It sounded like it was very unlikely that we were going to get any balance changes in The Boomsday Project, but it turns out that it’s going to happen! Giggling Inventor, Mana Wyrm, and Aviana have all been nerfed! The nerf will go live October 18th, 2018.
Giggling Inventor – Will cost 7 mana. (Up from 5)
Giggling Inventor is one of the most powerful and popular cards we’ve ever created. There’s virtually no downside to including it in a deck, and because it’s neutral, it’s played in almost every deck. We think it’s important to take risks when making powerful cards, especially when it comes to neutral taunts, given the role they can play in encouraging minion interactions and making games more interesting. However, Giggling Inventor has stepped beyond its intended role, and we don’t feel that it should be as effective as it currently is.
We initially tested this card at (6) mana in both the current Standard format as well as with cards that will be released in the future. Ultimately, we felt that its power level was still higher than is appropriate for a Neutral card with no build-around requirements. At (7) mana, we expect Giggling Inventor will find its way into fewer decks in general—and be much less effective in Quest Rogue—while it might remain situationally playable within specific deck archetypes, such as Evolve Shaman.
Mana Wyrm – Will cost 2 mana. (Up from 1)
Over time, we’ve been moving away from powerful, early-game 1-drops like Mana Wyrm. It can often feel like the outcome of a game is decided by whether Mana Wyrm was played on turn one, and if it could be removed quickly by an opponent. Mana Wyrm has also steered us away from making powerful low-cost Mage spells. We’d like Mana Wyrm to remain an option for decks it synergizes with, while preventing it from being a huge turn one threat.
At (2) mana, it will be easier to deal with Mana Wyrm the turn it’s played, and it will be harder to buff it with cheap spells early in the match. We still expect it to remain an option in decks that have a heavy focus on cheap spells, but it should be a less appealing option in decks that aren’t built with that focus in mind.
Aviana – Will cost 10 mana. (Up from 9)
Changing Aviana to (10) mana means it will no longer be possible to play Aviana and Kun the Forgotten King on the same turn without some additional help from cards like Innervate or The Coin. It also means Juicy Psychmelon will no longer draw both Aviana and Kun. This should make the combos Aviana and Kun produce less consistent, while still allowing decks that use the combos to exist for the players that enjoy playing them.
So the strongest Most op class druid got nothing in standard. Wow this was the worst balance change i have ever seen ?
I hope this means you’ll have some more reasonable cards for mage soon. Currently there are only 2 mage decks in the meta, tempo, which was just nerfed due to this patch, and big spell, which has plenty of counters/ bad matchups. I’m pretty much only play mage and it seems as if its becoming unplayable.
This is a joke right? I just came to this site after another loss to a Druid despite having a perfect aggro hand. After watching a guy have 1 mana answers for 4 threats, gain 12 armor and clear my board on turn 5, and go 7 turns without playing a minion but win easily, I decided to check a news site to see if balances changes had been announced to make the game fair and fun again. And what I see is one card that already had a counter get killed by being over costed, the best tempo card in a control meta getting nerfed, and some wild claptrap that nobody was asking for. I’ve been supporting this game as my mobile phone time waster for a while, but blizzard must think I like nagging my head against a wall. No thanks, page me when the game rewards interactivity and real thinking again.
ummm every wild player except the druid players were asking for aviana nerf.
Damned.
My tempo mage now is totally dead and cold.
Shame on you, Blizzard.
I’ll go to play Shadowverse.
Glad giggles got ganked, started playing wild cuz I was sick of standard. played 5 wild games at rank 8 today, played 4 star aligner druids… Good riddance. Mana wyrm seems a little harsh, but tempo mage is lame af, so gj blizzard.
This frees up quite a few slots in Odd Rogue; I suspect it won’t be running 2x GI + 2x Blood Knight any more … might be worth keeping 1 Blood Knight but GI was a fairly low tempo play for an aggro deck anyway; it’s mainly played to protect things like the Thug or Fledgling or in prep for a Fungalmancer – at 7 mana I’m not sure it’s worthwhile (at least not in Odd Rogue).
Cobalt Scalebane, Tar Creeper or possibly Marsh Drake are options I guess.
