Some of the most played - and hated - cards in Hearthstone are getting their mana cost increased with the coming expansion and zoo, hunter and miracle take a hit.
The mana cost of each of [card]Soulfire[/card], [card]Flare[/card] and [card]Gadgetzan Auctioneer[/card] will be increased by one, says the most recent post by Blizzard. These changes will not happen until Goblins vs Gnomes is released.
What does that mean for the decks currently using them? Arguably the biggest hit is to the warlocks who don't have a free (mana-wise) removal. [card]Soulfire[/card] has been the go-to minion killer in both zoo and handlock and allowed warlock players to not care about their mana crystals balance - 4 damage was always available at the cost of one discarded card.
This change aims to remedy that. 1 mana will have the player choose between spending a crystal for, say, [card]Undertaker[/card] or [card]Leper Gnome[/card] or killing a minion. All in all, it will make [card]Soulfire[/card] more like [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] - a direct damage spell with some drawback (more damage at the cost of bigger drawback).
The second big change will affect miracle rogue decks, as it pushes [card]Gadgetzan Auctioneer[/card] one turn, which is oftentimes all their opponent needs to get out of lethal or taunt up. This will diminish the power of the OTK deck, which is something Blizzard have been strong advocates of since day one.
Finally, hunters are getting [card]Flare[/card] nerfed up to two mana, which seems like the least impactful change. True, the card costs more but it remains very strong against mage and in the hunter mirror and it still replaces itself, so being up to 2 mana shouldn't matter as much.
This is what the full statement reads:
The following balance changes will be made in an upcoming patch:
- Soulfire now costs 1 (up from 0)
- Soulfire, along with fast and powerful minions, allowed Warlock rush decks to get ahead on the board and stay ahead. We’ve upped Soulfire’s mana cost by 1 to slow down the Warlock rush deck just a bit and allow more players time to react and interact against the Warlock.
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 (up from 5)
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s ability allows for a player to potentially draw many cards for little cost. Card draw and card advantage are important to the game—overall, games are less interesting when a player draws their entire deck. This change brings Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s cost more in line with its power level.
- Flare now costs 2 (up from 1)
- Flare allowed the Hunter an advantage versus decks that revolve around Secrets, while also allowing the Hunter to draw a card for little cost. We want to encourage a variety of decks in Hearthstone. With this change, Flare will continue to be useful against decks playing Secrets, but will be weaker against other decks
We will continue to make balance changes to Hearthstone when we feel they are necessary in order to increase the variety of cards seen at all levels of play, with the goal of making Hearthstone a more fun and interactive game for everyone.”
