Hearthstone Card Nerfs Announced For Next Patch; See Updated Cards Here

A handful of Hearthstone cards are in line for a nerf, Blizzard announced today. Five different cards will be tweaked in a forthcoming update, while Blizzard has also commented on the state of two other, unchanged cards that players had been hoping to see adjusted.

Three of the five cards being nerfed are Basic class cards: Hex, Innervate, and Fiery War Axe. "While they can be regarded as staples in those classes' card repertoires, too many Basic and Classic cards played in individual decks means less fun when new expansions are released," Blizzard explained on its blog. "Cards in the Basic set serve several purposes in the game, so we would rather make balance adjustments to them instead of moving them to the Hall of Fame, like we have done for cards in the Classic set. We are also trying to limit Hall of Fame changes to the start of each Hearthstone Year, which is why Murloc Warleader--a Classic card--is receiving a balance change instead of moving to the Hall of Fame."

Gallery

All five updates cards can be seen in their old and new forms in the gallery above. Three of the five are simply increasing in cost by one mana, while the other two are less powerful. Here are the changes to each card:

• Innervate
  • Now reads: Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only. (Down from 2)
• Fiery War Axe
  • Now costs 3 mana. (Up from 2)
• Hex
  • Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
• Murloc Warleader
  • Now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)
• Spreading Plague
  • Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)

Blizzard also touched on two cards it did not alter, despite pressure from some players to do so. Ultimate Infestation is a 10-mana Druid ability card that deals five damage, draws five cards, provides five armor, and summons a 5/5 Ghoul. Internal data revealed to Blizzard that, despite sounding powerful, it was not actually outperforming other cards in the deck.

"Our team has discussed making a change to Ultimate Infestation since it feels bad to lose to," it said. "However, our data shows us how good each individual card performs in a deck relative to other cards in that deck. Spreading Plague ended up being the best performing card in Jade and Taunt Druid, Innervate was in the top three, and Ultimate Infestation was somewhere around the middle--but it felt much more powerful since it has a huge effect when played. We considered changing all mentions of the number 5 in Ultimate Infestation to 4, or removing one of the effects entirely. With the other changes we are making to Druid, ramping out Ultimate Infestation before turn 10 should happen less often, so we decided to leave it as is."

The other contentious card discussed was Ice Block, a three-mana, Secret-effect Mage card that causes the user's hero to become immune for one turn when fatal damage is dealt to him or her. In this case, Blizzard simply said it doesn't want to move cards to the Hall of Fame during the middle of the year. Based on the explanation, it sounds as if the card could be moved with the release of 2018's first expansion.