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.
It says "We'll see six card nerfs in a Hearthstone update sometime after the HCT Summer Playoffs"
https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/esports/schedule/
Per the site, that is July 1st if they are considering the entire Summer event series.
Well, you're right. Let's hope they don't count it all.
But did they ever announce nerfs so early before the implementation?
Thank god they didn't do anything to Tarim. This is a good card.
LMAO at Caverns Below being nerfed twice.
These nerfs are fine for the most part (I can agree with some of the Paladin mains that have argued for Call to Arms), but only giving Spiteful Summoner a love-tap by increasing its mana cost by 1 is such a copout IMO. Now instead of stealing all of the tempo away from the game and winning the game with a 12/12 on turn 6, they have to wait until TURN 7! Wow, amazing.
The problem with Spiteful decks is that they have plenty of tempo-oriented minions in their deck and can wait until turn 6 with no issues in order to drop Summoner and win with a high roll. Moving that goalpost one turn away doesn't fix the problem. You could say, "oh, then there's really no way to nerf the card without completely reworking it", and yes, I'd agree with you. Bliz has completely reworked cards before to make them less powerful. Unleash the Hounds is a good example, since it used to have a completely different effect which was too strong, then was too strong AGAIN even with the weaker effect.
I could be wrong, who knows. They moved the goalpost one turn away from Caverns Below and that killed the deck (until this set hit), but as I see it, Summoner didn't even get touched.
i came back to hearthstone when witchwood was released after a 5 month break, and played about 100 games since and i didnt have a problem against any spiteful deck so far, i would say my winrate against spiteful decks is 80% or more. as i see it, they could have not nerfed the card and there would still be pleanty of spitefull decks for me to crush on ladder :D
I'm not looking forward to a ward of taunt druid sigh.
Can't say I'm a fan of the CTA nerf when I just dusted a lot of my collection to make Even Paladin. It's very powerful yes but compare that to how many answers most classes have for dealing with it, Cinderstorm, Reckless Flurry, Lightning Storm, Volcano, Duskbreaker, Hellfire, Defile, Consecration (to an extent), Vanish, Dragon's Fury etc etc. Most classes have an answer for it in some regard so I don't consider it powerful enough to get a nerf why is it magically a problem now when it's been in the game for nearly 6 months? Making a hero power cost 1 doesn't really affect the game all that much and the cards that are being played alongside CTA (most) have been in the game for years. It's Paladins only answer for getting back on the board after one of these said powerful wipes which is part of the playstyle of Paladin controlling the board with your minions until you can win because there aren't any powerful combos Paladin has anymore in Standard. Sure you can sometimes High Roll and get a Knife Juggler first but a lot of the time that never happens. Meanwhile Priest can get 4 Mind Blasts with Shadow Visions and kill you whilst also being able to proficiently deal with the board state, Priest and Druid can High Roll Spiteful Summoners to get a 12/12 Tyrantus or 12/12 Deathwing as early as turn 4/5, Warlocks can create a ridiculous and impossible to get rid of Board Presence for 6 mana ie. Lackey + Dark Pact. But by all means lets completely destroy 1 Even Archetype in the meta whilst barely nerfing these other cards which have been problematic for far longer than CTA.
They need to rethink the refund costs for these nerfed cards because I'm more annoyed I had to use so many resources to make this deck then it's completely gutted and all I get is the costs I made CTA for. I think it should be like Hall of Fame and you get full dust + disenchant cost back for it. Back to Odd Paladin I guess.
"I disenchanted my collection to craft X so I disagree with nerf" you are a genius, mate
"there aren't any powerful combos Paladin has anymore in Standard."
Get the fuck outta here.
You absolute salt mine, git gud.
i like how you listed all the aoe that will deal with it as if paladin plays only 2 cards in the deck and the aoe isnt worth anything afterward
LOL thanks for that. Next time think about it twice before disenchanting your collection ;)
this deck is easly countered and will hardly ever be considered op, op decks are ones that are strong overall with no hard counters like jade druid back in the day or maybe current cubelock.
Hadronox approves this
i dont play wild but can someone tell me why naga was op?
in trump's video he just showed a clip....in the first 2 minutes...
turn 5 or 6, naga +2 up to 4 or 5 8/8 giants.
try to come back from that
Because it worked with giants so on turn 5 you just fill the board with 0 mana 8/8s
Yes and no equality in hand in turn 5 and you lose. Cool no? I love when people are not able to understand.
idk why its hard for you to understand that a board of giants on turn 5 might be considered more than an usual mid game threat. ive never played giants deck or played against it and i can completely understand what richardwere is talking about and you look like a complete jackass trying to be wise lol