Blizzard revealed that it is looking to address the overall popularity of Hearthstone Rogue decks, along with Rogue deck power level. This decision was reached after the company evaluated the game data and looked into both the external and internal feedback of the current meta. Blizzard is also looking into making specific changes on the interaction with Archivist Elysiana.
The move is not surprising, as it has been observed by many player that Rogue decks increased in use with the arrival of The Rise of Shadows expansion. While there was some changes to the meta, it slowly started to skew towards Rogue instead of maintaining a balance.
In order to fight Rogue, the main option is to go for Warrior. However, Warrior decks face a wide range of good and bad matchups. The update, scheduled to arrive May 22, hopes to address this particular problem.
Blizzard said that while there are indeed other popular and powerful decks like Mech Hunter and Token Druid, it was decided not to address them in the upcoming update given that these decks continue to have different matchups. Blizzard added that "[i]f 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."
Upcoming card changes include:
- 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.
