Bluetracker
Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.
Upcoming 16.0.8 Balance Update - Card Changes and Class Balance
20200116 at 19:36 PST
Iksar confirmed the "fix to all regions".
20200116 at 18:34 PST
Blizzard Community Manager (for Content Creators) Chris Sierra replied to a Twitter thread that Poacher is "gone".
It is unclear when Poacher was removed from the Arena draft pool. I last observed it to be draftable at 17:48 PST on SaveFile17's stream (based on timestamps of viewer messages as in-game time is blocked; also second Poacher drafted that run) on the Americas region server.
Assuming the change went live moments after SaveFile17 was offered it in draft, Dragonmaw Poacher was draftable for at least 7 days, 1 hour, and about 37 minutes during Hearthstone client build version 16.0.8.39282 at least on Americas.
Once Iksar acknowledged the bug, it took at least 6 days, 19 hours, and about 12 minutes to be resolved on all 3 regions.
20200116 at 09:18 PST
Iksar gave an update on the process.
20200109 at 16:11 PST
Official Hearthstone Twitter tweeted that the update is live.
The current Hearthstone build version is 16.0.8.39282
Dragonmaw Poacher is now draftable again.
At 22:36 PST, Iksar acknowledged that this was not intended and is a "bug". On January 16 09:18 PST, he
20200108 at 10:10 PST
Note that this update patch will likely occur on Friday January 10, 2020 as Blizzard posted a new blog about the upcoming Galakrond’s Awakening Solo Adventure without any mention of the patch.The current Hearthstone build version is 16.0.5.38377.
Hearthstone CM Kurt Ocher made a new thread on the official US forums in the Community Discussion section (prior threads have been in the Multiplayer Discussion forums). Below is an excerpt of all changes pertinent to Arena:
Welcome to a new year in the tavern, everyone! We have a balance update in the works that will go live later this week which includes the following changes, primarily for Standard and Battlegrounds:
Warlock
- Fiendish Rites : Mana cost increased from (3) to (4).
Warrior
- Scion of Ruin : Mana cost increased from (3) to (4) .
- Ancharrr : Durability reduced from (3) to (2) .
Shaman
- Dragon’s Pack : Now reads, “…If you’ve Invoked twice, give them +2/+2 .” (reduced from +3/+3).
Rogue
- Necrium Apothecary : Mana cost increased from (4) to (5).
Neutral
- Dragonqueen Alexstrasza: Battlecry effect can no longer generate Dragonqueen Alexstrasza.
Bug Fixes and Game Improvements
- Arena : The appearance rate of cards in the draft has been updated to ensure class balance remains close to the ideal 50% win-rate. Specifically, the win-rate of Druid, Hunter, and Paladin should now be decreased. The win-rate of Priest, Rogue, Shaman and Warlock should now be increased. Card appearance rates for Mage and Warrior remain untouched.
TDing_HS
It depends on which class you are looking into -- the appearance rate of Twin Tyrant could go up or down or unchanged. For example, for Druid, the change rate is -17.5%; for Priest, the change rate is +19.1%.