Six Card Nerfs Coming - Naga Sea Witch, Spiteful Summoner, and More!
We'll see six card nerfs in a Hearthstone update sometime after the HCT Summer Playoffs. They will all be disenchantable for full dust value one the patch arrives. Please do not disenchant these cards until that patch!
- Naga Sea Witch - Cost is now 8, up from 5.
- Spiteful Summoner - Cost is now 7, up from 6.
- Dark Pact - Now restores 4 Health, down from 8.
- Possessed Lackey - Cost is now 6, up from 5.
- Call to Arms - Cost is now 5, up from 4.
- Crystal Core - Effect now makes all minions in your deck 4/4, down from 5/5.
We've got dedicated threads available to discuss each card nerf.
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf Discuss the Nerf
Reviews on Today's Nerfs Announcement
Here are some community thoughts on the nerfs in video format.
Announcement Blog Post
Quote from BlizzardIn an update that will arrive some time after the HCT Playoffs are complete, we will be making balance changes to the following cards:
Naga Sea Witch – Will cost 8 mana. (Up from 5)
In update 9.1, we introduced a rule change to increase the consistency of Hearthstone game mechanics. The change affected precisely when Naga Sea Witch’s cost change was applied to cards. This allowed it to be combined with the cost reduction effects on giants, and as a result, it became fairly easy to reduce their mana cost to 0.
We think Hearthstone is better all around when interactions are consistent, and we like the fact that a Naga Sea Witch giants deck archetype exists. That said, we also understand that, with its current functionality, this deck can generate early board states that are unreasonable for most classes to deal with. By increasing the cost of Naga Sea Witch to 8 mana, the deck’s concept remains intact, but the combo is delayed until later in a match when more decks are likely to have the tools to handle the arrival of so many giants.
Spiteful Summoner – Will cost 7 mana. (Up from 6)
After set rotation arrived with the Year of the Raven, Spiteful Summoner became more powerful and consistent when used in decks containing 10 mana cost spells. This is because the pool of 10 mana cost minions in Standard is smaller, so players could more reliably count on getting a powerful minion from Spiteful Summoner’s effect. Even considering the deckbuilding sacrifices that an effective Spiteful Summoner deck requires, we think that increasing the card’s mana cost to 7 is more in line with the powerful outcomes that are possible when it’s used alongside cards like Ultimate Infestation.
Dark Pact – Will restore 4 Health. (Down from 8)
There are two aspects of Dark Pact that make it powerful. At a cost of 1 mana, it’s easily used alongside cards like Carnivorous Cube, Possessed Lackey, and Spiritsinger Umbra for big combo turns. It also gives Warlocks enough healing potential so that aggressively using Lifetap and playing cards like Kobold Librarian and Hellfire feel less consequential. We left Dark Pact’s cost intact so it can still be used as part of interesting combos, but lessened the healing it provides so Warlocks will need to more carefully consider how much damage they take over the course of a match.
Possessed Lackey – Will cost 6 mana. (Up from 5)
Some of the card combos involving Possessed Lackey present situations that are too difficult to deal with in the early-to-mid stages of the game. Increasing its mana cost to 6 delays some of those powerful card combos to turns that are easier for opposing decks to overcome.
Call to Arms – Will cost 5 mana. (Up from 4)
Currently, there are three popular Paladin decks: Even Paladin, Murloc Paladin, and Odd Paladin. Among the three decks, Even Paladin and Murloc Paladin have consistently been the most powerful two archetypes over the first few weeks since the release of The Witchwood. Call to Arms moving to 5 mana restricts it from being used in Even decks and reduces its power somewhat when used in Murloc and other Paladin decks.
We expect that players will experiment with Call to Arms at 5 mana in Odd Paladin decks, but we don’t expect this card to have much of an impact. This is because Odd Paladin can’t access 2 mana minions (meaning Call to Arms could only ever summon three 1 mana minions if played in that deck).
Note: As a result of this change, we are adjusting the “Greymane’s Alliance” deck recipe. It will now have two copies of Saronite Chain Gang in place of Call to Arms.
The Caverns Below – The quest reward, Crystal Core, will read: For the rest of the game, your minions are 4/4. (Down from 5/5)
The Quest Rogue deck uses a strategy that’s strong against slow, control-heavy and fatigue decks, but struggles against most other deck archetypes. There’s a fine line between being powerful against very slow decks and being powerful versus virtually all non-aggressive strategies. By changing the quest reward to make the resulting minions 4/4 instead of 5/5, Quest Rogue should still be a reasonable option versus slow, extreme late-game decks, but offer a less polarized matchup with more moderate control decks.
I dont know why theyd nerf quest rogue again, blizzard should just remove the card from the game at this point if they want people to not use it that badly
Kick in the NUTS to the meta! Maybe not wholly deserved but then again holy crud this meta has been silly. Not as silly as Patches Creeper but still silly. All of these nerfs make perfect sense.
I feel like Possessed Lackey now being a 6cost is the biggest nerf for Standard but is still not wholly justified as the dumb Lego weapon still only costs 5 anyway. If one was getting nerfed the other should too, really. Then again the Dark Pact nerf is pretty huge so I can understand why they held back on nerfing the weapon.
t'd complain about Naga Sea Witch now being unplayable but I don't play Wild lol. Although I do wonder why they decided to break the card and then turn right around and nerf it into oblivion...
The weapon can be interacted with before it does anything. I personally don't bother running weapon removal because I can't stop the lackey shenanigans anyway, but I know I can stop the weapon from being a problem if I want to.
Is The Caverns Below the first ungoro card to get nerfed twice? Rip Even paladone. Odd paladin doesn't use many one drops for Call to Arms to be useful, still useable in Murlocdin.
I might be wrong but I think it's the first card since the classic set to be nerfed twice. Impressive for what the community voted the weakest quest!
Will "The Caverns Below" get full dust reimbursement, when the patch lands? The article doesn't say.
Come to think of it, the Blizzard announcement didn't mention dust AT ALL . . .
yes as always
Yes, check out the top of the article. All the cards offer full dust refund.
1) Did you click the link to read the Blizzard article, the link within the "Quote from Blizzard"? Blizzard did not mention dust this time, right?
2) Also, did you read the hearthpwn article? It says the 6 cards offer full dust, but Crystal Core isn't a craftable card, whereas my comment/question concerned "The Caverns Below", the related card. The article should clarify this, correct?
Please refute either of those 2, with actual quotes. I feel like I'm the only one doing research.
Spiteful nerf is too weak in my opinion. For a free tyrantus the spell should be eaten.
Was kinda hoping they'd nerf Tarim as well, but still, pretty good. However I think just nerfing dark pact to 0 mana and adding silence to the card text would've been enough, nerfing both it and the lackey seems a bit extreme. I also think that spiteful should be put at 8 mana, but still, pretty reasonable nerfs. One thing I'm scared of is that face mage will become absolutely insane, and we DEFINITELY DON'T want that. Easily the most bullshit and annoying deck in hearthstone atm.
EVEN paladin is dead - call to arms unplayable. ODD Paladin dont need tempo swing with three 1-cost minions for 5 mana
baku warrior buff with upcoming rogue nerf.
Hail secret mage!
No DK Guldan nerf?!?!?! :/
They don't want to give us our 1600 dust back =[
Call to Arms is now a odd cost card.
Oh boi
...maybe not. It will lack the Knife Juggler combos anyway.
I must say im honestly impressed. They nerfed those cards, but kept them playable. Wow.