ROGUES ARE GETTING NERFED! 4 Card Changes Coming May 22
In a blog post from Blizzard this afternoon, they have announced changes to Rogue cards and Archivist Elysiana. The patch comes out May 22.
- EVIL Miscreant - Now has 4 Health (Down from 5)
- Raiding Party - Now costs 4 Mana (Up from 3)
- Preparation - Next spell cast cost is now reduced by 2 (Down from 3)
- Archivist Elysiana - Now costs 9 Mana (Up from 8)
Quote from BlizzardAfter evaluating game data and working through internal and external feedback on the most popular decks currently in the meta, we’re looking to address the power level and overall pervasiveness of Rogue decks, alongside a specific interaction with Archivist Elysiana. Look for these changes in an update slated for May 22.
We chose to focus primarily on Rogue in this update due to seeing the meta stabilize around the class’s most popular decks. Currently, if you want to build a deck that is strong against Rogue, you have just one reasonable option: Warrior. If you compare Rogue to Warrior, however, you’ll find that the latter class has a wide variety of good and bad matchups, which makes it unlikely that it’ll overtake Rogue in popularity in the current meta.
While we recognize that there are other powerful and popular decks (like Token Druid, Conjurer Mage, and Mech Hunter), we decided to not address them in this update because they all have varied matchups. If any of these decks were to emerge as the new prominent strategy, there are plenty of decks available to combat them, which would allow the meta to continue shifting.
As always, we’ll be evaluating the results of these changes over the coming weeks and look forward to your feedback. Read on for details on these changes, our thought process around them, and our goals for each of the cards we adjusted.
- EVIL Miscreant - Now has 4 Health. (Down from 5)
- EVIL Miscreant is meant to be a value-generating card that creates future swing turns, but having 5 Health on this minion means Rogue players sacrifice very little to set up those turns. We expect that EVIL Miscreant will continue to be a great option for Rogue decks, just at a power level that is more in line with other available cards.
- Raiding Party – Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
- Rogue already excels at drawing cards, so having another powerful option that offers consistent results has resulted in Rogue games that play out a little too similarly than we think is fun. We’re making this change to better represent the power level of drawing from a very specific subset of cards.
- Preparation – Now reads: The next spell you cast this turn costs (2) less.
- All changes we make to the Basic and Classic sets are aimed at ensuring Hearthstone’s long-term health. Preparation is currently seen as such a powerful card that it appears in nearly all Rogue deck archetypes. That said, the change we’ve landed on is a small one. While we do want the card’s power to decrease, we also think it’s important for Preparation to remain a reasonable option, since it fits the Rogue class fantasy so well.
- Preparation is regularly used to reduce the cost of cards like Sap or Eviscerate, and those interactions will remain unchanged. Reducing the cost of your next spell by 2 as opposed to 3 opens our design options up a little more to create higher cost Rogue spells without having to balance so closely around the assumption that they’ll be cast alongside Preparation.
- Archivist Elysiana – Now costs 9 mana. (Up from 8)
- Our goal here was to preserve the feeling and power level of Archivist Elysiana when it comes to general use, while making much more difficult to play her multiple times in the same game. Shaman will still be able to replay Elysiana through Shudderwock, but this is not as common or problematic as what we’ve seen in control Warrior decks. Now, playing Elysiana alongside cards like Baleful Banker or Youthful Brewmaster should be a less consistent strategy.
You know you only get dust for 2 copies right?
no youre mistaking this with the HOF rotation. in this case you dont need to disenchant the cards.
nerfs give full dust when disenchanting - for EVERY card copy you own
Stupid nerfs as usual.
And I don't even play rogue or warrior so I should be happy since rogue was killing my priest but still I really hate the nerfs.
And especially I hate that they are on a mission to destroy classic set that was supposed to be ever green.
But I guess the only thing that matters is for them to sell new packs every expansion.
And just change for the sake of change.
Hearthstone is comming back in time. Hunter and war on top as always. Enjoying the endless boredom while playing the same game against war for an hour? “Is it any good against hunter?" - short answer: No. Long answer: F*ck no! Disapointed, but not suprised. Hunterstone ftw
Agree that Prep needed to change for long term health of the game, but making it halfway through the first expansion of the year feels like a bit of a dick move. Now the only deck I actually play (Maly Rogue with Togwaggle) is probably dead. Can we get all of the wildly overcosted rogue spells retuned as well?
