In the Arena: Evaluating patched cards

Written by: Savjz - Find him on Twitter

Pre-wipe stats: 1095 Arena wins, Constructed ranking #29 on EU

Introduction

A new patch has arrived with tons of balance changes, and a lot of people have been asking me about the effects of this new patch and how to adjust play in regard to changed cards - and new ones. Card evaluation time!

This list is solely for arena. Legendary cards are not included as they don’t come up often.

Generic Minions

• Sunfury Protector now only gives adjacent minions Taunt.

In most situations this is a mild improvement to the card as now you can select which creature(s) you want to be the ones taking hits, and leave the vulnerable ones protected.

• Mana Wraith – Now a 2/2 (was a 1/3).

This improves Mana Wraith as it can now successfully trade with 3/2. However, I still think it is a bad card for arena as it can often be difficult to pick cards that work well with it.

• Pint-Sized Summoner – The cost reduction has been reduced from 2 to 1.

This is a much needed change, as Pint-Sized Summoner was able to win games on his own if he was in the opening hand and opponent didn’t have an immediate answer to it. I think the nerf was actually pretty big as he already was one of the worst topdecks in late game. I think it’s still an ok card, but a lot of other rares will outshine him from now on.

• Questing Adventurer is now Rare.

Questing Adventurer’s potential impact on the game is huge, so this makes sense.

• Flesheating Ghoul is now Common.

I think they didn’t want to have multiple relatively similar (growing in power) rare 3-drops, and this change was quite possibly made more because of Questing Adventurer. I was already picking this a lot, and it seems in the future even more so.

• Emperor Cobra has a new visual to remind you about his venomous power.

I hope it looks cool.

• Injured Blademaster has 1 more Attack.

Good change as it is a rare, and picking a rare shouldn’t feel bad. It was already a good pick for priests, but now it’s an okay card for everyone else also. Previously in most cases it used to be a 3/3 for 3, which was not exciting at all.

• Lightwarden now gains +2 Attack per heal.

I think this should be priest card as it still sucks for everyone else. Somewhat a meaningless change.

• Twilight Drake is now a 4/1 with ‘Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each card in your hand.’

I like what they did with the card. It used to be a make-or-break card when it’s dropped on turn 3 (coined) or turn 4. If your opponent had a spellbreaker, you were in terrible shape, and if he didn’t, then he was the one not doing so good. Definitely still an okay card, but it requires you to have at least 4 cards in hand to make it equal to a Chillwind Yeti. If it’s not played on turn 4, it will quite certainly be worse than a Chillwind Yeti, which happens to be a common card.

• Dalaran Mage now has 1 less Attack.

The card seems quite bad now, I would gladly pay that 1 more mana to upgrade it into an Ogre Magi. And Ogre Magi isn’t even particularly good. I don’t understand this change at all. 1/4 is bad stats for even 2-mana creature and this one costs 3. +1 spell power is not enough to justify valuing this high even for classes with a lot of damage spells like Warlock or Mage.

• Frostwolf Warlord now has a Battlecry effect instead of an ongoing effect.

I think the card used to be overpowered with the way how healed himself up on following turns as new minions were being played - especially in paladin and shaman decks. Probably still an okay card, depending what sort of deck and which hero you are playing.

Mage

• Frostbolt costs 2 Mana (down from 3)

It’s now in line with Wrath and Eviscerate, went from decent to good.

• Mirror Image now creates 0/2 minions.

It used to be pretty much a dead card, now it is sort of like shieldbearer - still usually awful but it can situationally have purpose. It does boost mana wyrm but this still not a card I want in my deck.

• Sorcerer’s Apprentice has 1 more Attack.

This card was bad, but now it is a playable 2-drop. Even if you don’t get good use out of his ability, he can still trade 1-for-1 often enough to justify picking it every now and then, and more often with arcane intellects etc.

Priest

• Northshire Cleric - Now costs 1 (down from 2).

1/3 for a 2-drop was just bad. As a 1-drop it is a bit similar to Mana Wyrm. It’s a pretty good card now. Playing him on the same turn as you hero power heal is easy, so it is difficult to not get at least some value from him - possibly a lot as dropping him on same turn as cards like Holy Nova also got easier.

• NEW CARD: Shadow Word: Death – (3) Destroy a minion with an Attack of 5 or more.

This is an exciting new card. Probably pretty good, this will often get the same job done as hex/polymorph/assassinate, although I could imagine having dead cards if you happen to draw multiple copies at same time. It might also be frustrating to have this in hand when opponent has a high-threat 4 power creature like Gadgetzan Auctioneer on the board.

• Cabal Shadow Priest – now a 4/5 (up from 3/4).

The ability is alright but for an epic card 6-mana 3/4 seemed very underwhelming. Now it is somewhat playable, but nothing special.

• Power Word: Shield has a new power – Give a minion +2 Health. Draw a card.

This used to be awful, but now I think it is excellent. In many cases it makes your creature survive what would’ve been a trade. I think it will be play out somewhat like hand of protection - buffing creature before attacking enemy creature. Hand of Protection guarantees your creature to survive, whereas this one draws a card. There are also synergies with other priest cards like Lightspawn. This card is definately good as it costs only 1-mana and draws a card, making the situations in which you would be unhappy having it very rare. Remains to be seen how good excactly it is.

• NEW CARD: Holy Fire – (6) Deal 5 damage. Restore 5 Health to your hero.

This new card is definitely a good addition to the priest spell arsenal. I think it is probably slightly worse than starfire, but I could imagine it could debatably also be better as the health gain might situationally be important for surviving to turn 8 for Mind Control.

