Hearthstone issues Warsong Commander nerf to quell Grim Patron uprising

Charge... BACKWARDS!

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"Everyone! Get in...!"

Not so fast, Grim Patron! This guy's reign of terror may not be ended directly, but Blizzard is certainly going to address one of his most common cohorts, the Warsong Commander. This duo has been at the top of a lot of Warrior decks lately. Too many, in fact. And they've always been a lethal combination. Observe!

That one-two punch is now being dealt with. Warsong Commander is getting a major change that should help stop the Patron rush. Hearthstone community manager Christina Sims hit the Battle.net forums earlier today to announce a complete overhaul to Warsong Commander that gives him the effect of giving +1 attack to Charge minions. That means Warsong Commander will no longer grant Charge to minions of 3 attack or less, which should throw a severe monkey wrench into Patron decks that have terrorized Hearthstone for months. The change will be as follows:

(Before) Warsong Commander (3): Whenever you summon a minion with 3 or less Attack, give it Charge.
(After) Warsong Commander (3): Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.

This major change will also have a huge effect on Frothing Berserker, who often relied on the Charge effect granted by Warsong Commander to cut a huge chunk of an opponent's health out of the gate.

The change comes at an interesting time, just weeks before BlizzCon and the Hearthstone World Championships. This should throw some of those championship decks into disarray and require some heavy deck changes.

Back in July, Blizzard noted that a Grim Patron nerf was not being considered, but was being monitored. Technically, this remains true, as Patron himself was left alone. But this all but puts an end to the Warsong Commander combination that has become overwhelmingly powerful since it was introduced. The patch is expected to deploy next week, so enjoy this minion in its current form while you can.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 13, 2015 10:30 AM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Hearthstone issues Warsong Commander nerf to quell Grim Patron uprising

    • reply
      October 13, 2015 10:33 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 13, 2015 10:45 AM

        Also I was right about them completely neutering the deck by nerfing Warsong. And they went as far as completely killing this card from being played at all. It may be worse than the starving buzzard nerf.

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          October 13, 2015 10:51 AM

          I can't see a single reason to play this card anymore.

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            October 13, 2015 3:34 PM

            I think it would have been interesting if they turned Warsong's effect into a battlecry instead of an aura. That way it still grants everything charge, but you can't generate a bunch of new stuff and have them gain charge as well.

            For the patron deck it means the combos are still there, but it prevents you from using the opponent's weaker minions to extend/enhance the combo.

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      October 13, 2015 10:36 AM

      FINALLY!!!!!!!

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      October 13, 2015 10:47 AM

      Haha yesssssss

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      October 13, 2015 10:55 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 13, 2015 11:02 AM

      That should kill the deck. You can still generate a big board, but if your opponent has a tempo to deal with it they'll just have an aoe spell saved.

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      October 13, 2015 11:25 AM

      Grim Patron lamers made me quit playing.

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        October 13, 2015 4:43 PM

        Really? Patron Warriors composed less than 5 percent of people on ladder. The deck also had approximately a 40% winrate.

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      October 13, 2015 11:39 AM

      Can hardly wait for the next deck people will cry and cry about.

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        October 13, 2015 12:10 PM

        [deleted]

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          October 13, 2015 12:13 PM

          ^ This. This is the new hotness when it comes to broken decks.

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          October 13, 2015 12:28 PM

          I disagree; trump showed on his free to play run that a lot of decks destroy it.

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            October 13, 2015 3:49 PM

            [deleted]

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              October 13, 2015 4:07 PM

              Throwing Flare in whatever hunter deck you want just destroys it completely.

              Otherwise it's more playing around the secrets so they don't get any real value from them. Paladin secrets are about keeping board control, so you play to disrupt that.

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                October 13, 2015 8:10 PM

                I've only had one flare played against my secret pally and I still won that game.

