ROGUES ARE GETTING NERFED! 4 Card Changes Coming May 22
In a blog post from Blizzard this afternoon, they have announced changes to Rogue cards and Archivist Elysiana. The patch comes out May 22.
- EVIL Miscreant - Now has 4 Health (Down from 5)
- Raiding Party - Now costs 4 Mana (Up from 3)
- Preparation - Next spell cast cost is now reduced by 2 (Down from 3)
- Archivist Elysiana - Now costs 9 Mana (Up from 8)
Quote from BlizzardAfter evaluating game data and working through internal and external feedback on the most popular decks currently in the meta, we’re looking to address the power level and overall pervasiveness of Rogue decks, alongside a specific interaction with Archivist Elysiana. Look for these changes in an update slated for May 22.
We chose to focus primarily on Rogue in this update due to seeing the meta stabilize around the class’s most popular decks. Currently, if you want to build a deck that is strong against Rogue, you have just one reasonable option: Warrior. If you compare Rogue to Warrior, however, you’ll find that the latter class has a wide variety of good and bad matchups, which makes it unlikely that it’ll overtake Rogue in popularity in the current meta.
While we recognize that there are other powerful and popular decks (like Token Druid, Conjurer Mage, and Mech Hunter), we decided to not address them in this update because they all have varied matchups. If any of these decks were to emerge as the new prominent strategy, there are plenty of decks available to combat them, which would allow the meta to continue shifting.
As always, we’ll be evaluating the results of these changes over the coming weeks and look forward to your feedback. Read on for details on these changes, our thought process around them, and our goals for each of the cards we adjusted.
- EVIL Miscreant - Now has 4 Health. (Down from 5)
- EVIL Miscreant is meant to be a value-generating card that creates future swing turns, but having 5 Health on this minion means Rogue players sacrifice very little to set up those turns. We expect that EVIL Miscreant will continue to be a great option for Rogue decks, just at a power level that is more in line with other available cards.
- Raiding Party – Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
- Rogue already excels at drawing cards, so having another powerful option that offers consistent results has resulted in Rogue games that play out a little too similarly than we think is fun. We’re making this change to better represent the power level of drawing from a very specific subset of cards.
- Preparation – Now reads: The next spell you cast this turn costs (2) less.
- All changes we make to the Basic and Classic sets are aimed at ensuring Hearthstone’s long-term health. Preparation is currently seen as such a powerful card that it appears in nearly all Rogue deck archetypes. That said, the change we’ve landed on is a small one. While we do want the card’s power to decrease, we also think it’s important for Preparation to remain a reasonable option, since it fits the Rogue class fantasy so well.
- Preparation is regularly used to reduce the cost of cards like Sap or Eviscerate, and those interactions will remain unchanged. Reducing the cost of your next spell by 2 as opposed to 3 opens our design options up a little more to create higher cost Rogue spells without having to balance so closely around the assumption that they’ll be cast alongside Preparation.
- Archivist Elysiana – Now costs 9 mana. (Up from 8)
- Our goal here was to preserve the feeling and power level of Archivist Elysiana when it comes to general use, while making much more difficult to play her multiple times in the same game. Shaman will still be able to replay Elysiana through Shudderwock, but this is not as common or problematic as what we’ve seen in control Warrior decks. Now, playing Elysiana alongside cards like Baleful Banker or Youthful Brewmaster should be a less consistent strategy.
Elysiana nerf: that's good, warrior vs warrior must be a pain (I don't play, but I pitty those who had to play for 45 min....)
Preparation had it coming. Very much in favor of this nerf.
As for the other 2 rogue nerfs: I would probably have only nerfed one of the cards and see what happens next. This seems to not only dethrone rogue, but to also put it a lot lower w.r.t. competitiveness
Rogue has been my main character to play for years, in my opinion, Rogue doesn't deserve such rough nerf.
PRAY FOR THE ROGUE
Prep nerf is one of the dumbest thing they've ever done.
FeelsBadMan
Well, Preparation nerf has been a few years coming, I was actually surprised they skipped on moving it to the hall of fame before, they mentioned time and time again it limits their design space.
Only a little disappointed that disenchanting it will be short lived as it will probably still be prominent in most rogue decks. On a side note, feeling great about never creating Myra's Unstable Element now. Guess we'll see if Heistbaron Togwaggle is still good enough to be played soon enough.
Why are people giving feedback here? You do realize that Blizzard doesn't read these forums right? Hell they barely read the official forums and the official Reddit.
You're right. Hearthpwn should close all the forums, or at least block comments because it's all worthless.
Oh no, the prep nerf will do lots of issues for expensive spells. Rogue has too many expensive defensive/combo spells.
This will actually allow them to introduce low cost spells for Rogue, they basically said as much.
That's true and I'm looking forward with the next sets low cost spells; however, I crafted spells like Necrium Vial, Unidentified Contract and Cannon Barrage. If you know, these spells are quite expensive and their power will be weaker. Note that these spells didn't see much play before too, so it's kinda weak now and me I'm crying.
##%#% bs nerfs to keep the crybabies happy. Only the miscreant nerf is fair.
Welcome back to hunterstone. Am I going to get a refund for Greenskin and Myra`s now that I just crafted?
Sure, you actually get a refund on all other Rogue cards, wild or standard. Who's the crybaby?
Are you going to get refund for Greenskin and Myra? I have bad news for you, those cards weren't nerfed. So I don't think so.
Well deserved nerf for preparation
Nerfing prep is a bit rough , this kills a lot of potential
Happy with nerfs overall...but how omega devastator and dr boom left untouched.
We need more warrior match ups, it is so fun to watch, and so fast to play! Probably they can announce 24/7 GM Warriors Tournament
IMHO Archivist Elysiana just make Warrior Mirrors match ups shorter.
Its a bullshit, they should nerf either party or prer, but not simultaneously. Should be just prep for sure. I didn't play that new tempo rogue, but used to play pirates in general and party for 3 is expensive enough considering combo. And Now its only good in tempo and only worth playing with those 0-mana 3/3s. Nice job blizz, fuck every else archetype.
In that case they should at least make sprint, tea, double deathrattle, spellstone and few other overcosted cards cheaper. But why tho? Maybe next expansion, right? We dont need other rogue archetypes anyway
Yaay!! Free Dust!!