Late yesterday, my time, the first balance patch for the new expansion Tides of Fate arrived. Let us dive in and see if they have managed to strike that delicate balance between buffing and nerfing.
What has changed?
I will just simply dive in head first into the changes prevented. And if you want to look them over in their original form there is a link to the post down below. But first some fixes.
Bundle Changes
Fixed Azaiah, Hands of the Spire's triggering when the deck is empty.
Fixed Storm Shroud permanently preventing god from being targeted after a reconnect.
Fixed Gemfused Strike allowing Aegis of the Innocent to heal between damage.
Fixed Aegis of the Innocent healing the creature damaged and obliterated by An End To War.
Partial fix for Blade of the Creator occasionally causing desync, notably with Recovering Sigil.
Build Changes
Added new God Art Portraits.
Added additional time to your turn when performing an aim. (4 seconds, per aim)
Added ability for gamemodes to obscure player names. (Sealed)
Fixed bug where if you disconnect while performing an aim, you could not reconnect.
Fixed visual bug where a card is shuffled into your deck if you overdraw at the start of the turn.
Fixed gods not being displayed in the combat log when attacked
It looks like they have addressed some of the bugs that have arisen with interactions stemming from the new cards. I am however not sure if that is all of them or not. But because I am all about positivity, I am sure that is all of them. =)
Also, some new gods' portraits in the game, Not really sure who they are supposed to depict tho, the god?s Champion or the god themself? But they look good either way. Also, it looks like a first step to try and address the "deck looking" in sealed mode. Which is a good thing. Not sure if it truly helps tho. I think the info that gets looked at might still be there. But this is not my wheelhouse so I guess I have to wait and see.
Now we are finally getting to the changes that are made to the cards. First of tho, the "old" cards Toast to Peace and Trapdoor are getting new wording. Creatures are now returned to their owner's hand instead of pulled from the board. Semantic by the looks of it, but it?s a good change that makes things easier and clearer to understand. I will try to format the changes like this, card name, what got changed and my thoughts in . But now to the new cards;
Scale Dance
Increase manasurge from 6 to 7
I don't think that this will have that big of an impact. I think the real problem is the sheer amount of damage or removal the card is capable of is the problem.
Claw and Fang
Change text from “Leech. Deal 2 damage. Manasurge 5: Repeat.“ to “Leech. Deal 2 damage. Manasurge 6: Deal 1 damage.”
Sure the second burst of damage is now harder to get to, and it no longer has leach to it. But the first 2 damage still do. And the mana cost is still 1. I think this card is an outlier in the set. As it is just a good card no matter if it is manasurged or not. This change does not really address that issue. I would rather have seen a change along the lines of 2 mana, do 2 damage to a target. Manarurge 4/5 do 2 damage to the same target again. Something like that. As it is now it is more or less a better version of Vanguard Axewoman, but it is only War that got the upgrade. Everyone else still only has the old card.
Tarken, Depths Caller
Reduce mana cost from 7 to 6
A card not used gets a reduced mana cost, my fingers are crossed this now opens up some new doors, I for one am excited to give it a spin.
Azaiah, Hands of the Spire
Fixed bug triggering when the deck is empty.
Meh, just a bug fix, still a meme card at this point by the looks of things.
Swallow Whole
Change text from “Destroy the weakest enemy creature. Give its strength and health to a random creature in hand. Manasurge 10: Repeat twice.“ to ”Destroy the weakest enemy creature. If you do, give its strength and health to a random creature in hand. Manasurge 10: Repeat three times.”
I don't think this really helps, I can't say I ever saw this card as a "board clear" but more of a single threat removal as the repeat lets you get around ward. But it is clear that the designer does not share my line of thinking here. But with a base cost of 7 and a manasurge of 10! I can't say I think the card will get much use as is, other than maybe a nature control deck. I think the card is way to hard to manasurge and expensive for what it does. At that cost, you better wipe the whole board because that is close to everything you are doing for that turn.
Nature players, it literally sucks to be you <3
Replicator Gamma
Change stats from 2/2 to 1/1
This change I see as more or less meaning nothing for this card. This is a stats nerf to the afterlife of the Replicator Beta that is summoned by the afterlife of the Replicator Alfa. Replicator Alfa is still one of the most stats-loaded cards in the game. And with the Afterlife spawning another creature with afterlife spawn a creature. It is the only card I know of that survives Apocalypse Now. And in case you are wondering about the total stats for the card they are 12/12 + 9/9 + 3/3, before the nerf were 6/6 in the last three afterlife. So the total stats have dropped from a staggering 27/27 to a measly 24/24. More or less making the card trash true after the nerf, not. I think the problem with the card is that it does two things, and both extremely well. The first is it is a ton of stats to deal with. The second is it is very sticky to the board, most likely allowing the player to summon Project RISE on the next turn. If they have it in hand that is. They could just as easily made the card 2/4 + 1/3 + 1/1 and it would most likely still be played and used because of the stickiness. Not saying those stats are what the card should have, just making a point.
