10 Card Nerfs Being Reverted Before The Upcoming Rotation (Including One Card from This Year)

We’ve just learned some pretty big news. Devs have previously teased that they MIGHT want to revert some nerfs when rotating cards out to the Wild. Today Iksar has confirmed that it is indeed happening. Current plans are to revert nerfs of 10 cards in total (although he mentioned that the plans might change):

  • 5 cards that are currently in the Wild
  • 4 Year of the Raven cards that are rotating out to Wild
  • 1 Year of the Dragons card – I assume that he means that they are un-nerfing a card that is NOT rotating out

Iksar did NOT specify which cards they might want to un-nerf. Do you have any guesses what those cards could be?

Here are some of our ideas (keep in mind that we’re just making educated guesses – nothing is confirmed):

Wild

We had A LOT of Wild cards nerfed over the years, so it’s hard to pick just 5. Here are the ones I would consider, though:

  • Yogg-Saron, Hope's End – The card used to be too powerful and too random back in Standard, but I don’t think it would be the case in Wild now. There are LOTS of spells that can just ruin your day on the spot. On top of that, Turn 10 is really, really late in Wild – most of the decks plan to kill you way before that, even slower Combo decks plan to kill you around that turn. But un-nerfed Yogg-Saron would be fun for more casual players and those who like lots of RNG.
  • Raza the Chained – It might push back Highlander Priest into viability, although they would probably need to do some playtesting first in order to check out whether it wouldn’t be too strong.
  • Spiteful Summoner – Has some fun combo potential, was too strong in Standard at 6 mana, but I don’t see it ruining Wild in any way (while people might try out some new comps).
  • Call of the Wild – Most of the Hunter builds in Wild are Aggro, and un-nerfing CotW might be a push for Highlander / Spell Hunter builds. Alternatively, the same could be accomplished by moving Lesser Emerald Spellstone back to 5 mana.
  • The Caverns Below – What? Unnerfing Quest Rogue? I know that some of you might have had a PTSD attack just from reading that. But no, don’t worry – the deck was never really oppressive in Wild. In fact, it was quite recently “shadow nerfed” by changing how Sonya Shadowdancer interacts. They could absolutely revert one of the nerfs (keep in mind that the Quest was nerfed twice) or possibly even both without really creating an insane deck.

Year of the Raven

Here the list is much shorter, since not THAT many Year of the Raven cards got nerfed. Now the question is whether we count the cards that were buffed and then nerfed once again (Extra Arms, Luna's Pocket Galaxy. I will assume that those do count too.

  • Dr. Boom, Mad Genius – I’m pretty sure that this will be one of the Year of the Raven cards with reverted nerf. The card was NEVER oppressive in Wild. Wild is a format where running slow, grindy Control decks is not a great idea. That’s mostly because we have multiple combo decks that can just take you out even if you stack a lot of armor and have tons of value in your hand (e.g. Quest Mage, Mecha’thun Warlock). In fact, any kind of Control Warrior build is very weak in Wild, so it could use some help.
  • Raiding Party – The card deserved its nerf in Standard, that’s for sure. However, since it was nerfed alongside Preparation, the previously “free” combo became a 2 mana combo, making the Raiding Party nerf hurt even more. But in Wild, it might be an interesting one to play in Kingsbane Rogue, or possibly in some Aggro Pirate Rogue. I don’t think it would be problematic in Odd Rogue, because while the deck wouldn’t mind drawing Pirates, I don’t really think that it needs to draw a weapon (it doesn’t play any).
  • Reckless Experimenter – Now that Echo cards were nerfed so they can never cost less than 1, the original reason for this nerf is kind of pointless.
  • Extra Arms – Not sure about that one, but between Arms and Luna’s Pocket Galaxy I feel like Arms have a higher chance of getting un-nerfed. While Combo Priest is a deck in Wild too, I don’t believe that 2 mana Arms would push it over the top, while 5 mana Galaxy might have some long term implications. There’s also Giggling Inventor, but I don’t think that they want to make it 5 again, since the card was really, really annoying to play against.

