A new set of Hearthstone patch notes have been released following yesterday's teaser of a fresh set of Wild balance changes. Let's see exactly what's changing in Wild format in Patch 27.4.2.
As with any patch, cards that are nerfed or removed from play will be eligible for a full dust refund for a period of two weeks following the game update. The patch arrives today and here's what Blizzard has to say about it.
Quote From Blizzard For the Wild-focused changes, Caverns of Time is our first ever direct-to-Wild expansion. We don’t plan to make regular Wild updates of this scale, but some cards from Caverns ended up needing some adjustments, and that presented us with a special opportunity to make adjustments more generally.
Wild is a mode that’s inherently full of powerful interactions, but we still want the mode to feel like you’re playing Hearthstone. That’s why these adjustments focus on the biggest play experience outliers in the mode—decks that are frustrating now and that, if we didn’t step in, would likely remain frustrating for a long time. There are some strong Wild decks that we didn’t touch in these changes because, though they’re powerful, they still generally fit in the Hearthstone mold. We’ve found that Wild players often have different goals for the mode so we expect that some players will wish we hit more or different things, but we hope that these adjustments will make the mode more fun for more players overall.
Wild Buffs
While there were no wild-specific buffs announced, 7 cards in the Twist format are being buffed which means they also apply to Wild.
- Cenarion Hold now Costs 1 (Down from 2).
- Dragonfire Potion now Costs 5 (Down from 6).
- Bronze Dragonknight now has Taunt in addition to its previous effect.
- Elemental Destruction now has Overload (2) (Down from 5).
- Al'Akir, the Winds of Time now has 8 Armor (Up from 5).
Wild Nerfs
6 Wild-specific card nerfs are arriving in Patch 27.4.2.
- Firemancer Flurgl now Costs 4 (Up from 2).
- Spirit of the Frog now Costs 5 (Up from 3).
- Scargil now Costs 5 (Up from 4).
- Kabal Lackey next Secret now costs (1) (Up from 0).
- Shadow Essence now Costs 7 (Up from 6).
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer now Costs 7 (Up from 6).
Additionally, these 9 nerfs that target the Twist format will also be applied to Wild.
- Chamber of Viscidus now Costs 3 Mana (Up from 2) and has 2 Durability (Down from 3).
- Tiny Knight of Evil now gains +2/+1 (Down from +2/+2).
- Dark Bargain now Costs 4 (Up from 3).
- Blast from the Past now Costs 4 (Up from 3).
- Ivory Rook now has 3 Health (Down from 4).
- Jade Telegram now Costs 4 (Up from 3).
- The Scarab Lord's Scarab Gong now has 1 Health (Down from 2).
- Blade of C'Thun now Costs 7 (Up from 6).
- Trial of the Jormungars now Costs 6 (Up from 5).
Wild Card Bans
Oof. A couple of card bans are making their way to wild for the problematic Mechwarper and Tony, King of Piracy cards.
Goodbye!
More Balance Changes
If you're looking for other balance changes, we've got them all covered in dedicated articles based on the format.
- Patch 27.4.2 Standard Balance Changes
- Patch 27.4.2 Wild Balance Changes
- Patch 27.4.2 Twist Balance Changes
Additionally, Hearthstone Battlegrounds is set to receive a few changes in the update and Duels also gets some love.
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Comments
I'd imagine Tony would have a functional change after he rotates to wild. It would be funny if Blizzard changed his text to say copy your opponents deck seeing as piracy is all about copying files illegally 🙃
Might as well just kill the card like they did with Illucia
awesome, big priest gets 1 mana increase that will make zero difference meanwhile apm druid gets banned out of the fucking game despite taking 10x the skill to pull off. so sick of seeing every single interesting combo deck not just nerfed but completely banned from existing, this is not how you balance a game, you give other decks the tools to combat the combo decks instead of deleting them.
every other archetype can get whatever they want but as soon as any combo/tempo deck gets any amount of play it has to be nerfed to nonexistence or banned completely. even naga mage, the highest skill cap deck in standard gets slapped for being too strong. does it not occur to anyone at blizzard that there might be players whose primary interest in the game is playing decks that reward you for being able to play well and quickly with big tempo turns or cool combos? finally for the first time since apm mage was ruined combo players had a high apm combo deck to learn and play and get better at and they just have to ruin it.
