Hello everyone! Thank you for bearing with us as we rapidly iterate on the game during Early Access. We know that frequent changes can be disruptive to players, so with this patch we are including a special gift. Through July you can use the promo code “squirrels” to receive 5 free card packs!
This patch largely focuses on buffs and improving fun factor and theme in some key areas. Our first area of focus is BIG PLAYS. We love how Vikings are able to deliver some truly nasty damage with Frostbite decks and Berserker, and we want every faction to have access to equally exciting plays that fit their own themes.
We are also removing BACKSTAB from the game, which may come as a surprise since backstab is typically a source of big exciting plays. While this is true, the way our board works makes it incredibly difficult to get behind opponents without also including the Evade keyword. Backstab is currently only available on 4 units, and 2 of those units already have strong identities which are somewhat confused by the presence of backstab. Many other units that LOOK like they should backstab do not, because it confused their design and purpose. With only Shiva left as the truly exciting Backstab payoff, we felt it was better to clean up this design space and let Shiva do something different.
Our second focus is specifically on Necromancers. We’ve noticed that new players often have way too many tombstones on the board, and not enough ways to spend those tombs. We also think they just don’t have enough ZOMBIES. With the tombstone simplification we’ve also somewhat lost the Necromancer theme of raising your enemy’s dead to fight against them, so we are bringing that back in a unique way while solidifying tombstones as a spending resource.
Druids are also having their legendary mechanics shuffled around a little bit to improve their thematic sense and intrigue. Players love the squirrels, and so we are bringing back a way to get lots of squirrels onto the battlefield.
Southport Slayer’s ability is getting formalized as the DEATHSTRIKE keyword. We felt it was problematic that Southport Slayer’s instant-kill mechanic was not visible on the board as an aura effect or icon, so DEATHSTRIKE will now use the previous Backstab icon as it’s very fitting.
Ninjas need some help in solidifying their role and usefulness of mechanics. While they have a few strong cards, they have way too many weak or situational ones, and the faction is overall not performing as well as we’d like. We’ll be taking some steps to try and bolster the faction’s gameplay.
Finally, we think the game’s curve and card draw is trending slightly too high overall, resulting in player hands that often feel too full to effectively manage. Our goal is to hit a sweet spot where players hover around 3-6 cards in their hand through most of the game. We are making some choice adjustments to the power of card generation and the overall game’s unit curve to achieve this.
PATCH NOTES
Matchmaking: players who are paired up in matchmaking may be dynamically assigned to existing lobbies instead of always creating a new lobby. This is designed to allow lobbies to last longer as persistent social spaces.
Evade has been renamed ELUSIVE.
Madness now only attacks friendly units.
The resurrection pool is no longer depleted by a resurrect.
Burst of Strength: Cost reduced to (5).
Brynjolf of Vaskrheim: Const increased to (6). Now has Chain Lightning in addition to his other abilities. HP reduced to 6. Collide damage is back to 3 (since chain lightning now deals implicit collision damage).
Maldran: Redesigned. Now costs (9). Guardian. When this takes damage, summon 3 Berserk Squirrels.
Knight of Flowers: Redesigned. Now costs (3). Your Sunflowers have +1/+1. Warcry: Add 2 Sunflowers to your hand. Stats 2/3.
Kage: Simplified and improved; no longer has backstab or evade. Cost reduced to (3).
Shaman: HP reduced to 3.
Shadow Katana: Cost reduced to (2).
Jonviev the Dawnsword: Redesigned. Now has Warcry: Resurrect 3 random units and give them Charge.
Valkyrie: Now only resurrects 2 units, but cost limit removed.
Ragnar the Thunder King: Effect now deals 3 damage and procs anytime a unit SURVIVES lightning damage (including spells). Stats changed to 2/6.
Final Flash: Redesigned. Now costs (8). Play 7 random spell cards from your deck on random targets.
Wyvern Rider: HP reduced to 4.
Northwood Bear: Attack increased to 4.
Trap Door Ninja: Removed backstab. Now 2/1 and the trap drawn costs (0).
Reanimate: Redesigned as a TRAP card. When a controllable enemy unit dies during their turn, resurrect it under your control.
Grave Knight: Redesigned. Now costs 8, and has b-Warcry-b: Raise a Zombie from up to 5 random Tombstones.
Beastmaster: Now costs (2) and only summons 1 beast.
Killer Monkey: Now a simple 1/1 with DEATHSTRIKE.
Cemetery: No longer removes units from your deck to make the tombs.
Dissipate: Now cost (3), and changed to: Return a unit, summoned building, or spell rune to its owner's hand.
Raise Dead: Now costs (3), and zombie count increased to 3.
Southport Slayer: Stats changed to 2/3.
