Blizzard Entertainment has announced a new wave of card nerfs that will be hitting Hearthstone on May 22. They will have a strong impact on the game’s most popular deck, Tempo Rogue, and the Rogue class in general.
Hearthstone is the king of the digital card game world (although Magic: The Gathering Arena is starting to close the gap), which research firm Newzoo estimates could be worth $2 billion by 2020. Making sure that cards are fair with these updates can keep players happy. It also freshens up the metagame, changing how players build decks. Outside of the three expansions that come out each year, a round of card changes marks the biggest change in the game’s meta.
These nerfs hit the Rogue class hard. Two of Rogue’s best cards from the last two expansions — Rastakhan’s Rumble and Rise of Shadows — are getting changes to make the less powerful (in gaming, such changes are known a nerfs).
Raiding Party will now cost 4 mana instead of 5, and EVIL Miscreant will have 4 health instead of 5. But that’s not it for Rogues. One of its oldest spells is also getting a nerf.
Preparation will now make your next spell cost 2 mana less instead of 3 mana less. Preparation has been a popular choice in almost all Rogue decks since Hearthstone was in beta. Rogue has been a powerful deck so far since Rise of Shadows launched. These changes will reduce its power level and should impact its popularity.
These are also all cards played in Tempo Rogue, which has been the strongest deck in the game since Rise of Shadows’ launch, according to Tempo Storm (a site that looks at Hearthstone’s meta). Having three of its cards nerfed should weaken the deck.
Outside of Rogue, the Rise of Shadows legendary minion Archivist Elysiana is also getting nerfed.
Elsiana will now cost 9 mana instead of 8 mana. This will make it harder to bounce her back into your hand with cards like Youthful Brewmaster. Elysiana has a powerful late-game effect, but she becomes even more intense when you can play here more than once. This change should make it so that most classes will have a harder time doing just that.
