This is the last balance patch that they will do for the expansion Band of the Wolf. Let us take a look and see what things they have done. did they shake things up in a big way, as they did with the last patch? Let us find out!
Changes being made
Right off the bat, we can see that this patch only changes a handful of cards. Let us take a look at them:
Dralamar, Breaker of Crystals – Stats and Text changed
Change stats from 4/5 to 6/6
Change text from “After you play a spell, refresh mana equal to its mana cost.“ ”After you play your first spell each turn, refresh mana equal to its base mana cost.”
While the card is getting a buff, with regard to its stats. It is now a 6 mana 6/6. Wich is stats-wise much more in line with the cost. The ability is getting a nerf. Before this, the card saw very little play. Its main place was in combo decks like the infinite mana Aether bug deck. Where you summon one or two Aether buggs and then just copy the copy spell over and over until you ping your opponent to death.
The card also made an appearance in the deck that won the recent tournament by abusing a "feature" in the game where animations take to long to execute that the opponents turn times out and you win.
But with this nerf to that ability, things like that seem to be no more. It will be interesting tho to see if the card can find a place in a deck moving forward. Or perhaps some cards in the next expansion will work wonders together.
Shalefire Hatchling – Strength reduced
Reduce strength from 2 to 1
This was something I think almost everyone saw coming. The biggest surprise to me was that the card was left underfed the last balance patch. All in all, I think this is a good change. Having cheap cards that have a great upside to them as well, is a recipe for a bad dish.
Cutthroat Insight – Mana cost reduced
Reduce mana from 5 to 3
With this card being changed the last patch. I think it more or less got 100% removed from play. Simply because other cards did what this one did but were cheaper. So if this card is to make a comeback, this needed to be done. Or I should say, something needed to be done. But my gut feeling says that this card possibly has some more fine-tuning needed. So don't be surprised if it shows up further down the road.
Gama, Lord of Berries – Text changed
Change text from “Hidden for 1 turn. After a friendly Nether damages your opponent’s god, pull the top card of their deck to your hand.” ”Hidden for 1 turn. After a friendly Nether damages your opponent’s god, pull the top card of their void to your hand.”
This was also one of those "huh, they did not change that one?" moments last patch. Just like with Shalefire Hatchling. With them more or less removing the "steal a card" mechanism from the game's last patch. I was surprised to see them keeping it on this card. But maybe they wanted to see if having it on one card could be viable.
Personally, I think if you remove a mechanism as they did, then it should be removed from all cards, not just some. And thus I was hoping to see this show up here. Also, I know many people are upset over the whole change to a lot of Deception cards. But I for one would like to see what type of decks can show up with this new "take from the void" mechanism.
Bitter Endings – Text changed
Change text from “If your god has 15 health or less add a 6 or 7 mana legendary Death creature to your hand and set its cost to 0. if you do, at the end of your next turn take 15 damage.“ “If your god has 10 health or less, add a 6 or 7 mana legendary Death creature to your hand and set its cost to 0. if you do, at the end of your next turn take 15 damage.“
I don't think this will impact much. Sure the player now has to have 10 hit points left, instead of 15. But I can't really foresee that as a very big thing to overcome. It looks like you will still be able to execute the same combos. You might have to skip some of the more blunt ones, but I still think there is plenty of room to navigate for any experienced Death player to make your combo work still.
All in all, I have to say there were not any big surprises in this patch. Early on I have to say I was expecting that they might change back Wolf Recruits to the way the card initially was. Only buffing the two cards you draw. But then I realized that most Olympian War decks still lose to most aggro War decks. So why would you nerf an already inferior deck? It is probably easier to just keep future Olympians on par or slightly weaker to stop the deck from becoming dominant.
With this expansion now behind us, I have to say overall I think it was a really good expansion. Even if I think Eiko and Hortuck are way too "plug and play" or "auto-include" if you will. But I do see the need for those types of reactive cards. It is just a shame that they make few of them and allow them to do so much with only one card.
What I found most positive was the change to Deception and the stealing mechanism that got removed. I think in the long run that is something that is really good for the game. And it will allow a wider player base to enjoy the game. As a game designer and avid player of board- and card games. There are few things that upset gamers more than when another player directly messes with their stuff.
Hold your horses. Just as I was about to finalize this post yesterday. The good old jungle drum started banging away. As I am far too old and wise?, to ignore such a sign. I quickly started to look around. And what did I find? The Gods Unchained team lied! They almost instantly had broken their own promise and put out another balance patch. And why, well due to backlash from the community over the initial one. Let us take a look at these extra changes being made.
Wolf Recruits – Text changed
– Change text from “Draw a creature. If it’s another Olympian, draw another Olympian, and give +1/+1 to each Olympian in your hand.“ ”Draw a creature. If it’s an Olympian, draw another Olympian, and give +1/+1 to each.”
It was what I expected. The card is being reverted to the initial version where it only buffs the cards being pulled. It will most definitely slow down the current OLympian decks. Even if it does nothing to stop the normal Aggro War decks from being the dominant War decks. But it should mean a lot more wiggle room for future Olympian cards. And that is in my book a good thing.
Raneko Hearthmother – Health reduced
– Reduce health from 3 to 2
Not really something special. If a card has an ability that can be very powerful then usually it has por stats to compensate. And Raneko being made a 2/2 certainly fits that bill. And Light has a ton of ways to buff its creatures as it is. I would say this only means that you have to take more care when you play this card.
This patch also had a note from the team.
Note from the Team: Bryn here. We’ve seen a lot of backlash to the last balance patch so we’ve put this together quickly to address the top concerns of unchanged cards from our experienced players.
Dralamar will be reverted to it’s original state once the exploit has been fixed.
We understand that Gama has lost some power with it being realigned to the new Nether Voidsteal package, but we like the high skill potential of this better than the chance to randomly win the game off the top of your opponent’s deck. We’ve adopted a new philosophy around hand/deck interaction, namely that it needs to be behind severe conditions to clear in a game where you can only include a single copy of your key legendaries. While Void steal isn’t performing at the top right now, we also think there’s a lot of room for this archetype in the future.
Ok, Dralamar is going back to its original state once they fick the broken part that people could abuse. Well, that certainly puts the combo decks back on the table after a brief hiatus. And it seems the team echoes my sentiment regarding the new Void Steam mechanism. It is not the most powerful as it is, but it gives the designed team something to work with for future expansions. Again I am 100% behind this. That, I hope, is it for the last balance patch for the Band of the Wolf expansion.
What are your thoughts on the changes being made and on the overall state of the Band of the Wolf expansion now that it is finalized? Please share your thoughts, likes and dislikes, with me in the comment section.
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