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'm sure these brain dead players will play control lock because thats also a brain dead deck
Faster changes than usual, and by "than usual" I mean not desperately slow as it normally comes.
In all honesty, I'll just log in and dust the nerfed cards - Then proceed to not play Hearthstone. The game's core design was already damaged to a point of no return, you can bet whatever you want that the metagame will just find its next big stale point within days of the nerfs. That combined with Blizzard's ineptitude in making changes to the game like tournament UI, better MMR, real ladder fixes (not this bandaid they did, that will need change later anyway) and all these other simple things that are obvious to every player in the entire world except for the people ahead of Hearthstone are the reason I have not touched Hearthstone for months and will continue not to.
I'll just continue to play MTG:Arena while I wait for Artifact.
If you don't play the game anymore, why even log in to dust the nerfed cards? Just leave the game permanently and leave this site while you're at it. We don't need anymore toxic people like you in the community, we already have enough.
Is this actually a buff to odd paladin? Tbh the card is still good enough to run
This is a good buff for odd Pally for sure. Summon three 1-drops into play is half way decent, and it still has the deck thinning benefits. Certainly better to auto-summon than draw those past the mulligan phase.
Odd Paladin won't be able to summon Knife Juggler and other heavy 2 mana cards, so no, definitely not a buff. The only things they would be able to summon are 1-cost minions, unless they drop Baku. But I'm stating the obvious here as it's in the post above. Which you apparently didn't read :p
The only bad thing about the nerfs is the fact that you don't get all the dust you spent to make the deck, you only get the full dust for 1 card. If someone plays quest rogue, they probably play Sonya Shadowdancer too, and other cards the deck uses (I don't play it so i don't know). The fact is: When blizzard obliterates a deck like they made with raza priest, you don't get your dust back, you get the dust back for only 1 card of that deck, and the other cards you also crafted to make that card and now they are unplayable? This is what pisses me about hearthsone way of nerfing. If the cost to make a legendary were cheaper at least...
That logic is ridiculous honestly. It's like you're saying that X deck is the only deck that runs X cards. Like the Razakus deck was the only one who runs the Anduin DK.
Ok got all the cards except the caverns card ... ah well dust refund without disenchantment
All 6 nerfs are good. Almost too good for Mage though. Blizzard, you forgot the Explosive Runes, but it is not too late!
Cta ( die in pain paladins ) Even if odd paladin will work still no concecration no equality no wrath ~ rekt #FEELSGOODMAN. And i dont even care if i get downvote on this am so satisfied :) Rip shity paladin
That Naga Sea Witch nerf though... I agree that a nerf was kinda needed but THIS heavy handed?? The card's cost got increased by 60% lol.
Not heavy handed enough on the Rogue Quest in my opinion. That deck should have been nuked from orbit and 80% of the people I've talked to agree. Should have been ,,For the rest of the game your charge minions have +1 Attack,, for all I ( and most players ) care. Still seems that if you finish the quest you win pretty much.
Spiteful Summoner and Call to Arms are both good changes
And now for the most disappointing part at least in my opinion...Very heavy handed on the Cubelock stuff. One nerf was more than enough. You know what required 2 nerfs? Jade Druid in early KotFT and Cubelock is nowhere near that power/feels bad to play against level. To be honest...I think that only the 6 mana Possessed Lackey would kill the deck because ,,cheating,, 2 mana on turn 7 to get 9 isn't powerful at all. It's pretty much a pre nerf Innervate but it only works when you have 7+ mana and only on demons and it's also dead if your demons are in hand / lackeys are at the bottom. Especially if the 9 mana card is so vulnerable to silence ( Voidlord ) or straight up removal before being comboed ( Doomguard ) . And then ALSO cutting the healing on Dark Pact by 50%?? I guess Warlock didn't get countered enough by direct damage and Face Mages were struggling to win by pointing spells at face ( they were not ) . These nerfs are also bad because they also kill Control Warlock. I guess Blizzard wants us to play Zoo or something...play minions on curve and hope to run over the opponent...that's a lot more fun to play as/against right? Well I guess that people that think so will be happy now.
I've played a lot of Cubelock, got legend with it even though I already had the card back just because I wanted to get legend once with a skill intensive deck. I am not necessarily sad about it being destroyed since I've played it so much I got my fill of it. But the thing is...this nerf shows that Blizzard will nerf any deck if the salty babies cry enough and that is very disappointing. So that means any tier 1 deck can be nerfed no matter how balanced it is ( regarding winrate , playrate , tech cards , counter decks , etc...) So the Cubelock haters may celebrate now...but if they play long enough...their favourite deck will be tier 1 one day and it will be nerfed no matter how undeserved it may be, because the hs community is full of toxic ,,This deck beats me so nerf it! ,, people and Blizzard is listening to them.
I just loose the drive to play this game when I know that every time a fun and balanced deck is tier 1 ( and let's be honest...a fun deck is even more fun when it's good in the meta ) it will be nerfed because of these people... These are without a doubt the worst nerfs they've done in my opinion and I've played since beta. I will wait and see...but the incoming meta looks bleak indeed.
Damn, the The Caverns Below nerf makes "Even Quest Rogue" unplayable now...
Thanks Blizzard
they shoulda just made the quest buff all your minions to "1/1" to literally kill it. they've had to nerf the card twice now. just delete it from the game already.
Uhh, not sure if you're trolling or not, but Even Quest Rogue was never playable. 1 Mana is an odd number...
Spiteful will still be played but not as unfair is it used to be
Cubelock will be a tier 2 or tier 3 deck now
Quest rogue i believe will be a tier 2 deck too
Odd paladin will take over even paladin and murloc paladin now
My guess is tempo mage is the new boss ( its just a guess chill )
Don't forget about Druid. Taunt Druid is untouched.