We've got some big changes coming to Standard and Wild this week in a balance update scheduled for tomorrow, September 21.
Quote From Blizzard The following cards have been adjusted down in power level.
- Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]
Dev Comment: Irebound Brute was playable a bit earlier than intended on average. Pushing it back a turn should soften extreme turns.
- Old: Battlecry: Swap hands and decks with your opponent until your next turn. → New: Battlecry: Replace your hand with a copy of your opponent’s until end of turn.
Dev Comment: With the refinement of Shadow Priest in recent weeks, Mindrender Illucia has been overperforming in the archetype, in an unintended way. Instead of being used as a late game disruption tool, Shadow Priests have been using Illucia as an early game play to essentially skip the opponent’s turn. This change is aimed at removing that problematic gameplay from Illucia, while still keeping her in a similar space with her effect.
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
Dev Comment: Perpetual Flame is a very efficient removal tool for Questline Shaman. Going up one mana here will give board-based decks a better shot against Shaman in the early- and mid-game.
- Tame the Flames (the third portion of the Questline)
- Old: Play 2 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan. → New: Play 3 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan.
Dev Comment: Slowing down the speed at which Questline Shamans can get their final reward should open up more room for counterplay, particularly from slower strategies.
- The Demon Seed (part 1 of the Questline)
- Old: Take 6 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
- Establish the Link (part 2 of the Questline)
- Old: Take 7 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
- Additionally, The Demon Seed is now banned in Wild.
Dev Comment: After monitoring both Standard and Wild since the release of Stormwind, we’ve decided to both increase the damage required on the first two steps for Standard and ban the Questline in Wild. In Standard, we are slightly upping the amount of damage needed to complete the Questline to slow down the speed at which Tamsin locks up games. In Wild, where there are many more efficient self-damaging cards, The Demon Seed can be completed at an unintentionally fast rate. We are banning the card to protect the format from the problematic gameplay it created. When The Demon Seed rotates to Wild, we will unban it and reposition the card to be more appropriate for the format.
Runed Mithril Rod
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
Dev Comment: Runed Mithril Rod is overperforming relative to mana-generation sources in other classes, mainly due to Warlock’s card draw potential. Going up one mana will bring Runed Mithril Rod’s power level more in line with what other classes have access to.
The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 21.3 patch goes live.
Buffs
The following cards have been adjusted up in power level.
Dev Comments: We’re looking at opening up a few more strategies for some of the less-diverse classes and underrepresented archetypes in the Standard metagame. These buffs are aimed at some of the weaker archetypes to make them more appealing options to play with. Some of these changes are on the lighter side, in anticipation of the mini-set coming in the next major patch after the patch launching Mercenaries.
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
- Old: 1 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 3 Health
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]
- Old: [Costs 10] 10 Attack, 10 Health → New: [Costs 8] 8 Attack, 8 Health
- Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health
- Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 4 Attack, 6 Health
- Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health
Comments
It was indeed a card that can lose you the match when played at the wrong time: I remember watching a tournament where a player forgot about the automatically generated Deathwing in their hand that they swapped over to their opponent.
There would still be a risk in including a card in your deck that can sit in your hand for a long time. Priest doesn't have the card draw it used to and while it still has card generation, it's less than it used to be.
In any case, at 3 mana I don't think she's playable and I'm not sure the new version would be playable at 2 mana either. The cards your opponent hasn't played yet are likely either too expensive to play on curve so far or situational. In the swap version, getting rid of situational cards when they do nothing at the time could help you in the rest of the match, but in the copy version there is no gain from a situational card unless it's good right then and there. Evocation hasn't seen a lot of play at 2 mana and I think in most cases it would give you better options than your opponent's hand.
I think team5 made the right decision because the Mindrender Illucia design has always been a problem ever since its been printed. Some strats just straight up cant exist because of it, like how it basically solo most rogue decks.
This change retains some of the useful bits of illucia, like getting clears and lethals with good handreading skill. There's no perfect redesign for illucia because the card should never be printed in the first place, but this change I can get behind with, though I prefer it to go back to 2 mana.
I'm not sure where I stand on hand disruption: it feels terrible when it's done to you, but at the same time it also feels terrible when you figured out your opponent's game plan and you're unable to do anything about it. I'm thinking of decks like Mozaki Mage in Wild.
