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!
Because you prefer Patches to be summoned to make your deck a little more consistent.. That is the whole point of that card, not running a 1/1 charge for 1
Patches is still going to see play in Aggro Token Druid, Corridor creeper can still be valuable for its beast tag to hunter and druid and because of its high base cost it's still good in evolve shaman. Bonemare is still a good card but not an auto include anymore (balanced overall). Raza is the only change I disagree with: many fun decks (not Razakus) did rely on the 0 mana HP and now are even more garbage and the fault is Anduin's :(
Yeah i also think that Patches will still be good in Aggro Token Druid. Corridor we will definitely see in Evolve Shaman. With Raza I was thinking something like "First time you use your Hero Power each turn it costs 0" but that would complicate card text, and no way they were going to change Anduin because it's a cool Hero Power, it fits well with the Death Knight theme, and think of the other Death Knights. Creating Anduin in this way forced them to nerf Raza, I agree that a 0 mana heal was cool (we can leave out Shadowform since there is an Anduin) but the Raza - Anduin combo was waaay too much.
where are the other two comments?
I wanted a slightly odd nerf where raza reduced hero power cost by 2 instead of to zero, which is really not a nerf just a change. but anduin would have gotten a more expensive hero power, like a 3 cost hero power. Because nobody really found themselves reliant on the hero power costing 2 and not three when they were in that situation, it was pretty much equally awkward to what it would be, but with raza it would then be not as good. That way they keep more cool interactions and just make the power level of razakus lower. Not that razakus was the problem right now, more it was the think keeping the problem in check, but every time they do a nerf on the thing keeping the problem in check something else pops up that is really insane, so I don't think warlock rage will last too much longer.
Honestly I'm tired of people bitching about the nerfs.
These were nerfs people were asking for for MONTHS, but all the community has to say about is, "Why didn't you nerf (Insert Card) too?!
If you nerf every good card in existence, sooner or later, Chillwind Yeti will be OP and need a nerf. The Slippery Slope is too much!
I'm just thankful I didn't craft any corridor creepers lol
Full dust refund, you should craft them if you can they're obviously really good cards and basically free.
Actually, they should hope to get them in packs. But crafting them is really just a neutral thing, so I am glad I crafted one for use evolve shaman (I pulled the other from a pack) but I will dust them I think, just to make something else cool. If I need them again someday It really won't be too bad since I will have not lost anything.
The Hunter card carrion grub (3 mana 2/5) see no play at all. Now you need to get Corridor Creeper to 2- cost to get the value instead of it doing okay at 3 or 4 mana (even on top deck a 5/5 body still doing okay when you have no card to play). 5 minions dead requirement before the 2/5 Corridor Creeper becomes viable seems a little bit harsh (especially after Patches moves out). However, I like the nerf, very like it
It saw play in hunter decks for a while, not that hunter was good, but it was a good card for hunter, hunter just did not have the tools to be good in general and has lacked those tools for a while.
If anything, this shows that Blizzard is keeping an eye on the Wild format (which I play 90% of the time). Bonemare nerf, yes. Raza nerf, YES! Patches nerf, sure! Corridor Creeper - 4/4 would've been fine, or even 4/3. A 2/5, I just don't get it, but I'm excited to see the changes.
just nerfing into dust as always
Like the changes to Bonemare, and pleasantly surprised that they changed Raza and Patches so as not to screw over Wild players for eternity.
Corridor Creeper's nerf is a bit extreme (3/5 would have been fine), and of course, it's disappointing they didn't anything about Psychic Scream, a more ridiculous card than any of the nerfed cards, in some ways.
Well they nerfed Raza, so I guess Psychic Scream is not that bad anymore... the idea of the card is otherwise pretty cool, though it kind of wrecks arena, but in arena you can fix the drop rates or even ban the card.
Well, Psychic Scream is as bad as ever in Arena (where it has had a horrible effect on the meta) and it still oppresses Aggro decks as much as ever, which just got massively worse because of the other changes.
no nerf for warlock really?
Yeah, that's on everybody's mind. Most likely they wanted to see how the meta shifts after these changes, but I'm guessing like everyone else there will be a total Warlock dominance. I hope they nerf that as well soon, I'm guessing Possessed Lackey.
Possessed Lack nerf to summon demon with 5- cost? Seems fair enough to me since WL will no longer have an insane wall to defense themself anymore. The combo with Doomguard still there in exchange.
I am guessing something will pop up we don't know about yet that kills warlocks but lost to the decks that were nerfed. That often seems to be the case. like how nerfing aggro shaman and all the decks that were competitive versus it allowed midrange shaman to be even more dominant. Or how razakus became good after the nerfs to pirate warrior and aggro druid making jade druid less overpowered.