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Hearthstone's Next Patch Contains Some Major Nerfs
In advance of the Hearthstone's Year of the Kraken and upcoming Whispers of the Old Gods expansion, Blizzard is updating some staple Hearthstone cards. We've got a full breakdown of what's affected.
Blizzard posted the changes on Battle.net, along with detailed descriptions for why each change was being made. If you just want to see which cards are affected, however, here are the changes:
- Ancient of Lore will now only give players the option to draw one card instead of two.
- The three 2/2 Treeants summoned by Force of Nature will no longer have Charge, but they also won't die at the end of the turn.
- Keeper of the Grove now has two health instead of four.
- Ironbeak Owl now costs three mana instead of two.
- Big Game Hunter now costs five mana instead of three.
- Hunter's Mark now costs one mana instead of zero.
- Blade Flurry now costs four mana instead of two, and no longer damages the enemy Hero, just his or her minions.
- Knife Juggler now has two attack instead of three.
- Leper Gnome now has one attack instead of two.
- Arcane Golem no longer has Charge, but now has four health instead of two.
- Molten Giant now initially costs 25 mana instead of 20.
- Master of Disguise now endows a friendly minion with Stealth only until the next turn.
As you may have noticed, all of the changes are nerfs, and community reaction to the announcement has been decidedly mixed. Given some of the crazy new cards coming in the next expansion, however, we're guessing those nerfs were made for good reasons. Click the link below to read Blizzard's full rationalization for each change.
[Source: Battle.net]
Our Take
I haven't played
Hearthstone for a long time, but am always interested to see what changes
Blizzard is making in the game's continual evolution. Having a favorite
card/strategy nerfed is never fun, but hopefully it gives Blizzard more leeway
to create interesting new mechanics and card synergies.
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