Hearthstone updates tend to come fast and hard, and the December 19th Hearthstone changes are no exception. The update is made exclusively of nerfs to cards from top tier decks. The note from the update’s blog post says this update targets both Standard and Wild meta health.

Wild Growth Now Costs 3 Mana Instead of 2.

This is a punch in the gut for almost all top-tier druid decks. Taunt Druid and Token Druid in Standard both ran this card, and any Combo Druid deck (like King Togwaggle) ran it in Wild. This change is a big nerf to Druid as a whole.

The next December 19th Hearthstone change is also a Druid nerf. Blizzard gave their explanation for both at the same time.

Nourish Now Costs 6 Mana Instead of 5.

Nourish is basically Wild Growth’s big brother. Nourish runs in pretty much every Druid deck except for the most aggro brews. Both Wild Growth and Nourish were a deckbuilding staple for any combo, control, or midrange Druid deck. This nerf will (hopefully) change that.

Now, Wild Growth and Nourish aren’t necessary to build a strong deck. Their mana ramp effects will still be important but will likely see use in late-game decks only. Strategies that don’t wholly revolve around ramp won’t play this card much anymore. After the December 19th Hearthstone update, we’ll probably see a lot less Druid in Standard and Wild.

Level Up! Now Costs 6 Mana Instead of 5.

Level Up! was a staple of any Paladin token deck, and after The Witchwood, it became a haymaker for Odd Paladin. It became difficult to play around Odd Paladin because Level Up! lets them drop huge bursts of damage out of nowhere.

This change aims to make the deck more consistent and predictable for the enemy. It’ll still be a “competitive board control deck,” but won’t kill you without warning anymore. Who knows, we might finally see some Even Paladin.

Saronite Chain Gang’s Battlecry No Longer Summons an Exact Copy.

The developer’s note in the blog post says this change targets Shudderwock Shaman. Pre-nerf card text on Saronite Chain Gang reads, “Taunt, Battlecry: Summon a copy of this minion.” Now it reads, “Taunt, Battlecry: Summon another Saronite Chain Gang.” This means the second Chain Gang won’t retain any buffs from the first Chain Gang.

The December 19th Hearthstone changes won’t kill Shudderwock Combo as a whole. However, this nerf will diminish some of Shudderwock’s explosive power.

Leeching Poison Now Costs 1 Mana Instead of 2, but Only Lasts for One Turn.

This change intentionally targets Kingsbane Rogue. The lifesteal effect was too powerful for the deck and encouraged an unhealthy lack of counterplay. Leeching Poison made it hard to actually kill Kingsbane Rogue in the midgame when they should be weakest. By the time late game rolled around, there was nothing you could do.

Leeching Poison pre-nerf also went against Rogue’s design philosophy. Kingsbane was healing Rogues more in a match than any Priest deck did, and that doesn’t make sense to Blizzard. The December 19th Hearthstone changes probably won’t kill Shudderwock decks entirely…but they might kill Kingsbane decks.