The T1 Mana Wyrm Drop has been deciding games since forever so I can see the logic… increasing the mana cost prevents the coin synergy on T1- but it makes the card a tempo drop initially, that’s particularly harsh for a card that you’re generally going to want to run *in a tempo deck.* – maybe just reducing the health to 2 wouldn’t have been enough, maybe it would…
As for Aviana/Kun – oh well, it was fun while it lasted 🙂
I might go with 2 x Tar Creeper, King Mukla and Captain greenskin as a replacement for GI and BK at the start. There are not many good options around though.
Ha, finally the time has come to turn all those golden copies to dust.
The greatest virtue is patience after all.
Giggling: Obvious nerf since its release. Much better and versatile than Sludge Belcher. A neutral non-combo non-legendary single card cannot define a meta game.
Mana Wyrm: Needed nerf to bring new cheap efficient mage spells however we could improve stats points (1/4) to compensate the mana increase. I do not see the card playable anymore.
Aviana: No opinion as I’m not a Wild Player
Other needed nerfs: Branching Paths. Everyone knows that druid strength resides on its versatile cards. That 4-cost spell its excessive powerful as versatile to be auto-include in all druid aquetips.
I would like to see one day an upgrated nerf to some interesting cards.
So druid cards like UI, Spreading Plague, and Branching Paths are not broken at all let’s leave them alone. Gaining 4 Armor for 2 mana every turn is also fine. Healing 12 health for 3 mana and a full hand of 1 mana 9/9s is also awesome everybody likes that. Therefore lets hit that nasty 1/3 that kills everything that moves and can’t be dealt with most of the time because no deck has cheap removals.
Many commentators seem to think that Mana Wyrm is nerfed because of powerful new Mage spells in the new expansion … may I kindly remind you of Fiery War Axe and Hex? What will happen is that Mage is dead for the next expansions. Well, any class has to take that role sometimes, I guess. :/
As for Giggles: 5 Mana 2/2 summon 1 Annoy-o-Tron would be more adequate in my eyes.
As for Aviana: Spot on and very elegant solution for the Juicy Psychmelon dilemma. In Wild, that is. I’m very glad they do actually care for Wild ‘balance’ – now just nerf Barnes, please.
Giggling Inventor was such a cool card. Now it won’t see play. Where are the druid nerfs (standard)?
IMO these nerfs are awful. gigling saw a lot of play but you could play mossy horror and blood knights to counter it. tempo mage is not even a tier 1 deck and no one plays wild anyway.
“no one plays wild anyway”
Dude stfu. Your comment carries zero insight and is laced with ignorance.
Me- “Hey Blizzard, druid’s too strong and dominating, could you maybe nerf spreading plague, branching paths, or UI?”
Blizzard- “sure, we can totally nerf avian. That fixes everything, right?”
……..
At least I can play wild I guess?
Difficult to think of worse changes, the right cards, but wrong changes.
What about hunter and druid and zoo?
As always making the worst possible, good job
Stop this, if you gone to nerf all the op card in wild, wild Will become like standar
Oof blizzard is making mage unplayable ;-;
So they nuked Giggles from orbit, but it’s probably for the best considering how popular it is. This will solve a lot of problems, including how great Quest Rogue is. Druid retains it’s “good cards” package so that won’t change but there will at least be more room for anti-control decks that aren’t QR and control decks that just die immediately to it, assuming the Giggling nerf pushes Quest Rogue out of the ladder meta.
Mana Wyrm going to 2 is probably prepping for future expansions, which will likely feature cheap mage spells. Mana Wyrm is also one of the most bullshit 1 drops in the game, so this is fine imo. Tempo mage will adapt and survive somehow, I’m sure of it.
The Aviana nerf fixes at least part of wild, and will likely send Jade Druid to the top and then to the bottom as control decks tech Geist in. The weakening of Aligner Druid maybe makes way for Wild Maly Druid, which was already slower. Not dying to insanely fast combos will probably make Big Priest and Kingsbane Rogue super annoying again, but at least they’ve dealt with one of the problems.
Don’t forget Togg Druid, soo strong but susceptible to Rats and Doomguards.
