Where 36.2.2 touched every tribe at once, this one picks sides. Beasts, self-damage Demons, Quilboars and Dragons get help; Elementals and Naga get trimmed. The bigger story is the hero list — 27 heroes have their starting Armor changed, the largest armor pass in a while.
123
Tracked changes
2 cards left the pool
27
Heroes retuned
Armor only
24
Minions changed
4 Tavern Tier moves
68
Trinkets moved
56 cost changes
"In our last balance patch, we made broad changes across every minion type. This time, we're focusing on the types at the top and bottom of the meta. […] Unleashed Mana Surge stood out as one of the strongest Tier 6 minions in the game and the clearest Elemental outlier, making it our target for this round of adjustments."
— Official 36.4.2 developer comment
The three that matter
Unleashed Mana Surge
The headline nerf, and close to a halving. Four extra Health softens the body, but the Elemental engine that defined the last month is now paying full price for a much smaller trigger.
Goldrinn, the Great Wolf
A tier cheaper for one point of stats. Beast boards reach their finisher a full tier earlier, which reshapes the curve far more than the -1/-1 costs it.
Natural Blessing
Mixed
Natural Blessing
[4] +3/+3[2] +2/+1
The indirect Naga nerf. Rather than touch Fauna Whisperer, the developers cut what it hands you — half the cost, but well under half the stats.
Tribe scoreboard
Counts use the same buff/nerf classifier that powers the comparison page, so they match what the site reads off the raw card data.
Demon+6
Quilboar+4
Beast+3
Undead+2
Mech+1
Dragon+1-1
Elemental-1
Naga-1
Pirate-1
Heroes
Hero armor
Armor only — no hero power was touched this patch. Duos values come from the official notes; the site's card data carries the Solo number alone.
Armor decreases
1710·Duos 15 → 8. The heaviest cut of the patch, on top of the Major Hymn nerf from 36.2.2.
1812·Duos 16 → 10
2015·Duos 18 → 13
1612·Duos 14 → 10
1410·Duos 14 → 8
1613·Duos 14 → 11
1210·Duos 10 → 8
108·Duos 8 → 6
Armor increases
1015·Duos 10 → 13
1015·Duos 8 → 13
1518·Duos 13 → 16
58·Duos 2 → 6. Still only four heroes start lower — the gamble is cushioned, not removed.
710·Duos 5 → 8
1618·Duos 14 → 16
1618·Duos 14 → 16
1820·Duos 16 → 18
1719·Duos 15 → 17
1416·Duos 12 → 14
1416·Duos 12 → 14
1416·Duos 12 → 14
1416·Duos 12 → 14
1214·Duos 10 → 12
1214·Duos 10 → 12
1214·Duos 10 → 12
1214·Duos 10 → 12
1718·Duos 15 → 17
1819·Duos 16 → 17
Minions
Tavern Tier moves
Three of the four move down. These matter more than the stat tweaks — they change what you can hit, and when.
By tribe
Demon6/66/8·Threshold 3 → 4 damage, and it now gets a copy of Corrupted Cupcakes instead of casting Shiny Ring — the experimental redesign of the patch.
2/24/4·Gain +1/+2 → +2/+2 permanently
3/34/4·Demon buff +3/+3 → +4/+4
5/66/6·Tavern buff +1/+1 → +2/+2
4/14/2·+1 Health → +2 Health per rewind
Quilboar9/39/4·Blood Gems give an extra +1/+1 → +2/+1
2/83/8·Blood Gems give an extra +1/+1 → +1/+2
1/32/5
Tier 4Tier 3
The Rally Golem now copies this minion's stats rather than stats equal to its Blood Gems — better or worse depending entirely on how many gems you have banked.
The two Sanguine minions are the real Quilboar buff: every Blood Gem in the game gets bigger, and the pair now scales opposite halves of the stat line.
Beast1/12/1·Deathrattle buff +1/+1 → +2/+1, walking back the 36.2.2 nerf
Tier 5 5/6Tier 4 4/6
Tier 6 8/8Tier 5 7/7·Deathrattle +8/+8 → +7/+7
3/83/9·Summon buff +2 Attack → +3 Attack
Undead3/103/8·Undead +2 Attack → +3 Attack this game
2/92/7·Avenge (4) → Avenge (3)
Dragon8/58/6·Start of Combat +2/+1 → +2/+2
2/94/5·Four points of Health for two of Attack
Elemental6/56/9·Elemental buff +4/+4 → +2/+3
NagaTier 3Tier 4·One of the two cards the developers named as Naga's main offenders
Pirate2/45/6·Activate (1) gains 3 Gold → 2 Gold. A much bigger body for a third less income.
