hearthstone Three Rogue Cards & Archivist Elysiana Are Getting Nerfed

[Zadina 923]

Rogue is taking a big hit this week with three of its cards getting nerfed. Archivist Elysiana's mana cost will also be increased by one.

Almost two months after Rise of Shadows' release, Team 5 decided it was time to tone down Rogue a little bit. EVIL Miscreant is losing one health, dropping to 4, while Raiding Party will have its mana cost increased by 1. Moreover, Preparation is going to lose some of its power, as it will now decrease your next spell's cost by 2 instead of 3.

Archivist Elysiana has also been a problematic card from week 1, since it made matches quite longer than expected. In their previous communication(s) about it, Hearthstone devs had said that they were considering nerfing the card only in tournaments, but it seems they decided to take a more standard approach.

The patch with the nerfs will be applied this Wednesday, May 22.

Blizzard Entertainment

After evaluating game data and working through internal and external feedback on the most popular decks currently in the meta, we’re looking to address the power level and overall pervasiveness of Rogue decks, alongside a specific interaction with Archivist Elysiana. Look for these changes in an update slated for May 22.

We chose to focus primarily on Rogue in this update due to seeing the meta stabilize around the class’s most popular decks. Currently, if you want to build a deck that is strong against Rogue, you have just one reasonable option: Warrior. If you compare Rogue to Warrior, however, you’ll find that the latter class has a wide variety of good and bad matchups, which makes it unlikely that it’ll overtake Rogue in popularity in the current meta.

While we recognize that there are other powerful and popular decks (like Token Druid, Conjurer Mage, and Mech Hunter), we decided to not address them in this update because they all have varied matchups. If any of these decks were to emerge as the new prominent strategy, there are plenty of decks available to combat them, which would allow the meta to continue shifting.

As always, we’ll be evaluating the results of these changes over the coming weeks and look forward to your feedback. Read on for details on these changes, our thought process around them, and our goals for each of the cards we adjusted.

 

Upcoming Card Changes:

 

• EVIL Miscreant - Now has 4 Health. (Down from 5)
  • EVIL Miscreant is meant to be a value-generating card that creates future swing turns, but having 5 Health on this minion means Rogue players sacrifice very little to set up those turns. We expect that EVIL Miscreant will continue to be a great option for Rogue decks, just at a power level that is more in line with other available cards.

 

• Raiding Party – Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)
  • Rogue already excels at drawing cards, so having another powerful option that offers consistent results has resulted in Rogue games that play out a little too similarly than we think is fun. We’re making this change to better represent the power level of drawing from a very specific subset of cards.

 

• Preparation – Now reads: The next spell you cast this turn costs (2) less.
  • All changes we make to the Basic and Classic sets are aimed at ensuring Hearthstone’s long-term health. Preparation is currently seen as such a powerful card that it appears in nearly all Rogue deck archetypes. That said, the change we’ve landed on is a small one. While we do want the card’s power to decrease, we also think it’s important for Preparation to remain a reasonable option, since it fits the Rogue class fantasy so well.
  • Preparation is regularly used to reduce the cost of cards like Sap or Eviscerate, and those interactions will remain unchanged. Reducing the cost of your next spell by 2 as opposed to 3 opens our design options up a little more to create higher cost Rogue spells without having to balance so closely around the assumption that they’ll be cast alongside Preparation.

 

• Archivist Elysiana – Now costs 9 mana. (Up from 8 )
  • Our goal here was to preserve the feeling and power level of Archivist Elysiana when it comes to general use, while making much more difficult to play her multiple times in the same game. Shaman will still be able to replay Elysiana through Shudderwock, but this is not as common or problematic as what we’ve seen in control Warrior decks. Now, playing Elysiana alongside cards like Baleful Banker or Youthful Brewmaster should be a less consistent strategy.

 

As with previous card changes, once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the updated cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

(source)

[Smorod 33]

I have my doubts about the nerf to EVIL Miscreant having much of an effect. The main use of it is in combo with Waggle Pick or Shadowstep. 5 or 4 life points are unlikely to change that much, the real value is obviously in its battlecry, not body. Well, maybe people will get it back in hand a little sooner... we'll see.

