When it comes to changing the Hearthstone meta, nerfs have typically been far more impactful than buffs. Nerfed decks have always lost at least a bit of their power and have sometimes been eradicated from the meta altogether, whereas most buffs the Hearthstone team has made have had zero impact. There are good reasons for this. When you nerf a card, it already plays a major role in a deck, and that deck is immediately and directly affected. When you buff a card, it often has seen no meta play, and players need to come up with decks that make use of the buffed card, and those decks would need to be competitive against a field of refined and proven competitors. Most of the time, a single buff here or there is not enough to build around, and the impact on the meta is non-existent.
In this week’s 30.2.2 balance patch, Blizzard went with only two Standard nerfs (Tidepool Pupil and Doomkin cost increases) and a whopping 14 buffs. The buffs were targeted at improving Perils in Paradise archetypes that had been unable to break into the meta, which is the hardest target for buffs. The buffs were targeted at only a few classes, but even within those classes, they were not all for cards that fit in the same deck, further reducing their potential impact.
Well, did the buffs do anything? So far, their impact has been limited, but there are some fun up-and-coming decks featuring the buffed cards. Let’s take a look at what is out there!
Egg Hunter
By far the most impactful buff has been the cost reduction of Mystery Egg. There is a significant amount of tinkering going on with Egg Hunter (sometimes called Breakfast Hunter), a deck focused on discounting and buffing big Beasts, especially Mister Mukla, Hollow Hound, and King Plush. A King Plush with some extra attack is not a foe to ignore, as it sends the entire board back to the owners’ decks and charges straight to the dome on top. Mister Mukla is not as fancy, but can be even more effective, as it hits the board much faster and can overwhelm an unwary opponent.
Egg Hunter was a tier 2 deck already before the buff. The buff makes it slightly better, and its biggest impact is the renewed interest in refining the deck further. Whether Egg Hunter has what it takes to reach the very top is still uncertain, but it is a fun deck to see more of in the meta.
- Format: pegasus
- Season: season-125
- Player:
11,280
Cutlass Rogue
Rogue is always a class that top players want to play because it promotes rapid decisions and open up a variety of options. There has been renewed interest in various weapon and Sonya decks after the patch, and the most successful of these includes both of the buffed Rogue Legendary cards, Maestra, Mask Merchant and Treasure Hunter Eudora. Whereas the Maestra buff does not look too relevant – Maestra was already used for her Tourist ability, not for the card itself – the buff to Treasure Hunter Eudora does seem relevant and makes it easier to get some of those sweet treasures, remakes of the Kazakusan treasure set.
So far, Cutlass Rogue looks like another tier 2 deck with the chance to rise up and become part of the top meta in the future.
- Format: pegasus
- Season: season-125
- Player:
- 11,640
Lynessa Paladin
The Rogue buffs have had some effect beyond the class as well thanks to Tourists, in this case Sunsapper Lynessa. The new Lynessa Paladin is far less of an OTK deck and more of a tempo deck that makes use of the buffed Metal Detector and Treasure Hunter Eudora.
That said, Paladin is a tough class to build a new archetype for. The class already has the excellent Handbuff Paladin and Flood Paladin, and this new tempo deck does not look competitive compared to the existing behemoths even though it wins slightly more than it loses.
- Format: pegasus
- Season: season-125
- Player:
- 14,520
Zilliax: Virus Module + Perfect Module
There is also another Paladin deck that makes use of Metal Detector and Treasure Hunter Eudora, although this one slightly predates the buffs. It is an Earthen Paladin! Fun deck, but also looks a bit too weak, and the weaker of these two newer Lynessa decks.
- Format: pegasus
- Season: season-125
- Posted By:
- 9,480
Big Mech Warrior
Warrior also received some buffs, some of them more successful than others. Food Fight, for example, is just a weak card, even with a lower-Health entrée. Spending Food Fight and another card to kill the entrée to summon one minion from your deck is just too many hoops to jump through.
On the other hand, the buff to Boom Wrench looks somewhat more promising. After the nerfs to Hydration Station and Inventor Boom, you have no longer been able to build huge Unkilliax boards, as you can only resummon one at a time. The cheaper Boom Wrench makes Testing Dummy a more attractive option, so now you can combine that with Zilliax and get more value from your resurrections.
The deck has hovered around a 50% win rate since the patch, and maybe that indicates some hope for this type of Warrior deck to return to the meta in a smaller role. If not, Highlander Warrior and Odyn Warrior are both still around too.
- Format: pegasus
- Season: season-125
- Player:
- 9,360
Zilliax: Virus Module + Perfect Module
Rainbow Mage
The buffs to Watercolor Artist and Raylla, Sand Sculptor have increased interest in Mage. Elemental Mage remains the most popular and successful Mage deck, and it is cheap as well, but some exploration and refinement is underway to make Sif relevant again with the help of the buffed cards. Puzzlemaster Khadgar has been cut from the lists and the deck is starting to take on a more focused form, but whether this refinement can be continued and reach good results remains uncertain. The early results look promising, at least.
Some of the buffs seemed to target Big Spell Mage – Marooned Archmage and DJ Manastorm, in particular – but I have not been able to find any performance improvements for that archetype so far. The best lists, which are not very good, do not even use either of the cards. Maybe something can be found for that archetype later. In the meanwhile, Rainbows are returning to Mage’s repertoire.
- Format: pegasus
- Season: season-125
- Posted By:
- 9,020
Did the Buffs Do Anything?
It is easy to dismiss the buffs. After all, you can go on playing something like Handbuff Paladin, Zarimi Priest, Pain Warlock, Pirate Demon Hunter, Pirate Shaman, or Rainbow Death Knight just like before the buffs and do well on the ladder.
However, the buffs did have a clear effect. Archetypes that could not hit a 50% win rate are now doing that or are close to doing it. Egg Hunter, Cutlass Rogue, and Rainbow Mage are the most promising ones. Any of them might be able to become a meta deck if some further breakthroughs are achieved. The buffs did not immediately change the top climbing decks, but they opened up new options and new opportunities for refinement. Given how difficult it is to change the meta with buffs, expecting more may have been unrealistic in the first place. So, if you enjoy some off-meta decks, you now have some more options to choose from. If you want to play the proven, strong climbing decks, not much has changed for you.
Old Guardian
Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian
