A new Hearthstone patch will be pushed live soon and it will bring us a load of card changes. Team 5 looked at the current situation in Standard,and Wild, and decided to intervene with 8 different nerfs, split among severals classes and hitting various top-tier decks. In case you missed them, here are the changes:
- Il'gynoth - Cost is now 6 mana (Up from 4). Stats increased from 2/6 to 4/8.
- Kolkar Pack Runner - Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2). Stats increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
- Incanter's Flow - Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2).
- Conviction (Rank 1) - All ranks now cost 2 mana (Up from 1).
- Granite Forgeborn - Health is now 4 (Down from 5).
- Darkglare - Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2). Stats increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
- Flesh Giant - Cost is now 9 mana (Up from 8).
- Battleground Battlemaster - Cost is now 6 mana (Up from 5).
Why did these cards get nerfed? What implications will they bring to the table? If you're asking yourself these questions, keep reading, as we'll try to answer them by analyzing each nerf.
Disclaimer: even though Il'gynoth, Kolkar Pack Runner and Darkglare's changes could be considered "card reworks" rather than straight up nerfs, our opinion is that there has never been a card which has performed better than before after being 'reworked' into a higher mana cost (the only exception being Twin Slice) - be wary of those who say otherwise.
Cost is now 6 mana (Up from 4). Stats increased from 2/6 to 4/8.
Another change many players (including us) were hoping for, and we're glad the devs agreed with us. OTK Demon Hunter has been around for quite a while, but it was always defined as a high-skill-cap deck, since it required a lot of thought into planning your turns ahead and dealing with the tricky Outcast positioning issues. Sure, sometimes it all came down to "draw the good cards with Skull of Gul'dan", but it was still rather easy to mess things up.
However, the release of United in Stormwind's Final Showdown made things easier by a fat margin: you just had to complete the first two steps of your Questline to gain the discount effect needed to OTK your opponent, which is a lot less complicated than Skull of Gul'dan/Raging Felscreamer shenanigans.
Another reason this archetype deserved the change was its incredible flexibility: thanks to Felosophy, you were able to generate a remarkable number of Mo'args (2 more, unless Illidari Studies had other plans), and use them for healing yourself and/or clearing your opponent's threats - there was little you could do in order to consume your opponent's combo pieces, as the only irreplaceable one was Il'gynoth itself, hence why it got nerfed.
Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2). Stats increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
United in Stormwind's release didn't change Hunter at all: pretty much like in the Forged in the Barrens meta, its Face archetype has been the only viable deck, and the most surprising fact is that Aimed Shot was the only new card included. Add this to Face Hunter's high performance throughout all levels of play and you get an aggressive list with potential to lock up an entire format.
Kolkar Pack Runner costing 1 more mana means this unit will come down later, and therefore Hunter will no longer be able to keep control of the early board state as much as it can now. Pack Runner's effect is really good, but it requires you to play spells and, therefore, to spend mana alongside it: increasing its cost means that you'll have less mana to clear your opponent's board with, making it a lot more clunky and less effective overall.
Our opinion is that this is definitely the right call, and we're glad to see that Hunter will not be left unchecked.
Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2).
Probably one of the most obvious nerf targets, and a change that was definitely overdue. No Minion Mage has been a meme-tier deck throughout the entire Year of the Phoenix, but started getting insane in the early Forged in the Barrens meta, where the rotation of many bad (Mage, but also from other classes, since Deck of Lunacy transformed your spells into ones from any class) spells together with the release of strong class tools like Runed Orb and Refreshing Spring Water (nerfed from 4 to 5 mana in April) really pushed the deck over the top.
Back then, people were already asking for Incanter's Flow to be changed, but it ultimately didn't happen, possibly because Team 5 wanted to see Sorcerer's Gambit Quest Mage in action before going in with the nerf hammer. In the end, making your entire deck cost 1 mana less is too much for a 2-of card that costs just 2 mana (reminiscent of Prince Keleseth), and there was no way Jaina would've survived this balance patch unscathed.
All ranks now cost 2 mana (Up from 1).
Like Incanter's Flow, Conviction (Rank 1) is another card that should have been nerfed during the first month of the Forged in the Barrens meta, but Team 5 went after First Day of School and Sword of the Fallen first, and Hand of A'dal later. Basically a 1 mana Bloodlust, this Ranked spell has been an auto-include in pretty much any Standard Paladin since April, given Uther's ability to stick minions on board and this spell's impressive damage output, especially if played on turn 5 after the upgrade from rank 1 to rank 2.
Why did this card got nerfed just now? Two reasons:
- Handbuff Paladin - The ability to keep dumping larger and larger men on the board makes them less susceptible to be removed; Your chances to land a Conviction (Rank 2) at full potential has increased quite a bit.
