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!
I really hope they don't hall of fame Gadgetzan Auctioneer monkaS
Ofc it's not fun, your opponent's turn, playing HIS deck should be fun to you?
If he's playing curvestone pirates isn't fun
if he's cycling his entire deck isn't fun
if he's high rolling with random generate cards aka swashburgler, primordial glyph, barnes.. isn't fun
if he's clearing the board with Yogg isnt' fun
if he plays UI on turn 5 isn't fun
There's not a single tier 1 deck that currently do miracles with Gadgetzan Auctioneer despite raza priest but it's not even a core card in that deck.
I dislike Hall of Fame for one particular reason - the overall card pool of certain classes has decreased comparing to others. Blizzard didn't give mage, rogue and warlock anything in exchange for Ice Lance, Conceal and Power Overwhelming and right now their card pools are one card short unlike other classes. If Blizzard moves Ice Block to HoF, they'll reduce the card pool of mage even further. They MUST give something in return or this is straight up bullsh*t.
Feel free to downvote.
Arcane Artificer was given to Mages to compensate for a possible Ice Block rotation.
I did. Yeah they got one less card to use in Standard, but Mage has gotten some great cards to make up for HoF rotations.
yeah sure mage will have 4-5 less classic cards... but if we count the playable classic cards of all classes, guess which class is the dominant in the last ...30 seasons.
I assume warsong commander, starving buzzard, etc, count as "card pool" for you right?
Quality card pool is VASTLY more important than the quantity of cards available. Just as an example Shaman has a huge amount of awful cards to play with in the base set.
i'm agree with that, i still hear people asking for tirion to rotate into the hall of fame, this is a terrible idea, let a class without its own classic legendary, im not telling blizzard to put broken cards for broken cards, but, replace then whit something playable
With cubelock, I agree with you that I suspect Dark Pact will get bumped to 2 mana, but I also think Possessed Lackey will get the bump to 6 or maybe even 7.
While I know this won't happen, I think an alternative nerf to Lackey that would at least be interesting is if it said "Recruit a minion with less than 12 total stats" ... The concept of "Total Stats" is something that most of us use, but Blizzard hasn't utilized in any way, so this could be a chance for that since Voidlord and Doomguard both have 12 stats, but Lakkari Felhound could still be used if one would dare. The reason it won't happen is because it is "Too confusing for new players" bleck
Nice article, man. I agree with almost everything you said.
Corridor Creeper seems fine, until you have to deal with 2 of this fuckers for 0 mana on turn 3/4. That's absolute bullshit, right?
You wrote a whole lot, so I'm going to upvote.
Just make carnivorous cube 6 mana. Maybe then people will stop complaining about it
ignore this
Ice Block to the Hall of Fame is perfect. They got Artificer now, which in Big Mage especially is awesome.
Corridor Creeper should have a mana increase to 10. I feel like it would be less playable if it came down to only friendly minions dying while it is in your hand, and by that I mean certain classes would be able to get it out faster (such as Aggro Paladin or Zoo Lock).
Auctioneer I wouldn't disagree with. Especially in Highlander which I piloted to Legend this season, it makes one feel guilty. It moving to HoF would ruin Miracle decks similar to the Warsong Commander nerf which ruined Patron Warrior.
Spiteful Summoner for 1 more mana is a great solution. I haven't seen it being used in decks other than Big Priest/Mage and I don't think it would hurt.
Psychic Scream is huge - for 1 more mana it would definitely be balanced, considering how it doesn't activate any deathrattles, especially if your opponent has a board full of them. I wonder what they'll add next expac for Priest AoE, as they are losing Horror and Dragonfire next rotation.
Cubelock I feel was a deck which the devs may have overlooked with the potential of Lackey, Cube, and Skull. Skull doesn't need to be nerfed but I don't know if it would be playable if it was end of turn rather than start of turn (like if you pulled out a Doomguard, your opponent would probably destroy it). If Possessed Lackey was nerfed to recruiting a demon that costs a certain mana or less I think it would still see play. Just my opinion. Like if it could only pull out a (5) mana or less Demon there would still be Doomguards.
Now when it comes to Cube, making it summon a single copy makes it a lot more similar to Moat Lurker. I don't think changing its stats would help much, maybe to a 3/4? I've seen someone mention in a post that it should only summon two copies if its your opponent's turn, which imo would render the cube unplayable.
TLDR, perhaps Lackey should be 6 mana, or recruit a demon that costs (5) or less?
Just my thoughts. Downvote if you'd like; I'm just sharing opinion on what should be HoF'd or what a nerf should be.
Maybe Cube can be 6 mana instead?
Ice Block is part of mage´s identity. the strongest mage deck doesnt contain Ice Block, so putting it to HoF is absolute non-sense.
If you are facing a bunch of Corridor Creepers then tech in Hemet. Problem solved! Kappa