Year of the Dragon

There’s only one card here to guess, so it’s a hard choice.

One option is Necrium Apothecary. The only reason why the card was so strong were Year of the Raven cards like Necrium Blade, Necrium Vial or Mechanical Whelp. With those gone, I don’t think that Necrium Apothecary will be a problematic card anymore.

Alternatively, I think that Galakrond Shaman was overnerfed. Yes, it deserved to get hit, but probably not that much. Maybe one of their Invoke cards like Invocation of Frost or Corrupt Elementalist will get changed back. Possibly Sludge Slurper, because honestly I’m not sure why the card was nerfed in the first place (it was good, but didn’t feel broken).

Or maybe Mogu Fleshshaper given the recent ‘leaks’ of it being seen at 7 mana. But I wouldn’t count on that with Mutate still in Standard.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

25 Comments

  1. Falfel33
    March 6, 2020 at 6:17 pm

    Hi guys! When will the rotation start and what set will rotate out?

    • MrPoison
      March 6, 2020 at 9:06 pm

      Last year it was on April 12th when The Witchwood was released, this year it should be the same, around mid april as well and the sets rotating out are The Witchwood, Boomsday Proyect and Rastakhan Rumble.

      • MrPoison
        March 6, 2020 at 9:10 pm

        Last Year it was on April 9th with Rise of Shadows* my bad, kinda sleepy.

  2. Nephilim99
    March 6, 2020 at 12:11 am

    My guess, taken into account that in wild the weakest class are druid, priest and hunter, I would unnerf :
    -DRUID : Avianna (PTSD incoming but I think without ramp package combo druid is about on par with other combo like rqm and dh/thun lock)
    -PRIEST : Raza
    – HUNTER : I would have hope for a revert and HOF starving buzzard but since it seem to be not the case I would maybe say CotW
    – YOGG

    Year of Raven :
    Dr Boom Hero + Raiding party almost 100% sure
    Giggling inventor+Extra arms

    Year of the dragon card will probably be Mogu based on the leak

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      March 6, 2020 at 5:07 am

      I don’t think that Aviana will be reverted – the card was nerfed specifically for the Wild format. It was already not in Standard at the time it was changed. Same thing for Naga Sea Witch – I don’t think it will be made 5 mana again because it was a nerf targeted at Wild 🙂

      • Nephilim99
        March 6, 2020 at 6:44 am

        I know, and some day after the ramp package (wild growth+nourrish) was nerf. So either the ramp package get unnerf (which from this tweet we supposed it won’t) or it is Avianna.

      • HuntingFor90
        March 6, 2020 at 7:39 am

        Yes that’s true but also back when it was nerfed the power level of cards was much lower. Nowadays you don’t live past turn 11-12 in wild which is around when the Aviana-Kun combo would go off and so it is equal to those combos. I don’t personally think Aviana will be un-nerfed but I actually don’t think it would be nearly as OP as it once was

  3. Defner
    March 6, 2020 at 12:04 am

    If The Caverns Below will get reverted I will craft it even if it won’t see any play. I just cannot avoid it.

  4. X15d
    March 5, 2020 at 11:28 pm

    Unnerfed Necruim Apothecarry is in fact a problem in wild because of Deathwing, the Corruptor

    • Defner
      March 6, 2020 at 12:02 am

      Indeed that could get problematic. I once played against deck that got two (not sure how as I think getting one is standard way?) 12/12 into game quite early. I was very very lucky and won that match (unfortunately won’t remember how), but indeed that would be a problem.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      March 6, 2020 at 5:09 am

      I didn’t think about it. Is it a real, viable deck or just sort of a meme combo? Because I assume that you run Deathwing as your only Deathrattle and then a lot of big Dragons? So if you draw your Deathwing or Apothecary gets Silenced you just kind of lose?

      Or do you just play Deathwing as your only Dragon and settle on a single 12/12, then play a regular Rogue deck? I think that makes more sense, hahah.

