Blizzard's 17.2 Hearthstone patch arrives today, adding three new heroes and a new minion to Battlegrounds. We also bid farewell to Dire Wolf Alpha, who is rotating out of the minion pool. What's more exciting is that after six years, players are now finally able to rearrange their decks in the Collection Manager. This sounds like a small adjustment, but for Hearthstone players it's a big deal. Quality of life improvements are always greatly appreciated, particularly because there are usually large intervals between them. I'm secretly hoping that this is one step closer to us receiving more deck slots, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Battlegrounds welcomes three new heroes to the fray, introducing Lady Vashj, Maiev Shadowsong and Kael'thas Sunstrider to the pool. Players with Battlegrounds perks can begin playtesting these heroes straight away, and they'll be fully unlocked for everyone else on May 26. All three additions look interesting, however Maiev Shadowsong seems to offer the best value. This hero increases your chances of acquiring triples by making a minion go Dormant, then receiving it with +1/+1 after two turns.
Lady Vashj's early and mid-game potential is promising, too. Her hero power replaces Bob's minions with ones of a higher tier after you upgrade. As for Kael'thas Sunstrider, every third minion you buy gains +2/+2, which will be very helpful in the early game.
New minion Rabid Saurolisk is now on the cards for Battlegrounds players. Beasts are already strong in this mode, but this looks to be another solid Tier 1 option. Rabid Saurolisk is a 3/1 that gains +1/+1 after you play a Deathrattle minion. Just at face value this seems like more than a fair trade for Dire Wolf Alpha, who was disappointing to say the least. While its early game capabilities aren't too impressive due to its low health, there are plenty of Tier 2 Deathrattle minions to synergise with, including other Beasts such as Rat Pack.
Rounding off the update, Zephrys the Great has received a fair few tweaks to the spells and minions it offers. Most notably, the perfect cards playable next turn have been adjusted, along with other bug fixes. Neutral Legendary, Teron Gorefiend's card text has also been altered to "Destroy all other friendly minions. Deathrattle: Resummon them with +1/+1." For Ranked players, End of Season rewards are now clearly marked in green inside Rewards Chests, just to make things a little clearer.
That covers the highlights in the 17.2 Hearthstone patch. One thing to be aware of is that Blizzard has restructured assets this time around. That means that the download will be larger than usual—it'll actually be similar to a fresh install.
