Patch 20.4 has arrived and with it, plenty of awesome news:

There's definitely a lot of content coming right at us, which is something we couldn't be happier about. For now, let's focus on the two balance changes that Patch 20.4 delivered and let's try to see how they will affect the game.

Disclaimer: Let's try something a little different this time. Due to personal obligations, I was not able to help the rest of the team when the patch notes went live. Given this premise, I tried to figure out myself how Team 5 could've possibly changed First Day of School and Hand of A'dal. I think this is a neat experiment: tell me if you liked it!

First Day of School Card Image
Now generates 2 1-cost minions (down from 3).

This was definitely the nerf I considered for the card. While the previous change (from 0 mana generate 2 1-drops to 1 mana generate 3) was more of a sidegrade that a downgrade, since it shifted the card's role from pure tempo to value, it appears that it wasn't nearly enough to slow down Paladin and decrease the class' winrate.

In fact, Uther took Patch 20.2 changes (Crabrider and First Day of School) like a champ and didn't even budge: Paladin adopted a new Menagerie build featuring the buffed N'Zoth, God of the Deep and kept the top spot of the meta in each server - First Day of School, even at 1 mana, was still included: the early game wasn't as explosive as before, but it was still very solid, given these days' high quality of the average 1-drop.

Now that the card generates only 2 1-drops and therefore it has the same effect of its original iteration with just the mana cost increased, we are more than sure that Paladin will feel the hit, even though the next change will be even more important.

Hand of A'dal Card Image
Now gives +2/+1 (down from +2/+2).

Now this one was pretty interesting to imagine:

  • At first I thought about increasing the cost to 3 mana, but that would've just deleted the card from the game;
  • Secondly, I thought about either removing the buff part or the card draw effect, but again that would've destroyed the card;
  • Finally, I landed on reducing the buff effect from +2/+2 to +1/+1.

If you compare my solution with the one adopted by Team 5, you'll notice that the devs kept their usual balancing philosophy of slightly tweaking the cards instead of nuking them out of the game like they used to do in Hearthstone's first years - this is something we really appreciate and I am personally convinced that their nerf is by far the most elegant (and probably the most effective as well, but only time will tell) someone could've possibly thought about.

Now that Hand of A'dal will grant just a +2/+1, we think that the spell will still see play, will still be kept in the mulligan phase because of its powerful cycle effect with an upside and therefore will still be relevant for the rest of the Year of the Gryphon. Now though, 1-drops buffed on curve will be more susceptible to removal and the overall early game damage output generated by Paladin will be weakened - the class will have to find that damage elsewhere and so Uther's game plan will feel less optimal and slightly watered down, leaving more breathing room to other strategies.

Final Thoughts

Overall, a very appreciated set of changes: Paladin entered the mini-set week as the undisputed winner of the meta, and its over-the-roof power level would've probably ruined the day-1 experimentations and would've made the players feel like the Mini-Set wasn't enough to impact the meta (which is a shame, given that there are some really spicy cards). 

Paladin is still good, Paladin is still very strong: we expect the class to still see plenty of play at high levels, even after Patch 20.4, but the counter-play options will definitely increase.

What do you think about these changes? Do you think they were deserved or not? Will Paladin still be prevalent after the Wailing Caverns will hit the game? Let us know in the comments below!