A few hours ago Blizzard released Patch 19.2.1, which gave us important news for the Standard metagame: nerfs!
The community has been patiently waiting for balance changes and after than a week from Blizzard's return to work from the Christmas holidays, they delivered a surprise patch hitting the two most powerful archetypes. We're confident the meta will at the very least become more vary, while we do not think Rogue and Shaman will fall in misery.
Now, without further ado, let's talk separately about each balance change that hit Edwin VanCleef and Boggspine Knuckles.
The Edwin VanCleef Nerf
Cost increased from 3 to 4.
The meme about Edwin dodging balance changes started in 2017. Since then, this minion has been a powerful inclusion in every Rogue deck that has ever touched the top of the meta. With the right hand, Edwin VanCleef is able to generate a massive amounts of stats in the early game which is hard, if not impossible, to deal with such a threat. You, like us, have very likely experienced this scenario of not having the resources or needing to expend many resources to deal with him, to much frustration.
If Edwin has always been a very powerful card, why is Blizzard finally nerfing it now? The answer resides in the Rogue cards released in the last expansion; Madness at the Darkmoon Faire provided Valeera two extremely useful cards - Swindle and Foxy Fraud (which I personally expected to be nerfed instead of Edwin). In particular, the former was good enough for people to recraft Preparation from its nerf in 2019, while the latter had insane synergy with Shadowstep and, obviously, Edwin.
I think no one can say Edwin did not deserve this change, but at least we know for sure that this coming April, he'll be unnerfed and Hall of Famed. We're happy to see Rogue take a hit!
The Boggspine Knuckles Nerf
Attack decreased from 4 to 3.
A change we knew was coming, we just were uncertain about its entity. This nerf brings two big consequences:
First of all, the damage.
Assuming a Shaman player runs 2 Boggspine Knuckles and 2 Hoard Pillager, he'll be able to swing their weapon 8 times in a single game, for a total of 32 damage (this without counting all the Evolve shenanigans happening in the meantime). Now, with 3 attack, the average Shaman player will be able to deal at best 24 damage, and therefore he'll be forced to find lethal somewhere else.
The next issue Shamans are going to face with the nerf is that a 3 Attack weapon no longer allows you to play Dread Corsair for free. This card allowed you to push damage/trade a minion, set up a Desert Hare Evolve turn, and get a free 5-drop at the same time. No more of that!
Both these consequences lead to the same conclusion: Evolve Shaman will survive this change, but it will take Thrall a couple more turns to seal the game. This, obviously, will allow other strategies to flourish and have more time in order to stabilize the game. I'm not sure Shamanstone is over, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.
What do you think about these changes? Do you think the meta will change at least a bit? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
My biggest fear is that we would have a repeat of Galakrond Shaman. Thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case. Not being able to Boggspine and Dread Corsair on the same turn should help a little bit, but it remains to be seen if shaman will still dominate.
I don't know if making Boggspine have 1 durability would make the deck too weak, but I think I'd rather that than making the evolve a battlecry, as that would kill any chances of getting evolve off of Pillager.
the nerfs are too weak
Boggspine Knuckles got nerfed and I still don't understand the art in the card.
Play some Phoenix Point, look for Arthrons, you will :D
Thanks sinti. I had to google what Phoenix Point was. Took a while but now I can clearly see that it's a tentacle-claw thing.
analysing the shaman and thinking that free dread corsair is the problem shows the lack of understanding team5 currently has about the power level of evolve mechanics. the issue was and has always been the ability of shaman to evolve the whole board with one card. team5 seems to repeat the same mistake over and over again. if you want to print evolve cards , that is fine but if you dont limit the number of targets it affects , the nerf will inevitably be forced upon you by the community. we will see if team5 will continue to repeat the same mistake ( history is not on their side so i am not hopeful ).
making edwin merely a threat to be dealt with within 2 turns or die , instead of auto win is a bandaid . the announcement that they will handle the hall of fame and the classic set later in a different way makes the slight nerf really confusing. why not make it 25 mana and unplayable and force people to play other decks for a month or 2 if it is temporary anyway? people played edwin since beta and this change wont change the decks or meta at all.
is the point of changing cards not to shake up meta? this time blizzard did nothing that would change anything apart from exchanging derad corsair to some other card in a single deck.
Well, its a first ; Edwin failed to dodge that one!
And for the last 6 years, regarding his power level, team 5 been like :
The card always was fine, its they print to much generaiton so can end up with more cards then started and many posisble answers have eben nerfed,hof'd or rottaed with no replacements.
That Edwin nerf and later HoF is only to be expected. It remains the only aggressive tempo card that have survived all 6 years of hearthstone through every iteration of rogues, with the only exception of quest rogue. Hell, it basically crowned two world champions on its own. I don't think there's any other card in hearthstone history that has accomplished so much and remained untouched for so long. Here's hoping that the replacement legendary next year would be at least interesting.
As to whether it will affect anything. It will, but only making the cheese slower. There's little reason why you can't get a 8/8 Edwin out on turn 3-4, which is still pretty good tempo, just no longer an auto win.
Shaman nerf is too tame to stop it, and unfortunately, because 3 attack is still on the borderline of what we can call a decent attack range to kill, its still going to affect tempo, so the only change here would be removal of Dread Corsairs for something like Faceless Corruptor. I was hoping they go further with the attack nerf to 2, so shaman would change up their cards to fit more early game, which will at very least mean we don't see reload after reload every turn.
I actually like foxy fraud as a powerful tool in rogues toolbox.. That will rotate out in a year. Edwin as a classic card has been a problem for years regardless of Foxy Fraud. They seem to plan on removing edwin to the hall of fame, so this gives Foxy/rogue a chance to have some cool combo cards after that.
Yes, exactly. You succinctly captured the gist of my ramblings.
I dislike the BG minion change. Now it becomes an useless tier 6, only usable as a triple, maybe.
Wish they would nerf the stupid amounts of damage already.
they already explained the edwin nerf in the patchnotes...
Dev Comment: The last few weeks have been the best Edwin has ever performed as an individual card (the highest win rate card in multiple Rogue archetypes). Alongside cards like Foxy Fraud and Shadowstep, the frequency of early 8/8 or 10/10 Edwin VanCleefs reached a point we are no longer comfortable with. We want to evaluate how the rest of Rogue's kit performs without this very powerful iteration of Edwin. Cards like Foxy Fraud, Swindle, and Prize Plunderer are important pieces for future expansions and card interactions, so we'll be keeping close tabs on how they perform with the influx of new cards and Edwin's nerf.
They seem well though out and not too heavy handed. I like rogue and Edwin and will continue to play them. I'm on the fence about dusting the knucks because I didn't like playing evolve Shaman. I also wonder if this forces shamans to contest the early game, so maybe that more spells and corruptor build?
OH, and there was a comment somehwre like they want to see how rogue performs for the future, like, with foxy and swindle and combo and such. If that's the way, then I'm enthused, as I like that playstyle. But Whirlkick and lackeys (miscreant) are leaving soon (right?)...
And there I go a-ramblin' again.
Also, I really looked and noticed Edwin has a fancy ruffled shirt.