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!
really auctioneer is a problem but ultimate infestation is just fine ?
auctioneer isnt even over represented , dont think ice block is a problem either it feels pretty fair most of the time , if youre winning a board against a class that doesnt fight for it much that doesnt mean youre winning the game , corridor creeper id definitely wanna nerf its everywhere , when patches is moved to wild i think it might be more fair , maybe make it a 4 4 or bump it up to 9 mana , as for cube lock maybe add , deathrattles of killed minions dont activate instantly , or silence a minion then kill it , or maybe make it cost slightly more, cubelock is a bit hard to balance i think , i feel spiteful summoner is fair , its a good card sure but its not in every deck , it has fair restrictions on it , and most decks today can either kill you or have a remove a minion card by turn 6 / 7 .
Moving it to being a "die before doing anything" class isn't exactly the direction I'd like Mage to go, though. xD Let's hope we get a suitable replacement for Ice Block, if it's really going to leave Standard. :/
This is just complaining about the cards that are particularly good in Standard right now. Like bringing up the idea of nerfing most of these is unreasonable, there's ways to beat all of these that aren't insanely hard to to. Just because a card/deck gives certain decks a hard time doesn't mean changes are needed; non 50-50 matchups are part of card games. The only thing with a plausible argument for being brought up here if Corridor Creeper, and only because of the Azure Drake factor of it being in so many decks automatically and swinging games early on, not because it's too staggeringly powerful or anything.
It seems OP is hardcore aggro player. Whining about ice block, really?
Oh FFS, ice block is equally unfunny to play against for everyone, not only aggro players. Remember, you can get any reasonable amount of armor and still die in 1(2) turns to the ridiculously interactive combo
iceblock allows controlish mage decks that take MORE THAN 4 TURNS TO KILL YOU, to barely even survive in a meta full of either unbeatable aggro (cta, patches, creeper) or absurdly strong combo decks. Ice block is not even an issue, the only decks who care are aggro decks were it can buy them another turn to live. OPs point is that iceblock is the last last concern when it comes to nerfs, and that only an aggro player would ignore the major issues in that archetype.
I think the OP is exaggerating. I know these are personal wishes, but apart from Ice Block andCorridor Creeper and Bonemare I can't see any other card nerfed.
I am surprised that Bonemare wasn't mentioned.
Gadgetzan Auctioneer is a long story. If they wanted it rotated out, they would have done it long ago.
People have replaced Bonemare's spot in decks for Corridor Creeper. They would much rather have the tempo of a cheap 5/5 than the mid/late-game power of Bonemare. Just think about it, when was the last time you've seen bonemare in this meta?
Odds are, if Corridor Creeper get nerfed, people will just start playing Card NameBonemare again.
On an unrelated note, I really hope they don't nerf the effect of Psychic Scream. Mana wise, I can understand making it 8 mana, as it would still be playable, but realistically a 9 mana Psychic Scream would be really hard to justify, as many aggro and tempo decks will have won by that turn
scream it self isnt an issue. The issue is a priest can duskbreaker turn 4, potion turn 6, then scream turn 7. After a point vs priest theres just no way to build a board. Something needs to go but not necessarily scream.
You forgot Holy Nova 5, if you are facing a really odd/crazy control Priest lol
Haven't heard dark pact be suggested as a card they nerf, that makes a lot of sense to me since it appears to make possessed lackey too powerful for what blizzard intended. Making it say 2 mana would probably be a pretty fair nerf to the deck, but unless they also hit skull or void lord the deck might still be too strong in blizz's eyes so I feel like some other card will get hit too.
For Priest, I think blizzard will just wait which makes me very sad.
The only card I really expect to be hall of famed is ice block, since its been against blizzards core game philosophy for years. I really feel its hard to argue that keeping ice block in standard is beneficial to the game.
Lastly, I think they will nerf hex to 11 mana (why did you take hex and rock biter weapon from me blizzard!!! :( )
The issue with HoFing GA is that, at least in terms of the classic and basic rogue sets, it no longer leaves the class with any distinct form of archtype. Rogues are then entirely dependent on what the new expansions have to offer in order for rogues to have a non-miracle deck from classic to fall back on if the new rogue archtype in the next expansion(s) fail to take off.
This is exactly the same type of position that shamans are in right now (ie most of their classic/basic cards are terrible and they are completely dependent on whatever the new expansions bring for them. When Freeze Shaman failed to take off the class suffered greatly because the expansion offered it too many failed and useless cards). I don't want that to end up happening to rogue or any other class since it greatly increases the risk of expansions creating obvious 'winner' and 'loser' classes with each expansion.
if they hof ga i will just quit the game. Blizz dosen't understand how to make balanced decks and always give rogue utter trash cards. There will be periods were miracle is the only good rogue deck (tempo rogue doesn't count, its cancer). For along time miracle has been the last remainder of a time of awesome fun decks and to see it go would be very sad.
This discussion in a nutshell:
Non-rogue players: "Nerf/HoF GA!"
Rogue players: "FUCK YOU PLEBS!"
I don’t really see a problem with ice block
My fix for cubelock would be to remove the demon trait from Voidlord. Voidlords are even demons anyway so there is no real reason why it should bea demon. This would still leave Voidlord as a great wall to put up on turn 9. The important thing is that it makes it impossible to cheat it out with Lackeys or the Skull and it wouldn't be brought back with Bloodreaver Gul'dan. It could still be brought back with N'zoth so there is still some good uses for it.
Yeah, but realistically would you spend an entire turn summoning Voidlord if you couldn't summon it any other way?
uhm.... yes