HEARTHSTONE CARD GALLERY: Scholomance Academy

Last updated: 9/2020 for nerfs

12/2020 for nerfs

3/2021 for The Big Spell Tag Update and Wyrm Weaver buff.

4/2021 for Pen Flinger & Jandice nerf

5/2021 for First Day At School nerf; 6/2021 for further nerfing. 

7/2021 for Gibberling

9/2021 for Flesh Giant nerf. 

Demon Hunter Cards

Druid Cards

Hunter Cards


Mage Cards

Paladin Cards


Priest Cards

Rogue Cards


Shaman Cards

Warlock Cards

Warrior Cards


Dual-Class Cards

Neutral Cards

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Uncollectible Cards

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Hearthstone: More Nerfs and Buffs?

 Wow, they aren't kidding with 'more balance patches will come later on', huh? I have barely even settled into this new meta, and we're getting a third slew of balance patches? Jeez. Part of me likes it, since it means that the meta isn't going to go stale just yet, but I'm just starting to learn these cards, dang-nabbit! I do like the fact that we're actually getting buffs, too, which I appreciate.

I just wished that... hey, maybe some of the older cards, particularly legendary ones, that are pretty... well, shall we say terrible or unplayable got a bit of a look-see, y'know? Not so much that suddenly making GvG and TGT cards suddenly break the Wild meta, but a couple of stat adjustments for, well, cards like... I dunno, I look through the cards in my collection for a lot of the older sets and I really do feel like many of them could've had their stats tweaked around a bit to make them not so much suddenly Tier 1 cards in the game, but maybe to keep them playable in situations the same way that some decks still run like, Loatheb, y'know? Or how some cards are still 'neat' if you meet them in Arena or Solo Aventures? Like... I dunno, is there any real reason to keep cards like Vol'jin or Hemet Nesingwary or Nozdormu or Princess Huhuran or Boogeymonster or Nat Pagle or Gazlowe or Rend Blackhand or Skeleton Knight and keep them as underwhelming as they are? Couldn't they do a Boomsday-weekend buff spree and take random older cards in older sets and give them a little bump? I know, I know, baby steps, but still.

Let's talk about the buffs and nerfs that we did get, yeah? As I have mentioned many times before, I am a primarily Wild player, and Wild generally runs on a higher power level than Standard does, so there's no shortage of overpowered cards to just swap around, but it is still very interesting how many of these changes are going to affect the game in general.

Demon Hunter gets hit with another wave of nerfs, and one of them is something that the community was surprised was untouched in the first two nerf-hammers for Demon Hunter -- Priestess of Fury, who goes from a 6/7 to a 6/5. I do appreciate that her effect went untouched, a good part of Priestess of Fury's power from the fact that she's a relatively fair body for seven mana that essentially does a large amount of damage to a board at the end of the turn. Your opponent loses their board, and still has to deal with a 6/7. A 6/5 with the same effect is... she's still powerful, and I don't think that the decks that are already running Priestess of Fury are going to cut her out... but she's a lot more manageable, y'know? A 6/5 comes into a range of a bunch of removals like Fireball or Evasive Wyrm or Aeon Reaver that wouldn't have otherwise killed Priestess of Fury before, so that's a nice way to keep her power in check. I really do find it neat that they're basically doing gradual nerfs to Demon Hunter to really keep it at bay, without instantly killing the class entirely. Making Demon Hunter bereft of any good cards is dangerous considering how much less cards they have compared to the rest of the classes.

Another one that's far, far more significant for Demon Hunter is the Crimson Sigil Runner, going from a 2/1 to a 1/1. He's a very common card to see in practically all Demon Hunter decks, and no wonder, right? He's like Novice Engineer, only one mana cheaper, and also with better stats. Sure, Outcast is a thing, but as long as you kind of play your cards right, for the most part Crimson Sigil Runner is a guaranteed card draw that also is premium stats for its cost. Unlike Priestess of Fury, though, turning a 2/1 into a 1/1 is far more significant than the change from 6/7 to 6/5... these stat changes on early-game cards are far, far more impactful, because maybe now for some particularly super-aggressive Demon Hunter lists you just don't put Crimson Sigil Runner as an automatic inclusion anymore. It doesn't kill the card for sure, it just makes him fair, which, I think, is what we want more out of these nerfs. Both of these make real sense, and I don't mind any of these. Standard would love these changes, I feel, and while Demon Hunter isn't quite that rampant in Wild, it will probably keep the power level in check as we near the next expansion.

