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!
mb make Lackey become a demon too, so it would a nice chance to recruit another lackey
I don’t believe non basic cards will be moved to hall of fame
I mean, they did that. Ragnaros and Sylvanas were legendary, and Azure drake was rare. Therefore they have never rotated a basic card. My guess is Ice Block gets rotated in april.
i think what he meant was "non-classic" cards
"But Cubelock’s power, especially against aggro, can’t be understated"
Did I really just read that? Something which is efficient vs aggro is labeled problematic? I didn't think I'd live to see this day.
It seems like you miss-understood what the article writer was trying to say.
IMHO, the he thing is Cubelock is supposed counter control decks (like Highlander Priest), so that if it will be amazingly powerful vs aggro decks as well it will be too much for the current meta (especially with Highlander Priest leaving into Wild...)(and with most midrange decks cast aside).
Taking the sentence by itself is quite funny though xD
Edit: or was it a jk that I'v mistaken for a serious sentence? Hard2tell when it's written on the internet :P
cubelock is very good against aggro. you can tech against control (greedy cards like: mountain giant, copy cards) and still beat aggro most of the time.
cubelock was a needed deck against patches decks but after the rotation the deck will be too strong and rin can be a huge problem for the next meta
Honestly, (at least in wild), Reno priest obliterates cubelock most the time. It's combo potential is way faster than a cubelock actually killing you. Both decks get a few notable cards with wild, including voidcaller, mal'ganis, reno, spawn of shadows, lightbomb, and dark bomb. Even with this change, the decks remain relatively similar. Reno priest is just so much faster most of time while also having much better removal than cubelock. Because of all of these factors, I would say cubelock is pretty balanced, up until rotation. That is where things get a little messy.
People complain about poor ol' Doomguard... but he is not the problem... cheating out demons is... so to save his main function just change his charge to Battlecry: gain charge. this way his main purpose will be untouched but cheating him out won't be as effective anymore
this will kill doomguard for the deck for sure but there is still dreadlord and maybe a new demon.
I honestly don't want to see any nerfs to new cards. I like where the meta is right now.
One deck in the meta that shuts aggro down hasn't been enough to make aggro see no play or even not be a top tier deck.
Priest had a lot of cards that were deemed too broken right now (by myself as well) that turned out only okay. Psychic Scream is very good, but as you noted, its not too good and we need to see where things are headed before we look to nerf it.
Corridor Creeper, I think, is a conscious effort by blizzard, along with the likes of Bonemare and even Primordial Drake (remember that card?) that blizzard makes to even out the playing field. It's huge tempo swings with Corridor Creeper that give aggro a chance against the Cubelock early on. Bonemare on 7 was essentially a kingmaker for rogue and without it, tempo rogue would probably go away. Primordial Drake was and still is a great anti aggro tool. Even Patches the Pirate has remained a staple aggro tool since inception. All these were to help archetypes battle other archetypes.
Ice Block definitely needs to go away though. It's that or all the AoE freezes. All of them! Oh how I miss you Kezan Mystic.
Actually I'd rather see the AoE freezes and Ice Block nerfed rather than moved. Really fed up playing against them. Always seem to get one when I'm playing any control deck. Just my opinion.
Probably just a bit too tilted right now thinking about the match up. It's the one archetype (obviously I'm talking about Quest Mage) that has seen a few new cards introduced to support it every expansion last year. Yet still never saw much competitive success. Just sucks when I feel like I'm the guy giving this deck life. That praying on off meta control decks is your bnb bothers me.
for wild:
1. spot: patches. remove the charge.
2. creeper: 2/5
3. raza: 1 mana hero power
Removing charge from patches is the dumbest way to nerf him. You're literally turning him into a Stonetusk Boar that you can only have one of in your deck.
no? he is still +1+1 for the first pirate you play, still 4/4 or 5/5 with deckhand. your are a bit more fucked if you draw him, but thats the gamble with patches.
You think about dropping the cubelock, why did you handle the priest once and for all. how fair is that.
Then tech some anti-aggro card in, for example Tar Creeper or Golakka.
they have removal from turn 2 to 7, and have healing, and have cards that draws their entire deck to find those cards, and shadow visions to discover the card they need.
explain to me how "priest cant do anything"?