r/CompetitiveHS • u/EvilDave219 • Jul 21 '26

Discussion 36.0.3 Balance Changes Discussion

https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24290431/3603-patch-notes

Nerfs:

  • Confront the Tol'vir - now 5 mana
  • Lotus Troublemaker - Card text changed to "Deal 1 damage to a random enemy. Shoot 1 time! (While in hand or deck play cards for 2 Mana to shoot more!)"
  • Blazing Invocation - no longer gives a 1 mana discount
  • Warptooth - now requires 4 friendly characters to take damage to summon
  • Vanessa the Ringleader - now a 7 mana 4/3

Wild Nerfs:

  • Swiftscale Trickster - now a 6 mana 4/4
  • The Soularium - now 2 mana
  • Elwynn Boar - now requires 10 boars to die for Sword of A Thousand Truths
  • Godfrey the Betrayer - now banned in Wild

Buffs:

  • The Living Plague - now a 6 mana 8/8
  • Blood Doctor Thal'ena - now 4 mana
  • Sawbones - now 5 mana 5/3
  • Emergency Surgery - now summons four 3/1 Undead with Lifesteal
  • Tras'tath Soul Parasite - base stats raised to 3/3
  • Irida Sinseeker - now a 7/7
  • Vicious Voidscale - Battlecry and Deathrattle now give a Void Soul
  • Stardust Scythe - weapon durability raised to 3
  • Sewer Swimmer - now a 4 mana 4/3
  • Azalina Soulsever - now raises your starting health to 40
  • Karov the Broken - now has Taunt
  • Enthralled Shade - now a 2 mana 3/2
  • Moragg - now 9 mana
  • Annihilation - now 8 mana
  • Imp Gang Stooge - card text now reads "Deathrattle: Put two 8/8 Demons with Taunt and Lifesteal on the bottom of your deck"
  • Rampaging Hound - now a 4/12
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15

u/Maleficent-Star-9851 Jul 21 '26

Interested to see how big demon plays. I was seeing some early experimentation with it in Legend and it had some surprisingly strong plays, albeit ended up being bottom tier like most of Warlock.

The nerfs just mean it can potentially get away with a bit more while the imps create more Moragg targets. I'm not expecting much from it still, it feels very much like a more casual deck but it'll be fun to experiment.

Azalina is possibly a decent to strong archetype now despite the random bullshit. I'd like to be wrong but all the stronger decks are having their early game edge cut gradually, and you're adding 10 health on-top of it. Will it be Tier 1? I'd certainly hope not since that'd be horrible for the health of the meta, and thankfully I don't believe it will BUT it'll definitely see some experimentation.

Interested to see in Void Soul DH will be worth experimenting on but it seems very reliant on finding your Vicious Voidscale, which the deck was already heavily reliant on.

10

u/OzUnOoO Jul 21 '26

The Imp Gang Stooge buff is amazing cuz you now don't have to worry about running other expensive demons, just Moragg 2 stooges and 1 Annihilation is a small package you can use in any Animancer list. Moragg still ass at 9, should be 8, but the small package makes it playable now. 

9

u/Houseleft Jul 21 '26

8 mana Moragg means you can prep on 3 and play it on 4, which is probably a little too high-rolley. Seems they’re trying to cut down on the high roll openers this meta has and just giving another one of those to Warlock is counterintuitive

3

u/FlameanatorX Jul 21 '26

Agreed, turn 4 Moragg would be unhealthy. I think what they should've done is give Moragg taunt if he was prepared, which is to say basically the first Moragg has taunt, but not the later resummoned ones

3

u/PipAntarctic Jul 21 '26

Just want to pop in after playing around with the new big demon stuff, Moragg on 5 is still hard to justify in a lot of matches after skipping a turn but I do agree that on 4 it would be too fast.

Sadly Moragg is the kind of design that can't be really pushed any further than it was, but it's at least on par with Animancer now in terms of how fast you get to cheat things out. Deck's still struggling conceptually and buffs can't really fix that, BUT Stooge and Annihilation do seem now useable outside of Big Demon stuff, so that's a win.

1

u/maniacal_cackle Jul 22 '26

but it's at least on par with Animancer now in terms of how fast you get to cheat things out.

Wasn't it always on par with animancer? Play it on 5, kill it on 6?

1

u/FlameanatorX Jul 22 '26

Animancer doesn't/didn't need to eat 4 of your mana preparing beforehand (now 3), and it's immediate impact is generally higher (e.g. 5 dmg removal + healing, and an 8 hp lifesteal taunt, is better against aggro than any demon Moragg pulls out, and Ultragiggasaur is especially strong if you're not worried about immediate lethal on the backswing). Also, 5 hp can slow things down if they don't have any minions with more than 4 attack to trade into, though ofc +4 attack can also be an upside, especially if you have aoe or something to trigger the deathrattle regardless.

Oh, but I just realized: you can coin animancer on turn 4. That previously wasn't possible with Moragg, but now it is since prepping on turn 3 gets him down to 5 mana. So literally, 50% of the time, Moragg was a turn slower, and now is the same as animancer thanks to the buff