A round of Hearthstone card balance changes are going live tomorrow, December 15! Read on for all the juicy details.
- Blade Dance now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)
- Shardshatter Mystic now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
- Dreadlord's Bite now has 2 attack. (Down from 3)
- Dinotamer Brann now costs 8 mana. (Up from 7)
- Voracious Reader now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)
- Lorekeeper Polkelt now costs 5 mana. (Up from 4)
As you can see, Demon Hunter has been hit hard with this round of balance, which should be exciting for the community and for the meta since Demon Hunter has been a powerful presence this year.
All cards will be disenchantable for their full crafting costs for 2 weeks after the patch.
Official Announcement
Quote From Blizzard Blade Dance
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 3]
Shardshatter Mystic
- Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
Dreadlord’s Bite
- Old: 3 Attack, 2 Durability → New: 2 Attack, 2 Durability
Dinotamer Brann
- Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]
Voracious Reader
- Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 3]
Lorekeeper Polkelt
- Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]
All craftable cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 19.2 patch goes live.
Hearthstone Patch 19.2
Looking for more information on the December 15 patch? Here's all our coverage!
- Standard card balance changes - Demon Hunter Nerfed!
- Old Gods join Battlegrounds with New Spells and Minions
- Winter Veil 2020 In-Game Event Details
- Garrosh and Uther Getting Book of Heros Chapters in December and January
- Hearthstone Duels Hero Power and Treasure Unlock Requirements are Being Reduced This Week
- Hearthstone No Longer Playable on Mobile Devices With Less Than 2GB of Memory
- Details on the Hearthstone Progression System Update Arriving December 15
Comments
Good changes all around. I was very nervous all these battlegrounds antics were going to distract from standard nerfs, leaving us to wait weeks for changes.
phew!
I may entirely be alone in my dislike for Paladin but I admit I was hoping for something to slow them down. I haven't felt great about its power level for a while now but I don't pretend to be a professional in these matters. I just know that Libram/Pure Paladin decks have been very common ever since Scholomancy, and that they aren't all that positive an experience to face against.
They are a problem but now if the meta shifts away from dealing with DH it may be easier to tech against/counter them. For example in Control Warrior Silas Darkmoon wrecks Paladin but is a liability against DH and aggro. It will still be bad against Evolve Shaman though and that's the one I'm disappointed was not nerfed. That weapon needs to cost 6. Or the rabbits or something needs a nerf with that.
I love Paladin, but I also expected a nerf to them. Maybe the reasoning behind not nerfing paladin is that more natural counters will rise with mage and Rogue getting back some breathing room. I also expected a slight nerf to warrior though. That being said, it took them like a year to finally nerf hunter.
I do agree, missing Paladin does seem like an oversight. There is a lot of power in that class at the moment and it’s prevalence over the last 4-5 months is wearing thin
Not really satisfied with that 1 mana nerf to Blade Dance, should've been 4 mana or a complete redesign instead, but since they also hit Shardshatter Mystic, I guess we'll be seeing whether it will be possible now to stick boards against soul dhunters.
Nerfing Dinotamer Brann was unexpected and will definitely hit them hard. For some reason I often find myself 1 turn away from stabilizing against highlander hunter, only to be dead from a turn 7 King Krush. So this being 1 turn away will definitely change things.
Voracious Reader nerf was not only necessary, its basically an expected target from its introduction. A 1 mana nerf to this card is enormously brutal. Now at 3 mana if you're stuck with both in hand you might as well just concede the match.
So I guess evolve shaman will be topping the charts now, with druid and warlock perhaps going a few places up. Hunter will probably be unmoved, dhunter and warrior to drop a few places.
Well this mana is a brutal change, but it also makes it so ODD decks like ODD Paladin get acces to it now in wild. so the nerf might become a buff for certain decks.
ODD PALLADIN WILL NOT RUN IT AT ALL.
IT has betetr things ot get of crystology, betterr thigns to put in tis deck,betetr draw way betetr in divine favour whcih is a 1off onyl adn to many 3/5+ cost cards in the deck to make reader good an
ONLY ODD deck thats gonan run it at al ins od ddh, odd rogue,odd aplyl nope
I doubt it. There's just so many cards that easily trumps Voracious Reader in wild that even at 2 mana its barely seen anywhere. Now at 3 there's even less reason to want it. Odd decks dont really need it, since they hp every turn and there's just better cards like Divine Favor
I honestly think the card is effectively dead outside of hyper aggro and in standard that means face hunter, and in wild its perhaps only aggro druid. Both will play this cause there's just little else that can do to help, but it will surely be much less significant a card.
Yeah I often find that too. Just need one more turn but they smash me with KK on 7
Do I have to part ways with my golden polket now....?
I'm also sad about mine, but I will have to :(
This seems like a miss, at least for Wild.
The nerf to Lorekeeper Polkelt isn't that big of a deal, the main deck it's in (Raza Priest) is just as problematic as before because it's core brokenness hasn't been addressed. Just make Raza the Chained affect only your basic hero power already and be done with it. You can't have a refreshable hero power cost 0 mana. Especially not one that kills everything. Just accept it. Until that gets changed the same exact deck will keep doing the same exact thing in Tier 1 and nothing will touch it. The deck has single-handedly killed off pretty much all control decks since its unnerf and has been doing so before Polkelt was even a thing. Yes, maybe the games won't feel as samey if Polkelt doesn't curve smoothly and has a poor body for cost so it's harder to play out, but that doesn't exactly fix the deck it's problematic in.
Voracious Reader now slots perfectly into Odd Paladin and gets drawn by Crystology which the deck already runs, but that isn't that much of a problem, Odd Paladin hasn't been as dominant as expected. The other deck it fits into is, again, still as broken as before. When your Token Druid opponent can go second and drop their entire hand turn 1, generating a board of 7 minions that faces you for 16 on turn 2, who gives a damn about drawing cards one mana later. There is quite literally no answer to most of Token Druid's early game plays because 0 mana spells like Embiggen in a world of Spellburst cards and Patches is untenable. That goes especially for Gibberling. Voracious Reader's cost going up won't fix the deck's ridiculous built-in highroll.
But the biggest offender of all is missing from the list completely. Just...give Animated Broomstick the Warsong Commander treatment for fuck's sake. How is 1 mana give your whole board Rush acceptable? And that's not even counting the 1/1 Rush body that comes with it. Games should not end turn 3. Because of this thing, they do. It should give one minion rush, at best, or cost way more than 1 mana. Nerfing Animated Broomstick would pretty much solve the Darkglare Warlock problem overnight (or at least nuke its winrate and thus play rate because it would fold to aggro). Losing the ETC OTK wouldn't be that big of a price to pay for getting this little shit out of the game.
Odd pally ahs no ened for reader at all,it has betetr version i divine fuckign favour which ti runs a1off only ANd it woul rather draw its other 1attack miniosn then reader espcially since main power is in tis fuckign hero power and ti runs quite a few expensive cards (3/5mana +) and just BAKU alone makes reader way worse
Well well well Voracious Reader, you can take this scroll and stick it... somewhere safe.
Nerf to Raza Priest yay!
I don't own the card for dust refund boo!
Sadly a only very tiny nerf.
Odd Demon Hunter and Odd Paladin dancing in joy.
Hooray! I have held off dusting my Voracious Reader's since Scholomance released including a golden. Good for the meta too.
Nice! Dust for my unplayed Brann - because I own neither Zephiris nor DQA. (Don't think he is too strong though)