Patch 29.2.2, launching later today, contains big updates to Hearthstone and Battlegrounds.
Hearthstone Updates
Dev Comment: This patch is a little different than our usual balance patches—it’s more about the general design direction of the game than it is about particular power outliers (though we hit a few of those, too). Right now, there are a lot of cards that can remove player agency and raise the power level of the game beyond where we want for a 4-set meta. We’re looking at a variety of these meta-defining cards in this patch, from OTK-style cards to powerful AoE effects that make it feel like your minions don’t matter.
There will always be cool, dreamy cards in Hearthstone—that’s part of what makes Hearthstone Hearthstone—but these types of cards can sometimes be disproportionately more fun to play with than play against. We don’t want these kinds of cards to make up the most powerful and prevalent archetypes in the game, especially if they create metagames where player agency feels low.
There are a few categories of changes in this patch. The first is cards that can end the game quickly when played, and which warp the entire game around whether you get to play them at the right time. No Duplicate cards are also a subsection of this. Being able to draw your deck to avoid the downside of these cards is an interesting deck construction challenge, but it has in large part devolved into turbo-draw decks that tend to be less interactive and not in the spirit of these cards.
The second category is powerful, uncapped board clears. We’ve made and will continue to make AoE effects, but these particular instances are too efficient at clearing the board, making minion-based strategies feel helpless.
The third category is cards that are just a little too strong in their decks and should be toned down a bit. Similarly, our Wild changes are to some clear power and play experience outliers in that Mode.
Finally, we’re making some buffs, too! A lot of the changes we’re making in this patch are to weaken new cards or strategies that came from Whizbang’s Workshop, but we don’t want to just go back to the meta we had before the expansion. So we’ve identified some underperforming Whizbang’s Workshop archetypes that we think better align with our overall goals for the format and infusing them with a bit more power to give them another chance.
This probably won’t be a one-and-done fix. We’re going to keep an eye on the game after these changes go live and continue to push towards a game that aligns with our design philosophy. To read more about this general philosophy, check out our Developer Insights post on the topic from earlier this week.
The following cards have been adjusted to be weaker:
Reno, Lone Ranger
- Old: [8 Mana]
- New: [9 Mana]
- Dev Comment: All the Showdown in the Badlands “No Duplicate” cards are also getting a further adjustment to their conditional effect, discussed below.
Zilliax Deluxe 3000 (Virus Module)
- Old: 1/3. Stealth, Elusive, Poisonous, Reborn
- New: 1/4. Elusive, Poisonous, Reborn
Gaslight Gatekeeper
- Old: [3 Mana]
- New: [4 Mana]
Snake Oil (Generated by Miracle Salesman and Snake Oil Seller)
- Old: [0 Mana]
- New: [1 Mana]
Wheel of DEATH!!!
- No text change, but the wheel counts at the start of your turns instead of the end of your turns.
Forge of Wills
- Old: [3 Mana]
- New: [4 Mana]
Imprisoned Horror
Timewinder Zarimi
- Old: Battlecry: Once per game, if you’ve summoned 5 other Dragons, take an extra turn.
- New: Battlecry: Once per game, if you’ve summoned 8 other Dragons, take an extra turn.
Threads of Despair
- Old: [1 Mana]
- New: [2 Mana]
Sickly Grimewalker
- Old: [3 Mana] 2/4
- New: [4 Mana] 3/5
Sanitize
- Old: [5 Mana] Deal damage equal to your Armor to all minions. Forge: Gain 3 Armor first.
- New: [6 Mana] Deal damage equal to your Armor to all minions. Forge: Gain 4 Armor first.
Trial by Fire
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [7 Mana]
Boomboss Tho’grun
- Old: Battlecry: Shuffle 3 T.N.T. into your deck. When drawn, blow up a card in the enemy hand, deck, and board.
- New: Battlecry: Shuffle 3 T.N.T. into your opponent’s deck. When drawn, blow up a card in their hand, deck, and board.
- Dev Comment: T.N.T. can’t blow up other T.N.T..
Flash of Lightning
- Old: [2 Mana]
- New: [3 Mana]
Crash of Thunder
- Old: [5 Mana]
- New: [6 Mana]
Jungle Gym
- Old: 3 Durability
- New: 2 Durability
Time Warp (Open the Waygate’s Quest Reward)
- Old: Take an extra turn.