We're going from the four top classes that are getting nerfs, so Rogue also gets hit with some... and it's admittedly a bit surprising because I've seen the Secret package maybe like three times in my journey through the Wild ladder. It's apparently mighty enough in Standard to warrant a nerf? Shadowjeweler Hanar goes from a 3 mana 1/5 to a 1/4, although he keeps his effect. It's... it's an all right nerf, and 5 health is kind of a lot to take out on turn 3. It's the same nerf given to EVIL Miscreant a while back, and... I think it's fair. Hanar is a pretty powerful card with a very cool but potentially irritating effect, and while I don't think it's potentially game-breaking... it's a card whose power level I respect enough to understand the nerf. Blackjack Stunner goes from being a Freezing Trap effect to merely increasing the cost by 1. I mean... sure. It's a bit more interesting than just tweaking the cost or the stats of the card, although I'm not sure if that little bit of inconvenience is going to be enough. Freezing Trap is pretty punishing, and even then it's starting to get cut out here and there. Blackjack Stunner is a far more proactive version where the user gets to dictate which card gets disabled, though, which is probably where they realize the card's perhaps a wee bit too powerful. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the direction they took this, but I dunno -- Blackjack Stunner doesn't really get to see much play in Wild, so.

Imprisoned Scrap Imp also gets a brief nerf to its stats, with the hand-buff going down from +2/+2 to +2/+1. Zoo Warlock is an evergreen archetype that keeps getting more and more power added to it, particularly in Wild, and Imprisoned Scrap Imp, while pretty dang powerful when it gets off... is way too slow in Wild. In Standard, though, I could definitely see this being pretty toxic and irritating, with very little way to interact with the Imp and just wait for the inevitable hand-buff, and reducing the mass health buff by 1 is definitely going to go a long way to making this feel less of a bad feeling. A good nerf.

Warrior gets two nerfs, Bloodboil Brute being a very solid card that goes from a 6/8 Rush that gets discounted easily to a 5/8 Rush that gets discounted easily. It's kind of a minor nerf, really, and I don't think it's going to really affect the card's playability a whole ton. A 5/8 Rush that you can discount for pretty much the same thing that you've been doing is still going to help deal significant damage to the board.

The very cool Bloodsworn Mercenary (one of my hands-down favourite pieces of artwork from Uldum, even though it had nothing to do with the theme) also gets nerfed, and I've always thought that Bloodsworn Mercenary is one of the most powerful cards to come out of Uldum... but never actually saw much play. A 3-mana 3/3, essentially vanilla stats, that summons a copy of a minion? That's pretty powerful! And yet it's not quite enough for her to see too much play. And I guess there's a list in Standard that puts the Mercenary to duplicate a powerful minion and then use that combo to help discount the 6/8 rushing Bloodboil Brute even more. Bloodsworn goes down from a 3/3 to a 2/2, which... again, I think is still a pretty fair nerf, even if it's perhaps a bit more drastic than all of the others getting a nerf this patch.

All in all, it feels less of a nerf hammer going down, and more of a nerf screwdriver slowly tightening the meta together by adjusting some of the more broken cards into being just merely powerful. But we get another series of buffs, which is... definitely surprising, considering how seldom Blizzard ever does buffs anymore.

Paladin's Libram package, as much as everyone tried to make it work, did not work and still fell flat on its face in Wild. Although, to be fair, Silence is a bit more prevalent in Wild and while you could be cute by stacking librams on the Immortal Prelate or combo-ing it with Lynessa Sunsorrow or a Galvadon deck, but even with the random buff to Libram of Justice, it's still a weak deck. So now Aldor Attendant goes from being a 2-mana 2/3 to a 1-mana 1/3. No one cares about the stat change, but cutting the cost by half and potentially allowing you to get a body out by turn 1 to get buffed by the 2-cost Libram of Wisdom might actually be the thing that makes the tempo of the deck really work. I still remain skeptical, but it's a pretty powerful buff and at least in standardit might just make the deck powerful enough.

