Patch 20.0.2 which hits Hearthstone tomorrow, April 13, and will bring with it a handful of great updates!
- Battlegrounds balance updates (Queen Wagtoggle is back!);
- Duels balance updates;
- A round of needed and very, very, very much satisfying nerfs for Constructed.
In particular, tomorrow's patch will bring changes to 6 different cards, whose respective decks have been wreaking havoc in the first 2 weeks of the Forged in the Barrens meta. While some people were advocating for even more changes -preventive nerfs to Animated Broomstick, Refreshing Spring Water, Tickatus and Librams as well as some buffs, something we haven't received in a very long while - we are definitely satisfied with what we're getting and we're looking forward to seeing what the new expansion will (actually) bring us with a more balanced meta.
But now, let's go over each change and try to understand their implications for the meta.
Deck of Lunacy Nerfed
The mana cost of Deck of Lunacy is now 4 (Up from 2).
Probably the most obvious change and the one everyone was hoping for at the same time. Despite not having found any play in the months following its release in Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, the Core Set introduction and the rotation made Lunacy's spell pool extremely consistent. Let's take a quick look at the numbers:
- 10-Cost spells - Survival of the Fittest, Nagrand Slam.
- 9-Cost spells - Libram of Hope.
- 8-Cost spells - Cenarion Ward, Guardian Animals, Jewel of N'Zoth, Deep Freeze, Grand Finale, Idol of Y'Shaarj, Power Word: Fortitude, Tidal Wave, Twisting Nether.
- 7-Cost spells - Cycle of Hatred, Expendable Performers, Fel Guardians, Celestial Alignment, Flamestrike, Mask of C'Thun, Commencement, Soul Mirror.
From a quick look at this list, you'll notice there are very few whiffs: combine it with the fact that the 6-Cost spell pool has lots of card draw (Skull of Gul'dan, Sprint, Hand of Gul'dan, Nourish and Incanter's Flow's shenanigans and you'll obtain a deck with insane tempo and very little chances to be outlasted given the great cycle.
Deck of Lunacy's controlled RNG created too much pressure on a meta that was not able to leave breathing room for new strategies and cards - from now on, many more classes will be able to see the light of the day.
Sword of the Fallen Nerfed
The durability of Sword of the Fallen is now 2 (Down from 3).
Secret support for Paladin came back with Forged in the Barrens after a very long time. However, Sword of the Fallen was a bit too much over the top. Given the low cost and the possibility to coin it on turn 1, this Weapon guaranteed early games with too many Secrets being fished out of the deck and ready to disrupt the opponent's play; Seeing a Paladin with 3 to 4 Secrets ready to be triggered on turn 4 was not an unusual sight over these last few days.
Reducing Sword of the Fallen's durability by 1 swing will leave the card's functionality untouched, but at the same time, it will decrease its power level by one-third (33%!) and make the early turns against Paladin more reasonable.
Now, if only Aldor Attendant into Hand of A'dal weren't a thing anymore...
Jandice Barov Nerfed
The mana cost of Jandice Barov is now 6 mana (Up from 5).
Jandice has always been a good card, but until lately everyone was fine with her. However, after the introduction of the Core set and the rotation, the 5-Cost minions pool was left with very few bad outcomes, making so that an on-curve Jandice Barov (usually followed with Shadowstep in Rogue for a second wave of minions) too much to handle for most classes.
The devs stated that they're not willing to dilute the 5-Cost pool in the future and, anyway, they're not planning to balance Jandice this way, so increasing her cost was definitely the right call.
We can see a world where this card will get unnerfed upon the next rotation in April 2022, but for now, we can say that, while the card will be slower, it will still be a good play and will still be included in top-tier decks.
Pen Flinger Nerfed
Pen Flinger can no longer target heroes - only minions.
Who's the loser now, huh? HUH? Although this is not the flashiest change on the list, it is definitely the one with the most implications.
Face damage and minion removal, Pen Flinger has been quite the flexible card throughout all its existence. Aggro, control, combo - every deck with a high density of spell had little to no reason no to run this little shit dude, to the point where most games came down to how fast the player was able to draw Flinger and how many flings were able to be chained in the same turn. Sure, the card had pretty annoying animations and voice lines and was really frustrating to play against it, but don't be fooled, this is not the only reason why it was changed. The card was powerful and needed to be dealt with.
All in all, a very powerful and warping card that was able to decide many matches all by itself. From now on, Libram Paladin will lose its long-run finisher; Aggro Rogue will take the second hit after Nitroboost Poison's nerf; Wild's Reno Priest will have less reach and Wild Darkglare Warlock's (oh nooooo...) power level is going to drop down significantly.
