We have been waiting for them for a long time, but the nerfs are finally here! Today Patch 19.2 will be implemented in the game and will bring important Constructed news, alongside Battlegrounds, Duels and Winter Veil additions and changes.
We are a bit surprised that some issues still haven't been answered for (yet), and that the less relevant classes still need adjustments in order to see the light, but we do think that most of the problematic cards received some sort of adjustment.
Let's go over and talk about each card change that is coming in the update.
Blade Dance
Cost increased from 2 to 3 mana.
Blade Dance is one of those cards that stood out as one of the more problematic ones in recent weeks. Over its brief but intense life, Demon Hunter has received powerful and very efficient ways to increase its hero's attack - combine this with low-cost but strongly tempo-oriented tools and there you go: a class with little to no weaknesses.
Blade Dance proved to be way too efficient for its cost: being able to remove three minions for 2 mana while not giving up your face attack (Blade Flurry is sobbing in a corner) and therefore pushing damage is worth way more than its cost. For this reason, we think that this nerf is highly deserved, but it won't kill the card at all: first of all, Skull of Gul'dan will still discount Blade Dance to 0 mana, allowing you to instantly play it if needed; moreover, this changes makes the card's cost odd, which means that it could make the cut in Wild Odd DH.
We're not saying it's not a nerf (it definitely is), but rather that Blade Dance is far from being dead.
Shardshatter Mystic
Cost increased from 3 to 4 mana.
Who would have guessed powercreeping Duskbreaker would have been a bad idea? Certainly not us.
While this patch won't hurt Soul DH's damage output, it will heavily strike its ability to clear the board - therefore, having more trouble to hit your opponent to death should definitely slow down the decks as a whole.
Finally, now that it costs 4 mana Shardshatter Mystic will not be playable anymore after being drawn and reduced by Skull of Gul'dan, which is an indirect nerf to another quite problematic card. Frankly, a nerf that feels fully deserved and that will give other decks air to breath and time to develop a counter strategy.
Dreadlord's Bite
Attack decreased from 3 to 2.
A change, not the only one, directed to hit Aggro Demon Hunter, which is probably the most prominent archetype in Standard right now. Dreadlord's Bite's essence remains the same, but (as we've already seen plenty of times with DH in these months) now Illidan will have to find those 2 damage somewhere else. We think it's important to state that many people decided to run Dreadlord's Bite instead of Marrowslicer because the former was able to grant just one less damage for one less mana, which is a pretty good deal for an aggro gameplan - however, now that the damage difference will go up to 3, players could return to Marrowslicer, which will make Skull of Gul'dan way less consistent than it is right now. Sure, you can still run Lorekeeper Polkelt (a card we'll talk about in a minute), but good luck playing a 5 mana 4/5 in an aggro deck with no immediate impact on the board: in the end, there is a limit to the tempo gain Skull can grant you.
Dinotamer Brann
Cost increased from 7 to 8 mana.
As Iksar stated a few days ago, Highlander Hunter "has often been the best deck in standard but is always overshadowed by some more polarizing but less powerful things". It is a nerf I personally did not see coming, but it is fair to assume that it was delivered due to the devs' prediction of what the post Patch 19.2 meta will look like - with Aggro DH (Highlander Hunter's worst matchup) nerfed, Dinotamer Brann would have probably seen a huge increase of play rate, which would've been another potential problem. Now that the card costs 8, is it really worth running singletons just for a King Krush discounted by 1 mana and Zephrys the Great? The answer is uncertain.
Given that Voracious Reader will get changed too, we imagine that Face Hunter will have to reinvent itself as well - this patch will be really troublesome for Rexxar.
Voracious Reader
Cost increased from 2 to 3 mana.
Finally some justice for our poor Jeeves. Voracious Reader has been a top tier card since its release 4 months ago. It was able to grant Aggro decks so much fuel that has never really been accessible to them as many aggressive archetypes flourished in both formats thanks to the sheer force of this unit.
With this upcoming nerf, we suspect that the card will obviously be a lot slower and that Aggro decks won't be able to dump their hand and play Reader in the same turn as easily as before - 1 mana for aggro decks can be a huge deal, and we think that this will be no exception.
On a side note, Wild Odd Paladin (Crystology is a card) and Odd DH might have a new friend, while Aggro Druid should become weaker.
Lorekeeper Polkelt
Cost increased from 4 to 5 mana.
Probably the nerf with the most implications since it plays a big role in both Standard and Wild.
