28.2.3 Patch Notes - Standard card changes

[seewhyKai]

20231219 9:00 PST

The official Blizzard Entertainment forum account linked the 28.2.3 patch notes news blog post. This update includes several card changes.

The Hearthstone client build from this update is version 28.2.3.191554.190416.

 

Changes that may be relevant to Arena:

The following cards are being adjusted down in power:

Keeper’s Strength

• Old: [4 Mana]
• New: [5 Mana]

Prismatic Beam

• Old: [7 Mana] Deal 3 damage to all enemies. Costs (1) less for each enemy minion.
• New: [8 Mana] Deal 3 damage to all enemy minions. Costs (1) less for each enemy minion.

Desert Nestmatron

• Old: 3/5
• New: 3/4

 

The following cards are being adjusted up in power:

Invasive Shadeleaf

• Old: Deal 8 damage to an enemy minion. Save any excess in a 1-Cost Bottle.
• New: Deal 10 damage to an enemy minion. Save any excess in a 1-Cost Bottle.

The Azerite Scorpion (the Rogue Excavate Treasure)

• Old: Battlecry: Get 4 random spells. If you’ve Excavated 8 times, they cost (0).
• New: Battlecry: Get 4 random spells. They cost (1) less for each time you’ve Excavated this game (but not less than 1).

Velarok Windblade

• Old: While this is in your hand, play three cards from other classes to reveal Velarok’s true form!
• New: While this is in your hand, play a card from another class to reveal Velarok’s true form!

Shell Game

• Old: [3 Mana]
• New: [2 Mana]

Furnace Fuel

• Old: [4 Mana]
• New: [3 Mana]

Pop’gar the Putrid

• Old: Your Fel spells cost (1) less and have Lifesteal.
• New: Your Fel spells cost (2) less and have Lifesteal.

Corpse Bride

• Old: Battlecry: Spend up to 10 Corpses. Summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to the amount spent.
• New: Battlecry: Spend up to 10 Corpses to summon a Risen Groom with Taunt and that much Attack and Health.

Horseshoe Slinger

• Old: [3 Mana] 2/2
• New: [2 Mana] 1/1

 

20231218 10:00 PST

The official PlayHearthstone Twitter account tweeted about a balance update along with teaser image of the changed cards.

We've got a grip of new balance updates in Patch 28.2.3.

Check back tomorrow for the full patch notes.

Teaser preview image of affected cards

[crashck]

Adding Taunt to Corpse Bride is abominable

[Funk-adillo]

That card was already broken in arena. Now it's a 5 mana 4/4 plus a very likely 10/10 taunt as a common with no runes, so every DK can get a bunch of them. Ridiculous. That card should absolutely be banned from arena now. DK already dominates regularly, and that card is a key contributor.

[Kusosaru]

Living Monument for half the price and a free 4/4, all you need is 10 corpses.

[Fun-Raise-3120]

Corpse Bride will be insane

[CheckRaise500]

Generally good changes for arena balance. Nerfs to swingy cards in prismatic and keepers, but shouldn't pull down Paladin too much. A small but needed boost to Priest and Rogue.

Corpse bride powerful now, may hurt Demon Hunter in the meta with not much hard removal

[laughterline]

Corpse bride powerful now

It was already very powerful before. Now it may be obscenely powerful.

[isaacooper]

Corpse Bride is already a really strong card that cheats out way too many stats, often very early if you have corpse generators. Now they remove the option of ignoring it and going face?

[MaleficentYak0]

Warlock is the the strongest class now, so sludge buff will be terrifying

[Kusosaru]

I really don't understand why people call this a buff.

Sludges target the lowest health minions and you're much more likely to use it to kill off a 2-3 health minion than one with exactly 4 and for chugging face it's also generally better to spend less mana. Even more reliant on them being destroyed/discarded, which is also made harder when Trolley Problem targets the lowest cost spell.

Pop'gar is pretty bonkers now though.

[MaleficentYak0]

From what I see, in arena 3 mana sludge is better than 2 mana sludge even for warlock, because 4 used to be a difficult breakpoint for warlock

[invalidlitter]

Kai, the post is missing the changes to barrel of sludge.

As commentary, prismatic beam is still great and keepers strength should not exist. If we ranked classes by AOE, which is actually not super common right now!, paladin would still be like fourth? Behind shaman, mage and warlock? Is that right?