News  /  Strategy  /  Patch notes: June 30th, 2016

Patch notes: June 30th, 2016

Written by Abrakam  |  06/29/2016

A new patch introducing a brand new card! The mulligan system has been updated, and we've applied a set of balance changes and adjustments. The usual bug fixes and UI improvements are scattered throughout as well. Oh yeah, new card art too!

A new build-order strategy: The Forest Kick

New Mulligan system

Based on heavy amounts of player feedback, we made a change to our current Mulligan system. At the beginning of each game, you may now select individual cards in your starting hand to be discarded and redrawn, instead of "all or nothing". We feel this should give players more control over their position in the start of the game and prevent some negative feelings that can result from being stuck with a poor hand.

New card added

For the first time, harness the power of all four elements! Three Wishes allows you to sense your opponent's upcoming moves, then tap into those same powers for your own use.

As mentioned previously, this card is considered part of the core collection, and will be automatically awarded to anyone who has already purchased the Full Collection.

New features

  • You may now choose to re-roll one Daily Quest per day
  • Game reward changes:
    • Players now receive XP when winning against the AI at or below level 15
    • Players now receive XP in the first 3 friendly matches of the day
    • Players may now receive an extra star when winning against a player of a higher league
    • Players now recieve an extra star for first win of the day
    • Messages are now displayed explaining the reason behind each gained star
    • Players now receive 20 gold (instead of 10) for the first win of the day
    • Players no longer lose Elo rating when at the bottom of a league (except for rank 25). This ensures that players can't manipulate their rating to unfairly game the system.

Balance changes and card reworks

  • Cartographer
    Now has Last Words: Add an Explore to your hand.
    (Was Last Words: Create a lake, a forest, a mountain, and a desert at random)
    Note: Cartographer just cannot exist in a world where we'd like to continue to introduce 4 color cards and allow them to have powerful effects. Unfortunately, she had to be reworked to open up some breathing room for more design space. We hope with the recent power increase in elementals, going for four colors should be a more special experience.
  • Siege Engine
    Now 2/6. (Was 3/6).
  • Gemsilk Faerie
    Now gives +2/+2 and Charge 2 after drawing an event. (Was +2/0, Protection, and Charge 2)
  • Stormspawn
    No longer draws a card upon death.
  • Mirror Phantasm
    Is now 5/5, and transforms another creature into 5/5. (Was 4/4, 4/4)
  • Wavecrafter
    Now requires 3 Lakes. (Was 2 Lakes.)
  • Tale of the Old Turtle
    Now 6f LL. Draw 3 cards. All creatures drawn this way costs 2f less.
    (Was 6f LLL, Add 3 random blue cards to your hand. They cost 3 less.)
  • Ruunin’s champion
    Now 4f 2/6, effect reduced to +2/+2. (Was 6f 3/6, effect +3/+3)
  • Dune Drake
    Is now 4f D. (Was 4f DD)
  • Shamanic Dance Is now 2f, and effect reduced to +0/+4 and Taunt (Was 3f, +0/+5 and Taunt)
  • Fire Elemental Is now a 5/2 and Gift - Create a Mountain (Was a 1/4, with Gift - Create a Mountain, Combat - Deal 2 damage to a random enemy creature)
  • Frogify (Common) and Humbling Vision (Rare) have swapped rarities. (Check here for an explanation on how rarity changes are refunded automatically to you)
  • Transformation interactions:
    A consistency issue has been corrected involving Protection and Haste: Transforming into a creature with Protection now gives Protection and transforming into a creature with Haste now gives Haste. The reverse of this is also true: transforming a creature with Haste or Protection into one without loses its Haste or Protection. Yes, this means after transforming a Ninja Toad, the new creature will no longer be able to attack (Unless it is transformed into a creature with Haste).

We realize this is a big interaction change for those used to the current game mechanics, but it's a behavior we've wanted to make more consistent for some time now, and we hope it now makes more logical sense.

We consider tokens on the board to be "entities." Entities may be a creature or structure and have any number of "characteristics," like Protection, Ranged, or Flying. When transforming an entity, creatures take on the characteristic(s) of the creature they transform into. For instance, when a Ranged creature transforms into a creature without Ranged, it can no longer attack from range. Whether or not that entity can attack or activate at all depends on the normal rules of summoning sickness- unless the new creature happens to have the characteristic of Haste. Therefore, when a Haste creature is now transformed into a non-Haste creature, it no longer can attack if it was summoned the same turn. The same now holds true for Protection, and creatures will gain or lose it after transformation depending on their characteristics. This should now make all transformation effects and Keyword behavior consistent in logic across the board.

(A more in-depth explanation of the balance changes can be found here)

UI adjustments and improvements, and features

  • The "compass" animation used for delivering the Explore card has been removed. We will be further reworking the flow of the start of the game in the future.
  • All Card Layouts have been updated
  • Many other small UI improvements
  • Background ambient SFX have been added to the game
  • Player levels are now hidden in Unranked mode.

Bug fixes

  • Hate Seed's cost should no longer decrease when it shouldn't decrease, regardless of how much it wants to.
  • Fixed an issue where tokens on board were not highlighting properly
  • Fixed an issue where tournament lobbies sometimes couldn't launch correctly.
  • Fixed lobby invite issue when two players invite each other at the same time
  • Fixed an issue in Pandora where a life of 0 was sometimes displayed on events that were transformed from creatures by a shard.

New Card art

  • Rebel Slinger
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Vitaliy)
  • King’s Faithful
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Vitaliy)
  • Blood Singer
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Tokkun Studio)
  • Blood Obelisk
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Tokkun Studio/Andrey)
  • Barbarian Ogre
    (Concept> Christophe - Illustration > Tokkun Studio)
  • Battle Rager
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Tokkun Studio/Andrey)
  • Khalim’s Follower
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Vitaliy)
  • Demon Wrangler
    (Yuan)
  • Bomb Slinger
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Tokkun Studio)
  • Axe Grinder
    (Concept> Jordi/Franck - Illustration > Tokkun Studio/Andrey)

Note: The order listed above does not necessarily match the image. Can you figure out which is which before you log in?

  • The Faeria Team