Balance Update 21.3 For Constructed – 5 Nerfs, 7 Buffs, 1 Rework, 1 Ban – Releasing Tomorrow (September 21)

A huge balance update was just announced! It’s scheduled for tomorrow – September 21, 2021 – and includes multiple updates to Constructed, Battlegrounds, Arena and Duels. In this post, we’ll focus on what is probably the probably most anticipated part – Constructed. If you want to read more about other changes (Battlegrounds and more), check out this post.

The patch includes changes 14 cards in total. Here’s a full list:

Nerfs

• The Demon Seed & Establish the Link – Now require 8 self-damage to progress (up from 6 & 7 respectively).
• Runed Mithril Rod – Now costs 4 mana (up from 3).
• Tame the Flames – Now requires 3 Overload cards to finish final step of Questline  (up from 2).
• Perpetual Flame – Now costs 2 mana (up from 1).
• Irebound Brute – Now costs 8 mana (up from 7).

Buffs

• Bloodsail Deckhand – Now has 2 health (up from 1).
• Stonemaul Anchorman – Now has 6 health (up from 5).
• Stormwind Freebooter – Now has 4 health (up from 3).
• Leatherworking Kit – Now costs 1 mana (down from 2).
• Selective Breeder – Now has 3 health (up from 1).
• Wildfire – Now costs 1 mana  (down from 2).
• Mordresh Fire Eye – Now is an 8 mana 8/8 (down from 10 mana 10/10).

Rework

• Mindrender Illucia – Now reads “Battlecry: Replace your hand with a copy of your opponent’s until end of turn.” (instead of Battlecry: Swap hands and decks with your opponent until your next turn.)

Ban

• The Demon Seed got banned in Wild format.

And here’s a visual roundup of all the changes:

You can find out more about the changes, including some dev comments, in the official patch notes below:

Standard and Wild Updates

The following cards have been adjusted down in power level.

Irebound Brute

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]

Dev Comment: Irebound Brute was playable a bit earlier than intended on average. Pushing it back a turn should soften extreme turns.

Mindrender Illucia

• Old: Battlecry: Swap hands and decks with your opponent until your next turn. → New: Battlecry: Replace your hand with a copy of your opponent’s until end of turn.

Dev Comment: With the refinement of Shadow Priest in recent weeks, Mindrender Illucia has been overperforming in the archetype, in an unintended way. Instead of being used as a late game disruption tool, Shadow Priests have been using Illucia as an early game play to essentially skip the opponent’s turn. This change is aimed at removing that problematic gameplay from Illucia, while still keeping her in a similar space with her effect.

Perpetual Flame

• Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]

Dev Comment: Perpetual Flame is a very efficient removal tool for Questline Shaman. Going up one mana here will give board-based decks a better shot against Shaman in the early- and mid-game.

Command the Elements

• Tame the Flames (the third portion of the Questline)
  • Old: Play 2 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan. → New: Play 3 cards with Overload. Reward: Stormcaller Bru’kan.

Dev Comment: Slowing down the speed at which Questline Shamans can get their final reward should open up more room for counterplay, particularly from slower strategies.

The Demon Seed

• The Demon Seed (part 1 of the Questline)
  • Old: Take 6 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
• Establish the Link (part 2 of the Questline)
  • Old: Take 7 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero. → New: Take 8 damage on your turns. Reward: Lifesteal. Deal 3 damage to the enemy hero.
• Additionally, The Demon Seed is now banned in Wild.

Dev Comment: After monitoring both Standard and Wild since the release of Stormwind, we’ve decided to both increase the damage required on the first two steps for Standard and ban the Questline in Wild. In Standard, we are slightly upping the amount of damage needed to complete the Questline to slow down the speed at which Tamsin locks up games. In Wild, where there are many more efficient self-damaging cards, The Demon Seed can be completed at an unintentionally fast rate. We are banning the card to protect the format from the problematic gameplay it created. When The Demon Seed rotates to Wild, we will unban it and reposition the card to be more appropriate for the format.

Runed Mithril Rod

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]

Dev Comment: Runed Mithril Rod is overperforming relative to mana-generation sources in other classes, mainly due to Warlock’s card draw potential. Going up one mana will bring Runed Mithril Rod’s power level more in line with what other classes have access to.

The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 21.3 patch goes live.

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The following cards have been adjusted up in power level.

Dev Comments: We’re looking at opening up a few more strategies for some of the less-diverse classes and underrepresented archetypes in the Standard metagame. These buffs are aimed at some of the weaker archetypes to make them more appealing options to play with. Some of these changes are on the lighter side, in anticipation of the mini-set coming in the next major patch after the patch launching Mercenaries.

Leatherworking Kit

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Selective Breeder

• Old: 1 Attack, 1 Health → New: 1 Attack, 3 Health

Wildfire

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 1]

Mordresh Fire Eye

• Old: [Costs 10] 10 Attack, 10 Health → New: [Costs 8] 8 Attack, 8 Health

Stormwind Freebooter

• Old: 3 Attack, 3 Health → New: 3 Attack, 4 Health

Stonemaul Anchorman

• Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health → New: 4 Attack, 6 Health

Bloodsail Deckhand

• Old: 2 Attack, 1 Health → New: 2 Attack, 2 Health

Source