Hearthstone brings the first round of changes and balances to its season 11 battlegrounds, lifting a few archetypes up and tuning some overpowered ones.
Here are some of the key minion and tavern spell changes in Hearthstone’s 33.2.1 patch to Battlegrounds.
Hearthstone Season 11 Battlegrounds Balance Changes – 33.2.1 Patch Notes


With almost every archetype nerfed compared to the end of season 10’s Battlegrounds, it looks as if some of the warbands are going to catch up a bit in power, especially for Demon Jugglers, end-of-turn Pirates, and Mycologist Battlecry Murlocs.
Here are the crucial buffs to minions and one spell for patch 33.2.1:
- Primitive Painter gives +1/+2 instead of +1/+1 per tier 3 card played.
- Bream Counter gets +4/+4 instead of +3/+3 per Murloc played while it is in hand.
- Deathly Striker is now Avenge (4) instead of Avenge (5).
- Friendly Geist gives +2 Attack to Tavern spells instead of +1 per Deathrattle.
- Yorik Smite gives +2/+2 and +6/+6 to minions and golden minions, respectively, at the end of the turn.
- Ship Master Eudora gives +8/+8 to minions, and gold ones keep them permanently on Deathrattle.
- Improviser is now Avenge (2) instead of Avenge (3).
- Devout Hellcaller gets +1/+2 instead of +1/+1 per instance of Demon damage.
- Haunted Carapace now gives +3/+1 instead of +2/+1 to minions until next turn.
Primitive Painter gets a much-needed buff, so Battlecry Murloc has more ways to improve its power other than just looking for the correct spell and using the Flotsam Flinger and Magicfin Mycologist. You can play as many tier 1 to 3 cards and buff the whole team while milling for the right cards.
Bream Counter is a bit underwhelming, even with the buff, because the Bassgill archetype is in bad shape, especially without Tavern tier 7, Morgl.
Reborn Undead doesn’t really use Deathly Striker much, which is bad, but making it “Avenge (4)” should help give it some use to help Undead find their crucial units faster.
Friendly Geist and Haunted Carapace get a buff, making Tavern spell Undead a more reliable build.
End of turn Pirates that rely on Lost City Looter, Proud Privateer, Yorik Smites, and a Blade Collector might see some play more. Ship Master Eudora gets some use, but is still lacking for a tier 6.
While there are buffs, there are a few nerfs to overperforming cards as well. Here are all the minion nerfs:
- Sanguine Refiner gives +1/+1 instead of +1/+2 bonuses to your Blood Gems on Rally.
- Vine Climber buffs +2/+1 instead of +2/+2.
- Sundered Matriarch effect is now +1 instead of +2 health.
- Stomping Stegodon now only gives +1/+1 instead of +2/+2 per Rally buff.
Sanguine Refiner gets a slight nerf, but it is more of the Razorfen Vineweaver and Bonkers doing the heavy lifting and scaling out of control when Blood Gems gets buffed too much. There are even strategies where Razorfen Vineweavers would be the only card, so it can farm as many stats as possible.
Vine Climber has some ridiculous combos with some quests and Millhouse, but I doubt this would affect it as much.
Sundered Matriarch buff helps snowball Naga comps more, as they struggle hard switching units for the endgame like Corrupted Myrmidons from Lava Lurkers.
Stomping Stegodon has fallen immediately with this nerf, and rightfully so. No comp should be able to reach 500+ stats around turn 8 ever. Being forced to hard counter them destroys the overall state of season 11.
If you want to see the best meta teams in Hearthstone’s season 11 battlegrounds, check out our list here.
Published: Aug 12, 2025 06:26 pm