LOTI 156 : 9 Rounds With The Lich King

News

New Season started – This month’s card back is Frost Knight.  Rank?

5 Changes (nerfs) coming in next update

Innervate (Druid – Basic Card)

Current – 0 mana Druid spell, Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only.

New – 0 mana Druid spell, Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only.

Innervate creates explosive starts to the game that can be difficult for the opponent to recover from. The change will keep the card as a simple Basic card but slows down the explosive start potential. They considered other options such as:

Refresh 2 Mana Crystals

Gain 2 Mana Crystals this turn only and increase the mana cost to 1.

Gain 6 Mana Crystals this turn only and increase the mana cost to 4.

They did want to keep the card simple since it’s a Basic card and they kept in mind other cards like Counterfeit Coin which is strong in combination with other support cards. With the right support cards for Innervate, it may end up still seeing play but won’t be in every deck. That is their end goal.

Fiery War Axe (Warrior – Basic Card)

Current – 2 mana, 3/2 weapon

New – 3 mana, 3/2 weapon

A powerful weapon from the start that works well with Pirates and cards that synergize with weapons. Raising its cost by 1 will slow down the Warrior’s tempo and lower the overall power level of the card.

They still expect to see it being played despite the change.

Hex (Shaman – Basic Card)

Current – 3 mana, Shaman spell, Transform a minion into a 0/1 Frog with Taunt.

New – 4 mana, Shaman spell, Transform a minion into a 0/1 Frog with Taunt.

Not making this change due to a current power-level problem, but they are making a “forward-thinking” change with the overall identity of the class in mind. Changing Hex makes Shaman a bit weaker against big minions and worse at silencing. They think that having both strengths and weaknesses in a class is important.

Murloc Warleader (Neutral – Epic)

Current – 3 mana, 3/3 Murloc, Your other Murlocs have +2/+1

New – 3 mana, 3/3 Murloc, Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack.

Removing the health buff from Murloc Warleader will make it easier for players to clear the board of murlocs, and still have it remain a Classic build-around card. This gives a simplification of health-giving buffs and additional room for future Murlocs since the Warleader will be around for a while.

Spreading Plague – (Druid – Rare)

Current – 5 mana Druid spell, Summon a 1/5 Scarab with Taunt. If your opponent has more minions, cast this again.

New – 6 mana Druid spell, Summon a 1/5 Scarab with Taunt. If your opponent has more minions, cast this again.

Spreading Plague is a great defensive tool for Druid to protect themselves against aggressive decks but it was too efficient at 5 mana. Raising it to 6 will slow down the card slightly, while still allowing it to be used in the late game.

Considered changing it to 7 but since the change to Innervate, decided to only add 1 mana to the cost.

Other cards mentioned but not changed, for now

Ultimate Infestation

It feels pretty bad to lose to this card, but with the other changes being made to Druid, ramping out Ultimate Infestation before turn 10 should happen less often, so they decided to leave it as it is.

Ice Block

Many have discussed moving Ice Block to the Hall of Fame, but that only happens at the beginning of the year (with the first expansion of the year). “Our general stance regarding Hall of Fame is that we want to avoid moving cards mid-year.” Hmm….

Reminder that when the changes go live,