Patches the Pirate Loses Charge - Four Card Nerfs Coming in February
Four cards are being nerfed! These changes are not yet live and will be available in a February patch. They will all be disenchantable for their full value once to patch arrives. Please do not disenchant these cards until that patch - Blizzard won't help you out get the correct dust value.
- Bonemare now costs 8 mana, up from 7.
- Corridor Creeper now has 2 attack, down from 5.
- Patches the Pirate no longer has charge. His voice line will also be changing. (Source)
- Raza the Chained's effect now sets your Hero Power to 1 mana, up from 0.
We've got dedicated threads available to discuss each card nerf.
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Quote from BlizzardIn the upcoming 10.2 update, we will be making balance changes to the following cards:
Bonemare - Now costs 8 mana. (Up from 7)
Bonemare has been quite strong in both constructed and Arena. It has a big, immediate impact on the board, and since it’s neutral, it’s been finding its way into a wide variety of decks.
Increasing its mana cost by 1 will give opponents more time to utilize powerful late-game cards to counteract Bonemare’s effect on the board.
Corridor Creeper - Now has 2 Attack. (Down from 5)
Due to the way that Corridor Creeper’s mana cost reduction works, it can cause big swings based on whether or not it happens to be in-hand at the start of the game.
Since it’s a very strong neutral card, Corridor Creeper has been played by a lot of classes. By lowering its attack, we reduce the overall swing potential and power level of the card, but still allow players who draw it early to benefit from having a low-cost minion to play when the game state is ideal.
Patches the Pirate - No longer has Charge.
As we move closer to the new Hearthstone Year, we had some concerns about allowing Patches to remain in his current state after moving out of Standard. Patches’ strength has caused almost every class to add some Pirates just to benefit from him, and his early game power forces control decks to include a good answer to him. This change should give Wild players more flexibility when building their decks.
Removing Charge will lower his power level, ensuring he shows up in fewer decks and allowing opposing players some additional time to respond to Patches, making him less “in charge” of the early game.
Raza the Chained - Now reads: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, your Hero Power costs (1) this game.
In a similar vein to Patches the Pirate, we had some concerns about allowing Raza to remain in his current state forever. Raza is currently an important combo piece along with Shadowreaper Anduin, and can lead to games that rely heavily on drawing him by turn 5. Adjusting his Battlecry will lower his overall power level when combined with Shadowreaper Anduin in Standard, and keep his power level reasonable in Wild as we prepare for the new Hearthstone Year.
Once these card changes are live with Update 10.2 next month, players will be able to disenchant the changed cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in the tavern!
oh sure, they must have tested it. just like they must have tested the cards in their original version.
Yes, Patches is getting his nerf. But why nów, and not a couple of months after he came out when he was already oppressing the meta?
IMO, they should be a bit quicker on these things.
They should do something about the Naga/Giants thing
It's indeed hard to balance cards in two very different formats, as different card pools and different meta can really change their relative power.
Certain games like Magic the Gathering handle this with bans and restrictions. Hall of fame is a sort of standard-format ban, but apart from that this approach does not really work in hearthstone.
Despite this, it's still nice to see that they care about Wild, even if it's of course a second thought after Standard. So changing a card even if it's rotating out of Standard soon, just to avoid it being an eternal powerhouse in Wild, is something. But I don't get why they could not just change it WHEN it rotates to wild, apart from the obvious "they don't want to focus on wild too much". On the other hand, it's true that these changes are generally good for standard as well, but in that case everyone would agree that they are very very late.
As for the actual nerfs, it's hard to foresee now, but I would say:
- Patches is still good, but mainly in a pirate-focused deck. It may also still be played in very aggro lists, but many will just drop it. Overall a fair reduction in power, but still a great card
- Bonemare: pretty on point. Still very powerful, and it will still see play, but certain low curve decks may opt to drop it now
- Corridor Creeper: at first it seems gutted completely, but thinking twice it may still see play in hunter/druid due to its beast type. And maybe even in combo priest. But it's definitely out of many many decks, and that's absolutely a nice thing, as a free 5/5 in aggro was obviously nuts
- Raza: this is the harder to say. The OTK priest, especially in Wild where OTK was needed against all the Reno decks, is mainly gone. Maybe not completely, but being able to deal 30 or so damages now can be achieved only in very specific ways, making it not much more competitive if you keep it as your only win condition. Deck will probably need to switch from its combo nature to a more controllish nature, using the hero power just to gain the board for its minions, and for a final burst. It will probably still be good, but surely not to the levels of power it has now. I don't think however that an OTK that comes after a long control game was bad in itself, but it's true that sometime the power was just too much.. losing complex decks like old Raza Priest or the older Patron Warrior is bad imho for the game, as harder to play decks are much more satisfying, but they were both too strong indeed. It's just a pity that they could not be able to lower their power to reasonable levels without changing their nature.
They only nerf, never buff cards, thats not the way. now warlock everywere, almost nobody play shaman or warrior, there are many trackers that collect data, that is enough for balance the game, helping blizzard to do his job balancing the game,
I guess he ran out of charge.. I will see myself out.
Good. But little harsh on creeper.. Still fine in evolve.
How am I going to explain my (non-english) kids that "Imincharge" is no longer "Imincharge"?
Pros:
4000 free dust
Wild players this time can't complain about their game mode being a gutter where overpowered crap gets dumped at the end of the year
2 major cancers eradicated (even if it's only for 2 months)
End of PriestLockStone (not entirely true but at least the fun and interactive gatling gun is done for)
Cons:
WarlockStone is back
Spiteful Summoner is still a thing
Call to Arms lol
Ultimate Retardation still doesn't cost 23 mana
Same for Gul'dan
We're gonna get some more overpowered cancerous stuff in 2 months but we can be happy for the next 60 days
All in all, YOROKOBE SHOUNEN, and thanks for
apologemsdust!(And good luck to all of you who're gonna roll for Semiramis in the Valentine gacha)Patches released 1 years ago
Raza released 1 year ago
Overnerf the Creeper
Balanced the Bonemare.
Community always yelled about these cards. They nerfed it after they done their job on Standard. They cancered the meta, took your dust etc. Hearthstone balance team on the work as always.
Edit: Patches release date.
Plus: What kind of community is here? I'm sorry but if you're down vote this comment, you deserve this cancer meta. We all know, Patches was great card when it is released. It cancered meta a lot.
Raza always had potential, but with Anduin, it become broken. Hey, we get Anduin 6 month ago. Where have you been Blizzard?
If you are still blaming me, check yourself about not a Blizz fanboy. Just keep playing this game without crying about broken cards. But believe me, you never try any creative deck. Always check the tier 1 deck and play it until it drops meta or new expansion. This is the thing what Blizzard wants.
Patches and Raza are from the same expansion. Both release a little over a year ago.
Poor Patches, you will surely be missed my good friend ;-;
Yeah but they give all the dust back so...
you will get full refund for the nerfed cards if you dust them so no prob', you'll be able to craft the voidlords
Right now the only deck that beats cubelock is Exodia Mage. And I want to give shoutouts to Kripp who's been playing the questless variant. It might just be good enough to enter the meta and challenge the Cubelock.
Druid also beats him every single time (btw, another deck that wasn't hit by the nerfs), but only if the Cubelock doesn't run the Skulking Geist. If he does, then odds are in Cubelock favor.
All in all, I kinda hate this. I like the nerfs, I think they're fair, I just hate how it skewed the balance.
mill rogue is good too against locks