Let's Speculate: Upcoming Balance Changes
Expansions introduce more than 100 cards to Hearthstone a handful of times a year, and it’s beginning to seem inevitable that a couple in each set will be, in the common parlance, broken.
I say inevitable because I appreciate the difficulty and inhuman level of foresight required to achieve balance in a game of so many combinatorics. Say what you will about Patches the Pirate — I’m staying away from that one for now — but Blizzard has been good in the recent past about listening to the community’s grievances and implementing changes. Last time, not only did they explain in detail their reasoning for specific changes, they also shared alternatives considered along the way.
Just the other day, Hearthstone Game Director Ben Brode announced a February update to the game. He confirmed only that the update would add “cool” new events, but did tease that if the team indeed decides to implement balance changes, that would be the earliest they would appear.
So now it’s time to speculate, isn’t it? Instead of problem Basic and Classic cards, the community seems most at odds with a suite of cards from the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion. We’ll look at a few of the most clamored for candidates for nerfs and the Hall of Fame, and then invite you to add to the discussion.
Ice Block
Blizzard seemed ready to send Ice Block to the Hall of Fame a few months ago. Addressing the topic, they all but said, “you’re gonna have to wait.” This move seems likely, considering how the card stifles interactivity over consecutive turns, which they don’t want for the Standard format.
From Blizzard’s blog announcing the last round of balance changes:
“We’ve seen discussions about moving Ice Block to the Hall of Fame. As previously mentioned, moving cards to the Hall of Fame occurs at the start of the Hearthstone Year, which will occur with the first expansion release in 2018. Our general stance regarding Hall of Fame is that we want to avoid moving cards mid-year.”
The hope is that moving Ice Block will free the Mage class from the one-turn-kill class identity its been known for from the jump. I can get behind that.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer
Helplessness: it’s one of the worst feelings in Hearthstone.
We all have watched as this little green goblin spent 75 seconds cycling through the opponent’s deck to a win condition. It’s not fun. And its ubiquity in certain classes (looking at you, Rogue) stifles creativity in the deck-building process, which Blizzard really tries to discourage when they implement balance updates. Depending on the number of cheap spells in the new set, Gadgetzan Auctioneer could be a Hall of Fame contender, too.
Corridor Creeper
Remember Azure Drake? The Classic set’s five-mana dragon saw play in most decks because of its versatility and power in almost any situation. A strong body, spell power, and card draw on turn five was too good for too many archetypes. Players picked up on this and considered the card an auto-include across most classes and archetypes. In Blizzard’s own words: “There should be more five drop options for players, rather than considering Azure Drake an auto-include.”
Corridor Creeper is the new Azure Drake in this sense — it’s just bigger and often costs little or nothing. The sleeper of the Kobolds and Catacombs set has become the most oppressive, an auto-include in any deck that cares the slightest bit about tempo. Putting minions into play for little or no mana is very strong in Hearthstone. The result is a meta in which some match-ups feel at the whim of drawing Corridor Creeper, getting the necessary reductions, and playing them for tempo before your opponent.
What do you do about that? The minion could be bumped to ten mana (forcing it to bog down the player’s hand for more turns), or perhaps it would make sense to reduce the mana cost only when a specific player’s minions die, rather than both. But this seems like it would ruin the card entirely. No matter what the particulars are, the big worm is the only card besides Ice Block I’m confident we will see shuffled around in some way. Expect it.
Spiteful Summoner
I understand the furor over a card capable of such insane power on turn six. I can see it being bumped to seven mana, even. But the spell it pulls is random, which creates an interesting constraint for creative deck-builders — one we’ve seen worked out in tempo decks featuring Mind Control and even Ultimate Infestation. The minion it summons is random, too, which makes the effect much less reliable in decks that don’t limit themselves to only 8- and 10-mana spells.
All that said, I believe its randomness in tandem with the constraints it puts on decks makes Spiteful Summoner a fine card. I would be surprised to see any change at all, but a 1-mana increase to address such an early swing wouldn’t be outlandish.
Psychic Scream
Psychic Scream is a key card in one of my favorite creations of the Kobolds era: Weasel Priest. But that doesn’t blind me from the card’s enraging effect for one less mana than Twisting Nether, a card that does much less. Psychic Scream also shuts down resummon effects and Deathrattles, typically the best counter to AoE. That’s really good.
That said, I’m not convinced yet that Psychic Scream is oppressive enough to deserve a nerf. Priest will take on a new dominant identity after the next Standard rotation — Raza the Chained and Kazakus rotate to Wild — and only Blizzard has an idea of what that new Priest looks like. It’s powerful, yes. But the decision to nerf the best AoE in the game will depend not on the current meta, but how it works with and against cards we haven’t even seen yet.
Cubelock
I don’t know how to fix this one. But Cubelock’s power, especially against aggro, can’t be understated: something should probably be done about it, lest we suffer another three months waiting for new cards to shake things up.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing Cubelock. It’s intricate and entertaining and complicated, but I feel dirty when one giant Voidlord squashes my opponents chances. Beyond that, it’s powerful deathrattle cards have made Spellbreaker an auto-include in most decks, which probably bothers Blizzard. Of course the new expansion will bring with it new archetypes, but no competitive Standard decks in the current meta stand up to Cubelock quite like Raza Priest, whose time in Standard is almost up.