- Battleground Battlemaster - If you want to learn more, you should definitely go to the Battlemaster's section, but we can short it up and say that 12 damage [(3x2)x2] out of almost nothing is pretty broken.
Health is now 4 (Down from 5).
When this unit got revealed, many players were really upset: if you're playing an Elemental-heavy Shaman list, you have no reason to not include Forgeborn in your deck, even more if you consider it has vanilla stats for its cost - in fact, we're talking about a Chillwind Yeti with an instant Emperor Thaurissan/Incanter's Flow proc for your Elementals.
While we were happy to see Elemental Shaman getting more support and traction (always better than Evolve Shaman...), we have to recognize that, being an already prominent build in the pre-patch meta, a nerf to all its contenders would've probably been too beneficial for Thrall.
Sure, Granite Forgeborn's functionality doesn't really change, but from now on you'll be able to jam fewer stats on the board, which is more relevant than you think, if you consider that Elemental Shaman is all about taking control of the table from the beginning of the game (Wailing Vapor, Kindling Elemental) to its end (Fire Elemental, Al'Akir the Windlord).
Cost is now 3 mana (Up from 2). Stats increased from 2/3 to 3/4.
A nerf target both Standard and Wild players can agree on. While in the former format Darkglare (which, as many of you remember, already received a nerf) Darkglare has caused problems in the last few weeks, in the latter it represents the cornerstone of one of the strongest and most unfair decks of all time.
Being able to gain (potentially) infinite mana while discounting other units (Flesh Giant, Molten Giant) or working towards The Demon Seed's completion was just too much. Not really much to say about this one, other than that we're thrilled to see it going down.
Eat shit Darkglare.
Cost is now 9 mana (Up from 8).
Some players came up with Flesh Giant as a nerf target, but we definitely didn't expect a cost increase by just 1 mana. After United in Storming, Standard Warlock started discounting Flesh Giant too fast than normal, and that caused many problems combined in different ways with Raise Dead, The Demon Seed, Battleground Battlemaster or all the above together.
As we already mentioned, we were surprised to see Flesh Giant going up by just 1 mana, we have to consider that Warlock won't be able to play its self-damaging tools as fast as before, because Darkglare has been hit as well. Nerfing Flesh Giant to 9 mana probably means that Team 5 wants to tone down the class by little steps, rather than just killing cards (and archetypes) in a single blow, and we do admire that effort.
Cost is now 6 mana (Up from 5).
Team 5 definitely has a thing for broken Neutral 5-Cost minions that affect adjacent units: first we got Mushroom power! and Giggling Inventor, now Battleground Battlemaster.
While we already explained the implications with Conviction (Rank 2) (see above), this card was so good that it took little for players to figure out ways to abuse it across multiple classes. For examples, pros figured out that the safest way to be sure to have 2 minion ready to get Windfury on curve was to start playing Stealth units: for this reason, SI:7 Skulker, Sneaky Delinquent and Burrowing Scorpid started seeing play all together.
But that's not all: even The Demon Seed Quest Warlock began including Battleground Battlemaster, because giving Windfury to your early Flesh Giants is too good to pass on.
A broken card with many broken interactions - bumping its mana cost to 6 was the right call.
What do you think about the changes? Are there any other cards you would've liked to see nerfed? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
These nerfs were so helpful! Not like my opponent played 4 Flesh Giant and 3 Goldshire Gnoll by turn 6. How does Raise Dead keep escaping scrutiny?
For once not mass dusting extras for a few expansions paid off. I had 6 Granite Forgeborn, 11 Battleground Battlemaster's, 5 Flesh Giants (one golden), a golden Darkglare, and I dusted the Il'gynoth I created with Demon Hunter was added. I kept 2 of the 5 Incanter's Flow because I like Mage and I want to see how the nerfed version does. I have 2 weeks to see if they should be dusted as well. Still thats only 2 commons and I now have 22k dust.
I'd like to point out that "symmetrical" has a specific meaning when it comes to card games: they are effects which affect both players equally (some examples include Nerub'ar Weblord and Mana Wraith). As such, a less confusing term should have been used, such as "adjacent".
Otherwise, this was a good summary of the motivation behind this round of nerfs.
Thanks for pointing that out! It is now fixed :)
I'm just glad I've been sitting on my golden Il'gynoth even though I have never really used it.
Same here
I'm kind of bummed out that they flaked on just outright deleting Battlemaster from the game, because I've been enjoying playing Quest Warlock as a Control build without the Battlemasters and only using Giants for pressure (innstead of lethal).
