Hey everyone!
Version 1.4.11 is now LIVE! A big thank you to everyone who helped test out the bug fixes in the PBE. Below are the patch notes for this version.
Version 1.4.11 Update Notes
- A card’s set name has now been moved to the bottom left of each card, using the previously unused space there. (Previously was in the bottom right, along with the set number).
- Infinite Border! You’ve known Gold, you’ve known Platinum, now we’re introducing a new type of border that can be around your cards: the Infinite border! The Infinite border is a pleasantly blue colored border that can only be gotten through competitive means, such as placing high on the draft or ranked leaderboards. All Infinite border cards are also soulbound, meaning if you see somebody with a sweet blue bordered card, you know they earned it the hard way.
- Cards that now have a special premium type (such as Gold Bordered, Platinum Bordered, Infinite Bordered, or Foil) now pass that onto any other cards they create. So if you have a sweet gold-foil Xi, all her spirits will be gold foils too!
Card Changes:
- Veroria, the Lone Keep now costs 15 health to activate, and checks cost on activation and resolution. Veroria’s effect was just a bit too good, easily preventing more than 10 damage each turn it was activated, and stalling a game out considerably. We decided to push Veroria’s cost up so that only decks that really wanted the effect would include it, and it wouldn’t be nearly as sustainable. Additionally, to maintain consistency, you cannot activate Veroria’s ability unless you actually have 15 health or more (since costs are checked upon activation), and also the ability will fail if you don’t have enough health upon resolution. This now prevents you from accidentally killing yourself with Veroria (unless you have exactly 15 health, then you actually will kill yourself), it also prevents combos with cards just as Jailan, the Guardian of Life. Also note that It also means you can’t use Veroria and a lifegain effect in the same turn to live if you’re below 15 health. While the latter changes are not intended to nerf the card, but are rather intended to maintain consistent code, this in effect nerfs Veroria further. Honestly though, we’re fine with that.
- Ferocity now costs 2. A strange buff for sure that nobody was really asking for except Ian, but this is one of his favourite card designs and it was so overcosted that nobody ever wanted to play it, so it was given a little love.
- Fortress Golem has been slightly reworked so that it doesn’t have bugs. Rather than triggering on the start of the turn, you can turn on the ability to attack or block with an activated ability. This means that the card now is activatable from command, and is a much more viable commander as a result.
- The “Infected” cycle (Infected Monk, Infected Devil, and Infected Purifier) has been slightly reworked to be a bit less powerful, and more consistent in how they interact with other cards, fixing several bugs these cards previously had. Each one now reads the same text “When [this] is killed, it transforms into an Undead Character and moves to the Support Zone instead.” Each card now moves to the support zone upon transforming, to prevent the blowouts that were previously quite common with these cards when blocking many small characters. Also, their transformed versions all have the same stats as their previous versions. Note that because they read “is killed”, sacrifice effects will not trigger their abilities.
- Princess Hinekri’s wording has been reworked slightly to prevent several unintuitive bugs. She now has Infect and takes control of anything that she kills, rather than just things she kills with her disease. Previously, the code for determining if the damage was coming from her disease or not was causing bugs where normal damage events wouldn’t fire (such as Martyr Golem). By making the effect Infect, it behaves in a much more consistent way.
- Hunted Dragon no longer has its hidden effect. You may or may not know that Hunted Dragon actually also gives the enemy a Hunt for the Dragon card if it starts the game in the Command Zone. Back in the day, this was done to balance the card when it was a commander. These days, our standard of quality and consistency has raised dramatically, and Hunted Dragon isn’t the metagame defining powerhouse it once was, so we’re removing the hidden ability. We’ll keep an eye on the power of this card and balance it if needed if it gets out of control.
- The Agent Coyle’s evolve effects have been changed to transform effects (which other card use). The evolve mechanic was very confusing, and the implementation has continually caused bugs to occur, so all instance of Evolve have been changed to Transform, and Evolve has been retired from the game. This has some effects on the game, notably that transform effects don’t keep their previous abilities and buffs. Some of the transform effects have been rebalanced as a result. In general, when transforming has a resource cost, we have rebalanced it so that it always costs 10 and transforms into a 25/25 dragon, so that transforming into a huge dragon is always a valid end-game action. Here are the complete changes:
- Primal Hunter: Now transforms into a 25/25 dragon, up from a 20/20.
- Assimilator: Transformation ability now costs 10, down from 11. Text updated to say he exhausts as well, which was always the case but upon review the text did not say so.
- Mechborn: Will no longer have the +4/+4 buffs from previously using his ability after transforming into a Dragon, and will not have the ability to buff himself for +4/+4 once a Dragon. This first ability of this card is being changed to give +4/+4 for 1 resource (down from 2) to make the card more competitive in general. The dragon form has been brought down to 25/25 however, too keep it in line with the others.
- Soulseller: Will now come into play as a 20/20 dragon now, rather than a 28/12 dragon, as he no longer keeps his stat changes. He also now transforms into a vanilla dragon, and not a Subjugated Dragon.
- Firestarter: No longer attacks three times when in Dragon form. Now that the Dragon form isn’t so ludicrously strong, the cost to use the ability has been lowered to 10 for a 25/25 dragon.
- Immovable: As a dragon, no longer has the ability to only cap damage. As a result, the ability has been rebalanced to cost 10, and create a 25/25 dragon.
- Zomborg: Now his final form transforms into a 20/20 Flying Unstoppable Dragon with no additional abilities.
- Hellbringer: Under the new rules, Hellbringer wouldn’t keep the buffs he gets from discarding the cards leading up to his ability, which would mean he’d actually get smaller in many cases if he transformed into a dragon. Instead of this lame design, his ability has been reworked. He now is a 14/14 for 7 cost with the ability “When you deploy Hellbringer, you discard a random card in your hand. Hellbringer gains power and health equal to that card’s cost. If you have no cards in your hand, he instead transforms into a 20/20 Flying, Unstoppable Demon Dragon instead.”
- Superior Symbiote: Changed to a 25/25 dragon for 10 cost.
- Ascended: No longer has his ability to remove characters from the game while in dragon form. Base cost of the card reduced to 6.
- Divinedemonic: No changes.
- Alpha One: Last ability has been replaced by “Pay 10, Exhaust: Transform into a 25/25 Flying, Unstoppable Dragon.” Every other Agent Coyle transforms into a dragon, but not this one? Not very alpha if you ask us.