Alec Dawson has shared more insight into the world of card unnerfs in another series of tweets. This builds upon the list from yesterday which contained cards for Druid, Hunter, and Mage. Today, we have the info on Paladin, Priest, and Rogue changes.
- Nerf reverts are taking place in Patch 20.0 which is live later this month.
- The reverts will come shortly before the expansion launches. Huge meta swing!
- Some cards were not fully reverted but were instead "soft" reverted. This is because these cards may come back to Standard in the future.
- Cards like Level Up!, which would only add strength to archetypes already doing well are not being unnerfed.
Read on for all the newly announced changes, divided by class. If you're looking for the new core set that is coming this year, head on over to our Core Set 2021 guide. If you are interested in the new expansion, you can find the currently revealed cards in our Forged in the Barrens guide.
Paladin
- Call to Arms cost decreased back to 4 (Down from 5).
Priest
- Power Word: Shield cost increased back to 1 (Up from 0). Now Draws a card again.
Rogue
- Blade Flurry cost decreased back to 2 (Down from 4). Still cannot hit the enemy hero.
- The Caverns Below requires you play 4 minions (Down from 5). Minions are now 5/5 (Up from 4/4).
- Necrium Apothecary costs 4 mana (Down from 5).
- Edwin VanCleef cost decreased back to 3 (Down from 4).
- Galakrond's cards drawn cost 0 (down from 1).
Quote From Alec Dawson 20.0 nerf reverts. Paladin, Priest, and Rogue.
Paladin:
Call to Arms (4 mana)Priest:
Power Word: Shield (1 mana, draws a card)Rogue:
Blade Flurry (2 mana, no face dmg)
Caverns Below (4 minions, 5/5 stats)
Necrium Apothecary (4 mana)
Galakrond (cards cost 0)
Edwin (3 mana)
Is the Blade Flurry because it could go back to Standard?
Most likely not, but did a soft revert because of potential damage output (we think it would be too much) (Source)
Comments
Its not worrying at all. Wild has far more nasty stuff then 4 mana call to arms;
Aslo currently its not good at all in wild, 5mana for 3 2drops is far from amazing or very powerfull in wild.
Are alot more taunts,healing and (aoe) removals then back then.
And other dekcs just do alot more powerfull stuff then even pally with call to arms, like the mana cheating of secretmage/discard lock/darkglare, the giant weapon dmg from kingsbane, the power of odd rogue, the constant swarm of odd pally. Or crazy starts and board from token Druid.
Or the constant ressurects of bigpriest(that with coin can happen on turn 4 aswell),or mana heating taunts of cubelock aslo with great anti aggro tools.
OR warlock/priest/warrior(odd) just being amazing anti aggro, and reno and Zeph in general
And even if it becomes tier 1, its like so what? its just another tier 1deck then and more variety and a extra deck which sees play which is good and always welcome.
Aggro paladin is the type of deck the demands to be answered constantly in order to win against them. Having access to their best and most reliable tool to immediately restart their board is very worrying. They also have Keeper of Uldaman and Sunkeeper Tarim, which are probably the best paladin cards period. Call to Arms is also really good in combination with Rally!, so who knows. A new kind of deck might just pop up from nowhere.
Another thing to add, people will eventually become irritated at any tier 1 deck in like 2 weeks.
I doubt the card being un-nerfed is going to create any aggro paladin decks. At least, not decks any better than odd paladin. When the card was new it was used in aggro, but ever since it's nerf it has been historically used as a draw engine in combo decks.
Why the hell are they buffing Caverns Below? And Necrium Apothecary has the same problem as always, it's a damn stupid highroll deck that can create a like 40/40 of stats on turn 4 (turn 3: equip and swing with Necrium Blade, next turn Coin or Counterfeit Coin into this, pulling Deathwing, Dragonlord and a full board of dumb dragons, with OG Nozdormu for good measure.
Because it's wild.
Wild doesn't mean that the format should be broken, it only means that all cards should be playable and, in a way, balanced. Highrolls like Darkest Hour or Naga Sea Witch have been proven to be toxic gameplay. That's why it doesn't make sense to revert this nerf, at least for the Apothecary.
Caverns Below had to be nerfed several times (including few stealth nerfs).
These changes won't help to bring off-meta decks into a better place, only these two decks. If anything, Caverns Below might kill Control decks (as it used to do), but Secret Mage will be only more tightly grasping the format since it has a chance to disrupt these stupid answer-this-board-on-turn-four-or-lose decks.