Far Watch Post and Mor'shan Watch Post Nerfed
Far Watch Post now has 3 health (Down from 4).
Mor'shan Watch Post now has 4 health (Down from 5).
I decided to write about these cards together because they were changed pretty much for the same reason. While the Watch Post cards were clearly designed to work as tech cards with varying success depending on the meta (pretty much like Ogremancer), Far Watch Post and Mor'shan Watch Post were just auto-includes in almost every deck in the first two weeks of the new meta: given the high health and the low cost for their mana, they were never bad includes and pretty much auto-includes in any strategy that could run them (with the only exception of No Minion Mage for obvious reasons).
Considering these premises, we definitely see the reason why the cards' cost wasn't increased and were just weakened, making so that they'll be able to be removed with more ease, allowing Aggro to flourish a bit more.
What do you think of these changes? Do you think other cards should've been changed? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
i dont think the watch posts were that much strong
They were not busted, but if a minion is included in nearly every meta Deck it is just bad for the game overall.
Especially if the cards were designed to be a niche tech choice rather than common staples.
I like the Jandice Barov nerf. Playing against this card in Wild, where the pool is bigger, putting more "bad" 5 drops wouldn't counter it enough. There would have to be a lot added on top of that. So hitting the mana is the right way to go. Not sure if 6 is enough but good start.
Deck of Lunacy is also the right direction. Slow down the problem card with out just breaking the spell mage deck entirely. Will be slower and less random. Still a strong deck and may even keep Lunacy for some matchups.
I've been running Horde Operative to fight secret Pally. Glad to see Sword of the Fallen not drawing as much. It was rated one of the best cards of the set by some of the reviewers I watch. I see why now.
Pen Flinger was just to good. Pushing it in one direction, board control, is a good thing. Doesn't kill the card out right but keeping it from being THE finisher will reduce people's frustrations.
Same with the watch posts. Very widespread use. Glad they hit these early. While I don't mind them, facing them nearly every game is annoying. Neutral cards are a tough balance. They need to have a much more narrow focus or risk being overpopulated/frustrating.
At what time will the patch go up?
Usually around 19.00 CET
Best guess is typically 10am PST but honestly it could be whenever.
Deck of Lunacy will still see play, though perhaps not as heavily as before. Refreshing Spring Water going untouched was the biggest surprise of all.
Refreshing Spring Water is a card to watch for sure. However I think it's fair to first nerf the problematic card then see where things land before further hurting spell mage. The deck still should exist and still be strong just not turn 3 playing 6+ mana spells strong. If they do hit the Spring Water I'd love to see it just go to refreshing 1 mana per spell. This would make it a 2 mana Arcane Intellect in spell mage rather than a 0 mana one. Hopefully though they won't need too and the deck will slow down enough to have more counter play.
Refreshing not 1 mana per spell, but 2 mana if any spell was drawn. This nerf don't kill this card in decks with minions.
Refreshing 1 per spell is fine in decks with minions, because they usually run lots of spells anyway. If the deck has a 50:50 split between minions and spells, the Spring Water averages out to refreshing 1 mana, making it the same as Arcane Intellect. That's not killed at all.
Besides, I don't see why the card needs to still be good in a deck with minions. The whole point in its design is to support spell-heavy decks, not to support all mage decks.
Looks fine, but I think for mage it's not enough.
You do realise that the paladin decks were all a lot stronger than the mage deck? Its only the Deck of Lunacy highroll that drove mage to having a positive winrate. Yes the rest of the cards are good, but they aren't broken.
The thing with mage is spell mage is it's overall a pretty fair deck that loses to most decks in the game, even pre nerf. It was the high roll of lunacy that carried it and made its other cards feel more unfair. Now an already squishy deck needs to keep a 4 mana card do nothing card in their opening hand to guarantee early lunacy, and if it's not kept, the odds of the mage drawing through most of their deck before they ever find it again significantly reduces its impact when played.
I think it will be fine. It's neutered it's competitive advantage while keeping the the fun of the card in tact for potential high roll games that the dev team thinks we enjoy for some reason.
The nerfs are the expected. I still think Paladin needs another thump because, like the above, Aldor into Hand of adal is still a thing. I got on board the First Day of School needs to cost something after a Paladin got a Blackjack stunner and stunnered me. And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so!
Austin 3:16.
Never forget.
The flinger nerf is a big hit to paladin though.
Unlike the other flinger decks, pally doesn't have anything that hit face outside of minions. This loss of reach will be very noticeable.
Reading your comment, I was initially like, "eh... we'll see." But then I got to the end, and I'm now fully on board with your analysis.
They could just run the libram weapon tbh thats a lot of damage to the face