Patches the Pirate Loses Charge - Four Card Nerfs Coming in February
Four cards are being nerfed! These changes are not yet live and will be available in a February patch. They will all be disenchantable for their full value once to patch arrives. Please do not disenchant these cards until that patch - Blizzard won't help you out get the correct dust value.
- Bonemare now costs 8 mana, up from 7.
- Corridor Creeper now has 2 attack, down from 5.
- Patches the Pirate no longer has charge. His voice line will also be changing. (Source)
- Raza the Chained's effect now sets your Hero Power to 1 mana, up from 0.
We've got dedicated threads available to discuss each card nerf.
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Quote from BlizzardIn the upcoming 10.2 update, we will be making balance changes to the following cards:
Bonemare - Now costs 8 mana. (Up from 7)
Bonemare has been quite strong in both constructed and Arena. It has a big, immediate impact on the board, and since it’s neutral, it’s been finding its way into a wide variety of decks.
Increasing its mana cost by 1 will give opponents more time to utilize powerful late-game cards to counteract Bonemare’s effect on the board.
Corridor Creeper - Now has 2 Attack. (Down from 5)
Due to the way that Corridor Creeper’s mana cost reduction works, it can cause big swings based on whether or not it happens to be in-hand at the start of the game.
Since it’s a very strong neutral card, Corridor Creeper has been played by a lot of classes. By lowering its attack, we reduce the overall swing potential and power level of the card, but still allow players who draw it early to benefit from having a low-cost minion to play when the game state is ideal.
Patches the Pirate - No longer has Charge.
As we move closer to the new Hearthstone Year, we had some concerns about allowing Patches to remain in his current state after moving out of Standard. Patches’ strength has caused almost every class to add some Pirates just to benefit from him, and his early game power forces control decks to include a good answer to him. This change should give Wild players more flexibility when building their decks.
Removing Charge will lower his power level, ensuring he shows up in fewer decks and allowing opposing players some additional time to respond to Patches, making him less “in charge” of the early game.
Raza the Chained - Now reads: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, your Hero Power costs (1) this game.
In a similar vein to Patches the Pirate, we had some concerns about allowing Raza to remain in his current state forever. Raza is currently an important combo piece along with Shadowreaper Anduin, and can lead to games that rely heavily on drawing him by turn 5. Adjusting his Battlecry will lower his overall power level when combined with Shadowreaper Anduin in Standard, and keep his power level reasonable in Wild as we prepare for the new Hearthstone Year.
Once these card changes are live with Update 10.2 next month, players will be able to disenchant the changed cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in the tavern!
I dont think dark pact is actually problematic, its the rest of what warlock has along with it
Yeah, totally with you there. Everyone from rank 20 having to put up with Raza Priest in its dominant state for the most of two whole expansions is just not good enough; four expansions of flippin Patches is insanity.
Really wish Team 5 would increase the frequency of these balance patches and/or make their changes sooner after a new expansion releases, the game can get stale quite quickly for some of us. Perhaps the best case would be a smaller patch 3-5 weeks after an expansion hits just to hit the blatantly overpowered net-decks, then another one preparing for the next expansion/rotation that freshens things up by nerfing or reworking recurring, auto-include cards; I'd hate for Ultimate Infestation, Spreading Plague, Call to Arms, Psychic Scream and Spiteful Summoner to be left in their current states for the entirety of next expansion, much less all of next year.
I'd suggest Bloodreaver Gul'dan's Battlecry to be changed to 'Summons one of each friendly Demon that died this game.'
This would prevent the wutface moments we're getting at the moment where they either build yet another god damn wall or smack you about with six Doomguards. Voidlord alone ensures that Lackey decks such as Control and Cube (plus other non-demon meme builds - Mill, Dragon, my Cannibal C'thun Zoolock) remain viable, while encouraging alternative demon-heavy builds of Warlock such as Zoo and Kazakus... this would be a buff to the Quest, yes?
A Dark Pact cost increase would probably just mean it gets replaced with Sanguine Reveler; my issue with it is that it heals far too much for hardly any downside, or in a lot of cases with an upside. Though munching on a petty subordinate's life force is a pretty thematic way for a Warlock to heal, I think an instant eight health is far too much when one of the only real weaknesses of Warlock is (at least, it certainly was) in their vulnerable life total before the DK comes down; on-demand card draw, really powerful AOE removals, decent single target removal, and now a whole lot of ways to cheat out giant boards in the mid game, everything else is pretty much covered.
