Saviors of Uldum August 26 Nerf Patch – Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, Luna’s Pocket Galaxy, Conjurer’s Calling, Extra Arms and Barnes!

Good news, everyone! The nerf patch hinted at 2 days ago has just been announced. The two nerfs “leaked” on Mike Donais’ stream also turned out to be true, but on top of those, we’ve got three more cards getting changed. One of which is a Wild card, something that hasn’t happened in a while (last time a Wild card was changed was Aviana in Boomsday Project (a year ago). Also, two of the “nerfs” are basically reversed buffs. For the most part, cards buffed a couple months ago during the Rise of the Mech event turned out to be quite balanced, but some of them ended up too strong. Still, it’s better to try and fail (especially since any mistake can be fixed like it is now) than not try at all!

Here’s the full list of nerfs:

The nerfs will go live on Monday (August 26), most likely not to disrupt the beginning of Grandmasters Season 2.

For more details, such as the specific reasons why those cards were targeted, check out the official blog post below!

Now that Saviors of Uldum is live, new cards have been introduced and powerful decks have started to surface. To make for a better ladder experience for Hearthstone players in this new expansion, we’ve decided to make the following card adjustments in an update next week:

Card Changes

Mage

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While Conjurer’s Calling is a powerful tool that’s found in a number of Mage decks, when used in decks focused around cards like Mountain Giant and Sea Giant, it was creating extremely powerful board states at a point in the game where opponents didn’t have effective answers.

Increasing the mana cost of this card will make using both copies of the Twinspell card in a single turn significantly more difficult, postponing these potentially overwhelming turns until later in the game when the Mage’s opponent has more available resources to react to the board.

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Buffing cards with the Rise of the Mech event was a big change in philosophy for us. While we are happy with the overall outcome of the changes, Luna’s Pocket Galaxy has proven to be an exception.

An early Luna’s Pocket Galaxy can often leave opponents feeling helpless if late-game minions were drawn in subsequent turns. This has occurred more often than we had intended, therefore we’re reverting its mana cost back to its original value of 7, as was the case before the Rise of the Mech event.

Warrior

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We’d still like Dr. Boom, Mad Genius to be a great option for control Warrior decks looking to close out games, but right now the card gets played a bit too early. Increasing the mana cost to 9 should make it more difficult to find a good turn to play Dr. Boom, giving opponents time to make powerful plays as well.

Priest

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During the Rise of the Mech event, Priest was one of the weaker classes in the game. Buffing Extra Arms gave Priest a powerful spell for the early game to enable some of their board-focused strategies.

With the release of Saviors of Uldum, Priest has access to many more powerful early game minions and has seen a large jump in both popularity and winrate. Between all of Priests buff spells and heal effects, it can be hard to fight for the board against them early in the game. Increasing the mana cost of Extra Arms back to 3 should give room for other decks to challenge them early on, while leaving the powerful Priest minions and combos untouched.

Neutral

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Barnes has been a hot topic in Wild format discussions for quite some time now, especially regarding how oppressive this card can feel when facing certain Priest decks.

While we’re okay with Wild having a higher power level in general, Barnes stood out as too consistently powerful early in the game. Increasing his mana cost by 1 will let opponents have an easier time reacting, but still lets Barnes retain its identity as a way to summon specific minions early in the game.

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Be sure to let us know what you think of these upcoming changes on the official Hearthstone Forums. We’ll see you in the tavern!

Source

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

46 Comments

  1. Smasher101
    August 26, 2019 at 9:20 AM

    When are the nerfs happening today? I assumed they would happen at midnight but that doesn’t seem to be the case and I can’t remember when they happened last time.

  2. Likefia
    August 23, 2019 at 4:54 AM

    OK, there are 2 needed nerf in the list : Barnes (OMG finaly !!!) and conjurer calling.

    Extra arms was extremely powerfull, so this nerf is quite accurate.

