Blizzard has updated the Hearthstone beta with its latest patch, version 1.0.0.4217.
The biggest change is a re-work for Arena rewards. Arenas are similar to the Limited format of Magic: the Gathering. You’ll construct your deck by choosing one of three cards. This process repeats until you have a full deck. From there, you’re sent into the arena where you’ll play until you get nine twelve (new change) wins or three losses, whichever comes first. Your record determines your rewards.
Those rewards were changed with the patch, though Blizzard wasn’t too forthcoming with those exact changes. Members of the Hearthstone Reddit community have been gathering the new rewards in a thread.
Balance changes have arrived as well, most notably changing the cost of the Priest spell “Mind Control” from 8 mana to 10. A few other balance tweaks were given to cards that helped aggressive based minion decks, such as decreasing the toughness of the cards “Shattered Sun Cleric” and “Argent Commander.” Having played with these cards after the patch, it’s a subtle yet noticeable balance change.
The Mage class, which is incredibly popular in the current meta-game, was unchanged.
The full list of changes is available on Battle.net. Hearthstone is currently in a closed beta. An open beta is expected to go live later this month.
