Hearthstone players predict Astalor nerfs incoming as play rate skyrockets

Hearthstone players are predicting that the Legendary minion card Astalor Bloodsworn will be nerfed in the game’s next patch as the card’s usage rate is enormously high.

Hearthstone’s March of the Lich King expansion marked a huge shift in the digital card game’s meta as it introduced the new Death Knight class, new neutral cards, and a new keyword in Manathirst.

Since the launch of the expansion, the developers pushed a patch that nerfed the beloved Prince Renathal, an incredibly popular Legendary neutral minion that allowed players to start with 40 cards and 40 Health instead of 30.

Now, with another new patch on the horizon, players believe they know the next Legendary card set for major nerfs.

Astalor Bloodsword could be nerfed next Hearthstone patch

A post on the Hearthstone subreddit went viral after pointing to just how powerful and popular Astalor is at the game’s highest level of play.

In the post, the Reddit user pointed to Astalor’s usage rate in decks at Legend rank, which is currently at 72.1%. The stats come from HSReplay.

Astalor is by far the most popular card in the game at Legend, with Preparation, a Rogue spell, being second highest at just 38% of decks.

Card play rate in legend, thoughts? from hearthstone

Astalor is an incredibly easy card to slot into any deck due to its strong Battlecry of adding an even stronger version of Astalor to your hand, and the Manathirst of dealing 2 damage.

With so much power packed into a 2-mana card, it’s looking like Astalor may be on the chopping block come the next patch.