Massive balance changes are inbound just in time for the Last Call Invitational Championships.
Today, Blizzard announced that before long some significant card changes will be issued. It is a very big patch and previous fall patches pales in comparison. It looks a lot more in the size range of the changes that arrived with Standard, which were announced well in advance.
Here is the rundown:
Rockbiter Weapon - From 1 to 2 mana.
Who said this was needed? Who called this the most needed nerf for aggro shaman 6 months ago? Better late than never I guess. The change is completely understandable by the way. Rockbiter was always a generous package. 3 mana is something most classes pay 2 mana for, and Rockbiter should always have been with that group of spells. Though you take damage from its use, you have the potential to deal double damage from windfury sources, more than making up for it.
Being an extremely effective removal card in the evergreen card pool, this card was always going to be in the spotlight and its nerf was really only a matter of time. That time is now.
Tuskarr Totemic – Now only summons basic totems.
Ouch. Blizzard, you could have given the Eskimo a premature ticket off to Wild instead of putting 2 bullets in his head behind the shed.
In all seriousness though, this change is massive. Tuskarr summoning a [card]Totem Golem[/card] was always overcharged RNG (as much value as a [card]Silver Hand Knight[/card]!), but not having access to anything above the basic 1 mana Totems with only a 3/2 body will likely kill the card completely in the competitive scene. Not that much of value was lost.
Call of the Wild – From 8 to 9 Mana.
Not surprising, though I never personally found Call of the Wild to be much of an issue. However, I still understand the sentiment. It is a really strong package that is very resistant to removal. It got defense and aggression all in one. I never found it overshot the typical value of other playable 8 mana cards like Tirion or the Ragnaroses. But then again, Call of the Wild wasn’t a legendary either.
The change is not really that impactful though. The main difference in the playability between a playable 8 vs a playable 9 drop only tends to be the turn you can play said card on (duh!, right?). Most good 8 drops still make for good 9 drops, that can be seen on [card]Cenarius[/card]. Hunter is also not a class that relies on casting their hero power every turn to be able to survive the high mana play.
The biggest change is that people will start to learn how Medivh, The Guardian now curves into Call of the Wild. Previously considered redundant, it may just make the cut now.
Execute – From 1 to 2 Mana.
I have been talking about this card aswell, in articles and on The Innervated. It really was a needed change for the longest time.
People need to understand that this card cannot be compared to Hunter’s Mark even though a lot of people jump to that comparison quickly. On the surface both are cheap removals that require an activator. But it is a flawed comparison and the reason is that Hunter’s mark always must receive its activator post-use. No minion is ever a pre-activated target for Hunter’s Mark where as one of the most common uses for Execute is dealing with a high power target that traded with something insignificant like Acolyte of pain.
On top of this, Warriors always had better activators for execute than Hunters had for Hunter's Mark.
Charge – Mana down to 1 with no attack bonus, but target cannot attack heroes this turn.
This change shouldn’t really come off as a surprise for those following the general course for Blizzards changes. Charge Warrior was like the OG OTK decks and while Blizzard seemed to have dealt with it during the beta, it has slowly steadly been sneaking back.
Time and time again we have seen Blizzard stating that X card couldn’t be made avaliable for Warriors due to charge and yet the OTK decks including raging worgens still managed to get ever more consistant, of late with Arcane Giant.
This is basically Blizzard saying “no more” to this design limitation, though one has to wonder why it couldn’t get its original 0 mana cost back.
Abusive Sergeant – From 2 attack to 1.
Only took you 6 months Blizzard. I would still have prefered to nerf the battlecry, but I take what I can get. This nerf is no surprise though, as Abusive Sergeants have for the longest time seen use in practically every single aggressive deck and for a Neutral card that simply won't do.
Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End – Battlecry dies with Yogg and Overload counts.
Oh boy. Everything basically comes down to this change. What can be said really? The change will likely manage to pull Yogg-Saron out from the high competitive spots. He will simply be too unreliable.
When that is said, people will probably be surprised how little this will matter for the decks using him. Yogg-Saron is not the main playmaker in most of his games, and his role is mostly as a comeback mechanic when the board is lost. Although there are cards that can accomplish similar things it never is close to the extent of Yogg. Don’t be surprised if Spell Druids just add a Starfall and still manage to pull similar winrates. Fandral Staghelm will still be one heck of a card.
