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!
I think some simple changes (nerfs) could fix many of the big complaints without too badly impacting the game as-is:
Thoughts?
Raza rotates out very soon, I seriously doubt anything from that set is gonna get touched at this point. Doubt they gonna nerf Tempo altogether, especially since Cobalt Scalebane and Bonemare have survived the entire Knights expansion without any nerf. Cube doesn't need a nerf IMO, Corridor Creeper really does. But since this is Blizzard, you can count on it being nerfed to be on the level of Volcanic Drake or worse, Blizz doesn't nerf cards, they destroy them.
My 2 cents, which is also my hopes:
Corridor Creeper will be nerfed, hopefully in a way that still benefits Token decks tho.
The others will be simply HoFed later, Highlander rotated, and i doubt they care of Wild enough to touch Highlander cards now...
I also wish they changed Ice Block to make it leaving the hero at 1 when triggered, and not at a higher value if damage dealt is equal or higher than perfect lethal, for that subtle things means a lot very often... But again, it will be HoFed, so...
Thanks for the preemptive apology, but the insult wasn't necessary.
Building a deck with low-cost spells to draw into win conditions is difficult and requires creativity, yes, of course. But "creativity," to Blizzard and many players, is stifled to an extent when the same Classic cards continue to fill decks. As long as this happens, there's less likelihood players will experiment with new cards to create new archetypes. So I guess I'm talking about creativity in a larger context.
Whether you like it or not, Blizzard created the Hall of Fame for this specific reason, so Gadgetzan Auctioneer remains a likely inductee.
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ok, ok, but when are they going to unnerf my molten giant?
Never, because this whould confuse too many players x_X ...
They have stated at one point somewhere that if Molten Giant gets moved to the Hall of Fame sometime, they will consider un-nerfing it.
Very optimistic - but I whould like this. :)
Game will stray from f2p model even more, we will get another generic expansion with double legendaries, we will not get achievements or new game mode, tournament for example. They will rotate some cards, so we would buy even more packs.
They will rotate some cards, so we would get a ton of free dust.
What about applying the Faerie Dragon effect to Prince Kelseth and making him not targetable by spells or hero powers? One buff is fine but getting one or two additional ones is super deflating and feels like it puts the game out of reach early. The counter argument is they have to mulligan or draw the perfect setup, but it feels like it happens a ton!
"But Cubelock’s power, especially against aggro, can’t be understated" ye sure tons of aoe, spell damage, lifesteal and walls or turn 6 a 9 drop for 0 mana kinda fair, and im not even a aggro player
I think Velen could be another candidate. He could be nerfed so only healing effects are duplicated.
Velen is not a powerful card and won't see any play in standard when Raza rotate.
Ignore the downvotes. If people read the other news thread about the cards that didn't make KaC, the names Velen and Malygos kept popping up. These are strong HoF candidates even though they see little to no play. Salty priest players will downvote this, but you guys had you (3) turns, my strong advice is to learn to play a different class because priest will be 'hunter' tier at the rotation.