Callooh! Callay! Hearthstone slaying the Shudderwock

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Shudderwock, my son!
The Battlecries that echo, the animations that drag!
Beware the combo deck, and shun
The frumious Lifedrinker!"

And so it's no surprise that Blizzard last night detailed plans to tweak the Shudderwock, a mighty beast added in Hearthstone's new Witchwood expansion which is the focus of a combo deck able to win over one long, long, long turn.

The Shudderwock is a 9-cost 6/6 creature which has the Battlecry to "repeat all other Battlecries from cards you played this game (targets chosen randomly)." Less than a day after Witchwood launched, noted Hearthstone YouTuber "Disguised Toast" was using it in a combo deck which can eventually win the game in one single turn that takes several minutes as multiple Shudderwocks come into play and squillions of Battlecries pop off.

"We understand that the length of its Battlecry animation and other animations spawned from its Battlecry can be frustrating," Blizzard said last night.

"In a future update, we will be doubling the animation speed of Shudderwock's Battlecry so it will lessen the impact on the overall pacing of your current Hearthstone match. In addition, the amount of Battlecries Shudderwock can reproduce will be capped at 20."

Blizzard also plan to speed up the animation for Lifedrinker, a critter used in Shudderwock decks, for the same reason.

One, two! One, two! And through and through, the vorpal patch will go snicker-snack in a future update.