    But Dr Boom and Luna’s Pocket Galaxy nerfed are just stupid … Dr Boom is insane in standard because it is the only Hero card (let’s forget about Agatha), but it i a fair card comparing its power with DK. Boom was already a bad card for wild, now it is complete trash.

    For luna’s, without the existence of CC it would just be a fun meme card. But i guess it deserved a win for being a meme card.

    No card went to Hall of fame, so no dust for folks ><"

    • PitLord
      August 23, 2019 at 10:39 AM

      Well, yes it would have been better if boom rotate istantly in wild untouched, dk rexxar take care of him like the old good time.

      P.S. There is also Zuljin (but his hero power can’t compete with boom) in standard other than Agatha

  3. Deathcoilek
    August 23, 2019 at 12:39 AM

    Problem in warrior is when he have perfect curve for exmple 1 turn 1/3 glover or 1/2 for mummy, 2 turn 2/2 taunt, 3 shlied block, 4 turn 3/2 mummy, 5 turn dynomatic, brawl or ziliax, 6 turn mayby warpath, 7 turn Armagedilo, 8 turn Tomb warden with buffed now 9 turn Dr. boom and 10 turn opponet concede Hi blizz 🙂

    • TardisGreen
      August 23, 2019 at 7:29 AM

      Just how often will Warrior get that perfect curve? Especially since it is only cycling one card along the way. Armagedilo is a one of, and doesn’t do much if there are no other taunts in hand. And only one Boom.

      • MarmotMurloc
        August 26, 2019 at 2:52 AM

        While your point is valid, you have not seen the person who has successfully had the misfortune to opene and dust griftah on 4 separate occasions (once golden). Even if it only happens once, I swear I will feel the effect of it haha

  4. Maximum
    August 22, 2019 at 5:57 PM

    I am actually glad that Warrior didn’t get murdered as much as mage did because it seems to be one of the only dacks that will keep Murloc Paladin in check

  5. Maximum
    August 22, 2019 at 5:54 PM

    Mage is pretty much dead, priest nerfed for no reason and blizzard killing Barnes more then tempo mage.

  6. Smasher101
    August 22, 2019 at 3:05 PM

    I think it’s insane to nerf Barnes and not tempo mage for wild right now. I’m complete trash at this game and I got to rank 2 with secret mage. I have both decks so don’t say I’m biased. Big priest was in a bad spot already and now with tempo mage being incredibly popular big priest almost always loses to it.

    • Likefia
      August 23, 2019 at 5:01 AM

      big priest was a strong deck thanks to Barnes. Inner Fire dragon priest is one of the most powerfull deck in wild rightnow, but it requires skillfull plays. Big priest was just king of Highrolls and mana cheating. I’m glad the deck is finally dead.

      • Smasher101
        August 23, 2019 at 6:44 AM

        Do you think inner fire priest will still be that good after the extra arms nerf?

        • Likefia
          August 23, 2019 at 9:25 AM

          I think it will. Dragon Innerfire was not an all-in deck, the nerf just affect T1 cleric, T2 arms, that’s quite big, but it doesn’t kill the deck. I’ve played this deck a little bit this season and it’s quite a slow version of Inner Fire Priest, that’s why i think the deck will not be affected that much.

  7. TheTallRonan
    August 22, 2019 at 2:42 PM

    I’m happy for the Barnes nerf, but honestly, Barnes was never the problem—interactivity is.

    The reason Big Priest is so infuriating to play against is that most classes have NO WAY to disrupt their game plan. As soon as Big Priest plays a minion, you’re done for—either you let it live and it kills you, or you kill it, they resurrect a zillion copies of it, and then they kill you. It’s the Jade Druid scenario—either you rush them down immediately, or you lose to their infinite value infinite tempo BS.

    There are obviously counters (entomb, polymorph, pretty much all of Shaman at this point) but none are in Neutral. What we need is a Neutral transform effect (one that’s more reliable than Overspark)—basically a way to disrupt their resurrect pool, without putting an otherwise-awful card in your deck.

