It was announced by blizzard that two cards will be receiving slight nerfs in an upcoming hearthstone patch.
The Small Time Buccaneer will have its health dropped to 1, making it a 1/1 while the Shaman weapon Spirit Claws will have its mana cost increased to 2. Blizzard has said that the nerf to the Buccaneer makes it easier for classes to remove it from the board. The Spirit Claws nerf was done because it was being combo’d too easily with the Shaman Hero Power along with cards like Bloodmage Thalnos. This means those combos can still happen, but not until Turn four, instead of Turn three. You can see the new versions of the cards below.
In addition to this, a new change is coming to Hearthstone Ranked Play in both the Standard and Wild formats. Once players hit ranks 15, 10 and 5, you will no longer be able to fall below those ranks. Currently, players lose no stars for losing a match between ranks 25-21. At Rank 20, players will begin to lose stars for a loss, but cannot fall below rank 20. While it doesn’t make the grind to Legend Rank any easier, at least we now have some mile markers to reach to make it a little more tolerable.
Since you are rewarded with a chest at the end of each season based on how well you do, this will give players a risk-free opportunity to climb ladder and continue playing once they hit a desired rank. It should be a welcome change for those who have played Hearthstone for the past three years!
