The Nerfs and Patch Notes arrive Tuesday, August 17, and I’m going to give the reactions of my thoughts about what they’re all about. You can view the news on the PlayHearthstone site: 21.0.3 Patch Notes
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Incanter’s Flow
• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 3]
IT’S ABOUT TIME. The first Nerf is one we’ve all been talking about. Incanter’s Flow goes from two-mana to cost three-mana. Changing the mana will affect this card pretty well, since it was overperforming. Spending 2 mana to reduce up to 22 mana was a little excessive. Your opponent will not be able to pull it off as early as turn ONE anymore. This Nerf is long overdue. It will be interesting to see how it impacts Mage’s viability within the meta .
Il’gynoth
- Old: [Costs 4] 2 Attack, 6 Health → New: [Costs 6] 4 Attack, 8 Health
The next card that got Nerfed is Il’gynoth and this is a hard hit to OTK Demon Hunter. The card goes to 6 mana. It’s most likely still playable, but in a different archetype and use it to in combination with the Aldrachi Warblades weapon. Despite the stats buff, this feels like a pretty deadly blow to Demon Hunter.
Darkglare
- Old: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health
Here’s ANOTHER Nerf to Warlock Darkglare goes from a two-cost, now it’s a three mana. It still has the same effect of getting them an extra crystal. But with the mana going up to three it’s going to be slower cheating out the endless cycle of mana. The impact here won’t really be felt in Wild where Quest Darkglare is EVERYWHERE. It was aimed at Standard though, we have yet to see how effectively.
Battleground Battlemaster
- Old: [Costs 5] → New: [Costs 6]
I knew it would happen! Battlegrounds Battlemaster went from a five mana to six. Too many times did you see this dropped on turn five, or on turn six with Conviction. That combination created games that ended way too fast. Even though every class had access to this and I feel like this card is still very powerful. It likely could even went to seven mana and not totally killed the card, considering the stat-line.
Kolkar Pack Runner
- Old: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health → New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health
The next card Kolkar Pack Runner is a card that went from two mana with a 2-3 statline to three mana with a bonus +1/+1. The intent of this is to reduce the aggressiveness of Hunter decks to try to make room for more mid-range options. The increased stat-line helps make it a bit harder to kill so that at least if you get it down turn 3 it’s not DOA since there’s not as many spells that can deal with it. This Nerf won’t decimate Hunter, but will settle it down a touch.
Granite Forgeborn
- Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 4 Attack, 4 Health
Granite Forgeborn has a hit to the health. Before it was a 4-5 statline, it’s now four mana 4-4 that still reduces the cost of elementals in your hand and deck by one. I don’t think that the health was really that big a problem here with this card, the decision here is kind of out of nowhere.
Perhaps, Team 5 thinks that this is a card that would be sort of a problem because it’s going to see more play as the rest of the Nerfs come in.
This card was very strong and remains very strong it’s not really about the health of this card. It’s more about that cheat. The logic seems strange on this one.
Conviction (Rank 1), (Rank 2), (Rank 3)
- Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]
Many of us were talking about Conviction being way too powerful and it needed a Nerf ,well here it is! With Conviction at 2 mana, it will slow Paladin’s lethality down after turn 4, and that’s one of the many things needed to balance Hearthstone right now. However, with Cariel still in play and this card ending up in Even territory, Conviction isn’t going anywhere.
Flesh Giant
- Old: [Costs 8] → New: [Costs 9]
A Nerf to everyone’s favorite turn 3 giant. Unfortunately, This likely won’t change as much as Team 5 expects. The giant was being played as early as turn 3 in Wild, but as ADDITIONAL pressure/win condition. The Nerf does little to reduce the effectiveness of Questline variants. As with Darkglare, I feel the point was missed. People didn’t feel Darkglare nor the Giant were unfair. They felt bad losing to Blightborn Tamsin with no ability to interact, other than possibly damaging the player more than they could handle in order to disrupt the Questline. Once complete, Stealer of Souls (in Standard), or Unlicensed Apothecary (in Wild) would make short work of the other player. A better Nerf to Warlock would have been to change the final reward Battlecry to “For the rest of the game, damage you take on your turn damages your opponent as well.“
Conclusion
A lot of things to unpack here. Not all of the Nerfs were what we expected, but it will definitely shake up the meta. What decks are you interested in trying? Make sure you comment here, on our Social Media, or in our Discord!
