Upcoming Hearthstone Balance Changes - Giggling Inventor, Mana Wyrm, Aviana
Three card changes are coming to Hearthstone later this week on October 18th and one of them is purely for Wild!
- [Discuss this Change] Giggling Inventor now costs 7, up from 5.
- [Discuss this Change] Mana Wyrm now costs 2, up from 1.
- [Discuss this Change] Aviana now costs 10, up from 9.
Check out Blizzard's post below for more information on each of the changes.
Quote from BlizzardIn an update that is scheduled to arrive October 18 PDT, the following cards will be changed.
Giggling Inventor – Will cost 7 mana. (Up from 5)
Giggling Inventor is one of the most powerful and popular cards we’ve ever created. There’s virtually no downside to including it in a deck, and because it’s neutral, it’s played in almost every deck. We think it’s important to take risks when making powerful cards, especially when it comes to neutral taunts, given the role they can play in encouraging minion interactions and making games more interesting. However, Giggling Inventor has stepped beyond its intended role, and we don’t feel that it should be as effective as it currently is.
We initially tested this card at (6) mana in both the current Standard format as well as with cards that will be released in the future. Ultimately, we felt that its power level was still higher than is appropriate for a Neutral card with no build-around requirements. At (7) mana, we expect Giggling Inventor will find its way into fewer decks in general—and be much less effective in Quest Rogue—while it might remain situationally playable within specific deck archetypes, such as Evolve Shaman.
Mana Wyrm – Will cost 2 mana. (Up from 1)
Over time, we’ve been moving away from powerful, early-game 1-drops like Mana Wyrm. It can often feel like the outcome of a game is decided by whether Mana Wyrm was played on turn one, and if it could be removed quickly by an opponent. Mana Wyrm has also steered us away from making powerful low-cost Mage spells. We’d like Mana Wyrm to remain an option for decks it synergizes with, while preventing it from being a huge turn one threat.
At (2) mana, it will be easier to deal with Mana Wyrm the turn it’s played, and it will be harder to buff it with cheap spells early in the match. We still expect it to remain an option in decks that have a heavy focus on cheap spells, but it should be a less appealing option in decks that aren’t built with that focus in mind.
Aviana – Will cost 10 mana. (Up from 9)
Changing Aviana to (10) mana means it will no longer be possible to play Aviana and Kun the Forgotten King on the same turn without some additional help from cards like Innervate or The Coin. It also means Juicy Psychmelon will no longer draw both Aviana and Kun. This should make the combos Aviana and Kun produce less consistent, while still allowing decks that use the combos to exist for the players that enjoy playing them.
Im playing Izzet Control myself lol. Started 1 week ago and Im liking it so far.
Kind of sad about Mana Wyrm. I think a 1 mana 1/2 nerf would have been sufficient to keep it playable but easier for all classes to answer.
Giggling at 7 is good since even decks can't just pick it up at 6 mana. Won't see it in all (or any) decks anymore. So, tech cards for it can now be removed, freeing space for other techs or more deck synergy cards..
The nerf to Aviana is good since that was the actually problematic card of the Aviana-Kun combo. It will still be an issue since requiring an Innervate isn't a huge ask, but might ding the consistency enough coupled with the implications of Juicy to be significant. I feel Aviana will be addressed again in the future as more expansions are released, but this might be barely enough for now.
Sad the Druid standard core package of 20 cards didn't get touched at all. Back in 2016 for pre-Old Gods rotation nerfs, several Druid cards were hit because they were used in virtually every Druid deck and the nerfs would promote deck diversity: "The most popular Druid decks are consistently composed of the same big chunk of Druid cards. That puts a damper on deckbuilding creativity and has left the Druids feeling stagnant. We want to inject some life into Druid deckbuilding, so we’re adjusting some of the worst offenders."
https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/20097355/
Two and a half years later, I think many would agree these words from April 2016 apply far too well in 2018 as well.
Speaking of deck diversity, did you know the standard Tempo Mage and Big Spell Mage deck lists share exactly ZERO cards in common? That's an incredible achievement from the design standpoint (huge kudos), yet Mana Wyrm got hit HARD likely killing Tempo Mage.
I thought at this point in time is when the Druid Classic and Basic cards would have been touched to promote diversity and deckbuilding in the class once again. I'm surprised the community pressure wasn't enough since many were calling for it but the community pressure for a Mana Wyrm nerf was somehow successful. How many more tournaments with all competitors bringing Druid will we need to witness before the issue is addressed?
(Fall Championship decklists from this weekend with all competitors bringing Druid- https://www.hearthpwn.com/news/6010-the-2018-hct-fall-championship-all-player )
If Blizzard is trying to promote a competitive game and all the top competitors are communicating the same thing, shouldn't some attention be paid to them?