And I'm still waiting for Dr. Boom, Mad Genius to get the multiple nerfs it deserves for so long ☹️

[LiqaMadeeq 3]

EVIL Miscreant nerf is ok. Trouble with 5 hp was that you usually had a hard time removing it on turn 3 or 4 without using way too many resources, before it was bounced back. Preparation nerf seems unnecessary with Raiding Party cost increased by 1. Shouldn't have touched prep imho.

Glad they left Dr. Boom, Mad Genius untouched. He's fine.

Archivist Elysiana nerf to 9 mana is stupid and here's why: Elysiana will still see play in Control Warrior and Control Shaman. Nerfing it to 9 mana doesnt make any difference in any matchup other than control mirrors; these are the only matches Elysiana usually has any impact on, it's a dead draw against most other decks, some niche situations excluded. 9 mana means it cannot be Baleful Bankered or Youthful Brewmastered on the same turn it is played. Unless you start 2nd and got the coin and saved it, which you totally will from now on, cause you dont need to use the coin in a control mirror for much else. So the player who goes 2nd can safely play Elysiana twice, the player going first can only play it twice if the opponent doesnt find a way to remove it on his turn. Going 2nd in a control mirror therefor is a huge advantage and neither player has any influence on whether or not he's going first or second. What can you do other than adding Azalina Soulthief to your deck to make a copy of your opponents coin? Seriously, dont do that. Good luck with your 7 mana 3/3 dead draw in any other matchup.

Solution? Make Elysiana cost 10 mana, so neither player in a control mirror can use it twice. Doesnt matter if it's 9 or 10 mana otherwise. You dont usually play Elysiana on turn 9 and you dont usually have any 1 mana card to play alongside (other than Earth Shock).

Edited May 20, 2019 by LiqaMadeeq

[Monlyth 75]

34 minutes ago, LiqaMadeeq said:

Archivist Elysiana nerf to 9 mana is stupid and here's why: Elysiana will still see play in Control Warrior and Control Shaman. Nerfing it to 9 mana doesnt make any difference in any matchup other than control mirrors; these are the only matches Elysiana usually has any impact on, it's a dead draw against most other decks, some niche situations excluded. 9 mana means it cannot be Baleful Bankered or Youthful Brewmastered on the same turn it is played. Unless you start 2nd and got the coin and saved it, which you totally will from now on, cause you dont need to use the coin in a control mirror for much else. So the player who goes 2nd can safely play Elysiana twice, the player going first can only play it twice if the opponent doesnt find a way to remove it on his turn. Going 2nd in a control mirror therefor is a huge advantage and neither player has any influence on whether or not he's going first or second. What can you do other than adding Azalina Soulthief to your deck to make a copy of your opponents coin? Seriously, dont do that. Good luck with your 7 mana 3/3 dead draw in any other matchup.

Well, using Archivist with Baleful Banker and Youthful Brewmaster is a much less consistent strategy now, since you now only have a 50/50 chance of actually being able to do it. Also, if you're holding onto the Coin all game in a Control mirror, that takes up an important slot in your hand that could be used for other cards, like the Mechs you get off of Omega Assembly and Delivery Drone. Control decks already have a hard time keeping their hand size at or below 9 cards in a mirror match, so I think holding onto yet another dead card until you reach Fatigue is a serious detriment to your gameplan. And again, if you can't consistently pull off this strategy anymore, I doubt it's worth putting the combo in your deck.

[LiqaMadeeq 3]

14 hours ago, Monlyth said:

Well, using Archivist with Baleful Banker and Youthful Brewmaster is a much less consistent strategy now, since you now only have a 50/50 chance of actually being able to do it. Also, if you're holding onto the Coin all game in a Control mirror, that takes up an important slot in your hand that could be used for other cards, like the Mechs you get off of Omega Assembly and Delivery Drone. Control decks already have a hard time keeping their hand size at or below 9 cards in a mirror match, so I think holding onto yet another dead card until you reach Fatigue is a serious detriment to your gameplan. And again, if you can't consistently pull off this strategy anymore, I doubt it's worth putting the combo in your deck.

