One of Hearthstone's most powerful cards was just nerfed

Jun 28, 2017

If you have been following the competitive Hearthstone scene, you have likely seen this coming for a while now. During the first day of Journey to Un'goro's release, the issue with The Caverns Below was readily apparent. We reported on the deck's explosive first-day success, but the excitement of the expansion and hope that a counter deck would emerge were enough to curb any major concerns.

Then, months went by and the deck known as quest rogue was still a tier-1 deck on every ladder and major tournament. We reported again on the communities growing frustration with the deck and the oppressive shadow it cast upon the meta. Brian Kibler devoted a 17-minute video (not including the countless mentions of it on his stream) explaining how the card is bad for the health of the game.

But it appears that the end is near for the most powerful card in Journey to Un'Goro. Today, Hearthstone community manager Keganbe revealed on the official Hearthstone Forums that the card will be nerfed in the next patch:

THE ANNOUNCEMENT

"In an upcoming update, we will be making a balance change to the Rogue card: The Caverns Below.

The Caverns Below now reads: Quest: Play five minions with the same name. Reward: Crystal Core.

Since the release of Journey to Un'Goro, Hearthstone has enjoyed a wider variety of competitively viable classes and decks than ever before. We’ve been monitoring overall gameplay, and we’ve decided that — even though everything is varied and many decks are viable — a change to The Caverns Below is still warranted.

The Caverns Below is uniquely powerful versus several slower, control-oriented decks and played often enough that it’s pushing those decks out of play. This change should help expand the deck options available to players both now and after the release of the next expansion."

▲The card in its current state requires four minions to be played. The nerf increases the requirement to *five* minions.

It may have taken three months, but the change is universally appreciated by the rogue-weary Hearthstone community. It's not that Quest Rouge was unbeatable, but the nature of the deck led to polarizing matchups that were decided within the first couple of turns. With this change, the impossibly fast quest completions that Quest Rogue was known for will be much less common and, in many cases, impossible.