Blizzard Entertainment has released patch 36.4.2 for Hearthstone, covering the main game, Battlegrounds and Arena, Esports.gg reported. In constructed play the changes touch The Food Chain, Agamaggan, Dread Leviathan, Seismopod, Spiderling and The Forbidden Sequence.
Esports.gg described 36.4.2 as a smaller, focused update that addresses a handful of gameplay patterns while the new Class Sets continue to produce a meta built on deck experimentation. The headline change is an indirect one: rather than altering The Food Chain itself, Blizzard changed the pool of cards Shokk can Discover.
We're making a unique adjustment to The Food Chain by changing Shokk's Discover pool. We wanted to remove Agamaggan as a Discover option because its ability to generate massive burst damage immediately after Shokk was played led to some of the deck's most frustrating outcomes.
Agamaggan is now a 9/9, which puts it outside Shokk's Discover pool. Dread Leviathan and Seismopod have moved in the other direction: both are now 8/8 minions, which brings them into the pool. Esports.gg reported the adjustments should lead to slower, more defensive play patterns.
Battlegrounds
The September 3 Battlegrounds update targets the minion types sitting at the top and bottom of the mode's meta. Beasts, including Tasty Lobster, along with self-damage Demons, Quilboars and Dragons, were buffed. Elementals and Naga were nerfed. The same notes cover Tavern Spells, and carry a set of trinket and armor adjustments for heroes.
Arena
Patch 36.4.2 removes Chow Down and Captain Crowley from Arena's random generation pools. Esports.gg reported that the two removals weaken the Death Knight and Warrior classes and give underperforming archetypes and classes room to appear. The patch also fixes a bug that had kept Escape From Violet Hold cards out of Arena drafts.