We recently found out that an upcoming patch would revert a fair few nerfs that some cards have seen, and the first candidate has been revealed!
In a strangely-timed tweet, it's been confirmed by the official Hearthstone account that Sludge Slurper will see a return to 2/1 stats. Perhaps this will be a boost to Shaman's recent flagging performance?
Quote From PlayHearthstone In our next update we'll be reverting nerfs to a few select cards, these will primarily be cards rotating into Wild. However, included in this update will be Sludge Slurper, who will revert back to 2 Attack / 1 Health.
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Comments
oh no
Well, that's quite anticlimatic after all the predictions made here. I had a sneaky suspicion it would be this card, but never thought that it would actually be it, since the nerf was so minor.
The nerf wasn't minor!! a stat point in an early drop is huge.. think about Knife Juggler it gone from auto include in any paladin/aggro deck to a sometimes card with 1 attack drop.
Leper Gnome was EVERYWHERE.. after the nerf it wasn't seen anymore.. same for Abusive Sergeant which was also auto include 2/1 after it got to 1/1.. nope nowhere to be seen.. even in zoo.
I am talking about nerfs from 4 years ago but the game hasn't change that much 2/1-> 1/1 on a 1 drop kills the card.
I think that's the point - they didn't want to change a card that would have a potentially huge impact, just one that'll maybe help Shaman see some play again. This is the only unnerfing that'll be staying in Standard, after all - the rest will be leaving to Wild (or are already there).
I was really hoping it would be a different shaman card. This was a very annoying 1 drop to contend with.
Are they planning to nickel and dime us to death with trickling out information? Come on Team 5... let's get moving already...
Woooow. Hyperbole much? Chill out, yo.
They already have a schedule for major announcements which is not going to change because the community is getting (a tiny bit) restless. Better they fill the time until then with these mini-announcements and announcements of announcements than nothing.
I'm expecting the announcement this Wednesday or Thursday. That gives enough time for the expansion pre-release hype, lines up with idea that it'd be mid March, and also is when the anniversary event ends.
welcome back to decency sludge slurper
I still am confused as to why this was nuked in the first place. It's a rare class specific card. It was supposed to be a little more powerful than the neutral cards.
I assume at the time they thought it was a bit too much tempo for a turn 1 play when Galakrond + the quest were wreaking havoc on the meta. Maybe they realized it was a little overkill?
It took the fall for some of the newer cards that they wanted to collect more data on (and probably didn't want to pull the trigger on nerfing so soon after just introducing them, too).
It was a statistically really strong card in every deck it was in - I totally get why they chose it to try and curb some of Shaman's power. Now that Shaman has no power though, it's a perfectly fine card to bring back.
In my opinion, Shaman still has a lot of good cards, but after the nerfs it lacks insane cards, so it currently cannot keep up with the power spikes that other classes have.
I think Sludge Slurper is a risky card to unnerf: the nerfed version is actually fair value for mana, so they're going to boost a weak class by giving it an overpowered 1-drop. The Slurper fits into multiple Shaman archetypes: murlocs, battlecry and overload, so if any of those gets powerful new cards, the Slurper has the potential to push those archetypes over the edge into broken territory. I think the risk is highest for murlocs and overload, since those decks are more likely to snowball than battlecry decks, at least while the latter get their power from relatively slow cards like the quest and Shudderwock.
I'm going to have to push back on this one. Back in the Uldum wild meta, that overload was so crippling that a bog standard murloc raider had better drawn and played winrates, at least in good ol' murloc shaman.
Prior to nerfs its literally in every shaman deck throughout 2019. The fact that it has 2 attack means it trades well with nearly every 1 drop and some 2 drops. Even with ping classes it forces a turn 2 hero power. It provided tempo, value, and on top of that its a murloc so it pairs well with Underbelly Angler for the reload even in non-murloc oriented decks.
The only downside to this card is it gets countered hard by Hungry Crab and [Hearthstone Card (zephyrs the great) Not Found] to swing tempo early game. But that its forcing Hungry Crab as an inclusion only shows how powerful and innocent looking this card can be.
I guess Galakrond shaman broke the camels back on the card.
Zephrys is a bit of an awkward counter though: it requires drawing a one-of very early and playing a pure highlander deck (about half the decks running Zephrys include some duplicates). Then you have to play Zephrys and the Crab on the same turn, since otherwise the Slurper trades into Zephrys. If the Shaman player is on the coin, they can even choose to play the Slurper on turn 2, since it's likely Zephrys will be played for ramp or tempo on turn 2 if it's in the hand.
Were people including Hungry Crab in their deck specifically to counter Slurper? I think I only saw Hungry Crab in decks that were also running Fishflinger.
Obviously I'm not implying that Hungry Crabs were added to specifically counter Sludge Slurper. The card's great as a 2/1 1 drop, but by no means insane. During SoU where quest shaman was brutally everywhere, and evolve shaman later piled on the meta, I dont find it strange to see Hungry Crab as a 1 off in highlander, or beast hunter, since Sludge Slurper is always a keeper in the mulligan.
Its a little like Dragonmaw Poacher now. Its not in every deck, but given the current meta, I wouldnt be surprised to see it, and the effect both cards have cannot be easily shrugged off.
Edit: I should have also pointed out that murloc shaman and murloc pally was meta then as well. Murloc pally was particularly problematic since losing tempo early on is nearly always an auto concede.