Hearthstone’s newest expansion has a new card that’s causing balance issues… with animations

When a new expansion arrives in Hearthstone, there will be balance issues. That’s almost inevitable; you know it’s going to happen, it’s part of the nature of the beast. What seems a little bit unusual is the fact that this particular card is causing balance issues simply due to animation locks. The legendary Shaman card Shudderwock is causing problems due to the nature of its special abilities, which replays every single Battlecry effect on your side of the board through the whole game.

This is obviously powerful, but this can also wind up cycling through an extensive and long animation cycle that ultimately leaves your opponent unable to actually play, which is clearly not an intended function of the card. The functionality will be revisited next week, so hopefully players will not long have to suffer a strategy of winning via animation locks. There’s a charming meta nature to it, but it still feels cheap.