Ben Brode Explains the Reasoning for the Naga Sea Witch Rule Change
Ben Brode was on reddit today responding to an inquiry on Naga Sea Witch and her recent undocumented change.
- It was a mistake that the change wasn't in the patch notes for 9.0.
- If Naga Sea Witch is too powerful, she will probably be nerfed.
- The initial conversation began with the interaction between Bright-Eyed Scout and Second-Rate Bruiser.
- Due to not thinking that combo was correct, they reevaluated how cost-setting and cost-adjusting auras worked.
- Changing it made the rules overall easier to understand.
- They were initially concerned with the power level of the card, but it isn't a high win-rate right now.
Check out the full text below. There's a lot of great insight into the change that is better read in full.
Quote from Ben BrodeIf you're talking about Naga Sea Witch, it was definitely intentional, and definitely a mistake that it missed the patch notes.
The thing that got us talking about the issue was the interaction between Bright-Eyed Scout and Second-Rate Bruiser.
Generally when things "set" a value (think Aldor Peacekeeper), it becomes the new baseline. Any "auras" that affect that value apply after the effect that is applying the new baseline. Think about a minion next to a Dire Wolf Alpha. If you Aldor Peacekeeper that minion, his new Attack will be 2, not 1. It's because the Aura applies after the "set" power. This hasn't always worked correctly in the past, but if you Aldor a Small-Time Buccaneer who is being buffed by his power - his power is an Aura, and so the resulting minion would have 3 Attack.
We think the Bright-Eyed Scout + Second-Rate Bruiser interaction wasn't correct, and it caused us to re-evaluate Cost-Setting and how it interacted with Cost-Adjusting Auras.
Here's the discussion the engineers and designers had regarding Sea Witch:
The Naga Sea Witch interaction can work out in one of two ways:
If you draw a Second-Rate Bruiser while Naga Sea Witch is already in play, Second-Rate Bruiser’s cost will be reduced by 2 if your opponent has 3 or more minions.
If you have a Second-Rate Bruiser already in hand and play a Naga Sea Witch, that Bruiser will always cost 5, no matter how many minions your opponent has. If it gets a Thaurissan tick, it goes down to 4. If the Naga Sea Witch leaves play, Second-Rate Bruiser’s cost will be reduced by 2 if your opponent has 3 or more minions, while keeping the Thaurissan tick making it cost 1 less – leaving it with a cost of either 4 or 2.
This distinction happens because in the first case, Naga Sea Witch’s timestamp will be earlier than SRB’s, so SRB applies last. In the second case, SRB’s modifier has an earlier timestamp, so Naga Sea Witch applies last.
Why this feels wrong: We have a very clear precedent that card text modifiers apply last, after any external stat-setting effect occurs.
Tar Creeper, Tar Lurker, Tar Lord, Lightspawn, Cogmaster, Old Murk-Eye, Goblin Sapper - All of these cards give themselves a modifier that alters one of their own stats. If you play a stat-setting effect on one of them, their text still applies. The Tar minions will always get their attack bonus, even after being affected by Crystal Core, Aldor Peacekeeper, Sunkeeper Tarim, Dinosize or any other effect.
The proposal is this: Cards that modify their own cost should work in this exact same way. Second-Rate Bruiser’s ability is in the same category as Tar Creeper’s ability – it modifies one of its stats when a condition is met. This would standardize their behavior, making them on the whole feel more intuitive and consistent, as well as making our lives easier by making the rules more predictable.
If Naga Sea Witch is in play: Cards in hand cost 5, then their text is applied.
If Aviana is in play: Cards in hand cost 1, then their text is applied.
If Aviana, Naga Sea Witch, Pint-Sized Summoner, Summoning Portal and Mana Wraith are in play: Cards in play apply their effects in the order that they came into play, then each card in hand applies its own text last.
If I draw a Molten Giant with Bright-Eyed Scout: Molten Giant’s cost is 5, minus the damage I’ve taken. If I’m at 25 health, it costs 0.
If I draw a Molten Giant with Bright-Eyed Scout while Aviana is in play: Aviana applies, making Molten Giant cost 1. Bright-Eyed Scout’s enchantment then applies, making Molten Giant cost 5. Finally, Molten Giant’s text applies, making it cost 5 minus HealthLost.
