Upcoming Hearthstone Balance Changes - Giggling Inventor, Mana Wyrm, Aviana
Three card changes are coming to Hearthstone later this week on October 18th and one of them is purely for Wild!
- [Discuss this Change] Giggling Inventor now costs 7, up from 5.
- [Discuss this Change] Mana Wyrm now costs 2, up from 1.
- [Discuss this Change] Aviana now costs 10, up from 9.
Check out Blizzard's post below for more information on each of the changes.
Quote from BlizzardIn an update that is scheduled to arrive October 18 PDT, the following cards will be changed.
Giggling Inventor – Will cost 7 mana. (Up from 5)
Giggling Inventor is one of the most powerful and popular cards we’ve ever created. There’s virtually no downside to including it in a deck, and because it’s neutral, it’s played in almost every deck. We think it’s important to take risks when making powerful cards, especially when it comes to neutral taunts, given the role they can play in encouraging minion interactions and making games more interesting. However, Giggling Inventor has stepped beyond its intended role, and we don’t feel that it should be as effective as it currently is.
We initially tested this card at (6) mana in both the current Standard format as well as with cards that will be released in the future. Ultimately, we felt that its power level was still higher than is appropriate for a Neutral card with no build-around requirements. At (7) mana, we expect Giggling Inventor will find its way into fewer decks in general—and be much less effective in Quest Rogue—while it might remain situationally playable within specific deck archetypes, such as Evolve Shaman.
Mana Wyrm – Will cost 2 mana. (Up from 1)
Over time, we’ve been moving away from powerful, early-game 1-drops like Mana Wyrm. It can often feel like the outcome of a game is decided by whether Mana Wyrm was played on turn one, and if it could be removed quickly by an opponent. Mana Wyrm has also steered us away from making powerful low-cost Mage spells. We’d like Mana Wyrm to remain an option for decks it synergizes with, while preventing it from being a huge turn one threat.
At (2) mana, it will be easier to deal with Mana Wyrm the turn it’s played, and it will be harder to buff it with cheap spells early in the match. We still expect it to remain an option in decks that have a heavy focus on cheap spells, but it should be a less appealing option in decks that aren’t built with that focus in mind.
Aviana – Will cost 10 mana. (Up from 9)
Changing Aviana to (10) mana means it will no longer be possible to play Aviana and Kun the Forgotten King on the same turn without some additional help from cards like Innervate or The Coin. It also means Juicy Psychmelon will no longer draw both Aviana and Kun. This should make the combos Aviana and Kun produce less consistent, while still allowing decks that use the combos to exist for the players that enjoy playing them.
Oh boy, the Mana Wyrm nerf takes the cake. It's as if all my painful memories have been taken away and redeemed the moment I read that. Oh yea, Giggling inventor is trash, and thanks to Aviana I got legend. What a bummer, gosh. But ooooh boy, that Mana Wyrm nerf. I'm soo happy.
NO DRUID CHANGES??!! I'm going to log in for gold quests and I'm not spending cash on the game. #imdone
Druid is their favorite class so..
Well thats not a nerf .. they totally nuked those cards (more like deleted cards)
FUCKING YEEEES (except for poor Giggling Inventor D: )
Would rather see Mana Wyrm lose a point of toughness, but this is fine. It is now separated from Jaina in the odd/even clubs. Problem is, it now joins the Fireball/Frostbolt/Pyroblast team. Time will tell if that is good or bad.
That was my first thought too. Interested to see if Even Mage becomes viable. Also the two new elementals that provide spell damage are 2 and 4 mana, Arcane Intellect is 3 but Research Project is 2, Aluneth is 6, Flame Geyser is 2, Glyph is 2...
Tempo Mage in it's current form would sacrifice a few key points to make it work, but maybe a different type of Burn Mage could come from it?
its not even a nerf, just deleting cards from game..
They didn't change Giggling Inventor to 6 because Even Paladin would become too good.
Bingo. Even Paladin winrates have already started to climb close to where it sat before Call to Arms went bye bye.
Then change the stats dumbass. Blizzard is stupid as hell they just killed a card because they're to lasy to actually refine nerfs. They didn't even nerf half the cards they should have.
7 mana Giggling Inventor ? No thanks , 6 mana is debatable
So, when they say they "initially" tested giggling inventor at 6 mana do they mean before Boom's Day released? That's how the word "initially" should be interpreted, but I feel like they're really trying to say they experimented with nerfing giggling inventor to 6 mana but that it was still too strong. Either way it makes their card testing before expansions are released sound bad.
Still I'm happy that they're making changes. I actually expected much more to be changed. This seems unlikely to change things up too much. Sure Quest Rogue will get knocked down a peg, but it's just going to reshuffle the pecking order of the same decks that have been played since witchwood was released. I don't really expect something new to suddenly appear.
I interpret "should be interpreted" as "how I interpret it". My guess is they probably felt it was fine prior to release, but they probably weren't putting it in every deck during their play testing. The community then took the card and used it in just about every deck type, whether it's control, aggro, or otherwise since for aggro it gives you three small bodies, and for all decks it can really slow down your opponent.
So they might mean they started testing it at 6 mana during the initial stage of the balance process? I actually think 7 is a good space for this card. It keeps it out of Even archtypes and it stops non-ramping players from dropping it too early. It could also be a big hit to some of the current Quest Rogue players' strategies, not letting them get a lot of 4/4 divine shield taunt tokens too easily.
"We initially tested this card at (6) mana in both the current Standard format as well as with cards that will be released in the future. Ultimately, we felt that its power level was still higher than is appropriate for a Neutral card with no build-around requirements."
Yet they shipped her as 5 mana just months ago. Interesting logic here.
Tested in the current standard format, most likely after figuring out that 5 mana was a mistake
Also someone already mentioned , at 7 mana it cant go infinite with Brewmaster in Questrouge!
Play testing prior to release they probably weren't putting it in every deck. Testing now they are probably testing it in all popular archtypes that utilize the card and are realizing the versatility of the card raises the power level higher than they first realized.
GOODBYE MANA WYRM STUPID SNOWBALL
Thanks for killing Inventor. Really, there was no reason to nerf it so hard. It should be nerfed to 3 mana and summon 1 annoy-o-tron.