One of the cards in the Cubelock package deserve a nerf — Dark Pact, Voidlord, or Carnivorous Cube. My guesses are on Dark Pact, because there’s a history of nerfs to high-impact and efficient spells like Execute and Innervate. Who knows — bumping it to two mana might be significant, allowing players an extra turn to rush their opponent down or draw a game-winning Spellbreaker.
Some of the changes in February may be unexpected, as the increase in mana cost for Hex was to many players. This move was preemptive, with them perhaps presuming Hex would be too efficient at countering the myriad silence targets in the meta now: Carnivorous Cube, Voidlord, etc. With this in mind, I suppose we should just expect the unexpected (in addition to Corridor Creeper getting nerfed).
What do you want to see changed in the coming months, and why? Don’t forget that last part!
Yeah this seems about right let's move 10+ class cards to hall of fame because a guy who can't spell their names doesn't like them
doomguard, ice block and prep are problematic, every other card is fine. i would prefere fillung up open slots with good flavorful non broken old cards like emperor, duplicate or darkbomb
Oh yeah that'll go so well. HoF the CLASSIC CLASS LEGENDARIES for some classes and not others! Can you imagine the look on a new player's face when they get their first legendary and they aren't even allowed to use it in standard?
I would be really mad if they nerfed spiteful summoner, she is good but you don't really think about what you have sacrificed to get this tempo swing when you play the card. I think that she is good in the decks she is used in but she is not used in enough decks to be a problem. Because if you want to use her than you need all minions which means that if you start to fall behind on tempo than all you are getting is 1-2 minions every turn, which will not help much when your opponent has vilespines and shadow word death/pain.
So I think she is good when she worked but sometimes you don't draw her, or meybe you pull a c'thun and the no spells hurts more than she is worth for that match. So please don't nerf her.
I would be too. Mostly because I packed and already dusted 2 golden ones. But also what you said!
Nice topic.
Ice Block is long due to rotate. It has been a stable in most mage decks and cards like Arcanologist Although they have to watch out because the classic mage set is already one card short, together with warlock and rogue, so Blizzard needs to maybe put another card back in or longer in rotation imo.
From the classic set also Gadgetzan Auctioneer is a card which has been powerfull for a long time, but I would also nominatie stables as Doomsayer and Bloodmage Thalnos to rotate out. Especially doomsayer is a card which could be replaced by new and recent early aoe's.
From the new Kobolds and catacombs set I think indeed Corridor Creeper and Psychich scream are problematic, I'm wondering what nerfs works the best for them. A higher mana cost for creeper maybe and maybe a silence and destroy effect for scream. A bit like the treasure you have in dungeon run but then for all minions and a destroy effect, but that is quite powerfull as well I think, better than twisting nether. It is a hard card to nerf in my opinion.
No way on the Doomsayer nerf.
Think about other decks besides freeze mage where the card is just as good. There are none. In other classes, you gotta put a taunt in front of it or something. So nerfing Ice Block is just as effective as nerfing doomsayer in that deck. other decks need Doomsayer and I'm sure blizzard loves seeing him pop up from those random 2 drop summon effects.
What about bonemare?
Any news about a new class?
There will be never a new class - hopefully! Because why do you want to have a new class, when Blizz is not even able to make 9 classes viable? One additional class = one more unplayable class in one meta (the new one or one of the old ones, which whould be to weak compared to the new one).
ill take that to have a bunch of new class cards with new abilities/identities. Bring on the DK's/Monks/DH's.
are u dumb??
The world will be a place a bit better if they finally remove Ice Block. Because then mage will most likely die, or at least, will encounter a non-bullshit kind of deck that you can play against, have some counterplay and maybe even have interaction with board.
Who knows, everything is possible, even dreaming.
without iceblock controlmage will be very hard to build. i hope they remove iceblock and create another way to built a control mage, like duplicate and echo
Knife Juggler has been nerfed enough - it's Call to Arms that is the problem.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer - whilst strong - has already been heavily nerfed.
Corridor Creeper is a card that shouldn't have been released as it was. It's so strong that it can - on it's own - ruin a lot of other decks. I think the reduction down would be helpful if it was only your own minions that die that trigger the cost reduction.
Ice Block - it's fine as it is. Secret removal needs to be improved and more options provided. Especially now Rogue secrets are a thing and are likely to be added in the next few releases.
Pisskick Scream is another Corridor Creeper in that I'm surprised that this was released as is. At least the creeper is a neutral.
Carnivorous Cube - I think it's OK as is.
Overall, the ladder in it's current state is the problem for me. A lot of anti aggro tools we've been given just don't work as they should. I can accept and understand some strong class cards but a lot of the neutrals are really where the problem lies. Were we to get a Skulking Geist type of anti aggro would make life a lot easier. I have no idea what this card would look like - probably Stampeding Kodo +++ or something like that.
Slightly disappointed as I dusted all my extras not too long ago -.-"
How will you do this? "Recruit 3 minions from your deck and silence them"?
I think you have to change Juggler + Canon to make them not shoot anymore after they got pulled from CtA.
you would have to change the to "after you PLAY a minion" then it wouldnt trigger when they are summoned
I think if you just change the Call to Arms mechanic to consider all the cards summoned at the same time instead of following the 1, 2, 3 progression. Not sure how the mechanic is programmed, but that seems like an easy fix and would eliminate that interaction without having to change card text as changing Knife Juggler's text to 'play' would have pretty big impacts.