The Hearthstone meta has been largely the same for the last few months. Both The Boomsday Project and Rastakhan’s Rumble failed to introduce many new cards to the existing decks that were dominating the ladder, so Blizzard has decided to nerf five powerful cards. These five card nerfs are serious blows to Odd Paladin, Shudderwock Shaman, Kingsbane Rogue, and essentially any Druid deck. Here are all of the card nerfs with today’s Hearthstone balance changes.
Wild Growth - Increased to 3 Mana
Wild Growth has been a staple card in Ramp Druid since the beginning of Hearthstone, and it’s finally receiving a much needed nerf. The increase from two to three mana will make it a tough inclusion for most decks, since it has much less of an effect the later you play it in a match.
Nourish - Increased to 6 Mana
The same applies to Nourish; playing it for mana any later than turn five often means the main effect isn’t as useful. If you can chain Wild Growth into Nourish a turn or two later then you have a huge advantage over your opponent, as you’re able to drop big minions much earlier than they can. Now that the card costs six mana, Druid will take much longer to ramp up to the higher costing minions.
Level Up! - Increased to 6 Mana
Odd Paladin revolved around playing lots of Silver Hand Recruits and buffing them up with Level Up! Now that’s literally not possible, because Level Up! will only be possible in other Paladin archetypes. Blizzard claim that Odd Paladin “has consistently been one of the most powerful and played decks since its introduction in The Witchwood,” so this change will hopefully bring an end to that.
Leeching Poison - Decreased to 1 Mana, now only applies for one turn
If a Kingsbane Rogue player was allowed to reach the end-game where their Kingsbane had insane attack with Lifesteal, there was almost no way to kill them because they could heal up on every single turn. Now Leeching Poison has received a buff in that it costs one mana less, but the Lifesteal effect is only in play for the turn you play the card. Rogues can still receive some insane healing, but it’s no longer on every turn.
Saronite Chain Gang - Summons another SCG rather than a copy of this minion
The only card affected that hasn’t changed its cost, Saronite Chain Gang is also the only neutral card here. This is done as a nerf to Shudderwock Shaman; no longer will Saronite Chain Gang’s battlecry effect summon another Shudderwock when you play it. “Shudderwock should now exist as a powerful one-turn effect rather than constantly copying itself,” reads the official balance changes blog post. As long as Shaman doesn’t somehow find a way to generate a Doubling Imp, the days of infinite Shudderwocks are finally over!
Make sure you check out the full blog post on all of these card nerfs here. In other Hearthstone news, Winter Veil is here once again and players can earn some card packs!
