Eternal’s June 1st patch addresses a variety of bugs present in Unleashed, and brings significant balance changes to all three major formats. The patch notes can be seen directly below, followed by a full list of all the live balance changes with commentary from Eternal designer Patrick Sullivan.

Patch Notes 6/1/2022

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue preventing Resonance Wave from having Inscribe as intended

• Fixed an issue where Katra, the First Seal could block non-spell cards from leaving the enemy void

• Fixed an issue where “When directly targeted” effects were incorrectly triggered by AoE Inscribe spells

• Fixed an issue where Black Book Enforcer used damaged health values in its comparison.

• Fixed an issue where Mystical Shackles’ summon wasn’t stopped by Grand Suppressor.

• Fixed an issue where Full Tilt bypassed unit Aegis

• Fixed an issue where Kaleb, Glory-Seeker could draw Voidbound cards from the void

• Fixed an issue where Treasury Gate did not give proper stats when Lunar Claw was played and Strength was chosen

• Fixed an issue where Can’t Remember differentiated between premium, non-premium, and alt-art

• Restored the fix for the issue where some cards with “when you play another unit” abilities could incorrectly trigger when played by Poacher’s Menagerie

• Restored the fix for the issue where Counting Room didn’t prevent some Entomb abilities that draw from the void

Card Fixes:

• Added a dynamic damage value to Display of Survival’s text

• Corrected the skill hanger on Display of Law

Known Issues:

• Resonance Wave can grant the temporary buff to a unit in your hand.

• Gift of Xulta functions incorrectly when copying Xenan Obelisk

• Blackmaw Carnosaur can gain/lose Lifesteal during battle damage.

• Genetrix Irel, Wayward’s stat buff applies before Unleash, unlike similar abilities.

• Halotipped Spray doesn’t remove relic weapon armor before it deals damage.

• Collaboration counts only one faction from each multifaction unit

• Sleight of Hand doesn’t transform power cards when triggers resulted from the draw

• Draconic Looting can prevent Unleash spells from creating copies

• Stutterstep doesn’t reinstall some abilities when the unit reappears

• Sundown Accord doesn’t copy permanent modifications to the drawn spell

• Can’t Remember can’t be targeted by Corrupt

Live Balance Update 6/1/2022

Hello, I’m Patrick Sullivan, one of the designers on Eternal, and what follows is a lengthy live balance update, with substantial changes to many prominent cards in our Throne, Expedition, and Draft formats. Many of these changes are geared towards taking some rate and representation out of a handful of Fire, Shadow, and Justice staples in Expedition, while significantly changing the shape of Draft.

Constructed-Oriented Nerfs:

All crafted cards listed below will be eligible for their full Shiftstone value in refund, or in Gold if they were purchased.

Autotread (now ability can be activated once per turn and 1/2, was unlimited and 1/1)

Bullseye (now kills relic weapons, was any relic)

Carnivorous Yearling (now ability gives +1/+1, was +2/+2)

Syl, No Regrets (now 2/3, was 1/3 with Double Damage)

Furious Magniventris (now 3/4, was 3/5)

Helena, Skyguide (now 3/3, was 3/4)

Valley Spring (now 4 cost, was 3)

Most of these changes are oriented around Expedition, with only Autotread as a Throne-only card, though all the above show up in Throne to a significant degree as well. In Expedition, Justice has been by far the most played faction for an extended period of time, with Fire and Shadow rounding out most of the remainder of the format. The goal with the above is to pull back on certain cards whose rate and ubiquity have pushed down Primal and Time cards to a degree we believe is unhealthy.

Bullseye is a generally healthy form of interaction, but at one cost, fast, and with a powerful “out” against people without Relics it is challenging to design cards that can compete with its rate and flexibility in handling both units and relics. Destroying relic weapons at fast is an extremely powerful tempo play under the right circumstances, and it still doubles as on-rate unit interaction. We hope this change gives more breathing space for other sorts of counterplay a home, while also allowing for more non-weapon relics to be plausible to play or build around.

Syl, No Regrets was simply too powerful and intense against spells. Having a unit that’s absurd against Harsh Rule is one thing, and having a unit that provides incidental lift against Suffocate and Torch is another. Bundling these characteristics into one unit is too much, to say nothing of it also producing incredibly bursty sequences with its Contract. We anticipate this card will still be strong without being overly oppressive or extreme as it was with its previous incarnation.

Carnivorous Yearling, Helena, Skyguide, and Furious Magniventris all contributed to a very high representation for Rakano, Argenport, and three-faction decks since Valley Beyond was released. With their previous stats, they were all too hard to interact with profitably, particularly for Time and Primal. They all had a little room to give, and we expect them to all be plausible constructed cards in their current forms.

