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Balance Update – Divine Order Jan 26

BALANCE

News

Bryn

Welch

2022-01-27

Hey mortals, IMBryn here. As part of our ongoing plan to increase meta diversity and balance Divine Order before we lock it, we’ve got another balance patch here for you today.

Those of you that played during the Public Test Realm (PTR) playday last week will notice some further adjustments. After testing and receiving community feedback, we have decided to revert the proposed changes to Blight Bomb & Ring of the Siren, so you will not see them on this list.

In some other good news, we have set our Card Text Style Guide public, so now you can see how we go about putting together card rules. There are a bunch of inconsistencies across the board here, but we are going to look at bringing these in line as we go ahead with our balanceable sets. Locked sets are a different matter, and we'll open the discussion on this – whether we change the card text to match all cards (purely cosmetic, no utility change for these cards), or leave them with errors – at a later date. If you come across any card errors, you can report them here.

Now, onto the balance changes!

God power buffs

Clear Mind – Increased foresee amount.

Change text from “Foresee 1”
to
”Foresee 2. “

Team: Clear Mind has been pretty much unused on ladder since the last rework of God Powers. We’d like to encourage more combo play out of Magic, something we think is an underutilized niche of the domain, and this change is intended to support that.

Card buffs

Crystal Watcher – Mana cost reduced.

Change mana from 4 to 3.

Team: At 4 mana Crystal Watcher was proving to be too slow when compounded with its effect. We think this will allow ramping Magic to play against pure-minion decks more consistently without running out of health first.

Phalanx Lieutenant – Strength and health increased.

Change stats from 4/1 to 5/3.
Change text from “Armor 2” to “Armor 1”.

Team: A well deserved buff for our poor Phalanx Lieutenant. He’s still probably not going to win any tournaments any time soon, but at least he doesn’t look quite as bad next to Guild Enforcer anymore.

Inspiring Skald – Text changed.

Change text from “Roar: If you are frenzied, give twin strike to the weakest creature in your hand.”
to
”Roar: If you are frenzied, give twin strike to the strongest creature in your hand.”

Caged Berserker – Mana cost reduced.

Change from 5 to 4 mana.

Team: Without his blitz Caged Berserker was struggling at 5 mana, but giving it back would only increase War’s plethora of reactive tempo options. At 4, we think Caged Berserker can offer a pressure option that isn’t reliant on blitz as a strategy.

Counterfeit – Text changed. Mana cost increased.

Change mana cost from 2 to 3.
Change text from “If your opponent has a relic equipped and you don’t,equip a copy of your opponent’s relic. Otherwise,draw a card.”
to
“If your opponent has a relic equipped and you don’t, destroy it and equip a copy of it. Otherwise, draw a card.”

Team: We were happy with the redesign of Counterfeit to be a more powerful card, but at 2 mana, its value proposition was far too high. With this additional mana cost adjustment, if the opponent does not have a relic, the consolation draw is prohibitively expensive, giving this card a more balanced risk/reward spread when including it in your deck.

Covetous Cutthroat – Strength and health increased

Change stats from 3/3 to 4/4

Anubian Redeemer – Health increased

Change stats from 4/5 to 4/6

Card nerfs

Archangel Bruiser – Health reduced.

Change stats from 5/3 to 5/2.

Team: Archangel is a very powerful removal option that goes from ‘very strong’ to ‘overpowered’ when it clears a minion and sticks. By reducing its health by 1 we hope to preserve its removal power while decreasing the scenarios in which it gets too much value.

Sole Survivor– Text changed.

Change text from “Give +5 strength to one of your creatures, then deal its strength as damage to each other creature.”
to
”Give +3 strength to one of your creatures, then deal its strength as damage to each other creature.”

Team: This card has seen a lot of love and use since its recent mana buff. While we like the play pattern, the ability to fully boardclear with this and a high damage 1 drop against your opponent’s 6 and 7 drops was simply too powerful.

Sudden Bloom– Text changed.

Change text from “Give a random friendly creature +5/+5. If you are frenzied, also give it overkill and twin strike.”
to
”Give a random friendly creature +4/+4. If you are frenzied, also give it overkill and twin strike.”

Warmonger Smith – Text changed.

Change text from “ Roar: give your relic +2 strength for its next attack.“
to
“Roar: give your relic +1 strength for its next attack.”

Team: The humble Smith makes his way into every top war deck on the ladder, and boasts an impressive winrate. This reduction brings him closer in line the rest of the 2-drops.

Moonlight Charm – Text changed. Strength reduced.

Change stats from 1/3 to 0/3
Change text from “At the end of your turn, if you are frenzied, give +2/+2 to your strongest creature and -1 durability to this relic.“
to
“Ability: Give +2/+2 to your strongest creature and -1 durability to this relic.”

Team: The potential tempo gain from Moonlight Charm’s previous iteration led to it ending games as early as turn 3 in matchups where the opponent has no reactive options to deal with buffed 1 drops. Now the card trades tempo for raw stats in a way we feel is more fair.

Finnian Fruitbearer – Health reduced.

Change stats from 2/3 to 2/2

With Finnian creating another 2/2 worth of stats on the turn he’s played if frenzied, he’s already above the line for a 2–drop. His capacity to create extreme value if defended with a frontline, however, could potentially seal games at turn 2. Rather than change what makes Finnian unique, we’ve made him more vulnerable over the board to compensate for his strong upsides.

Oddi, Valka’s Herald – Text changed.

Change text from “ Backline. Protected. Whenever this creature attacks your opponent’s god, reduce a random highest mana cost creature in your hand by 1.”
to
“ Protected. Whenever this creature attacks your opponent’s god, reduce a random highest mana cost creature in your hand by 1.”