What about doing something about that f*cking deathrattle hunter I see everywhere on ladder?
(1) Ok the Mana worm nerf should have happened a long time ago, Tempo mage isn’t even really strong right now. But they do have one of the most insane tempo openers with Mana worm and it’s been like that for the longest time.
(This is why a lot of people kinda hate facing the deck, can be some serious BS if you can’t kill the wyrm early game – like trogg in shaman back in the day)
This is going to seriously kill Tempo mage (a tier 2 deck rn) until next expansion
(2) Giggling Inventor. Ok every deck (besides Even decks) pretty much uses or can use this, hell mossy horror and Blood knight even started to see a lot of play because of GI. By far the best neutral 5 drop, It did have much stronger synergy with some decks like token druid and quest rogue + some tempo decks like odd rogue.
A lot of decks (the ones that don’t have really strong synergies with GI) don’t actually run it 100% of the time, at higher ranks because it plays into tech cards like Mossy horror and blood knight in odd tempo decks (like rogue and paladin)
7 mana is over kill tho, they couldn’t make it 6 because it’d see play in even decks, but I think it’s unplayable at 7 mana. Quest rogue can’t play it 2x anymore with Dk Val, and it’s too expensive to be played in druid now. The two strongest decks it was 100% played in. (+ odd rogue)
Sludge belcher would never see play at 7 mana, so RIP GI (I don’t think this nerf was necessary just yet)
(3) Aniava: OK this I 100% agree with. Fuck druid in wild right now, there’s like 10+ different OTK combos you can choose from with Aniava and KING KUN in wild and it’s SOOO EASY to pull off. Now to make this combo work, you’ll need to land a Emperor or something to discount her first. Def needed, in wild rn you either run an insanely aggressive Temp deck or play druid.
Hopefully this will help change things a bit.
Overall, I think they shoulda maybe have hit Cube? and look into the power level of some of the Even and Odd decks (Even tho they are really hard to balance)
Nerfs are here! Meta will shake up and that is always great news!
Giggles: Finally! Those who say this card was fine at 5 mana are out of their mind. It was like Patches or Corridor Creeper, totally warping the meta around it and forcing others to play their own copies and/or counters. I’m also glad they tested it at 6 mana and determined it would have been too strong in Genn decks, so 7 mana seems reasonable (and they could have bumped the main body stats a bit to compensate, something like a 3/2). The card can still be played in Odd Warrior and Midrange Evolve Shaman so it’s not going to disappear. Which goes to show the power level of the card at 5-mana: normally a nerf of 1-mana is already very harsh, but here it gets nerfed with 2 mana and it’s still playable in some archetypes! Wow! Also, playing Arena with Giggles around was very, VERY painful. Very happy about this.
Mana Wyrm: it was the best 1-drop in the game and carried games. I totally understand the nerf, BUT, I don’t like how they nerfed it. Now it’s a worse Mana Addict, and that’s saying something. It could have been changed to a 1 mana 1/2 (Undertaker style) or a 2 mana 1/4, and it would have been a fine card. But like it is, it’s basically unplayable. Tempo Mage was also not THAT powerful in Standard right now, but whenever it is (e.g. Wild) Mana Wyrm is definitely one of the most powerful cards in that deck. I will miss this card’s power, but understand it had to be nerfed. I’m also happy to have hold onto all those extra copies I opened in packs!
Aviana: also good nerf, Aviana + Kun was quite oppressive in Wild. Now the combo is still possible, but you need Innervate/Coin or an Emperor Thaurissan discount, which makes it fair. Also balances Juicy Psychmelon.
Missing: nerfs to Branching Paths and/or Ultimate Infestation. Branching Paths could have had a gain 5 armor instead of 6, or HEAL 6 life instead of gain 6 armor. UI could have had its numbers changed to 4. Token Druid and Spiteful Druid got considerably nerfed with GI nerf, and Maly and Togwaggle can’t run GI anymore, but Spreading Plague is going to go more unchecked now that Mossy will be less incentivizing to run. Some of those Druid cards hitting the nerf would have been fair, besides the whole playerbase is quite tired of having to face the same Druid shell aaaaaall the time. Hopefully the GI nerf will push some aggro decks to the forefront to punish Druids. Also, I hope that was the end of Quest Rogue!
