Our Thoughts on Hearthstone's Stormwind Nerfs, Buffs, Bans, and Redesign Patch Arriving Tuesday

Hearthstone's Patch 21.3 will be pushed live tomorrow, September 21st, and it will bring us quite a few card changes. Team 5 looked at the current situation in Standard (and Wild) and decided to intervene with 5 different nerfs, 1 ban, 1 redesign and 7 buffs.

In case you missed them, here are the nerfs:

• Irebound Brute - Cost is now 8 mana (Up from 7).
• Mindrender Illucia (redesigned) - Now swaps your hand with a copy of your opponent's.
• Command the Elements - Tame the Flames now takes 3 Overload cards to complete (Up from 2).
• Perpetual Flame - Cost is now 2 mana (Up from 1).
• Runed Mithril Rod - Cost is now 4 mana (up from 3).
• The Demon Seed - Each step now takes 8 self-damage to complete (Up from 6, 7 and 8). It is also banned in Wild.

And here are the buffs:

• Leatherworking Kit - Cost is now 1 mana (Down from 2).
• Selective Breeder - Now has 3 Health (Up from 1).
• Mordresh Fire Eye - Cost is now 8 mana (Down from 10).
• Wildfire - Cost is now 1 mana (Down from 2).
• Bloodsail Deckhand - Now has 2 Health (Up from 1).
• Stonemaul Anchorman - Now has 6 Health (Up from 5).
• Stormwind Freebooter - Now has 4 Health (Up from 3).

Why did these cards get nerf? What implications will the freshly buffed cards bring to the table? If you're asking yourself these questions, keep reading, as we'll try to answer them by analyzing each nerf.

Quote From Alec Dawson

• 5 Nerfs (Warlock, Shaman, DH)
• 1 Redesign (Priest)
• 1 Ban (Warlock)
• 7 Buffs (Hunter, Mage, Warrior)

Nerfs looking to slow things down further. Buffs looking at recent archetypes that didn't hit as well as we want, mix of light + medium changes.

Nerfs, Redesign and Ban

Cost is now 8 mana (Up from 7).

Final Showdown Demon Hunter is nowhere near the most powerful deck out there, but it is capable of some very nutty shenanigans that can close the game in the first few turns. Said shenanigans are caused by Irebound Brute's discount effect and Scholomance Academy's Felosophy, which allowed the player to slam more stats on board than actually possible.

As we see it, while Irebound Brute will definitely need more efforts to be reduced to 0 mana and cause headaches on turn 4, the card will still see play and will still be impactful is some way, just like Team 5 intended.

Redesigned - Now swaps your hand with a copy of your opponent's.

People have been asking for Illucia's head for months, and the witch's time has finally come. While Mindrender Illucia has generated mixed feelings since its release in August 2020's Scholomance Academy, it was just with August 2021's United in Stormwind and the release of the Shadow Priest package that Illucia started to be a gross outlier, too much for Team 5 to simply let her be.

Mindrender Illucia is one of those 'mean' cards the devs talk about from time to time, and they often say that when one of them stops being 'mean' and becomes 'mean, powerful and popular' then things need to be addressed. This was definitely the case.

With the current effect, Illucia will still have some use: you will still be able to turn your opponent's combo against them or to find the missing piece in your lethal puzzle, but you won't be allowed to just screw up players beyond repair, which is a step in the right direction.

Tame the Flames now takes 3 Overload cards to complete (Up from 2).

Questline Shaman was a great deck before this patch, with just Warlock holding Thrall back from becoming an S-tier class. With Gul'dan being hit via Runed Mithril Rod and The Demon Seed, it was obvious that Shaman would've also received some adjustments: two, to be precise.

The first one is directed to slow down Command the Elements's completion: from now on, you'll need to play 9 Overload cards in order to get to Stormcaller Bru'kan, up from the previous 8. While this change may appear to be very slight, do not be fooled: one more Overload card to play means less resources for the post-Stormcaller Bru'kan, which also means less explosively; moreover, you have to combine it with Perpetual Flame's nerf (which will no longer be generated by Wandmaker).

Cost is now 2 mana (Up from 1).

I take pride to say that when Perpetual Flame was released back in Forged in the Barrens' mini-set, Wailing Caverns, most people (rightfully) lost their minds to Wailing Vapor and Primal Dungeoneer, but I was one of the few to be confident that that 1-mana spell would've needed just some time to become very, very strong, and here we are.

Perpetual Flame was able to completely negate way too many board-based decks, to the point where there was little to no chance to run them, given Thrall's high population in the meta. This card was so insane that people accepted to low-roll Primal Dungeoneer and draw one card out of it just to include Perpetual Flame in the deck. Add all of this to the face that you can actually turn the Overload you collected into an upside with Command the Elements and immediately get rid of it with Overdraft. Just too much efficiency over there.

Bumping Perpetual Flame to 2 mana will leave it as a still playable card, but it won't be as efficient as it has been during these last two months.

Cost is now 4 mana (Up from 3).

Seriously, who would've guessed that a 3 mana instant (and repeatable) Emperor Thaurissan would've been okay in a class that has access to Life Tap and some of the most powerful draw engines such as Backfire and Hand of Gul'dan? Definitely not us.

