A little over a week ago, Team 5 announced that they were close to releasing a balance patch, but in the end, they had to delay it due to internal issues and instead release the changes alongside Forged in the Barrens, patch 20.0.
Even though they didn't tell us what cards will be changed, the community started theorizing about them by itself. Many players, including a handful of pros, directed their attention towards Aggro Rogue, one of the best decks in the current meta and known for quite the relentless and uninteractive game plan.
Today, the saga continues! Blizzard has published the updated decks for new and returning players, but they may have made a mistake of listing Nitroboost Poison as a 2 mana spell.
They very quickly edited the post to place Nitroboost Poison at its current 1 mana, but it was too late. Everyone has already noticed it and posted it on Reddit (big thanks to Makkara126 for noticing it!).
As always, there aren't official statements about it - it might have been just a (very unlikely) typo and we should definitely wait for an actual announcement, but if this change were to be correct, what would you say? Do you think it's deserved? Do you think other cards need to be touched before the Forged in the Barrens meta will start? Let us know in the comments.
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
I hope this gets nerfed. I played a Stealth Rogue deck myself and the amount of burst damage is ridiculous! E.g. one game at start of my turn 5 the opponent is at full health 30 HP. At the end of my turn he's at 16. At the start of my turn 6 I have no board and a 6 damage weapon. I kill him in that turn with 11 damage from hand (2 Southands, Nitroboost and Sinister Strike). The second Southand came from 0 mana Cuttingclass into Swindle. That's not healthy for the game.
2 games later I kill a DH in turn 7 from 16, because I got two Evis and one Sinister from Secret Passage. A Shaman in between was at 8 helath in his last turn, which was exactly the damage I was showing. But with Nitroboost and Evis in hand I could have killed him from 16, too.
I don't think, that SSS is the problem here. I played 2 Hooked Scimitars and only 1 SSS. The Scimitar does a little less damage then the Sword (8 vs. 10 unbuffed) but needs only 2 turns for that which can be deciding. And it reduces your Cutting Class to 1 immediately.
Nerf-po?
Really hope they also nerf the sword as well. That thing is going to be a pain to design weapon buffs around in the future and I really don't want to have to run double Ooze in every deck just so I don't lose by turn 6.
Assassin's blade is literally a nerfed SSS. So unless the plan is to remove 1 durability from SSS, I just don't see how they can do it.
I think they might do just that.
The main problem about SSS is not the cost or the attack increase, it's just how much hits it provides for the cost. Just by reducing the durability it's going to be much less obnoxious to deal with (at +2 attack the total damage shrinks from 18 to 12 which is much less absurd)
I certainly hope it isn't a typo! Nitroboost Poison is too good and way too easy to corrupt. At 2 it will still be really strong, after all a similar card: Tinker's Sharpsword Oil still sees play to this day and that costs 4 mana, so why shouldn't Nitroboost Poison see play at only 2 mana? For those who for some Yogg forsaken reason didn't stockpile copies of Nitroboost Poison yet, save some so you can get a bunch of dust.
Nerf Secret Passage and Self-Sharpening Sword
Yeah it's just silly, 1 mana is the easist card ever to corrupt, so it's nearly always 1 mana for +2 to minion and +2 to weapon.
From what I'm experiencing in Wild with Odd Rogue, this is no typo.
yeah just forgot about wild, odd rogue depends on it. its 100% a nerf for iksar likes to nerf cards that interfere with his precious Secret Mage kekw
I think team5 would probably wait until barrens is released, maybe a week after that, before looking at this card. Its no doubt this card is very strong, but having most of the burst damage like Eviscerate removed from standard, as well as the very important Southsea Deckhand (to this card anyway), and the introduction of other cards from barrens, it might be a little hasty to call for its death.
Without eviscerate, sap or deckhand, a simple taunt minion will ruin aggro rogue. So I'm not exactly keen on seeing this card get hammered without first looking at what Barrens is going to give us...5 days later.
As for whether its a typo or planned nerf...well, its probably that they were building it from a different server list. Let's not forget that devs are likely to test out cards before releasing nerfs, so its not unlikely that something like this crop out. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
Stealth is still pretty busted with the amount of synergy currently available
Agreed. But at least its not impossible to interact with. And I think its better to wait until Barrens is out before cards should be nerfed anyway, its like 3 weeks away.
Barrens is 3 weeks away still
I mean the reveals start in 5 days time.
In its current state, the card is crazy even without synergies, so it will probably get nerfed.
Maybe nerfing weapon buff to +1 attack would be more reasonable than mana increase. Given its condition, at 2 mana, it will probably be worse than Deadly Poison, a basic card. Mana nerf is safer though, especially considering the rise of aggro in Wild.
In any case, weapon buff redundancy is at a high price in weapon decks, so it will still be played if those decks remains strong in the meta.
Tinker's Sharpsword Oil is the better comparison than Deadly Poison, and that card still holds up today in Wild. Given how well Nitroboost Poison compares to Oil, even at 2 mana, I don't doubt it would remain very strong at 2.
To be honest I never understood why 1-mana corrupt cards exist. Even in aggro decks it trivialises the corrupt condition so much that it doesn't really justify making them stronger than average cards once corrupted.
I guess Kingsbane decks would take this card even without minion buff. I don't remember Oil being played at any other deck deck in Wild (although I like to put it in where I can). The big difference between Oil and Nitroboost is the original form, as Corrupt condition will be much more relevant at 2 mana. I often play Oil just for the weapon buff, and Nitro requires to be corrupted in most cases.
I think Deadly Poison is superior to both cards due to being combo activator and more easily cast off Secret Passage. (If Nitro will be 2 mana)
Oil is also used on Spectral Cutlass in Wild. Unless I'm forgetting something, weapons buffs aren't really used anywhere else because the other rogue decks either don't care much about weapons, e.g. mill, or use weapons primarily for their deathrattle, e.g. Necrium Blade. Plus if you are going to care about weapon buffs elsewhere, you have to ask yourself why you aren't using Kingsbane or Cutlass, and it's rare that there is a good answer to that.
Perhaps another appropriate comparison for NB Poison is Cold Blood, since it's base form is exactly the same and the immediate gain from triggering the effect is also the same (+2 attack) just on different things. Weapons buffs > minion buffs though, making the effect of NB Poison better than Cold Blood, so the fact it currently costs less doesn't make much sense, especially when Cold Blood isn't a bad card to begin with.
when are all these nerfs and buff happening ?