Blizzard just published patch notes for a patch that focuses on almost all the modes, Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds & More.
Quote from BlizzardPatch 30.2.2, launching today, includes balance changes across modes.
Hearthstone Updates
The following cards have been adjusted to be weaker:
Dev Comment: The Standard metagame has a variety of decks that are feeling balanced against one another. Because of that, we’re only changing a couple cards that are leading to unhealthy play patterns that we want to address. Tidepool Pupil is quite strong, and is allowing decks to copy key cards too easily and play them too many times per game. We hope this change doesn’t delete the card from the metagame entirely, but does make it less effective as an enabler for combos and spells that are particularly effective when repeated many times per game. Doomkin isn’t as much a statistical outlier, but is causing more frustration. The card seems to have overstayed its welcome, so we are slowing it down by a turn to decrease its popularity.
Tidepool Pupil
- Old: [1 Mana] 2/1
- New: [2 Mana] 2/2
Doomkin
- Old: [6 Mana] 3/4
- New: [7 Mana] 4/5
Dev Comment: On the Wild side, we’ve identified a few play patterns that are over the line even for the powerful Wild format. Secret Passage has been a focal point across almost all Rogue decks since its creation, enabling an unhealthy power level across the class as a whole. On top of that, Wildpaw Gnoll could too easily be played on turn 1, keeping opponents from developing onto the board from the start of the game. This change makes the turn 1 Gnoll less common and makes playing multiple Gnolls less efficient. The sheer volume of spells that Sorcerer’s Apprentice allows is something we think should be addressed, so we’re making it no longer go to 0. With that change, we think it’s safe to return to its original mana cost.
Wildpaw Gnoll
- Old: [5 Mana]
- New: [6 Mana]
Secret Passage
- Old: [1 Mana]
- New: [2 Mana]
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
- Old: [4 Mana] Your spells cost (1) less.
- New: [2 Mana] Your spells cost (1) less (but not less than 1).
The above disenchantable cards will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 30.2.2.
The following cards have been adjusted to be stronger:
Dev Comment: Since our last round of changes, there are a few classes that still don’t have many competitive options as others. These changes focus primarily (but not entirely) on bolstering those classes’ new Perils in Paradise offerings.
Treasure Hunter Eudora
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
Maestra, Mask Merchant
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
Metal Detector
- Old: 2/2
- New: 3/2
Furious Fowls
- Old: Choose an enemy. Summon two 3/2 Birds with Immune while attacking to attack it.
- New: Choose an enemy. Summon two 3/3 Birds with Immune while attacking to attack it.
Mystery Egg
- Old: [5 Mana] Miniaturize. Deathrattle: Get a copy of a random Beast in your deck. It costs (5) less.
- New: [4 Mana] Miniaturize. Deathrattle: Get a copy of a random Beast in your deck. It costs (4) less.
Fetch!
- Old: [2 Mana]
- New: [1 Mana]
Ryecleaver
- Old: 4 Mana Sandwich
- New: 3 Mana Sandwich
Food Fight
- Old: Summon a 0/6 Entree for your opponent. When it dies, summon a minion from your deck.
- New: Summon a 0/4 Entree for your opponent. When it dies, summon a minion from your deck.
Boom Wrench
- Old: [4 Mana]
- New: [3 Mana]
Watercolor Artist
- Old: [4 Mana] 4/4
- New: [3 Mana] 3/3
Raylla, Sand Sculptor
- Old: 2/5
- New: 2/6
Marooned Archmage
- Old: 3/3
- New: 3/4
DJ Manastorm
- Old: [10 Mana]
- New: [9 Mana]
Ci’Cigi
- Old: 4/3. Deathrattle: Get 3 random first-edition Demon Hunter cards (in mint condition).
- New: 4/4. Battlecry, Outcast, and Deathrattle: Get a random first-edition Demon Hunter card (in mint condition).
Battlegrounds Updates
General Update
Now that players have started to get the hang of Trinkets, we’ve reduced turn timers back to their normal lengths.
Hero Change
Guff Runetotem – Natural Balance
- Old: Passive. After you buy 30 Tiers’ worth of cards, get a Triple Reward.
- New: Passive. After you buy 25 Tiers’ worth of cards, get a Triple Reward.
