Hearthstone's first-ever card ban in constructed play has been announced and confirmed! Stealer of Souls is no longer welcome in the Wild format because of problematic interactions with Mal'Ganis and Violet Illusionist. Read on for the full patch notes.
This week's patch arrives tomorrow, June 16.
Quote From Blizzard The 20.4.2 patch, which will release on June 16, includes one update for Wild and two balance changes for Battlegrounds.
Wild Update
- Stealer of Souls has been banned in Wild.
Dev Comment: We've decided to ban Stealer of Souls in Wild, where it caused many games to stray too far away from the type of gameplay we’re aiming for. After deliberating on the appropriate action, we’ve decided to ban the card in order to maintain its current, and healthier, function in standard—as well as eliminate the problems caused in Wild. We do not have plans to ban many cards in the future. Bans will be reserved for cards creating extreme gameplay issues where there is no great solution for all formats. Since this is the first decision of its kind in Hearthstone, we'd love to hear your feedback. We’ll continue to monitor the card in all Modes and formats to determine if further action is needed elsewhere. When Stealer of Souls rotates into Wild, we’ll reposition it for the Wild environment and remove the ban. If there are any balance changes to Stealer of Souls before then, we’ll re-evaluate the ban.
Stealer of Souls will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 20.4.2 patch goes live.
Battlegrounds Updates
Captain Flat Tusk
- Old: After you spend 3 Gold, gain a Blood Gem. → New: After you spend 4 Gold, gain a Blood Gem.
Kangor’s Apprentice
- Old: [Tavern Tier 6] 4 Attack, 8 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 5] 3 Attack, 6 Health
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug that caused a copied Archdruid Naralex to give Dream cards to the wrong player.
- Fixed a bug where Lady Anacondra would not reduce the cost of Nature spells if she was already on the board when a Celestial Alignment was played.
- Fixed a bug with the reconnect feature on mobile.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Battlegrounds Rating to show as “0” when first opening the Player Profile.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Player Profile to show number of Battlegrounds first place finishes instead of Battlegrounds Top 4 finishes, as intended.
Comments
The Stealer ban is something I personally am fine with. I wasn’t really facing decks with it often, and both when I faced it and when I played it, I felt the animation times and unlucky draws kept it from being super consistent. I had many opponents lose because they drew the Illusionist too late to really go off, and then I just killed them next turn. But that said, the interaction was definitely problematic with all cards essentially becoming free, and getting easy wins when drawing certain cards early in the animations.
So yeah, a Wild ban while keeping it in the current form for the sake of Standard is fine. I don’t think it’s a super powerful card in Standard, but they plan ahead right? Warlock may have more draw planned in the next expansion, or expansion 3 for this year. So changing the card to fit Wild might kill it in Standard, ruining any planned Standard synergy from upcoming sets.
Can’t wait to see what Stealer turns into in April 2023! My guess is something like “At the end of your turn, draw a card. It costs health instead of mana.” or “Battlecry: The next X cards youdraw cost health instead of mana.” Another option is keep the same effect, raise the cost and stats. But with things like Skull and Voidcaller the cost increase doesn’t really solve anything so maybe a battlecry or change to the effect limiting how many cards can get their cost converted to HP
And for anyone still wanting to play Mecha’thun Warlock, there is still a combo with Shadowhunter Vol’jin that worked pretty well prior to Wailing Caverns release. With the right draws it could be done as early as turn 9, or 8 with The Coin. Hemet to kill the 3 or less cards after you have a 0 cost minion in hand. With the deck empty and the only minions in your hand being Vol’jin, Mecha’thun, and one or more 0 cost minions you play the 0 cost minion(s), Vol’jin one of your 0cost guys to pull your only remaining minion, Mecha’thun, then Cataclysm! No stealer required!
It will be harder against aggro because it takes at least 2-3 more turns to get there,but it still works! It might also be faster than the Dollmaster combo but I really don’t remember.
the first banning of a card in constructed format. interesting. I really like it to be honest. Doesn't disrupt the card in standard and just removes the problem completely from wild. I also like that theyre acknowledging that it should be done sparingly.