By creating the original Illucia and also other cards like Mutanus the Devourer, Team 5 made the decision to have hand disruption as part of the game. The only thing that sets Illucia apart is that her effect isn't random, but I don't think it's a good rule to have high-impact plays always depend on a random roll.
that would just make it ridiculous in Control matchups (if those ever happen again). You get to dump their ressources and they can'T do anything about it.
The whole point of the swap originally was so your opponent had some counterplay and could waste some of your ressources.
Lots of changes to talk about. First, the nerfs.
Irebound Brute - It's just a small touch like the Flesh Giant nerf to slow down the card a little bit without removing its main function as a minion you can cheat out early to beat your opponents with large stats.
Mindrender Illucia - Straight up trash now. She can no longer lock down opponents in Shadow Priest or disrupt key combo pieces from opponents in Control Priest. Copying the opponent's hand could technically help when you are running out of gas but her cost didn't change which makes this extremely inefficient. Now, she is just another extremely niche Thief Priest card that doesn't really fill any important roles in current archetypes. The only thing left is her flavor as a mind reader. Other than that, she just doesn't have a purpose anymore. Free dust, at least.
Perpetual Flame - The increase in cost can affect breakpoints in early turns as you can no longer fit another low cost card as easily in the same turn you play this. It will weaken their survivability and disrupt some of Quest Shaman's most efficient early game routes to quest completion.
Command the Elements - Another hit that slows down quest completion. The archetype should be fine but not as insanely fast anymore. Good.
Runed Mithril Rod - The increase in cost breaks the early game curve of coin into Rod into Backfire which slows down Quest Warlock significantly in certain scenarios.
The Demon Seed - The wild ban was an obvious thing. The format has been saved for now. Hopefully, something like this doesn't happen again in the near future. For Standard, these direct nerfs are quite brutal. The deck doesn't just become slower but also more susceptible to burn and aggression as the Warlock needs to hurt his life total in the early game a lot more. These three extra points of damage can make a huge difference against aggressive decks or decks with a lot of burn (like Quest Hunter).
Now, let's talk about the buffs and some of these have me on fire right now!
Leatherworking Kit - Cheaper but not really faster. The main problem is reliably generating beast tokens to sacrifice for this. Not a pointless buff though. Worth experimenting with.
Selective Breeder - This one baffles me a bit. Two extra health on a value minion. Not even a point of attack to make it trade a little bit better. I don't understand this one. A mana discount would have been a lot more interesting. This having three health doesn't really do much at all. It's not threatening, it doesn't trade well into anything with just one attack and it doesn't make it more efficient as a value generator. This simply doesn't make sense to me.
Wildfire - Hell yeah! This is the one that has me on fire! The one mana discount is huge. Playing it on turn 1 and getting that extra damage on the Hero Power for early game board control is massive. This is what Shadowform should have looked like when it was reintroduced. Getting it online fast is what makes a difference.
Mordresh Fire Eye - Rock & Roll! Yes, another massive game changer here! A two mana discount is so important for this card. Its main limiter has always been how slow it is. Now, it can actually work as a proper win condition/finisher for the HP Mage archetype. Simply amazing!
Stormwind Freebooter, Stonemaul Anchorman and Bloodsail Deckhand - All buffs directed towards Quest Warrior. These minions are a lot stronger now and that should enable Quest Warrior in standard. Problem is: Quest Warrior doesn't need any help in Wild. These buffs could have some repercussions there. Stonemaul Anchorman is the only card that doesn't really benefit Wild Quest Warrior.
Overall, this patch seems pretty good. These changes should shake up the meta quite a bit in both formats. Now, we have to wait for the miniset and pray that it doesn't break everything again.
Warrior buffs - turn good cards into overpowered cards.
Hunter buffs - turn completely useless garbage into maybe sometimes useful garbage.
Wild pirate warrior will be much stronger. And it was already a very powerful deck.
Wildfire at (1)?!?! Revival of my Odd Mage deck?!?! Not sure if it’s going to be viable or not but maybe!
I dont liek wildfire buff as now doesnt work in even mage anymore and wish they had made it kepe the dmg upgrade even after chaneg hp like start of barrens.
And imo deckhand dit not need the buff like at all.
I know people like to shout power creep, but one mana for a 2/2 with the pirate tag and a useful discount on a future play is definitely a valid case.
Good... now ban Questline Hunter in Wild, as it is just as broken.
