Feature Updates

Leagues

Matchmaking Improvements

• The league variance has been decreased
• Players should get matched less often against opponents in other leagues.
• Cross-league pairings can still happen when the population is low to prevent longer queue times.

Trophies for Winning and Losing

• The maximum and minimum amount of trophies you can win or lose from a match has been increased.

Partial League Reset

• To test the league changes above we did a ladder reset
• All players in Sliver League and above have been reset back 1 league.
• Mythic → Diamond
• Diamond → Platinum
• Platinum → Gold
• Gold → Silver
• Silver → Bronze

Game System Changes

Turn Timers

• The turn timer will now pause for a short moment whenever a card is played or is animating.

Deck Out Rules Change

• We have made a change to how running out of cards causes a game to end. 
• The player will now lose the game if they end their turn with no cards in their deck. 
• A player can never lose if milled out on the opponent's turn
• Players can "save" themselves from defeat by adding cards to an empty deck before the end of the turn.

Deck Import Across Platforms

• We have updated the deck Import and Export functionality with a format that is now portable across platforms.
• Players can share decks to and from any platform.
• Exporting a deck provides a readable deck list as text to share along with the deck list code.
• This replaces the old deck sharing method on Android
• Existing Android deck share links are not compatible with the new system.
• However, existing Android deck share links will continue to work to import a deck onto an Android device

Quality of Life Improvements

Challenges

• Challenge Prize selection now has duplicate protection; for example, you will no longer be offered a face-down blue rare as an option if you already own every blue rare card.
• The frequency at which High Value Challenges appear has doubled.

Filters

• There are now improved quick filters in the collection
• Foil filter options in the collection and deck builder.

Fizzle

• All cards can now be played if you have sufficient mana even if they would "do nothing" (e.g. Day of Judgement on an empty board).
• When a card has no effect it will play a fizzle animation.

Creature Ability Icons 

• There's a new icon for creatures with multiple keywords
• Lightning bolt icon for creatures with non-keyworded abilities.
• Icons for keyword abilities appear in the tooltips for those abilities.

General Gameplay

• We increased the area that is valid for double tap to "attack all". 
• We refactored the code for dragging cards out of hand to prevent some cases where you could accidently drag through another card and end up playing the wrong thing.
• We updated how playable cards are presented in hand. 
• Playable cards now have an outer glow instead of unplayable cards being black and white.
• Cards with a bonus effect have a different color outer glow to indicate that the bonus applies.

Deck Showcase

• Vin has a whole new set of Featured Decks for you to check out.
• In addition to those, approximately 45 new suggested decks have been added based on high win rate decks in the community.

League Chest

• The chance of Mox Diamonds dropping from league chest rewards has been increased by 50%.

Card and Gameplay Changes

Planeswalkers

• All Planeswalkers have -2 Health

One of the design goals for Spellslingers is a fast-paced game that provides players with a deep and engaging experience. We believe we can deliver this without extending games past the point where they have already been determined. Our intent is not to disrupt game balance, and we will be monitoring the affect this change has on the win rates of aggressive strategies. We believe the tools exist for players to battle back against a possible shift in the meta, and we’ll be trying to keep a pulse on how players adapt their deckbuilding when everyone has a little less health to play with.

Ajani

• The bonus granted by Ajani's Mentor ability goes from +1/+0 → +1/+1

Our current vision for Ajani is as sitting at the top of midrange matchups while being threatening to aggressive decks. We had played around with various +1/+1 granting Planeswalker specials for Ajani in the past in internal playtests, but feared it might be slightly stronger than we were comfortable with. All things considered, the idea of a midrange creature deck potentially being on the stronger side is a pretty good place to be so we’re giving Ajani some much deserved love and seeing how he lands (on all fours like a proper cat, we assume).

• Ajani's Skirmisher has been updated from "Attack: Give the next creature you draw +1/+0" → "Trample; After you target this, it gets +1/+0."

To go along with the new aura, we’re updating Ajani’s Skirmisher to make targeting your creatures more fun and profitable starting with this Skirmisher that is purr-fectly suited for the task.

Cards

Alhammarret

• Alhammarret: 4/4 → 3/5

This change is in a similar vein as the Cerulean Dragon shift (see below). Ward helps Alhammarret frequently get the first attack in, but it can be difficult to block with at 4 health. This small stat tweak is being made to help Alhammarret be able to block and attack more frequently.

Mana Constrictor

• Mana Constrictor: 2/1 → 2/2

Every color has a 1 mana 2/2 with upside except blue, which was a bit strange. Having a single health is a pretty significant drawback and we felt the mana tax might be enough to justify it. In practice, the ability hasn’t seemed quite impactful enough for the single health. Much like the effect Constrictor can have on enemy cards, this is a change that was likely overdue.

