The Hearthstone team have stated that they want to keep the cards in the game consistent with the Warcraft lore. To do this, they have announced some minion changes to come in the next major update.
Giants, Demons, and Beasts
The first two minion changes are that Mountain Giant and Molten Giant will be classified as Elementals. The tag will be added because these guys represent the “epitome of an Elemental” from a visual perspective. With the rising popularity of Mountain Giant, this is sure to add some interesting synergies to slightly off meta decks.
Next, the Witchwood Piper will be getting the Demon tag. An appropriate change as all satyrs like her are demons in the Warcraft world. A handful of decks are running this card, but Demon synergy is unlikely to mean anything to this specific card.
Then there are two minion changes of the beastly kind. The community long sought the change of North Sea Kraken to a Beast and it is finally happening. Although, it comes a little late as the giant sea monster has rotated to Wild.
Jungle Moonkin has also rotated out of the Standard card list but is having its Beast tag removed. Darkmire Moonkin is the one other card of the Moonkin race in Hearthstone, and it already did not have the Beast tag. Since it has been clarified that Moonkin are not beasts, it makes sense to remove the tag.
Grizzly Art Change
The Hearthstone team had to decide whether spectral beasts like Arfus and Witchwood Grizzly should actually be considered Beasts. In the end, they decided they liked the gameplay interactions that they have in the current meta-game and will not change the tag.
They will be changing the card art for Witchwood Grizzly to be more beast-like rather than its current ghastly appearance. This is the only change of these few that has irked a portion of the Hearthstone community. Some prefer the original ghostly visage of the bear. The argument fans bring up is that other spectral beasts like Ghostly Charger are not having its art changed, so this change doesn’t necessarily make sense.
To this point, the notion has been that spectral beasts are Beasts like any other, though the Hearthstone team has made it one of their objectives for the game to be as easy for new players to understand as possible. The new appearance of the bear is certainly not confused with anything that’s not a Beast.
Changes Going Forward
The Hearthstone team was recently under fire for the sudden changes to cards in the last major update. Players were mad that meta-game shifting changes were suddenly forced onto them. These coming minion changes are a healthy interaction between developer and player. Blizzard Team 5 is actively making an effort to be more cooperative with the community.
It is meaningful that these changes don’t have a large impact on gameplay. Players want to have consistency in the lore and Blizzard has welcomed that. In fact, if players would like to have their opinion heard on what other minions should be changed they can comment on the Hearthstone blog post about the above cards.
Leave a comment below if there are any other changes you think they should make!
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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