Hearthstone Makes Changes to Some Cards in Standard with Newest Patch

A new patch has been released to Hearthstone which brings some changes to certain cards. Patch 21.0.3 introduces changes to eight cards from Standard along with updates to five heroes of Battlegrounds. Of course, there are the usual bug fixes.

Early this month, the United in Stormwind expansion was launched for Hearthstone. The dev team revealed that since the release, they have been monitoring how the new content has impacted the metagame. Based on what’s been observed, there was a need to bring in some balance changes to slow down the pace of the game.

They went on to say that this meant the focus on two important aspects. The first was to lower burst damage that board-based decks have access to from hand. The second was to limit how efficient combo decks get the pieces they need to win. With these changes, there is the expectation that slower strategies may find their place in the meta.

The updates for Standard are:

• Incanter’s Flow
  • Old: [Costs 2]
  • New: [Costs 3]
• Il’gynoth
  • Old: [Costs 4] 2 Attack, 6 Health
  • New: [Costs 6] 4 Attack, 8 Health
• Darkglare
  • Old: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health
  • New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health
• Battleground Battlemaster
  • Old: [Costs 5]
  • New: [Costs 6]
• Kolkar Pack Runner
  • Old: [Costs 2] 2 Attack, 3 Health
  • New: [Costs 3] 3 Attack, 4 Health
• Granite Forgeborn
  • Old: 4 Attack, 5 Health
  • New: 4 Attack, 4 Health
• Conviction (Rank 1)/Conviction (Rank 2)/Conviction (Rank 3)
  • Old: [Costs 1]
  • New: [Costs 2]
• Flesh Giant
  • Old: [Costs 8]
  • New: [Costs 9]

Meanwhile, the changes for Battlegrounds include:

• Returning Hero
  • Shudderwock
    • Old: Burbling [Costs 1] Your next Battlecry this turn triggers twice.
    • New: Snicker-snack [Costs 0] Add a 1/1 Shudderling to your hand that repeats all Battlecries you’ve played. (Twice per game).
• Hero Updates
  • Dancin’ Deryl
    • Hat Trick
      • Old: [Passive] After you sell a minion, randomly give a minion in Bob’s Tavern +1/+1 twice.
      • New: [Passive] After you sell a minion, randomly give a minion in Bob’s Tavern +1/+1 three times.
  • Fungalmancer Flurgl
    • Gone Fishing
      • Old: [Passive] After you sell a Murloc, add a random Murloc to Bob’s Tavern.
      • New: [Passive] After you sell a minion, add a random Murloc to Bob’s Tavern.
  • Maiev Shadowsong
    • Imprison
      • Old: [Costs 1] Make a minion in Bob’s Tavern Dormant. After 3 turns, get it with +1/+1.
      • New: [Costs 1] Make a minion in Bob’s Tavern Dormant. After 3 turns, get it with +2/+2.
  • Malygos
    • Arcane Alteration
      • Old: [Costs 0] Replace a minion with a random one of the same Tavern Tier.
      • New: [Costs 0] Replace a minion with a random one of the same Tavern Tier. (Twice per turn).

You can view the complete patch notes here.

Hearthstone is available on PC, Android, and iOS.