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.
The Mana Wyrm nerf I get it. Especially since FWA got hit back in the day. Blizz doesn’t like classic cards like them used in every single deck. I suspect it might still see use though.
Aviana nerf - Very surprising. I assumed they’d just nerf Juicy Psych. What a dumb card that was.
Giggles - Well this saddens me immensely. I think raising the cost to 6 mana would have been fine. But at 7 mana it’s just destroyed. Imo they should at least buff the Inventor itself from 2/1 to 3/3 or something.
I hate the giggles nerf because I play mech decks a ton. I don’t care if they’re not top tier. I love them. And giggles along with War and Zilliax were the only solid mech cards.
Yeah, I have no idea why nerfs are almost never directed towards clearly busted new cards. We nerf old cards just so that new broken crap can stay in the game and cause problems, which means the new stuff probably gets nerfed down the road anyway? Just nerf the new cards to begin with so you only have to nerf one thing.
Mana wyrm has never been in "every deck". Freeze mage didn't use it. Big Spell mage doesn't use it. In fact, pretty much any mage control deck hasn't used it.
The reason it is getting nerfed was mentioned in the post...it limits design space.
Yeah but it doesn't work if you have to play a 10 Mana minion.
Yes it should be more powerful than giggling inventor since it's a class card, and losing giggling is a pretty big Nerf to combo druid decks as well.
Where is the Spreading Plague nerf?
Wake up Blizzard. That's more of an over powered broken card that Giggling Inventor ever was.
Mossy Horror, 5 attack minions, and common sense say hi
Spreading Plague is completely controllable if you do not flood your own board against druid.
I agree that Plague is incredibly easy to play around and/or counter with Mossy and yet Giggling was still nerfed despite Mossy existing to immediately counter the three minions as well.
Spreading Plague was nerfed on September 18th 2017.
For Giggling Inventor, I would of done the following...
5 mana 1/1 Taunt mechs with Divine Shield. 2/1 Giggling Inventor token.
OR
7 Mana 2/2 Taunt mechs with Divine Shield. 2/2 Giggling Inventor token.
Woops right totally misunderstood the combo
Maly was ok. Aviana nerf is for star aligner druid mostly.
teach me, how to play project on 0 mana
Erm, what? You know, there was a comment, about playing project on 0 mana? Y'know, for that exact reason, I replied with my comment. For other not exact reason, this site can't show You to which comment I replied, Yours or Amuse's. Maybe, like, think a little bit, why I posted, before posting something dumb?
you are writing to me about reasonable fashion? i literally copy pasted ur answer :D may be, you are acting like impudent child?
Well yeah... But temporarily I too could pull off stupid combos. Muhahaha!
This is bull****. (I'm not Kripp btw lol)
1. I know Mana Wyrm can be annoying in the early game and all, but this nerf will kill one of Hearthstone's most iconic mage cards. The only reason why Mana Wyrm is being played is because it's one of the only early game minions mage can play. And why Mage, of all classes? Mage is a weak class compared to the power level of Druids or Warriors.
2. Aviana was not the problem. Aviana and Kun the Forgotten King combos had only a decent amount of plays in wild, and Blizzard did not seem to mind that this combo existed. But then cards like Star Aligner, Juicy Psychmelon, King Togwaggle, and Azalina Soulthief came out and that just made the combo completely busted. Why did Blizzard not nerf Juicy Psychmelon instead? It's a freaking four mana draw your entire win condition. That's the real reason why Druid is broken in wild right now.
3. Giggling Inventor did need a nerf, but did it have to be raised to seven mana? I get that Blizzard might have wanted to keep Giggling Inventor in odd decks, but seriously, seven mana? A two mana increase is a harsh nerf; Blizzard should have just increased the cost to six or removed the divine shields from the taunts. The only reason why Giggling Inventor is broken is because of Quest Rogue. Otherwise, Giggling Inventor is one of the best taunt cards any class could use.
4. After all the complaints, why did Blizzard leave standard Druid untouched? Facing against Druid right now is nearly comparable to facing a boss.
I really hope Blizzard does change Druid before the next expansion hits.
Psychmelon will no longer draw your entire combo. Both Kun and Aviana is now 10 mana. You will also NEED innervate for any kind of combo play now. It's not a completely dead against other decks, but it will be in the fun Tier 2 where you actually have a good chance against it with most decks.
Yeah, but they could have just nerfed Psychmelon to reduce the amount of minions it tutored so that they entire combo couldn't be drawn instead of nerfing Aviana. They nerfed the wrong card to fix the same problem imo.