    • GrayFoxx
      August 23, 2019 at 2:52 AM

      Exactly, having Barnes or no isn’t that game ending for Priest, Vargoth has become problem too, giving additional value or win condition for Big Priests. The only way as you said it, is to transform their minions. Also, generating weak minions for them doesn’t work most of the time, when they got few Lich Kings, Muertes it is still pain to fight and kill. I once put 7 treants in their pool with Posion Seeds and they haven’t resurrected none with Spellstone, just got full board with Vargoth and some Statues and Lich Kings. Neutral reliable morph effects are the answer.

    • GrayFoxx
      August 23, 2019 at 2:56 AM

      Or even better make it so you can resurrect only minions that actually died. Like for example you kill 1/1 Lich King generated by Barnes, and they can only resurrect one Lich King that is the Barnes one. If they want more Lich Kings to resurrect they either have to copy it or play the original one, now they can have 2 Lich Kings to resurrect.

      • Whereismurder
        August 24, 2019 at 1:22 PM

        This is dead on. If a priest plays a Vargoth, you burn it down, and they resurrect three Vargoths with mass resurrection or one Vargoth each turn with Catrina? It shouldn’t work like that. The text reads “summon X friendly minions that died this game,” not “resurrect X copies of random minions that died this game.”

        Same thing with generating copies, if they create a 1/1 Ysera and it dies, they get one replacement 1/1 Ysera, not X 4/12 copies.

        So instead of fixing an underlying mechanics issue, they just ban anything which ends up being OP by mistake. Easier coding I guess?

        And maybe they should play test these expansions some more. How can they not see some of these interactions coming? Instead of 2-3 nerfs each expansion, its getting to be too much.

  8. HS
    August 22, 2019 at 2:24 PM

    RIP 25000 dust reno mage

  9. HS
    August 22, 2019 at 2:21 PM

    RIP mage, murloc meta.
    At least they finally nerf barnes

  10. Draegarn
    August 22, 2019 at 12:42 PM

    Good Nerfs i think. Now Control decks have to use Mojomaster Zihi against Dr.Boom, that will give hope to those games.

  11. TWAG
    August 22, 2019 at 12:35 PM

    Overall a pretty disappointing round of nerfs upfront. Reverse the buffs instead of reworking them. Berf Boom against fast decks while leaving him as still pretty much the only viable late game strategy. Nerf Calling even though it’s the less problematic part of its best combo.

    Was really hoping for something with Omega Devastator or the more significant parts of combo priest.

  12. OldManSanns
    August 22, 2019 at 12:22 PM

    I’m pretty disappointed in all these nerfs. In short: none of them are strong enough to counter the “try-hard” strategies, but they are significant to hurt fun spinoff strategies. Like for example Conjurer’s Calling: going to 4 mana isn’t going to stop that oppressive Giant on T4 -> bump + Conj on T5 play, but it will stop tempo plays like Keysmith T4 -> Conj + Khadgar/HP/2 drop. So the meta will still run CC, its just players will use it exclusively on high-cost minions now. Similarly, Boom and Pocket Galaxy really only change for if you managed to play on curve–both are long-game strategies that can usually delay a couple of turns and still win. And Arms just sounds unplayable now–all the aggro players that were running Light Warden decks are just going to switch to another class’s aggro deck, and meanwhile priest overall loses one of its MVP value tools in a meta where its struggling to find a role.

