‘F**k yeah’: Pros react to the undertaker nerf

After six months of pleas from casual and pro Hearthstone players alike, Blizzard have finally confirmed that they will be making a balance change to Undertaker in an upcoming patch

After six months of pleas from casual and pro Hearthstone players alike, Blizzard have finally confirmed that they will be making a balance change to Undertaker in an upcoming patch.

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Instead of gaining one health and attack whenever a card with deathrattle is played, the new Undertaker will only gain an extra attack.

The card was considered by many to be one of the most frustrating to deal with and almost unbeatable in many scenarios when it was drawn with the right combination of cards, particularly in Hunter decks. Though Blizzard had stated it preferred not to nerf cards post-official release, the anti-deathrattle counters introduced in the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion were clearly not working as well as had been hoped.

“Undertaker was frustrating to play against,” Hearthstone Community Manager Christina “Zeriyah” Sims said in an official statement on the Hearthstone forums. “It often gained both Attack and Health stats significantly above those of other inexpensive minions very early in the game.

“With this change, we expect Undertaker will still be better than other 1-Mana minions when played in a deck with a Deathrattle theme, but more likely to die in combat against other minions.”

A number of pro players took to Twitter to express their delight at the change:

Though not all pro players see the move as entirely positive:

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“If you play Undertaker and your opponent has Zombie Chow you need to get super lucky to not lose the game on the spot,” Sebastian “Xixo” Bentert told the Daily Dot. “And even then it just trades one for one. It never grows out of Keeper of the Grove range, so it always gets killed by it. Considering how bad it is now when you play second, it just won’t see play anymore, making it another Starving Buzzard.”

Undertaker may well end up being as rarely played as Starving Buzzard, but it is entirely possible that this could be the final nail in the coffin of the current Hunter decks.

Image via Blizzard


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Weekend Editor, Dot Esports.