There are indeed balance changes coming to Hearthstone. Leeroy Jenkins and the starving Buzzard will become more expensive.
Blizzard confirms balance changes to two Hearthstone cards on September 22nd. They were mistakenly active, then reverted, and are set to return on September 22nd.
This is happening with Leeroy and the Buzzard
Leeroy Jenkins, the feared finisher for 4 mana, will cost 5 mana.
The starving Buzzard, an important part of the currently played Hunter decks, will receive a much more extensive remodeling. The cost will increase from 2 mana to 5 mana. However, its stats will change as well: instead of 2 attack and 1 health as before, it will have 3 attack and 2 health.
Important cards in the current meta-game
Leeroy Jenkins, with its stats of 6/2 for 4 mana cost, is one of the most defining cards in Hearthstone so far. It is primarily used as a finisher, where it can hit multiple times with certain tricks. It is one of the most popular win conditions in numerous decks, a combination of cards that leads to victory under certain conditions. Particularly in the trendiest meta-deck before Naxxramas, the Miracle Rogue, it shone as the finisher of combinations. Leeroy Jenkins regularly appears in best-of videos and his appearances are quite spectacular.
The starving Buzzard, a Hunter class card, is usually used in conjunction with “Release the Hounds”. This combination allows the Hunter to draw a card for each opposing minion on the board. Thus, it was able to offset one of its biggest weaknesses, “Card-Starve”, a situation where a player cannot draw enough cards to maintain their aggression. Since Naxxramas, so-called Mad-Hunter decks have dominated the meta-game and the ladder. Especially against so-called Zoo decks, which flood the board with many small creatures, this combo proved to be too strong.
This is how Blizzard justifies the nerfs in Hearthstone
As Blizzard informs through community manager Christina Sims, Zeriayh, the changes to Leeroy were made to make the game more minion-heavy and thus more fun. Receiving twenty or more damage in a turn from Leeroy in certain combinations is not so fun. Zeriayh mentioned problematic combinations including Faceless Manipulator, Release the Hounds, and Shadowstep.
The number of cards that a Hunter could draw through the starving Buzzard proved to be too strong for the low cost of the card. With higher mana costs, both the Hunter and their opponent would have more time to react to the situation.
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