Ranked
The ranked metagame is currently in a pretty good place, but we are making a few changes to improve balance and to diversify some of the play patterns and card choices among the top decks. Into Shadow has (appropriately) given Shadow decks more options and a bigger metagame share, but Time decks are a little overrepresented and we'd like greater variety within decks, particularly at the top end.
- Auralian Merchant - Now 0/4 (was 1/4). The Market mechanic has been a big success, and we're happy to have all five see a lot of play. Auralian Merchant, however, has been ahead of the rest, and taking away its strength should help promote a better spread among Markets, while preserving Auralian Merchant's primary play pattern.
- Channel the Tempest - Now 9PPPP (was 8PPPP). Channel the Tempest has been a key player in countless control decks seeking to grind the game out with basically nothing but card draw and removal. Most recently, it’s been a major player in the rise of Temporal Distortion Control. We want to make sure there is a range of strategies possible and control has been quite strong for a while now. Players have made this latest generation of control decks stronger and stronger over the past few months, and both its popularity and win percentage have climbed higher and higher. While the nerf to Auralian Merchant will help take some of the power out of Temporal Distortion decks, the Merchant's popularity was so great that her nerf will impact countless other strategies as well. We knew we wanted to take larger action, while also increasing the variety in ways the games could eventually go. This change to Channel the Tempest aims to increase the diversity of endgames among control decks, while preserving the card's functionality.
- Icaria, the Liberator - Now 8FFFJJJ (was 7FFFJJJ). Speaking of lategame victory conditions, Icaria, the Liberator has long been one of the game's most iconic. While the card is truly sweet and leads to a lot of really exciting games, she’s also been incredibly dominant for basically the entire history of Eternal, forcing out many other options. This change aims to preserve her design, while pulling back a little on just how quickly she can warp the game around her.
- Predatory Carnosaur - Now 7TTT for a 7/7 (was 6TTT for a 6/6). Predatory Carnosaur has been a distorting influence on what kinds of midrange units get played, but has always gotten a pass because of how effective it is at helping keep Icaria held back a little. With Icaria slowing down, we wanted to slow Predatory Carnosaur down a little, too. However, the Carnosaur hasn't been as single-handedly dominant as Icaria, so we gave it an extra +1/+1, which should have a meaningful impact on the sorts of fights the Carnosaur finds itself in.
Draft
We've been quite happy with how well Fall of Argenport draft has been received and the way the format has gone. However, with enough months of the format under our belts and an increased significance placed on competitive draft as a road to qualify for the World Championships, we wanted to shake things up in a meaningful way and highlight some of the other aspects of the format that would be fun to explore.
The following suite of twenty-four changes to Fall of Argenport commons and uncommons is fairly extensive, but we knew we'd have to change a lot to truly take the format into new waters. Of course, a number of these changes are likely to also have ranked implications, further increasing new avenues to explore there.
Buffs:
- Gravemarker Oni - Now 4F (instead of 5F)
- Rusty Grenamotive - Now 2/4 (instead of 1/4)
- Warpainter - Now 1/4 (instead of 0/4)
- Mistress of Light - Now 5TT (instead of 6TT)
- Spiteful Lumen - Now 3T (instead of 4T)
- Wurmic Chanter - Now also has Deadly
- Cliffside Caretaker - Now 5P (instead of 6P)
- Entangling Vines - Now 2P (instead of 3P)
- Afterimage - Now 2S (instead of 3S)
- Feral Spiteling - Now 1S (instead of 2S)
- Lock Horns - Now 1S (instead of 2S)
Side Buffs:
- Flamefang Charmer - Now 2FF 2/2 (instead of 3FF 2/3)
- Living Example - Now 2TT 2/2 (instead of 2T 2/1)
- Master-At-Arms - Now 2JJ (instead of 3J)
- Snowfort Trumpeter - Now 2PP +2/+2 (instead of 2P +1/+1)
- Betray the Cause - Now 4SSS (instead of 5SS)
- Lethrai Target Caller - Now 2SS 3/2 (instead of 2S 2/2)
Nerfs:
- Pensive Lumen - Now 5/3 (instead of 5/4)
- Stinging Wind - Now 3/3 (instead of 3/4)
- Vital Arcana - Now gains 2 health (instead of 4)
- Graceful Calligrapher - Now 2/4 (instead of 3/4)
- Miner's Canary - Now 3J (instead of 2J)
- Rampart Arbalest - Now 1/5 (instead of 1/6)
- Speardiver - Now 6P (instead of 5P)
(Note: Nerfed cards that were crafted -- not opened from packs -- can be refunded for full shifstone value until 10/25.)
We’re excited to see how the Ranked and Draft metagames continue to evolve on the road to the first Eternal World Championship Qualifier!