Upcoming Hearthstone Rule Changes - Copy Cards, Transform, Shadowboxer Nerf and More
Blizzard is introducing some more mechanical changes to the game starting with the Boomsday Project patch.
- Ghostly Charger is losing the Beast tribe.
- Ixlid, Fungal Lord is losing the Elemental tribe.
- Shadowboxer will now only deal damage when a minion is healed, not any character.
- Shifter Zerus, Molten Blade, and Shifting Scroll now all lose enchantments when they transform.
- Voodoo Doll's curse is removed on a minion if it transforms.
- Voodoo Doll's curse is also removed if Voodoo Doll itself is silenced or the minion with the curse is silenced.
- Copied cards will get all enchantments the original card has unless the card is in the graveyard.
Shadowboxer will be disenchantable for full dust for two weeks when the patch hits.
Discuss Card Changes
We've made threads for each of the three main card changes. Click on any of the buttons below to visit their dedicated threads.
Discuss the Nerf
Discuss the Change
Discuss the Change
Blog Post
Here's Blizzard's full post. It's worth the read!
Quote from BlizzardDr. Boom’s bringing more than just mayhem to the Netherstorm. The 12.0 update will also come with several rule changes to Hearthstone’s gameplay. Read on to learn about another minion Type update, the copy a card rule change and the transform rule change.
More Minion Type Changes
There was a ton of feedback following the last minion Type update we posted, and after reviewing all of it, we realized that there were a couple more minions that needed changing. Here are our decisions following the full review of your feedback.
Ghostly Charger
We made a decision that, at least by default, spectral/undead/ghost/spirit versions of animals are not considered Beasts in Hearthstone. There are quite a lot of these sort of cards, most of which are already not Beasts, and changing them would have extensive balance implications.
Ghostly Charger is one of those cards. Clearly a ghost in both its name and art, its Beast tag has also not been relevant in any significantly used interaction. As a result, we’re planning to remove the Beast tag in a future update.
In the much rarer case of spectral/undead/ghost/spirit versions of Dragons, Murlocs, Pirates, and Elementals, they will still remain their Type. There aren’t a whole lot of these cards, but there are a few, and they’re already consistently their type. Examples of these are Ghost Light Angler, Cursed Castaway, Bone Drake.
Ixlid, Fungal Lord
World of Warcraft uses a looser definition of Elemental than what we decided to standardize on for Hearthstone. In Hearthstone, an elemental is something that has been brought to life by being inhabited by an elemental spirit, but is otherwise not alive. These are easy to recognize: a Fire Elemental looks like a living creature made out of fire; A Water Elemental looks like a living creature made out of water.
One of the biggest outliers to this definition are plant creatures. There are a ton of minions in Hearthstone that are some sort of plant. We’ve decided that these do not count as Elementals in Hearthstone. Examples of these include The Voraxx, Fen Creeper, Biteweed, Vilespine Slayer, Rotten Applebaum.
Ixlid, Fungal Lord, is by this definition, a plant creature. Although we’re committed to consistency, there are also other criteria that we consider when changing card Types. One of them is how often a card’s current Type matters when it comes to interacting with other cards. Ixlid’s Elemental tag is not significantly used in current decks, so we’ve decided to remove it in a future update.
We also looked at the following minions but decided against making any changes. We’ve included our thought process as to how we came to our decisions with these cards.
Kindly Grandmother
Kindly Grandmother/Big Bad Wolf looks like a Worgen (which are not considered Beasts) but is actually some other sort of wolf-like creature that is a Beast. The Beast tag is also extremely relevant to its gameplay, and defines most of the card’s intended usage. With this in mind, we will not be changing Kindly Grandmother’s/Big Bad Wolf’s Type. In the future, we’ll be more careful to make the art clear when it comes to Worgen or similar races.
Arcane Giant / Arcane Golem
On top of Elementals and plant creatures, there’s another category of things that have been brought to life via magical animation. These are creatures like War Golem, Arcane Giant, and Avian Watcher—which are not Elementals.
Arcane Giant, Arcane Golem, and The Curator are all examples of another sort of creature collectively referred to as Arcane Golems. These mechanical constructs utilize arcane energy as a power source, with The Curator being a Mech Type as part of his character in the One Night in Karazhan Adventure. This is actually subtly different from something like War Golem, which is carved from stone and then magically animated. While the “golem” definition refers to something that has been magically animated and is therefore neither a Mech nor Elemental, both Arcane Giant and Arcane Golem’s card art don’t clearly show them to be one or the other. Since the correct type for these creatures is so unclear, we will be leaving them unchanged for now, but would love to hear what you think.
