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.
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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.
Infinite Dark Bombs and health is just ridiculous
This nerfs are a good indication of how bad and unimpactful the last expansion was considering it came right after the rotation.
None of the nerfed cards are from the latest expansion.
But the nerfed cards synergizes very well with the new expansion, so the nerf was unavoidable now.
Ok, I did not expected that we would see such a big amount of nerfed cards!
Naga Sea Witch - She will be definitely unplayable in all decks without Giants package. I am playing mostly Wild, so I am glad that they nerfed it, but I would rather see this card with a reverted buff. However, they mentioned that they want to keep Giants decks alive, so this nerf is reasonable.
Spiteful Summoner - This is a small nerf which may change a lot. I do not think that this will end like Call of the Wild, because there are some good 6 drops to fill the curve, but the strength of Big Spell decks will be diminished. I expect some high cost minions with low stats in the next expansion.
Dark Pact - I was hoping for a Doomguard nerf instead. In my opinion reducing the healing was the best solution, since Skulking Geist is still a good counter (if he is not sitting at the bottom of your deck) and with Silence this card might become useless. I guess that all Burn/Aggro/Tempo Mage and Aggro/Even Shaman players will have an easier way to deal with Warlocks.
Possessed Lackey - In my opinion good nerf. This card will still be important for Warlocks and opponents will have an additional turn to kill them or deal with it. Less impactful in Wild, where Voidcaller + Sacrificial Pact combo exists.
Call to Arms - Dead card for Even Paladins, not so broken card for Odd Paladins (it still draws and summons three 1 cost minions) as I expect them using only one copy and still powerful card for all other Paladins. Good nerf.
Crystal Core - I do not really know how this nerf will influence Quest Rogue (Is it first card nerfed twice?), because I neither played against them frequently nor played with this deck.
Thank you! I started playing in LoE meta, so I do not have an experience with many pre-nerf cards.
Many control decks are already very strong against control lock. Control lock as it is now almost has no chance against taunt Druid. And the nerf just make warlock decks a lot weaker.
I routinely beat Warlocks. Have you tried "getting good" yet?
Imho dark pact should've been nerfed differently, remain its 8 heal but make it work as earth shock, make it silence the target before killing it, so the killing of your own minion would've been a downside as it was intended.
You will be slow now warlock. Your face will be my place. You will regret your dark pact.
DUST DUST )
good job, blizzard!!
can't believe i'm actually saying that considering nerfs
subtle, yet very effective and the stuff that needed to die, died
Great, now aggro will run rampant on ladder -_-
Welcome to Hearthstone, where not everyone can afford 10k dust control decks.
I Dont know.. Spitefull 7 instead of 6.. For the decks that beeing played it doesn't look like a big nerf :/
Spiteful is just so key to the decks that are playing it. To give it a harder nerf would kill those decks
Please, as a surprise, just add Dirty Rat to the Classic set with this patch and give everyone 2 copies.
These nerfs are awesome! Most cancer decks are nerfed and I'll get quite a lot of dust 4800 or so. Have 21 pacts btw :D