At 3 mana, Mithril Rod was just too easy to proc and granted such an impactful discount too early in the game, leading to rather unfair shenanigans, like completing The Demon Seed in no time or jamming down your "Handlock" threats.

Now that Runed Mithril Rod's cost has been increased, we still see it as a much playable card, but the additional mana to be payed upon equip will stop it from being a 100% keep in the mulligan and will demand player to think more before spending their entire turn 4 doing nothing.

Each step now takes 8 self-damage to complete (Up from 6, 7 and 8). It is also banned in Wild.

Everyone and their mother saw this coming, and Team 5 did not let us down. Even with Flesh Giant at 10 mana, The Demon Seed is just too powerful to be left as it is, and addressing it right now seems to be the right call.

While this nerf affects both Standard (The Demon Seed is currently played in both Quest and Hand Warlock) and Wild, this this we'd like to indulge on the latter game mode. Hearthstone's eternal format has just too much self-damaging tools and card draw, and even increasing the required self-harm for each step wouldn't have been much of an impactful change, especially when Crystallizer is a card you can include two copies in your deck. In order to make The Demon Seed a powerful, but "in check" type of card, you'd have to nerf way too many cards and it would limit your future space design in order not to break anything again. Banning Warlock's Questline seems to be unavoidable and right call.

With regards to Standard, while Handlock will be more worried about Runed Mithril Rod's nerf - in the end, the deck rarely get to the point of abusing Blightborn Tamsin and uses the mid-steps rewards for survivability and for discounting Flesh Giants - Questline Warlock will definitely have to deal with a big headache: 3 more damage to receive has 3 different implications:

• Overall more time to complete The Demon Seed and therefore more time for your opponents to react and kill you.
• More survivability needed to not die, which they tell me is a big deal in Hearthstone.
• Damage breakpoint: Being each step at 8 means that you'll be more likely to 'waste' self-damage, and your gameplan's consistency will automatically go down by a few notches.

Again, a pretty deserved and welcome change.

Buffs

Cost is now 1 mana (Down from 2).

Even at 1 mana, we still struggle to see 'Token Beast' Hunter seeing play: while we have a somewhat decent shell, it is currently hollow on the inside, with too few reasons to run it. For example, why would you go through killing three of your Beasts just to draw one with +1/+1 where Scavenger's Ingenuity, Warsong Wrangler and from now one Selective Breeder are actual cards.

We are not saying Leatherworking Kit is beyond redemption, but rather that this one feels like a change directed to set up a certain field (the mini set) rather than to immediately raise the fates of an archetype.

Now has 3 Health (Up from 1).

What a nice buff: with this change, Warsong Wrangler's little brother received some love. Being a 2 mana 1/3 that generates a Beast you included in your deck, Selective Breeder suddenly becomes an appealing tool to both Face and value Hunter. Sure, it won't provide a buff to any copy of the Discovered unit, but it's basically a Shadow Visions for Beast Hunter, which is going to be relevant down the line. Good change for the Core Set.

Cost is now 8 mana (Down from 10). Stats are now 8/8 (Down from 10/10)

The first of these changes that made me raise an eyebrow. While the 10 damage through Hero Power requirement remains unchanged, you'll be able to get your hands on your reward a couple turns earlier than usual, which is a lot, and by 'a lot' we mean a lot a lot.

Being Mordresh an 8-drop from now on, it means that you'll be able to play it alongside something else, like a Runed Orb or an Ignite, as well as going Hero Power into Mordresh. Wow.

Cost is now 1 mana (Down from 2).

If Mordresh Fire Eye is what Mage will use to close out games, Wildfire is what will help Jaina to get there.

People have been theorizing Wildfire to 1 mana for months now, as a way to improve the whole 'Hero Power' package's disappointing performances. With this buff, Mage will have another Incanter's Flow type of card, even if not as impactful as warping: by this we mean that, if Hero Power Mage will become a thing, then Wildfire will be a 100% keep in the mulligan.

In the end, not a class-changing buff as Luna's Pocket Galaxy was back in the day, but a rather welcome one.

Now has 2 Health (Up from 1).

Wow. Wow. What's up with this buff? It's like they took Blazing Battlemage, gave it to Warrior and strapped a bonus effect on top of it. The buff is as simple as insane: premium stats, a Battlecry and a Tribe tag for a 1-drop. From now till the end of its existence, this card has grossly high chances to see play in any Pirate Warrior that carries a couple of Weapons. If we were waiting for more Raid the Docks love, well... here it is!

Really, there isn't much to say other than being very surprised.

Now has 6 Health (Up from 5).

Not a change we saw coming since the card already sees a decent amount of play, but right now Warrior needs all the love it can get. With the Health total increased to 6, Stonemaul Anchorman will have much on easier life to survive a trade and trigger its Frenzy effect. Another solid change for Warrior, that will come in handy for both Rush and Pirate Warrior.

Now has 4 Health (Up from 3).

Another not astonishing but quite solid change, that brings Stormwind Freebooter to Spider Tank's vanilla stats and pushes even more Pirate Warrior into the game.

At this point, we'd be surprised to not see Garrosh among the most played decks in the first few weeks after the patch, given that most of its Pirate got incredibly better.