Bogshaper
Bogshaper seems to be the same type of creature as Ixlid or Fen Creeper, and that would logically lead to removal of its Elemental tag. However, as mentioned above, we look at more than just the fantasy of a card when determining if it needs a Type change. While Bogshaper’s fantasy criteria checkbox is filled, it’s currently heavily utilized in the meta, and features in many decks, including that of the 2018 Summer Champion, Bunnyhoppor.
We are holding off on changing Bogshaper’s Type for now, but would love to hear what the community thinks we should do in this case. We’re also considering making this sort of change when a card rotates to Wild.
Copy A Card Rule Change
Card copies currently only retain enchantments when both the original card and its copy are in play—think Molten Reflection. In Update 12.0, this rule will be updated to match the one regarding enchantments being retained when a card transitions zones.
Zones in Hearthstone are defined as areas where cards are hosted: your deck, your hand, in play, and in the graveyard. In Hearthstone, there is a general forward-moving flow through zones. Whenever a card moves forward in that flow (Deck -> Hand, Hand -> Play, Deck -> Play), it retains enchantments. If a card moves backwards in zones (Play -> Hand, Hand -> Deck, Play -> Deck, Play/Hand/Deck -> Graveyard and Graveyard -> Play/Hand/Deck), it loses enchantments.
With this update, card copies will retain enchantments in the following scenarios.
- Cards that are resurrected currently do not and will continue not to retain any enchantments, unless specifically stated otherwise.
- If you copy a card from a deck to a deck, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Archbishop Benedictus)
- If you copy a card from a hand to a hand, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Mind Vision)
- If you copy a card from play to play, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Molten Reflection)
- If you copy a card from a deck to a hand, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Thoughtsteal)
- If you copy a card from a deck to play, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Mindgames)
- If you copy a card from hand to play, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Kobold Illusionist)
Transform Rule Change
When transformed, a Hearthstone card typically loses all of its enchantment. Most cards in game already obey this rule. However, there are four cards that we are changing to keep in line with the rule, as part of this consistency pass.
Shifter Zerus, Molten Blade, and Shifting Scroll all transform in your hand at the start of every turn. Following the 12.0 update, they will no longer keep any enchantments when they transform. This includes things like hand buffs and Emperor Thaurissan mana-cost discounts.
The impact on Voodoo Doll is a little different with the update. If you transform the minion that’s already been cursed by Voodoo Doll, the curse will be broken, and the transformed (and formerly cursed) minion will not be killed when Voodoo Doll dies. Silencing the cursed minion will also break the curse, in addition to silencing the Voodoo Doll.
Shadowboxer Update
Since the creation of the Lifesteal keyword, Shadowboxer has been a high risk card, in that it can trigger off of itself and deal up to 30 damage in one turn if you ever give it Lifesteal. Because of this, we have changed it to: Whenever a minion is healed, deal 1 damage to a random enemy.
Once Shadowboxer’s card change is live with Update 12.0, players will be able to disenchant it for its full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.
Do Valeera DK copies keep buffs? Would it technically be going from played -> to hand or hand -> hand. Makes a difference in Kingsbane rogue. You could in theory play original kingsbane then play the copy, which shuffles the other in your deck. Do this as many turns as you want to never fatigue with no drawback. Currently the copies do not retain buffs.
This is because of witchwood grizzly, when they changed the art. He is a beast but his art portrayed him has a ghost beast. Ghost beasts are not beasts so they changed the artwork. For the pally card he is a ghost not a beast. Regiskillbin explains it better than me on YouTube 2 weeks ago.
Is that mean when you copy Kingsbane with Valeera the Hollow the copy retains all buffs? Gnomeferatu is crap card right now.
dear blizzard: why aren't Void Crusher, Voidwalker, Voidcaller, Voidlord and Void Ripper not/also considered elementals?
Because they are demons
The same reason Naaru aren't elementals
Because void ins't an element.
Because lifesteal lets the shadow boxer do potentially 39 dmg, and only with 2 cards
I still don't understand why Blizzard feels the need to remove the beast tribe from "ghostly beasts" , it's ceirtanly not to keep up with WoW lore since in World of warcraft there is such thing as spirit beasts, which count as beasts and are tameable by hunters.
They're exotic so only BM hunter can tame them. Besides, i get your point but you're kinda off since Spirit beasts are "unique", each of them are named and have a specific identity (need proof on that, haven't played hunter since mop). Also in WoW, creatures can only be flagged with one "tribe", which reflect its current state : dead beast for exemple would often have the undead or demon in some cases pretty much like the horses in shadowfang keep (Shadow Charger for exemple).