    • Brandon975
      August 22, 2019 at 12:34 PM

      The true combo is use giant cost 3+CC in turn 5. Using giant turn 4 just to lose it for any hard removal when you could do the combo in one turn in your next turn is just bad

  13. Vincent
    August 22, 2019 at 12:18 PM

    As others suggested removing Blast Shield and/or rush from Dr. Boom and removing the mech tag from Omega Devastator would be a better solution imo. Dr 7 is now Dr 9.
    I now expect less mages and more CW mirrors (I play CW on ladder) which will be boring 🙁

  14. DukeStarswisher
    August 22, 2019 at 11:47 AM

    I’m a little agitated about the Boom and Barnes nerf:

    Boom’s cost isn’t going to greatly affect control warrior at all. Its passive ability and hps are the real issue.

    The Barnes nerf comes at a time when Big priest is doing just ok in the wild meta. I would think a nerf would come at a time when the archetype was borderline oppressive, similar to star aligner druid way back before Aviana’s nerf. Thankfully, I don’t think it will ruin the decks viability since vargoth is still present.

  15. Nickname23
    August 22, 2019 at 11:41 AM

    Well, not perfect, but still decent. Pretty happy with Mage and Priest nerfs.

    Dr. Boom still around, just a bit weaker. Maybe they have to keep Control Warrior around to prevent face decks running away with the game. On the other hand they could have made better control cards for other classes and say good bye to Dr. 9.

    Prismatic Lens/Tip the Scales untouched within the Barnes nerf patch, which is kind of funny.

  16. Joeydungee
    August 22, 2019 at 11:38 AM

    I’m not sure that just making Dr. Boom cost 9 is the answer here. I’m glad they didn’t HoF him, cause I feel like that sets a dangerous precedent of “this card is annoying now, so just delete it” (although it was necessary for Baku and Genn). I wish they would have changed the battlecry, or nerfed Omega Assembly to “Discover a Mech”.

    As for Barnes, I don’t play Wild as much as Standard, but I feel like making him cost more than Shadow Essence (like 7 mana) would have been perfect. It would have made Barnes worse than Shadow Essence (4/5 + unusable body in res pool versus 5/5 stats) but still playable in some cases.

    Overall I think these nerfs will be effective (especially to Mage and Priest), but I really don’t think they solved the Warrior problem. Only time will tell!
    Also, I’m thinking that they left Murloc Paladin untouched because they see a low cost Tip the Scales as something that doesn’t happen that often. It’s similar to Shudderwock and the original Rogue Quest: something that was annoying to play against when your opponent got everything right, but ultimately not a game-breaking element across the board (don’t kill me)

  17. Nickus89
    August 22, 2019 at 11:29 AM

    Those nerfs seem really lazy. Conjurer’s calling and Extra arms are appropriate whereas others are just lame. Boom is still a problem and presents unmatched value for other control decks which in return are nonexistent. Luna’s is unplayable again, but hey 1600 dust is still a lot.
    In addition, I am worried about existence of early Tip the Scales, hunters power and the fact that divine spirit – inner fire combo is still untouched, just waiting to be abused again.

  18. LuKeAA
    August 22, 2019 at 11:16 AM

    These nerfs are both hilarious and terrible.

    I wonder if the 180° they took with Luna’s and Extra Arms will demoralize the team from attempting more buffs in the future; just playtest the whole thing abit better next time; the rest of the buffs was fairly good;

    this is where the fun ends:

    Dr. 7 into Dr. 9 only changes the trend but not the impact this “1 Card, Win the Value Game” late game does. It just had to get HoF’ed; the nerfs doesn’t change a damn thing, as the rest of Warrior can still invest in Aggro defenses and Boom to beat everything that is not Quest Paladin or makes sticky boards;

    CC is both a pleasure and a puzzle, as Mt. Giants are still there but the combo has been … slowed down; with Luna gone the cost of CC matters even more.

    It has been 2 years of Big Priests ruining Wild, further and further within every expansion and THIS is the BIG Hit for BIG Priest? Barnes to 5 Mana?! Vargoth still untouched, along Resurrect and °Co.

    Wuauhw …

    • DukeStarswisher
      August 22, 2019 at 12:58 PM

      It won’t demoralize. 2/18 of the cards buffed were deemed to powerful. Honestly, that’s a pretty good outcome for any buff patch.

