Upcoming Hearthstone balance changes - December 2018

[McNeil]

HS twitter announced the nerfed cards:

Wild Growth now costs 3 mana instead of 2




Nourish now costs 6 instead of 5




Saronite Chain Gang now summons another saronite instead of ( an exact copy )




Level Up! now costs 6 instead of 5




Leeching Poison now gives lifesteal this turn only and for 1 mana




source: https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/22817529

[tikcol]

wow.. Such balance. Are people still playing this game when magic arena is a thing? It's mildly confusing.

[XDurionX]

I'm astonished by the speed of balancing brand new cards like wild growth and nourish.

[Makabreska]

wow.. Such balance. Are people still playing this game when magic arena is a thing? It's mildly confusing.

Yes, it's still the most popular digital card game. Imagine that.

[PPN]

I love it...nerf to Ramp Druid and Kingsbane Rogue. The druid decks last couple seasons were the most boring decks i have ever seen in HS...i dont know why, but druids seem to have often this combo of strong & insanely boring decks.

I also dont mind to see less Kingsbane Rogues...the healing could get really ridiculous.

Nerf to Odd Paladin seems reasonalble. It feels tho like these nerfs are a little late. Last couple of season these decks were unstoppable and all over the place. And now that many people left these decks behind to jump on the new Spell Hunter FotM train they get nerfed. I guess, now we will see even more hunters.

Somehow its sad to see that they nerf classic cards, instead of new introduced cards. But i guess they need to do it, because they dont rotate out.

[deadman1]

wow.. Such balance. Are people still playing this game when magic arena is a thing? It's mildly confusing.

I don't really play it anymore, but yes, for me it's not my main game and I don't want to invest the time to learn a somewhat complex game like magic. I rather play a casual game here and there.

Similar to Diablo and path of exile, I just play that style of game casually and PoE requires more knowledge and investment than I care to give for a game I play super casually.

[Deleted]

I don't like

1)The Wild Growth Nerf. Yes, WG on turn 2 is too good(everyone agrees), but Wild Growth on any other turn is meh.

2)I don't like how they nerfed Kingsbane and Shudderwock without nerfing Kingsbane and Shudderwock. People playing those cards should have access to the full 1600 refund and not to a rare/common. In the same vein, they nerfed Nourish and not UI.

[Nikkaszal]

I don't like

1)The Wild Growth Nerf. Yes, WG on turn 2 is too good(everyone agrees), but Wild Growth on any other turn is meh.

2)I don't like how they nerfed Kingsbane and Shudderwock without nerfing Kingsbane and Shudderwock. People playing those cards should have access to the full 1600 refund and not to a rare/common. In the same vein, they nerfed Nourish and not UI.

2) is wrong. Shudder and KB are still great cards, they've just had oppressive interactions removed. Shudder can still create a strong turn 9, its just no longer GG once Shudder hits the board and bounces himself. KB can still be a great growing weapon and is still able to be tutored, it just now means that it's no longer basically impossible to win once he has Leeching up on a pretty large weapon.

Yes, Shudder decks as we know them are gone. KB decks are now weaker. That doesn't mean Shudder and KB are suddenly dead cards. They're still amazing - I use Shudder in my Wild Jade deck to great effect (filling your board with Jade and slapping a Loatheb bcry on the same turn is hella strong) and I use KB in a hyper-aggro Pirate deck that uses the weapon for constant damage and not just its healing effect.

Also, Nourish was nerfed because it's a Basic card (like WG). They will be in Standard forever, and are basically auto-includes for EVERY non-aggro druid deck.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, its probably obvious but in case anyone was wondering - Saronite will now always spawn a 2/3, no matter what handbuffs were on the card (tested and confirmed this one). Bit of a blow there, but the card is way too strong anyway

[ohwell]

wow.. Such balance. Are people still playing this game when magic arena is a thing? It's mildly confusing.

I want to switch, but then again have hopes they'd change it from being such a mongo fest.