For what regards Standard, Polkelt was used in many top tier lists in order to get to the powerful late game tools (Skull of Gul'dan for Aggro DH, Dinotamer Brann for HL Hunter and Dragonbane/Kill Command for Face Hunter) in order to close the games as fast as possible; in Wild, the only deck that used it was the tier 1 Reno Priest, which was able to collect its pieces way faster than normal.
This nerf doesn't change the card's functionality - it will still reorder your deck and will still allow the same late-game combos as before; however, it will be much slower, especially in aggressive lists (where 1 more mana or 1 turn later can easily be the difference between a win and a loss), and for this reason, we think it will be less exploitable as it is now. If you really want to topdeck your powerful stuff, just believe in the heart of the cards!
How do you feel about the nerfs? Do you agree with our insights? Let us know in the comments below!
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
I like this side-nerf to Raza Priest by nerfing Lorekeeper Polkelt . I've been debating the way to nerf that deck without killing it. I hope this makes it somewhat less powerful, but I guess Shadowreaper should be changed aswell.
This was not close to good enough and they should just revert raza because a) we know it works B) the deck isn't unplayable it's like tier 3
Would've liked to see some buffs to some DMF cards for Priest and Druid, but hey, we take what we can get.
Keen to start playing ranked again
I haven't played the game in a few weeks, what cards do Druid and Priest have that are in need of some buffs?
OR unnerfs for other stuff like the galakrond shaman stuff(like eve just 1 and rest with rotation) or fiendirhs rites for walrocks which is already not in a good spot at all aswell
Why sugesttion buff/unnerf ideas for classes that are terribe ebignd wonvoted? guess peopel want to be etrirble adn stay terrible
Or mayeb its the people that go OMG its gonna make mega broken tier 0unstopable as soon see any kind of support at all (odd palyl/secret mage for any support for recruits or any secret support/any secret even fi tis worse version of excisting)
I still disagree with the change to Dinotamer Brann. The pay off is barely worth it now. You can achieve the same thing (one mana discount on Krush) by just adding Beastmaster Leoroxx, King Krush itself and a few other strong beasts. And you can do that on a deck with duplicates. It's a much stronger pay off but it requires more cards. And it can't be shut down by bombs or birds.
I'm only sad Shardshatter Mystic is getting nerfed cuz I liked playing her and Magtheridon on turn 7 for a full board clear.
Now I have less reasons to run him.
When are the patches normally rolled out?
If I'm not mistaken, around 3 hours and 30 minute from this comment
Thank you!
Correct.
Whats with all the SHOUTING in this Thread? And if you play DH in Wild you are indeed a fool. Just about about any Aggro Wild Deck will hammer DH.
As for the Nerfs I like them. No one card killed, Voracious Reader finally taken down a peg and Pokelt slowed slightly.
Voracious Reader has been the fuel for all the crazy druid decks recently. One that thing hits the board, they are given at least one turn to nuke their hand and draw up a few more cards to go nuts. Increasing it's cost to 3 makes it ever so much more difficult to drop early game and go nuts with it. It will still be rampantly used in aggro decks, and honestly, I'm wondering what kind of value we can get out of it in Odd decks.
I'm a little surprised that they didn't nerf Twin Slice or Soulshard Lapidary. Both of those cards are still able to pump up DH attack values to insane heights and allow blade dance to be problematic.
Was Blade Dance too powerful? Yes of course. But I honestly think Lapidary should have nerfed the attack gain to +4. My reasoning behind this is that Lapidary+hero power enables Bladed Lady. If they nerfed it down to +4 attack, the only way they can play bladed lady is by using multiple attack buff cards or by having a weapon equipped.
As for twin slice. I think it's echo effect (Second Slice) needs to be nerfed to +1 attack. The first half should be 1 mana (+2 attack) and the second half should be 1 mana (+1 attack).
I'm glad that they foresaw the issues with Highlander Hunter and pre-emptively nerfed support cards for them as well, but I'm a little worried about the possible ensuing meta after today that may form. Perhaps the mid-season card release of 35 cards will provide enough new tools to allow the meta time to breath and experiment again.
Odd palladin will not Run reader at all, it has divien favour which is betetr and is ony a 1off,it has alot of 3/5+ cost cards (inclduing BAKU) that make reader way worse,it cant at all dump its hand as fast as aggro ruid can and it would ratehr draw its current 1attack minions OVER reader with crystology.
I don't know why you are being downvoted.
You are absolutely right! Crystology is one of the best cards in your starting hand since you draw your 1-Drops and also thin your deck, so you don't draw them later (there are 5-6 in the Deck!) in the Game when you need your big Buff cards!
