It’s been exactly one week since the release of Titans, Hearthstone’s latest major expansion, and already we’re seeing balance changes in response to the developing meta. Mage’s Solid Alibi and Rogue’s Lab Constructor have both been hit with the nerf hammer, alongside some minor bug fixes and changes, in one of the speediest patches we’ve seen yet. Read on for full details on the Solid Alibi and Lab Constructor nerfs, as well as the full scoop on Hearthstone’s Patch 27.0.3.
Patch 27.0.3 shakes up Hearthstone’s Titans meta
First and foremost: the nerfs. As mentioned above, both Solid Alibi and Lab Constructor have been hit, and their treatment has actually been the same: both have had their mana costs increased by one. As nerfs go, these are relatively minor, and most likely attempts by the development team to test the waters, and see if they can bring some powerful strategies in check without completely gutting their key cards.
Image by PC Invasion
Solid Alibi is a crucial part of many Mage decks, including but not limited to the highly successful new ‘Spell School Mage.’ It reduces all damage you take to one for a single turn, often functioning like the now-banished-to-Wild Mage staple Ice Block and guaranteeing you survive another turn once played. The extra survivability it offers is essential to Mage decks that rely on combos to win, and the card can often be played more than twice, through Discover effects like Rewind. Increasing its cost to three mana doesn’t seem like a major deal, since you typically play Solid Alibi later in the game anyway, but time will tell if this adjustment makes a major impact to the winrate of Mage.
Image by PC Invasion
Lab Constructor is a card that, somehow, went largely overlooked during Titans preview season, taking a back seat to the flashy Titans and powerful Keepers the set brought to the fray. In practice, it’s one of the most powerful cards in Mech Rogue, one of the most powerful archetypes in current Standard. By Forging it, you can Magnetize it onto a key mech, such as Mimiron, the Mastermind, one of our recommended cards to craft from Titans. Then, at the end of each turn, it will duplicate itself, leading to some unstoppable snowball turns if your opponent can’t clear it in time. Going from four to five mana is a significant nerf, and one that makes it harder to start your snowball in the early game, but we foresee Lab Constructor remaining a dominant force in the meta despite this adjustment.
As with all balance changes, Solid Alibi and Lab Constructor will both be eligible for full Dust refunds for two weeks, starting today, meaning you have until 08/22/2023 to cash them in if you wish. Besides these two nerfs, Patch 27.0.3 also made a change to Duels, completely banning Mechwarper from decks in the format, likely in response to the influx of powerful new Mechs that Titans introduced. The following bug fixes have also been implemented:
- [Hearthstone] Updated Sparkbots to better match their colors to their effects. WARNING: Wear proper safety equipment and read card texts to mitigate the risk of misplays while handling Sparkbots.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Dormant Titans could activate their abilities (kind of), causing issues.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where the Korean language version of the Forge tooltip displayed incorrectly.
- [Hearthstone] Fixed miscellaneous localization issues across languages.
- [Duels] Fixed a bug where Open the Doorways didn’t trigger off of Symphony of Sins or Snack
- [Collection] Fixed a bug where the Sargeras card back appeared as unowned and couldn’t be favorited.
And that’s that: the full low-down on Hearthstone Patch 27.0.3, and the nerfs to Solid Alibi and Lab Constructor it contains. It’s great to see changes so early into an expansion’s life cycle, and hopefully adjustments continue to be made as the Titans meta solidifies in the weeks to come.
