Introduction

Yes finally, the long awaited balance patch to keep the game balanced and possibly change up the meta. I will be covering each of the changes in this post!

Thoughts On Each Change

Raneko Hearthmother

– Reduce mana cost to 2
– Reduce health to 3

Raneko Heartmother got hit last patch and to be honest after that nerf it wasn't seen as much. I think this change was quite balanced and we might actually see this card be played more. I think the big problem before this change was the 3 mana. It was just too slow and for 2 attack and 4 health it wasn't really the best card stat wise.

Village Vendor

– Increase health from 2 to 3

This is a big buff in my opinion. Being at 2/2 made it not so good to trade as it would usually basically die in any trade it takes for the most part. Now being a 2/3 it will likely have better trades which will help with board control early game. I think we will see more Olympian war decks this weekend.

Blood Oath Binder

– Change stats from 1/2 to 0/3

This was another tweak for Olympians. I think overall this is a positive change even though the attack got decreased. A big issue with this card was the 2 health which made it hard to trade to get any value in my opinion. Now with Village Vendor this card could come out at 1/4 for 1 mana which is pretty good.

Blood Oath Binder

– Change health from 2 to 1

This nerf was much needed. For 2 mana it had stats of 3/2 and then it could summon a 1/1 after dying. This was basically a 4/3 stat card for 2 mana. There was just too much value here. It's hard to say whether this card will still be used since the Magic and Earth God power can kill this card easier now.

Wolf Recruits

– Change text from “Draw a creature. If it’s an Olympian, draw another Olympian, and give +1/+1 to each.” to ”Draw a creature. If it’s an Olympian, draw another Olympian, and give +1/+1 to each Olympian in your hand.”

This is another huge buff to Olympian war. Now this card will buff every Olympian in the hand instead of just the two that were drawn. I did feel Olympian war was pretty weak so this could be the buff they needed. They could be top tier meta now after this change.

Devouring Blade

– Change text from “Godblitz. Afterlife: Destroy a random creature.“ to ”Blitz. Afterlife: Destroy a random creature.”

Although this was marked as a design change. This is a huge fat nerf. This card was super annoying to deal with. In control and relic war decks, they would just hit your face and then destroy your creature at the same time. I'm glad that they made this change. It's also one of those anti-fun cards in my opinion that was accessible to everyone since it's a core card.

Master of the Mill

– Change text from “Roar: Give +2 health to a friendly Olympian. Ally: Give +2 health to the summoned creature.“ to ”Roar: Give +3 health to a friendly Olympian. Ally: Give +3 health to the summoned creature.”

This is clearly a buff. I feel that this might have been over buffed but who knows. If this card doesn't get removed the turn after it gets played, I feel that light might be able to snowball and win the match unless they're playing decks that have strong board wipe like board wipe death or magic.

Carnage Sweep

– Change text from “Deal 2 damage to all creatures. if you have a relic equipped, remove 3 durability and destroy all creatures instead.” to ”Deal 2 damage to each creature. If you have a relic equipped, deal damage equal to its strength instead.”

This is another card that was labeled as a design change but in my opinion it's more of a nerf. In control war decks, this card could destroy all creatures provided you had a relic equipped which wasn't that high of a requirement. At 5 mana being able to clear the whole board was just not a fun interaction especially if someone was playing an aggro deck that aimed at having a huge board of monsters.

Cutthroat Insight

– Changed text from “Target opponent reveals their hand. Pull one of their cards into your hand” to ”Your opponent reveals their hand. Pull one of their cards to the bottom of their deck. Draw a card.”

RIP Cutthroat Insight 2023. This card was probably one of the best free to play cards for Deception. It was another card that I feel was not fun or interactive to play against. This card could singlehandedly win games by just stealing the win condition from the opponent. I honestly don't think this card will be used anymore after this change but let's see how it goes.

Shrike Moonlighter

– Cost changed to 3
– Changed text from “Ally: Pull the top card of your opponents deck to your hand” to ”Ally: Pull the top card of your opponent’s void to your hand.”

