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!
Most skillfull decks ever? Dude, you are not playing HS for long aren't you? Ever played the old Patron Warrior? It seems not...
Changing the card text of Bloodreaver Gul'dan to 'Summon one of each friendly minion that died this game' might be a decent enough nerf that prevents the rezzing of multiple Voidlords or seven DoomGuards.
In my opinion, the one card that makes Razakus broken is Prophet Velen multiplying the Voidform damage so that they can burst over 30 in one turn.
Though it is a bit disappointing to nerf a Classic card just because it is abused by one archetype, removing its multiplier to effect spells only might be a clean option that shouldn't harm Velen's core identity.
With Prince Keleseth remaining in standard, I'd like to see a negative effect attached to its battlecry so that jamming it on turn 2 isn't the correct play - something like 'Give your minions in your deck +2/+2 and increase their cost by (2)'.
In theory, Keleseth's purpose is to enable a minion heavy deck a way to be relevant in more prolonged game, and such a change might require users to cut Bonemares in favour of more draw
If Keleseth had that effect I doubt he would see play.
I doubt they'll do anything to Razakus right before the deck dies in the Standard rotation. And Velen isn't really a problem in Wild Razakus, because Spawn of Shadows is WAY stronger as the combo finisher.
Would changing possessed Lackey to only drawing demons that cost 7 or less work?
Ew, so you're suggesting turning the card into a 5 mana 2/2 that only draws a card? Who would want to waste that much tempo and/or board control to summon a 2/2 'Do nothing', more or less?
We have a meta that evolves around countering Priest/Warlock those classes are heavily overtuned so only playable decks tend to be Priest/Warlock or counter Priest Warlock. Like almost all decks that attemt to counter them are running corridor creeper.
And thats the problem, you cant simply nerf all answer decks to priest/warlock withoput touching those classes. So its either wait for rotation or Nerf Priest Warlock all together with creeper.
Well unfortunately priest is going to stay op until rotation even if psychic scream gets nerfed so all i want from this balance change is cubelock to die. Horribly.
Dear Mods,
Can we please have only 1 February 2018 Nerfs thread? It is getting tiresome and annoying to see the same new threads and comments popping up every other day. Thank you!
http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/209586-your-changes-to-problematic-cards-and-balance
These are my predictions and opinions.
I expect some of these maybe not all especially any over lap type nerfs
Nerf predictions
Corridor Creeper - increased to 8 mana or friendly minions or on your turn. Seems to be all but confirmed it’s getting nerfed.
Raza the Chained - unlikely to change due to rotation but I would liked to see it changed to current Hero power.
Patches the Pirate - won’t be nerfed even though it should. Because rotation. If I had my way it needs a larger punishment if drawn to give it an actual drawback.
Call to Arms - nerfed to 5 mana - to much of a power turn and has sent aggressive paladin decks right to the top. Even finds its way into Control Paladin.
Possessed Lackey - nerfed to 6 imo one of the main culprits in cheating out the big demons. Voidlord would be fine if there wasn’t strong cheats.
Skull of the Man'ari - nerfed to 6 mana same reason as Lackey, I don’t expect both but I do expect one of them
Psychic Scream - nerfed to 8 mana, if Nether is 8 why isn’t this?
Ultimate Infestation - IMO still needs to be nerfed to 4 of everything ie draw 4, 4 Armour 4, 4/4, 4 damage
Honourable mentions
Bonemare - probably the most used common probably a bit too powerful, maybe a stat reduction is needed.
Cobalt Scalebane - some people see this as too powerful I don’t but it may have a minor stats nerf.
Carnivorous Cube - interesting card see it being nerfed over other stuff unless it continues being a problem in the future
Prince Keleseth - power card that is (probably too much of) a high roll card , get it early you win 70% of the time, draw it late it’s not that great.
HOF rotation
Ice Block - powerful not OP but a go to crutch card for Mage makes it way into almost any Mage deck except the very aggressive/high tempo ones. All but confirmed it seems at this point.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer - should have gone last time, evergreen draw engine.
Doomguard - maybe - seems a popular hate card but it’s more of a victim of the cheating out mechanics but it is an evergreen big cheapish charger.
Leeroy Jenkins - maybe - too much of the go to aggro finisher.
Why just don't you write something like 'let's nerf all good, playable cards'?
I love how just because I list more that one card in a prediction/opinion I get down-voted. Funny so are a lot of others with similar lists just giving opinions.
I don’t think people read my post properly. I actually only expected 6 of the list to see nerfs. I gave opinions on which would and wouldn’t be nerfed and some were only honourable mentions as fringe possibilities. The rest were HOF candidates for when rotation happens.
I even said I didn’t expect all of these neither did I say I want all these nerfs but to say I should have said “let’s nerf all playable good cards” is ridiculous. The cards I expect to be targeted in this list are ones that are the linch pins or the card that pushed the archetype too much over in tier 1 decks.
There are plenty of playable good cards in these decks that I haven’t mentioned which other people are because I believe they those cards aren’t the problem. Voidlord is just one of these examples.
But hey we shale see won’t we.
Just fucking kick priest in the balls.I don't even care about win rates.
The fact that in last 3 days I played 30 games and 25 of the them were against priests make me want to vomit.
Until that changes I'm not touching the game, not even for daily quests.
How about summon from hand? Still really strong tempo but you sacrifice card advantage.
How about after anyone plays a pirate then Patches comes into play under that player's control? Now that would create some interesting decisions both during the game and in and deck construction.
not card advantage, you basically have a wisp that has charge and costs 1 if you don't play another pirate that turn
so the decisions would be "do I want a free 1/1 from my opponent's deck? or don't I?"
So whoever goes first in a game that normally runs pirates wins.