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!
Pirate Warrior's existence has been a blight upon HS ever since it was discovered, two days after MSoG arrived. Reasons besides me not liking it?
- Every single broken control card we had last year was because of pirates
- Blizzard both nerfed it and released a tech the following expansion and it still steamrolled during Un'Goro, only to die halfway during KoFT
- Summoned by Jade apologists everywhere back when control wasn't this infinite mess
- Even Secret Paladin lacked this urgency for a counter, we had one expansion before Eater of Secrets was created
- The deck only "died" with a nerf to the whole class with Fiery War Axe getting shafted, so you guessed it: two nerfs, and a tech card to bring it down
- Patches is worse than Dr. Boom as far as must-have legendaries go. Not all games have a turn 7, but almost all of them have turn 1 and 2, so even if Pirate Warrior wasn't a problem by itself, the card is
- All in all the real culprit for the meta we have today, along with Jades and Discover
Those seem good enough for me.
My reasons were entirely objective with the exception of the third one. The deck made the game worse by existing, and even aggro players ended up disliking the consequences of Pirate Warrior's influence. A deck being OP isn't what this is about anymore. This is about how detrimental this deck was for Hearthstone.
Any deck, hmm? Go for it. Tell me how my reasons apply to Freeze Shaman and how it ended up shaping and worsening every expansion following its introduction.
Because it's a deck that isn't fun to play against and requires no skill or thinking whatsoever to pilot it. It also limits the options of other decks and forces them to be faster to counter it, lowering the variety of the meta which makes the game stale. No one can play interesting decks if they're getting killed by turn 5 or 6.
Overall it was just a detriment to the game and good riddance.
What are you talking about? You literally asked: " Why? Real reason not that "you don't like it" "
Myself and other people gave you several good reasons why, none of which were: "we don't like it"
Blizzard obviously doesn't won't pirate warrior being good forever either or they wouldn't have nerfed its major cards. True, these nerfs weren't just for pirate warrior but I'm pretty sure it was in their minds when they made their final decision.
In the end we can argue about it all you want but the fact is Blizzard doesn't want pirate warrior or the "pirate package" to be forever good in wild or standard and so they stamped it out. Cry all you want about it being unfair but it won't change anything.
Pirate warrior has been around for ages and has been prominent in every standard and wild meta since MSoG. Other powerful decks (e.g. patron warrior, undertaker hunter, quest rogue) have come and gone and been replaced. If they left pirate warrior as it was before the fiery war axe, patches, small-time nerfs it would forever be this limiting factor in what blizzard could do with new cards.
They even mention it above: "This change should give Wild players more flexibility when building their decks"
Ever wonder why we haven't seen any powerful pirate cards since patches came out? If they left the pirate package un-nerfed and made new, strong pirate cards it would be OK for standard play but in wild you would have this unstoppable pirate deck that would be even more broken than it used to be.
There are always going to be strong, meta defining decks in this game but do we really need a dull, un-fun face deck that restricts gameplay options existing forever? It looks like myself and MANY people, including Blizzard, think not.
Your entire argument for keeping these cancerous decks which were so OP that they had to be nerfed twice is that all decks should exist, regardless of people's wants? In the end, Hearthstone is a business and like all businesses it must respond to its customers. So "I don't like it" is a VERY valid argument on why a deck should not exist if enough people don't like it - which is obvious if you pay attention to the comment boards and salt threads.
Why keep something that EVERYONE in one shape or form hates? What good is that doing besides letting brainless players (and bots) climb the ladder. The truth of the matter is that Pirate warrior polarized the hearthstone community, and polarization is never healthy or provide fun for the game.
You keep saying that we NEED to give YOU a reason beyond "I don't like it", but the thing is that we don't need to give you more than that. Its a deck and play-style that nearly ran me out of hearthstone.
I read - you said:
they could revert the nerf to FWA or STB now tbh, without patches the dekc loses a lot.
Wow, he agrees!
Yeah, it's kinda funny watching you trying to make everyone but you seem wrong.
Cute.
When are these nerfs coming ?
Since the 3000 pack lottery is starting tomorrow, and that probably needs an update, I would guess...tomorrow!
As someone who loves the Warlock class, even I cant stand Cubelock. You can guarantee after these nerfs all you will see are scruffy, scabby Cubelocks. Grim times ahead.
So, I have about 2K and only 2 Bonemares out of this set of cards getting the Nerf. I don't fully understand how the dust refund works. Can anyone give me some tips on that? What's my best strategy here?
The "dust refund" means that after the patch hits, for two weeks you can disenchant the nerfed cards for their crafting cost (Raza and Patches for 1600, Creeper for 400 and Bonemare for 40). With only 2 Bonemares, you don't really have a strategy other than keeping both since that card will still be pretty good after the nerf.