Variable Power and Layering Rules

Cards that gain or lose power from their own ability are fine and dandy on their own, but when other cards interact with them, it can lead to some confusing results. We want players to be able to predict game interactions and have redesigned several of the biggest offenders.

Vainglorious Hero

• 1/5, +4/+0 while undamaged → 2/2, Debut: +1/+1 for each other friendly creature
• Vainglorious Hero is a little disappointed that this change was more about layering than about himself, and he’s going to have to be more of a team player now. Hero is happy to consider your other creatures his own personal fan club, just make sure you don’t tell him otherwise.
  
  

Runeshell Crab

• 1/3, +2/+0 on your opponent’s turn →  3/3, Can’t attack
• Runeshell Crab is a very useful defensive one mana creature, and we’re staying true to the previous design. It will now have a permanent power of 3 instead of powering up on the opponent’s turn. To compensate, it is unable to attack. No more player pinching for you, little scuttler.
  
  

Runeshell King

• 2/7, +4/+0 on your opponent’s turn →  6/6, Debut: Give a friendly creature “Can’t attack”
• We still wanted Runeshell King to be a formidable defensive creature, but we also wanted to increase Blue’s ability to present some threatening creatures in the midgame. If you have another creature, you can use Runeshell King’s new debut on that creature rather than itself, making the King a formidable attacker. What little pinch we took away from Runeshell Crab, we are more than giving back to Runeshell King. Long live the king!

Other Redesigns

Negate

• Now counters artifacts as well
• Negate is getting a little quality of life upgrade. Having this tool in the environment provides another good safeguard to an otherwise difficult to interact with card type. It seems fitting that this can now counter the final non-creature card type. Except lands I guess. Maybe someday Tarmogoyfs will find a way to power up with a land in the graveyard, but today is not that day.

Dark Gladiator/Captain of the Dead

• 3/4, Attack: Give another random friendly Zombie +1/+1 →  3/3, Debut: Give other friendly Zombies +1/+0; Name swap between Dark Gladiator and Captain of the Dead
• We want Captain of the Dead (formerly known as Dark Gladiator) to loudly scream “Play me with a horde of Zombies!” rather than be a tool to build Zombies slowly over time. As it happens, the Captain usually only slowly mumbles and hisses incoherently, but hopefully the new ability can get the message across.

Ravenous Pit Lord

• 6/6, Debut: Give an enemy creature -6/-6 →  7/5, Debut: Raise the cost of all cards in your opponent’s hand by 2
• Bone Collector and Cranial Consultant give a glimpse into Black's ability to interact with an opponent's hand, but we wanted to help reinforce that and pull away a bit from its many ways to remove creatures. Ravenous Pit Lord will be switching roles and should now serve as an effective tool against greedy decks that hoard a bunch of cards in hand.
  
  

Shadowmage Saboteur

• After your Nightmare deals damage, gets +1/+0 →  Attack: After you give a Nightmare this turn, give an additional Nightmare
• The previous Shadowmage Saboteur had an unfortunate tension that made it difficult to feel good about attacking and foregoing a potentially large sneak attack later. This new design is more about giving your opponent more of what they love to hate. Or maybe hates to hate?
  
  

Aiming for the Sky

Given green's lack of flying creatures, we wanted to help the color bring opposing aerial nuisances down to earth. These are the first steps (or are they jumps?) in that direction to test the skies and see what falls out of it.

Elvish Archer

• 2/3 → 2/4
  
  

Elite Forest Guard

• 2/3 → 3/2
  
  

Plummet

• 3 mana → 2 mana
  
  

Finale Buffs

We wanted to give Vraska a little "oomph" on her potential suite of creatures to be better able to take advantage of her Planeswalker ability. To that end, we're bumping the power on a handful of creatures targeted at giving Vraska some more "powerful" tools. Additionally, we wanted to make it a bit easier to utilize Vraska's Throne by making it easier to slip into play when you have a spare mana.

Vraska's Throne

• 2 mana → 1 mana
  
  

Vraska's Grub

• 1/1 → 2/1
  
  

Deathspeaker Naga

• 4/3 → 5/3
  
  

Mysterious Cocoon

• 0/1 → 1/1
  
  

Boneclub Shambler

• 3/3 → 4/2
  
  

Other Adjustments

Eminent Archangel

• Debut: Heal yourself for half the damage you were dealt last turn →  Debut: Heal yourself equal to the damage you were dealt last turn (max of 7)
• We've been trying to put more power into cards that are most useful in catching players up when they are behind, and that imminently brought us to everyone's favorite Spellslingers Archangel (it's our only Archangel right now, but still). This change should make it more effective at giving you more time to stabilize against aggressive decks. It's also nice to give this card a more "epic" line of text.
  
  

Windborne Roc

• 2/4 →  2/5
• Windborne Roc is another card that we wanted to be stronger against aggressive decks. The fifth health should help its survivability and make those matchups more im-peck-able.
  
  

Arcanis, the Archmage

• 10 mana → 8 mana
• Arcanis has the potential to serve as an effective win condition, but the full impact of the card can take a little while to develop. We’re happy to report that Arcanis has been focusing on his craft and dropped his mana cost to have more time to utilize the Mystical Arcana.
  
  

Carnage Tyrant

• 7 mana 8/6 → 8 mana 10/8
• Carnage Tyrant suffered from being in a crowded mana cost alongside Primeval Titan and Ravenous Hydra and had a harder time finding a home. We're bumping up the cost to 8 and pushing more power into its role as a reliable, large, damaging threat.
  
  

Jace's Apprentice

• 3/1 → 3/2
• Jace certainly enjoyed a boost in the last update, but as any blue mage knows, there is always room for improvement. This is a small change to help nudge Jace to where we would like him to be.
  
  

Angrath's Deathraider

• 4 mana 4/3 → 3 mana 4/2
• Angrath's Deathraider was falling a bit shy of where we would like. Dropping this to 3 mana makes this a bit stronger and easier to continue triggering Hammer Home.
  
  

Draconic Transformation

• 10 mana, Transform all friendly creatures into dragons →  9 mana, Destroy all friendly creatures and summon a dragon for each
• Draconic Transformation is an incredibly powerful effect with a few spare creatures in play that was ending many games the turn it was played. While there is some amount of counterplay to it and it does cost a hefty amount of mana, we hope to make this easier to interact with by removing the ability to attack with the dragons on the same turn you play Draconic Transformation (unless there happens to be hasty Volcanic Dragons!).
  
  

Spearcrown Stag

• 3/5 →  3/4
• Spearcrown Stag, while we are very fawnd of you, you have been crowding out many 4 mana green options. We're hoping losing this point of health creates a little more room for other cards to compete.