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.
You say " Crystal Core - Effect now makes all minions in your deck 4/4, down from 5/5." the picture of the card say "for the rest of the game your minions 4/4" these are different. if it will make all minions in your deck 4/4, minions in your hand and on your board will not be 4/4. they will be same. which one is true ? does anyone know ?
Read the card text, not the blue text. SMH
its the same effect with -1/-1 thats all
It will play like it did after you play the quest except they will be 4/4s.
Please re-read again if that doesnt make sense.
please re-re-read again if it didnt sink in
Please dont bother if you have to read it this many times.
Lol, nerfing Core again.
I liked Kibler's thoughts on core... not that the quest was too strong but that being able to complete the quest early (say turn 3) and having prep that worked on the quest reward was lame/overpowering.
Hey, psst, Blizzard.
What about the 0 interactive and 0 fun of playing against Shudderwock?
What do you mean, they already tried to make this deck more enjoyable for both players by speeding up the animation. It is no longer raining keyboards from all the ragequits that were happening...
I haven't run into a shudderwock deck since the first few days of the expansion.
Although I do hate that card - and really can't understand why they would print it after the Yogg disaster they made, a good portion of viable decks can deal with Shudderwork.
The only way they should balance is to look at the top decks and try to event things up. Because of that Shudderwork is rightfully not in the list. STILL - they should cap it's battlecry at no more than 10 because 10+ minute turns suck. But I try to remind myself that it was my fault to let the game go that long.
Also the deck sucks
All Even Paladin players that crafted Genn for this 60% wintate deck are -1600 dust screwed :)
I noticed the raise of Even Shaman deck, still I don't get which is the winning condition aside for spamming board for giants, can you light me plz? =)
you know what did not get hit at all? you know what will rise from these ashes? you know what will be the next cancer deck?
the answer: Odd Paladin
Call to arms probably will not be in odd paladin. No. I am more worried about a rise to tempo mage, they are already the most hated by pros. Cubelock may still see some play, maybe some spiteful decks, but if mages become the dominant meta... we will all be screwed
Tempo mage loses to all aggro decks, I don't see that changing after the patch.