Patch 20.4.2 - Stealer of Souls Removal - Battlegrounds Balance Changes
The patchnotes for the patch for June 16th, with the official removal of Stealer of Souls and some interesting Balance changes for Battlegrounds, as well as the usual bugfixes. Read all the details below! This patch is now LIVE!
Quote from BlizzardThe 20.4.2 patch, which will release on June 16, includes one update for Wild and two balance changes for Battlegrounds.
Wild Update
- Stealer of Souls has been banned in Wild.
Dev Comment: We've decided to ban Stealer of Souls in Wild, where it caused many games to stray too far away from the type of gameplay we’re aiming for. After deliberating on the appropriate action, we’ve decided to ban the card in order to maintain its current, and healthier, function in standard—as well as eliminate the problems caused in Wild. We do not have plans to ban many cards in the future. Bans will be reserved for cards creating extreme gameplay issues where there is no great solution for all formats. Since this is the first decision of its kind in Hearthstone, we'd love to hear your feedback. We’ll continue to monitor the card in all Modes and formats to determine if further action is needed elsewhere. When Stealer of Souls rotates into Wild, we’ll reposition it for the Wild environment and remove the ban. If there are any balance changes to Stealer of Souls before then, we’ll re-evaluate the ban.
Stealer of Souls will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 20.4.2 patch goes live.
Battlegrounds Updates
Captain Flat Tusk
- Old: After you spend 3 Gold, gain a Blood Gem. → New: After you spend 4 Gold, gain a Blood Gem.
Kangor’s Apprentice
- Old: [Tavern Tier 6] 4 Attack, 8 Health → New: [Tavern Tier 5] 3 Attack, 6 Health
Bug Fixes & Game Improvements
- Fixed a bug that caused a copied Archdruid Naralex to give Dream cards to the wrong player.
- Fixed a bug where Lady Anacondra would not reduce the cost of Nature spells if she was already on the board when a Celestial Alignment was played.
- Fixed a bug with the reconnect feature on mobile.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Battlegrounds Rating to show as “0” when first opening the Player Profile.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Player Profile to show number of Battlegrounds first place finishes instead of Battlegrounds Top 4 finishes, as intended.
So when the ban is live? Just played match in wild against stealer of souls.
Just change the card text to "Battlecry : The next card you draw costs life instead of mana.". Problem solved.
*Buff*
I don't get the Kangor nerf.
Note the top-left corner. It's been moved to Tavern Tier 5.
so obvious haha
It is interesting that they banned because of gameplay issues, not really power level or winrate. Stealer of souls warlock was far from the strongest deck in the format, even though it was frustrating to play against.
Blizz has said in the past that they take play experience into consideration. Seeing a warlock play this plus plot twist on turn 5 ish was always a poor feeling. I would prefer even more wild solitaire decks get similar treatment.
It was a deck that you could never truly beat, they would just get unlucky with their draw and lose. Plus I wouldn't say that a deck that can win very consistently on turn 5 a low power level deck.
Was lucky to have 3 copies of Banned card :)
2 New card packs can be bought for gold: Standard packs containing current standard cards and Wild packs containing wild cards.
We need something at T6 that Mech builds will want since Foe Reaper is the only one now. I believe Mecha'thun is a sufficient substitute that’ll spice things up and cause zero problems.
Obviously no buffs for standard Warlock, because who cares...
Blizzard is a small indie company remember, we can only expect so much from them.
Priest received G'huun the Blood God, drawing two cards that cost health instead of mana. And I've only seen it played once (and I only play Wild, where Violet Illusionist is available to Priest). It was the interaction with the tricks available to Warlock that made Stealer of Souls broken beyond belief..
such a shame that they banned it instead of nerfing it in a way that wouldn't affect standard much. Nerfing can always bring more diversity than banning, and while stealer of souls needed change, i think this was the wrong thing to do.
nerfing it to only affect the first 3 cards drawn each turn would have removed the oppressive aspect of the card (being used with plot twist) while still allowing a deck to possibly be viable
In standard it isn't very common, and honestly I feel like the ban was the right option. Plus making it a cap thing kinda makes it way more complex, especially for a rare, at least for me. IDK though.
The Complexity is warranted as it only removes the problematic part of the card while keeping the spirit of the card and the viability for swing turns from its effect. Banning it completely removes the possibility of making a deck centered around its pretty unique ability
The reason is expediency. Getting the ban in now, maybe bringing it back with a nerf later, is good since it fixes games in the short term.
I'd be great to see Stealer of Souls work like the Battlegrounds minion Prophet of the Boar, and that sort of once-per-turn triggered effect would be really cool to see in the game. But I'm not coding these games. The delay to decide on exactly which nerf, and implement it without bugs, might be longer than we'd prefer to wait for a broken (not necessarily OP, but certainly game-breaking) card.
If expediency was really the issue, then they would have said they would ban it until they nerf it, rather than what they actually said, which is they'll ban it until it rotates or if they need to nerf it in standard