Woeten: Attack increased to 9.
Berserker: Now has Berserk instead of Overwhelm. Stats changed to 1/3.
Barbarian: Now costs (4) and also has Berserk. Stats reduced to 4/3.
Killer Rabbit: Redesigned. Costs (4) and has Berserk, Evade, and Deathstrike.
Mooncaster: Cost reduced to (2).
Resurrection: Now resurrects a random unit within the cost restriction. Cost reduced to (2).
Shiva: Redesigned. Now has Warcry: Deal 10 damage split randomly among ALL other targets.
Genesis: Cost reduced to (6).
Shadow Drake: Cost reduced to (2), but Attack also reduced to 2.
Green Drake: Cost reduced to (2), stats changed to 2/2.
Stegosaurus: Armor increased to 3.
Angel of Mercy: Attack increased to 3.
Battojutsu: Now activates when an enemy attacks anything (not just units).
Sabotage: Simplified to just make the target card cost (10).
Dark Bargain: Now costs zero, deals 2 damage instead of Decay, and can only be cast on allies.
Fist of the Five Gods: Unit count reduced to 3, and cost reduced to (4).
Haunted Pumpkin: Changed to take 1 damage per turn, but stats increased to 3/5.
Hasan Legionnaire: Cost increased to (5), stats increased to 4/4.
Ronin: Cost reduced to (4), stats changed to 3/6, and no longer gains Overwhelm.
Wizard: Now costs (4), stats increased to 3/3.
Salahar Soldier: Stats reduced to 2/2.
Sacrificial Knife: No longer reduces the cost of the card drawn.
Wraiths: Cost increased to 4.
Frost Lich: Now costs (2), stats changed to 2/2.
Kunoichi: Now costs (2), stats changed to 3/3.
Shaman: Now costs (2), stats changed to 1/3.
Witch Doctor: Now costs (5).
Frost Giant: Now costs (4). Stats reduced to 2/7.
Pyromancer: Now costs (1). Stats reduced to 2/1.
Harpy: Now costs (1). No longer has Evade, stats reduced to 1/2.
Cleric: Now costs (2). Stats reduced to 1/2.
Lava Giant: Now costs (4). Stats reduced to 2/6
Salahar Voyager: Now costs (4), no longer has Overwhelm. Health reduced to 4.
Owlbear: Now costs (5). No longer has Overwhelm. Stats changed to 5/5.
Dwarven Miner: Now costs (2). Stats reduced to 1/2.
Strange Magician: Spell count reduced to 2. Stats increased to 3/2.
Dwarf Paladin: HP reduced to 3.
Triceratops: HP reduced to 5.
Centaur: Cost reduced to (2). Stats changed to 1/3.
Priest: Redesigned. 1/1 and Warcry: Give a random ally +2 Health.
Gorgon: Redesigned. Now gives a random enemy unit Inert for 1 turn.
Horseback Samurai: Stats increased to 5/5.
Dojo: Now costs (2), and gives +2 Attack 3 times.
Badger: Cost reduced to (4), stats reduced to 3/3.
Woeten: Redesigned. Can Replace a friendly unit. If it does, gain that unit’s Attack. 7/7 stats.
Ninja Training: Redesigned. Now costs (2). View 2 random units in your deck. Choose one to add to your hand.
Sensei: Now reduces a random unit’s cost by (1) instead of giving +1/+1.
Omae Wa Mou Shindieru: Cost reduced to (4).
Developer Notes:
Ragnar: We think that removing Ragnar’s synergy with Yaarhym Lightning might have been a mistake, as this relatively easy combo was popular with new players. By requiring the lightning target to survive for a proc, we cut off some abusable high level combos and guarantee that Ragnar’s lightnings will have targets to hit other than the enemy castle.
Brynjolf: Brynjolf with Chain Lightning made for a fun combo that was unfortunately lost when we restricted chain lightning application. We just gave him the ability for free, so you can have fun knocking things into lightning chains all day!
Jonviev: Resurrecting units without Charge lacked the punchiness we were looking for, so we are shifting to this much simpler overall design that should be overall less exploitable.
Final Flash: While this card’s previous design had a cool effect, it was extremely difficult to play and extremely difficult to balance. This new design should provide a huge burst of spell power for Warlock players of all skill levels, and could potentially have interesting deck building implications.
Berserker: We’re going to be more careful about combining Overwhelm with early game units from now on. Generally we are not liking how players are forced to zone and play defensive around the berserker, even when your overall unit pool is superior. Situations where players are heavily punished for smashing units together should be rare.
Killer Rabbit: This card is much funnier if it can kill enemies in 1 hit, a perfect candidate for the new Deathstrike keyword.