Let's Speculate: Upcoming Balance Changes
Expansions introduce more than 100 cards to Hearthstone a handful of times a year, and it’s beginning to seem inevitable that a couple in each set will be, in the common parlance, broken.
I say inevitable because I appreciate the difficulty and inhuman level of foresight required to achieve balance in a game of so many combinatorics. Say what you will about Patches the Pirate — I’m staying away from that one for now — but Blizzard has been good in the recent past about listening to the community’s grievances and implementing changes. Last time, not only did they explain in detail their reasoning for specific changes, they also shared alternatives considered along the way.
Just the other day, Hearthstone Game Director Ben Brode announced a February update to the game. He confirmed only that the update would add “cool” new events, but did tease that if the team indeed decides to implement balance changes, that would be the earliest they would appear.
So now it’s time to speculate, isn’t it? Instead of problem Basic and Classic cards, the community seems most at odds with a suite of cards from the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion. We’ll look at a few of the most clamored for candidates for nerfs and the Hall of Fame, and then invite you to add to the discussion.
Ice Block
Blizzard seemed ready to send Ice Block to the Hall of Fame a few months ago. Addressing the topic, they all but said, “you’re gonna have to wait.” This move seems likely, considering how the card stifles interactivity over consecutive turns, which they don’t want for the Standard format.
From Blizzard’s blog announcing the last round of balance changes:
“We’ve seen discussions about moving Ice Block to the Hall of Fame. As previously mentioned, moving cards to the Hall of Fame occurs at the start of the Hearthstone Year, which will occur with the first expansion release in 2018. Our general stance regarding Hall of Fame is that we want to avoid moving cards mid-year.”
The hope is that moving Ice Block will free the Mage class from the one-turn-kill class identity its been known for from the jump. I can get behind that.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer
Helplessness: it’s one of the worst feelings in Hearthstone.
We all have watched as this little green goblin spent 75 seconds cycling through the opponent’s deck to a win condition. It’s not fun. And its ubiquity in certain classes (looking at you, Rogue) stifles creativity in the deck-building process, which Blizzard really tries to discourage when they implement balance updates. Depending on the number of cheap spells in the new set, Gadgetzan Auctioneer could be a Hall of Fame contender, too.
Corridor Creeper
Remember Azure Drake? The Classic set’s five-mana dragon saw play in most decks because of its versatility and power in almost any situation. A strong body, spell power, and card draw on turn five was too good for too many archetypes. Players picked up on this and considered the card an auto-include across most classes and archetypes. In Blizzard’s own words: “There should be more five drop options for players, rather than considering Azure Drake an auto-include.”
Corridor Creeper is the new Azure Drake in this sense — it’s just bigger and often costs little or nothing. The sleeper of the Kobolds and Catacombs set has become the most oppressive, an auto-include in any deck that cares the slightest bit about tempo. Putting minions into play for little or no mana is very strong in Hearthstone. The result is a meta in which some match-ups feel at the whim of drawing Corridor Creeper, getting the necessary reductions, and playing them for tempo before your opponent.
What do you do about that? The minion could be bumped to ten mana (forcing it to bog down the player’s hand for more turns), or perhaps it would make sense to reduce the mana cost only when a specific player’s minions die, rather than both. But this seems like it would ruin the card entirely. No matter what the particulars are, the big worm is the only card besides Ice Block I’m confident we will see shuffled around in some way. Expect it.
Spiteful Summoner
I understand the furor over a card capable of such insane power on turn six. I can see it being bumped to seven mana, even. But the spell it pulls is random, which creates an interesting constraint for creative deck-builders — one we’ve seen worked out in tempo decks featuring Mind Control and even Ultimate Infestation. The minion it summons is random, too, which makes the effect much less reliable in decks that don’t limit themselves to only 8- and 10-mana spells.
All that said, I believe its randomness in tandem with the constraints it puts on decks makes Spiteful Summoner a fine card. I would be surprised to see any change at all, but a 1-mana increase to address such an early swing wouldn’t be outlandish.
Psychic Scream
Psychic Scream is a key card in one of my favorite creations of the Kobolds era: Weasel Priest. But that doesn’t blind me from the card’s enraging effect for one less mana than Twisting Nether, a card that does much less. Psychic Scream also shuts down resummon effects and Deathrattles, typically the best counter to AoE. That’s really good.
