October balance updates! How will the meta be?
hive-173286·@theking24·
0.000 HBDOctober balance updates! How will the meta be?
.png) Hello everyone, The October patch notes have been posted and with it comes several changes to the game. Now although the update was not a huge one, some key cards of several decks have been changed which leaves us questioning, how will these changes effect the meta and the current state of the game? In this post I will go through each buff, nerf and change that has been announced and see how will it effect the card itself, and the whole meta in general. So without further ado, let us just right into it! # Buffs Let us first start by addressing the buffs. Now there was not any recent buffs that will change the game drastically I would say but there was some few interesting cards that are worth adressing. ## Ash Reader  > Change stats from 7/6 to 5/4 Change mana cost from 7 to 5 The Roar effect on this card is pretty nice, but with the presence of Pyrrhic Knowledge, I do not see a way for this card to be used even after this change, I would say it was better for them to rework it completely if there was any hope for it to be used. ## Thaeric Inquisitor  > Change stats from 5/4 to 5/5 I do not think a card with such effect is going to fit any of the current Light decks whether it was aggro or Control. There are much better cards in both decks of such mana cost that help a lot better with what it does. So same applies to this card as the last I would say. ## Big Bony Bastard  > Change stats from 4/5 to 5/5 This bastard might be able to be fitted in an Anubian deck, to get extra face damage in and a Pharoa's Heirloom, however it might slow things down a bit for the game. Especially at 6 mana your void should be pretty full of Anubians and time to raise the dead again so also not a big change I would say. ## Bone Roller  > Change text from “Roar: Tempt fate and apply the result to each friendly creature.” to ”Blitz. Roar: Tempt fate and apply the result to each friendly creature.” They see me Rollin! I think this would be now the best replacement for **Faithbreaker** after the drastic nerfs he received (coming up). The blitz now can help gain more control of the board and also maybe give a good buff for your creatures on board if you are ahead. The only problem is it is also so RNG! # Nerfs Now here was the most interesting and controversial changes among all! Some of the changes made sense, some of them did not at all, so let us go through each one of them! ## Radiant Embalmer  > Change mana cost from 4 to 5 This change might effect control Light decks by slowing things down a little bit for them, which can open more room for the opponent to finish things off before you can answer. Now I would not say this will kill Control Light, it will still be good but a little bit weaker. ## Faithbreaker  > Change stats from 1/4 to 1/1 Now here is the most illogical nerf of them all I would say. Apparently they really intended on killing this card and they did just that! It was a decent card when you are ahead with zombies and was very strong in this scenario but I think a nerf of 1 or 2 HP would have been enough. This nerf really killed it! Maybe this was the purpose of the developers to open up space for replacement such as the one mentioned above! ## Flame of the Second Shattering  > Change text from: ”Deal 4 damage. If you have 9 mana unlocked deal 8 instead.” to ”Deal 4 damage. If you have 9 mana unlocked deal 7 instead.” Now this nerf was very expected to be honest and I was talking with my friend the day before and we expected the exact same outcome! It makes sense to switch it and I think it will still be a good, useful card to use especially with pyrrhic around! ## Recovering Sigil  > Change text from: ”Heal 3 to each friendly character. Draw a card.” to ”Heal 2 to each friendly character. Draw a card.” Yet another small nerf to Control Light. But again I would not say this 1 heal nerf will effect it a lot but maybe also it will sometimes feel different when you have creatures on board or when used with aggro Light! But still I would say it makes sense for only 1 mana wide board and god heals plus a card draw was too good! ## Moramag, Bane of the Isle  > Change text from ”Roar: If you have 8 cards or more in hand, deal 8 damage to each enemy character.” to ”Roar: If you have 8 cards or more in hand, deal 8 damage to each enemy creature.” Now as much as it hurts my feelings being a control magic player, this nerf is a bit brutal but needed. Now I think this will drastically effect the hitting with spells in the face type playstyle and I will surely be trying it out after it is changed to see how it will perform. I would say it is still a decent card to have in the deck but that remains to be seen! ## Oni Spellsword  > Change stats from 1/3 to 0/3 Now I think the reason behind this nerf is that they wanted to hit card draw magic somehow and this was the only way to do it! However, I would say it will still be one of the best decks to play especially because of how volatile it is because of the various way of getting face damage, but definitely a lot harder now! # Reworks Now most of the cards that were reworked were pretty unknown and barely used, which makes more sense to rework them so let us see what changes happened! ## Cunning Challenger  > Change stats from 6/7 to 4/4 Change mana cost from 6 to 4 Change text from: ”Empower 1: Tempt fate.” to “Tempt fate.At the start of your turn, tempt fate.” I do not think this card fits well in either control or aggro war decks. Maybe because tempt fate is too RNG and mostly the buffs you get out of it might be not that game changing! So I do not see a way for this card to enter the meta currently! ## White Fur Guard  > Change stats from 7/6 to 5/4 Change mana cost from 6 to 4 Change text from: ”Empower 3: Give +7/+7 to this creature.” to ”Frontline. Empower 1: This creature gains protected.” Now this card might be a