I thought it would be fun, if we all make some predictions, and when the patch comes we look back at this thread to see how close we were.
We know nerfs are coming, but we don’t know what’s nerfed and how. The only confirmation we have is that Zerg and Terran will be “toned down” and the only cards mentioned are Zilliax and Bob.
My guesses:
Zilliax could lose taunt, so he can’t be recycled with Hydration Station. In return they might reduce the mana cost of Perfect Module by 1. If not, they nerf Virus Module, only to nerf Zilliax again later. Seems to be Blizzards hobby to nerf him anyways.
Starship Pieces from Terran could be toned down.
Liberator may only do 1 damage.
Raven may give only 2 keywods.
Banshee may deal only 4 damage.
Shudderblock might be changed to only effect minions, to avoid interaction with Jim Raynor.
Hive Queen will lose health, probably becoming a 2/3. Usually Blizzard prefers changeing mana costs, but that wouldn’t impact Kerrigan.
Zerg-DK won’t be touched directly. As Death Growl and Yodeler rotate the deck is dead.
Zerg Hunter will get nerfed. Maybe Hydralisk only dealing one damage per Zerg.
Arkonite Defense Crystal will be nerfed somehow. Maybe -1 attack? Maybe giving 4 armor? They will do something.
Discover Hunter has pretty much nothing rotating, so they have to nerf it.
Exarch Naielles Hero Power may be raised to 2 mana.
Rangari may go to 2 mana.
Alien encounter may summon 2/4s, or cost at least 7 mana.
Zilliax: Virus module become 3 cost 1/3 without reborn. Power module become 3 cost 2/3. Twin module become 4 cost 3/2.
Starship viking give 5 armor with 3 others as you mentioned.
Arkonite Crystal deathrattle become 4 armor.
Zergling battlecry become summon another zergling.
Hive Queen become 3 cost 2/4.
Kerrigan battlecry become deal 2 dmg to all enemies.
Raynord and Artanis cost 8.
Shudderblock effect change to minions only.
Rangari scout become 2 mana 1/3.
Alien encounter cost 7.
Seaside giant cost (1) less instead of (2) for each time location used.
Bob cost 7.
Zarimi cost 7.
And other cards may have insane synergy with the new expac.
I also expect the overall pace of the game to be about 1 turn longer than the current meta.
most of these sound like overnerfs but i play wild basically always and play just for funsies so it doesn’t really matter to me too much. i am more interested in any unnerfs or stuff for wild changes possible? i didn’t hear of any so maybe not.
we also desperately need ETC to stick around somehow and become core. The sidedecking is an amazingly quirky mechanic. i do think its a bit of a meme to put important stuff inside of a minion but its really nice and fun
have you seen the deck winrate go down by like 20% when amanthul is simply swapped out bc some people dont have him. that guy is the business. best card in the game
They should rework Ranger Gilly completely. He’s completely unsuitable to Hunter Tourist decks, and he will lose you a game single-handedly if he enters your hand too early.
I predict that they won’t make changes to it, but they absolutely should!
I’d be happy if they nerfed other Hunter cards just to make that one required card make sense. It currently makes absolutely no sense.
If the list doesn’t consist of at least 30-40 cards they haven’t done enough. The set they are spoiling is utterly unplayable in any metas we have had in the past 3 years+
if they remove reborn from virus it should be added to another module all i know rush has to be with lifesteal but reborn could be moved to a less played one
and about zerg i think the card draw needs to lose the mana discount
There needs to be more of a nerf to shudderblock other than just impacting minions. Once it hits the table you know its game over unless you can dirty rat the battle cry minion that’s about to drop. In all my years of playing it is literally the worst card they ever created in my opinion.
Why would you want Ben Brode back? No one who suffered Undertaker for 4 months wants him back. All game designers screw up sometimes. At least current Team 5 doesn’t take as long to fix it. Too long still, but less than 4 months.
I pray they gut the Mini set. Liked playing it for a bit but next expac needs room to grow.
These nerfs look pretty reasonable, I would add a health hit to the lurker. Id be surprised if they nerfed shudderblock, like you said more likely they target raven/banshee imo. Id be shocked if Siege tank doesnt get hit to 8 dmg or so too.
Not really sure where to hit protoss. But If games go longer in Emerald could end up being a nightmare against hero power druid and col mage.
Also if a silence minion was playable Unkillax wouldnt really need a hit, even as much as I hate the card.
They would not nerf that many cards though.
Mostly likely terran hero gets a nerf to its hero power, which will do nothing as usual.
Then they will nerf Druid Protoss by removing the hero divine shield, which does nothing.
Lastly maybe the Zilliax, it will be a real nerf to remove the taunt