy mage deck will be killed off. After all, Spell mage is really good deck even without Deck of Lunacy. I think Deck of Lunacy mage will be a bit weaker to aggro now, but will still be solid against control decks.
Pen Flinger: FINALLY! I have hoped this nerf would happen for a LONG time. This completely destroys Pen Flingers viablilty in FACE decks, and it nerfs Raza Priest in Wild. Libram paladin (The not Pure version) will still use Pen Flinger considering they often rather use it to clear boards alongside their free librams. Great change, doesn't kill the card and still makes it viable.
Sword of the Fallen: This needed to get nerfed, and i'm happy to see that the "mana cheat" part is gone. Sword of the Fallen was way too good, and it is hopefully more balanced.
Jandice Barov: Okay i knew she was a possible nerf target, but i'm still kinda sad she got hit by the nerf. Probably will be in the "nerfs to revert during the next rotation" list. The problem with her was that she was too good after rotation, and at 6 mana she is still very playable. The problem with Jandice Barov was the she was too good in rogue with cards like Shadowstep, and the 5 cost pool was too good. Kinda like this nerf for now, but i'm not dusting my Golden Jandice Barov.
Far Watch Post and Mor'shan Watch Post: Kinda expectable. Watch posts were REALLY GOOD, and super hard to remove sometimes. But even after this nerf their still really good because their effects. The only change is that their slightly easier to remove, which is good because a coined out Far Watch Post or a turn 2 Far Watch Post was extremely hard to get rid off. And Mor'shan Watch Post was really hard to get rid off even later into the game. Now most early removal spells can actually deal with them. Very good change for the health of the game. Let's just hope that these changes don't allow (hyper) aggro to become too good again, i really don't want to see more FACEstone...
OH and it seems like Zeddys nerf predictions aged like fine wine, considering he was correct on all nerf targets AND the exact nerfs.
Stealth buff to Apexis Blast by getting Jandice out of the 5-cost minion pool! /s