Shaman gets three buffs. Wow, I guess they just realized that they gave Shaman jack-all in this expansion after the Galakrond stuff, huh? I barely even remember any of these cards existing, since I've never seen them in ladder... so good on Shaman for getting some buffs. And The Lurker Below is one of those legendaries that I mentioned, the sort of card that is in the same ballpark of something like the Skeleton Knight or Maexxna. A 6-mana 6/3 that can maybe, potentially, wipe out an entire zoo board, but will most of the time just be a more terrible Fire Elemental that can be taken out by anything with 3 health? It's also bizarrely one of the cards that people overrate way too much, and while I know Wild has a larger amount of variety than Standard, I think I am comfortable in saying that the original version of Lurker Below is kind of the weakest legendary in the set. With 5 health, at least it has the potential to live on board, making it exactly a Fire Elemental with the potential to maybe wipe out the board. It doesn't mean people are rushing to put Lurker in their decks, but at least it's actually a good card now, y'know?

Shattered Rumbler gets a far more negligible buff, going from a 4/6 to a 5/6. Its biggest weakness, I think, in how it doesn't see play, has more to do with the fact that the Rumble damages your own side of the board, and guess what 2 damage kills perfectly? All totems. So yeah, sure, now it has vanilla stats, but the card's effect is so detrimental to most Shaman decks and for the life of me I can't really think of any deck that would willingly run Shattered Rumbler. Torrent, at least, is a good card, essentially being a cheaper Flame Lance, and going down from a base 5 mana to 4 mana (which, in turn, makes the discounted cost go from 2 to 1) far more appealing. I'm still struggling to see what sort of 'Spell Every Turn' Shaman is trying to do, though, because one of the biggest weakness of this bizarre archetype is that... there really isn't any big payoff, yeah? It's just some vague tempo in one-off battlecries and discounts, and that's not quite enough. Torrent, at least, like Lurker Below, are just simply powerful cards you can slot in most Shaman decks. Probably not in Wild, but... hey, you never know. 8 damage for 1 mana is a lot of damage.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with this round of changes. The ladder changes is perhaps the biggest quality of life change in Hearthstone, and that has kept me around in Hearthstone right at about the time that I was starting to considering stopping playing the game. So yeah, maybe it's best for the game that it keeps trying to change the game, even in miniscule tweaks like this, before it even starts to become stale. We're also getting the Ashes of Outland story mode in like a month or something, and I am actually pretty excited about that since we're ditching the (IMO outdated and poorly executed) Galakrond's Awakening adventure model and going into something that's more dungeon-run-esque. Neat!

Hearthstone: Ashes of Outland Patches

 

I haven't done one of these in a while, mostly because I really haven't been doing a whole ton of Hearthstone. Ashes of Outland did a pretty great amount of work in getting me back into the spirit of things, though, even if I've been taking it slow -- as someone who's finally gotten some downtime to actually finally play Warcraft III: Reforged and Witcher 2 at last, I just don't really have as much time to be as super-obsesssed with Hearthstone as I was before. Still, it's interesting that Ashes of Outland has been out less than a month, but we have already gotten not just one, but two balance patches. And... I dunno, it is moving a bit too fast? But that's honestly partially probably because I'm not spending as much time playing the game (and even then, I play Wild, where a lot of these cards aren't as problematic) so I'm not quite as exposed to them as I was, say, to some of the older nerf outcries. It's just that I'm just starting to barely get used to some of the cards, and they're already changing, y'know?

Anyway, here's my brief rambling talk about the changed cards.

The first Demon Hunter balance patch, which was released within a day (and while I acknowledge the power, it does raise a fair bit of questions at how fast a nerf hammer should come out) is basically the version of Demon Hunter that most of us have been playing with. Skull of Gul'dan went from 5 to 6, which is a far, far more fair cost for its effect (which I've been saying since day one). Eye Beam's outcast discount cost went from 0 to 1. It is, again, a lot more fair because Demon Hunters can do a lot of degenerate things with cheap 0-mana cards, although it does make some interesting interactions between Eye Beam and cards like Skull of Gul'dan that discounts cards. Aldrachi Warblades is unexpectedly super-duper awesome. I expected it to be more of an awesome tech addition, but turns out that being able to buff your attack to insane levels and then have guaranteed lifesteal for 3 turns is a bit too much. All  three of these cards still see play nowadays, which should really speak to the original power levels of the original versions of these cards.

