Ever since the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion released Hearthstone has been dominated by Jade Druids and Pirate Warriors, two archetypes that have been highly problematic since their inception. After the usual song and dance of claiming everything is fine the Hearthstone devs have reacted with surprising speed and announced a bunch of upcoming nerfs... though not to the cards you might expect.

Instead of slamming some of the extremely efficient pirates or the ever-present Jade Idol, Blizzard has put their sights squarely on classic card such as Fiery War Axe and Innervate. If you're interested in Blizzard's reasoning behind these changes you'll find what you seek on the official blog, but for now here are the changes themselves:

Innervate

- Now reads: Gain 1 Mana Crystal this turn only. (Down from 2)

Fiery War Axe

- Now costs 3 mana.  (Up from 2)

Hex

- Now costs 4 mana. (Up from 3)

Murloc Warleader 

- Now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)

Spreading Plague

- Now costs 6 mana. (Up from 5)

While I somewhat agree with the nerf to Innervate, I'm not exactly sure why Fiery War Axe is getting butchered in such a way. At 3 mana its basically unplayable, and for a class that's already struggling in Arena this is going to be disastrous. Furthermore, this is not only a nerf to the annoying Pirate Warriors, but Control and Midrange variants as well, and those are in need of a boost if anything. 

So yeah, these are some very strange changes and its going to be quite interesting to see what happens when the patch hits. Here's to hoping Warriors manage to stay relevant outside of the incredibly overplayed Pirate archetype.