We just had a really solid patch drop! I'm going to give my thoughts, but you can read the full thing here:
https://blog.godsunchained.com/2022/09/08/balance-update-september/
Change stats from 3/3 to ⅗
Underutilized MJ leggy boost incoming!
I mean, how much more needs to be said than:
This card is huge value. The downside (like a few other MJ amazon cards) is that it's not exactly amazon and not exactly wild but a little of both. This means wildfire isn't ideal and neither is Arkmonian. However, Moonlight Charm and Sudden Bloom don't care what you are. They'll buff anyone.
Regen happens at the end of the turn, so if one of your creatures regenerates, Dalia will spit out a 1/1 sprout. The regen phase is over, so the sprout won't regen (and Dalia doesn't spit out another). But if you heal a creature before the end of your turn with the god power or with Dryad on board, then the sprout should regen generating another sprout.
And of course the echo. Any sprouts they can't clear will generate another sprout the next turn when you play the 1 mana 1/1.
Change text from “Roar: If any of the creatures in your void have blitz, protected, twin strike or ward, this creature gains those.“
to “Roar: If any of the creatures in your void have blitz, leech, protected, twin strike, or ward, this creature gains those.“
Remember how poor Hector fell out of the meta with Core Set Refresh? Well, this is a semi-reversion.
Getting leech back. He's definitely back in the game. It's almost impossible for Hector to not have blitz and protected in a creature-based war deck. Nokvi pillager may find her way back into decks now to give Hector the other two effects:
Change text from “Give +2 strength to your relic.
Empower 3: Then, double the strength of your relic.“
to ”Give +2 strength to your relic.
Empower 3: Double the strength of your relic instead.”
Definitely a change in the right direction. I'm a touch uncomfortable leaving the "doubling" effect in there. You never know what problems this could lead to in the future. It limits design in my opinion. For example: what if you wanted to print some 3-mana weapon with really high strength compensated with some nasty downside? You most likely can't because of this card. Either that or the card has to say something like "strength can't be buffed."
With that said, some kind of (as yet unexplained) set rotation in the future may solve the problem on it's own. All in all, a good change.
Change text from “Pull a creature from your void to your hand and give it +2/+2.
Empower 3: Pull another creature from your void to your hand, and give it +2/+2.“
to ”Pull a creature from your void to your hand, and give it +2/+2 and soulless.
Empower 3: Pull another creature from your void to your hand, and give it +2/+2 and soulless.”
The stat buff is toned down, but the main change is adding soulless. This is a much-needed nerf. The card is still good! It's just not broken. I'm not a pro card player, but any infinite loops seems highly suspect to me. Inescapable Duty + Radiant Embalmer was definitely OP.
Sparrow to 1/1.
Selfless Guildmate loses hidden.
Switch is now only hidden for 1 turn.
I'm tackling these together, because they are all working on the same problem: aggro deception. These are all core card changes, which is nice. These cards can be changed at any time and most people won't feel rugged by nerfing their expansion cards (rip diamond sparrow shiners). Each of these changes is modest, but taken together, they should represent a modest reduction in aggro deception win rates. Each card still maintains the key features which make them great, which is a big plus.
The change to switch duelist is particularly light-handed. It isn't often that aggro deception keeps the duelist hidden for more than a turn anyway.
Change text from “Select up to six 1 mana Anubians from your void and summon them to the board.“
to ”Summon up to five 1 mana Anubians from your void, and give them soulless.”
Thank you! This is actually a pretty skillful nerf in my opinion. The core anubian archetype is preserved. You still get to call Reach into the Black 2x and call Land of the Dead. That's won most games already. It's just that now there is a general deck archetype that can withstand the onslaught: healing. I played a game as War running Flame-Touched Paladin (of all things), and I thought I had beaten this anubian by continuously healing my face. They played back-to-back LOTD and killed me anyway. Very sad.
Zombies and control/heal light come to mind now as natural counters to anubians. By natural counters, I mean they don't need to run specific tech cards to have a decent shot at beating anubians. This means the meta is less warped by the existence of anubians.
The nerf of 6 anubians down to 5 is a recognition that even 1x LOTD was a bit too strong. Compared to something drastic like making the summons random (basically killing the card), this just means one less reaver ramming into your face.