- New: Take an extra turn. (Once per game)
Floop’s Glorious Gloop
- Old: Whenever a minion dies this turn, gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only.
- New: Whenever a minion dies this turn, refresh a Mana Crystral.
Snowfall Graveyard
- Old: [3 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
The above craftable cards, plus Miracle Salesman and Open the Waygate, will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 29.2.2.
The following cards are adjusted to be stronger:
All Showdown in the Badlands “No Duplicates” cards (Gunslinger Kurtrus, Rheastrasza, Theldurin the Lost, Spirit of the Badlands, Elise Badlands Savior, Doctor Holli’dae, Deepminer Brann, Maruut Stonebinder, and Reno Lone Ranger)
- Old: Battlecry effect if your deck has no duplicates when played.
- New: Battlecry effect if your deck had no duplicates at the start of the game.
Manufacturing Error
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
Sunset Volley
- Old: [10 Mana]
- New: [9 Mana]
Mes’Adune the Fractured
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
Woodland Wonders
- Old: Summon two 1/5 Beetles with Taunt. Costs (3) less if you have Spell Damage.
- New: Summon two 2/5 Beetles with Taunt. Costs (3) less if you have Spell Damage.
Zok Fogsnout
- Old: [7 Mana]
- New: [6 Mana]
Chia Drake
Hagatha the Fabled
- Old: [5 Mana] 4/4
- New: [4 Mana] 4/3
Aftershocks
- Old: [5 Mana] Deal 1 damage to all minions, three times. Costs (2) less if you cast a spell last turn.
- New: [4 Mana] Deal 1 damage to all minions, three times. Costs (1) less if you cast a spell last turn.
Botface
Toyrannosaurus
- Old: 7/6, Rush. Deathrattle: Deal 5 damage to a random enemy.
- New: 7/7, Rush. Deathrattle: Deal 7 damage to a random enemy.
Shoplifter Goldbeard
- Old: [6 Mana]
- New: [5 Mana]
The Crystal Cove
- Old: The next minion you summon this turn has its stats set to 4/4.
- New: The next minion you summon this turn has its stats set to 5/5.
Crane Game
- Old: [9 Mana]
- New: [8 Mana]
Fly Off the Shelves
- Old: [4 Mana]
- New: [3 Mana]
Papercraft Angel
- Old: [3 Mana] 2/5
- New: [2 Mana] 2/3
Treasure Distributor
- Old: After you summon a Pirate, give it +1 Attack.
- New: After you summon a Pirate, give it and this minion +1 Attack.
Splendiferous Whizbang
- All Whizbang’s Experimental Decks except for Demon Hunter, Warlock, and Mage have been adjusted to be more Splendiferous.
Battlegrounds Updates
Dev Comment: Well met! We’re so pleased that players have been enjoying the new Battlegrounds update as well as the new Duos mode! Overall, we are pretty happy with how both game modes are shaping up, but we wanted to help out some underperforming strategies. We went for a very wide approach this patch with a lot of smaller changes to smooth out the meta. We’ve also hit a few notable outliers, such as Greymane’s Champion, Rylak Metalhead, Gem Smuggler, Iridescent Skyblazer, and Orc-estra Conductor, to give other cards more room to shine. We’ll continue to monitor the game after these changes and make more adjustments as necessary. We hope you all have fun in the Tavern!
Hero Changes
Guff Runetotem
- Old: [2 Gold] Give a friendly minion of each Tier +2/+2.
- New: [1 Gold] Give a friendly minion of each Tier +2/+1.
- Dev Comment: Guff will also be going from 20 Armor to 10 Armor with this change.
Card Pool Changes
The following card have been removed from their respective card pools:
- The Uninvited Guest
- Dev Comment: What part of “uninvited” did it not understand?
- Thorncaller
- Sacred Gift
The following cards have been added to their respective card pools:
- Humming Bird
- Prophet of the Boar
- Scarlet Skull
- Sister Deathwhisper
- Cloning Conch
Card Changes
Rylak Metalhead
- Old: 3/4. Taunt. Deathrattle: Trigger the Battlecries of adjacent minions.