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              October 13, 2015 4:36 PM

              Control priest absolutely wrecked it. http://www.trumpfans.com/free-to-play-september-2015/

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              October 13, 2015 5:05 PM

              probably any deck. the weakness of the secrets deck is the knowing what all 5 secrets do, in what order they proc, and having 1 or 2 minion removals.

              the usual secrets:
              avenge - +3/2 to a minion when another dies
              competitive spirit - +1/1 to all friendly minions
              noble sacrifice - summon a 2/1 when attacked
              redemption - return a minion to life with 1hp
              repentance - enemy minion's hp is reduced to 1

              -always play a low hp minion first to proc repentance.
              -attack with the weakest minion first to proc noble sacrifice. if they have redemption as well, it procs on the 2/1.
              -competitive spirit isn't that big of a problem, if they had a large enough board to make it an issue for you, you were probably losing anyway.
              -always kill the low hp minion first to proc redemption.
              -avenge, keep a large minion removal.

              even if they get all 5 out from mysterious challenger, as long as you have cards and minions on the board, there's a good change it can be dealt with.

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          October 13, 2015 12:36 PM

          Ladder is probably going to be flooded with zoo/face decks. Patron kept the cancer decks at bay.

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            October 13, 2015 5:13 PM

            I don't quite agree here. Patron wasn't played all that much between rank 12-5 where most of the players are. Dragon Priest and Control War have done more to curb that aggro than anything else currently.

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              October 13, 2015 8:09 PM

              Rank 12 is getting into the top 15% of all players.

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                October 13, 2015 10:25 PM

                Yeah but it's around where the majority of active/daily players lie from what I've read. Plus there would be even fewer patrons at ranks above 12 (meaning ranks 13-25), so the point still stands.

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          October 13, 2015 3:20 PM

          This deck is beatable and is fair. Patron was not fair with the one turn kill potential with NOTHING on board.

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            October 13, 2015 3:40 PM

            Right, Blizzard has always said one turn kills go against the spirit of the game and they have nerfed all decks that were capable of it, UTH, Miracle Rogue, and now Patron.

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              October 13, 2015 3:41 PM

              This time they believed they would counter it with TGT Expansion. However the new cards didn't change a thing. The deck still dominated as the best overall deck when played correctly.

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              October 13, 2015 4:00 PM

              Yup. I'm fine with removing all OTK decks from the game.

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                October 13, 2015 4:44 PM

                Let's keep creative deck-building to a minimum.

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                  October 13, 2015 5:07 PM

                  except patron warrior is a race against time to kill your opponent before they can kill you from full life in a single turn.

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                    October 13, 2015 5:11 PM

                    That's more or less true of all combo decks. You can disrupt their ability to OTK you though if you force them to use one of their major pieces defensively.

                    Unless you're playing against Lifecoach every game, you don't have much reason to complain about Grim Patron.

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                      October 13, 2015 5:49 PM

                      yes, and you need to have a decent draw in hope to kill them before they draw the combo that can kill you instantly.

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                        October 13, 2015 6:31 PM

                        And they need to have good draw before you overwhelm them.

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          October 13, 2015 5:16 PM

          In order for it to work you have to fill your deck with 8-10 basically awful cards that you never want to draw.

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          October 13, 2015 9:07 PM

          it only seems awful because when you lose to it, it feels unfair... the truth is though that if they draw poorly you win and if you know how to deal with it, it's a pretty easy deck to beat... ive been playing midrange paladin this season and it beats secret paladin pretty handily if you just control the board and don't give them anything to work with... even if they drop a mysterious challenger it doesn't do a whole lot since you just gank it and keep on rolling

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      October 13, 2015 4:40 PM

      I don't get it. Instead of slightly nerfing the deck, Blizzard renders it completely useless. This is not healthy for the game. It was one of two viable combo decks in Hearthstone. A deck that uses no RNG and takes tremendous skill to play well.

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        October 13, 2015 5:12 PM

        agreed, I think they could have balanced the deck a bit rather than killing it outright.

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          October 13, 2015 5:19 PM

          I wasn't in favor of nerfing the deck, but if it was going to be nerfed, I like the suggestion of reducing Frothing Berserker's health by one. I know why Blizzard chose to nerf Warsong Commander though. It creates a design problem for them in the future where they have to be very conscious of any minion with 3 or less attack.

          I am a big proponent of buffing underused cards though.

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            October 13, 2015 5:25 PM

            then they'd have to nerf holy champion as well. depending on the board and cards in hand, you can combo it to lethal easily.