I'm sorry but I think the percentage of players like you is very small and blizzard cares more about the average player who logically hates being dead by turn 5 unstoppable combo. Wild is full of other combo high skill cap decks and in standard there's a real challenge for you, play nature shaman. It's still a good deck in the right hands, but I'm sure you're good enough to handle it.
its not an unstoppable combo as it is with the different methods of increasing card cost and disrupting your opponent's hand. would it not make more sense to give players the tools to combat fast combo decks (e.g. counterspells and cost-increase permanents in mtg) rather than ruin an entire archetype of deck?
wild also really doesnt have much in terms of combo anymore thanks to blizzard. combo priest and quest mage are technically still possible but pillager rogue got shafted and now overload shaman is too.
also, for the record, the average player logically hates having to play against a neptulon on turn 4, yet blizzard still only slightly nerfs big priest despite it creating unfun and unfair gameplay for YEARS despite being one of the single easiest decks to play in the game's history.
thank you for being cordial with your reply. people almost never are on this site when i try to advocate for the existence of combo decks (although i will say the replies on this post are significantly more kind than they've been in the past).
There's still plenty of combo decks in standard. Nature shaman, drum druid, moonbeam druid, and I guess you can put rainbow mage into that as well. Every one of those require intricate planning, and much brain power to maximize win potential.
What has been capped at the knee are decks that might be fun to play, but not fun to suffer through. Naga mage and APM druid arent nerfed for being too strong, they're nerfed for being too obnoxious for the opposing player.
but wouldn't you call it obnoxious to play out 8 turns of a game winning and then lose to an otk moonbeam combo out of nowhere? by this logic, why shouldn't that deck be nerfed? ive killed people way earlier with moonbeam than i have with naga mage, the main difference is that naga mage requires significantly more execution in exchange for being a bit more consistent. you can find a way out of almost anything but you have to be able to play your ass off to discover an answer in many cases, and your nagas usually only serve to delay the game until you can burn your opponent.
moonbeam is objectively less interactive than naga mage, but its allowed to stay? its an incredibly ambiguous standard that carries into wild, where big priest has consistently led to awful, uninteractive games for a fraction of the effort required by apm decks AND it doesnt lose to dirty rat, yet big priest gets barely nerfed while apm decks get taken out of the game completely.
also, thanks for being polite. i tend to draw in a lot of hate when i post about combo decks, and you've been very kind.
Its to do with the fact that both naga mage and APM druid tends to infuriate their opponents, and its also to do with the fact that hearthstone is played on an engine that doesnt speed up or skip animations and yet respects the turn timer, so what happens is (and very often on a phone) your opponent would be caught watching animations for much longer than they should, sometimes skipping their turns while they helplessly fume on the side.
Losing to decks like moonbeam druid or big priest may not be pleasant, but its less toxic because at the very least you're allowed to play the game. Admitably its mostly perception, but in a product where fun is supposedly the goal its not unusual for developers to err on the side of the majority.
I think the player experience that Team 5 is trying to nerf is the one where I sit here and watch my Druid opponent draw and play 27 cards on one turn, while my screen dims from lack of use.
Interesting combos are welcome, lack of interactivity isn't.
Did they succeed? Time will tell, and a class with easy access to 20 mana will probably find a new path to shenanigans.
i would much rather watch my opponent draw and play 27 cards in one turn than watch my opponent do nothing for 3 turns and then play neptulon. one of them requires extremely good execution to pull off and can easily be delayed/shut down with dirty rat or spell cost increase cards, the other is the easiest shit on the planet.
if blizzard has a problem with lack of interactivity, then they should print more cards that interact with combo decks instead of banning every interesting combo deck out of the game. they need to learn from (and i cant believe im saying this) wizards of the coast and create an environment where combo decks can exist and be interacted with.
for example, one of my favorite decks of all time in any game is charbelcher in mtg's legacy format. its a deck that centers around creating enough mana as quickly as possible to play one artifact called goblin charbelcher that when activated instantly kills the opponent. it can win as early as turn 1 and usually wins between turns 2-5. however, goblin charbelcher is a mid tier deck (at best) in that format because there is such a wide variety of countermagic, hand disruption and mana taxing permanents that it becomes very difficult to beat a lot of decks, especially after the first round when sideboarding comes into play. this forces you to think heavily about when and how to combo against every deck and encourages creativity on both sides.
if you hate playing against combo decks, you shouldnt want them to ban every one of them out of the game. you should want them to give you more tools to be able to beat them and more ways to access those tools consistently.
It is a relevant nerf to Secret Mage, but the deck will still be viable.
I don`t like the change to Shadow Essence. I don`t think this will make a difference. Big Priest will still be the same level of annoyence than before.
All other changes I can agree with. :)