A new game mode – Twist – was released last week. Many players have wondered what will Blizzard’s approach to balance it be. After all, even if the meta isn’t particularly good, it won’t last long with available expansions and/or deck building rules changing every season or two. However, it looks like – at least in extreme scenarios like the current “New Age” format – they are willing to make some changes. Or, to be more precise, ban some cards from the format (nerfing them makes less sense given that the cards themselves might not necessarily be overpowered in other formats).
For now, we only know which cards will get affected, not how will they change! Except for Twist cards which are getting removed from the mode. The patch itself is coming later this week. If everything goes according to the usual schedule, it should be released on Thursday (July 6), around 10 AM PT (19:00 CET). Full patch notes with exact changes will most likely drop an hour or so before that.
Here’s a full list of cards affected in Standard & Twist:
Standard
- Death Blossom Whomper – Nerfed.
Twist
- Glide – Banned.
- Crypt Keeper – Banned.
- Refreshing Spring Water – Banned.
Those bans should affect some of the most powerful decks in the format – Questline Druid (Crypt Keeper), Questline Demon Hunter (Glide), and Haleh Mage (Spring Water). Of course, it’s too early to say anything, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough to balance the format. Instead of targeting Questline support cards, they should just outright ban Questlines…
The patch also contains a lot of Battlegrounds balance changes – minon & hero nerfs, buffs, and some minion pool changes.
You can see teasers for all the formats below:
Honestly, I really like the Druid class, but in the past few years, many of their decks have been completely degenerate.
1) Gibberling
2) Kazakusan
3) Denathrius OTK
4) Astalor OTK
5) Thaddius and Thaddius + Tony
6) Guff to 20 mana (originally crystals that were added were not empty from hero power, seriously? 20 mana, seriously?)
Guys, there are so many amazing cards that Druid could play , but what is lacking is wide board removal. Something like Scales of Onyxia would be good. Otherwise Druid is simply playing degenerate decks.
nah, guys.
hollow hound has his downsides for sure.
the meta is now just formed to many low health minions like paladin has it.
in Titans the playrate will significant go lower, when big titan stuff is coming on board and a 3 attack gleve effect will be just bad in most cases. mark my words 😉
Wow such ban…. Seriously? Delete ALL quest and ban the dragon of mage (so there are no dragon and the 10 mana spell is usless) and you are ready to go.
Those 3 card compared are ok
I mean.
it is very unintended that you can discover the only one dragon.
so to ban this card would absolutely ok.
And yes questlines sucks, why not ban them. why they suck? they are push the meta to a super high tempo bullshit where you can not try anything. big druid, weapon or a overload shaman without questlines would also be very powerful.
Imagine nerfing death blossom whomper, while leaving hollow hound untouched.
smh
I think it’s more about feelings and not necessarily balance. Yes, Hollow Hound (and Big Beast Hunter in general) is objectively better, but people don’t seem to mind playing it as much. Hound you can often anticipate and play around to a certain degree. But Death Blossom Whomper leads to pretty toxic game patterns. Getting it on curve with Hedge Maze in play is basically game over, REALLY not fun to play against.
And with Druid being my favorite class, I’m pretty sad that whenever Druid gets a good slower deck it gets nerfed very quickly, but what can you do. I actually have to agree with this nerf.
Oh, I totally agree.
Frustrating play patterns come from facing hollow hound as well though.
Like I do play Hunter a lot and if they’d take away either rush or lifesteal, the card wouldn’t nearly be as oppressive as it is.
Whilst I do agree they should adress hollow hound (I’m tired of nearly winning only for hunters to heal upwards to 20 health), like stonekeep said, there’s at least some stuff you can do to curb its strengths. Whomper, on the other hand, just absolutely decks you and the only way of effectively stopping it is through silence (which isn’t a very popular tech/most classes don’t have good silence options), and even then whomper can still get activated by hedge maze.
Honestly, I’m mostly salty about the fact that they murdered zok druid, which was fine and wr wise wasn’t even an outlier, due to “people feel bad playing against it”, then buff whomper and let chad druid become this much of an issue. It’s crazy.