Only aviana was worth it. Very bad nerfs in general.
Great nerfs. I hate tempo mage and all aggro decks, total waste of time!
loss of Wyrm = More Quest decks
I like these nerfs.
– Gig has pretty much pushed aggro out, only leaving few left to fight. Also gig makes quest rogue so strong.
– Wyrm was to snowballie for a 1 drop for a long time.
– Aviana fixes the wild meta.
These nerfs might make room for more aggro decks, but they also kinda buff druids with plague, because mossy will only taget few decks now. Token druid will need to be rebuilded. I didnt think there was need for nerfs, but here they are.
Once again, Mike Donais’ favourite class gets away with it… Nice job team 5!!!
Hmmm I hope the next expansion has some cards to replace the dearly missed GI in my tempo rogue. Agree it was kinda sucky to play against in slow decks that just stall but in that kind of deck it actually WAS balanced; it’s not like there’s much other taunt or strategy besides maybe getting an extra turn should the board not be completely lost at that point.
However, overall, I like the nerfs; 7 seems very harsh but I think Blizzard got that one right, as it will enable Odd Warrior to still run it.
I personally would have been happy with summoning just 1 taunt and keeping it at 5.
Both other nerfs are reasonable imo.
Let me be clear guys! This pseudo BALANCE patch is bull shit. No offence just facts…
Aggro(face) decks must have strong 1 drops! About Giggling , i would understand (6) mana , but (7) are you guys from blizzard nuts? it’s not nerf its overkill, whats nerf its making a card weaker not unplayable! Now i have 1 question will Giggling Inventor ever see play even in fun deck? You know the answer, NEVER EVER!
While giggling inventor is a bit harsh , Mana wyrm nerf is just BULL SHIT!!! This is more then over kill. 2 mana 1/3 will NEVER be played , even if it has a text “KILL ENEMY YOUR NEXT TURN” on it !!! It’s guaranteed! Now come another question was mana wyrm that nasty and dominant? NO hell no! Blizzard say they cant make good low mana spells, bull shit we have good low cost mana spells right now! And its not a problem aggro mage is not that dominant right now, control is way more powerful! Its a FACT!!! And if you ask me should aggro(not just aggro face) decks have good 1 drops i’ll tell you YES GOD DAMN IT they should have!!! To push, to pressure control your must have very good early game otherwise you will get slapped! Yesterday I played 35 game on my Control Warrior, 7 Control/tempo/combo match ups 4 loses and not a single aggro deck in 28 games beat me!!! You know why not enough pressure! I eat aggro pally rouge and especially token druids all the way up! But let me tell you one think i love CW , BUT ITS NOT FUN FOR ME TO PLAY SAME STYLE DECKS! Aggro(FACE) decks must exist its a need for balance! rock paper mountain remember!
I just dont give a fuck about Avian Kun combo and Aviana overall e.t.c
P.S. now i understand why Ben ran from them…
The changes are good, but they should have done more cards.
Finally someone realized what a total BS tempo Mage is. Couldn’t be happier about that Mana wyrm nerf.
This is pretty much a joke when it comes to balance updates. Druid gets away unscathed, giggling wasn’t even a primary card in token druid deck, it was just put there because it fit in that mold just like it fit in ANY deck, so this isn’t really a nerf to token druid at all. You’re telling me that out of ALL the druid cards, nothing seems problematic and that druid is in a fine place in the meta now? Ever since the updated patch, there’s been an over abundance of druids running rampant at legend. All versions of druid are already top tier with the EXACT same mold and foundation. This is quite a problem and was largely ignored.
Mana wyrm may seem like a problem, but it isn’t a consistent enough card to warrant a change, they could have easily changed stats to a 1/2, which would make it a worst light warden but still good as there are numerous spells and still has to be dealt with. Also, tempo mages was the really only viable “aggro” deck that could be considered good outside heal zoo. Blizzard really does have a hate on for aggro, if anything, aggro needs some buffs due to the all the control and greed going around.
The logic baffles the mind here.
