Preview of Balance Changes for 3.15

[Gondorian]

Hi, everyone!

Thanks for all the feedback you've posted on 3.14 and all the games you've played against each other. Clearly a couple of cards were skewing the meta due to over-popularity (Sosilo and Sabreen), so we've addressed those and made a few other surgical tweaks, but we've resisted any further changes because quite a lot was already changed in 3.14 that maybe didn't get the playing attention it deserved due to the aforementioned skew.

Since we've only got a few here, I'm going to break with tradition a bit and list in order of importance this time around.


Sosilo: Brothers' Landing
- Controller ability changed to "When an ability or location is discarded from your hand, draw a card. 0SE: Target ability or location in your hand is discarded." (from "At the end of each of your turns, draw 2 cards for each ability or location discarded from your hand that turn.").
- Non-controller ability changed to "0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Draw a card." (from "1SE: If an opposing ally was killed this turn, this location's controller discards a card from their hand at random.").

Sabreen, Hand of Unaxio - Health reduced to 3HP (from 4HP)

Lakmire: Training Outpost - Non-controller ability changed to "1SE: Target opposing Wulven ally has -2 attack and loses all passive abilities until the start of your next turn." (from "1SE: Target opposing Wulven ally loses all passive abilities until the start of your next turn.").


Unaxio Bannerman - Ability changed to "While an ability has been discarded from your hand this turn, friendly Templar allies have +1 attack. 1: Target ability in your hand is discarded: Target friendly Templar ally gains haste." (from "While an ability has been discarded from your hand this turn, other friendly Templar allies have +1 attack. 0: Target ability in your hand is discarded: Target friendly Templar ally gains haste.").

General of Unaxio - Cost increased to 6cc (from 5cc). Health increased to 7HP (from 6HP). Ability changed to "While you control a Templar ally, General of Unaxio costs 1 less resource to summon. When General of Unaxio is summoned, you may seek an attachment." (from "When General of Unaxio is summoned, you may seek an attachment. When an ability is discarded from your hand, it is moved from your graveyard to the bottom of your deck.").


Racksul: Warped Desert - Non-controller ability changed to "1SE: Draw a card from each opposing player's deck. Take control of this location." (from "2SE: Draw a card from each player's deck.").

Towering Brute - Ability changed to "Towering Brute has +2 attack while damaged. Opposing allies have -2 attack the turn they are summoned." (from "Towering Brute has +2 attack while damaged. Opposing allies with cost 3 or less have -2 attack the turn they are summoned.").

Twilight Orphic - Ability changed to "When Twilight Orphic enters play, all other friendly Twilight allies gain +1 health. When Twilight Orphic is killed, all opposing allies are reduced by 1 health.
" (from "When Twilight Orphic is summoned, all other friendly Twilight allies gain +1 health. When Twilight Orphic is killed, all opposing allies are reduced by 1 health.").


As always, your thoughts on these are very welcome before they hit.

UPDATE: These went into 3.15 as-is.

[Gondorian]

(Reserved in case anything needs clarifying.)

[itachiuchiha]

Wow Sabreen too
RIP Great Sabreen
One Card which makes ur chance of wining against zal and shadow guys is going to nerf
Thanx for ur all the time to show us how powerful human decks are but now its time to go and sleep for forever bc u not honna use anynore in decks
Really Guys this is like Killing The all human decks

[Nik]

Sosilo: Brothers' Landing
Great balance, as it is now just a cantrip for discarding but inmediate so you don´t get out of fuel so easily, and the non-controller ability is non-aggresive making the discard mechanic still viable.

Sabreen, Hand of Unaxio
Just what it was needed, she will still see much play but not just in every deck but the ones that really get use of her.

General of Unaxio
The same purpose as of Sabreen, make him useful in the decks he is meant to and not just in every deck with attachments. The passive ability he lost is something discard decks really need (or they get out of fuel very fast if they don´t play rush), but it should meant to be given by another card, maybe something more permanent on board like an attachment.

Racksul: Warped Desert
Gets better as you decide when the opponent takes advantage from it (as he loses the non-controller ability once he activates it) making it more practical for exiling deck as they usually can´t exile cards every turn; it also seems more interactive with the opponent. Cards like Dimension Ripper or this one are always fun to play.

Twilight Orphic
A pending change, now it fits perfectly with Avatar of Twilight and Ghostmaker. Does it also work with Twilight Eidolon when killed?