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              October 13, 2015 5:28 PM

              Huh? Holy Champion is a Priest card. You can't OTK with it either.

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                October 13, 2015 5:35 PM

                yes, holy champion is a priest card. its also a frothing berserker except gaining +2 attack for every character healed. with wild pyromancer, 2 circle of healing, and a decent amount of 2hp+ minions on the board, it'll get to OTK easily.

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                  October 13, 2015 5:36 PM

                  It's not OTK if you have to play the card and then wait another turn to kill your opponent.

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                    October 13, 2015 5:46 PM

                    okay.

                    as for reducing frothing berserker hp, can't you just sub in commanding shout then?

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        October 13, 2015 5:18 PM

        How is there no RNG? What happens if all your combo cards are at the bottom of the deck and you can't survive to get to them?

        I do agree that the change they made was pretty lame though, would rather they not ruin a class card as well as an entire deck type.

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          October 13, 2015 5:21 PM

          Random deck draw is a constant in all TCGs.

          Patron doesn't run any cards with random effects like Knife Juggler, Piloted Shredder, Implosion, etc.

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        October 13, 2015 5:30 PM

        What changes would you have made?

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          October 13, 2015 5:32 PM

          I would not have changed the deck. If you put a gun to my head and told me to nerf the deck, I would reduce the health of Frothing Berserker to three or perhaps increase the mana cost of Warsong Commander by one. I don't have the luxury of testing all the different changes out to see what the impact would be though.

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            October 13, 2015 5:46 PM

            Certainly turning Warsong isn't a shittier Raid Leader was not the right answer.

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          October 13, 2015 11:13 PM

          Reduced the warsong commander's charge to 2 attack or less, give one less hp to patrons, one less hp to frothing. ONe of those.

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          October 14, 2015 4:04 AM

          Give all minions charge if they are under 3 attack. If they go over 3 attack they lose charge.

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        October 13, 2015 8:41 PM

        Getting hit for 40 damage because you played minions when you had the mana to isn't healthy game play. Fuck that deck.

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          October 13, 2015 8:43 PM

          Decks that force you to adapt your game-plan are essential for a healthy competitive balance.

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            October 13, 2015 9:40 PM

            There was no game plan adaptation. Have enough aggro to kill them before they draw through to combo or die.

            The deck deserved to die and I hope it burns in hell.

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              October 13, 2015 10:04 PM

              I'm sure you'll find another popular deck to complain about in a few months.

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      October 13, 2015 5:10 PM

      I'm kinda sad I never played the deck, but calculating frothing's attack always seemed like too much of a pain. Also I just love control warrior, so no room for both.

      But I did enjoy playing against the deck with control war at least. Was a fun matchup.

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      October 13, 2015 5:14 PM

      A lot of pros were moving away from Patron towards control warrior anyways so this shouldn't affect Blizzcon much.

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      October 13, 2015 5:24 PM

      Blizzard needs to pick one:

      a) Awful balance changes
      b) Ridiculously slow balance changes

      Instead of both.

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      October 13, 2015 10:51 PM

      I've created the next new thing guys. It is OTK Hunter with up to 37 burst damage (I guess potentially more if Emperor hangs around long enough, but 37 is with one tick). I am sure it actually will suck on ladder, but it has been fairing well against bad players on casual. At the very least it's pretty fun to play.

      http://i.imgur.com/IJ0lAq6.jpg

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      October 14, 2015 12:19 AM

      lol. someone just posted on r/hearthstone:

      28hp and board control:
      http://youtu.be/uoi-GqubIN8

      http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/3ooyg6/i_cri_evrytiem/

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        October 14, 2015 12:32 AM

        This is a terrible example of why Patron Warrior was gutted. That Priest did everything wrong in that match up. I'm glad the deck is gone but I have no idea what this person was thinking.

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        October 14, 2015 2:22 AM

        Funny.. had he not played the useless northshire cleric he won the game, but it's probably easier to whine about patron decks instead.

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          October 14, 2015 2:36 AM

          Actually, even more funny, is if he ran the ghoul into the acoylte, then played injured blade master and holy nova he would have easily cruised to a victory

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            October 14, 2015 3:21 AM

            yes, he was justly punished for playing an extra minion when he had full board control.

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