Update: Just after I posted this, I noticed that Cora clarified that she meant the Core Set rotation and not before that. Yeah. That sucks.
Just to be clear, if he goes on vacation it would most likely be when the core set rotation happens with the first set release of next year. I don’t want to get any hopes up for something sooner.
— Cora ???? (@SongbirdCora) December 12, 2022
It’s safe to say that Brann Bronzebeard has been one of the most impactful cards of this year. While other explorers brought back to Core Set in 2022 have seen little to no Standard play, Brann was played in many different decks, staying at 40%+ play rate for weeks at a time. His effect is incredibly strong and versatile – he can be used for value, tempo, and as a way to set up different combos. Even right now he terrorizes Standard players because of his synergy with Astalor Bloodsworn in Druid – and just before Shockspitter was nerfed to 3 mana he did the same in Hunter.
Keep in mind that it’s nothing official yet, but one of the devs – Cora – has said on Twitter that Brann has probably earned a vacation away from Standard and that she’ll look into the matter. And given the general players sentiment as well as stats, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brann got sacked. Of course, the earliest “regular” opportunity would be the next Core Set rotation, but that’s still roughly 4 months from now (April 2023), and I don’t think that the meta can wait for that long. I think we might see Brann either nerfed or rotated out of the Core Set much sooner than that.
Of course, no patch will happen this week – Hearthstone World Championship 2022 happens this weekend, and Blizzard made it clear that they don’t want to release a patch just before a big event like that. Players have to submit their decks a few days earlier, so it would leave them with no time for playtesting at all, jeopardizing the integrity of the entire event. The earliest and honestly the only opportunity is next week – probably on Tuesday, December 20. Shortly after that, devs will go on a holiday break, meaning that the next opportunity will be after New Year (and that’s when Patch 26.2 will be dropping, not the first big Constructed balance update).
Still, if they aim for the next week, it still leaves them with some time to assess the situation and think about getting rid of Brann. That would probably shake up the meta more than most of the other buffs/nerfs they can come up with. But I would love the patch to contain some of those too – especially buffs for Death Knight, because the new class still feels underwhelming.
Fix Wild, maybe?