Shudderwock, the most talked about legendary card in Hearthstone's newly released The Witchwood expansion, is getting a soft nerf and a much-needed fix in an upcoming update, Blizzard announced today. The number of Battlecries he can repeat is being capped at 20, and more importantly, the speed of his animations is being doubled. Likewise, the speed of Lifedrinker's Battlecry, the linchpin in the Shudderwock burn combo, will also be sped up.
As Luke noted in his post-launch report on the Shudderwock menace, the biggest problem with the card isn't its power level—Shudderwock Shaman is actually quite weak to aggressive decks, which is why it isn't seeing much play anymore—but rather how tedious it is to play against. Once the necessary Battlecries are assembled, turns where even one copy of Shudderwock is played can last five minutes or more, totally overriding Hearthstone's rope timer, and it only gets worse as more and more 1-Mana Shudderwocks are created by the Battlecries of Saronite Chain Gang and Grumble, Worldshaker.
It's the kind of problem that shouldn't exist regardless of the deck's popularity, because after you've seen the combo once, you never want to witness it again. So, it's nice to see Shudderwock reigned in so swiftly. Once his bad reputation dies off, perhaps he'll finally be able to shine as one of the cooler cards in the expansion. He's actually already pretty good in a more midrange build.
And if we've all learned one lesson from this episode, it's that however much you've tested a card, Disguised Toast, the guy who discovered the combo on day one, will find a way to break it.
Still, at least he's sorry.
My bad.April 24, 2018
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