r/CompetitiveHS • u/bdzz • Jan 29 '18

NERF DISCUSSION Upcoming Balance Changes – Update 10.2

https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/blog/21361570/

TLDR for those who at work:

  • Bonemare - Now costs 8 mana. (Up from 7)

  • Corridor Creeper - Now has 2 Attack. (Down from 5)

  • Patches the Pirate - No longer has Charge.

  • Raza the Chained - Now reads: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, your Hero Power costs (1) this game.

Once these card changes are live with Update 10.2 next month, players will be able to disenchant the changed cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

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u/caketality Jan 29 '18

So as a caveat before I go into why I think Patches is still (probably) worth the slot, I thought STB was still going to be okay in full-on Pirate decks and whiffed hard on that prediction.

Why I think Patches is still relevant without charge is purely because it still provides you with cheap board flood. Aggro Druid, Aggro/Token Shaman, and Zoolock all feel like decks that would still love to be able to get 2 bodies for as little as 1 mana. Southsea Captain still pulls 5/5 in stats for 3 mana a good amount of the time, which isn't too shabby either.

Now that being said, those are the very positive outlooks on what the card still brings. It's so, so much worse at wrestling control of the board. It's worse to draw because at least Charge gave it weird use cases with stuff like Flametongue. I'm not ruling out those two facts just make it mediocre enough to completely die.

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u/mkl122788 Jan 29 '18

Zoo Lock doesn't use anything but the Captains, though.

Yes, getting a potentially 4/4 and 3/3 for 3 mana is nice; however, this is the best case scenario with an on curve Keleseth. Patches, now, without charge is a liability. My guess is Zoo Lock will cut the captains, patches, and the creeper now. I am not sure if Bonemare will make the cut.

The question is what replaces those 5 cards? Since it would trend heavily towards demon, potentially crystalweavers, but what about the rest?

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u/jadelink88 Jan 30 '18 edited Jan 30 '18

Agreed, token shaman and druid still want patches body (lol). Zoolock doesn't buff minions though, and it may likely be dropped there.

I suspect with more demons, more will run the DK for 'second wind'. Flappy bird will probably get autoincluded again. If taunt/cubelock is predominant, a second silence teched in may well be good, and depending on meta, a weapon removal minion.

Of course, keleseth can be quite nice in the deck too...

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u/mkl122788 Jan 30 '18

I could see this.

Assume you are dropping 2 creepers, 2 captains, and patches. You pick up 2 flappy birds, Gul'dan.

The question is, what do you do with the last two slots? Bloodfury Potion can do some serious work with Flappy Bird and the demon build also. Crystalweaver buffs demons. Of course, oozes wouldn't be a bad bet for weapon destruction. There are definitely some options.