Fuuuck aggro mage in general!!!
Could even shorten it to just FUUUUCKKK AGGROOO.
I was fine with the nerfs they did hit but still think they shouldve touched fungalmancer, carnivorous cube, and branching paths.
Agreed with branching paths
and spreading plague (shouldn't be a druid card)
and nerf ramp
Combo Druid is a sin against humanity and deserves serious punishment. Druid nerfs should have left token druid as the only conceivable druid archetype, maybe the neglected beast druid archetype too (which has never been a thing despite printing support in name only).
Inconceivable how Wild big priest escaped a nerf.
What do we have expected? As in WoW and all other games from Blizz:
Theyre great, but Blizz uses a Mace to nerf Things, in the Motto of "All or Nothing"^^
blizzard still doesn't understand how to nerf stuff at all
just to make sure, let's nuke it to oblivion
that's not how it works, just fyi
Wild combo druid will be back
Blizz needed a bigger nerf stick to punish combo druid.
These devs dont understand shit. Why the FUCK does druid have everything and thats okay again and again.
Couldn't agree more, for wild at least
I actually really like these changes. Mana wyrm has always been broken and I couldn't be more happy to see it nerfed appropriately. The giggling inventor nerf basically opens up two card slots in almost every deck (or more if you count tech cards). The aviana nerf also seems really nice, it doesn't kill combo druid decks completely but it atleast slows them down quite a bit. Maybe juicy psychmelon is still too strong but we'll see. I also would have liked to see some balance changes to other cards (looking at you keleseth) but I think Blizzard did a great job with these three cards.
No Standard Druid nerf ?
piss off
holy shit, Giggles got fucking obliterated (still playable in Odd decks tho, lul)
Also, Mana Wyrm is harsh and probably kills Tempo mage. They now have to pass turn 1 every time and I don't think they can afford to (unless the next expansions bring a powerful new 1-drop for them). At the very least it opens up more design space and potentially allows for tempo mage to be designed less around snowballing from mulligan.
Aviana seems like a reasonable change. Indirectly nerfs Psychmelon too (rip to all those who were holding on to extra copies) and requires Innervate (or Coin) as part of any combo now.
Wow, with a nerf like that the only deck that DOES make sense to still play Giggling Inventor in is Quest Rogue, since they'll still have plenty of mana after all those 1-drops.
7 mana?? are you fucking kidding me, the card is technically balanced even at 5 mana
6 mana is the sweet spot, 7 is just retarded, thanks for the 200 dust i guess
Expectation: Blizzard to fuck up with the nerfs again.
Reality: Not disappointed. They indeed fucked up again.
The BIG classes in standard are: Druid, Rogue and Warlock. Those 3 see more play then all other 6 combined.
NOT... A SINGLE... NERF
Blizzard: Better make up for that and nerf mage instead! what a joke.
I agree Mana Wyrm needed a small change but this ISN'T THE RIGHT TIME
Also, they are worried about quest rogue but Sonya follows unchanged.
Situationally playable??? how so? since when Evolve shaman is playable? or even better, how are we suposed to play it now? It cost freaking 7 mana! It cannot be played in the same turn with Thrall.
At least those changes are in line with the theme of this expansion (driving me mad)
"Hey there, so as expected we nerfed the 5-mana staple that everyone was playing therefore that doesn't impact Standard that much.
We also nerfed Wild Druids, period, although we decided not to touch on Standard Druid at all.
And we decided to exterminate Tempo Mage at the root for no reason, even if it hasn't been a dominant archetype since GvG. Just because we can.
Oh, and don't forget to keep playing the game and buying packs !"
So apparently they secretly have most of MTGA's shares and deliberately want their players to stop caring about HS...
Giggling inventor at 7 mana is the most retarded nerf i've ever seen. The card will see 0 play. I think 6 mana would have been fine but they just pullled a warsong commander cmon. They should have nerfed psychmelon instead of Aviana and mana wyrm should have been a 1/2 now it won't ever see play. Bullshit nerfs Blizz cmon.
Aviana has always been bullshit. It still is bullshit since you just need a coin or Innervate to do the old combo. But at least it's not as obscene as it was. They indirectly nerfed Psychmelon as every deck that used it (aside from maybe Malygos ones or some obscure taunt druid) used Aviana as the sole 9 drop. This lowers the effectiveness and consistency of Star Aligner, Tog, Mecha'thun and any other combo druid far more than a simple mana nerf of Juicy would while allowing Juicy to have the breathing room to be used in non-Aviana decks like ramp or taunt.
It is a good time to start playing Magic the gathering