Hello, and welcome Spellslingers to another patch update!
First of all, thank you for your continued support during our early access period. We really appreciate all of you for playing the game as we continue our development efforts. This release has been focused on improving stability, fixing bugs, and making balance changes.
IMPORTANT UPDATE – The minimum OS requirement for Android users have been updated to Android 9. If you are having issues with the game please update your device OS and try again, thanks!
The design team has been hard at work on balancing both planeswalkers and individual cards. While this update is not as large as v0.10, we will continue to be proactive in making changes as we move toward launch. We hope that these adjustments will lead to an even more dynamic, exciting play environment where all planeswalkers feel welcome. So, let’s start there!
=== Balance Changes ===
Jace
Jace has struggled against aggressive decks that can pressure his life total, so we’re adjusting his kit to make him more durable against these strategies while maintaining his other strengths. Threads of Persuasion has been redesigned and now goes by the name Repulse. We liked the cheaper Threads and wanted to further accelerate Multiverse Mind by tweaking it and adding a cantrip effect.
- Starting Health Change – 27 > 28 health
- Jace’s Apprentice – gains Ward
- Threads of Persuasion (now named Repulse) – Put creature on top of deck > return it to hand and draw a card.
Ral
We want to give Ral all the fuel he needs to overcome the current aggressive metagame. We want Chaos Lightning to be able to be used earlier in the game to help stabilize the board, versus being saved up for the full 10 damage.
- Starting Health Change – 26 > 27 health
- Chaos Lightning – 4 mana > 3 mana
Ashiok
V0.10 saw the introduction of Ashiok, who is now one of the most popular planeswalkers in the game! To provide better defense against aggro decks and better offense in other matchups, we’re buffing the stats on Ashiok’s signature creatures.
- Shadowstag – 3/5 > 4/5
- Shadowmage Saboteur – 1/3 > 2/4
Kiora
Since we’re bringing some high impact buffs to blue cards, we’re preemptively reducing Kiora’s ability to play a strong early defensive game. Because she begins with an extra blocker in the form of a Fish, she effectively has the highest life total in the game and with the changes to blue defensive creatures will place her further ahead than we’d like.
- Starting Health Change – 28 > 26 health
- Tideshaper – 1/4 > 2/2
Gideon
Ardent Supporter was providing too much value by generating a cheap creature and trading in combat by having 2 power. We also wanted to reduce Gideon’s ability to survive against other aggro decks slightly.
- Starting Health Change – 30 > 29 health
- Ardent Supporter – 2/1 > 1/1
Nahiri
We made some tweaks to Nahiri in 0.10 and we think she’s headed in the right direction, but we want to further reduce her early game power by moving the Kor Recruit up the curve. It’s difficult for most decks to deal with a 1–cost armor unit that is also a great target for the Stoneforged Blade.
- Kor Recruit – 1 mana 1/1 > 2 mana 2/1
Kaya
Kaya’s access to white and black removal, and her ability to generate card advantage through her aura, have made her a strong and versatile metagame predator. These nerfs should create additional vulnerabilities opponents can leverage.
- Starting Health Change – 27 > 26 health
- Ghost Blades – 3 charges > 2 charges
Vraska
Overall we are happy with how Vraska is performing, but sometimes too many cards get stuck in your hand, so we are reverting back to a previous design of the Grub.
- Vraska’s Grub – 2/1 and lower the cost of random creatures in your hand by 1 > 1/1 and summons a Mana Coupon
Domri
Domri’s War Boars adding rage to his aura effectively reduced the cost of each one after the first. This change will match the functionality of the War Boar to players’ expectations and weaken some of his explosive midgame strengths.
- Summoning a War Boar no longer adds rage
Liliana
We are tweaking Diehard Fan to improve the play pattern of her Zombie horde. It is now easier to kill off and trades with more creatures.
- Diehard Fan – 2/3 > 3/2
White
We want to adjust a few cards in order to help midrange decks and playing from behind.
- Pearl Dragon – 3/9 > 4/8
- The card was not seeing much play with its overly defensive stats.
- Retaliate – 3 dmg > 4 dmg
- We want players to have more powerful tools at their disposal when playing from behind.
- Stronghold Commander – +1/+1 > +0/+2
- This change will help it carve out a niche in midrange and control decks.
- Aven Tour Guide – 2/2 > 2/3
- We believe this was weak relative to other flying creatures and evasive effects, so we’re buffing it.
Blue
We think that many of Blue’s creatures have been holding blue decks back a bit. We are giving a few Blue creatures more stats to bring them in line with other colors.
- Befuddling Merfolk – 2/3 > 3/3
- Skymaster Sphinx – 4/4 > 4/5
- Alhammarret – 3/4 > 4/4
- Mist Raven – 3/2 > 3/3
- Wavelash Viper – 4/4 > 5/5
- Runeshell Crab – 1/2 > 1/3
- Mage of Insight – 3/3 > 3/4
- Fountain of Magic – random spell > random spell that costs 6 or less
- Now more likely to give spells that are playable in the early game. Also no longer gives cards like Lava Wave and Draconic Transformation, which should make this card easier to play against in the late game.
