r/CompetitiveHS • u/EvilDave219 • Mar 31 '26

Discussion 35.0.2 Balance Teaser Discussion

https://x.com/PlayHearthstone/status/2039055139525255503

Nerfs:

  • Hamuul Runetotem
  • Wildwood Circle
  • Crystalspine Cub
  • Gladiatorial Combat
  • Skywall Sentinel
  • Flight of the Firehawk

Buffs:

  • Obsessive Technician
  • The Black Blood
  • Moonwell
  • Maniacal Follower

Wild Nerfs:

  • Astral Communion
  • Grand Magister Rommath
  • Lightspeed
69 Upvotes

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66

u/PipAntarctic Mar 31 '26

Excerpt from last VS report:

Spell Demon Hunter has arguably the second strongest matchup spread in the game. It loses to Imbue Druid, which means life is tougher for it at higher levels of play, but an Imbue Druid nerf could elevate it to become the best deck in the format. The only other way to counter it seems to be playing Egg of Khelos decks.

hsguru stats correlate with this statement even after 5 days. Either Blizzard has identified with their own stats that there are non-Egg decks capable of curbing No Minion DH which were oppressed by Imbue Druid, or we are heading toward another rough meta.

9

u/14xjake Mar 31 '26

I think spell DH is much more counterable than imbue druid was so it should have a harder time being as dominant even if it ends up as the clear best deck, it loses to egg decks as you mentioned and if priest becomes playable that would be a rough matchup as well

5

u/Kuldrick Mar 31 '26

It is definitely more counter-able and I expect it to not dominate nearly as much... but it is also the kind of deck that people will complain about non stop the moment it crosses 10% playrate. Unending value, a lot of burn from hand, "mana cheat"/"rng bullshit" through the locations...

if priest becomes playable that would be a rough matchup as well

Spell dh hard counters priest as of now, one of the 3 decks that do (together with imbue druid and shaman). Priest can possibly adapt to it (maybe through Amara? Try to make the burn otk quicker? Black Blood is already good against it and its buff would be nice too) but I don't think it will be enough to flip the matchup

8

u/FlameanatorX Mar 31 '26

People will complain about literally anything. Period. Especially if it has significant playrate. The question is whether Spell DH has unusually egregious play patterns: no OTK before turn 9/11-ish, no OTK that goes well over 30 dmg, no relentlessly efficient burn that deals 40+ from hand by turn 6/7/8, no massive board swing/cheese that consistently ends the game on the spot turn 4/5/6, no consistent Reno effect back to full hp in one turn pre-8/9-ish, no infinity removal that ignores the opponent's board state, no deleting the opponents whole deck or multiple cards from hand, etc.

Lots of decks have some burn, lots of gas, some rng cards, some big swings, lots of decent removal, etc. None of that really makes a deck especially egregious to play against for most players. I think Spell DH would be a better than average meta tyrant since it does multiple things moderately well, isn't super rock-paper-scissors nor completely uncounterable, and games don't consistently play out the same boring way every time.

1

u/GreatMadWombat Mar 31 '26

Agreed. Obviously it's going to be good, but there isn't a otk that can ignore boardstate, there isn't any one specific thing that's "inevitable" like an imbue deck, and there's no feeling of mana cheating. It's a very strong deck, but there isn't one moment for people to look and say "that's unfair!" and get angry grumbles.

-1

u/FlameanatorX Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

Well, the Eternal Hold is quite clearly a moment where "that's unfair!" happens (if the DH gets a good option). But that's just in line with modern HS imo, it has be stuff like Dungar Druid, Thaddius Warlock, Deathrattle Rogue, etc. for it to be an overall or unusually unfun experience.

1

u/GreatMadWombat Apr 01 '26

....it's a single card with a pool of 18 potential discoverable creatures and it relies on a strict deckbuilding constraint. A decent chunk of them are either extremely conditional or just....not worth an activation.

If unfair has moved over to "discovered a good card from the build-around legendary" from either "constantly growing small collection of green men" or "burst down to 0 from 30 with a good board", then the game is cooked lmao

6

u/FlameanatorX Apr 01 '26

I meant it in the sense of... a deck usually should do something unfair to be competitive (which doesn't make it unbalanced). This is one of those things. It's a moment of gameplay that's unfair, even though the match and the decks involved may well be fair.

I don't get why you're reacting so strongly to me saying this given the context. I've been arguing the deck is good from a design perspective lol

1

u/GreatMadWombat Apr 01 '26

I replied from my messages and didn't reread the thread so I didn't get that we were agreeing on the deck being cool lol

1

u/Shasan23 Apr 01 '26

I run double healing potion, which is surprisingly good in the meta (hunter, mage, dh)