8/10 Balance Changes, and Draft & Expedition Update

Today we’re announcing some needed nerfs that hit the Rakano Surge deck, some buffs to existing cards, as well as some additions for Draft and Expedition in the Eternal Draft Packs. These changes will all go live on Monday, August 10th.

Nerfs

• Silverblade Intrusion – Now needs six justice influence to create and draw a Valkyrie Denouncer, and the enemy player needs six cards to play an additional one. (Was five influence and four cards in the enemy’s hand)
• Friends in Low Places
  • Now 2FJ (was 2FFJJ)
  • Now “Give a unit +4/+4 this turn. FFFFFFFF: Play four 1/1 Rustlings. JJJJJJJJ: Draw a unit with 4-cost or less from the top four cards of your deck and give it Aegis. Bottom the Rest” (was “Give a unit +4/+4 this turn, then plunder. FFFFFF: Play four 1/1 Rustlings. JJJJJJ: Play a unit with 4-cost or less from the top four cards of your deck and give it Aegis. Bottom the rest.”)
• Ironthorn, Lawman – Now 3/1 (was 3/2)

Silverblade Intrusion and Friends in Low Places are two powerful combat tricks with upside that add to the board. Ultimately, they’ve been proven too reliable to fully unlock early in games, leading to Rakano decks that consistently and quickly snowball games away. Thus, we’re upping the requirements on both spells before their fully unlocked versions are reached. Additionally, while we considered other changes to Friends in Low Places, like lowering the cost of units it plays, we settled on changing it to just draw the unit to preserve it as an impactful tool versus slower strategies while still reducing how much it can do early in games. Finally, we’re moving a source of a lot of influence—Ironthorn, Lawman—down to 1 Health to make him a bit easier to interact with.

(Note: As Silverblade Intrusion is from a campaign, players who purchased the base version of the campaign will receive 1,250 gold and owners of the premium campaign will receive 2,500 gold.)

• Helio, the Skywinder – Now 6P (was 5P)

Another powerful reward for accumulating lots of influence, at 5, Helio has proven a bit too efficient at accumulating cards compared to other options.

Buffs

• Ruby Catalyst – Now 2F (was 3F)
• Doorknocker – Now 3FF (was 4FF)
• Inspiring Captain – Now 1T (was 2T)
• Safe Return – Now 1TJ (was 2TJ)
• Accelerated Evolution – Now 2TP (was 3TP)
• Nahid's Faithful – Now 2/2 (was 2/1)
• Buh-ton, Death's Reach – Now gives Voidbound to the unit it kills. (Was just kill)

Some buffs to help expand the range of viable strategies in both Throne and Expedition.

• Bouldergate Guard – Now “Summon: Plunder.” (Was no Summon)
• Razor Lash – Now “Summon: Plunder.” (Was no Summon)
• Syl, Cabal Strongarm – Now “Summon: Plunder.” (Was no Summon)

The community response to Plunder has been overwhelmingly positive, and we’re adding Plunder to a handful of cards from Argent Depths to give a few more options.

We’re also adding some cards to the Eternal Draft Pack with a look towards improving faction balance in draft, and increasing support for the five Vow-combinations in Expedition. Here are some of the highlights, but you can find the complete list of what’s in the draft pack here.

• Pyroknight
• Obliterate
• Cen Wastes Smuggler
• East Annex Smuggler
• Rime Conclave Smuggler
• Blight Pass Smuggler
• Pearl Abbey Smuggler
• Den of Ordeals
• Honored Skyguard
• Bloodseeker
• Azindel's Gift
• Shimmerpack