Hearthstone - The Caverns Below Card Receives a Long Awaited Nerf

Rogue has been in a tough spot since the expansion, and unfortunately, it drove out a lot of other viable Rogue decks due to the presence of the dominant Quest card. Blizzard has decided that it was just too easy to play 4 cards of the same name, and have changed that number from 4 to 5. It’s strictly a numbers change, but it certainly packs a punch.

The issue before was that the deck was almost entirely dependent on card draws. If you were able to draw a low cost card as well as the means of returning it to your hand (such as Shadowstep, Youthful Brewmaster, etc.), you could already get two out of the 4 card plays out of the way. There are, of course, other ways of doing this, such as drawing the second copy of the card that you’ve been returning to your hand, or utilizing the Combo mechanic to get more value out of an already value-hungry deck, but in the end, it all relies on draws. Sometimes, even getting those four copies out was difficult, and if you weren’t able to early enough into the game, it just about decided the match. Despite this, it still found its way into being a more than viable deck due to its ability to push late-game, control oriented decks almost entirely out of play.

How will this impact the Meta? If we’re recalling anything from previous nerfs, probably quite significantly. In terms of Quest Rogue, getting the same card out 5 times is easier said than done, and even if the quest reward is paired with a Preparation, it will likely not be until turn 5 or 6 at the earliest before it is able to be completed and played. By then, most late game decks have time to build up their hand and resources to amply deal with any mid game push that could come their way. We might even expect to see some of the classic control Priest and Warrior decks rise up again, since the amount of aggro they will be likely to face can be narrowed down to Druid and Pirate decks. Without having to import an unnecessarily large amount of removal to deal with Quest Rogue anymore, the ability to tech against these decks becomes easier and leaves more room for late-game card options.

Overall, we can certainly expect to see a bit of a mix-up in the Meta, even after just a single number change. You will be able to refund this card for the full 1600 dust until July 24th. Don’t forget that card reveals for the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion also start July 24^th! You can check out the full patch notes rundown here.