I played Odd Paladin exclusively the past two seasons and Drawing or an empty Hand were never a Problem.
There is some upside to Reader over Divine Favour. Firstly, it's a body, even if a bad one. If you land on a poor or slow hand or a bad matchup, Divine Favour may just be rotting in your hand doing nothing the whole match while you're pressing the hero power and hoping for something playable. Reader at least gives you some stats on the board and can be preplayed if you intend to dump your hand the turn after.
Secondly, it's drawn out by Crystology as you mention. The thing is Crystology actually doesn't have that many targets in the deck, many lists only run 2x Righteous Protector, 2x Tour Guide (some add a Broomstick but that's about it, some even cut the protectors for a Pirate package). Crystology can end up being a draw 1 or a dead card in your hand. With Reader in the deck you can essentially chain draw into draw so that you're never out of fuel and can tune your deck to be more aggressive to ensure your hand is empty for Reader to work its magic (cutting Lothraxion for Stewards, cutting Blessing of Authority that some decks run for something like a Pirate/weapon package).
Finally, and this is an important factor, Reader does not give a damn about your opponent's hand. If your opponent vomitted their hand fast or you forced them to commit most of their resources to clearing your board turn after turn, Divine Favour doesn't do much of anything. Reader only cares about your hand size so in aggro vs aggro matchups reader will get you the draw that Divine Favour fails to provide. And its weakness in aggro matchups is one of the main reasons why Divine Favour is being phased out to a single copy.
I'm not saying that the addition of Reader to Odd Paladin is going to break the meta. As things are Odd Paladin isn't as great of a deck as it originally seemed. But it's definitely worth considering the addition, it's not a clear cut case. Aluneth vs Sayge kinda situation.
Sorry but if you have such a bad Hand that you want a 1/3 Body it's just a loss as Odd Paladin.
Odd paladin plays way to expensive Cards to dump your Hand consecutively.
1. In a Aggro Matchup you automatically win if your opponent is out of cards, because of the insane HP and the very high synergy with your deck where nearly every topdeck will buff your Silver Hand Recruit
2. Divine Favor is THE card against Control/Reno decks (which are the only Matchups you really need the extra fuel). Voracious Reader at best draw 3 cards and then will very likely be killed, while Divine Favor can draw you a full hand vs these decks.
In over 300 Games in the last two months I nearly never had Crystology as a dead cards and even if, then it did not matter at all because you
1. Drew most of your 1 Drops in the Mulligan (which basically wins you the Game)
or
2. It's the Mid-, Endgame where your onedrops won't save you because you cannot buff them like your Silver Hand Recruit
Also Crystology Is like a Third chance at your starting hand because it draws your essential early game. With Voracious Reader instead of Crystology in your starting hand you just lose.
Do you actually play Wild? and did you play Odd Paladin? Because its Tier 1 since the last Expansion and I am well over 65% Winrate at legend. Cutting Lothraxion the Redeemed for Steward of Darkshire?! What did you smoke?! It's 100% the other way around. Lothraxion the Redeemed is THE card to win the Mid- to Lategame
I don't want to say you can't play it, but there is just no reason for it
prolyl same people that fuckign think Phase stalker/hunter is an issue in widl(aka they dont play it at all basicly the format
To say that blade dance has only stood out as problematic in recent weeks is perhaps an understatement. It has been problematic since its inception, being a core card in both control dhunter and the late combo Kael'thas dhunter in the past and basically going to be slotted into anything midranged. Made worse by the Twin Slice change, and then went on to dominate much of Scholomance's meta, and then again in this meta. It's very efficiency basically created, as you say; a class with little to no weakness. This nerf is hardly going to push this card off the cliff, but then again, that's exactly the problem. If there's a card that deserves to be nuked its this one.
I'm a little less enthusiastic about Shardshatter Mystic's nerf. Its easy to play around and fits dhunter's supposed weakness of having board clears but not for big minions. Perhaps the real reason this card is broken is because blade dance exists, and I would've been happier if the former have been spared the nerf hammer and the latter nerfed further.
A small comment on Dinotamer Brann and highlander hunter's supposed strength. In all honesty, the deck would've been fine if polkelt didn't exist. The real problem was how easy it was to unleash king krush at turn 7 followed by Dragonbane or something like Kill Command. Unlike the other problems above, this one could've been solved simply by printing a good taunt minion, but I think team5 is still reeling from that brief Giggling Inventor meta to do it.