Rather, my suggestion for that would be to either delay its effect until the start of the Warlock's next turn, or so it scales based on the minon's total health and/or attack, so that it heals for much less if it's used on a Lackey or some other low-statted peon; if a Warlock wants a huge burst heal, like this they would then need to pay for it with a more substantial minion.
Interesting , since 2 cards roll out of standard, and are legendaries. Glad to get dust back from raza.
Best part about this is a full refund for the golden patches I crafted for the your deck is 30 of 1 card brawl. Loved it for that, and the fact that patches is in most decks didn't hurt, but I'll take the 3.2k dust in a heartbeat.
Edit: What is Firebat going to do with Deck Doctor now? No more Patches, Bonemare, Creeper Core lol.
Now I won't feel so bad when I forget about Patches showing up and end my turn before attacking with him. :D
In light of Patches no longer having Charge, Blizzard is changing his voiceline.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/7tu5l9/upcoming_balance_changes_update_102/dtf7hv4/
They already upped a 5 mana card to 6 mana and nerfed card that gave 2 mana to give 1 mana... You want more? It's Blizzard come on... Just be thankful it rotates out of standard and is not powerful enough in Wild...
Patches finally got patched.
I expected a few classic cards to be nerfed...
2480 dust (never bothered with razakus missing too many legendaries)
I kinda agree that Patches should be a bit stronger now that he doesn't have charge, but Southsea Deckhand would still be a problem. Maybe it's better that they left him as is. And Creeper... I think 3 attack would be perfect to be played alongside Bonemare, with 2 attack it's just useless now.
Patches was the first legend I crafted and was sad that he is rotating soon. Well... not anymore :D
Thanks Blizzard for 2.4k dust :)
Because Corridor Creeper is now worthless
Blizzard doesn't get it. Raza was never the issue. Heal 2 for 0 mana was never broken. The death knight Anduin's effect IS what the issue was. THAT card is what needed nerfed. I get really ticked off when a company nerfs a card that is not broken just because of its combination with another card, when the OTHER card is the one with the broken effect. This happened all the darn time in Yu-Gi-Oh which I used to follow a lot some years ago.
If I want to play a fun deck that focuses on minions that have effects when a character is healed (Shadowboxer, Holy Champion, Lightwarden...), the Raza nerf is hurting that. And why? Raza was never the issue in that sort of weird, unusual, fun deck. But it gets nerfed, which had no place to be, and only hurts fun decks that may have wanted to play a bit with that sort of thing. We're talking about non-OP, non-intrusive effects here. What needs nerfed is cards that allow to abuse an effect countless times and go infinite (Quad Sorcerer's Apprentice + Archmage Antonidas for example), generate far more than is healthy for the game's state (Gadgetzan Auctioneer), etc.
Big thumbs down towards Blizzard on that one.
But Anduin DK isn't broken, the combo is. Yeah, you can blame the DK cause it came after, but it's better to nerf the card that will leave Standard soon, than the one that will be stay one more year.
Raza is a problem. Zero mana anything is dangerous.
You must understand one thing: DK Anduin os cooler than Raza... Same reason why WotC banned the cat instead of a planeswalker in Magic when that stupid combo existed in standard.
the problem is raza on 5, dk on 8 and STILL have d discount... if Raza would only change ONCE current hp to 0, I think it would be much slower/less-consistent/still-good... :)
I think what a lot of people seem to be complaining about but missing the point is that it's okay to have Tier 1 decks in the meta. After so many previous seasons of being weak it's a chance for Warlock to take the front-row seat. The benefit of this change however is it gives other control decks a slight better chance to catch up as they no longer have to worry as much about the Raza-Anduin issues. There are counter cards in the meta that can deal with Cubelock if you so choose to (i.e Geist for Dark Pact, Hex/Polymorph for the Cube, plenty of weapon removal if you're bothered about Skull of the Manari or even cards like Spreading Plague to stop too great a charge combo). Yes, it will be a very strong deck, if not the strongest, but it does not have a 100% win-rate on the meta, and personally I don't find it too frustrating to lose against as I know that at least against it your decisions in play and deck designing do matter, unlike what has mostly been the case with Razakus.