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!
Only sith deal in absolutes
It should be the same stats with higher cost like 8-9 mana and should only get cheaper when your minions die. but yeah you are right noone gonna play Corridor Creeper after the nerf.
Why are you complaining about them turning a card that was a 0 mana 5/5 into a zero mana 2/5 and sure it was sometimes as much as 2 mana, but they printed a 3 mana 2/5 beast for hunter and it saw play in every hunter, it was good enough to make the class semi-viable at the time it was printed. a cheaper 2/5 beast is nothing to scoff at, it would have been right for people to sleep on it pre-expansion, but it would not have been terrible.
I like the Patches nerf. All flavor is lost, but something needed to go since that card is in every single aggressive deck, even in Wild. Finding something to remove on a 1 mana 1/1 that is played for free is rather difficult, so this is probably one of the better solutions.
Bonemare nerf is good, though I'd say that it's a bigger problem in Arena than Constructed.
I don't like the Corridor Creeper nerf. Yes, it had to be nerfed, but with that statline it becomes just bad in every deck except evolve, and possibly decks that can really pump out minions. I would have preferred if its mana cost was simply raised so it becomes a card exclusive to swarm decks.
Raza nerf is really good. It's still an easy include in every Highlander deck.
My one concern now is that Cubelock will be overly dominant, although the demise of Highlander Priest may open up the field for other control decks to play a slower game with taunts to stop Doomguards.
Alas, poor Patches! I knew him, Valeera, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is!
My dearest Bard, these words of thine make my heart weep with sorrow. O how Ben the Brode said unto them: "Fear ye, for the mighty nerf hammer striketh beast and squid, living and undead alike!" And so it doth strike! Alas, dearest Patches, no more shalt thou lead the charge onto victory! Farewell!
Yep, those are undoubtely good news. But they should have nerfed it way sooner, because most likely those cards (Patches and Ramza) will rotate around next month, like always. Ah, I guess is better late than never...
There is a format called wild.
Yes. For some unknown reason. Thanks god only a few foolish persons play it so no cares about it.
Either you rotate as a hero, or be nerfed as a villain. Goodbye patches, so long my old friend.
To those worried about Cubelock. There are decks that are favored against Cubelock that are helped by these changes. To name a few, Control lock, big priest, big druid, kingsbane rogue, miracle rogue, tempo mage, even hunter is helped by these changes.
Yeah but Control lock might become a problem.
You wanted a control meta, you got it. Cubelock is gonna be a tier-0 deck post-patch.
Cubelock is more midrange/combo than true control.
I preferred the combo when it was a 0 mana 5/5 beast with charge
Do you read your comment before you post it?
I would appreciate if you pointed out eventual mistakes in my grammar instead of writing generic questions, English is not my mother tongue and I'm still learning. I think the general sense of my post is fairly understandable to people that are here to discuss the game changes.
Stuff like this makes me wonder why Blizzard doesn't just delete cards that break the game as badly as some of these and turn them to full Dust value instead of nerfing them to uselessness. Corridor Creeper and Patches may as well not exist anymore.