The Wrong
Ancient of Lore
Ancient of Lore has long been referred to as one of Hearthstone’s best designed cards. While certainly a powerful minion, it is able to perform necessary functions for its class without winning the game outright.
Its nerf doesn’t seem to be a reflection of the card’s power in and of itself so much as statement on the potential strength of the Druid class in Hearthstone’s upcoming new format. While Ancient of Lore isn’t completely unplayable now, this is certainly a case of Blizzard trying to fix what wasn’t broken.
Knife Juggler
Given Blizzard’s fondness for nerfing cards into oblivion, it’s shocking how easily Knife Juggler got off here.
While Knife Juggler’s once absurd attack power was certainly a problem, this simple drop in stats doesn’t address the real issue. Knife Juggler is still going to be used to help aggressive decks create big rounds and it’s doubtful any deck running it now will cease to do so because of this nerf.
Keeper of the Grove
My earlier comments on Ancient of Lore’s nerf could pretty much be copy and pasted here.
While Keeper of the Grove was certainly a strong card, it didn’t represent a game-changing threat on its own. The logic behind this change seems to be that Blizzard didn’t want Hearthstone players to have a silence card they put into their decks without hesitation, but the fact that so many players ran Keeper was a comment on its design quality, rather than its game winning ability.
Blade Flurry
In what has to be one of the most debilitating nerfs in Hearthstone history, Blade Flurry not only costs two more mana than it did before, but will no longer damage the enemy hero as well as minions.
While many felt that Blade Flurry was always an absurdly strong card, it was a strong card for a class that has very few other methods of winning. While Blizzard insists this nerf will allow them to design stronger Rogue cards down the road, for now it leaves Hearthstone’s weakest class even weaker than before.
Master of Disguise
This is, without a doubt, the most surprising Hearthstone nerf on the list. While Master of Disguise’s ability to grant a minion permanent stealth was always theoretically powerful, it almost never saw play outside of humorous YouTube highlights.
Blizzard insists this nerf was done in order to allow them to create cards that would potentially become broken when coupled with Master of Disguise, but it’s a shame they couldn’t have found a way to limit the potential of the card without removing the amusement its effect occasionally caused.
This post was originally written by Matthew Byrd.