I usually run Youthful Brewmaster in Control Warrior and I still will. I prefer Brewmaster over Banker because you can bounce a Dyn-o-matic back into your hand to replay it vs Token Druid or basically any Rogue. The combo will therefor still be intact, even though it will only work in 50% of the matches now.

[Synesthesy 114]

So after warriors and druids, it's time for rogues to lose their class identity....

[Guest]

Awesome, 3300 dust ?

10 x Evil Miscreant = 400 dust

1 x Raiding Party = 100 dust

1 x Preparation gold = 1600 dust

3 x Preparation = 1200 dust

 

[Synesthesy 114]

Just now, WedgeAntilles said:

Awesome, 3300 dust ?

10 x Evil Miscreant = 400 dust

1 x Raiding Party = 100 dust

1 x Preparation gold = 1600 dust

3 x Preparation = 1200 dust

 

Prep gold ok, 3rd prep ok, but normal preps will still be used if the right deck pops up.... And it will, sooner or later. 2 mana discount is horrible with lots of high cost spell designed with prep in mind like sprint or vanish, but it will still be good as combo activator and enabler on less expensive spell like eviscerate or 4 mana raiding party; this expecially until auctioner will be sent to hof. Interaction with vancleef and other miracle cards is still intact. The card is no way dead.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Synesthesy said:

Prep gold ok, 3rd prep ok, but normal preps will still be used if the right deck pops up.... And it will, sooner or later. 2 mana discount is horrible with lots of high cost spell designed with prep in mind like sprint or vanish, but it will still be good as combo activator and enabler on less expensive spell like eviscerate or 4 mana raiding party; this expecially until auctioner will be sent to hof. Interaction with vancleef and other miracle cards is still intact. The card is no way dead.

I played a miracle rogue deck, but haven't done quite a while.

I do not know if I'll want to play this deck again. If yes I can just recraft the card -> 0 dust lost.

But if I never play this kind of deck -> lots of dust gained.

And there is always the possibilitie to find the card again. It is a standard card after all, and we get a pack each week.

Chances aren't that bad that in 1-2 years I'll get another "free" copy of it.

 

If you do not need the card right now, you are always better off dusting every copy you own. "Worst" case: You recraft it in the future, but like I said, you have lost absolutly nothing then :)

[Smorod 33]

4 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

And there is always the possibilitie to find the card again. It is a standard card after all, and we get a pack each week.

Chances aren't that bad that in 1-2 years I'll get another "free" copy of it.

You can't count on it. I'm playing this game for 10 months now, I have opened 119 Classic card packs, and I own exactly 0 Preparation. It's an epic card after all, and I'm still missing 48 of these (I have not crafted any yet). Hell, I'm still missing both copies of Inner Fire, and it's a common card.

5 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

If you do not need the card right now, you are always better off dusting every copy you own. "Worst" case: You recraft it in the future, but like I said, you have lost absolutly nothing then ?

Completely correct. I did that for Equality when it got nerfed a few months ago (and picked one copy since then, so definitely a good move) and I may do it again for Archivist Elysiana as I am not playing her anyway. As you said, worst case, we can craft the missing cards later at no additional cost.

[Synesthesy 114]

6 hours ago, WedgeAntilles said:

And there is always the possibilitie to find the card again. It is a standard card after all, and we get a pack each week. 

Chances aren't that bad that in 1-2 years I'll get another "free" copy of it. 

 

If you do not need the card right now, you are always better off dusting every copy you own. "Worst" case: You recraft it in the future, but like I said, you have lost absolutly nothing then ?

I have found that this is quite never the case with epic cards. Epic have a drop rate too low to count on finding one or two again. This is why I never dust epic and/or legendaries. I play wild so I have more reasons, but with card like prep, it is true in standard too.

If it were a rare or common, I would agree with you. However, I need to say that I don't own any mana wyrm since their nerf.