Blizzard Entertainment announced a raft of changes coming to its hit digital card game Hearthstone when the Year of the Raven launches later in 2018. But one card is receiving something more. Molten Giant is getting redemption.
Molten Giant is an 8/8 minion that costs 1 mana less for each point of damage your hero has taken. It originally started at 20 mana. Since Hearthstone has a max of 10 mana normally, you couldn’t play the card unless you took some hits. But Blizzard nerfed Molten Giant in 2016, increasing its cost to 25 mana.
Before the nerf, Molten Giant was popular in deck like Handlock, a Warlock lineup that focused on using low-cost, high-stats minions like Molten Giants along with cards that could copy stats like Faceless Manipulator. But increasing the cost to 25 mana made the card much worse, removing its viability and hurting the entire deck archetype.
Now, Blizzard is reverting the nerf. Molten Giant will once again cost 20 mana. But it’s going into the Hall of Fame, meaning that you’ll no longer be able to use the card in any Standard format. But you can still use it in the Wild format, where all cards are eligible.
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This is actually a change that fans have been requesting. The old nerf just made Molten Giant a dead card. Now, at least people can enjoy the old Handlock archetype in Wild. They can even try to experiment with it while keeping the Molten Giant backbone intact.
It’s rare for Hearthstone to make a card better. Blizzard only nerfs them when it’s trying to balance the game. This is also the first time Blizzard has reversed a card nerf. But Molten Giant was a unique case, and this change brings something of a happy ending to the minion and its fans.