- Toothy – after this survives damage > after this survives a fight
- Toothy wasn’t seeing as much play as we’d like so this should help him survive Red burn.
- Breaching Serpent – 13 8/8 > 11 cost 7/7
- This card should be more of a threat in dedicated spell decks.
- Millstone – 3 charges > 2 charges
- We want players to work a little harder for their mill victories and think about playing cards that add charges to artifacts.
Black
We are happy with the changes made to Black aggro cards in 0.10 so there are just a few quality of life adjustments here.
- Crazed Ripper – 0/4 > 0/5
- Buffing this card to increase comeback potential.
- Sinister Southpaw – 4/3 > 4/4
- Now has a more reasonable health total for a 6-mana creature.
- Counterfeiter – 1/1 > 2/1
- These stats should increase its strength enough for more planeswalkers to consider it, such as Kaya.
- Vengeful Brute – 3/3 > 3/2
- This has been a strong early play in multiple aggressive decks that can leverage its early face damage and durable health. This change makes it easier to deal with in combat and creates more competition among black 2-cost creatures.
- Dark Gladiator – 4 mana 4/4 that gives +2/+2 > 3 mana 3/4 that gives +1/+1
- We wanted this card to come down earlier in the game, since the competition is fierce for 4-mana creatures in Liliana.
Red
We decided to nerf some of the damage from a few aggressive Red cards.
- Ball Lightning – 7/1 > 6/1
- Bombastic Boost – +2/+2 > +2/+1
- Blitzing Minotaur – 4/3 > 3/3
- For a base card, this was becoming too ubiquitous.
- Hoarding Dragon – Finale > Debut
- Finales on evasive creatures can be hard to trigger so now the Dragon gets you the treasure up-front!
- Draconic Transformation – 9 mana > 10 mana
- The ability of this card to win the game on the spot is real and we want to make sure you pay enough for it. We’ll continue to closely monitor this card’s impact in games.
- Tajic – 4/4 > 4/5
- Wasn’t living up to his legendary status!
Green
- Briarhorn – 3/3 > 4/4
- Now has more reasonable stats when it has to target itself.
- Elite Forest Guard – 2/2 > 2/3
- This card is at its best when it is providing Green with the tools it needs against flyers and artifacts, and so we are increasing its stats to help it see more play.
Gold
- Rakdos – 8 mana 8/6 > 7 mana 7/6
- The card is inherently chaotic, and the double-edged nature of the debut means it should be cheaper.
Colorless
- Sparring Automaton – 3/3 > 3/2
- 3/3 is a good statline for a 2-mana creature and we don’t want this colorless option to push out other cards.
=== Design Updates ===
Duplicate Protection
In 0.11 we have added duplicate protection to the Challenge Prizes. This means that the random rewards will always be card that you do not own a full playset of – e.g. one copy of legendary cards 2 copies of all other cards.
The only time you will receive a recyclable dupe is if you already own ALL playable copies all cards of the selected color/rarity combination.
Foils
Foil cards are now available in the singles store for double the gold cost.
Challenge Update
We increased the gold reward for all the play subtype challenges, the play keyword challenges, the win with X planeswalker challenges.
Conceding after turn 4 will now count as a completed game for “Complete X Games” Challenges.
Crafting System Improvement
We have worked hard further simplifying the crafting system to make it easier to use.
Moxes: All cards are crafted with Moxes of the appropriate color. We have added a 6th Mox (Mox Diamonds) that allow for crafting of all colorless and multicolored cards. The amount of Moxes needed scales with the rarity of the card being crafted:
- Common – 100
- Rare - 300
- Epic – 1,200
- Mythic – 3,600
Materials: Crafting materials discount this cost by 10. All non-foil cards are now tied to a single crafting material.
- Archon Feather – White Creatures
- Dawn Sigil – White Spells, Tricks, and Artifacts
- Snapper Shell – Blue Creatures
- Vantress Lilies – Blue Spells, Tricks, and Artifacts
- Demon Horn – Black Creatures
- Stensia Elixir – Black Spells, Tricks, and Artifacts
- Infernal Fang – Red Creatures
- Molten Core – Red Spells, Tricks, and Artifacts
- Jade Scarab – Green Creatures
- Murasa Greenleaf – Green Spells, Tricks, and Artifacts
- Golden Egg – Multicolor and Colorless Creatures.
- Darksteel Ingot – Multicolor and Colorless Spells, Tricks and Artifacts
Example: I want to craft Firespout Elemental (A Red Common Creature). It would cost me 100 Mox Rubies. Every Infernal Fang I had would reduce that cost by 10. (So, if I had 5 Infernal Fangs it would cost me 50 Mox Rubies and my 5 fangs).