Change to Miscreant = ??? Did anybody care about miscreant having 5 health? Sure it was probably more health than it needed but it's a rogue minion so has basically zero relevance...
Raiding Party nerf was needed. Tutor 3 for 3 too strong.
Miscreant at 5 Health for 3 mana makes it insanely sticky for its cost, so it can be reliably bounced back after it pings something when attacking. When you compare this change to other changes that have been suggested in this forum (like increasing its mana cost), making it a 1/4 allows it to keep its value generation ability. In my opinion, it was the best nerf of the bunch, even when considering all nerfs were pretty spot on to a degree.
And regarding the first question, I would like a 5 mana Thistle Tea, please :)
Very disappointed! Expect warrior to be nerfed, this game has become so boring!
So go play something else.
Well, my dust wallet is going to like these nerfs, having 10 EVIL Miscreant, 1 golden EVIL Miscreant, 2 Raiding Party, 1 golden Raiding Party, 1 Preparation and 1 golden Preparation.
Don't DE everything at the first opportunity guys ;)
People might start running coin generation cards so that they can Elysiana with baleful or panda. 😂
why dont they just start the game with everyone at 5 mana at this point, took out all early game, basically no 2 drops in the game, the one class that retained any early game is busted cause no one can match it anymore, now all i have is 60 card warrior mirrors. fun. prep nerf is an unneeded response, literally raiding pary nerf is fine, nerf waggle pick to a 3/2 or 3/3 just not have 4 attack, but prep is just crippling creativity of the class, blizzard hates rogue
IMO Archivist Elysiana will get better after the nerf. The reason is that this card will perform exactly the same in the mirror matchup, but at the same time CW will have more slots (tools) to address the rest of the matchups.
The problem with preparation is that blizzard can't make low cost spells for rogue because those intstantly brake the game, almost any 3 mana spell saw play in rogue, just because Prep. Waggle Pick is just another 4 mana 4/2 weapon with an effect, that isn't broken, witch is broken is on turn 3 make a 0 mana draw 3 and put a 6/3 Van Cleef on board or a 1/5 that gives you 2 lakeys witouth having a gas problem cause your following turn is a 4/2 weapon + 2 3/3 pirates with taunt, cards you wouldn't draw if PRPARATION were absolutrly good, .
From Now blizzard can make a few cheap spells for rogue and we wont have or a Raiding Party that brakes the game because is really cheap and synergyses with prep, or a Wanted!, card that saw no play since it came on witchwood cause is overcosted to not make absurd things with PREPARATION and gadgetzan auctioneer.
Can't believe cards such as Omega Devastator and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius didn't get nerfed
Agreed. Rogue shouldn't have been only target.
EVIL Miscreant could be easly changed to 1/3.
An it would've had the same effect: NOTHING AT ALL. The card isn't powerful cause it has 5 health, it's powerful because it's a card that draws you 2 cards (yes generating 2 lackeys technically counts as drawing cards) that are very powerful (the worst one is the +1 rush one and it's still decent enough) and it's an early enough play to be relevant to dictate the tempo of the game, I guarantee you that miscreant could be a 1/2 and still see play in every rogue deck that's not super combo specific. This nerf is 100% irrelevant, like the Elysiana one.
Sure, and the 5 health that makes it almost imposible to kill letting the rogue bounce it in ot his hand to repeat the process generating even more lackeys has nothing to do with it, when i see that minion my first matter is kill it before my opponent returns it to his hand, less health matters cause or you kill it more consistently or your opponent needs to shadow step it earlier letting nothing on board to trade and giving you the iniciative
Tell me which of the current meta decks couldn't kill a miscreant at 5 health but can kill it at 4? and be serious, don't tell me oh my Sorcerer's apprentice + ping kills it now cause the chances of you tempoing an apprentice are extremely low, so please only illustrate this with real plays that people that are at least rank 5 would do.
Another rogue can now Backstab-Agent it, a Zoo Deck Can Carpet into a Flame Imp trade, Frostbolt-ping from a mage (which still feels terrible), True Silver champion as a paladin, druid can swipe it or just trade it with their tokens witouth the need os spend mana on his hero power, priest doesn't matter since is the perfect class to counter tempo rogue and has spells to it, bomb toss into firewors tech on a mech that remains from last turn (cause yes, you not always have your venomaizer on hand when you need it), Shamman is the only class that i can't figure how to make it without overkiling it or use "bad" cards.
PD, ask for "plays from rank 5 or more" is just stupid since you see meta decks from rank 20 or even less,