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!
Blizz is the biggest troll ever, nerfing Raza and Patches close to the rotation lmfao. Not that i'm complaining, sweet free dust :)
all these changes are perfectly fair in a world without warlock
i feel a strong 7 to a light 8 on this one
So patches is free 1600 dust (new flavour text should be "I'm no longer in charge", Razza probably as well, and they've decided to do this 3 months before rotation. Jeez.
I personally was a player that hates top tier decks and avoids playing them on principal in order for the game to be more fun and diverse. But now since I see these nerfs I'm convinced, that only those who play cancer decks get rewarded. Why try playing overload sham, when you can just tempo rogue to the top and then get your dust back?
I like this nerfs. I would like if they have came a bit earlier about creeper and bonemare, but in general good patch. I don't like the fact that patches now look too weak, but anyway it was too broken. I have mixed feeling for Raza. It is not bad that HP is 1 mana, but somehow doesn't look too useful now maybe? I don't know, but anyway that was good that it happen. I hope that in future we will see more frequent such balance patches after 1-2 month of ranked observation.
It's much more worth considering to play Spellbreaker in Midrange decks or Acidic Swamp Ooze/Harrison Jones and Skulking Geist in Hard Control when Aggro isn't putting that much pressure on Midrange anymore and when Highlander Priest's uncounterable (at least seriously) OTK gets removed.
Nerfing cards obviously implies there will be shifts in the metagame, and the two decks you're pointing out already have decent answers that would already be played if the metagame wasn't so pressured down by Aggro and Highlander.
Bonemare : M'kay. I think Bonemare was much less a problem itself and was rather simply frustrating to get wrecked by it for a bunch of players; although the real solution to Bonemare being frustrating to play against was simply to nerf early game and strong board presence cards (which they did), I guess the very strong Spiteful Summoner -> Bonemare plays from Spiteful Priest helped leading them to make that kind of "double-check" nerf for proactive decks.
That said the Arena argument is completely legit.
Corridor Creeper : Well that's harsh ! I was more into highering the mana cost or eventually reducing its health if they really wanted to change its stats (to make it more similar to that 6/4 for 6 Dragon with a similar mana cost reduction effect; Creeper's mana manipulation is better of course, but considering the Dragon was really not a problem, could have worked out I guess) . But okay, sure, burning it at the stake also works. In the end the card wasn't interesting and fair to use, even more so in aggro mirrors where the first to draw 1-2 Creeper was immediately favorite, in a very uninteresting way.
Raza : Oh yeah ! I was claiming that would be the good way to nerf it a few weeks ago (... I mean it's pretty obvious so okay, I'm not special at all :p). All in all it simply shuts down the "cycle everything, play a few board clears, then OTK. Easy peasy." playstlye, which is much more interesting gameplay-wise because it makes Highlander Priests win by attrition through playing real value cards instead of cycling into a few combo pieces. In the end, the deck will most likely be even better against aggro but simply much less oppressive for heavy control decks that will finally be able to revive, hard-countering aggro decks at last.
Most importantly, it shows Blizzard starts actually paying attention to the Wild format's health in the long term. Like, finally !
Patches : Cool for Standard. But mostly cool for Wild just like with the Raza nerf. Not much else to say.
Overall some really good nerfs. Gonna make Spellbreaker much more playable against Cubelock; time will tell if Cubelock really needs a nerf (10 mana 25 damage combo on top of an already good deck you say ?... :p)
These are the nerfs Gwent has been waiting for.
Would've liked to see a potential Doomguard, Voidlord, or Possessed Lackey nerf, but its nice to see oppressive cards like Raza the Chained and Corridor Creeper nerfed. Honestly based off of last nerf cycle I am surprised Polymorph wasn't bumped to 5 mana. I miss you 3 mana Hex T^T
Yay! Big Priest meta! This is going to be so much fun! Thank you! *sarcasm off*
Nice Patches and Raza nerfs. Just in time before they rotate out.
WOW!
Now, I could be a cynical bastard, expressing confusion there is no basic or classic card in there (though I'm sure we'll see something added to the hall of fame later this year), and all joy aside, it still sort of puzzles me why this happens now when Patches has been a problem card, one of the driving forces in the game since its release, and the Razakus BS has been going on since August...
but, I'm just kinda really happy. Not just because this puts an end to a lot of the crap that has been going on for so long now, but also because for the first time in almost two years (aside from Dreadsteeds gamebreaking potential), Team 5 actually, genuinely cared and showed some concern for Wild. They did not just shrug and be like "eh, they gonna rotate anyway", but instead recognized the potential of these cards to influence Wild for perhaps a very long time past their rotation. Wild still has plenty of super unfair cards, decks and combos, some of which should also be looked into, and there is still a whole lot more to do about WIld in general, but at least it won't have Patches every second or third match forever.
That being said, while I really hate Corridor Creeper, this nerf is brutal. I think a change of its mechanic would have been more reasonable. Given its popularity and power, it was like Piloted Shredder on steroids, and very unhealthy. I just wish we could have something between "OP AF" and "irrelevant".
As for Bonemare... I don't know, I think it would have been better to reduce its statline. Of course, the battlecry is more important, but at 8 mana, it's just not worth it anymore. If Arena was the main concern, they could have just banned it. Regardless, I hope that future common neutrals will be more like Bonemare and Scalebane, and less like Worgen Greaser and Backstreet Leper. I liked that KFT had some very strong but cheap cards that were a great help to new/budget players, and I hope to see a few more of those.
This is gonna be soo cool, now cubelock and demonlock will just dominate LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DECK, amazing ! with these nerfs, you just made the game worse blizz. Demonlock and cubelock will just fuck everyone in the ass now. Srsly why not a nerf to fucking voidlord ? that shit should be like 3-5 fucking 3-9 + 3-9 worth of stats, fucking insane. GG blizz, you just fucked us even more. I aint even gonna play ranked anymore, Im off to tavern brawl and casual boys ! See you next expansion when a new deck MIGHT be good enough to fuck with warlock
This is beautiful. Raza, Patches, and Corridor Creeper, good riddance. Patches, you'll probably still be around for a little bit, but the other two will be gone for good.
And Bonemare. Thank god. I didn't think it would ever happen. Nerfing Bonemare has restored my faith in the balance team quite a bit. They should have taken away charge from Patches sooner, but actually nerfing Bonemare and quickly coming down on Creeper is looking mighty fine to me.
95% META CUBELOCK? Well done Blizzard!
A 2/5 for 0 is not that unplayable...its a normal card now.
How would a 2/5 for 0 be a normal card? Do you see any 0 mana 2/5 minions anywhere in this game? You need to understand: it's a 7 mana 2/5 beast that has the potential to be played for 0. Is it worth including in your deck now that it's a seriously bad topdeck, but still a decent tempo play on a later turn? I'm gonna go with no as most players won't risk it for such a lower impact play on turn 3 or 4.
Now drawing Patches is worse than a tuskboar
I mean, thanks for letting me DE my golden creepers, but why make the card completely unplayable? I can't even picture where it would be played outside a crazy evolve shaman, and even then doubtful.
Also, thanks for nerfs, better late then never, I guess.
You missing something.
1)Corridor creeper will still be played in Shaman will Evolution stuff. Btw, I'm seeing Shaman getting better after these changes, cause of Devolve and Hex, while Cubelock is the last deck left on the top untouched.
2) Patches is not only good as 1\1 charge, but also cause it's an extra body for the buffs, trades, early game table wins and making your deck more consistent.
3) Raza gets nerfed for the Wild.