Team: Oddi’s double defensive stack of protected and backline was often bypassed by spell removal, but in scenarios where the opponent did not have spell removal, it guaranteed him sticking with very little strategy from the War player. His text ability is potentially game-deciding, and we feel War should work a little harder if they want to decide the game off a 3 drop.

Just a Nibble – Text changed.

Change text from
“Deal 1 damage to a friendly creature and heal your god for 7.”
to
“Deal 1 damage to a friendly creature and heal your god for 5.”

Team: Part of Death’s capacity to ignore board development stems from their ability to heal back up from significant damage. We like this as part of Death’s identity, but when combined with their aforementioned removal capacity, it can become overbearing, so we have tweaked back Nibble slightly. 4 extra HP a match can sometimes make all the difference.

Giant Pangolin – Text changed

Change text from “Armor 2. Blitz. Confused.”
to
”Armor 1. Blitz. Confused.”

Team: As we continue to look into armored cards we’ve decided to address Pangolin’s dominance in the 6 mana slot for Nature; we feel that this card’s capacity to both survive removing a big threat and safely mop up low-strength survivors is too much bang-for-buck.

Card changes

Safeguard Incantation – Text changed.

Change text from ”Draw a card.
Give ward to each creature in your hand.”
to
”Draw a card.
Give ward and protected to your god. ”

Team: The concept of warding all of the creatures in your hand is a good one, but the strategic slot is filled better by Oni Spellsword already; we feel that this rework is both more thematic for the card and should give Magic some more options against it’s more oppressive aggro matchups.

Enchanted Chariot – Card reworked.

Change mana cost from 1 to 4.
Change stats from 2/1 to 3/3.
Change text from “Roar: Deal 1 damage to an enemy creature.”
to
”Roar: Draw a structure from your deck.”

Team: Chariot’s previous design was not particularly exciting to us. We think this rework will help with some consistency that Structure Magic lacks.

Twisting Talisman – Mana increased. Strength and health decreased. Text changed.

Change mana from 1 to 2
Change stats from 1/3 to 0/2.
Change text from “Flank.
After you attack a creature with this relic, if the creature survives, swap the creature's strength and health.”
to
”Ability: Swap a creature’s strength and health. Remove 1 durability from this relic.”

Team: One of the most common points of feedback over the last two months was that the talismans were underwhelming. We’ve reworked these cards to use some new concepts we want to try out, with designs from one of our excellent new designers.

Blazing Talisman – Mana reduce. Strength and health reduced. Text changed.

Change mana from 3 to 2
Change stats from 1/3 to 0/1
Change text from “Ability: Give all enemy creatures burn +1 and give –1 durability to this relic.”
to
”After an enemy creature attacks your god, give it burn +1. When a creature with burn dies, give your creatures +1 regen.”

Lightning Talisman – Strength reduced. Text changed.

Change stats from 1/3 to 0/3.
Change text from “After your god attacks a creature with this relic, give that creature "At the end of your turn, deal 2 damage to a random friendly character."
to
”After your god is damaged, deal 2 damage to the strongest enemy creature and 1 damage to the weakest other enemy creature, and remove 1 durability from this relic.”

Enraging Talisman – Mana reduced. Strength and health reduced. Text changed.

Change mana from 4 to 2
Change stats from 1/4 to 0/2
Change text from “After you attack an enemy creature with this relic, if it survives, give the creature "At the start of your turn, give each enemy creature +1 strength."
to
”Ability: Give each creature +1 strength and deal 1 damage to them. Remove 1 durability from this relic.”

Glaring Talisman – Mana reduced. Strength reduced. Text changed.

Change mana from 4 to 2
Change stats from 3/3 to 0/3
Change text from “After your god attacks a creature with this relic, give order +3 to that creature.”
to
”After an enemy creature attacks your god, give order +3 to that creature, then remove 1 durability from this relic.”

Plague Talisman – Mana reduced. Stats changed. Text changed.

Change mana from 4 to 2.
Change stats from 1/2 to 0/3.
Change text from “After you damage a creature with this relic, if the creature survives, transform it into a 1/1 Zombie.”
to
”Ability: Give a creature “at the end of your turn, deal 2 damage to both gods.”, and remove 1 durability from this relic.”

Rolling Thunder – Text changed.

Change text from: “Summon two 3/3 Thunder Callers. If you are frenzied, summon three instead.”
to
”Summon two 3/3 Thunder Callers. If you are frenzied, draw the strongest viking in your deck and reduce its cost by 1.”

Team: Rolling Thunder’s previous concept was a difficult one to balance; simply adding or subtracting mana cost or Thunder Callers swings the card from under-to-overpowered very quickly. Our initial nerf to RT was a quick fix to a severe problem, but it did leave the card in a bad state. This rework is intended to encourage some late-game play from the otherwise hyperaggro Vikings tribe, and perhaps see Valka herself hit the board more frequently!

Righteous Apparition – Text changed.

Change text from
“Backline. Ability: Give order +3 to an enemy creature.”
to
“Backline. Ability: Give order +2 to an enemy creature.”

Team: This card was almost completely unutilized due to the fact that Order 3 meant the ordered card would be inaccessible on your turn, defending the creature you were trying to control.

Ghost Form – Text changed.

Change text from “Pick one –Give order +10 to a creature in your hand. –Draw a card.“
to
”Give order +10 to a creature in your hand. Draw a card.”

Bugfixes

These bug fixes will be coming in a future patch and are not released with the current bundle, but giving you a heads up so you can see the reasoning behind some changes!

Magnetic Blast – Rules correction.