[Demnchi]

Guess I'll do the usual first impression of the changes. (a.k.a. knee-jerk reactions :P)

Sosilo: Brothers' Landing
- Controller ability changed to "When an ability or location is discarded from your hand, draw a card. 0SE: Target ability or location in your hand is discarded." (from "At the end of each of your turns, draw 2 cards for each ability or location discarded from your hand that turn.").
- Non-controller ability changed to "0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Draw a card." (from "1SE: If an opposing ally was killed this turn, this location's controller discards a card from their hand at random.").

So now it replaces the cards you discard instead of giving straight up card advantage. Unlike most people I'm pretty okay with that change. It changes discard from a stright negative to something that can be a positive. You just can't use it to fill up your hand anymore. Although, players can still cycle through their deck with cards like Glimmer of Hope and any of the still powerful discard effects the Templars have. The NC is kinda boring, but at least its simple and allows some cycling for your opponent.

Sabreen, Hand of Unaxio - Health reduced to 3HP (from 4HP)

Huh..... not really the kind of change I would have expected. I'm pretty okay with it though, as I'll mention later.

Lakmire: Training Outpost - Non-controller ability changed to "1SE: Target opposing Wulven ally has -2 attack and loses all passive abilities until the start of your next turn." (from "1SE: Target opposing Wulven ally loses all passive abilities until the start of your next turn.").

Works for me if it was to strong.

Unaxio Bannerman - Ability changed to "While an ability has been discarded from your hand this turn, friendly Templar allies have +1 attack. 1: Target ability in your hand is discarded: Target friendly Templar ally gains haste." (from "While an ability has been discarded from your hand this turn, other friendly Templar allies have +1 attack. 0: Target ability in your hand is discarded: Target friendly Templar ally gains haste.").

Can now buff himself but it now costs a resource. Makes it harder to haste in Sabreen AND use her ability.

General of Unaxio - Cost increased to 6cc (from 5cc). Health increased to 7HP (from 6HP). Ability changed to "While you control a Templar ally, General of Unaxio costs 1 less resource to summon. When General of Unaxio is summoned, you may seek an attachment." (from "When General of Unaxio is summoned, you may seek an attachment. When an ability is discarded from your hand, it is moved from your graveyard to the bottom of your deck.").

Interesting change I guess. Hopefully we see his old secondary somewhere else down the line. The increased cost makes him harder to use outside of Templar decks (and cast on his own) but I'd wager he's still a worthwhile ally to use regardless.

Racksul: Warped Desert - Non-controller ability changed to "1SE: Draw a card from each opposing player's deck. Take control of this location." (from "2SE: Draw a card from each player's deck.").

Well, I'm willing to give it a shot now. Seems like it could produce some really crazy matches.

Towering Brute - Ability changed to "Towering Brute has +2 attack while damaged. Opposing allies have -2 attack the turn they are summoned." (from "Towering Brute has +2 attack while damaged. Opposing allies with cost 3 or less have -2 attack the turn they are summoned.").

I used this guy a lot the other day and I was actually pretty surprised at how well he shut down many of the hasted allies. Now he does it even better?

Twilight Orphic - Ability changed to "When Twilight Orphic enters play, all other friendly Twilight allies gain +1 health. When Twilight Orphic is killed, all opposing allies are reduced by 1 health.
" (from "When Twilight Orphic is summoned, all other friendly Twilight allies gain +1 health. When Twilight Orphic is killed, all opposing allies are reduced by 1 health.").

Still haven't used much Twilight but when I did I couldn't make room for this one. Now that it buffs health of the ones I bring back with Avatar it may be worth including a copy or two.

As always, your thoughts on these are very welcome before they hit.

Seems like good changes to me. Maybe there were too many hits on Templars but I guess time will tell. At the very least, I'm glad Sosilo doesn't seem as ridiculous, but still playable, albeit with some different cards than before.

[AmberFade]

I like the changes for the most part. Except this one.

Sosilo: Brothers' Landing
- Controller ability changed to "When an ability or location is discarded from your hand, draw a card. 0SE: Target ability or location in your hand is discarded." (from "At the end of each of your turns, draw 2 cards for each ability or location discarded from your hand that turn.").
- Non-controller ability changed to "0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Draw a card." (from "1SE: If an opposing ally was killed this turn, this location's controller discards a card from their hand at random.").