Drag Down
Reduce manasurge cost from 8 to 6
Makes perfect sense to do this for the card. It is a card meant to be used as a board clear. And there is little to no point in having a board clear that you only can use after you are already dead. Also looks like this is the biggest correction any card has received in this patch, that has an actual impact on the card.
Scavenger Impling
Change text from “At the end of your turn pull the top card of your opponent’s void to your hand.“ to “Manasurge 5: Pull the top two cards from your opponent’s void to your hand.”
This card was very good if you were able to make it stick to the board. Just giving you cards for free every turn. And with the ability to just keep it hidden for deception as well, it makes sense to limit the card.
Primal Tide
Reduce mana cost from 1 to 0
This is the new hero power the nature player gets after playing Xansiddion. And with the limiting factor is that it only buffs your wild creatures based on the number of cards you have played. This change makes sense as well. Especially as the war hero power just is smack something for 4 damage. Bringing back war's old hero power but on steroids.
Scorchblade
Change text from “Roar: Add a Draconite Shard to your hand.“ to “Roar: If you are holding a Dragon add a Draconite Shard to your hand.”
Adds a little bit of a requirement for the card. Preventing people from just sticking it in any war deck. So a good change in my book.
Draka Scout
Change text from “At the end of your turn add a Draconite Shard to your hand.“ to “Roar: Add a Draconite Shard to your hand.”
Also makes sense to not have a card have infinite value unconditionally like this.
Salvator, Ceaseless Impact
Increase manasurge cost to 7. Decrease health from 7 to 5
These changes do nothing to the card. This is still a great plug-and-play card that will fit in almost every war deck. Two less health just makes it slightly easier to remove. But most likely you are still going to get some heal from the card. And the effect of your opponent discarding two spells is still as great as it ever was. The increase from 6 to 7 in manasurge does virtually nothing. Changes like these I would argue is done when you are fine-tuning a card. And this tells me GU thinks this card is more or less perfect as it is now. Maybe a small change to stats here or there in the coming patch. But again, I don't see that as having any impact on the card's viability.
The un-nerfed Salvator, still a great plug-and-play card, nerf or no nerf
Foresight Thesis
Change text from “Foresee 3. Draw any Atlanteans you foresee. Foresee 3 again.” to “Draw any Atlanteans in the top 3 cards of your deck. Foresee 2.”
This puts the card into line more with the deck I would argue. As before the change it did two things excellent. It lets you stack the deck and then draw cards and stack the deck again. Now it lets you draw cards if you have stacked the deck, or know there is a creature on top. And then it lets you stack the deck. Good change in my book.
Enduring Archive
Reduce health from 4 to 3
This card will more or less always have protected. And because of that it does not really "need" much health. I would not be surprised to see it getting reduced even further to a 4/2 before being locked in. It is still a good card in an Atlantean deck.
Eiko’s Expedition
Increase manasurge cost to 7
Apparently, this card was too powerful or good. Can't really say anything about that. I think it will not really impact the use of the card, as I think it still will be used where it was used before.
Blackfire Fledgeling
Change stats from 5/2 to 3/2. Change mana cost from 5 to 3
I would argue this is not as much a nerf or a buff as it basically is a rework of the card. The card does keep its afterlife of doing 3 damage to the opponent as well as their weakest creature. I actually think this change will be a boost for death players as this will make it more of a help in the early game. Making it a good change in my book.
My thoughts on the first balance patch
Over all, I share the general sentiment that War, again, was the god that benefitted the most from this expansion. And this did not really address any of those concerns. While a few cards got slight nerfs or tweaks, it felt more or less like GU was trying to do as little as possible to appease the player base. And I think this is apparently by the fact that the Draconite Shard was completely left as it is, in all its power and glory. The only thing they have done is slightly limit the ability of a war player to generate them. But they still have one generator left untuck by this patch, the Draka Gatherer.
War still has many good cards, and in fairness, even the cards that got changed or nerfed in this patch will have little to no impact on war?s dominance in GU. Like Retaliation, a 5 or 3 mana removal. Not like war had removal before so it was a good addition. Oh wait, control war was, and has been for quiet some time, one of the strongest decks before this patch. So yea, more good removals for war were definitely needed on top of what is looking like the best deck to come out from the set so far in dragon war.
I also have to say I am quite baffled by the complete lack of changes to light cards as well as deception, more or less, one spell got tweaked. And nature just getting some minor adjustments to a few cards. Still leaving nature players praying at the altar of RNGesus.
I have to say that while there were some changes made that I think were good, Drag Down, Scorchblade, and Blackfire Fledgeling come to mind. The overall impression of the "balance" they are trying to achieve here is very overwhelming, to say the least. It is like checking your weight on a scale, going for a poop, checking your weight again expecting to see a major improvement.
How much more do I need to poop to loos 20 pounds?
I also expect there to fairly shortly be another "balance" patch rolled out. Because I can not say I think that this patch will change much in the larger scope of things for the GU community. But I would love to hear what your thoughts are on the changes made in this patch, is there one or more changes you think hit the sweet spot? Or is there perhaps a change you do not agree with? Please let me know in the comment section, I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on this.
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