Hearthstone Card Nerfs: Soulfire, Gadgetzan Auctioneer, and Flare

The nerf bat has been swung, and it has targeted some of the more popular and controversial classes: Warlock and Hunter. Rogue and other classes that have made use of Gadgetzan Auctioneer have also felt the sting, take a look below to see what’s happened!

During the development of Goblins vs Gnomes, we kept an eye on the state of game balance as more Hearthstone matches were played with the new cards we introduced with Curse of Naxxramas. After careful consideration we have decided to make balance changes to the following cards: Soulfire (Warlock), Gadgetzan Auctioneer (Neutral), and Flare (Hunter)

The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:

• Soulfire now costs 1 (up from 0)
  • Soulfire, along with fast and powerful minions, allowed Warlock rush decks to get ahead on the board and stay ahead. We’ve upped Soulfire’s mana cost by 1 to slow down the Warlock rush deck just a bit and allow more players time to react and interact against the Warlock.

• Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 (up from 5)
  • Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s ability allows for a player to potentially draw many cards for little cost. Card draw and card advantage are important to the game—overall, games are less interesting when a player draws their entire deck. This change brings Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s cost more in line with its power level.

• Flare now costs 2 (up from 1)
  • Flare allowed the Hunter an advantage versus decks that revolve around Secrets, while also allowing the Hunter to draw a card for little cost. We want to encourage a variety of decks in Hearthstone. With this change, Flare will continue to be useful against decks playing Secrets, but will be weaker against other decks

We will continue to make balance changes to Hearthstone when we feel they are necessary in order to increase the variety of cards seen at all levels of play, with the goal of making Hearthstone a more fun and interactive game for everyone.

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