March 2024 Balance

March 2024 Balance is a Hearthstone patch released on March 28, 2024. It was versioned 29.0.3 with the build number 197064. It was released during the expansion Whizbang's Workshop

Card Changes

Tigress Plushy - Cost increased to 4 (from 3).
Shroomscavate - Cost decreased to 2 (from 3). No longer gives Windfury.
Bursting Jormungar - Attack decreased to 3 (from 4).
Odyn, Prime Designate - Cost increased to 9 (from 8).
Sky Mother Aviana - Cost decreased to 5 (from 6).
Deputization Aura - Attack buff decreased to +1 (from +3).
Thrall's Gift - Lightning Bolt replaced by Lightning Storm.
Aftershocks - Cost increased to 5 (from 4).
Awakening Tremors - Tokens' Attack decreased to 3 (from 4).
Ticking Module - Cost increased to 5 (from 4).
Frost Lich Cross-Stitch - Cost decreased to 4 (from 5). Damage dealt decreased to 3 (from 4).

Quote From Blizzard

Patch 29.0.3, launching today, includes the following balance changes to Standard and Battlegrounds.

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: We hope you’re enjoying Whizbang’s Workshop so far! We’ve seen you experimenting with lots of new cards and archetypes across most classes—and finding a few outliers. This patch is mostly to weaken those outliers and to offer a couple higher-confidence buffs based on early data.

The following cards have been adjusted to be weaker:

Tigress Plushy

Old: [3 Mana]

New: [4 Mana]

Deputization Aura

Old: Your left-most minion has +3 Attack and Lifesteal. Lasts 3 turns.

New: Your left-most minion has +1 Attack and Lifesteal. Lasts 3 turns.

Shroomscavate

Old: [3 Mana] Give a minion Windfury and Divine Shield. Excavate a Treasure.

New: [2 Mana] Give a minion Divine Shield. Excavate a Treasure.

Dev Comment: Paladin is the biggest power outlier since launch, with lots of damage from hand and healing. We like the overall play pattern of the deck, but we’re making these adjustments to tone down those two overperforming aspects of it.

Awakening Tremors

Old: Get three 4/1 Worms. They cost (1).

New: Get three 3/1 Worms. They cost (1).

Dev Comment: Hunter is another class that has overperformed in the early meta. Awakening Tremors is a card that has been played in almost all Hunter decks for some time now, and which can make for some really early snowballs. Shaving a little power from it should help keep other decks from falling too far behind as early as turns 1-2.

Thrall’s Gift

Old: Discover a temporary Lightning Bolt, Hex, or Bloodlust.

New: Discover a temporary Lightning Storm, Hex, or Bloodlust.

Dev Comment: Nature Shaman is primarily a sentiment outlier, with access to a lot of damage very early in the game. However, it’s also expected to get a better matchup spread after the other changes being made in this patch. This change removes some of that burst damage and redundancy in the deck. We think Lightning Storm is another good and flavorful option for Thrall’s Gift, weakening this specific deck, but offering options to other Shaman decks that weren’t there before.

Aftershocks

Old: [4 Mana]

New: [5 Mana]

Odyn, Prime Designate

Old: [8 Mana]

New: [9 Mana]

Dev Comment: Warrior is another class that is looking very strong in the early meta, and which is likely to get even stronger after the other changes in this patch. Aftershocks combined with Acolyte of Pain to let Warrior draw too quickly through its deck for its powerful late-game cards. We’re making these changes to make that endgame a little slower and less consistent.

Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (Ticking Module)

Old: [4 Mana]

New: [5 Mana]

Dev Comment: The reception to Zilliax Deluxe 3000 has been just about… perfection. We love all the different variations people are trying, but Ticking Module was proving to be a bit too efficient. We hope this change will bring this Zilliax more into line with overall power level and also encourage more continued Zilliax variety.

The above craftable cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 29.0.3.

The following cards have been adjusted to be stronger:

Dev Comment: We don’t usually make buffs this early in a meta, but this time we were able to see a couple buff targets even in the very early data. We’ll keep an eye on these changes and look out for more opportunities in our next balance window, when we’ll have more data to inform these types of changes.

Sky Mother Aviana

Old: [6 Mana]

New: [5 Mana]

Frost Lich Cross-Stitch

Old: [5 Mana] Deal 4 damage to a character. If it dies, summon a 3/6 Water Elemental that Freezes.

New: [4 Mana] Deal 3 damage to a character. If it dies, summon a 3/6 Water Elemental that Freezes.

Battlegrounds Updates

Quest and Quest Reward Updates

The following Quests have been made easier to complete, but can no longer be paired with low-requirement Quest Rewards:

Follow the Money

Pressure the Authorities

Dev Comment: These changes should reduce the frequency of Quest-Reward pairs that feel too easy or too difficult to complete.

The following Quests have been removed from the Quest Pool:

Exhume the Bones

Sort it All Out

Dev Comment: These Quests had too many situations where they were either very difficult or trivially easy based on your early board, rather than the Reward they were paired with. Removing these two from the Quest Pool will make Quest-Reward pairings smoother and more consistent across games.

The following Quest Rewards have been made easier to earn:

Splitting Scroll

Gift of the Golden Kobold

Temporal Tampering

Anima Bribe

Cooked Book

Wondrous Wisdomball

Boom Squad

Bloodsoaked Tome

The following Quest Rewards have been made harder to earn:

Sinfall Medallion

Stable Amalgamation

Tumbling Disaster

Turbulent Tombs

Gilnean War Horn

The following Quest Rewards have had their effects updated:

Sinfall Medallion

Old: After you play a minion, give 2 other friendly minions of its Tier +2/+2.

New: After you play a minion, give 2 other friendly minions of its Tier +4/+4.

Minion Updates

Moroes, Steward of Death

Old: 5/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +1/+5.

New: 5/2. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +2/+5.

Felboar

Old: [Tier 6] 3/8

New: [Tier 5] 2/6

Tichondrius

Old: 4/4. After your hero takes damage, give your other Demons +1/+1.

New: 3/3. After your hero takes damage, give your Demons +1/+1.

Living Azerite

Old: [Tier 4] 4/4

New: [Tier 3] 3/3

Wildfire Elemental

Old: [Tier 3] 6/3

New: [Tier 4] 8/4

Bream Counter

Old: 5/5. While this is in your hand, after you play a Murloc, gain +3/+3.

New: 6/6. While this is in your hand, after you play a Murloc, gain +2/+2.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

[Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Shudderblock couldn’t deal damage to the enemy hero if played and then its effect was not consumed.

[Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Warsong Wrangler could buff the King Krush hero skin. You can’t wrangle the King!

[Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where there were different versions of Air Elemental in Core and Journey to Un’Goro. Now, both versions will have 3 Attack.

[Battlegrounds] Cloning Conch will remain removed from the Tavern Spell pool with this patch.

[Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Turbulent Tombs, Gilnean War Horn, Secret Culprit, and Ghastly Mask had the wrong completion difficulty modifiers (sometimes making them too easy to complete, sometimes making them too hard to complete).

[Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Free-Flying Feathermane’s effect could trigger during the Recruit phase.

[Progression] Fixed a bug where the “destroy Jepetto Joymancer” condition didn’t progress the Toymaker’s Trouble Event Quest.

[General] Fixed various localization issues across languages.