Last week, we enlisted the help of a prominent Hearthstone pro to share some thoughts on which cards were likely to be nerfed first in the new "Scholomance Academy" expansion. And today, Blizzard announced the upcoming 18.0.2 balance patch, and two predictions seem to have come true: Kael'thas Sunstrider and Mindrender Illucia will both be hit with the nerf hammer, and game designer Alec Dawson stated that these changes were "focused on feel."

First, Kael'thas Sunstrider: originally, every third spell he cast cost 0, but after the update, every third spell will cost 1. That's exactly what we called it.

I know someone who would be particularly pleased with this change.

Kael'thas been played primarily with Guardian Druid, allowing for free combos of high-cost spells like Overflow, Survival of the Fittest, and the eponymous Guardian Animals. With these spells now costing 1, Power Spike's turn will be much slower; Tim thinks the card may even stop being used in Druid, and players will instead focus on using Beasts for free from Exotic Mountseller Id.

Note that since Kael'thas is a Legendary distributed for free to all players, the card will not be disenchanted and you will not get free dust.

The other Standard card to be nerfed is Mindrender Illuciam, whose cost will be raised from 2 to 3 with the update; Illucia's effect was simply too good for 2 mana, and the card's cost will be raised from 2 to 3. That meant she could be played "on-curve," as it often allowed her to waste her opponents' coins.

ZachO, Vicious Syndicate's stat guru, believes that this is a deceptively large nerf and that the card will be cut from Priest entirely. 'Her power level was not the reason she was nerfed,' he says. 'She was strong, but there are stronger cards in the format.'

The update also brought a number of changes to Battlegrounds, Hearthstone's autobattler mode. Gentle Megasaur and Arcane Cannon were banished from the minion pool and Lady Vashj from the hero pool. As a result, players will welcome the reduction in power of the Murloc and Pirate tribes, as well as the reduction in power of the OP hero Captain Eudora.

And as always, there are a few fixes:

The 18.0.2 patch will be released "soon."