v1.3.8: Your Complaining Party

Just a balance patch, addressing some stat outliers. I've got some complaints about cards from players, so I ran a few thousand game on dev env.

First Sucks!

True. The latest stats on prod substantiate that. First has been adjusted from -3hp to -2hp.

Approach of the Second Sun is too strong!

Not really? I've done some additional testing on dev. If the AI does not value gaining the charges, it only performs average. If the AI attempts to aggressively go for it, their winrate drops severely, as they get run over before they can win with it.

My testing on dev says its performing at +1 sigma over 1000 games (aka, within the range of statistical noise) when not making much use of the ability, likely due to the power of simply being a 47hp core. This is a new test conducted today, in addition to my original test when making the unit.

The point that was made was that this core invalidates a lot of control strategies, at the cost of only 1hp. This is true, and a human would probably be a better judge than a bot of when to go for it. Also I let the tests run more and the sigma is up. As such, it is being adjusted from [47] to [46].

Rally with E7 is too polarizing a combination!

I don't track stats on two card combos, but I've done some testing with Rally to try to feel it out. It seems that it does have a strong combo with E7 (about the power level of F7 + E4, which is the edge of acceptable.) It also combos with E4, as well as skeletons.

Whether or not this card is too polarizing does not matter, because I dislike how much this affects deckbuilding. As such, Rally is being changed slightly, to fix the polarization problem, which should also help soften the E4 and E7 interaction a little.

It now also has the text: "This effect cannot more than triple the current power of a creature." The card has been adjusted as follows:

(Yes, I had to run hundreds of games for EVERY tier to get the balance right.)

Dev comment: one would think this nerf would affect at least rank 6's playability...

AI is spamming basic meditate!

The stats on basic meditate both in prod and the dev server are too good. It's been reverted back to +4 life.

(No comments on Chromatic Sphere)

Yet my stats give me pretty convincing evidence rank 7 is too strong anyways.

It no longer has "heal yourself" in the text box, and has been given a life adjustment.

Ignite is underpowered!

Based on testing, Ignite is balanced.

While it may look significantly inferior to vitality, the nature of aethermancer is that a 80-40 hp advantage is usually less valuable than a 40-20 hp advantage, and ignite provides the latter.

Stormcaller too?

I gave it a run. Seems balanced.

I use three hits of Poison Darts to kill an elemental and...

This is not okay! Back when poison darts was first printed, elementals had 23 hp. Now that they have 20, three hits will kill an elemental, which infringes on illusionist color pie. As such, damage to creature from poison darts has been reduced from 7 to 6. To compensate, the life adjustment has been changed as such, based on some bot tests:

...well, never mind.

Shadowbomber was balanced for use with Vitality. Now that Vitality is a lot strong, isn't the combo overpowered?

Human testing says yes. Shadowbomber has been nerfed from 3/7 to 3/4.

Monument to Rage is -3.1 sigma!

Oh hey, people actually look at stats? Sure, hp has been returned to 39.

New Cards

Ticking Clock [Evoker 37]

Your opponent starts the game with -1 regeneration.

Dev comment: I thought this card would need to have a lower life total than this, but the bots are saying 38 is fine. (I don't entirely believe that, so I'm doing 37 to be a bit conservative.) Oh well, if it turns out to be too good, people can just tech a vitality.

Arrows (Banisher Ranked)

Target lane. Damage enemies in that and adjacent lanes.

Turn (Illusionist "Ranked")

For consistency, Bolas's text has been changed from "My blocker attacks the opponent. Destroy it." to "My blocker strikes the opponent. Destroy it." Inferno Tower, Glacius, Monument to Rage, and Ice Spirit has been similarly updated.

The new terminology:

In the combat phase, a creature attacks.

An attack causes that creature to strike one or more (eg. with !) things. 

Creatures deal damage when striking.

If two creatures fight, they strike each other. This is not considered an attack, and thus will not trigger things (such as !) that take effect on attack.