'Hearthstone' Balance Changes: Nerfs for Giggling Inventor, Mana Wyrm and Aviana

Blizzard announced three major nerfs coming to Hearthstone in a blog post on Monday. It's the middle of The Boomsday Project meta and a few cards are performing better than intended. These nerfs target cards that are omnipresent in every deck that can use them, limiting creativity with their overpowered nature.

These changes will come into effect in a patch on Oct. 18:

Giggling Inventor- Will cost seven mana (up from five)

The most powerful card from The Boomsday Project deserves a nerf. In an interview with Newsweek, lead designer Mike Donais said, "I don't think we expected Giggling Inventor to be quite this good, I don't think we would have shipped it if we knew it would be quite this good." The Annoy-O-Tron summoning scientist created a powerful blockade that would need four attacks to destroy. It slowed down the game to a crawl. This community has been begging for a change like this for a long time.

"There's virtually no downside to including it in a deck, and because it's neutral, it's played in almost every deck," the post said. "Giggling Inventor has stepped beyond its intended role, and we don't feel that it should be as effective as it currently is."

hearthstone balance update giggling inventor
Blizzard announced three major nerfs coming to "Hearthstone" in a blog post on Monday. Blizzard

Mana Wyrm – Will cost two mana (up from one)

Nothing feels worse than playing against a Mage and seeing two Mana Wyrms summoned on turn one using the Coin. If you aren't playing a deck with early game removal, those pesky little dragons can snowball into powerful minions in no time. Games can end quickly; just try killing a three-health minion without board clear. This nerf came out of left field, Mana Wyrm is one Hearthstone's oldest and strongest cards. Increasing its cost to two mana will make it outright useless in most Mage decks, instead helping out archetypes like Freeze or Control Mage.

The Hearthstone developers want to move away from having cards that are auto-included in every deck. It's one of the reasons Ice Block was rotated out in the Year of the Raven and replaced with the much weaker Icicle. "Mana Wyrm has also steered us away from making powerful low-cost Mage spells," the post said. "We'd like Mana Wyrm to remain an option for decks it synergizes with, while preventing it from being a huge turn one threat."

Aviana – Will cost 10 mana (up from nine)

Wild has been the hardest mode for Blizzard to balance. With every card rotated out of Standard entering the mode forever, it's inevitable some stupidly overpowered combos will emerge. The Boomsday Project's Juicy Psychmelon, a card that lets you draw four different high cost minions into your hand, is a case in point. A common combo summoned Aviana followed by Kun the Forgotten King to create a board of powerful minions for cheap. This was outright toxic to play against and had threatened to destroy the competitive integrity of Wild.

"This should make the combos Aviana and Kun produce less consistent, while still allowing decks that use the combos to exist for the players that enjoy playing them," Monday's post said.

Do you think these changes are enough to reshape the Hearthstone meta, or does Blizzard need to do more? Tell us in the comments.

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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