v1.6.1: This one is for the Illusionists out there

This patch will never be released standalone. It will be released along with patch 1.6.2.

The Demon

(F8) has been renamed Demon. It also now has a banisher watermark. This is a flavor change, but has interactions with specific cards this patch.

Baneslayer Angel(5): 4/8 -> 5/12. "Haste. Lifelink. Dragon cannot strike me." -> "Lifelink. Dragon and Demon cannot strike me."

Shrapnel

This patch formally introduces Shrapnel, previewed in patch v1.6.0. To refresh your memory:

- Shrapnel is an illusionist-exclusive mechanic.

- Some cards instruct you to "store shrapnel". This is a counter stored on the player.

- Stored shrapnel is unleashed at the end of your turn. 1 shrapnel = 1 health lost by enemy creatures, divided as evenly as possible.

- Like shrapnel storm, this is health loss, not damage. W7 and F5 have no power here.

- Unlike shrapnel storm, overkill is not wasted. Excess shrapnel is retained for future turns.

To give you a card that gives you access to pure shrapnel:

Shrapnel Storage, Rank ?

! Store X shrapnel.

?

Dev comment: Note that this card scales weaker than Shrapnel Storm, to compensate for the fact that excess shrapnel is never wasted.

Some lore on heroism

As illusionist is the color of dealing with big monsters, illusionist is naturally the class of heroes. Heroes, notably, can be smaller than the monsters they fight.

In fiction, a hero faces a stronger villain, but via some bullshit by the author (TL: note, an oversight by the villain is some bullshit by the author, since the author intentionally planted that oversight), ends up winning. This is not only illogical (sure, sometimes the hero gets lucky, but when it happens 90-93%...), but would cause balance issues. If your 4 cost hero kept beating their 6 cost monster, nobody would want to play 6 cost monsters. So, instead, you get my preferred flavor of the hero - without help from you, they'll lose their life to the monster they are fighting, but their sacrifice can still win you the battle.

Scattershield Hero (Illusionist 4)

! Freeze my blocker. Store shrapnel equal to its power.

4/18

The name and effect should give you a good idea of the theming. Also, no fantasy game is complete without this specific brand of hero:

Dragonslayer (Illusionist 3)

! Deal damage to my blocker equal to its cost.

2/11

Dev comment: I like it when the name and mechanics go so well together. Can you tell that I'm a Melvin?

Shrapnellink

The real excitement of this patch is the new keyword, Shrapnellink. It's like lifelink but for shrapnel, I probably don't need to explain more.

Fragmentation Lance, Rank ?

@ enemy. Attack it.

Shrapnellink.

?

Dev Comment: I find Fragmentation Lance, Rank 1 to be incredibly useful. I think it's in fact too good for the cost, but the bots say its fine, so we'll see how it does on ladder.

Of course, I'm sure you are eager to combine Shrapnellink with other keywords on creatures. As such, I've included a number of creatures this patch to help you live your dreams.

First of all, Shrapnellink gets its own codex:

Codex of Shrapnellink [Illusionist 39]

Your leftmost non-banisher creature has Shrapnellink. Start frozen with 2 less aether.

Dev comment: You'll notice two things about this codex.

First of all, it's a lower life total than the one that gives lifelink. It's a better codex ability, because after a certain life total, lifelink gets diminishng returns but shrapnellink is always useful.

Secondly, it explicit calls out non-banisher. In the base set, this is just (F8). The combos were simply too powerful, as many banisher creatures also attack your own board, and Shrapnellink converts that downside into upside, often wiping your opponent's board in the process. Even with the multiclass penalty, these combinations were simply far too powerful.

To help illustrate how broken this combo was, in this patch, I've included the following card:

Shrapnel Demon (Illusionist 10)

! I strike each other creature.

Shrapnellink.

5/18

Yes, this is just a Demon with Shrapnellink. Yes, that keyword increases the cost of the card from 8 fire to 10 aether. This was the type of balance problem I was dealing with.

With this in mind, that granting Shrapnellink to the right creature can significantly increase its value, perhaps this will give you ideas for finding powerful Shrapnellink combos.

Here's a list of the new Shrapnellink cards, in order of cost. Remember that Magnetizing a creature only grants the power and keywords, not other passive abilities or lives.

Relay of Magnetic Shrapnel (Illusionist 4)

Magnetic. Shrapnellink. Takes damage (not overkill): store that much shrapnel.

0/17

Undercity Enforcer (Illusionist 7)

Haste. Shrapnellink.

4/20

Machine Turret (Illusionist 8)

Double Combat. Sweep. Shrapnellink. (F7) does not increase my power.

1/19x2

War Engine (Illusionist 11)

Haste. Magnetic. Sweep. Shrapnellink.

2/19x2