Wailing Caverns, Nerfs and Card Review – Hearthstone Patch 20.4 Rundown

Hearthstone Patch 20.4 just landed on the servers adding an impressive batch of new cards and tweaking some overperformers.  This is what you need to know about the Hearthstone Patch 20.4, and what it means for competitive and standard play.

Like with any change, this is going to have a big impact on the best Hearthstone Decks going forward, and we will have to reevaluate our picks once again. Players will have to re-evaluate what cards and strategies are going to work best for them going forward. You should think about this too if you’re looking at Hearthstone betting.

Hearthstone Patch 20.4

Like most new patches, this one is going to have a pretty big effect on the competitive scene. Deck balance and the viability of cads really hinge on what changes are made. A change to a few mechanics can ricochet through unconnected cards, removing the competitive edge of a specific deck. Shaman is currently looking like the winner from this release, with most cards synergizing insanely well with Nature spells.

These are the major changes that are coming with the patch:

Wailing Caverns Mini-Set

The Wailing Caverns mini-set is a part of the Hearthstone patch 20.4 that deserves special mention. This is a brand new mini-set. They launch on June 3^rd. They are going to be sets of 35 distinct cards, all taken from Forged in the Barrrens card packs. The entire set comes to 66 cards overall, that’s 4 legendary, 1 epic, 14 rare, and 16 commons.

Check out YouTuber Trump discuss some theorycrafting on how most cards can be flexed into existing decks.

While the new set takes the cake during this patch, there has been some adjustments that mainly impact Paladins and their insane win rate in HS over the past 60 days.

Paladins take a beatdown

• First Day of School – Changed to Add 2 random Card 1-Cost minions to your hand.
• Hand of A’dal – Changed to Give a minion +2/+1. Draw a Card.

Additionally, we get a few more tools when grinding Arenas, Duels and Wild.

New Heroes & Arena Rotation

• Muntanus the Devourer – Devour (Costs 0) Remove a friendly minion, split its stats onto another, gain 1 gold.
• Guff Runetoten – Natural Balance (Costs 1) Give a friendly minion of each Tavern Tier +2/+1.
• Hero Pool – Maiev Shadowsong has been temporarily removed.
• New Minion – Hexruin Marauder – Tier 4 Demon. 3 Attack, 5 Health. At the end of your turn, if you have 6 or fewer minons gain +3/+3.
• Minion Pool Update – Quilabor is no longer guaranteed, Seigebreaker has been removed from Battlegrounds, and Cap’n Hoggerr’s text has been changed.
• Duels Update – The Wailing Caverns mini set will be added into loot buckets and eligible pool of cards on June 3^rd.

Arena will include cards from these sets with the new patch:

• Wailing Caverns Mini-Set
• Forged in the Barrens
• Darkmoon Races Mini-set
• Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
• Scholomance Academy
• Ashes of Outland
• Kobolds & Catacombs
• Goblins vs Gnomes
• Core

In addition to these changes, there are going to be a lot of hero skins and card backs returning to the game for you to choose between. Outside of these content updates, there are more books and bug fixes to keep the game running smoothly with the Hearthstone Patch 20.4.

What Does Hearthstone Patch 20.4 Mean for Competitive?

As with any major change to competition, we can expect quite a bit of change to the game’s balance. The new cards themselves are going to be making a big impact. However, there is also a good dent coming from the changes to cards. A lot of Hearthstone figures have covered these changes.

YouTuber RegisKillbin makes a good overview of all the new cards in the mini-set and how they might be played in a 5-video long review:

If you’re looking at if Wailing Caverns mini-set you should buy, you have to think about what type of player you are. It won’t be too useful to everyone, but a lot of decks are going to need these cards even if it means buying in gold. Be sure to keep a keen eye on how decks develop over the coming weeks before the next Hearthstone events.