Hearthstone's Reckless Experimenter is getting nerfed because of SN1P-SN4P

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It turns out that the two of them could be used to trigger an early-game infinite damage combo. Oops!

SN1P-SN4P

Hearthstone's Rise of the Mech event will, among other things, see the addition of an all-new neutral legendary mech named SN1P-SN4P, which I think we've all agreed we're going to call Snip-Snap because that's a just a whole lot simpler. But within minutes of the card being announce, players noticed a problem. Today, community manager Christ Attalus explained on Reddit, that Blizzard had missed the fact that Snip-Snap and the Priest card Reckless Experimenter could be put together in a way that created an early-game infinite damage combo. 

Simplistically, a combination of having any mech on board, then playing Reckless Experimenter, enabled you to attach infinite Snip-Snaps to the Mech. It was a setup that was easy to pull off early in the game, particularly as Snip-Snap can be tutored using Dead Ringer, for a way too powerful a payoff. 

Rather than messing with Snip-Snap, which is set to be the new hotness, Blizzard has elected to nerf Reckless Experimenter in the upcoming 14.4 patch so that the offending combo can't be pulled off. It's a fairly minor change, ensuring that the cost of Deathrattle minions cannot be reduced to 0, which seems reasonable: As one redditor put it, the nerf addresses the problem while keeping the card and the combo viable: "A 1 cost repeatable magnetic is still powerful but not infinite." 

Before and after—notice the addition of "Cost can't be reduced below 1."

Not everyone is taking it quite so well, however. Hearthstone pro and Priest die-hard Dawid "Zetalot" Skalski shared some choice words about the change on Twitter. 

"I don't see why Reckless should be the card that's punished here," he wrote in a followup. "They should have thought about that interaction before and if they didn't then they should change the unreleased card instead."

Can't make everyone happy, I guess, although I suppose it's not surprising that Priest players would be disappointed by the change. To be fair it is kind of funny ("funny") that Blizzard missed this when announcing Snip-Snap, while so many players picked up on it immediately. I suppose these things are bound to happen once in awhile.

Hearthstone's Rise of the Mech event begins on June 3.   

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.