While im glad this card got toned down a bit, in my opinion it is still awfull game design and should not exist in the first place. The big downside of the Templar rush has always been that you had to sacrifice cards and had to compensate with strong draw. You had to balance it so you would not run out of cards while pumping up your allies. Sosilo completely throws this disadvantage that used to balance Templar rush out of the window and refills the hand FOR FREE. It doesnt even cost any ressources or SE. This design gifts Templar rush decks hasted allies, disables and fatties basically at no cost, what makes them overwhelming actually harms the diversity of competitive decks, since slower decks get completely squashed before they can even get going (hi sosilo Ythan).

With this nerf the refill loop of sosilo decks got a bit more tricky, sure. But the core issue is still that this location rewards them for what is supposed to be a tradeoff for power and abilities. To make an analogy its the same as releasing a location that ressurects all killed twillights for free after each round, the design is completely broken.

In my opinion this card wont ever be balanced unless it comes with an actuall cost like SE.

[Dvsklown]

Sosilo: Brothers' Landing
- Controller ability changed to "When an ability or location is discarded from your hand, draw a card. 0SE: Target ability or location in your hand is discarded."

This is still very strong, might be faster than before, instant card replacement, before you needed a couple turns with sosilo out to get things really rolling. Ythan players know that having the right mix of cards goes a long way, Mages are going to eat this up. So with sosilo in play and you play glimmer, you draw 3, discard 2, if those 2 are abilities or locations you draw 2 cards. Seems like a super fast way to dig for burn spells and finding just the right combo.

Sabreen, this is good, still powerful, 4 was just too much. Krygon needed to be able to kill her.

General got a health boost? I thought the issue was with seek and his huge body, now he still seeks but is 1 health stronger?

Racksul-with both people having access it should go back to first exiled card is placed into your hand. Not just opponents. When I tried racksul I found out how rarely I wanted to use their cards. But a step in the right direction.

Towering brute- nice!

******Rankett-with many homuncus being popular. I've often seen this location working against its original player. Could use some love.

[Shadows R Us]

Very interesting changes. I'll withhold judgment for now. I can't wait to try them out.

[Rajawali]

Sosilo change might be OP for mage or Raikka, now they could use it to dig more burn cards. You guys should test this out before it goes live.

[BP LORD WANE]

I like the changes, but i ll mention 4 in special and give my coments on it:

1:

Sosilo: Brothers' Landing
- Controller ability changed to "When an ability or location is discarded from your hand, draw a card. 0SE: Target ability or location in your hand is discarded." (from "At the end of each of your turns, draw 2 cards for each ability or location discarded from your hand that turn.").
- Non-controller ability changed to "0SE: Target card in your hand is discarded: Draw a card." (from "1SE: If an opposing ally was killed this turn, this location's controller discards a card from their hand at random.").

PERFECT CHANGE! Still a good land, but not absurd as it was.

2:

Racksul: Warped Desert - Non-controller ability changed to "1SE: Draw a card from each opposing player's deck. Take control of this location." (from "2SE: Draw a card from each player's deck.").

DONT LIKED: I still think it will be more usefull with CONTROLER SKILL remade. As it was for example.

3:

General of Unaxio - Cost increased to 6cc (from 5cc). Health increased to 7HP (from 6HP). Ability changed to "While you control a Templar ally, General of Unaxio costs 1 less resource to summon. When General of Unaxio is summoned, you may seek an attachment." (from "When General of Unaxio is summoned, you may seek an attachment. When an ability is discarded from your hand, it is moved from your graveyard to the bottom of your deck.").

I REALLY LIKE THIS ONE. When i saw general in change list i was scared, but after read, i really liked. Congratz.

4:

Sabreen, Hand of Unaxio - Health reduced to 3HP (from 4HP)

TOTALY NON-SENSE!. Why again nerf sabreen????? The first nerf was ok, but this second one is riduculous! Plz, dont do it! You will kill another card again! Leave she as she is......


To me, if you stop to look a lot for cards, CREATE CARDS to counter it. And for PLAYERS that are ALWAYS CRY for some OP cards, PLZ, STOP TO ASK NERFS, NERFS and NERFS, is because of YOUUUUUUUUUUUU this game is on a ETERNAL NERF compared with others games, and because of YOUUUUUUUUU, more and more players are totaly unhappy with this game and one day soon (i hope not, but i think will be) this game will die, CONGRATULATIONS!