      • Gamebrain1
        March 6, 2020 at 9:57 am

        ye you basically run in in your tempo stowaway/faldori deck as an additional cheating tool

  5. H0lysatan
    March 5, 2020 at 5:36 pm

    4 Year of Raven’s Cards, means more dust for the next Expansion
    I still have Dr.Boom (not useful much around DoD meta). Getting full dust for it is great.

    • H0lysatan
      March 5, 2020 at 5:46 pm

      And I remember just a few days ago, they said something about “No Balance Changes In Wild”
      What’s this then? April Fools joke?

      • Smasher101
        March 5, 2020 at 9:37 pm

        No these are buffs you will not get dust and they are kinda walking the line by saying they aren’t balance changes.

      • Stonekeep - Site Admin
        March 6, 2020 at 5:16 am

        Oh yeah, that’s interesting. By balance changes they most likely meant nerfing some of the best decks, because they were asked about it multiple times. Players have commonly asked about nerfs to Quest Mage, Secret Mage, Mech Paladin and a few other Wild builds.

        Buffing cards that don’t really see play and aren’t problematic isn’t exactly meant to BALANCE the best meta decks, but rather give some more usable options in lower tiers.

        So I think that both of those aren’t mutually exclusive. You can buff some cards that don’t see any play and it won’t be a “balance change” – unless one of those cards turn out to be over the top, then it will definitely upset the current balance, eh.

        And just like Smasher101 already said, you get extra Dust only for nerfs, not for buffs. But there’s still Hall of Fame when it comes to free Dust 🙂

  6. Albionflux
    March 5, 2020 at 3:13 pm

    what was yoggs pre-nerf form ?

    • MarmotMurloc
      March 5, 2020 at 3:34 pm

      It wasn’t a nerf to his battlecry. Nowadays he casts a random spell for each spell you cast that game OR until he dies, whichever comes first. It used to be he always cast spells until he cast a spell for every one you had casted that game (Didn’t matter when he died, it kept casting)

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      March 5, 2020 at 3:38 pm

      He didn’t stop casting spells when he died.

      E.g. if you had 20 spells played, he ALWAYS cast 20 random spells. Now if he kills himself with the 1st spell, he won’t cast the other 19.

  7. OldManSanns
    March 5, 2020 at 1:36 pm

    I could see Pocket Galaxy reverting from 7 to 5–as Stonekeep says, Wild is faster than Standard so I can’t see it being viable otherwise.

    Dr. Boom and Raiding Party make sense too–they were both heavy-handed nerfs to course-correct the Standard meta and should be fine if not necessary for wild.

    For the YoD card: I actually think Sludge Slurper because again it was a heavy-handed nerf and it was a corner stone for a lot of archetypes (quest, murloc, overload).

  8. Njuns
    March 5, 2020 at 10:03 am

    Oh please I’m dreaming of Raza’s return !!! Would be the happiest HS player if that happens, miss Razakus so much

    • HuntingFor90
      March 5, 2020 at 11:05 am

      I would really like to see how Razakus priest would compare to the current wild meta. Also pre-nerf patches and Dr. Boom Mad Genius. Hoping they can compete with the current 80% mage meta

  9. Omnitarian
    March 5, 2020 at 9:27 am

    My best guess is something to recorrect Shaman – especially with Shudderwock leaving, Thrall is looking badly poised for the new year. Sludge Slurper back to two attack would lift all shaman decks (‘Krond, Murloc, Quest, Overload) without being too dangerous. But those decks haven’t cut Slurper, so maybe not the most urgent to unnerf. Dragon’s Pack’s nerf is looking like it was overkill, so is another candidate. Mogu Fleshaper would be … fun… to unnerf but as we saw with the Doom in the Tomb event it’s the most dangerous card to revert.

    • PitLord
      March 6, 2020 at 10:52 am

      Yeah, i agree shaman must be buffed, sludge slurper didn’t need a nerf on the first place. I mean it’s full of op 1 mana cost minion in warrior and of course northshire cleric and nd they don’t even overload as malus.

      I will revert fleshaper to 7 with the elusive ability, so mutate did not work, sure you eventually can use a lackey to evolve but there is no guarantee that you will find the right one.