That said, I’m not convinced yet that Psychic Scream is oppressive enough to deserve a nerf. Priest will take on a new dominant identity after the next Standard rotation — Raza the Chained and Kazakus rotate to Wild — and only Blizzard has an idea of what that new Priest looks like. It’s powerful, yes. But the decision to nerf the best AoE in the game will depend not on the current meta, but how it works with and against cards we haven’t even seen yet.
Cubelock
I don’t know how to fix this one. But Cubelock’s power, especially against aggro, can’t be understated: something should probably be done about it, lest we suffer another three months waiting for new cards to shake things up.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing Cubelock. It’s intricate and entertaining and complicated, but I feel dirty when one giant Voidlord squashes my opponents chances. Beyond that, it’s powerful deathrattle cards have made Spellbreaker an auto-include in most decks, which probably bothers Blizzard. Of course the new expansion will bring with it new archetypes, but no competitive Standard decks in the current meta stand up to Cubelock quite like Raza Priest, whose time in Standard is almost up.
One of the cards in the Cubelock package deserve a nerf — Dark Pact, Voidlord, or Carnivorous Cube. My guesses are on Dark Pact, because there’s a history of nerfs to high-impact and efficient spells like Execute and Innervate. Who knows — bumping it to two mana might be significant, allowing players an extra turn to rush their opponent down or draw a game-winning Spellbreaker.
Some of the changes in February may be unexpected, as the increase in mana cost for Hex was to many players. This move was preemptive, with them perhaps presuming Hex would be too efficient at countering the myriad silence targets in the meta now: Carnivorous Cube, Voidlord, etc. With this in mind, I suppose we should just expect the unexpected (in addition to Corridor Creeper getting nerfed).
What do you want to see changed in the coming months, and why? Don’t forget that last part!
It's funny all the hate for the Warlock decks and really the biggest problem card of all the decks is Guldan. Without Guldan once you get through and handle their demons the game is over. Guldan just allows them a complete reset with a new ability to win the game as a hero power removing the hero power they previously had that is now useless end game.
game swingy? thats kinda what all the death knights do buddy. some are obviously more swingy than othes, thats why gul'dan cost 10 mana compared to all the others. a death knight card that swings the game and gives you a better hero power? thats kinda the point
I think they should still nerf Patches and I don't think this is very hard to do right:
Yes, I forgot the "e"s in "pirate" -.- ... saw this too late. But for the balance change suggestion this doesn't matter. This way Patches whould be reasonable weaker, especially with Captain, but still be viable in pirate focussed decks and "swarm decks" like Aggro-Druid.
I saw a great suggestion on Patches (whom they will not nerf, sadly). Make him cost 2 mana.
It is impossible to nerf patches 'right' because it will rotate. Why would they waste their limited resources on a pointless nerf?
Wild
Because Wild should matter? :(
Right now I’m expecting these nerfs
Dark pact- The healing no on top of usually insane plays of summoning a void lord is just to much like the article said 2 mana or maybe a reduce in healing would bring it in line
Corridor Creeper- I’m gonna say this will go to maybe 9-10 mana making it much harder to get out early on while hopefully remaining playable.
Raza the Chained- Now this probably won’t happen but with shadowreaper running around it’s simply to strong a deck and in wild escpecially with Reno I don’t think any deck will be able to beat it.
Raza being nerfed is unlikely as he rotates in a few months.
Regardless, he's a total nuisance in wild where highlander decks get better and better with every expansion. For the sake of diversity in wild control decks, I think he needs to be nerfed. As it stands, you can easily fill a deck with good singletons and include Raza, Reno and Kazakus for huge value.
You forgot one thing though,they dont care about wild at all!
But wild :( Highlander Priest is so oppressive in wild with the additional Reno tool.
they won't until they HoF it in a few months.
Leeroy Jenkins should go to Hall of Fame, it's not funny to play against and it ruins ladder, previous nerf (costed 4 mana before, now it's 5) hadn't impacted that much
Call to Arms is also broken, it should cost 5 mana, in wild there are tons of Broken 1-2 mana minions like Shielded Minibot,Haunted Creeper, Ship's Cannon, that's why Aggro Paladin is in Tier1 in both formats
Yeah, i never laughed when my opponent played leeroy, its just not funny.
Also, I never heard of "Shielded Minibot Haunted Creeper Ship's Cannon."
so you are kinda new player then, not good for u cause you missed good times)
Call to Arms seems like a good candidate for being nerfed. Being able to coin it out on turn 3 is ridiculous and even playing it on turn 4 is solid for board presence. 5-mana seems like a good spot for the advantage the card inherently gives.