Anticipate upcoming equilibrium changes

Every year, expansions release more than 100 Hearthstone cards. Of course, some of them will become too strong, causing imbalance in the game.

Making sure the game is balanced from the start is difficult because Blizzard can’t anticipate all the decks a player can create. But the good news is that Blizzard has always listened to the community’s opinions and made the necessary changes. Most recently, they not only explained the reasons for the changes, but also shared other paths the team could have taken during the changeover.

Not long ago, Hearthstone director Ben Brode announced the update would be available in February. Not only did he confirm that the new update will add new in-game events, but he also hinted at a card power balance update.

Therefore, it is time for us to also anticipate the changes to come. Instead of looking at the Basic and Classic cards, the community is complaining about the Kobolds & Catacombs expansion. Let’s take a look at the brightest ‘candidates’ who deserve to be nerfed and inducted into the Hall of Fame. Please feel free to comment as well.

Ice Block

Blizzard looked like it was getting Ice Block into the Hall of Fame a few months ago. Talking about this issue, Blizzard said “You will have to wait longer.” Since the card’s discomfort caused the turns to ‘pause’, it was clear that Blizzard didn’t want Ice Block to be in the Standard.

From Blizzard’s announcement in the previous balance:

“We have seen discussions about moving Ice Block to the Hall of Fame. As mentioned earlier, moving cards to the Hall of Fame only happens on Hearthstone’s New Yearit will happen with the first expansion in 2018. We want to avoid moving the cards to the Hall of Fame midway.”

Hopefully moving the Ice Block will free the Mage class from the ‘one-turn kill class’ moniker.

Gadgetzan Auctioneer

Hopeless: it’s one of the worst feelings in Hearthstone.

We have to sit and watch the green goblin for 75 seconds draw cards until the opponent wins. This is not fun at all. And it’s ubiquitous in classes (I’m referring to that Rogue). This hinders the creative process in the deck, which is something Blizzard tries to discourage players when they apply the balance update. With the cheap and abundant spells in the new expansion, Gadgetzan Auctioneer is a worthy Hall of Fame candidate.

Corridor Creeper

Remember Azure Drake? The classic 5-mana dragon card has always appeared in most decks thanks to its versatility and strength in all situations. Strength, magic boost and extra draw on turn 5 become too good for a lot of decks. The player obviously puts this card on the must-have list in almost every deck. In Blizzard’s words:”We should have more 5 mana options for players, instead of just having Azure Drake on the must-have list.”

Corridor Creeper is the new version of Azure Drake – it’s more powerful and consumes almost no mana. Corridor Creeper became too strong, required to be present in all decks that want to push the tempo (tempo) of the game up. Summoning minions to the table with little or no mana cost is extremely powerful in Hearthstone. As a result, the game’s meta relies entirely on drawing Corridor Creepers early, reducing the amount of mana needed to summon the table, and using them to gain the upper hand over opponents.

What can you do with this card? Corridor Creeper can increase mana by ten (forcing them to stay on the player’s hand for more turns) or can reduce mana requirement only for certain types of minions. But such a change would destroy the card completely. Regardless of the change, Corridor Creeper is the only card after Ice Block that will be changed in the next wave. Definitely bet!

Spiteful Summoner

You will be very angry because this powerful card reappears on turn 6. Predict that the Spiteful Summoner can be increased to 7 mana. But the draw is random. It will limit the creativity of deck creators – we have seen tempo decks with both Mind Control and sometimes Ultimate Infestation. Minions are also randomly summoned, which is why the bonus effects are less effective on decks that don’t just have 8 and 10 mana spells.

As mentioned, the randomness in this card is the factor that makes the Spiteful Summoner so strong. Therefore, there is a high chance that this card will cost 1 more mana. Other than that, there will be no other surprising changes to Spiteful Summoner.

Psychic Scream

Psychic Scream is one of the important cards that help create an extremely creative deck: Weasel Priest. But Psychic Scream has the same effect as Twisting Nether – and only costs 7 mana. Psychic Scream can block Deathrattles and resummon effects, great for countering Aoe.

However, Psychic Scream is still not strong enough to be nerfed. Priest will have to find a new direction after the next Standard rotation – Raza the Chained and Kazakus will be moved to Wild – and only Blizzard knows how Priest will turn out. Psychic Scream is clearly strong. But the decision to nerf this strongest AoE card in the game depends not only on the current meta, but also on whether it will combine or counter cards that we have yet to see.

Cubelock

Cubelocks are pretty strong, especially against aggro decks, so they can’t be underestimated: Blizzard should do something about this card. Or we have to endure another 3 months until new cards appear.

Don’t get me wrong, I love playing Cubelock myself. It’s annoying and fun in its own right, but I found the game to be pretty dirty when the Voidlord showed up and smashed the enemy’s hopes. Other than that, with the super-strong deathrattle effect that has made the addition of Spellbreaker a must-have in most decks, this is probably what makes Blizzard worried. Of course, new expansions will create new archetypes, but no Standard deck in the meta can stand up to Raza Priest like Cubelock – with Raza Priest’s days in Standard coming to an end.

One of the cards that deserve to be nerfed in the Cubelock deck is the Dark Pact, the Voidlord, or the Carnivorous Cube. The prediction is Dark Pact, because the history of nerfs in Hearthstone has seen high impact and powerful spells like Execute and Innervate. It could be a two mana boost, giving the player an extra turn to deal with, or drawing a Spellbreaker card first.

Some changes in February can be surprising, like the increase in Hex’s mana. This move was anticipated, they think that Hex will become too effective when countering silence objects in the current meta: Carnivorous Cube, Voidlord, etc. Therefore, we should wait and see if there is a change. Any other surprises (other than Corridor Creeper getting nerfed)

So what changes would you like to see in the future and why? Join the comments to see if they happen as you predicted.