People have been hoping for a nerf to Patron Warrior for a long time now and they have finally gotten their wish.
Update: The patch is currently planned to take place next week. [Source]
Warsong Commander now reads: Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.
Over the course of the short but impactful history of Hearthstone, we’ve taken a strong stance that we’d like to make changes to cards only when they are completely necessary. The direction of gameplay and the metagame should be defined by our players, and as the meta is evolving, many different types of decks can emerge. Cards that were once impactful in the meta can be less so once new strategies emerge, and that change is brought on by the constant need and drive for innovation by our players.
Innovation is just one way a game can evolve, and the best way to shake up the meta and innovate in Hearthstone is by introducing new cards into the game. Introducing new cards to Hearthstone is our preferred method of changing the current state of the game. It’s exciting to discover a deck that may have an advantage over a popular deck out there, and new cards lead to the discovery of new combinations, and new conversations. Hearthstone thrives off of stories about enjoying a fast-paced, fun game with friends that’s full of delightful surprises.
Going forward, we will continue to stand by our stance that we will only make adjustments to cards when we feel it is completely necessary and allow the injection of new cards into the game help our players define what the meta evolves into. In the case of Warsong Commander, we felt this change was necessary to help expand both future design space and to stand by our overarching game philosophy that battles between minions and fighting for board control is what makes Hearthstone fun and compelling.
This nerf will completely remove the deck from the meta and competitive play. I’m surprised they decided to literally destroy the deck. This nerf is reminiscent of Starving Buzzard, and they outright destruction of a card. There were a lot of more interesting suggestions like making Frothing Berserker a 3 health minion rather than a 4. The big question now is whether or not they implement this patch before BlizzCon.
I find this a bit odd. Warsong Commander has been around for a lot longer than the grim patron deck and was never considered anything like an overpowered card. It wasn’t until they introduced the grim patron that suddenly there was a ‘problem’, so, if anything, that’s the card that should be changed. Maybe make it one mana higher in cost or a 3/2. Or, as others have suggested, maybe it’s the frothing berserker that should be slightly changed. Completely obliterating an interesting and difficult to play correctly deck (even if it is extremely powerful when played well) seems off, especially when Secret Paladin is powered by the most OP card the game has and the rest of the meta seems to be simply a who’s who of super aggro decks. I still enjoy the game and love Blizzard for Starcraft, but their nerfing strategies seem to leave a lot to be desired.
Patron players, I am sorry. While my midrange hunter seems to always be outclassed by the patron warrior as it currently is, the deck is by no means overpowered. Someone had mentioned that this nerf is akin to that which Starving Buzzard saw. The difference here is that the buzzard generated too much card advantage with too little effort and no time to respond. Warsong Commander enables a powerful combo, but the combo can be dealt with fairly frequently provided sufficient removal. While I’m not about to quit, this nerf makes me incredibly hesitant to pay for packs lest I pull a powerful card only to have it nerfed. Good lord if they nerf Boom before I get him…
On another note, can Illidan please get a buff while we’re changing cards? If the goal here is to shake up the meta, then why not :)?
oh god , what was wrong with that poor warsong? :/ patron destroyed >.<
some one chnage that damn mysterious challenger in secret paladin's deck :/ it sucks with 1 card board changes :/ awesome bllizard
blizz better have the intelligence to nerf after blizzcon/world finals, a deck destroying nerf during the world championships would be catastophic, given you are stuck with decklists
It’s been confirmed that the nerf is scheduled for next week. Looks like it will be before BlizzCon.
This will be interesting to say the least
This is why I refuse to spend money on this game. Blizzard just needs decks if enough people cry about them. And then instead of weakening the card a little bit so the deck can still exist just be worse they completely destroy the deck. Not even a patron player I just hate how blizzard nerfs. The only necessary need was unleash and starving buzzard, everything after that is because enough casuals cried and blizzard is too afraid of losing money to upset the turbocasuals who have to spend hundreds of dollars to have a good deck
Nooooooooo,
bb hearthstone then
Im so glad this cancer deck is just gone. My personal nerf for the deck would be to make warsong give charge to minions 2 and below, not really destroying the frothing berserker, but patrons couldn’t slam their faces into stuff and spawn more. I definitely think it needed a nerf, but this unfortunately destroyed a fun card in the process.
I agree patron needed to be merged, but it didn’t seem that over powered to me. Decks with any kind of decent removal could defeat it. I think that the ironmen it caused was that any deck without removal was very hurt by it, so out was crappy for the meta.
*Nerfed
I don’t like the way blizzard tends to nerf a card to oblivion rather than just roll it back some way. Would it have been so bad to make warsong commander only work with 1 attack minions and make it a 3/3. Maybe then it could have been used in a hobgoblin deck or something. This nerf makes it unplayable now and likely forever.
Agreed, with this change it just makes Warsong Commander look like a weaker Raid Leader, and we all know how competitive that card is (it’s not). New Warsong is literally the same thing, but with +1 health and her attack boost is far, far narrower. It just doesn’t seem even remotely playable anymore, and certainly not “opening up space for new strategies”. They may as well have just deleted the card from the game instead of making changes that just feel like poor design.
I dunno. Maybe there’s more to it than just the text change? A 3/3 for 3, or making her a 2-drop now, or they could go with a +2 attack boost for charge minions and maybe encourage some sort of aggro Warrior. None of those seem to be the case though.
I don’t understand anything Blizzard…
it was very nice to play with this deck, now stupid aggro decks will dominate the ladder in 100%
shame…
God bless Blizzard, no more cheese.
they could change its cost to 5 mana i think at least that way u can’t do a full combo 2 frothling or patron + frothling same turn but i’m suprised they actually decided to destroy it
Just great you master deck and they nef it
And Hunter class ? No ? Grimm Patron need a brain , nearly all decks hunter , no…
Retard player win again…Continue to play Face hunter…
Control Warrior to slow for meta. Patron Warrior destroyed. Other Warrior types mediocre. Thanx, Blizzard!
The joke is, EU meta on ladder in lower ranks was already too fast for Patron Warrior, who needed 8 mana. I am so tired of having endlessly to face aggressive stupid boring rush decks! What for did I collect nice cards? What for? – They are all not playable!
This is really bad, i would have loved that they changed the ability to an aura instead of a trigger… That way no more inner rage / frothing shennaniggans, but still patron would be a strategy…
lol, 3 health berserker fixing anything is funny. Sorry guys, but Warsong is the only card they can nerf. Nerfing Patron still means you die to a charge’d 16/2 (or 16/1 if you went with the -1 health) beserker. Nerfing Berserker means you still have a turn 8 full enemy board of 3/2, 3/3 and 3/1