- New: 5/3. Taunt. Deathrattle: Trigger the Battlecry of the minion to the left of this.
Goldshell Warden
- Old: 3/4. Battlecry: Give your other Beasts +1/+4.
- New: 2/4. Battlecry: Give your other Beasts +2/+4.
Iridescent Skyblazer
- Old: [Tier 4] 2/5
- New: [Tier 5] 3/8
Trigore the Lasher
- Old: [Tier 5] 6/2. Whenever another friendly Beast takes damage, gain +2 Health permanently.
- New: [Tier 4] 8/3. Whenever another friendly Beast takes damage, gain +1 Health permanently.
Mechanized Gift Horse
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Spiked Savior
- Old: 12/4. Taunt. Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to your minions and give them +1 Health.
- New: 8/2. Taunt. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your minions +1 Health and deal 1 damage to them.
Octosari, Wrap God
- Old: 5/6. Deathrattle: Summon a 2/2 Tentacle. (It gains +2/+2 permanently after you summon a minion in combat!)
- New: 8/8. Deathrattle: Summon a 8/8 Tentacle. (It gains +2/+2 permanently after you summon a minion in combat!)
Goldrinn, the Great Wolf
- Old: 3/3. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, your Beasts have +3/+3.
- New: 4/4. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, your Beasts have +4/+4.
Fiery Felblood
- Old: 4/3. Deathrattle: Minions in the Tavern have +3 Attack this game.
- New: 3/2. Deathrattle: Minions in the Tavern have +2 Attack this game.
Backstage Security
Wrath Weaver
Crafty Aranasi
False Implicator
Misfit Dragonling
Blazing Skyfin
Electric Synthesizer
- Old: [Tier 4] 4/3
- New: [Tier 3] 3/3
Draconic Deathscale
- Old: [Tier 4] 6/3
- New: [Tier 5] 8/3
Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect
Molten Rock
Party Elemental
Crackling Cyclone
Wildfire Elemental
- Old: [Tier 4] 8/4
- New: [Tier 3] 6/3
Recycling Wraith
- Old: [Tier 3] 4/2
- New: [Tier 4] 5/4
Land Lubber
Zilliax (All Modules)
Scrap Scraper
- Old: 6/5. Deathrattle: Get a random Magnetic Mech.
- New: 5/5. Battlecry and Deathrattle: Get a random Magnetic Mech.
Utility Drone
- Old: 3/4. At the end of your turn, give your minions +1/+1 for each Magnetization they have.
- New: 4/4. At the end of your turn, give your minions +2/+1 for each Magnetization they have.
Augmented Laborer
Charging Czarina
- Old: 4/2. Divine Shield. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give your minions with Divine Shield +3 Attack.
- New: 5/3. Divine Shield. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give your minions with Divine Shield +2 Attack.
Very Hungry Winterfinner
- Old: Taunt. Whenever this takes damage, give a minion in your hand +1/+1.
- New: Taunt. Whenever this takes damage, give a minion in your hand +2/+1.
Murgl Mk II
- Old: 2/4. Avenge (3): Give minions in your hand and board +1/+1 permanently.
- New: 2/4. Avenge (4): Give minions in your hand and board +1/+1 permanently.
Bream Counter
- Old: 6/6. While this is in your hand, after you play a Murloc, gain +2/+2.
- New: 5/5. While this is in your hand, after you play a Murloc, gain +3/+2.
Magmaloc
- Old: [Tier 5]
- New: [Tier 4]
Primalfin Lookout
- Old: [Tier 4]
- New: [Tier 5]
The Glad-iator
Deep Blue Crooner
- Old: [Tier 4] 2/2
- New: [Tier 3] 4/4
Zesty Shaker
- Old: [Tier 3] 3/4
- New: [Tier 4] 6/6
Defiant Shipwright
Timecap’n Hooktail
- Old: 1/5. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give your other minions +1 Attack.
- New: 2/5. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give your minions +1 Attack.
Record Smuggler
- Old: 5/4. At the start of your turn, gain 1 Gold. Repeat for each other Pirate.
- New: 6/6. At the start of your turn, gain 2 Gold. If you control at least three Pirates, gain 2 more.
