Hearthstone Patch Nerfing Three Controversial Combos

Hearthstone is making some big balance changes much sooner into a new expansion than usual. The patch, which is set to release December 19, is entirely breaking two popular combos, severely limiting another, and making some more fundamental changes to the Druid toolbox.

The two decks that are being undone entirely are Shudderwock Shaman and Kingsbane Rogue, with nerfs to Saronite Chain Gang and Leeching Poison, respectively. Saronite Chain Gang's card text will change slightly to impact the way it copies itself. That copying mechanic was used in Shudderwock Shaman to create infinite copies of the Legendary card Shudderwock, so this change essentially cuts off that strategy. Leeching Poison is changing its effect to only give your weapon Lifesteal for a single turn, so that you can't use a powered up Kingsbane forever to stay alive. Its cost is also changing from 2 Mana to 1.

The Paladin card Level Up will be changing to 6 Mana rather than 5. This severely hobbles but doesn't quite break the "Odd Paladin" deck, since it gets an upgraded hero power by limiting it to odd-costed cards. Since Level Up will no longer be allowable in Odd Paladin decks, players will have to choose between flooding the field with recruits or upgrading them, rather than both.

Finally, Druid is getting a couple of changes to some of its classic cards. Wild Growth and Nourish are both going up by one Mana apiece, to 3 and 6 Mana respectively. Blizzard notes that these cards have been so dominant in Druid deck-building that the class can start to feel stale and repetitive, and "stifle creative deckbuilding decisions."

The latest expansion for Hearthstone, Rastakhan's Rumble, launched in early December. Usually Blizzard allows more time to pass with a new expansion before rolling out balance changes, but the studio notes that it's "opted to make these changes earlier in the expansion cycle than we normally consider." It invites feedback from players regarding the timing of the update, along with the actual changes themselves. You can read more details at the Hearthstone Blog.