Lesser Trinket Changes
Bob-blehead
- Old: [1 Gold]
- New: [0 Gold]
Kodo Leather Pouch
- Old: [2 Gold]
- New: [0 Gold]
Souvenir Stand
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [2 Gold]
Fishy Sticker
- Old: [2 Gold]
- New: [1 Gold]
Alliance Keychain
- Old: [4 Gold]
- New: [3 Gold]
Token of the Old Gods
- Old: [1 Gold]
- New: [0 Gold]
Feral Talisman
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [2 Gold]
Replica Cathedral
- Old: [3 Cost]
- New: [2 Cost]
Azeroth Model Globe
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [2 Gold]
Demonblood Gourd
- Old: [1 Gold]
- New: [0 Gold]
Shaker Portrait
- Old: [7 Gold]
- New: [6 Gold]
Rockin’ Music Box
- Old: [1 Gold] At the end of each turn, get a random Battlecry minion.
- New: [3 Gold] Get a random Battlecry minion. At the start of each turn get another.
Quilligraphy Set
- Old: [5 Gold] Avenge (4): Your Blood Gems give an extra +1/+1 this game.
- New: [2 Gold] Avenge (5): Your Blood Gems give an extra +1 Health this game.
Automaton Portrait
- Old: [7 Gold]
- New: [6 Gold]
Charging Staff
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [4 Gold]
Lava Lamp
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [4 Gold]
Comfy Coffin
- Old: [4 Gold]
- New: [5 Gold]
Colorful Compass
- Old: [2 Gold]
- New: [3 Gold]
Tiger Carving
- Old: [2 Gold]
- New: [3 Gold]
Dalaran Cheese Wheel
- Old: [4 Gold]
- New: [5 Gold]
Greater Trinket Changes
Elementium Chest
- Old: [0 Gold] Each combat, after 3 friendly Pirates attack, gain 1 Gold next turn.
- New: [3 Gold] Each combat, after 2 friendly Pirates attack, gain 1 Gold next turn.
Spitescale Sushi Roll
- Old: [6 Gold] Get a ‘Spitescale Special’. Your Spellcraft spells cast twice.
- New: [4 Gold] Get a ‘Spitescale Special’. Your first two Spellcraft spells each turn cast twice.
Enforcer Portrait
- Old: [Lesser, 7 Gold] Get a ‘Lightfang Enforcer’. Your Lightfang Enforcers have all minion types.
- New: [Greater, 1 Gold] Get a ‘Lightfang Enforcer’. Your Lightfang Enforcers have all minion types.
Blood Golem Sticker
- Old: [4 Gold] Whenever a friendly Quilboar dies, summon a Golem with stats equal to its Blood Gems. (3 times per combat.)
- New: [3 Gold] Whenever a friendly Quilboar dies, summon a Golem with stats equal to its Blood Gems. (2 times per combat.)
Rivendare Portrait
- Old: [2 Gold] Get a ‘Titus Rivendare’. Start of Combat: Give your Titus Rivendares Stealth.
- New: [3 Gold] Get a ‘Titus Rivendare’. Start of Combat: Double the Health of your Titus Rivendares.
Felbat Portrait
- Old: [7 Gold]
- New: [9 Gold]
Dalaran Cheese Wheel
- Old: [4 Gold]
- New: [6 Gold]
Darnassus Pie
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [5 Gold]
Quilligraphy Set
- Old: [5 Gold]
- New: [7 Gold]
Butcher’s Sickle
- Old: [5 Gold]
- New: [7 Gold]
Comfy Coffin
- Old: [5 Gold]
- New: [6 Gold]
Twin Sky Lanterns
- Old: [2 Gold]
- New: [4 Gold]
Emerald Dreamcatcher
- Old: [5 Gold]
- New: [7 Gold]
Fridge Magnet
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [4 Gold]
Conductor Portrait
- Old: Get a ‘Snarling Conductor’. Whenever you discard a card, play a Blood Gem on all your minions.
- New: Get a ‘Snarling Conductor’. Whenever you discard a card, play a Blood Gem on 5 friendly minions.
Booty Bay Brew
- Old: Whenever you spend Gold, give a friendly Pirate +2/+4.
- New: Whenever you spend Gold, give a friendly Pirate +3/+4.
Karazhan Chess Set
- Old: Start of Combat: Summon a copy of each of your minions.
- New: Start of combat: Summon a copy of your 2 left-most minions.
Artisanal Urn
- Old: Your Undead have +7 Attack.
- New: You Undead have +8 Attack.
Glowscale Portrait
- Old: [4 Gold]
- New: [3 Gold]
Kodo Leather Pouch
- Old: After you buy a card, give a friendly minion +4/+4.
- New: After you buy a card, give a friendly minion +5/+5.
