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.
That's not true. Magic the Gathering have many eternal formats, and if one deck is overplayed the way that Big Priest is for such a long time, something is banned. If MtG Modern and Legacy can have a format without one single deck being played as much as Big Priest, why is it impossible for Blizzard to try and make Wild this way?
...No touch to bomb warrior
Nerfs to health of EVIL Miscreant and mana cost of Archivist Elysiana are dumb. That is not the problem, you play them because of their effects.
Well yeah... That's why you play most cards, because of their effect. The health to miscreant is needed, at 4hp it can be killed easier in one turn to stop rogue's bouncing it all the time. The Elysiana nerf is to stop the 60 card deck, warrior mirror.
“Is it any good against hunter?"
Elysiana should have been nerfed to 10 mana. Now in mirror matches the one who starts with the coin for Elysiana + bounce wins by default.
Lol don't underestimate the power of RNG.
I have lost being in the lead with Elysiana bounces. I got all crap and he got all legendary bombs.
I get your point, but then you're running bounce effects on the off chance you might get the coin to bounce it. Most decks after this change will just remove the bounce for more useful cards
Welcome back OBNOXIOUS META full of CONTROL warriors and Secret Hunters , thank you blizzard, that's what we needed!
if u downvote, atleast explain why :), ty
Exactly. "Fun"
If your opinion is just to complain about other deck archetypes then you're going to get down votes, everyone has their own deck preferences and the game needs all types of archetypes to stay healthy. They can't just Nerf everything and from what I've seen so far, the changes they made are needed.
Secret Hunter and Control Warrior can be overcome... simple. If those decks are beating you, change up your play style and deck. Otherwise, you're just complaining to complain like everyone else that had their toys taken away.
yea, I should just accept that we have a boring meta. :)
The only counter to hunter is ... another hunter. "They can't just Nerf everything" Why can't hunter be nerfed? It's always on top every meta. How is this balance? You want to go to legend? Forget every class and just focus on hunter. It's unbeatable.
"Big priest is fine. " THAT IS A COOL JOKE.
Big Priest hasn't even been a Tier 1 deck recently, on almost any wild tier list that's recent. Odd Paladin however is the most consistent deck ever and is literally the top deck on any meta tier list, and it has been for a while. Big Priest isn't broken, people are just salty about it, there are much more powerful decks out there.
"Healthy" Aaaaa hahahahahahahahah... yeah,.. nope.
And maybe Mage is not dominant but still should be nerfed.
What is your point?
Now Warriors dont have to tech against Rogues and other Warriors so its kinda buff actually.
Hello hunter meta... again...