Hearthstone – Patch 20.0.02

Since the beginning of the Year of the Gryphon and the release of the Forged in the Barrens card set, there have been a fair number of new features and innovations on cards that have dramatically changed the meta-strategy of the game. Most of the changes in the most recent patch to Hearthstone are centered upon Blizzard’s notorious obsession with perfect balancing.

Thus, a couple of recently added cards are receiving significant nerfing, and very welcome nerfing at that. Deck of Lunacy and Sword of the Fallen are both getting the balancing they desperately needed.

A legendary Mage card, Deck of Lunacy, when played, transforms all the spells in the player’s deck to random spells that cost (3) more, but the spells keep their original cost. This means that a Mage with this card could load up their deck with as many low mana cost spells as they can and then play this card to immediately transform them into spells that are much more powerful and still cost the same! Being a two-mana cost card, that card alone could almost guarantee the player a win every single time. While the developers indicated in the patch notes that they intended to provide players the ability to do really wild and random things during play, they also recognized that the card was just too powerful. So they have increased the mana cost of the card up to 4.

The second legendary card getting nerfed is the Paladin’s Sword of the Fallen. This ridiculously overpowered card is still too strong. At two mana, this weapon card allowed a Paladin to cast a secret from the deck upon attacking with their hero. At three durability, this meant that you could essentially draw an extra card for the next three turns and then cast that card for free. In the meantime, having the added utility of a weapon with synergizing cards could increase its damage and/or durability. The developers reduced its durability from 3 to 2, but honestly, this is still a very strong card.

Two other recently added overpowered cards are also getting nerfed. Both the Far Watch Post and the Mor’shan Watch Post are having their health reduced by one. According to the developers, these cads were originally added to add a little utility to deal with certain other strategies. Still, they both ended up being far too useful for every class and lead to a situation in which too many players were using and relying upon them, and that those that did use these cards were consistently winning more frequently than those that didn’t. This obviously is not good. Again, reducing the health by 1 does very little to make these cards any less OP. Both of these cards synergize very well with taunt minions to potentially remain on the board for a long time. In particular, The Far Watch Post is very strong because if it is not removed by the other player quickly, it can make 2, 3, or even 4 of the next cards they draw cost 1 more mana. That alone, if played early, can be game-changing and guarantee a win.

The Pen Flinger is getting slightly nerfed only to be able to damage minions instead of both minions and the hero. This minion, upon spell burst (activated by the first time the player casts a spell while this minion is on the board), is returned to its owner’s hand. Theoretically, this could mean that a player could repetitively play this minion and then a spell, then play the minion again and do that repeatedly throughout a match. It’s still a decent card and a great addition to spell-heavy decks.

Aside from that, there has been a fair amount of rebalancing of hero abilities in the Battlegrounds and Duels gameplay modes and rebalancing to the appearance rate of certain cards in the Arena, which should slightly decrease the win rate for Demon Hunters and Priest, and slightly increase the win rate for Druids, Hunters, Rogues, and Shamans. There have also been so many bugs fixed it’s not realistic to list them all.

Based on the pattern of release for new cardsets (usually three times each year in the Spring, Summer, and Fall), it’s safe to say that the next set of cards will be released around the last week of July or the first week of August. We’re looking forward to it, and we will be sure to keep you updated as soon as we find out more.