Hello, hello! Lots of content coming in 18.4 (Elementals are a blast) plus two balance changes. While the meta is still quite healthy and diverse with many classes/archetypes being played across the ladder, we wanted to shift certain gameplay experiences. https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/hearthstone/23523062/18-4-patch-notes

Let's start with Tortollan Pilgrim. By changing the textbox to now consume the discovered spell, we are eliminating the repetitive gameplay in Turtle Mage.

We had talked about Pilgrim in balance meetings previously, but wanted to see how the deck would compete with time.

Was it just an interesting tournament pick or would it become a mainstay on the ladder with a solid winrate?
Over time it became clear that Turtle Mage was here to stay. There was a clear shift in "maybe it falls off" to "I see this on the ladder quite frequently."

While we love when the community comes up with novel decks that challenge your idea of what is possible within Hearthstone, the feelings of inevitability present in Turtle Mage didn't make for a healthy gameplay experience.

Then we have Guardian Animals. We are increasing the mana cost to 8 to add a bit more friction to the common pattern of Overgrowth -> Guardian Animals.

On day 1 of Scholomance Academy, Guardian Animals Druid was very strong, but the meta adapted to combat it.

We saw decks punish Druid for taking too long to get things going as well as decks that could deal with the big Guardian Animals turn efficiently. Even today you could say Guardian Animals is in a fine spot balance wise, it's strong but not out of bounds. Our change here is more

focused on pushing out the big swing by a turn to alleviate some of the negative feelings when you're on the opposing end. Guardian Animals can be a knockout punch and we'd like that to occur a bit later.

Again, thank you for your feedback throughout the Scholomance Academy meta. We've seen a ton of variety these past months and can't wait to see what y'all come up with next.