The latest patch includes Hearthstone’s second ever banned card, 5 nerfs, 1 redesign, 1 ban and seven buffs.
Hearthstone developer Alec Dawson gave his usual addendum to the Patch announcement, indicating over fourteen changes on the way for next Tuesday with Patch 21.3.
This set of changes includes Hearthstone's second ever Banned Card, closely following in the wake of the banned and nerfed Stealer of Souls.
Possible Ban and Redesign
Many have been praying for changes to Warlock ever since the release of United in Stormwind. Quest Warlocks have been ravaging Standard and Wild, and there's a good chance The Demon Seed disappears from Wild forever. With a card pool as large as Wild has, balancing has become harder and harder to maintain. Executing problematic cards might just be the best way to stem the blood loss.
The redesign is essentially guaranteed to be Illucia. Standard was tormented by her pre-Stormwind and, like Il'gynoth, still found a new, more-toxic way to tilt their opponents. There's nothing fun about having nothing to do with your turn, and this witch has been draining players' mental ever since Control Priest.
Patch 21.3 brings five nerfs across Warlock, Shaman, and Demon Hunter
The other changes in this Hearthstone patch are likely targeted at Standard-- five nerfs across Warlock, Shaman, and Demon Hunter leave us with some guesses:
- Runed Mithril Rod is the common denominator in nearly every maligned Warlock list, and could safely jump to 4 mana.
- Touch of the Nathrezim also offers perhaps-too-incredible life gain and may fall to a "Mortal Coil" style 1 damage.
- Perpetual Flame is the single best anti-aggro card in Shaman that keeps the fast decks locked out of the format. A change in how much damage this deals would affect this better than cost, but any change would be welcome.
- Irebound Brute has become the latest and greatest in terms of mana-cheating Big Minions. A reduction of even one mana would stop them from coming down on turn 3 from the Quest Demon Hunters.
- Glide, funnily enough, could be the final change that would help target the Brutes and chip away at the ever-persistent OTK DH strategies that seem to dodge every nerf.
Buffs could be just about anything and are much harder to speculate on. Warrior deserves the most help, sitting down in the depths of the classes seeing almost no play whatsoever. Raid the Docks will surely get some help, whether Pirates themselves are buffed or the rewards from the Quest. Mage nerfs are interesting but likely focus on the Minions rather than the Spells, and Hunter could also get some beastly boons despite being a strong deck.
Gul'dan has had his playground for the expansion but hopefully this is his final push down the slide. Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Hearthstone news and updates.