A new patch has hit the Hearthstone servers with the recently announced card nerfs, the start of the Lunar New Year event, some new card backs, and a special Curse of Hakkar event! Read on for more information.

The Card Nerfs Have Arrived

Five cards have been changed. Their dust costs have been adjusted to their crafting costs for the next two weeks.

If you aren't actively using them, it's worth disenchanting the non-basic cards. Hold on to the dust if you think you might use the cards again in the future.

  • Cold Blood - Cost increased to 2 mana (Up from 1)
  • Flametongue Totem - Cost increased to 3 mana (Up from 2)
  • Equality - Cost increased to 4 mana (Up from 2)
  • Hunter's Mark - Cost increased to 2 mana (Up from 1)
  • Emerald Spellstone - Cost increased to 6 mana (Up from 5)

Hearthstone Event: Lunar New Year

A new, short event is running and we've got special daily quests because of it! Lunar New Year ends on February 12.

  • During the event you can purchase a discounted 30 card pack bundle (10 Each of WW, BD, RR) for $20.
  • A golden Fireworks Tech is rewarded to anyone who logs in before the end of the event.
  • Normal daily quests have been turned off and replaced with ones that reward gold AND arcane dust. Cool!

Card Backs: Four New Ones Arrive

Blizzard has added in four new event related card backs. One of them, Curse of Hakkar, is available starting today (details below). The other card backs do not currently have known methods to obtain but two of them reference Hearthstone characters (Malto, Harth) and the other one references the Legion (Burning Legion?).

Hearthstone Event: Corrupted Blood

The Curse of Hakkar has infected some members of the community! Playing against someone with this card back will give it to you. It will automatically equip so that you can pass on the infection to others. The event was never given an end date so we're assuming it's available forever. The card back should not be very hard to obtain though since it should spread very quickly on ladder. Queue up and play!

The event is a nod to the infamous Corrupted Blood incident that happened in World of Warcraft back in 2005.

Official Patch Notes

Quote From Blizzard

This Hearthstone update kicks off Lunar New Year with a bang and sets the stage for the upcoming Season of Rastakhan Tavern Brawl event. We also made some mobile optimizations and fixed some bugs.

Read on for details!

Lunar New Year
Celebrate Lunar New Year 2019 from February 5 through February 12!

  • Log in during the event to get a free Rare Golden Fireworks Tech card!
  • Complete celebratory Quests that award both Gold and Arcane Dust!
  • Share spectacular New Year emotes!
  • The Lunar New Year Bundle – Get 30 card packs (10 each from The Witchwood, The Boomsday Project, and Rastakhan’s Rumble) for a special price. Available through February 12.

Season of Rastakhan

February 13 through March 3 earn glory for the Loa—and card packs!—over three weeks of Tavern Brawls during the Brawl of Champions.

  • The Brawl of Champions – A series of three special Tavern Brawls. Choose a rumble Champion and harness the power of each Loa’s Shrine to prove which Loa is the mightiest!
    • Each Champion will have a new deck and Shrine each week!
  • New repeatable Quest: For the Glory of Rastakhan – Play a Tavern Brawl 3 times to earn a Rastakhan’s Rumble card pack. Available each Wednesday when the Tavern Brawl starts.
    • Earn up to three Rastakhan’s Rumble card packs over the course of the Season of Rastakhan!

Game Improvements

  • Fixed an issue that could cause cards that copy and set minion Health to a specific value to incorrectly activate “while damaged” effects.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause Augmented Elekk to shuffle a copy of a card drawn by Tracking into the deck.
  • Corrupted Blood no longer benefits from Spell Damage.
  • Spellbender can no longer attack itself when activated by The Beast Within.
  • Corrupting Mist and Reckless Experimenter can no longer incorrectly cause Immortal Prelate to be removed from the hand or deck.
  • Fixed an instability issue that could occur when Book of Spectres drew multiple copies of Corrupted Blood.
  • Fixed an instability issue that could occur when attempting to view an enemy minion as it’s being returned to an opponent’s hand.
  • Gral, the Shark now works properly when executing its battlecry more times than there are minions left in your deck.
  • Mecha’thun that has been transformed will no longer incorrectly play its original effects when destroyed.
  • Astral Raptor Overkill animations will no longer play multiple times.
  • Copied Zombeasts now correctly keep their Zombeast visual aura.
  • The enchantments from Clutchmother Zavas now collapse into a single enchantment banner.
  • [Rumble Run] Fixed a bug where damage from healing due to Bwonsamdi's Covenant was not properly being credited to the source of the damage.
  • [Rumble Run] Fireslinger now stops casting Fireballs if there are no valid targets.
  • [Rumble Run] Fixed an issue with Tribute from the Tides not granting extra battlecries if it was damaged while buffed.
  • [Rumble Run] Casting an Overload spell while affected by Electra Stormsurge now triggers Overcharged Totem once for each cast.
  • [Rumble Run] Fixed an instability issue that could occur when playing Bouncing Blade while the Pirate’s Mark Shrine is in play.
  • [Mobile] To reduce the initial size of the Hearthstone mobile app, some sound files are now an optional download.
  • [Mobile] Hand and mana are now moved aside when Choose One cards are displayed.
  • [Android] Background downloads are now displayed as a notification.