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
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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.
The Caverns Below got buffed against Anduin. Now Priest can't Pain or Death Rogue Minions Kappa
Still, they all die to a "cheap" Flamestrike
Sure but they also die to 2 hero powers instead of 3
Wait, so... no changes to Jabberwock ? :o
You mean the thing that everyone stopped playing 5 days after the expansion released that has one of the lowest winrates of any constructed deck right now?
Surprisingly, no changes.
It's not about winrate, my lovely young man.
This game don't need this type of decks.
From your words " everyone stopped playing 5 days after the expansion " - so if you don't play against it and don't understand main problem of this deck. Go and take a shower or drink a coffee.
I agree with you, but i hate this Shaman...and also i'am out of coffe tonight, so maybe that's why I'am so annoying.
Why you told me about winrate?? aggro or tempo decks, Tier 1 or Tier 2 - I'm all about another....
I know how to win against this deck.
It's a lot of slow decks, for example Reno decks in wild. But it's not possible to win against OTK Shaman.
Hearthstone don't need decks like OTK Shaman because many of other good decks are not WORKING.
Even CW or Big Spell Mage is not working against it if you play Standart,
And no one "stopped playing OTKwock" like you said. Visit Twich or Youtube (Toast or Dog or others).
That moment when you realise that this is the 2 e nerf to The Caverns Below
Warsong Commander 2.0! LUL
Edit:Editting to add that Warsong Commander got succesfully removed from the game,unlike Caverns which is still playable.
actually first the nerf was to caverns below...now the nerf is to crystal core
5 mana 2/2
8 mana 5/5
1 cost spell healing less than 0 mana restrictive spell
Ben Brode must be laughing now
Druids, druids everywhere.
Thanks Bizzard - Excelsior!!!
But I would like to give you an imaginary OSCAR for the best movie, unforgettable special effects and, of course, for the role of the second plan in execution of Lifedrinker
The Movie of the year of the Raven is - "OTK Shaman"
P.S. faster animation and limit of 20 spells - doing nothing. Hope people who read and evaluate this text, had more than 20 games against OTK Shaman in this few days.
Cool. 2nd time I'll get a dust refund for this lame rogue quest.
I'll take it. Thanks.
Little bit surprised about Spiteful. +1 Mana is a pretty generous nerf.
My magic will tear you apart. Thanks
You can't even imagine how it will tear in the Wild format after these nerfs.
Now that they have nerfed Aggro Paladin, Cubelock and Quest rogue... what brainless kids will play? Bli$$$ard is risking a lot of real money here