• Lightspawn has 1 more Health.

Lightspawn used to be a bad card. Having one more health might be excactly what it needs for surviving to the next turn after it is played, and the buffs to Power Word: Shield definitely complement Lightspawn. However, it can still be silenced to being useless so I wouldn’t get overly excited.

Warlock

• Sacrificial Pact costs 0 (down from 2).

Still possibly the worst card in the game.

• Pit Lord - Now a 5/6 with ‘Battlecry: Deal 5 damage to your hero’.

Lower risk, lower reward than before. Usually pretty good card, but as it is in epic slot, it’s not an automatic pick. 6-toughness might make it survive to the next turn. Not sure if taking 5 damage to face is always worth the +1/1 (compared to Chillwind Yeti). Atleast it is not getting targeted by Big game hunter anymore for insane value.

Rogue

• - Backstab – New text: Deal 2 damage to an undamaged minion.

Still very powerful for sure, it’s like taking an extra turn if opponents 2-drop is a 3/2 instead of 2/3.

• - Preparation – Now reduces next spell cost by 3 (up from 2).

Preparation is more a constructed card and should still be picked only if you have Sprint and the other 2 choices are awful.

• Shiv costs 2 Mana (up from 1).

Shiv value for finishing off targets was way too good. It will now be somewhat mediocre. Seems like a restricted version of Wrath. For once a rogue spell is not superior when compared to spells of other classes. Cheers.

• Defias Ringleader has 1 less Health.

Thank you Blizzard. Still an okay card but not as painful to play against as before.

• Conceal costs 1 Mana (up from 0).

For Arena, this used to be bad and now it’s terrible.

• Headcrack costs 3 Mana (up from 2).

For Arena, this used to be terrible and now it’s unplayable.

• Patient Assassin has a new visual to remind you about his power.

Sweet!

• Rogue hero power – No longer has the ability to buff a currently equipped weapon.

This nerf is huge. However, the rogue hero power is still a lot stronger than most other hero powers. Blade Flurry will now be slightly worse, but the biggest thing is not being able to take down 2-toughness creatures with dagger, and 4-toughness creatures with Assassin’s blade.

Druid

• Wrath can no longer be cast on heroes.

Wrath is still a great spell. I feel the card used to be too good in combination to other druid damage spells to finish off an opponent still in relatively high health.

• Starfall can now only hit minions.

This nerf was greater than the one on Wrath. Still an okay card, but not as special as it used to be. I think this change was made for the same reasons as with Wrath. You can still starfire, swipe and bite to damage enemy with spells. No reason to complain.

• Ancient of Lore ’s Healing option now only restores 5 Health. (down from 8)

Still an amazing card. You almost always want to be drawing cards with him anyway. One of the most powerful epic cards in the game.

• Savagery costs 1 (down from 3), and must target a single minion.

This was a huge nerf. Getting good value with this will be close to impossible now. You need a claw, bite or savage roar for combo to accomplish anything at all and you will still never be getting anything better than 1 for 1. Druid AoE with swipe and starfire is still strong, so don’t worry.

Hunter

• Hunter’s Mark – No longer a 1-turn only effect.

I might be wrong, but my guess is this was done for technical reasons as this card had a gamebreaking bug for months. Hunter’s Mark will play out very much the same as before - usually the target gets killed on the very same turn as this is played. It is slightly better as you can set up a target for an explosive trap, or try to multishot something and not waste it completely. It is still highly situational and getting awesome value requires another card to combo it with.

• Scavenging Hyena – Now only eats your own Beasts.

Getting buffs from opponents beasts was a joke, especially in hunter mirror matches having hyenas was incredible. Still a good card, this was a fix on the creature being situationally very OP.

Warrior

• Cruel Taskmaster has 1 more Health.

The card is now very good. It already was ok, but like most people know, having 1-toughness is a huge problem against certain hero powers.

• Inner Rage’s +2 Attack effect no longer goes away at the end of the turn.

Cruel Taskmaster and Inner Rage are now somewhat comparable to Argent Protector and Hand of Protection. When the ability is attached to a creature, it is more or less better. Inner Rage is now an ok card, and if you have cards like Raging Worgen, it can situationally be amazing.

• Battle Rage costs 3 (up from 2), and also counts damaged heroes.

Sounds OP to me. Almost always at the moments when you feel like you need to draw cards, both players have taken damage. Very often there are a couple of creatures that are damaged, or it is possible to make a situation like that happen before casting. At turn 7 I’m quite sure you can often enough get as many cards - or even more - than a Sprint would give, and still have 4 mana open. Also, pre-patch when I was playing warrior I noticed I was running out of gas far more easily than when playing other classes, so cards for warrior are often even more valuable than to other classes. From now on there better be a damn good reason if you pass on this.

• Frothing Berserker has 1 more Attack.

It was already a very powerful card. I don’t think this buff was necessary. Extremely good card. Pick it.

• Commanding Shout now costs 2 (up from 1) and also draws you a card.

This card used to be somewhat unplayable. I suppose now it cannot be a dead card, but the situations where it is useful have sadly not increased and I remember many, many, many games having this in my hand from the start to the end and not finding a good time to play it.

Shaman

Hex ’s Frog is now a Beast

I suppose hunters can sometimes find funny ways to get use out of this with Scavenging Hyena, Unleash the Beasts or Kill Command, but w/e.

• Healing Totem no longer heals heroes.

Still often the best totem to hope for.

Paladin

• Divine Favor now costs 3 (up from 2)

In arena, Divine Favor is often a dead card. However, sometimes it can be very powerful. Change in its mana cost did not massive effects for arena.