Hearthstone nerfs planned for Preparation, EVIL Miscreant, Raiding Party and Elysiana
Mistakes were made…
Four Hearthstone cards are to be nerfed in an upcoming update, with the Rogue class being hit the hardest. The patch is due to be released tomorrow, May 22nd.
Preparation, EVIL Miscreant, Raiding Party and Archivist Elysiana are all being reworked. The first three are a clear swipe at the dominance of Tempo Rogue in particular.
First up, here are each of the cards in question, with details of how they’re to be reworked and Blizzard‘s thinking behind each change.
- EVIL Miscreant: Health to be reduced from 5 to 4.
- Raiding Party: Cost increased from 3 to 4.
- Preparation: Spell cost reduction reduced from 3 to 2.
- Archivist Elysiana: Cost increased from 8 to 9.
EVIL Miscreant
Dev: EVIL Miscreant is meant to be a value-generating card that creates future swing turns, but having 5 Health on this minion means Rogue players sacrifice very little to set up those turns. We expect that EVIL Miscreant will continue to be a great option for Rogue decks, just at a power level that is more in line with other available cards.
Raiding Party
Dev: Rogue already excels at drawing cards, so having another powerful option that offers consistent results has resulted in Rogue games that play out a little too similarly than we think is fun. We’re making this change to better represent the power level of drawing from a very specific subset of cards.
Preparation
Dev: All changes we make to the Basic and Classic sets are aimed at ensuring Hearthstone’s long-term health. Preparation is currently seen as such a powerful card that it appears in nearly all Rogue deck archetypes. That said, the change we’ve landed on is a small one. While we do want the card’s power to decrease, we also think it’s important for Preparation to remain a reasonable option, since it fits the Rogue class fantasy so well.
Preparation is regularly used to reduce the cost of cards like Sap or Eviscerate, and those interactions will remain unchanged. Reducing the cost of your next spell by 2 as opposed to 3 opens our design options up a little more to create higher cost Rogue spells without having to balance so closely around the assumption that they’ll be cast alongside Preparation.
Archivist Elysiana
Dev: Our goal here was to preserve the feeling and power level of Archivist Elysiana when it comes to general use, while making much more difficult to play her multiple times in the same game. Shaman will still be able to replay Elysiana through Shudderwock, but this is not as common or problematic as what we’ve seen in control Warrior decks. Now, playing Elysiana alongside cards like Baleful Banker or Youthful Brewmaster should be a less consistent strategy.
Once the update goes live, you’ll be able to disenchant the nerfed cards for their full Arcane Dust value for the following fortnight.
You can view the full announcement on the official Hearthstone blog.
