Hearthstone Hunter Nerf: Undertaker Receives a Balance Change

Blizzard has finally done it and dug a grave for our ‘good’ old pal Undertaker.

In a recent post in the Hearthstone forums, Zeriyah, a community manager for Blizzard, confirmed that Undertaker card will receive some balance changes. Instead of gaining +1/+1 for each new Deathrattle minion, it will recieve only +1/+0.

Undertaker first released during The Curse of Naxxramas in the Contstruct Quarter back in August. Many of the cards released in The Curse of Naxxramas followed the core mechanical theme of the adventure mode: Deathrattle. Since there were so many Deathrattle cards, and with many of them being playable early in the game Undertaker was seeing a lot of play.

In the current meta of Hearthstone, Undertaker is considered a very problematic card due to its ability to get out of control very early and very quickly. Due to the card’s minor cost and the wide variety of cheap Deathrattle minions, Undertaker became a giant problem.

A Shift Away From the Aggro Hunter Meta

Many players became familiar with the card due to the popular ‘Huntertaker’ deck that has been dominating the meta for months. The deck built upon getting Undertaker out early and buffing it with cheap Deathrattle minions to just simply outpace and rush down the enemy. Due to the Undertaker’s ability to gain both attack and health for playing Deathrattle minions, players had to allocate many specific resources to removing the one-mana card or else they would be put behind or outright lose.

New players and experienced players alike have expressed disdain for the deck and the card because of the simplicity and its power which can make many other deck types nearly obsolete as a result.

Blizzard plans on changing the card’s effect from gaining +1/+1 to just gaining +1 attack. By implementing this change, Blizzard intends to remove the Undertaker’s stickiness and durability. Since the card will no longer gain health for playing Deathrattle minions, players will be able to allocate fewer resources to getting rid of the card.

This balance change will probably alter the current Hearthstone meta, but not by too much. Many players are confident that this change will minimize the dominance of early game rush decks.