This change, while totally unecessary at the moment may allow Blizzard to make space for new tribes such as undead.
Honestly I think it's a shame to nerf old cards which by no means are overpowered. I see why they limit design space for some new cards but still.. For example the dreadsteed nerf killed a very fun and semi-competetive card entirely when they could've just chosen to make deathrattles trigger after defile casts. Defile would still be great.
Good changes. Consistency is something Blizzard is learning to keep in line after the Tess debacle.
btw I still think they should have nerfed her, just been honest about it and given out the dust, maybe make a statement about why it was important to step away from a "standard pre-nerf Yogg."
P.S. - UNNERF YOGG
Once again, no dust for the nerfs (excepted Shadowboxer).
Not a good move Blizzard...
Yeah now my beast paladin and elemental druid decks are ruined
All of these changes are nerfs and warrant a full non-negotiable dust refund. Soon any card change will only B seen as a correction and not a nerf. Blizzard is trying to groom the community into accepting their changes and not expecting anything in return 4 their mistakes and failures.
We are now at a very dangerous tipping point where corporations R so BIG that they can do whatever they want without fear of being punished. It's time to speak with our wallets since our words R worthless 2 Blizzard, boycott this expansion and burn all of your card backs.
It may sound silly, but in case of Shifter Zerus and Molten Blade and Shifting Scroll, a refund would be warranted. Ghostly Charger, I agree, is not really that relevant, but the others are to some extend, I'd say. Ghostly Charger should belong to an "Undead" type, that I have been kind of waiting for since Naxxramas, but different story... maybe someday.
While it's not exactly part of any utilized strategy, giving these cards buffs while they are in hand or in the deck adds to their strength, and gives their unpredictable flexibility a clear upside. Shifter Zerus can be improved with effects such as Smuggler's Run or Prince Keleseth, and from there is a random minion +1/+1 or higher. This makes it easier for the card to turn into something a player may find useful in a given situation. Instead of waiting for a minion with a good or even fitting effect, you may also wait for a minion with a helpful statline, and these effects contribute to that.
Same with Molten Blade: Effects from Hobart Grapplehammer or Grimestreet Pawnbroker make it easier for the transformation to suit your needs, and add to the potential of the card itself.
What matters for Shifting Scroll is especially the option to discover it from Primordial Glyph. When other options are less inteteresting, the Scroll can be any random spell with a 2 mana discount. With this change, picking the scroll is almost always the worst choice since you are giving up on the discount that Glyph should provide.
Since the buffs will no longer carry over to whatever these cards transform, they lose some of their utility and power, and are thus worse versions.
As for the Elemental/Mech considerations: I think it's kind of silly to say that The Curator is a mech for some reason and Arcane Golem and Arcane Giant are not, because they don't look mechanical enough. Not only do I disagree on the latter (Arcane Golem certainly does look like a mech to me), but it would also obviously contribute to consistency, which is the point of this entire update. I can understand that War Golem is feeling different enough (though a tribal tag would give the card at least some kind of upside), but when The Curator and the other two cards look like they belong to the same type, make them the same type as well.
Regarding plantlife not counting as Elementals: I can see that in some cases, it might have gameplay implications to change all plantlike creatures into Elementals. Rogues may find use for Servant of Kalimos, when there's a good chance they might discover another Vilespine Slayer. Aside from Slayer being a ridiculously overstatted card: Would it be so bad to add this to the game? Would it cause so much confusion by telling players that living trees and flowers count as elementals in the Warcraft universe?
It's ok when Hearthstone tries to be more intuitive, and thus takes a step away from what Warcraft lore states, but drawing a line here is not really convincing me to be for the better.
And if you make up special rules as with Bogshaper, at least make it consistent with Fen Creeper and Bog Creeper. Maybe you don't want ALL plantbased minions to be Elementals, but when you say that bog beasts are for some reason, I think it would be better to follow up on it with cards that also look very similar.
Exactly! You're right. At least you do understand the meaning of the word CONSISTENCY.
Blizzard does not stop showing that they have no fucking idea about what "consistency" means.
What kind of retarded morons are developing this game? Anyway ... people will keep giving them more and more money, a money they do not deserve at all...
blablablabla²²²²²²²²²²²²²²², are you serious ?
dude i know the comment it's an Old Testament, but, i if you don't want ot read, just pass, it's not necessary the complain
Bogshaper fen creeper and bog creeper are not plants. The have plants growing on them because they are dirt elementals. They are mud that has been animated by elemental energy. Montain giant has moss growing on him that does not make him a plant.