We made the change because we think these rules are easier to understand because they're more consistent with other parts of the game, not because we wanted to buff Naga Sea Witch. We were worried about it's power level and have been watching the play/win reports in Wild. Right now it's not one of the best decks, but it could grow in winrate as players get more practice. If it does become a big problem, we'd probably nerf Naga Sea Witch, rather than reverting the rules change.
This is an excellent explanation that should settle the "intentional or not" issue completely. It also makes a lot of sense, so thank you for sharing and clarifying!
It looks like Dragon's Breath doesn't follow these new rules though. Here's a video documenting that with Naga Sea Witch in play, Dragon's Breath in hand does not reduce its cost by one every time a minion dies, even though Volcanic Drake does: https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/6yj2o9/new_bug_with_naga_sea_witch_and_dragons_breath/
Is this something that should happen, or a case that was missed in the last update?
It's a bug. Should be fixed in an upcoming patch (though the fix will miss 9.1.) (Source)
So much for giants breaking the meta in wild.
#theskyisnotfalling
naga giants deck is strong, but not BROKEN. while playing this deck at ladder 10 to 1, it is very powerful but VERY weak to aggro and pladin.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the change makes more sense. Why should the naga witch's aura negate the text on giants' cards? That doesn't make sense.
What this is really saying is that the Tech Writer that is responsible for patch notes and the Engineers that made the change are getting written up for not making sure it's published.
Ok, so the Naga Sea Witch + Giants deck doesn't have an exaggerated win rate and it's a high-roll deck, but the mechanic is still broken and it takes some of the skill and enjoyment out of the game.
Again and again the taste for the sensational replaces a well balanced game. And Wild, which to me is the coolest format, seems to become a dumping ground. I highly doubt that any thought is given to keeping the Wild format balanced when cards are designed or changed.
Personally I find Wild cool and fun BECAUSE of the wacky, random, or powerful decks in the format, and combo decks make up a part of that. I think people generally like to go on crusades against decks that don't fit into the control or midrange archtype (most likely because they want HS to mainly be about minion to minion board wars and nothing else). However, I've found to have the most fun in wild because of interactions or combinations that some players say are broken or take "enjoyment out of the game".
If I had to just play control or midrange decks the entire time in HS, or play a slightly different version of standard I highly doubt I would have been an enthusiastic HS player since vanilla.
He just got done explaining why it isnt broken, it's working as intended.
'No, it's broken' -HS Community
All of you saying that the deck is OP and cancerous clearly aren't facing the deck's counters and you just don't like the playstyle & are just complaining to want it to get changed.
Don't believe there are counters to the deck? Get on wild rank 10ish right now and tell me how many aggro decks or control paladins you face that either burn you down or draw one or both of their equality combos early on. All of those have happened to me within the hour.
The deck's win rate isn't as exaggerated as you all make it out to be once the playerbase has figured out how to counter it.
Also just lost to an non quest exodia mage who kept stalling my giants out with multiple freezes, two ice blocks, & Antonidas finisher at the end.
Guess that is another deck that can beat the 'unstoppable' cancerous deck.
And faced another control pally who won by stalling with Loatheb, small taunts, & Tarim to clear.
*Gasp* it may be just me, but it seems like this broken deck frequently will lose in the current ladder meta when counter decks make counter plays, even when the deck plays their giants on turn 5.
This modified interaction does not make sense to me compared with the old one....
Bright-Eyed Scout has a "change" effect in the card text, why should it be same as Naga?
How about Loatheb , Millhouse Manastorm , Nerubian Unraveler effects ?
They don't have high winrate because now everyone else is playing decks with hard AoE to counter these decks. Does Blizzard really want a binary ladder? Well, maybe yes... Given that in ranked is like that with Jade Druud
They will end up nerfing Naga to cost like 7 mana instead of just correcting this mechanic. Not even indie companies fuck up like this....
Blizzard is a SMALL indie company u Jerk!
I wonder if new Naga Sea Witch would be broken in standard back when League of Explorers was legal. They would probably not even print the card the way it works now.