We have reduced the number of crafting materials from 35 – 16, and all cards are discounted by a single crafting material. All other crafting materials have been removed. Users who had any removed crafting materials will receive 20 moxes of the appropriate color as compensation.
Recycling:
We have increased the rewards for recycling unplayable duplicates.
- Recycling a Common will result in 15 Moxes of the color recycled and 1 random crafting material.
- Recycling a Rare will result in 45 Moxes of the color recycled and 4 random crafting materials
- Recycling an Epic will result in 150 Moxes of the color recycled and 21 random crafting materials.
- Recycling a Mythic will result in 400 Moxes of the color recycled and 80 random crafting materials.
Donating
- All currently active team donations will be closed out.
- From now on donating to a teammate will only cost 3 moxes (down from 5)
=== Bug Fixes and Known Issues ===
Bugs
Fixes included in this release for notable issues:
- Gameplay
- Playing Willful Smith after the creature holding the Stoneforged Blade was transformed shuts the match down.
- Using Master of Possibilities’s ability with a full hand sometimes crashes the match for both players.
- A crash sometimes occurs when multiple creatures try to add cards to a player’s hand at the same time.
- A match shutdown occurs when a creature that died and was resummoned blocks a second time in a single turn.
- Pressing the End Turn button at the start of turn sometimes causes the button to become unresponsive that turn, and creatures can’t attack.
- Milling cards added to hand by Scour the Void disconnects the opponent from the match.
- A player is disconnected from the match when the opponent’s Pep Talk is played.
- Possessing Arcana freezes the game on some devices.
- Attacking with Alhammarett and Flying Construct causes the game to freeze.
- If you quickly remove a creature from attacking after tapping the Attack button, its attack ability sometimes still triggers.
- Kaya receives two Mana Coupon when going second in the match.
- Sometimes player’s mana gems don’t refill at the start of their turn.
- Unholy Recruitment can’t be played if the player has no creatures in the arena.
- Axefury Minotaur and Vampire Ritualist’s debut abilities are not triggered by damage dealt to an opponent by their own Dead-onator or Vengeful Brute.
- The card countered by Remand is not revealed when countered.
- Targeting a creature that can't block with Goblin Shortcutter's debut ability allows that creature to block even though it still has the "Can't Block" ability symbol.
- Debut abilities that cause a creature to fight Sisters of Stone Death are canceled after the creature is turned into a Statue.
- Snapshell Turtle’s ability sometime triggers when non-trap cards are played.
- Epitome of Might is not among the choices presented by Eldritch Tutor.
- The opponent's mana reserved for traps is sometimes visible.
- Nightmares attached to opponent's cards drawn with Get Ahead don't drain the opponent.
- Sometimes Willful Smith's ability buffs himself instead of Stoneforged Blade.
- Ward granted by Stoneforge Mystic’s weapon doesn’t expire at the start of the player’s next turn.
- Gluttonous Goo's debut ability doesn't trigger if a Relentless creature returned to the arena in the same turn.
- If a creature affected by Fatal Infection is copied, the copy is not destroyed at the start of its owner's next turn.
- Cards created by Counterfeiter don't copy mana cost reductions.
- Momir Vig doesn't improve a Baby Kraj that had left the arena.
- Momir Vig returned to the arena with relentless does not improve Baby Kraj.
- Momir Vig doesn't improve copies of Baby Kraj.
- Copies of Momir Vig do not improve Baby Kraj.
- Some cards don't lose their abilities when transformed.
- Anticipate reduces the cost to activate Jace’s Multiverse Mind ability by 2 instead of 1.
- Sometimes an opponent’s mana reserved for traps becomes visible.
- Two traps that counter cards will trigger on the same card.
- There still appear to be cards in a player's deck when the deck is empty.
- Sometimes cards remain visually stuck on the screen when rejoining a match.
- Rejoining a match in progress does not display the correct duration on timers.
- Omnath's power sometimes becomes 0 after exceeding nine digits.
- Challenges
- Rapidly claiming completed quests can cause the app to freeze.
- Some players are unable to claim completed challenges.
- Collection
- Players can add a second copy of a legendary card to their deck.
- No feedback is given when a player tries to view the contents of an invalid deck in the planeswalker select screen.
- The filter does not work properly in the collection menu after editing a deck.
- Some cards are not in the correct category when filtering by cost.
- It is not possible to filter the collection to see only cards with a rarity of Base.
- The filter cannot be used to see cards that cost 0 mana.
- Recycling cards in the collection doesn’t provide any indication of what materials were earned.
- It is not possible to tell whether you can craft a card without inspecting the card.
- Electromage’s crafting recipe contained two instances of the same crafting material.
- Store
- Foil card thumbnail images in the store don't have the foil treatment.
- Teams
- The game freezes if a private Team has more invites pending than active members when viewing the Team roster.
- Losing connection to the internet while creating a team freezes the client.