Yes, the archetype is definitely toned down, but that just means it's no longer S tier.
Reduce mana cost from 4 to 3
Change text from “Give -5 strength to a creature and remove frontline from it.“
to ”Discard two cards. Look at your deck and pull two cards to your hand, then shuffle your deck.”
One of the more interesting changes in the patch notes to me. Is it the first card like it in the game? There may be some obscure (expensive) card I'm not thinking of, but this is certainly the first widely-available card that does anything like this. The closest I can think of is:
But it can't draw spells or neutral creatures.
...It can't draw Demos...
Not only can this card draw demos, but it can draw two of them. Easily one of the best combos of the game: back to back demos. This card makes it trivially easy to line up. This only scratches the surface of what's possible. Draw your archpriest + lips are sealed? We may find that this card is broken because:
Now, what are the downsides? For aggro, it's going to be a little slow. However, even this is somewhat mitigated by the flexibility it gives you. With this card in my hand, my aggro light deck can now vomit its remaining cards with abandon. For 3 mana, I then get to pick any two cards in my deck that work best for my current situation and I don't even have to discard anything.
To be clear: I'm hoping this card isn't OP. It looks like a lot of fun. I'm just imagining all the things it could allow that I haven't thought of yet. So many times you're just begging to top deck that one card to win the game for multiple turns. This solves that.
Change stats from 1/2 to 2/2
Change text from “Ability: Unlock a mana lock for this turn, then refresh 1 mana.
Empower 2: Deal 2 damage to the weakest enemy creature.“
to ”After you play a spell, draw a creature of the same mana cost. After you play a creature, draw a spell of the same mana cost.”
Glad I picked one up weeks ago. I think this puts him on the level of something like Demetrios while being unique enough to be interesting:
I think Nythos becomes a staple in card-draw magic decks. His design also allows for big brain plays. Top players (i.e. not me) will track their cards and know when they only have 1 spell or creature left in the deck. This will let them summon that at will if needed. Even better players (i.e. also not me) will dial in LeyHoard to a specific mana cost in order to draw specific spells. Even bad players (i.e. me) will be able to spam you with scryers, form of powers, and magic carpets. Hope you didn't leave my oni on board when that happens...
The skill cap for this card is nuts. I love it.
Change stats from 1/4 to 3/4
Change text from “Echo. At the end of your turn, this creature steals 1 strength from the strongest creature and gives it to the weakest creature.“
to ”Echo. At the start of your opponent’s turn, they pick one:
— Delve a relic or a rune and give it to your opponent.
— Your opponent draws a card.
— Discard a card. ”
Yes! What an interesting card! It may be OP or maybe not. That's what PTR is for. We've got a truly unique/legendary card and if we need to tweak it we can. Your opponent gets to choose which of the options is best for them. If you have a full hand, they will mill you. If they have cards they don't need, they can discard one. They can delve and try to give you a barbed hook or something. Maybe a rune of healing if you are at 30 health.
Cool card.
Change text from “Target a creature. Delve a creature that costs 1 more mana and then transform the target creature into that creature.“
to ”Transform a friendly creature into a random creature that costs 1 more mana.”
The only hammer that dropped fell on metamorphosis:
it should see more usage as a fun meme
Ouch.
It was way too good. Stupidly good as either a control tool ("Oh hey your poly is now a 3/3 leyhoard!") or a finisher ("My injured Helian is now Anagreos! You lose!"). There were some other ideas that might not have killed the card completely. For example: delve a creature of the same mana cost. Maybe a creature of 1 less mana cost. Turning your 10/4 Helian into a beefy 7 drop is still decent. It would also keep it's roll as removal of opponent threats.
I think there may have been some better options here BUT: this is a core card. It can always be changed in the future.
A really solid patch. Metamorphosis is my only quibble, but I don't play control magic, so I'm not going to fight anyone over it. 😆 A huge congrats to the balance team. This was a huge statement to make showing the impact of the staff re-org. My confidence in the new direction is at an all-time high.
I've been testing out some of the new cards. Dalia is a natural fit for my too-much-value nature deck. That deck is even more dominant in PTR where I get to run cards like Dagan I don't actually own.