Not it is not. It is good but has two significant weaknesses: 1) Running out of cards and 2) It folds against armor/lifegain decks
its good but not nearly as broken as warlock was/is
You hate Questline Hunter? Play a deck with lot of armor stacking. Enjoy your free wins against Quest Hunter.
Pirate Warrior is already strong in Wild. These buffs make it even stronger.
2 instead of 1 HP makes a big difference for a one drop.
Stormwind Freebooter looks like a "very good" card for me now. I will put 1 or 2 Stormwind Freebooter into the deck for sure.
I am a standard player, but I started playing wild lately. Reached legend in wild playing Quest Warrior exclusively and without star bonus in a few days. Quest warrior is already very strong in wild and I found the 1 mana 2/2 buff change totally unnecessary. Of course these changes aim for standard, ignoring wild once again.
Questline for Warrior in wild is just a "Win more" Pirate Warrior is Stronk in Wild w/o it.
That Bloodsail Deckhand buff feels so weird to me; I figured if warrior was going to get a buff it was going to be a newer card, not one that has existed for a year and a half.
It was introduced in the core-set, so it's still relatively new.
Man, I really regret prematurely dusting all my extra Brutes at the start of the expansion because Quest demon hunter looked like a complete meme. New rule: if a card can cost 0 at any point, it's probably going to get nerfed.
The Illucia rework should have come with an unnerf to her mana cost. If it's just supposed to be a one time "I'll use your ressources instead" then it needs to actually let you play something instead of eating most of your mana. Then again, it's not like this effect will ever see play anyways because we're not exactly in a value meta.
Perpetual Flame change is probably irrelevant outside of some very specific situations where you need the mana efficiency. I doubt it's gonna make Shaman's matchup against board ccentric decks any worse. At least it can't randomly show up form Wandmaker anymore.
The change to the Quest is a much bigger deal in my opinion. i've been playing the deck quite a bit lately and while I consider it to be somewhat overrated there's no doubt that it just wins hard the sooner you jam Bru'kan. It draws like absolute shit though, so just a single card more makes a massive difference. I wouldn't be surprised it it just disappears completely (assuming Warlock still remains playable in some way). I'll take that refund gladly though.
I honestly did not expect Demon Seed to be nerfed at all, but it does make a lot of sense. Having to take 3-more damage probably requires you to run more self-damaging cards. 8 is also the most awkward number to smoothly get to if you have to weave in the many 3-damage spells. Not to mention it slows down Flesh Giants considerably, which is huge.
Hard to evaluate the rod change at this point. The card is still stupidly good, but playing it on curve is so much more awkward now. I wouldn't be surprised if it's just too slow into the tempo matchups to matter. Then again, I performed quite well before adopting Rod, so maybe it won't be missed after all.
The buffs are really interesting and somewhat surprising in a few cases.
Leatherworking kit buff is huge. I've played around with it in a gimmicky midrange list and it performed quite well (even though I only ended up running 1 because I only actually ran 3 different beasts) but the biggest issue was finding to time to actually play it without losing tempo. At 1-mana it's so much more convenient to squeeze in. Not sure if it does anything for Rat Hunter but it sets up Beast Midrange for the future.
Selective Breeder is the most unexpected buff, but it makes sense. As a 1/1 it would have never been playable. Would have preferred a 2/2 personally, but at least it's no longer a liability and actually gives Beast Hunter some proactive early game.
Wildfire change is huge, but it might be too late. Maybe there's some Fire support in the miniset that helps, but right now the only option to play the deck is to go full minions with Spell tutors, but Mage just doesn't have good enough minions. At least it now shows up from Wandmaker and is less awkward to play in the early game to set up for later turns. Would have loved to have this last expansion.
Mordresh change is unacceptable. He was a 10-mana 10/10 dealing 10 damage after pinging 10 times. He was perfect. And you ruined him. Jokes aside, this might be enough to make the Hero Power deck become "playable", but I doubt that a deck without efficient draw that relies on getting a single spell early enough for the rest of its deck to work is ever going to make it. Small upside: Warlock should be slow enough that you can now drop Mordresh on curve to wipe their lategame boards.
The Warrior buffs are nice, but I'm not sure they'll make a difference. The deck's minions were decent already, it just lacks some actual powerplays. It still won't beat Warlock or Shaman.
With Wildfire down to 1 Hero Power Mage can no longer fit in a Genn Greymane deck. That makes me a little sad, but on the other hand, maybe Wildfire is now a nice inclusion in an Odd deck.