Imprisoned Antaen also gets hit with the nerf hammer, rather surprisingly, going from 5 to 6 mana, and for these Imprisoned cards, a single mana-move nerf is honestly pretty damning, considering that you're already getting two turns' worth of delay. Antaen is still playable for sure, but it went from "pretty dang good" to just "good", and sometimes that's just not enough. I honestly wonder if reducing the two 10's on Antaen to, say, 8 or 7 wouldn't have made it better and more playable? Eh.

Those are the 9th April DH patch, anyway, and we're getting a bunch more Demon Hunter nerfs because, well, those four aren't enough. Demon Hunters must be really ransacking Standard, because in Wild I've always felt like they're powerful, but fair and not quite degenerate? Battlefiend gets hit with this first nerf, going from 2/2 to 1/2. Battlefiend is honestly always up there with Skull of Gul'dan as one of the most degenerate powerhouses among the Demon Hunter cards, so I'm definitely not surprised to see this happen, since a powerful one-mana card that synergizes with your hero power is extra powerful when your hero power is, y'know, 1-mana.

Glaivebound Adept gets its attack reduced from 7 to 6, which... I don't think is really going to cause it to be cut from aggro deck lists? I am definitely a bit surprised that Glaivebound Adept sees as much play as it does, but in retrospect it really does have the markings of a good aggro card, doesn't it? Deals 4 damage anywhere, and a respectable 7/4 body that demands removal... I'm just surprised that it's the attack stat that's reduced -- and merely by 1 at that. I genuinely thought it was going to be the battlecry that got nerfed, either preventing it from going face or reducing the damage.

Altruis the Outcast has been one of the most fun cards in DH to play and combo with, and one that really makes me think and plan ahead, so I'm definitely sad to see him be changed, but at least it's not a complete nerf, you know what I mean? He goes up from 3 mana to 4 mana, which is fair, but at least he gets a bit of a stat boost to go with it, going from a 3/2 to a 4/2. 4/2 isn't the most ideal statline, and I'd honestly prefer a 3/3 or 4/3 statline or something, but considering that Blizzard could've honestly just given Altruis a nerf without giving him any additional stats, it's definitely hard to complain. I'm just sad that one of the more fun cards in the set got nerfed, though! (And we all thought it was going to be Kayn that's going to be the problematic DH legendary, too.)

Kael'thas Sunstrider, meanwhile, is the source of degenerate combos in Standard and mildly-degenerate combos in Wild. It just doesn't quite do as much, or maybe I just haven't met enough asshole Kael-druid decks, but he gets raised from costing 6 mana to 7 mana. I still think he's playable, just restricted to druids, y'know? Those Wild Jade Druids are still going to be able to ramp up rapidly and then use Ultimate Infestation or Overflow or Spreading Plague with Kael. I don't actually really mind the power level of Kael, though, I've always felt like it's impractical enough that losing or getting out-tempo'd by a Kael turn doesn't quite feel as bad as, say, Aviana.

Frenzied Felwing goes from a 3/3 to a 3/2. A fair change, doesn't really cause too many decks that already use it to cut it, I don't think. Of course, the Felwing doesn't quite cause as much of a ruckus as Corridor Creeper did once upon a time, and in Wild it's not quite that powerful, mostly used by really aggressive Pirate Warrior or DH decks, but I guess this means that the Felwing does get put into the range of 2-damage AoE removal like Holy Nova and Explosive Trap and whatnot, so... eh? Maybe it's significant enough that you cut it?

And Bad Luck Albatross, finally, gets kicked up from costing 3 mana to 4 mana. I've always thought that Albatross was a bit of a pretty value-heavy card, passing the Spider Tank vanilla test but also coming with an advantageous deathrattle -- particularly because it came in an expansion that severely encouraged highlander decks. Albatross is basically everywhere in Wild and Standard, because there's no real cost to running this card. Well, now that cost is that Albatross basically is a Piloted Shredder that shuffles crap cards into your enemy's decks instead of summoning a 2-drop on the board, and that certainly makes it very fair. It's not quite as tempo-heavy as before, though, so I definitely see a lot of more aggro and tempo decks from cutting this.