Gem Smuggler
- Old: [Tier 5] 4/3. Battlecry: Play 2 Blood Gems on all your other minions.
- New: [Tier 4] 3/4. Battlecry: Play a Blood Gem on all your other minions.
Harmless Bonehead
Hateful Hag
Hungering Abomination
Moroes, Steward of Death
- Old: 5/2. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +2/+5.
- New: 4/2 Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +2/+4.
Fire Dancer
Winged Chimera
- Old: 3/6. Whenever this takes damage, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+1.
- New: 1/5. Whenever this takes damage, give a friendly minion of each type +1/+1 permanently. (3 times per combat.)
Ensorcelled Fungus
- Old: Has +1/+2 for each Tavern spell you’ve cast this game (wherever this is).
- New: Has +2/+2 for each Tavern spell you’ve cast this game (wherever this is).
Unforgiving Treant
- Old: 2/12. Taunt. Whenever this takes damage, give your minions +1 Attack permanently.
- New: 3/12. Taunt. Whenever this takes damage, give your minions +2 Attack permanently.
Nalaa the Redeemer
- Old: 5/7. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+1.
- New: 5/6. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+2.
Greymane’s Champion
- Old: 6/5. After you play an even-Tiered card, give your other even-Tier minions +2/+2.
- New: 6/6. After you play an even-Tiered card, give your even-Tier minions +1/+1.
Mooneater’s Champion
- Old: 7/8. After you play an odd-Tier card, give your other odd-Tier minions +1/+1.
- New: 5/5. After you play an odd-Tier card, give your odd-Tier minions +1/+1.
Corrupted Cupcakes
- Old: [3 Gold]
- New: [4 Gold]
Them Apples
- Old: Give minions in the Tavern +1/+3.
- New: Give minions in the Tavern +1/+2.
Boon of Beetles
- Old: [Tier 3] When you have space during combat, summon a 3/3 Beetle. (3 left!)
- New: [Tier 4] When you have space during combat, summon a 3/3 Beetle with Taunt. (4 left!)
Suspicious Stimulant
- Old: [Tier 3, 3 Gold]
- New: [Tier 4, 4 Gold]
Scavenge for Parts
- Old: [4 Gold]
- New: [2 Gold]
Cloning Conch
- Old: Get a copy of a non-Golden Murloc in your hand.
- New: Get a random Murloc and a copy of it.
Card Changes (Duos Only)
Passenger
- Old: 2/3. The first time your team Passes each turn, gain +2/+2.
- New: 2/2. The first time your team Passes each turn, gain +1/+2.
Generous Geomancer
Orc-estra Conductor
- Old: 2/2. Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+2. Improve your team’s future Orc-estra Conductors.
- New: 4/2. Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+1. (Upgraded for each Orc-estra Conductor your team has played this game)
Magnanimoose
- No text change. Now only summons up to one copy of each of your teammate’s minions.
Puddle Prancer
- Old: 3/3. After this is Passed, gain +3/+3.
- New: 4/4. After this is Passed, gain +4/+4.
Man’ari Messenger
- Old: 7/4. Battlecry: Minions in your team’s Taverns have +2/+1 this game.
- New: 8/5. Battlecry: Minions in your team’s Taverns have +1/+1 this game.
Catch
- Old: Give your minions +3 Attack. (Upgrades by +3 Attack after this is Passed!)
- New: Give your minions +2 Attack. (Upgrades by +2 Attack after this is Passed!)
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- [Battlegrounds] Recruitment Program will now be unable to triple in your hand before the recruit is passed to your teammate.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where, if Millhouse Manastorm beat both your opponents, his Tavern Refresh cost of 2 Gold would also affect your teammate.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Plunder Pal didn’t grant your teammate Gold.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where using Suspicious Stimulant on a minion caused errors with Jandice Barov’s Hero Power.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Felboar would consume a minion in the Tavern before the Tavern Spell takes effect.
- [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Magnetized enchantments on a Magnetic minion wouldn’t carry over if the minion was tripled.
- [Battlegrounds] Sped up Mirror Monster’s visual effect.
- [Achievements] Fixed a bug where Top Teamwork progressed based on solo games as well.
- [Achievements] Fixed a bug where Floop de Loop progressed even when you weren’t the one playing with Floop.