Cerulean Dragon

• Cerulean Dragon: 6 mana 4/4 → 4 mana 2/2

This is our next step to bring up blue’s options for threatening creatures in the midgame. The previous 6 mana design was falling flat (a strange fate for a winged creature) as it seemed like it came a bit too late to take the risk on a slightly under-statted creature in a color that is often already playing from behind in the early-to-mid game. The move to 4 mana gives you a couple more turns to enjoy the draw trigger and softens the risk of getting the Dragon removed before getting into combat.

Zo-Zu

• Zo-Zu: 0/5 → 0/4

While the new Zo-Zu did increase Zo-Zu's appearance in game and avoid the one-turn double with Panharmonicon as intended, it has been proving to be slightly too durable and running away with games that it didn't need to. Reducing Zo-Zu's survivability should make it easier to remove before deadly successive attacks get to take place.

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a bug that caused Mythic rank to be incorrectly displayed after a loss.
• Fixed several issue with the display and collection of league chest rewards.
• Fixed a bug that caused an error to be displayed when a Mythic user went to claim their league chest.
• Resolved a situation where having an uncollected league chest could prevent the user from accessing the league menu.
• Resolved the delay that would appear when collecting challenges on iOS.
• Challenges should now increment correctly in Team Duels.
• Fixed several places where earned keys don't appear until visiting the Planeswalker select screen.
• A slight transparent box will no longer appear around card previews on mobile devices.
• The New flag will now correctly clear when going to build a deck.
• Fixed a bug where the unowned tab in the collection would not display non-legendary cards you have only one copy of.
• Foil challenge prizes will now show up correctly as foil during the reward sequence.
• Multicolor cards will no longer appear to be a single color in the deck inspect view.
• Enemy artifacts will no longer glow as if they were useable.
• Decks are sorted from left to right based on when they were created.

Planeswalkers

• Reduced the delay when Ashiok damages an opponent with Counterfeiter or Naga Rogue.
• Ashiok's Nightmares now state the amount of health drained in the card preview.
• Kiora's Fish no longer has summoning sickness if she is the first player.
• Fixed several issues that could happen if Nahiri's Outburst was cast by a Planeswalker other than Nahiri.
• Fixed several errors that could occur when the user activated Nahiri's Stoneforged Blade at the start of their turn.
• The foil version of Ral's signature card Magnum Opus can now be crafted.
• Fixed an issue where the VFX for Angrath's Hammer Home ability was not displaying when active.

Gameplay

• Fixed situations where area of effect spells could not be cast if an opposing creature had ward.
• Fixed an issue where cards would not display their mana costs when drawn.
• Increased the speed of the phase transition animation.
• Fixed several issues that would prevent dismissing a card being inspected, blocking the ability to see the arena.
• Fixed several issues that appeared if the user auto-passed turn based on running out of time.
• The game will no longer hang if your opponent concedes before you have fully loaded into the arena.
• Fixed a bug that would cause debuts occasionally to be targeted randomly.  This was also causing debut drafts to auto select at random instead of giving the user a choice.  Both should be resolved.
• Arming multiple traps in a row on mobile clients now works correctly.
• Copying a damaged creature with a health buff will now give the correct amount of stats to the copy.
• Replacing a relentless creature will now correctly send that creature to the graveyard.
• Relentless creatures dying at the end of a turn will no longer consume the opponents turn timer.
• Vin will no longer play his summoning sickness VO if you attempt to attack with a stunned creature.
• Fixed several cases of artifacts not having a visual effect when the opponent activated them.
• Conceding should now properly lock out additional player actions.
• Champion's Grit will now resolve correctly when destroying a creature by replacing it on a full board.
• Damaging your opponent with a Counterfeiter when your hand is full will now works correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Elite Forest Guard's Debut VFX was not displaying correctly.
• Fixed an issue where Sisters of Stone Death could cause Elvish Explorer's ability to trigger incorrectly.
• Grave Disturbance will correctly trigger now even if the only attacker is killed by Immolating Glare.
• Mage Mirror and Extract Fear will now correct target the starting deck and not the current deck/hand.
• The creature Mastermind Lazav transforms into will maintain sneak if returned to hand.
• Tarmogoyf's ability and text will now function correctly when cards are sent to the graveyard by being overdrawn.
• Resolved an issue where Vampire Ritualist's dynamic power buff text would not display or reset correctly.
• Fixed several issues with situations where Under My Watch would not trigger.
• Countering a card that counters other cards should now resolve properly.
• Fixed a crash caused by Zombify or Unholy Recruitment cast in a full arena.
• Inspecting Crush of Wurms while its spawning copies will no longer lock up the game.