Update: The Sleep 2.0 PTR test is over! After all of your feedback, we've decided to go back to the drawing board with sleep before taking further steps. Check out our findings here.
Hey mortals, wake up!
We’ve been working on a change to sleep – the mechanic that sends creatures to snooze town. Sleep has been a priority for us as we’ve had a lot of community feedback about how difficult it is to shake, and we want to make it more dynamic and less crippling. This one is a while off from hitting Beta, but we wanted to test it out on the PTR to get the community’s input before building it out further.
We’ve dubbed the new version used in this test “Sleep 2.0” as a temporary name, but before we dive into it, let’s take a look at the current sleep rules.
Sleep 1.0
Sleep currently puts a creature in a sleep-state, forcing it to skip a turn. The sleeping creature is unable to attack or use any abilities it has. A sleeping creature will remain asleep for one full turn – so if an opponent sleeps your creature during their turn, your creature will wake up at the start of your opponent's next turn.
This has several problems:
- An opponent can immediately sleep your creatures again.
- Your board can be locked up with sleeping creatures, who can be whittled down with attacks that they sleep right through.
- It fits naturally with other stall plans to create stall/wipe cycles as the dominant control strategy; this means that we are limited on the types of high-mana cards we can print, as sleep allows an almost guaranteed way for Death and Deception to get to late game against any deck plan.
Sleep 2.0
It’s important to note that we’re not reinventing the wheel here. Sleep 2.0 retains this same functionality, with one small adjustment: a creature that takes damage while sleeping will wake up. We feel that this will lead to more interesting play, and to support this change, we’ve made some adjustments to some Core cards to increase their flexibility.
This change comes with the following benefits:
- Sleep counterplay is no longer tied to specific, hard-to-include tech cards.
- God powers such as Magic’s Magebolt become a flexible choice against sleep-control decks.
- Control decks in the future can have higher late-game power levels without freely being able to get there against any creature-based deck.
Core card changes
To support this test, we’re pushing the following Core card changes to PTR alongside the sleep bundle to give players inventive ways to counter sleep actions.
Athenian Archer – Text changed.
- Change text from “Roar: Deal 1 damage to an enemy creature.”
to
”Roar: Deal 1 damage.”
Carthaginian Marine – Text changed.
- Change text from “Roar: Deal 2 damage to an enemy creature.”
to
”Roar: deal 2 damage.”
Dwarf Atlant – Text changed.
- Change text from “Roar: Deal 1 damage to an enemy creature.”
to
”Roar: Deal 1 damage.”
Ranger Firstbow – Text changed.
- Change text from “Roar: Deal 1 damage to an enemy creature.”
to
”Roar: Deal 1 damage.”
Veteran Archer – Text changed.
- Change text from “Roar: Deal 1 damage to two enemy creatures. You may select the same creature twice.”
to
”Roar: Deal 1 damage to two targets. You may select the same target twice.”
Wildfire – Text changed.
- Change text from: “Deal 1 damage to each of your opponents creatures. Give +1/+1 and Regen +1 to your wild creatures.”
to
“Deal 1 damage to each creature. Give +1/+1 and Regen +1 to your wild creatures.”
Wen?
The above changes will be hitting the PTR (Public Test Realm) for 48 hours between 4pm, Jan 31 PST – 4pm Feb 2 PST. Need help navigating to the PTR? See our PTR guide to get set up and running. Keep in mind the PTR is only open for a limited time, so you won’t be able to access it before or after the above dates.
Deck Codes
The PTR gives you access to a wider range of cards than you may currently have access to in your regular deck, so you’ll want to fill your deck with sleepy builds to properly test out the above functionality. Below are some deck codes (guide to using deck codes) from the team to help you get in a game much quicker.
Sleep decks
Boardwipe Death
GU_1_1_CCcCCcBACBACBDLBDLBEwBEwIAIBCxBCxHBIHBIBAFBAFBCzCDTCDTGAjBEWBEWGAdBGkBDFBDFBBqBBqCCaGAMIBy
Sleep Deception
GU_1_2_BBJGAeIAlIAlBDtBEXBEXBEsBEsCCMCCMBCzICyBGeIDDGBEGBECCNCEQICHICHGBGCAJCAJCCgBBqBBqBGfGCWCCS
Zombie Combo
GU_1_1_BACBACBAuBAuBBTBBTBDEBDEBDLBDLBEXBEXBEwGAEGAFGAFGAHGAHCCbCCbCCcCDTCDTIAEIAFIAFIAGIAGIBZIBZ
Death on Death
GU_1_1_BACBACBAFBAFBBqBBqBBrBCxBCxBCzBDFBDFBDLBDLBEWBEWBEwBEwBGkGAdCCaCCcCCcCDTCDTCESCESIAIHBIHBI
Ramp magic
GU_1_4_BBqBBqBDrBDrBEaBGEBGEBGuBHFGCOCANCANCARCAoCBjCEkCEkCEnCEnIBDIBDIBlIBlIBnIBnIBpIBpIByICHICH
Control War
GU_1_6_BBqBBqBDoBDoBDyBDyBEXBEXBFABHEDAFDAFGBMGBTGBUCACCACCAXCAZCAZCBBCBBCCuIDgIDkIDmIDrCDCCDCCDA
Sleep counter decks
Light Board Wipe
GU_1_3_CDFCBKCBKIChIChCBNCBaCBaHAFHAFCDoCDoGBXGBXCBhCBhCDSCDSCBHCBHCEdCEdICkICkCBICBIICbBGPBGPCBM
Tempo Spell Magic
GU_1_4_BDWBDWBDrBDrGAVGAVGCmCANCANCAmCAmCEkCEkCEpCEqCEqCErCErIBAIBBIBBIBGIBGIBHIBiIBmIBqIBqIBrHBS
Wild Nature
GU_1_5_BALBALBCCBCCBEXBEXBFLBFLGAwCATCATCAuCAuCBxCBxCCOCCOCDLCDLIDFIDFIDMIDOIDOHAEHAECByCByCArCAr
Guild Deck
GU_1_2_BEoBEsGAeGBpGCOCAJCCMCCMCCQCCRCCRCDDCDDIAfIAfIAhIAlIAmIAoIAoICHICHIClIClICnICqICyIDACDACDA
Frenzy War
GU_1_6_IAVIAVBFvHAgHAgCDZCDZBDoBDoCBhCBhCDqCDqIDjIDjCBBCBBIDkHAcHAcIAZIAZIDoIDoIDmICHICHCAXCAXCCL
It’s time to move away from the “you snooze, you lose” mentality we’ve seen in the Arena and snap into action!
