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.
Shhh! Don't give them ideas!
Unless it starts winning games on its own like Mana Wyrm, it's fine.
No, not unless priest becomes a problem. It is something to keep an eye on though.
Serious Question - In retrospect was the pre-nerf w/ Hex a good move?
Mana wyrm does not even win games by itself, Genius
Keep telling yourself that. That'll definitely make it true.
No nerf for paladins? I need to delete this game to protect my brain but its hard :/
brain dead cards like juicy psychmelon left untouched, because people crafted them, so let's nerf aviana
I love playing mage and people that don't agree mana wyrm nerf I tink taht maybe don't understand mage decks. Of course it's fun playing mana wyrm on turn one, then the opponent contemplate how beauty is his or her own deck while doing nothing and you can buff mana wyrm and kill the opponent by turn 4. But imo no one pretend win too much games in this way because it happens from time to time or century to century. Mana wyrm is a minion that helps mage to develop the board and it still will be the way to be used even a 2-mana cost and one to be targered anyway.
Good nerfs but I expected a lot more than just adjusting 3 cards.
This looks sooo lazy and somehow feels like the message "ok, dogs, here you got some food now stop barking".
Next station of hope is BlizzCon.
Mana wyrm? Seriously?? I think this is one of the brainless nerf of all time! Giggling should be 6 mana and, instead of nerf a very old card like aviana it would have been better to nerf some recent card (juicy psychmelon for example). And in the end they nerfed for the 4th time quest rogue... lol!
You guys got it all wrong, nerfs aren’t about balance, in fact, they have two purposes : First, it’s to make your last year’s crafting worthless and : Second, its to make you craft new cards, anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly retarded.
Not these cards, see, you have very low IQ
They wont nerf something you paid alot for, because they have to offer full refund
those who crafted luna, aluneth, the druid decks, they got screwed lol and no way to get their dust back, now if this can force out some f2p, im all for it.
I don't understand why so many people dislike these nerfs. I guess all those people are secretly Tempo Mage fans :^]
All these nerfs needed to happen. Giggling inventor is busted, spreading plague for every class. About damn time Mana Wyrm is nerfed, the most powerful 1 drop in the game and snowballs so easily, hate having to use 4 Mana removal to kill it, you know a 1 drop is busted if you have to polymorph it or it kills you turn 5. Aaaaand really the aviana nerf is a no brainier.
Same, it looks like nobody wants to hear how useful these nerfs will be. Especially Giggling.
Tempo Mage hasn't been a thing for several expansions. If you're talking about the Aluneth deck, that's Aggro Mage.
I don't play that deck, yet I don't think this nerf is right. For starters, Mage wasn't in a great position anyway in the current meta. I agree that it could be annoying to play against when everything lined up perfectly and a Mana Wyrm snowballed to win a game single-handedly. But it wasn't nearly consistent enough to make the deck competitive.
Furthermore, in typical Blizzard fashion, it was more of a complete annihilation of the card than a nerf. The only positive thing that can be said about the future Wyrm is that it might still be playable in Arena. By upping the mana cost of the card, instead of, for instance, making it a 1/2, they delay the deck's game plan by one full turn, making it completely unplayable.
Also in typical Blizzard fashion, the Classic cards, especially Mage Classic cards, are getting the axe instead of more problematic cards from expansions in the Standard rotation — yes, Explosive Runes, I'm looking at you. As a result of this greedy approach, the new player experience keeps getting worse, but they prefer adding 25 ridiculous new levels in Ranked to addressing the real issue.
So we've got a card that is not the strongest card in a deck that is at best tier 2, in a class that has no other serious Standard archetype (don't try to tell me that Exodia Mage is anything more than a joke) and this is your definition of a nerf that “needed to happen”? Okay...
get your facts straight. Mana Wyrm was by far the strongest card in ANY aggro/tempo mage deck in the last 2 years, with an average 3% higher mulligan winrate than any other card, raising the mages winrate by up to 11% when played early. additionally it's always part of the top 3 "highest wr when drawn" and "highest wr when played" cards in mage. SOURCE: hsreplay.net
I start playing MTG Arena since last week
Just come back and see what change coming up and see 7 mana fucking giggling inventor. I thought at lease it should be at 6 after the change or from 2/1 to 1/1 but 7 mana wtf!
And what up with mana wyrm i thought they might do something about cube but nope 'we gonna mess up other cards andThen Blizzard would reverted Warsong commander and all other retarded brainless nerf!
I would back to MTG Arena while waiting for Artifact .Gotta comeback and check after new expansion went through.
"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"
We know you never test a card blizzard. You test a card when there's a problem(s).
Just like Sweet from GTA San Andreas said "everybody shot first and ask questions second"
Get fucked tempo mage