decent addition for Control War decks especially after seeing them a bit more now. With the empower you can get a good creature to help survive more, and also get the protected for Hector in case you did not get it from another creature. I would say it is insane but might find a place in some decks! ## Salvaging Archive  > Change text from: ”Regen 1. Roar: Deal 5 damage to this creature.” to ”Roar: Take 2 damage for each other creature on the board.” This card is a bit confusing to me now. If you drop it on board alone you will get a huge 7/8 creature on board which is insane, but with the current state of the games there are tons of way to deal with such threats, but definitely a big change for this one and it might make this card useful in a new deck. ## Nythos, Mage-Weaver  > Increase mana cost from 2 to 4 Increase stats from 1/2 to 3/3 Change text from “Ability: Unlock a mana lock for this turn, and refresh 1 mana. Empower 2: Deal 2 damage to the weakest enemy creature.” to ”Roar & Ability: Target an enemy creature. Transform it into a random creature that costs 1 less mana.” I pulled this card yesterday and I thought to myself aww that is not a good and I still think this way even after this change :p. For 4 mana a 3/3 can be easily removed and also the Roar is not that, it might be good only on a creature that cost let's say 8,7 or 6 but still it is RNG. But the question here remains is what happens if I used it on a 1 mana creature? Will it be obliterated? # Meta decks effects after these changes! Now after addressing all the changes one by one, I will be giving my thoughts about each deck currently in the meta and how will it be in my opinion! ## Nature - **Control:** Control nature was not effected at all with these changes I would say so nothing will change about it and its current state! - **Aggro and Mid Range:** With the nerfs on the magic, I would say these two will be slightly better and a bit more meta! ## War - **Aggro:** Agrro War was already pretty good currently and it will still be good especially since it was not touched in any way! - **Control:** Control War is coming back into the meta after a long time! I mean when was the last time we saw Control War among the top 10 most win rates? And with these changes it will still be better! ## Light - **Aggro:** I think aggro Light is one of the strongest decks at the moment! Especially if you have **Martyr of Whiteplain** and after this patch it will only continue to be better! - **Control:** I would say the deck is slightly weaker after these changes, however, it will still be a good win rate deck since no changes was hard hitting. But with **Radiant Embalmer** and **Inescapable Duty** nerf before it I would say Control Light is a bit weaker now! ## Magic - **Card Draw:** As I said earlier, even with the **Oni** nerfs I would say Card draw will still be one of the best decks to use for various reasons! - **Control:** As sad as it is to me to say Control magic is a bit weaker now after the nerfs, however, I still think there is room and some versions for it to be played unless Control Light was very present! ## Deception - **Aggro and Control:** Both of them were not touched in any way and I would say they are still very good to play currently especially if you have the full line up in both cases! ## Death - **Anubians and Control:** Still exactly as good as they were currently, maybe even slightly better with the Oni and Light nerfs! - **Zombie:** The **Faithbreaker** nerfs really hit it hard! I can not see a similar replacement for it so I would say zombies will be much weaker currently! # Final Thoughts Now despite some changes being a bit unreasonable, overall the changes were pretty good and most of them made sense. Now a lot of them will make some cards disappear but that is the nature of card games, not all cards will always be meta! Now the best we can do in this situation is keep trying and adapting to get the best results possible for us! Now keep in mind all of what I said before is purely my opinion based on what I think, so do not take my words as a last result, some of the cards and decks that I said are bad might still be good and vice versa! But I just wanted to share my thoughts with all of you guys and also deliver the changes for anyone who have not seen them yet! So that was it for this one, I hope none of your favorite beloved decks were killed and keep in mind this is how every card game is we all have to keep trying to change and adapt to get the best results possible! Which you all a great day and I will see you on the next one! Mad Love, Peace out <3
👍 theking24, x-rain, kstreet, meltysquid, ocd, roelandp, diegoameerali, lenasveganliving, fatman, squareonefarms, issymarie2, josdelmi, jaydr, tristan.todd, killerwot, the-grandmaster, oleg326756, walterjay, ma1neevent, newsflash, martibis, ocd-witness, sanderjansenart, marblely, partiesjohall, vickoly, blockgolem, theawesononso, justbekindtoday, myegoandmyself, minas-glory, steempress, askari, rt395, tomatom, ronpurteetv, dynamicrypto, indigoocean, ocdb, athunderstruck, zeesh, blezyn, noomer, ocdspeak, rawselectmusic, howo, bigdizzle91, zoltarian, takowi, veteranforcrypto, konradxxx3, javyeslava.photo, tsunsica, multifacetas, leveluplifestyle, jessicaossom, akkann, makerhacks, hanggggbeeee, fourfourfun, spydo, apokruphos, marblesz, pgm-curator, the-burn, yadamaniart, eonwarped, postpromoter, miroslavrc, steem.services, haccolong, devann, dpend.active, kawsar8035, meritocracy, dcrops, elgatoshawua, brujita18, aprasad2325, ivycrafts, wendy0520, h3m4n7, xocdb, ebargains, batman0916, guchtere, redrica, fotogruppemunich, variedades, zottone444, nbs.gmbh, cielitorojo, hexagono6, anhvu, poliwalt10, hoaithu, detlev, jlsplatts, gabrielatravels, saltyreptile, sagarkothari88, twosomesup, obsesija, drax, usainvote, beerlover, mammasitta, pradeepdee6, phoenixskye, olaunlimited, photographercr, agrante, relevant-gu, hivegc, squirrelacus, rckmtl, gutools.net-smb,