Mech4/64/5·Per-Magnetization buff +4/+4 → +4/+5
No tribe
Activate (2) → Activate (1), halving the cost of setting a minion to 50/50
Tavern spells
Spell changes
Mighty Dragonbreath
+2/+1+3/+2·Per repeat — so Dragon boards with Divine Shield get it three times over
Natural Blessing
[4] +3/+3[2] +2/+1·Half the cost, well under half the stats
Sanctify
Removed from the Tavern spell pool
Trinkets
Pool removals
Left the trinket pool
Blessing Portrait
Lesser pool
Cowrie Necklace
Lesser pool
Deathwhisper Sticker
Lesser pool
Copper Coil
Lesser pool only — the Greater version stays, and picks up a text change of its own
Coral Spear
Greater pool
Cost changes
Fifty-six trinkets changed cost and 34 of those went down, 21 of them landing at 0 or 1 Gold. Trinket turns are markedly cheaper than they were a patch ago.
Lesser — cheaper
Ophidian Staff53
Scraper Sticker42
Comfy Coffin31
Spell-powered Wrench20
Emergency Gearblade20
Jailer Sticker43
Bleeding Heart32
Dragon Skull32
Pilgrimp Sticker21
Putricide Sticker21
Fish Portrait21
Kaleidoscope10
Glowing Gauntlet10
Minion Bait10
Lucky Tabby10
Holy Mallet10
Automaton Portrait10
Lesser — pricier
Ominous Stone02
Herding Horn12
Wand of Divination01
Warcry Totem23
Splinter of Aurum23
Demonic Bloodletter23
War Drum23
Chromatic Tear23
Floating Candle Set34
Sellemental Portrait56
Greater — cheaper
Ironforge Anvil41
Fridge Magnet41
Fancy Spellbook30
Reinforced Shield31
Booty Bay Brew20
Pocket Cyclone10
Dalaran Cheese Wheel10
Lightfeather Sticker10
Jailer Sticker43
Pagle's Fishing Rod43
Privateer Portrait54
Wolfhead Flail54
Insurrectionist's Blade32
Herald Sticker32
Quilligraphy Set21
Greater — pricier
Honeycomb Ring14
Myrmidon Sticker13
Multilayered Shield24
Recycling Sticker35
Ghastly Sticker34
Dramaloc Sticker56
Groundbreaker Portrait56
Escapee Portrait67
Bassgill Portrait12
Text changes
Lesser trinkets
Lionfish Portrait
+2/+2+4/+2·Attacking Beast buff
Nomi Sticker
+2/+2+3/+2·Tavern Elementals, this game
Stormcoil Sticker
[0] 8 deaths[1] 6 deaths·A Gold pricier, but two deaths sooner
Gold Mallet
+2/+1+1/+1·End-of-turn buff
Archaic Scroll
7 spells8 spells
Bubble Crown
12 spells14 spells
Rune of Transmutation
15 spells18 spells
Greater trinkets
Nazjatar Postcard
[7] play a Naga[2] play 2 Naga·Five Gold cheaper for one extra Naga — the largest single swing in the trinket list
Inductive Gyroblade
8/812/12·Magnetic Satellite
Trusty Crowbar
+12/+12+16/+16·Left-most minion, per Pirate
Thaumaturgist Portrait
Get 1Get 2·Thaumaturgists, with permanent Spellcrafts
Miniature Ship
+2/+2+3/+3·Pirate buff per Tavern spell
Baller Portrait
[6] 10 Elementals[5] 11 Elementals
All-Purpose Kibble
[0] +2 Attack[2] +3 Attack
Lava Lamp
sell 6sell 7
Undocumented
Not in the official notes
⚠️
Warning
These three appear in the shipped card data with no matching line in Blizzard's post. The first is the one to watch — treat it as detected, not confirmed, until you see it at the Tavern.
Detected in card data only
Gentle Djinni
Its pool flag is unset in 251332. It leaves the minion pool four weeks after 36.2.2 explicitly put it back — so it no longer has a reference page to link to.
Copper Coil
+3/+2+2/+2·The Greater version's Magnetize buff. Only the Lesser's pool removal is documented.
Blessing Portrait
02·A cost rise alongside its pool removal — moot in play, since you can no longer be offered it.
Every Battlegrounds trinket at its 36.4.2 cost, filterable by tribe, with per-trinket offering conditions.