Theotar & Ice Revenant Nerf Leaks Confirmed - Coming With Expansion Patch 25.0
Blizzard just confirmed some leaks of changed cards on the PlayHearthstone card library, the rest of the leaked changes were apparently bugs.
Quote from BlizzardHello everyone,
Alongside our major announcements this Tuesday we updated our website’s Card Library to include new cards from the Death Knight Class and March of the Lich King expansion. Additionally, Death Knight deck building has been enabled there to allow for early theory crafting!
We’re aware of an unexpected issue with the implementation of this feature that has caused some cards to show up with different stats than their in-game counterparts. The inaccuracies do not reflect planned changes to these cards, with the exception of Theotar, the Mad Duke, and Ice Revenant; those 2 changes will arrive with our 25.0 update.
Dev Comment: Two cards not in the March of the Lich King set will be receiving nerfs in the 25.0 patch: Theotar, the Mad Duke and Ice Revenant.
The release of a new class is an incredibly exciting moment for Hearthstone players everywhere, and a moment that we want to be as enjoyable and accessible as possible. Knowing the importance of this new class release, our plan with Theotar was to test out a smaller nerf to the card (from 4 mana to 5 mana) before potentially moving to a larger nerf (6 mana 4/4) if necessary. Theotar’s play rate did not drop as far as we would have liked it to with the smaller nerf and is still much higher than we would like it to be leading into the March of the Lich King. Our aim with this second nerf is to lower the card’s play rate to ensure that the release of Death Knight is as fun as possible for players with a wide variety of interests and experience levels.
The nerf to Ice Revenant might appear out of place, but it feels like a necessary one in a world where Death Knight has access to multiple cheap Frost spells (Horn of Winter in particular). In testing we were frequently seeing Ice Revenant’s game-ending size on turn 4, and the card was simply overshadowing many of the new and exciting things going on in the set.
In addition to stat differences, there are some minion type tag adjustments visible. Minion type tags are indeed changing on many old cards, which we’ll be communicating the specifics on in the near future.
Our own visuals (click to enlarge)
Comment made by a developer
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I'm literally forced to include a Theotar in every single one of my decks in order to counter theirs. Worst part: they can just steal mine. I thought Sneaky Rat was disruptive
Edit: I'm more angry that it is a necessary evil. As long as Infused McPrince exists, this needs to exist
What part of "Targeted stealing cards from your opponent's hand is a toxic effect that never should have been printed" is hard for them to understand?
As far as I remember, they sounded the phrase We will not make cards that negatively affect the opponent's cards in his hand or deck. And after saying that, they release cards that burn the deck, that burn the top cards, that burn cards that weren't in the deck, that steal a card from their opponent's hand, that destroy cards anywhere. Great
Right, because the people who held that design philosophy all left the company years ago.
Sarcasm so thick you could cement bricks with it. You are absolutely correct as well.
Absolutely. I concur 100% with you about a possible meta shift after the expansion. Problem with that point of view, in my opinion, is the strength of the effect. Next expansion, so far I'm seeing Patchwerk being a huge target to steal, and if the Runestones make him unplayable outside of the DK class, then it was still taken regardless. Yes, you saw that right. A dead card in the hand is still better than it being used against you. I guarantee Theotar will be on the block again after this nerf. I don't want it to happen but it will be. Theotar and Mutanus will continue to see consistent play across the meta until they rotate to Wild.
Good thing that Neptulon the Tidehunter isn't distracting the team. Happy to see them finally addressing the Ice Revenant that's been causing turn-3 lethals since it was launched. Big Priest is not a problem, like, at all.
I wish there was a special audio effect when this happens during a game: Innkeeper (that guy that announces card rarity when you open packs) will yell "Waah! Legendary!"
Whelp, at least Im not complaining.
Yep rising Theotar’s mana cost by 1 more will surely fix things.
Theotar will still survive another Nerf round, up to 7 Mana... that's when people start believing Mutanus may be close enough in Power level.
As it is right now he is still better than Mutanus.
And he's still gonna remain a staple in all my decks, lul.
Insta-Winwerk aka "I take 3 for 1 price" of course will put both to shame easily tho
The 4/6 body might do something too, so maybe even more than a 3 for 1 lol. Brann+patchwerk is going to be such a "fuck this game" moment when it happens to you, and I don't think it'll be uncommon either.
i Hate when they realease this cards...is like DUDE....broken as hell...but ooo well..need money son...so &/"/&· off.
they will nerf this card later
I don't think this design philosophy has held up very well then, they always manage to print a few cards per set that just piss people off from a gameplay perspectve. Pirate quest reward which you have no way of interacting with. Abyssal curses in general. Putting your hands up in the air when Theotar is played against you just wondering how he'll fuck you over today.
And then they print Patchwerk for the new set, which is an assassinate on a stick, with a mutanus and gnomeferatu effect thrown on top because hey it's really fun having those cards played against you.
If they don't want to change the effect of Theo, at least they could make it incompatible with Prince Renathal, so the tech inclusion is more meaningful, not just another filler for a 40-card deck... so sick of it.
I don't agree with the Theotar nerf. Of course it's seeing a ton of play still, it's the only somewhat reliable counter to Denathrius, Jailer, Jace, etc. How is it surprising that a tech card sees play in a perfect meta for that tech card? Why is Denathrius with almost 50% play rate okay but Theotar is not at 35%?
This is just awful game design to me. If you build a fragile deck that relies on a singular card to win then you SHOULD be vulnerable to hand disruption. If the entire meta is centered around these types of win-conditions then hand disruption SHOULD be in a ton of decks, and it SHOULD be very powerful, that's the whole point of tech in the first place.
The appropriate response is not to cry and whine for nerfs to all hand disruption, it's to make your deck weaker but less fragile by adding more ways to win.
They have a design theory of is it fun to play against? If no it shouldn't be commonly played and should be niche or off meta.
I do not agree with that design theory but over the years at blizzcon ect I get similar answers all the time.
You’re 100% right. I have no idea what motivates their design decisions. The game is turning into Denathtriustone, who can pull Denathtrius first for lethal? Why are they doing this?
Theotar was meant as a counter for Denathtrius but it keeps being nerfed while big D isn’t.
Fuck you for making me think differently lol. Kind of gives me flashbacks to warrior's pouting about Platebreaker. It didn't make sense that warrior could just push the button, gain armor, and basically not play the game and still win, it needed to exist to prevent exactly what Theotar's preventing.
Your opponent discovering a card from your hand to steal will just always suck no matter the cost. It's such a bullshit mechanic.