The Hearthstone Twitter account has confirmed that Solid Alibi and Lab Constructor will be nerfed in a patch tomorrow, although the specifics of how the cards will be changed were not specified.
Quote From PlayHearthstone Small balance changes are coming to Standard Mode tomorrow in patch 27.0.3.
What do you think will happen, and what do you think the state of the meta will be after these changes?
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Comments
Now I know why it's called jackpot mage. Golden solid alibi and 1600 dust straight to the bank.
Solid Alibi -> 3 mana
Lab Constructor -> 5 mana
Solid Alibi to 4 and Lab Constructor to 5 mana, I think.
In my opinion, Solid Alibi would be ok if it can't be discovered by other sources but with how it is and was, it was needed to be nerfed long ago.
I never wanted a card to be nerfed before. So why do I request it now?
Because, even Ice Block was problematic and they don't bring it back for standard for years but even Ice Block had counterplay with secret destroyer cards but Solid Alibi is just not counterable, you might laten it with increasing spell costs of your opponent or you might try sniping it with Blademaster Okani and that's all. The card is just uncounterable and maximum damage you can done to the opponent is 7 most of the time if you are playing a token deck or a deck who always fills the board and guess what ? They usually use Ice Barrier with it and they gain +1 Health on that turn instead of losing 7... or maybe you need a 30/30 C'Thun with no board or maybe 2x Astalor, the Flamebringer in a single turn which is only happening with 1/1000 of probability...
The only other answer is another mage with Counterspell and OTK'ing her in a turn she didn't use it.
I'm just surprised it was not a nerf candidate until now. There shouldn't be a card with no answers, especially when a class can discover tons of it.
You can literally gain armor and use Solid Alibi and force your opponent to die to fatigue on paper.
So I really request a card to be nerfed for the first time of my HS life which i was playing since beta. If there is a card which is overpowered but counterable, I usually don't request a nerf but this card is only counterable with itself and that happens if you are lucky enough.
For Lab Constructor, I think;
yeah, it snowballs a lot but it is so vulnerable, I don't think it needs to be nerfed and I don't think it will change anything for Mech Rogue. The most problematic part of Mech Rogue is Stealthed mechs and how you can't remove it easily with some cases and there are a lot of counters for that. If you plan your game good enough against Mech Rogue, you can deal with it most of the time with a lot of other decks, I could counter it with Hunter, Mage, Death Knight, Demon Hunter and Rogue and I'm sure of that other classes can deal with it too. Lab Constructor shouldn't be nerfed imo.
Like Melliflue said, it just balances itself with draw engine etc. and it is just not the key part of the deck imo. The key part is Stealth in that deck and you will see that you will keep struggling against Mech Rogue in some matchups even it is nerfed after the patch.
Curses and plagues are unaffected by Solid Alibi. Playing mage I found plague dk to be a pain. I want to draw lots of cards to find Sif, and enough burn because I'd probably need 30 damage. The cost increase plague is very disruptive too.
I don't think Solid Alibi is a problem when mage does not have otk potential. The same was true of Ice Block. Solid Alibi costs one card and 2 mana to stall for a turn. It doesn't clear the board at all, or develop a board for mage. Time Out! made the paladin completely immune for a turn but was never good enough. I think a class can either have otk potential or it can have buy-a-turn stall cards, but not both.
Yeah that's true. When OTK is a thing, this kind of cards become problematic but its not the only thing. Paladin was not able to reach more copies of Time Out! on its time which it also saw play in an OTK deck and you can reach Solid Alibi so easy with mage's huge discover potential and that's the real problem here in my opinion. You can use it without putting it to your actual deck and you are almost guaranteed to find one with Vast Wisdom. You don't even waste a deckspot to be able to use it. Of course you can't rely on it and it is better when you use your 3rd or more copy after your opponent thinks "ok, she is out of Solid Alibis now.
It may not be creating a threat or clearing the board but it was screaming that it will be problematic when Vast Wisdom is printed.
The real problem is not the Solid Alibi itself here. It is how it is synergizing with Vast Wisdom and other reach sources.
You may be right about the plague deck might be useful against Solid Alibi but well, a well-timed Steamcleaner can save you from plagues and it just takes a single slot. Nothing can make you get rid of Solid Alibi or even 3x-4x ones. So, when a card has no counterplays, it becomes more problematic. Mages can play Solid Alibi without hesitation because they know nothing can disrupt it except Counterspell which is already a mirror match while other decks needs to think "oh, what if they have Steamcleaner in hand" or any other class, specific/neutral counters of what they are playing.
Solid Alibi was needed a neutral counter or it had to be nerfed.
Solid Alibi wasn't a big problem until mage was given burst damage with Sif. I think this is a quality of life nerf. I have played Sif mage and it cannot be fun to play against. I've had games with 3 Solid Alibis into a Sif otk.
I think Lab Constructor is also a quality of life nerf. Mech rogue doesn't seem overly strong to me, but it either snowballs out of control and wins or never gets on board and loses. The latter feels awful for the mech rogue player, the former feels awful for the opponent. I am not a fan of high-roll/snowball decks like that. They so often feel decided by luck of the draw.
I think Blizzard is just gonna up the mana on these 2 cards by 1 and call it a day
Yes, both cards are increasingly a nuisance to deal with. Mech rogue practically scams wins. I hope they at least remove windfury from the sparkbots as an option. You can absolutely get destroyed by turn 3 simply not dealing with a 1 drop. That's absurd.
I think Lab Constructor gets nerfed to 5, while Solid Alibi's minimum damage gets upped to 2.
I think both cards deserve balancing and look forward seeing what happens.
I'm also really sick of Star Power. Way too much damage for so cheap.
Lab Constructor just needs to not work on the copies, but idk how they'd word that.
They would have to make it summon a Lab Construct (name open to debate) that is a different, non-collectible card with the same stats and most of the same text, but without the copying part. "At the end of your turn, summon a Lab Construct with the same stats and keywords as this." <-- something like that.
I think they'll just nerf its cost. When it becomes slow enough the effect is no longer such an issue as it can't snowball without instantly running into an effective answer.
I hope Solid Alibi gets nuked into oblivion