With all of the excitement surrounding the upcoming Tombs of Terror solo adventure, some Hearthstone fans may have missed the changes made to the Discover mechanic in Patch 15.2.
Discover is an ability in Hearthstone that allows the player to choose one of three different cards. If you play the card Stonehill Defender, for example, you’ll have the option of selecting one of three minions that have the keyword Taunt.
With Patch 15.2, Discover effects no longer apply a class-card bonus for what can show up in the Discover pool. Prior to this change, class cards were four times more likely to show up in a Discover pool. While this may not seem like a huge deal on the surface, the meta implications could be big.
Blizzard said that as Discover pools have gotten more specific, some are too narrow and repetitive. The change is meant to increase the variety of cards from random Discover pools. This essentially means the same cards were being Discovered too often. This could lead to meta choices being established for a mechanic that’s intended to be super random.
A Reddit user was quick to point out how devastating the change could be to Warrior and how beneficial it could be for Mage. Since Warrior has so many good class cards, it would want to Discover as many of them as possible. Warrior’s meta decks also have a ton of cards that rely on the Discover mechanic, such as Dr. Boom, Omega Assembly, and Elysiana.
But this change can be beneficial for the struggling Mage class. Since the most recent series of nerfs targeted Control and Highlander Mage, the class has drastically dropped in win rate, according to HSReplay. This change could help Mage thanks to the card Power of Creation. Mage’s class minions that are discoverable by Power of Creation are generally weak compared to neutral minions of the same cost. Since Mage will be less likely to Discover class minions as it was in the past, Power of Creation could be a much stronger card.