Feral Talisman
- Old: Your minions have +5/+3.
- New: Your minions have +6/+4.
Mug of the Sire
- Old: Whenever you would summon a minion that doesn’t fit in your warband, give your minions+4 Attack.
- New: Whenever you would summon a minion that doesn’t fit in your warband, give your minions +5 Attack.
Valorous Medallion
- Old: Start of Combat: Give your minions +5/+5.
- New: Start of Combat: Give your minions +6/+6.
Dragonwing Glider
- Old: Whenever you play a card, give a friendly Dragon +6 Attack.
- New: Whenever you play a card, give a friendly Dragon +8 Attack.
Horde Keychain
- Old: Your minions from Tier 3 or lower have +6/+4.
- New: Your minions from Tier 3 or lower have +7/+5.
Glowing Gauntlet
- Old: Minions in the Tavern have +7/+7.
- New: Minions in the Tavern +8/+8.
Card Changes
Lightfang Enforcer
- Old: 6/6. At the end of your turn, give a friendly minion of each type +3/+3.
- New: 8/6. At the end of your turn, give a friendly minion of each type +4/+3.
Snail Cavalry
- Old: 2/3
- New: 2/2
Zesty Shaker
- Old: 5/4. Once per turn, when a spell is played on this, get a new copy of it.
- New: 6/6. Once per turn, when a Spellcraft spell is played on this, get a new copy of it.
Crow’s Nest Sentry
- Old: 5/2. Battlecry: Give your other Pirates +3 Health.
- New: 4/2. Battlecry: Give your other Pirates +4 Health.
Ice Fisher
- Old: [Tier 6] 8/8
- New: [Tier 5] 2/2
Cruise Controller
- Old: 6/3. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, after you summon a Pirate, give it +4 Attack.
- New: 7/3. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, after you summon a Pirate, give it +5 Attack.
Thundering Abomination
- Old: 2/6. Whenever you summon a minion in combat, give it +2/+2. If there’s no space, gain +2/+2 permanently.
- New: 3/6. Whenever you summon a minion in combat, give it+3/+2. If there no space, gain +3/+2 permanently.
Bountiful Bedrock
- Old: [Tier 3] 4/3
- New: [Tier 2] 2/2
Ancestral Automaton
- Old: Has +3/+2 for each other Ancestral Automaton you’ve summoned this game (wherever this is).
- New: Has +2/+1 for each other Ancestral Automaton you’ve summoned this game (wherever this is).
Wannabe Gargoyle
- Old: 5/1
- New: 9/1
Hunter of Gatherers
- Old: [Tier 5] 3/6
- New: [Tier 4] 3/5
Channel the Devourer
- Old: [Tier 6]
- New: [Tier 5]
Minion Pool Changes
- Upbeat Frontdrake and Corrupted Myrmidon have been returned to the minion pool.
Armor Changes
The following Heroes now have more Armor:
Ysera
- High Rank: 17, Lower Rank: 5, Duos: 14
Vanndar Stormpike
- High Rank: 15, Lower Rank: 15, Duos: 13
Tickatus
- High Rank: 15, Lower Rank: 15, Duos: 12
Kurtrus Ashfallen
- High Rank: 17, Lower Rank: 17, Duos: 13
Patches the Pirate
- High Rank: 18, Lower Rank: 5, Duos: 13
Ozumat
- High Rank: 18, Lower Rank: 7, Duos: 15
Kael’thas Sunstrider
- High Rank: 18, Lower Rank: 18, Duos: 15
Edwin VanCleef
- High Rank: 20, Lower Rank: 20, Duos: 17
Greybough
- High Rank: 16, Lower Rank: 16, Duos: 14
Mr. Bigglesworth
- High Rank: 19, Lower Rank: 17, Duos: 17
Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher
- High Rank: 18, Lower Rank: 18, Duos: 15
The following Heroes now have less Armor:
Galewing
- High Rank: 8, Lower Rank: 8, Duos: 5
Arch-Villain Rafaam
- High Rank: 12, Lower Rank: 12, Duos: 10
Dinotamer Brann
- High Rank: 14, Lower Rank: 14, Duos: 11
Doctor Holli’dae
- High Rank: 8, Lower Rank: 8, Duos: 5
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Miniaturize and Gigantify didn’t work after a card went backwards into a zone (like bouncing from field to hand or moving from hand into deck).
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Tickatus’s Raise the Stakes didn’t turn the card Golden.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Tiger Carving (Greater) Trinket only gave +2 Attack instead of +4.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug in Duos where the Bob-blehead Trinket applied to both teammates when one person got it.