  19. Taznak
    August 22, 2019 at 11:06 AM

    Mage is getting wrecked, Priest is getting an appropriate nerf, Warrior is getting a slap in the wrist, Hunter and Paladin are getting a free pass. Guess it’s a Warrior + Hunter + Paladin meta up ahead.

    • TardisGreen
      August 22, 2019 at 11:27 AM

      The nerfs to Mage are both appropriate. And some variety of Mage is likely to continue to be the best deck in the game.

    • Smasher101
      August 22, 2019 at 3:14 PM

      And don’t forget that big priest is getting killed after it’s allready dead from tempo mage

  20. Beerdserkr
    August 22, 2019 at 11:01 AM

    Can we just agree it’s not good news for everyone? ;p

    • Beerdserkr
      August 22, 2019 at 11:05 AM

      That said it’s not the nerf I was expecting that would totally kill Control Warrior. This shouldn’t make a huge difference. THAT said I have been cleaning house with Highlander Warrior.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      August 22, 2019 at 2:57 PM

      I think that changes are always good news for everyone, the game would get boring very quickly if nothing ever changed 🙂 I play nerfed cards a lot and I’m still happy that we’ll see a shift in the meta.

  21. NirvanaX
    August 22, 2019 at 10:55 AM

    now its Rise Of Aggro Boys

    • TardisGreen
      August 22, 2019 at 11:28 AM

      Control Warrior doesn’t even need Boom to utterly destroy Aggro. Your comment is absurd.

  22. Thanatos
    August 22, 2019 at 10:52 AM

    Any comments about refunds ? Should we craft golden legendaries for those we don’t have yet ?

    • Taznak
      August 22, 2019 at 11:02 AM

      Crafting golden legendaries is a good strategy to get free dust from cards that are about to be moved to the Hall of Fame. It’s not something you want to do with cards that are only getting nerfed.

      For nerfed cards, there is a 2 week window where you can disenchant those for 100% of the dust it costs to craft them. Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to disenchant them in this situation unless you’re actively using them, since you can just craft them again later for the same amount of dust

  23. PitLord
    August 22, 2019 at 10:35 AM

    Barnes nerf it’s a joke, this card must cost a lot more of 5 (it’s the equivalent of poketh galaxy in standard) or make the card affect only minion of cost 7 or less (casually priest with the exception of Vargoth are all 8 or more….)

    Cost 9 for boom it means no more hero power and hardly you keep a 9 mana card from the beginning . I’m still disappointed for no nerf (or rotation) to brawl and agent omega.

    Still northshire cleric its unnerfed… well at least no more arms on turn 2.

    K for nerf to mage cards

  24. 808mafiabruh
    August 22, 2019 at 10:25 AM

    I really like the Conjurer’s calling nerf, but I don’t think increasing the mana cost of boom to 9 will solve the problem at all. Postponing its play two turns late has no effect on how the deck performs against other control decks. The problem with boom is that with all the removal tools and infinite value, control warrior makes your opponent feel like they are not in the game anymore because the game just turns into one single boring pattern, remove the stuff your opponents played and discover more value to remove them, if you don’t limit the value generation or its removal tool after boom is being played, the card is not nerfed at all in all control matchups. Really disappointed with blizzard this time…

  25. Pahisile
    August 22, 2019 at 10:11 AM

    Barnes nerf is good but won’t fix big priest problem in wild.

    • Smasher101
      August 22, 2019 at 3:16 PM

      Your right what fixed big priest problem is tempo mage being so absurdly good.

  26. MarmotMurloc
    August 22, 2019 at 10:10 AM

    So, Dr.7 is dead, extra arms in close to unplayable, lunas is back to being only ok….as a quest Hunter player, these needs have no impact on me and thus are a good thing (and as a murloc pally player…hehe… we will rise from the tides)