Hearthstone: State of the Game

Hearthstone: State of the Game

Hello everyone, Happy Mid June! Today, I'd like to discuss the recent changes in Hearthstone, my current favorite game.

Hearthstone has recently created two formats, Standard and Wild. Standard will include the last two years of cards and Wild will include all the cards available. In addition, there were changes to a number of cards from the Classic set. This affects both formats but today we'll be talking about Standard.

Let's start with the changes to the Classic set. According to the Hearthstone developers, in order to balance the game going forward there would be a power adjustment to the following cards:
Ancient of Lore, Force of Nature, Keeper of the Grove, Big Game Hunter, Ironbeak Owl, Hunter's Mark, Blade Flurry, Knife Juggler, Leper Gnome, Arcane Golem, Molten Giant, Master of Disguise.

While I could probably drone on about all of these I'd rather share a few of my thoughts on the recent changes and be done with it. So here goes!



1. Ancient of Lore - Now only draws one card OR gains you five life. Good change, drawing cards is strong and Druid was already too strong. Cool that they left the life gain untouched, Druid should be able to heal with class cards. That just makes sense to me lore-wise.

2. Big Game Hunter - Now costs five from three. Glad the cost was increased and not by just one which I had suspected would be the change. This is such an "anti big creature card" which also means it was an anti-fun card. I like my huge creatures! It was just too much of a good bargain to kill any big creature with just 3 mana and still get a 4/2 out of it. Most people always included BGH in their decks, which seems bad for a card game.

3. Blade Flurry - Now only damages minions not players. Way to go Blizzard, you just did away with burst damage for Rogue. I see why this needed to change but not happy about it. I liked having the ability to clear the board and potentially end the game with a big Blade Flurry. Rogue will need to find a different way to win.

4. Force of Nature - Costs one less and Treants don't die at the end of turn but now they don't have Charge. Good change as this card was way too strong. Charge minions are already a bit strong but this card along with Savage Roar is just too much burst for Druid. Very glad I do not have to watch out for death as soon as I'm down to 15 life.

5. Keeper of the Grove - Went from 2/4 to 2/2. Kind of butchered this card. Don't really play Druid so don't feel too bad for this change but I don't think it was necessary. This was an attempt to deter people from using silence effects.

6. Ironbeak Owl - Now 3 mana, up from 2 mana. Another deterrent to use silence cards. Not horrible but not great either. I see only control decks using this card now, maybe even hunters for their beast synergy. Expect to see Spellbreaker being used more.

7. Knife Juggler - Attack reduced from 3 to 2. Still usable just not as strong. Aggressive decks and decks that can generate token minions will still use this card. Not dead yet!

8. Leper Gnome - Attack reduced from 2 to 1. I'm okay with this change as I felt this card was too strong. You were almost always guaranteed 4 damage to the face and maybe a good trade for 1 mana. As much as I enjoyed playing this card, that's way too good!

9. Arcane Golem - Removed Charge and increased Health to 4 from 2. Another Charge card getting it's wings clipped. This change will slow the game down and I like it. Hated losing to this card, the Charge ability negated the drawback since this would really only be used by my opponents on their winning turn.

10. Molten Giant - Mana cost increased to 25. This change has killed Handlock. We will no longer be able to cast this guy for 0 mana without the risk of dying. I will miss playing Handlock with Molten Giants. Luckily, Warlock is still a very strong class with another very viable deck. Big loss for Handlock, long live Warlocks either way.

11. Hunter's Mark - Mana cost increased to 1 from 0. Not a huge change, but I guess 0 cost mana cards can sometimes be abused so maybe this is why this was changed.

12. Master of Disguise - Stealth only lasts until next turn instead of being permanent. Most likely changed because of how powerful the old Gods are. Wouldn't want to play against a permanently stealthed Y'Shaarj.


Now that these changes are live and the Whispers of the old Gods set has been released we're able to see what effect these changes have made.

For starters, I don't see the following cards being used competitively or in recent popular decks, at all:

• Molten Giant
• Master of Disguise
• Arcane Golem
• Blade Flurry
• Ancient of Lore
• Leper Gnome
• Force of Nature

I've seen these cards being used a bit:

• Big Game Hunter
• Keeper of the Grove
• Ironbeak Owl

And yet, I still see these quite often:

• Hunter's Mark
• Knife Juggler

Not bad, 5 of the 12 cards are still being used. Previous nerfs to cards have been so drastic that those cards were never used again. For instance, cards like Undertaker and Starving Buzzard.

Final Thoughts:
I'm okay with the changes as they helped to balance the classes and besides, the influx of new cards from Whispers of the Old Gods have created enough new decks to keep everyone happy.
I'm now seeing new Druid beast decks and Zoo Warlock is still very strong. While Miracle Rogue is back with a vengeance it's not as dominant as before.

Still, I'm super sad about the Molten Giant and Blade Flurry change. Mostly because I felt that I was just getting used to the HandLock play style and was comfortable playing Rogue with Blade Flurry burst. Change can be good as this will force deck creators to get creative when forging new decks for Rogue and Warlock. I'm excited!