It’s not Blizzard that hates aggressive archetypes, it’s the community that hates them. In case you have forgotten, i will remind you about the times of aggro shaman, pirate warrior and pirate rogue, when everyone demanded aggro nerfs and control buffs.
Lol aggro needs buffs? You’re out of your mind. Try playing something that isn’t a face rush. If anything this current meta has proven hearthstone needs declare blockers rather than taunt
Have you seen Druid? Or Odd Warrior? Even Deathrattle hunter isn’t a face deck lol.
Of course, you do end the games by hitting face (unless you’re Mecha’thun or OTK pally) so must games will feature smacking face lmao
Most likely prep for next expansion
That nerfed all my decks. Token druid tempo mage odd rogue spiteful druid…. So harsh lol
Spiteful Druid is still good, Odd Rogue is still good without giggles, Token Druid was good before giggles and probably will still be good… tempo mage… idk about that one, it’ll probably have to change up to work but I’m sure guys like Apx will find a way
With all the meta decks being control, it really was necesary to increase the cost of Mana wyrm? Shouldnt aggro decks be buffed?
Two of the top six are control and three are aggro. Stop. Just stop. Malygos and toggwaggle are the only control that are top. Token is aggro. Zoo is aggro. Even warlock is essentially aggro 8/8 turn 3/4 is aggro.
I think you’ve lost sight of what aggro is. Odd rogue is the only meta aggro deck.
ROFL Token druid and especially even warlock? Not even close to aggro
Token Druid and Evenlock are midrange lol
These are all great changes. I’m a little salty about mana wyrm but if their goal is to stop turn one threat/aggression then I totally understand.
Rip HS, I’m finally done with you.
Shame on you blizzard, team 5.
All about the dollars.
I’ll buy 40 free packs for whoever can prove they predicted the mana wyrm nerf lol
Someone in reddit demanded blizzard to move mana wyrm to hall of fame 12 hours ago lol
People have been clamoring for it for a long time. Secret mongo mage is brain dead and it’s a staple. Basically if you can gain 15 armor they auto concede because it’s nearky impossible for them to win then
https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/9oc41c/what_do_you_think_todays_totally_uncalled_for/?utm_source=reddit-android
Top comment. Can I have my packs now 😛
I predicted they would nerf mana wyrm hours before the revealed it
Giggling inventor was not overly powerful, but it was too versatile and was seen in too many decks. The point of hearthstone heroes is that each hero has unique cards and playstyles, and giggling inventor was good enough for nearly all decks to put two copies in, and maybe 1 or two copies of mossy horror, some blood knights, some other giggling inventor synergies and counters. These choices in standard deck building means that when you are ranking in ladder, you are consistently playing against and playing yourself the same cards, and this makes ranked hs really boring to play
lol … 7 mana giggling inventor? … wow thats just stupid. im happy about the other 2. need to be done but giggling inventor could even stayed at 5.
Well, giggling was in basically every deck that wasn’t a Genn deck, so I personally think they did the right thing. Giggling was pretty similar to Corridor Creeper from KnC, where it was in basically every deck so they had to nerf it, but creeper remains still usable in a few decks. I’m sure giggling inventor will still be played in a couple lists, maybe not right away but eventually.
People saying giggling didnt need a nerf are low rated retards.
and people who use the term “retard” in a derogatory fashion in 2018 don’t deserve an opinion.
you are a retard!
Bad Joke!
Am I the only one that felt Giggling Inventor was a fair card for everyone at 5 mana? Sure it was annoying to play against sometimes but you adapt and develop a way around it.
My opinion:
Giggling Inventor: I personally think the card didn’t need a nerf. Well, it was a neutral rare, so anyone could play it and there were good counters aka Mossy Horror. At least I can still run a single copy in my Odd Warrior.
Mana Wyrm: What have it done to them!!!??? Tempo Mage is basically dead; it wasn’t even a Tier 1 deck. Mana Addict is a much better option now I think.
Aviana: The only fair nerf here; at least Wild wouldn’t be such cancer. +1 from me.
Other: Well, I don’t see Spreading Plague or Branching Paths here; I also think Healing Rain should be nerfed to 4 or even 5 mana, but it’s just me.
Rip mage. T_T
Don’t worry it’s most likely prep for next expansions