Dumbest expansion pack I've seen in 10 years... there's a rogue card oh my! It's a bit of an old card, but Wishing Well ... I would understand if it were given a random legendary ... why 1 mana bro? Is it impossible to understand!!!
Why is there no support... There is neither a dragon nor a useful undead in the new package... Rogue mana cheats continue... Druid mana cheats are coming... They did their best for big spell mage... Synergistic cards are coming for warrior. .. I don't understand why they cut the priest like a knife... Even the control priest spells didn't come... For one useless taunt ( Sauna Regular ) self-damaging nonsense came out... But this taunt was lifesteal and Rush do it... There is a card called Shapeless Constellation most people don't even know about such a card...
They know how to change legendary cards whenever they want... If a card is not used, you will either buff it or remove it and put another card... There are cards that have not been played for 2 years...
If the Sorcerer's Apprentice change is permanent I hope they tell us now so I can delete my entire collection.
Sensory Deprivation
Catrina Muerte
Soulburner Varia
Posse Possession
Tram Heist
Chalk Artist
Do you only follow shaman and rogue? The above cards have never made it into any deck in their history. That cards, Unfortunately, he is not in a position to wait for the new season until April.
.. priest died...
Soulburner Varia did see quite a bit of play in Undead Shadow Priest. However, all support for this card rotated out, so it's left stranded.
Catrina Muerte did see play during its original tenure, though like Varla it's also stranded without support, as there's no big Undead you want to resurrect with Catrina.
Tram Heist saw some niche play in Reno Priest when Prince Renathal was around, but now with the rotation of the Prince, there's much better options as the last thing Priest needs is more value tools.
I don't think there's a single buff you can make to Chalk Artist to make it genuinely good. You want the minions in your deck, not random Legendaries.
Is there a reason why I can't disenchant Maestra or DJ Manastorm for full dust value? I thought the rule was any modification gave us this ability, not just nerfs.
You only get to disenchant for full value after nerfs, never after buffs, even when the "buff" ends up effectively being a nerf (reducing cost can kick a card out of Genn/Baku decks).
Patch didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the meta except for metal detector, seeing a lot more well-rogue who get a full board of legendary in turn 5 (how fun!). Other decks seems more or less identical, maybe a bit more hunters but otherwise impact of patch is minimal.
Rip Egg hunter
Fetch and Watercolor are the only two buffs that might change play rates, everything else simply does not fit in any viable archetypes nor will these changes make unplayed ones better
Snail Cavalry was a 3/2
Snail Calvary was a 3/2
They should just do the same treatment they did to apprentice to every other card that has a cost reduction text. They do this in magic with every card that has affinity.
This is plainly incorrect. There is not a single card in Magic that puts a limit on how far affinity can reduce the cost. Affinity can eliminate up to 100% of the generic cost of any spell.
Where your wrong is the fact that every card that has affinity is of a color, and affinity only decreases the generic mana cost but you still have to pay the 1 color cost everytime. If I'm not mistaken the only time you ever could reduce a cost of a card to 0 in Magic was with artifacts back then but now you can't do that anymore because those cards are banned.
Of the 36 cards with Affinity, 12 are colorless, all of those 12 can be played for zero mana, and none are banned. While some cards that facilitate Affinity (notably the artifact lands) are banned from some formats, every card ever printed with Affinity is still legal in any format its set is legal in. We even had an Affinity card printed recently (Frogmyr Enforcer from MH3) that can be played for zero.
I'm just so confused why they did this to Apprentice and not Concierge? Sure the pupil nerf hurts the deck, but you're talking about the ramp class here who gets all the mana it needs to do silly shit earlier than others.
Not a fan of the doomkin nerf direction. It did need a change but a lazy +1 mana is just so groan-worthy. The mana stealing effect wouldn't feel so fucking punishing if it wasn't permanent. The card could have just applied a Mana Burn effect on the opponent and their mana was docked for the next turn only.
I agree with basiclly every buff and nerf except one, I really don't think that Boom Wrench needed that buff it was a strong card before the buff it not seeing that much play had nothing to do with the strength on it and everything with the archetype to do. I guess they really wanna push for a mech warrior that utilize DR's.
A few of these "buffs" feel like nerfs. Mostly the Egg, but also Ci'Cigi kind of got a nerf as before she could guarantee you get three "first edition" cards when she died, and now not so much!
Nah, Ci'Cigi change is definitely a buff... to Illidari Studies