Earlier this week, a round of upcoming balance changes were revealed. Countless conversations in the pro scene about the card tweaks themselves and the potential meta evolution around them have taken place since then. Here are some of the highlights!

A Lackey to the Past

Overall, top pros and big names in the competitive Hearthstone scene agree that the balance changes feel appropriate. Initial reactions mostly focused on how the choices of cards to revisit were good for the health of the scene:

Individual card changes merited varying responses. A lot of people commented on the substantial cost change to Naga Sea Witch, but Mike Donais has clarified on Reddit that this change is the one that felt right among a range of options the developers explored.

Spiteful Summoner drew a variety of responses. Some folks, like Alex “Raven” Baguley, had hoped that its functionality might change entirely. In an interview with IGN, Dean Ayala explained that the design team’s preferred goal is to have card behavior stay intact, but with clear visual distinctions to highlight the changes (i.e. mana cost).

On the changes to Possessed Lackey and Dark Pact—both of which appear in the powerful and popular Cube and Control Warlock decks that have been major features of the Europe and Americas Playoffs—most pros agree that the changes are solid. “Warlocks will both take more damage due to having Voidlords later and recover less of their lost health from Dark Pact,” says Matthijs “Theo” Lieftink. He says this particular pair of changes will hurt Control Warlock more than Cube Warlock, since Cube Warlock still has strong plays in Mountain Giant and Skull of the Man’ari to impact the board.

The change to Call to Arms may be the most appreciated. Numerous players note that preventing it from being included in Even Paladin is the most significant shift for Call to Arms, and possibly the most defining compeititve adjustment of them all. Jace “DrJikininki” Garthright says, “Being even better inside an Even deck just showed how absurdly powerful this card was. I do think it’s still a good, playable card in decks like Control Paladin or Murloc Paladin. Pulling out Knife Jugglers, Plated Beetles, any Murlocs, or even Righteous Protectors is still extremely powerful, even for one more mana.”

Crystal Core is more polarizing; responses range from thrilled to unconvinced. Nathan “ThatsAdmirable” Zamora sums up the debate: “I’ve seen lots of folks happy with the Quest Rogue change, but I’ve also seen a lot of discontent with it as well—people saying that moving the minions to 4/4 isn’t enough. My question is, what would be enough? 3/3? 2/2? There’s a certain point where the reward just isn’t a reward. The change to 4/4 means it now takes three attacks to kill Voidlords, they die to Flamestrike, Tank Up and Reckless Flurry wipes them out—a 20% stat change is pretty large. It’s difficult to weigh minions on a pure stat-line basis, but moving to 4/4 means there is far more counterplay than before.”

Even Shaman Gets a Chance

Lots of deck ideas that were just on the brink of being successful are likely to resurface in the wake of the balance update. Raven points to Even Shaman as an example: “Even Shaman gets a nice bump, and it’s already a decent deck right now!” (A few players, like Terrence “TerrenceM” Miller, brought Even Shaman to the 2018 Hearthstone Championship Tour Americas Playoffs last weekend.)

Theo wants to playtest decks whose primary vulnerabilities are losing some steam. “Decks like Control Mage (which is weak to Quest Rogue) and Spell Hunter (which is weak to Warlock) are mainly what I’m thinking about,” he says. He also points to the unexpected emergence of Dude Paladin after the previous balance changes as a reminder that entirely new discoveries are possible.

On the other hand, Julien “Cydonia” Perrault feels like some of the decks on the edge of being top tier aren’t what he wants to be playing against, either. He’s concerned with Shudderwock Shaman, Taunt Druid, or Dead Man’s Hand Warrior variants being among the strongest decks, since those games (and especially the mirror matches) can be quite long.

As mentioned in the updated post, these balance changes are scheduled to go live May 22! Do you agree with the analysis from pros and casters? What decks are you most excited to try after the update? Let us know in the comments!