Since they only love-tapped the giants and Battlemaster is as playable at 6 as it is as 5 as long as you don't need to combo it with a buff spell like Paladin does I don't think there's any reason to drop it from the build.
Can you explain the point of adding "Including Il'gynoth & Darkglare" to the tile? It's not like anyone is going to talk about the nerfs without mentioning these two cards.
calling darkglare warlock one of the most unfair decks of all time tells me that the person writing this article hasnt played much darkglare warlock. there are definitely unfair games, but you could say the same thing with plenty of other wild decks (e.g. apm mage, malygos druid, pirate warrior, shadow priest, brainlet hunter etc.) and id argue that darkglare warlock (without the questline; havent crafted the questline yet but have a ton of experience with zoolock/darkglare warlock lists) requires more quick thinking and skill on average to pull off insane plays than any other aggro deck in the format. still, this nerf isnt that bad and im sure darkglare warlock will be just fine, but i think its unfair to the people that have been playing and refining this archetype since dg was released to portray it as just an unfair list when in reality the "unfair" plays often come as a result of a really good execution and experience to be able to balance your health out to discount giants while also trying not to get blown up out of nowhere. other than that, flesh giant now being unplayable in evenlock is cringe
I respectfully disagree with you. Darkglare Warlock is not the only Wild deck that can do unfair things (to be honest every top/medium tier Wild deck can do unfair things, otherwise they wouldn't be viable), but it's one of the decks that can do said unfair things with the highest frequency and as soon as turn 3.
I never called Darkglare Warlock a mindless deck, but it having a high skill ceiling doesn't mean that it's any less unfair. You seem to confuse between piloting skills and unfairness/strength.
thanks for the well written reply! personally, ive always considered the skill required to pilot a deck to be an important factor in the overall fairness of the deck. for example, id much rather lose to an uninteractive darkglare warlock who i thought put a lot of skill in to be able to beat me than an equally uninteractive odd hunter who might as well have been playing cookie clicker the whole game. overall though, im just glad to hear somebody acknowledge that darkglare warlock has a high skill ceiling.
I still think the most elegant solution to Il'Gynoth would have been to restrict Mo'arg Artificer to doubling damage instead of multiplying it. The same way that playing two cards that trigger battlecries twice doesn't make them trigger twice again. The effect shouldn't stack. It would require more lifesteal spells in hand to pull of the combo, similar to classic Malygos Druid, than dealing 30-100 damage with a single Felscream Blast.
but then you'd ruin Mo'arg for every other deck as well (especially stuff like Warlock using it quadruple lifesteal off Drain Soul). It's not an overpowered card by itself, it just got abused in a deck that had no business existing in the first place.
our opinion is that there has never been a card which has performed better than before after being 'reworked' into a higher mana cost (the only exception being Twin Slice) - be wary of those who say otherwise.
First Day of School?
You got me on that one - didn't really think of that.
This is my fault that we've got the same thumbnail as the last article we published. I could have been lazy and reused the old thumbnail, but I recreated it. Noticed too late to get it switched out safely and tbh, it was still a good call since Avalon really hates Darkglare and legendary cards just make interesting thumbnails. I'll blame Sinti, who created the thumb for Aesan's article hours before I made this one, because I'm allowed to do that as the ruthless leader. :D
I'm so damn happy about the nerfs. Incanter's Flow, as much as I love the card, was in a stupid spot at 2 mana. Let's make Hearthstone amazing by getting rid of the hardcore mana cheating.
I really want to see a global rule to enforce cards never being able to be reduced below 1 mana. Some mana cheating is good and makes for fun gameplay, a trail of 0-cost cards is bullshit.
I agree that mana cheating has become a problem. Post nerfs, I faced a Warlock who played 2X Flesh Giant for 0 mana on turn 5, then killed me with [Hearthstone Card (Battlegrounds Battlemaster) Not Found] on turn 6. The Flesh Giant nerf did NOTHING.
I also don't get the Granite Forgeborn or Kolkar Pack Runner nerfs. Was the 5 health on Forgeborn an issue? And how does nerfing Pack Runner slow down the quest?
The real issue here is that some questlines (Mage, Warlock, Warrior, Hunter) are too easy to complete, the step-by-step rewards are too good, and the final reward is a permanent, non-interactable buff that will provide lethal. It feels like playing against C'Thun decks (both old and new) where there is a clock where your opponent will kill you at the end of it. The difference of course is that the clock is MUCH shorter, and your opponent gets all kinds of bonuses for questing as opposed to just building their C'Thun and usually losing tempo because of it.
I love the flavor and mechanics of these new quests, but balanced they are NOT.
My masterpiece was used more than once, I'll take it :D
Mine has a slightly better blend IMO :P