Valley Spring does not have an alarming win rate, but its opaque play pattern and representation on the ladder are troubling features nonetheless. At four-cost, we believe the card still enables a variety of novel cards and play patterns at a much lower risk of becoming one of the strongest cards in the format.

Autotread is the lone nerf here that speaks exclusively to Throne. While the card currently has a spotlight on it due to its interaction with Nico, Urban Hunter, it has facilitated a number of infinite combos in Eternal’s history, as well as showing up in decks looking to put cards in their void, empty their hand, or just attack and block efficiently. This change preserves much of the “normal” or even synergistic uses while cutting off the combos, and in exchange is picking up an additional point of health.

Note: As Furious Magniventris, Valley Spring, and Carnivorous Yearling are only available from the Valley Beyond set, falling outside of our normal system for refunding crafted cards, we are giving a one-time grant of a 1,250 gold each to users who purchased this set. Users who upgraded the cards will receive an additional 1,250 gold. Players will of course keep all their copies of those cards.

Syl's Stronghold, a recent Eternal Chapters promo card, is now slightly nerfed with a nerf to the Hero card at the end of this site’s agenda. For players who purchased the Heroic Upgrade, they’ll receive a one-time grant of 2,500 gold and players who purchased the catch-up base bundle, 750 gold.

Constructed-Oriented Buffs:

Display of Passion (now deals 8 damage to a unit with Endurance or Lifesteal, was previously 5)

We wanted to give Fire some additional interaction against some large Justice units that see a lot of play, most notably Black Book, Pit Boss and Spire Loyalist, on top of some of the units that are receiving live balance attention. Display of Passion comes at very little risk of being overplayed due to its restrictive influence requirements so if it happens to be a bit more appealing and powerful with this new functionality that’s an outcome we’re going to be happy with.

Draft-Oriented Buffs:

Hydrate (now only can be played on your units and puts a copy of the buffed unit into your deck, was any and did not copy units)

Feln Adept (now 2-cost, was 3-cost)

Gryffyn Bomber (now 4-cost, was 5-cost)

Ice Glider (now 2/3, was 2/2)

Last Call (now also grants Lifesteal)

Tomb of the Azuremage (now costs 8 to ultimate, was 9)

Through The Unknown (now fast spell)

Party Crasher (now 4/2, was 3/2)

Panic Ensues (now the enemy unit also deals 1 damage to its owner)

Nodoran Collects (now 2-cost, was 3-cost)

Concealed Derringer (now +3/0, was +2/0)

Bust Out (now 5-cost, was 6-cost)

While some of these changes could impact constructed, they were primarily made with an eye towards Draft, particularly in improving Frenzy and providing them a deeper pool of cards to synergize with that strategy.

Draft-Oriented Side Buffs

Though we believe each of these cards has become more powerful, in each instance its either not strictly better or has significant enough functionality changes that crafted copies are eligible for a full refund in Shiftstone

Corps Repairman (now 5-cost 3/3 with summon: you may discard a card to play a 1/1 Valkyrie with Flying and Warcry, was 4-cost 2/3 with Ultimate: Pay 3 to play that unit)

Forgotten Youth (now gains 3 Health on Frenzy, was 1 Health)

Alicia, Unafraid (now 2/4 Lifesteal Unblockable and when she attacks swap a unit’s Strength and Health, was 1/4 Unblockable with Frenzy: +3 Strength and Lifesteal this turn)

Dunewave (now 3-cost and puts enemy units with flying on the bottom of their owner’s deck, was 4-cost and silenced and bounced attackers back to their owner’s hand)

Yeti Pugilist (now 1/1 and Frenzy: +3/+3, was 1/2 and +2/+2)

Thirsty Bat (now 2/1 with Frenzy: Lifesteal this turn, was 1/1 with Frenzy: Lifesteal and +1 Strength this turn

Praxis Adept (now 0/1 and +1 Maximum power, was 1/1)

Again, much of this is with an eye towards improving Frenzy, with a few changes outside of that with the hopes of giving new and increased purpose to a handful of cards that are currently not seeing much play even in Draft.

Draft-Oriented Nerfs

Crafted copies of each card listed below are eligible for their full refund in Shiftstone

Insect Swarm (now 3-cost 1/2, was 2-cost 1/1)

Greenstretch Gryffyn (now Unleash if you have another unit with flying, was always Unleash)

Aerial Deployment (was random Valkyrie, now random Valkyrie or Bird)

Stoneskin (now +2 Health is this turn, was permanent)

The two unleash flyers were among our best-performing commons, and lead to some repetitive experiences over time. We hope both of these versions are less powerful and more varied than their previous incarnations. Aerial Deployment can now hit an increased range of units, hopefully making the card much more varied in practice.

We think each of our formats will be markedly improved with this set of changes, and as always thank you for your continued support of Eternal.

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