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Hearthstone Update 13.0.3 removes Mind Control Tech from Arena

It's been a very busy 24 hours for Hearthstone and the latest round of changes removes Mind Control Tech from the game's Arena mode.

Ozzie Mejia

December 19, 2018 3:05 PM

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This has been a very busy 24 hours for Heathstone. Blizzard's digital card game has been getting some eye-opening overhauls over the past couple of hours, with a handful of Standard/Wild staples getting the nerf bat. But if Arena players think they're not getting any changes, they've got another thing coming. Blizzard has issued a handful of major changes to the Arena game, as well.

The biggest change for Arena is that Mind Control Tech is going away for good. For the casual reader, Mind Control Tech is the minion that takes control of a random enemy minion if the opponent has four or more minions present. Mind Control Tech has been a heavy presence in the Arena game, where decks with high minion numbers are favored. Blizzard has cited the overuse of MCT as a counter to minion-heavy decks, noting that it has led to a negative Arena experience.

Other changes include a 50 percent boost in cards from Rastakhan's Rumble showing up in drafts. Meanwhile, a handful of cards that were previously banned from Arena are now making a comeback. These include:

• Savagery (Druid)
• Soul of the Forest (Druid)
• Mark of Nature (Druid)
• Starving Buzzard (Hunter)
• Timber Wolf (Hunter)
• Snipe (Hunter)
• Mind Blast (Priest)
• Lightwell (Priest)
• Inner Fire (Priest)
• Dust Devil (Shaman)
• Totemic Might (Shaman)
• Ancestral Healing (Shaman)
• Windspeaker (Shaman)
• Sacrificial Pact (Warlock)
• Sense Demons (Warlock)
• Succubus (Warlock)
• Warsong Commander (Warrior)
• Charge (Warrior)
• Rampage (Warrior)

Meanwhile, Hero Cards, Quests, and Odd/Even synergy cards will remain off the Arena table. More details on these changes, including the full list of cards that remain restricted, can be found on the Hearthstone website. For more information on the changes to the constructed side of the game, be sure to read up on our news post from last night, along with our full analysis of what those changes mean for Hearthstone going forward.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?