This card got nerfed the previous patch and I already called it that it would be unplayable and useless. It was kind of a no-brainer so I guess they came back to relook at how to make Shrike Moonlighter playable again. It's back at 3 mana which I did say before was ideal. Now instead of pulling from the deck to hand, it will pull from the top of the void. Firstly, there goes my dream of having a mill deck in GU where mill decks are aiming at decking out your opponent. Anyways, I think this is an interesting change because you know what card you will be pulling from your opponent so this card might actually be playable after this buff.

Balthazar, Blood Magus

– Change text from “Roar: increase by 1 the cost of spells in your opponent’s hand for one turn.“ to ”Roar: Increase by 2 the cost of spells in your opponent’s hand for one turn.”

This change isn't much in my opinion. It won't really make this card played more. I feel like if there was side decking tournaments, then this card could see some use in the side deck. If we are talking about ranked play or casual play, I doubt this change will make this card be played more.

Carrion Eater

– Reduce health from 2 to 1
– Changed text from “after this creature attacks, obliterate the top two cards of your opponent’s void. If any creatures are obliterated this way, gain +1 health” to “After this creature attacks & Roar: Obliterate the top two cards of your opponent’s void. Gain +1 health for each creature obliterated this way.”

Ok this is a buff in my opinion. The main reason to play this card was to obliterate cards from the void and having that roar would guarantee to trigger it once. I feel like this is targeting land of the dead Anubians or even some magic decks with pyrrhic knowledge. I feel this card would be an alternative to tech in than gleamweaver because if you can protect it, you can keep on obliterating cards from the void but then again it can only remove the top two so it might not be as great. I'd prefer if it can choose which cards to remove from the void though. I also feel these changes are kind of foreshadowing some cards in the future that will have a void interaction. I've always thought about a new ability that would trigger from the void.

Spore-Light Lantern

– Change text from “Ability: Pull a friendly Nether with mana cost 5 or less from the board to your hand. If you do, pull the top card of your opponent’s deck to your hand. Remove 1 durability from this relic.“ to ”Ability: Pull a friendly Nether with mana cost 5 or less from the board to your hand. If you do, pull the top card of your opponent’s void to your hand. Remove 1 durability from this relic.”

This is the same feeling I have with Shrike Moonlighter. It will definitely be interesting to see if someone can make a solid viable deck with Nether stealing cards again. This time it could be better because you know what card you are taking from you opponent's void but at the same time the opponent would have to play around this and make sure they don't leave any strong cards to steal from the void.

Bitter Endings

– Change text from “If your god has 15 health or less, add a 6 or 7 mana legendary Death creature to your hand, and set its cost to 0. If you do, at the end of your next turn take 15 damage.“ to ”If your god has 15 health or less, add a 6 or 7 mana legendary Death creature to your hand and set its cost to 0. If you do, at the end of your next turn take 15 damage.”

So basically no change. This was disappointing and the reason why is provided below. I feel like this change should have been a priority as I mentioned in a previous post that this card is not fun to play against. I hope it gets addressed next patch.

The first thing most people will likely notice is the omission of any changes to Bitter Endings with this patch. While we acknowledge the Bitter Endings deck as an outlier we planned to cut into its power by bolstering more aggressive archetypes and creating more counterplay for things that currently have very little, like sleep. Unfortunately a change to Belligerant Insomniac that would allow it to clear sleep from all friendly creatures had to be pushed back from this patch to a later date which left our larger plan to rein in Bitter Endings decks incomplete.

source GU DISCORD

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, I think these changes are great. I'm really happy that they reworked some of the cards that aren't too fun to play against. I'm obviously bitter that bitter endings was left untouched. I think Olympian War and Light will be stronger after these changes. I feel they could even be top tier. We will just have to wait and see the results from this weekend.

Thank You

Thank you for reading and supporting me. I will continue to post on either Monday or Thursday provided I have something to share. The Gods On Chain community is awesome and if you play Gods Unchained please post in this community. Even if you haven't played Gods Unchained, I do hope you can come and try it as well as post some content especially if you're someone that likes Hearthstone. I'm sure the community will welcome you with open arms.

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