Equality Nerf

Equality Nerf is a Hearthstone patch released on Feb. 5, 2019. It was versioned 13.2.0 with the build number 28855. It was released during the expansion Rastakhan's Rumble

Card Changes

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

Official Patch Notes

Quote From Blizzard

Events

Lunar New Year
Celebrate Lunar New Year 2019 from February 5 through February 13!

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 13.

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!

Card Changes

Be sure to read the Upcoming Balance Update – February 2019 blog for details.

When we talk about changes that are in store for Hearthstone cards, we normally talk about each card individually to explain why we think that change is needed.

This time, we’re doing things a little differently because most of the upcoming changes are happening for the same reason. Here’s why we’re changing these cards and our general philosophy behind this update.

We think Hearthstone is most fun when strategies are consistently evolving. When new cards are released, we’d like for older expansion decks to get a few interesting new pieces while also allowing you to experiment with the totally new archetypes that emerge. When Basic and Classic cards become so broadly effective—no matter what you’re facing—that they drive what deck styles are considered viable every expansion, then it makes that goal difficult to achieve.

Basic and Classic are sets that, ideally, should embody the flavor and mechanics of each Class. As we’ve mentioned before, cards in these sets can become an issue when they make all other strategies look less interesting. This doesn't mean that all Basic and Classic cards should be ineffective, however. It’s hugely important to us that these sets contain a good number of cards that are great tools for different situations and deck archetypes.

We’re changing these particular cards because each one has been highly prevalent, regardless of what strategies have been popular or what other cards have existed around them. When Basic and Classic cards become this ubiquitous, they take away some of the flexibility players have when building decks, ultimately stifling the diversity of decks we see when playing Hearthstone.

The following changes are intended to shift these cards from general-purpose “auto-includes” into options that are more likely to be chosen for decks that are focused on strategies that capitalize on what these cards have to offer.

Cold Blood – Now costs 2 Mana. (Up from 1)

Flametongue Totem – Now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)

Equality – Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 2)

Hunter’s Mark – Now costs 2 mana. (Up from 1)

Emerald Spellstone – Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)

The only non-Basic or Classic card in this round of changes. We want to position Emerald Spellstone as an efficient mid- and late-game threat, so we’re moving its cost up by one to reduce its utility as an early-game, aggressive tempo option. This change—along with the Hunter’s Mark change—is aimed at addressing Hunter’s prevalence, while still leaving it as a viable option.

Card Backs

Mark of Hakkar
Kul Tiras

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.

[Hearthstone Card (Mecha’thun) Not Found] 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.