Hello friends!
It's been quite the whirlwind since Oceania Storm hit a couple of weeks ago. While the verdict is still out on many cards and the meta is still fairly chaotic, certain cards and archetypes have certainly sailed above others. The good news is that the key features of the expansion - the new nation and weather - are seeing plenty of play, something that has not always been the case for new expansion mechanics. The bad news is that the new nation and weather are a bit overtuned and need some balance tweaks.
While Forecast is at the forefront of most top decks at the moment, we are seeing many different flavors of it. Anzac itself has 3 distinct strategies going for it, that oftentime overlap within decks - the aggressive strategy with Dingo and The Double Sunrise leading the charge; the ramp strategy with Nzans and The Anzac Spirit and finally Forecast, with Task Force 44 and Coastwatchers the main culprits. In addition, a lot of the other themes are seeing decent success, even if the fancy new weather obscures them a bit - the neutral theme centered around the new Blast, the return-from-deck strategy with posterboy Meteor and the German operation-matters theme with Blue Legion and 3. Panzergrenadier are all seeing play with solid performances all around.
Still, we need to calm the waters a bit, hence this small balance patch. With the short amount of time since the release, plus the meta overall still being in a flux, it makes no sense to go for a fully fledged patch aiming to address all the ills of the world. We fully expect to have to come back this fall to further adjust things once a clearer picture emerges, such as a fuller post-mortem on the weather system. But until then, we are weeding out the worst offenders at this moment to allow the expansion as a whole to shine a bit clearer. Overall, the main offender is the Storm portion of the weather system, which has a bit too much direct burn in it.
We are nerfing/adjusting 4 collectable cards, 4 of the weather effects and giving a couple of cards a little bit of spit and shine. Without further ado, let’s get to it.
Nerfs
AREA BOMBARDMENT
Various versions of British direct damage decks have been fairly popular since even before the expansion dropped. Some lean heavily on the Garrison/Cheshire package, some on German burn through Navy and/or countermeasures and others on Japan burn. With all these strategies, Area Bombardment has been a natural inclusion as 1 or 2 copies to increase the critical mass of big “burn” cards. While these strategies are not in need of sweeping nerfs, we do not want to promote them too hard, hence the slight nerf to this card.
YOKOSUKA E14Y
The Yokosuka is by far the card most in need of a balance adjustment from the expansion - if we were to only change one card in the patch, this would be the pick. 2-cost Japanese aircraft are few and far between, so it is a shame to have to drive its cost up, but it is the quickest and dirtiest way to address the problem. If we could postpone the patch to allow for more time to test things out, we might have found a 2-cost version that was ok by adjusting some of the other stats/abilities, but as things stand, we have to go for the sledgehammer rather than the scalpel approach this time.
THE DOUBLE SUNRISE
Old: Give a random friendly unit on the battlefield and in hand +2+2.
New: Give a random friendly unit on the battlefield and in hand +2+1.
The double whammy of Dingo turn 1 into The Double Sunrise turn 2 is quite tricky to deal with for many decks - those long enough in the tooth to remember pre-nerf Kholm, a 2/3 in the frontline early on is quite a different beast than a 2/2. Dingo, being the new dog on the block, now has to learn the new trick of surviving as a 2/2.
TASK FORCE 44
Old: Forecast. Deal 2 damage. Deal 3 damage instead if this card was left-most in hand.
New: Forecast. Deal 2 damage to a unit. Deal 3 damage instead if this card was left-most in hand.
Burn-focused weather strategies are the most successful ones out of the expansion, with Task Force 44 being a big reason here. In addition to providing a 2 or 3 points of burn itself, it then potentially adds a Storm burn on top. The nerfed version is now forced to hit units only, though its task of providing a weather card still remains. The card is still a force to be reckoned with in future Forecast decks, but has a big task to remain as potent as before.
MONSOON RAIN
Old: Randomly destroy and discard until both sides have equal units and equal cards in hand.
New: Each player removes their 2 most expensive cards in hand and/or on the battlefield.
Now we come to the four weather effects we are adjusting. Most of them are focused on the Storm part, as that is the one being most skewed at the moment, but we are raining on the parade of one of the Rain cards. This variant of Monsoon Rain is generally felt as quite toxic, though in reality its bark is much bigger than its bite. Despite this, it can be a bit too swingy at times, so we are changing it up a bit. It can still be quite obnoxious in some situations, but is no longer able to completely reset the game.
CYCLONE
Old: Deal 5 damage to target enemy and 2 damage to adjacent ones.
New: Deal 6 damage to target enemy unit and 2 damage to adjacent enemies.
This Cyclone variant turned out to be the go-to effect for most Forecast focused decks - a potentially repeated 5 burn damage to the face has twisted many pants the last couple of weeks. Same as with Task Force 44, we are removing its ability to hit face directly. It hits a bit harder, but enemy HQs now only have the fear the splash damage of 2, making the card a lot less potent as a direct burn card.
CYCLONE
Old: Each unit deals damage to itself equal to its attack.
New: All units Retreat.
This Cyclone variant has also been quite popular, acting as the evil step-brother of the popular burn variant covered above. It does not directly help in closing out games, but acts as an excellent way to keep the board clear to give you more time for future face-hitting. The new version can still act as a pretty decent crowd control, though not as back-breaking as before.
TROPICAL STORM
Old: Deal 3 damage to an enemy. Repeat twice on a random enemy with 1 less damage each time.
New: Deal 3 damage to an enemy. Repeat twice on a random enemy unit with 1 less damage each time.
If the last Cyclone variant is the evil-step brother of the big bad burn Cyclone, then this Tropical Storm variant is the impressionable little cousin trying to emulate its uncle’s antics. On an empty board, the old version can burn for 6 for a cost of 4, which is quite potent. The new version can still burn for 3, but the rest of the damage will always seek warm bodies to impact. This makes the card slightly better at crowd control, but as a pure burn card it is sailing in calmer waters now.
Buffs
DO OR DIE
Old: When a friendly unit is destroyed this turn, add a BLAST to your hand.
New: When a friendly unit is destroyed this turn, add a BLAST and PRODUCTION to your hand.
Do or Die asks you to jump through some hoops for questionable gain. With Production added to the mix, the potential gain is quite a bit more interesting. The hoop jumping is still required, meaning you may have to do a bit more dying than doing before the right deck is found for this to shine in.
INFANTRY REGIMENT 56
A potential Sissi tribal deck received some support with Oceania Storm, but so far the deck has struggled to get over the Finnish line. Part of it is that the deck is vulnerable to the climate of Oceania and may struggle while the weather runs rampant. In the meantime, a slight buff to one of the key cards of the Sissi deck adds a little bit of bite to it.
That is all for this small patch. It addresses the most severe balance issues post-expansion, though it is to be expected that further tweaks are required in the fall to really hammer out the quirks of the new meta. There is still a lot of experimentation and exploration to be done and players should now have more room to try out new things or further tune those already being developed. We hope you have fun doing so, keep giving us your excellent feedback and look out for the full patch notes for all the fixes coming in the patch on July 2nd. See you on the battlefield, commander!