Slave drivers are just used as bodies for ale. I'm sure they can be replaced with something else. Runestone's crap now, thankfully. It'll take some tweaking but I'm sure alchemy will stay good, especially with greatswords running rampant.
Seriously, what's with the SK love at CDPR? One of the best decks in the game receive no nerfs? And by best I mean broken. No one thought corsairs needed a nerf? It's a faction that spams stuff and then resurrects stuff. Do they really need corsairs with all the other revives? Can't wait for 6 months of Greatswords...