Yes, I know. I don't think a deck that can only win by drawing exactly only Necrium Apothecary is ever going to take off unless they can draw it extremely consistently. Both highrolls that you mentioned are from Warlock, which had excellent tools to control the early board like Defile and Voidcaller which allows the deck to execute their gameplan much better.
In case of The Caverns Below, we'll just have to see whether or not it is actually broken. Two of the biggest payoffs of quest rogue are nerfed (Stonetusk Boar and Patches the Pirate), which can considerably hinder their ability to finish games quicker. Quest Rogue is extremely weak against aggro decks, and since they unnerfed it alongside Call to Arms, I'm at least hopeful that it wouldn't be broken. Which is why I would then turn your attention to Call to Arms instead. Being able to pull this card even just 1 turn earlier can be very backbreaking for decks to interact with.
I don't disagree with the fact that quest rogue is a very limiting archetype, but control decks never existed in wild since last year or two. Only combo and aggro prevailed in the meta.
Edit: Exactly after writing this comment, I immediately remembered that Safety Inspector is a card, which might tremendously help the Deathwing highroll deck
Unnerfing crystal core is a bold move, one that I hope will not backfire. I suppose the idea is that the wild meta is so much more about aggro and combo that it really doesn't matter even if crystal core was back. Since Stonetusk Boar has been nerfed for good measure, that's practically only Southsea Deckhand that can really do damage.
Anything but The Caverns Below!!! Lol I can't believe it.
I don't think they should unnerf Caverns because I find it to be unfun, however it's a very different situation to Raza. Before Raza was nerfed Reno Priest was tier 1 and surprise surprise it was again after it reverted. Caverns on the other hand simply wasn't ever played in wild because it wasn't good enough. There have been several cards released since then that make it easier to complete but with the loss of boar they have less of the charge element that would allow it to compete with other combo decks in wild.
Same feeling, I mean the unnerfs are cool and all but I think most people did not have a good time in those matchups.
Maybe if it ends up appearing a lot again it'll get nerfed again, and if it isn't, it'll mean it won't be such a pain so it's fine either way I guess.
I mean, they haven't nerfed Raza the Chained despite it being the focal point of Wild since being reverted, so I'm not optimistic of Team 5 reverting the revert to The Caverns Below. I think this will boil down to how consistently early the quest can be completed as the weakness to the quest when it was in standard was aggression, which is in top form in Wild. Then again, Pen Flinger completes the quest by itself, but you also don't have charging Stonetusk Boars anymore. This could easily go either way in my eyes.
I honestly think they knew what they were doing when they unnerved The Caverns Below for the same reason they unnerfed Raza the Chained, which is they are prevailing archetypes that a lot of people loved playing. Alec did state that he doesn't like nerfing wild cards because he wants wild to be a place where people can just play cards the way they were. So even if somewhat worrying, balance is not their main focus.
So the patch launches later this month but these nerf reverts are before the expansion launches...so...we'll get them what? end of this week? beginning of next?
It says we'll get it on 20.0 patch. Which means, it would only be after all cards get revealed (as that update will contain Barrens cards). I doubt they will be revealed at the end of this week or beginning of next week? Unless...
But I thought the 20.0 patch was the barrens patch?
It is, but we can pre-download the update a few days early to have the fireside gathering pre-release. Say the 20.0 update comes out on a thursday, but the expansion drops the next tuesday. Then the nerf reverts are playable from that thursday, but the new expansion is playable from tuesday
oh, ok. Thanks
Caverns Below is one of the most poorly conceived cards of all time. A change I begged for was at least making it affect board, hand, and deck instead of this bizarre persistent aura. Stats are unable to be silenced or altered, plus bounced cards and generated cards retain the buff. It's illogical and horribly unfun to play against. Worst era of Hearthstone ever when it was dominant. I'm not familiar with the wild meta, but I could see this dominating. The card is so badly designed it's the only one I've ever wanted to see just straight-deleted from the game. A mistake then, a mistake now.
For the downvotes I'm receiving, can any Rogue Quest defenders point to another card in Hearthstone that functions like Crystal Core with its persistent aura effect? Can anyone make an argument for why a card like this is healthy for the game? It's a zoo deck with a massive advantage over any zoo deck you could possibly construct in another class. My memory is hazy, but I'm pretty sure the only reason Caverns Below didn't dominate Wild in the past is because Naga Sea Witch was still 5-mana. This unnerf is a mistake, and I predict that it'll be changed again.