I already posted a thread a few weeks ago that Level Up should be 6 mana so glad they figured that out. Vinecleaver into next turn swing+hero power+lost in the jungle should not be an insta win because you have to use other aoe on the massive number of buffed minions they had otherwise.

They still need to nerf fungalmancer, but at least hand buffed chain gangs got a hit because you can only get the main one plus a 2/3 now.

Honestly the biggest fix to the game would be add declare blockers and make taunt able to block multiple attackers.

- - - Updated - - -

2) is wrong. Shudder and KB are still great cards, they've just had oppressive interactions removed. Shudder can still create a strong turn 9, its just no longer GG once Shudder hits the board and bounces himself. KB can still be a great growing weapon and is still able to be tutored, it just now means that it's no longer basically impossible to win once he has Leeching up on a pretty large weapon.

Yes, Shudder decks as we know them are gone. KB decks are now weaker. That doesn't mean Shudder and KB are suddenly dead cards. They're still amazing - I use Shudder in my Wild Jade deck to great effect (filling your board with Jade and slapping a Loatheb bcry on the same turn is hella strong) and I use KB in a hyper-aggro Pirate deck that uses the weapon for constant damage and not just its healing effect.

Also, Nourish was nerfed because it's a Basic card (like WG). They will be in Standard forever, and are basically auto-includes for EVERY non-aggro druid deck.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, its probably obvious but in case anyone was wondering - Saronite will now always spawn a 2/3, no matter what handbuffs were on the card (tested and confirmed this one). Bit of a blow there, but the card is way too strong anyway

You wanna play Shudderwock the old way there's still wild.

[Shadowsgrace]

wow.. Such balance. Are people still playing this game when magic arena is a thing? It's mildly confusing.

no need to build a new collection.

[Wyrt]

So, do we get a refund on Shudderwock now that it's dead?

[Nikkaszal]

So, do we get a refund on Shudderwock now that it's dead?

One Shudderwock decktype is dead
Others are not

Cards aren't suddenly "dead" because they go from "I WIN NOW" to "this is a strong swing turn".

[Deleted]

RIP odd pally.

[Tenris]

So glad odd pally has finally gotten a nerf even though it is ridiculously late.
Glad to hear druid and kingsbane rogue are getting a bit weaker too.
Shudderwock not having turns that last 3 hours is always a good thing and should have been changed when the card came out.
I think this means even paladin and hunter and going to be the top tier decks this expansion now.

[PPN]

One Shudderwock decktype is dead
Others are not

Cards aren't suddenly "dead" because they go from "I WIN NOW" to "this is a strong swing turn".

People are not looking for a card that works in a deck. If its not autowin, for them its called "dead".
They all switch now to spellhunter...zuljin does the free win effect pretty well.
And for a while we also have Guldann DK around.

[The Stormbringer]

wow.. Such balance. Are people still playing this game when magic arena is a thing? It's mildly confusing.

It's literally the most balance they've done in a single patch. Yes, it is 'wow'. They also quickly followed up with a patch to balance Arena.

[Irian]

The changes are pretty good, but damn did it take a while. Druid's already basically ripped the game's competitive scene to shreds at this point.

It also kinda bothers me that Saronite Chain Gang's entire purpose was ruined. I'd rather it get changed to like, a 2/2 or something than miss the point of the card entirely. I realize the nerf was targeting specifically how it interacts with shudderwock but I'd rather they nerf that pain in the ass card specifically than ruin Chain Gang for the less popular but cool decks that interact with hand buffs.

[Nikkaszal]

Chain Gang is still ridiculously good as vanilla

It's two taunts for 4 mana with 4/6 worth of stats

[The Stormbringer]

Chain Gang is still ridiculously good as vanilla

It's two taunts for 4 mana with 4/6 worth of stats

And you can still buff the first one with hand buffs. It's definitely painful, since the card was so good before, but it's still a solid card.