Libram of Justice gets buffed, which is a real rarity in Hearthstone, and frankly speaking I'm disappointed that it's the only card that gets a buff. Libram of Justice now costs 5 mana prior to discounting, making the whole Light's-Justice-plus-Eadric-the-Pure-effect significantly cheaper since you're definitely going to get discounting with the Libram. I still don't think it's super powerful, but at least it's something, and maybe it's the boost to get Libram paladin into a higher-tier deck?

Sacrificial Pact is apparently wreaking a bit too much havoc with Warlocks running two of these to murder huge Demon Hunter demons like Priestess of Fury and Imprisoned Antaen... which I've always thought was cool, y'know? Clearly the solution is to give Warlocks their own version of Sacrificial Pact, or something, since, y'know, they are supposed to hunt demons and everything. But while the flavour is great, I also acknowledge how annoying it's going to be to balance both huge Warlock and DH demon minions is going to be in the future, so changing it so that it still does what it's originally meant to do -- kill off your lesser demons for an advantage in health, or to trigger those Voidcaller deathrattles, is still possible, but you won't suddenly get a cheesy victory by killing your opponent's huge demons. Like back when they nerfed how Murlocs could buff the enemy board, it's kind of a shame, but very understandable.

The next two, though, are super-exciting, because they're for Wild balance! When has they ever balanced wild? Twice, with Naga Sea Witch and Aviana. And now we're getting two more!

Bloodbloom gets hit from 2 mana to 4 mana, really killing those Mecha'thun/Bloodbloom/Cataclysm combo decks -- which I really did enjoy piloting, but that's not the real target of this. Instead, the real target of this is one of Wild's tier one decks at the time of writing, Darkest Hour Warlock, which aims to summon a whole load of imps (with something like Fiendish Circle, Rafaam's Scheme or invoke effects) and then Bloodbloom + Darkest Hour to suddenly fill your board with a half-dozen big demons and thanks to Bloodbloom, you could do this degenerate combo and have like two Voidlords, Colossus of the Moon and a Despicable Dreadlord by turn four or five, where your enemy has, like, a couple of pitiful pirates and Battlefiends. I really do think that if this doesn't kill Darkest Hour Warlock, it's going to severely incapacitate it.

Perhaps the biggest hurrah to Wild, though, is that Open the Waygate is getting nerfed! I wished that the thing they fixed was the interaction between Time Warp and Archmage Vargoth, but I'll take what I can get. Open the Waygate now requires 8 generated spells instead of 6, and that's amazing because between Arcane Giants and Mana Giants; Archmage Vargoth; those goddamned twinspell freezing spells; Mana Cyclones and whatnot, Quest Mage has been dominating the tier 1 of Wild for months (with Evocation just getting added into the pool, too!), getting more and more powerful with each successful Year of the Dragon expansion that came out. Basically, the top decks in Wild is basically "Quest Mage" or "Reno Quest Mage", with everything else sort of moving up and down. I'm... just not sure if it's enough, considering how rapidly mages can really complete their quest, but boy howdy am I excited to see them finally address this problem! Finally, Wild's going to be crazy and not just "mages and a bunch of other classes you might see". I give two thumbs up to this!

Anyway, it's a great change. It's just such a shame that I actually just finished crafting a Darkest Hour deck around, oh, last week, and I'm not going to get too much of an opportunity to really feel the power and unique playstyle of that deck, but it's been really fun. Demon Hunter is a fun, aggressive deck (I haven't really played aggro decks in a while), I've been having fun with a bunch of random tier 3 stuff like Galakrond Warrior decks or burgle rogue or dicking around with the de-nerfed Yogg-Saron and Dr. Boom Mad Genius. A lot of the new cards are fun, I just haven't quite gotten enough of the set just yet (I have, what, two or three legendaries total so far?) which is why I really sometimes wish they would put just a wee bit of brakes on these huge nerfs.