December 12th - Balance Updates

Similar to last month, December features time off for our staff, so we're only planning one OTA for the month again. The metagame is in healthy shape–there's a clear best deck in Surtur, but tons of other viable strategies can win at the highest level. Today's OTA will shave a little strength from the top dog, and shake up a few other things along the way. 

• Arishem
  • [Old] 7/7 - At the start of the game, +1 Max Energy. Shuffle 15 random cards into your deck.
  • [New]7/7 - Game Start: Shuffle 12 new cards into your deck. On turn 3, get +1 Max Energy.

Since release, Arishem has been among the most played and discussed cards in the game. After some early balance, the archetype's winrate and cube rate both settled into a competitive but acceptable range. However, its play rate has continued to crest above our preferred threshold for metagame diversity. That band is a little more lax in Arishem's case–the deck itself adds a lot of variety to the gameplay experience–but we've reached its limit. So, we're adjusting Arishem to start giving additional Energy on turn 3. In addition to removing two Energy overall, this changes how aggressively the deck can deploy pressure. Since this is a solid nerf, we're also reverting to 12 random cards.However, in reading through frustrations around Arishem, one element that came up often was playing against cards created randomly that were also in Arishem's starting deck. Predicting Arishem is already hard, but accounting for "doubles" tends to make it even harder. That aspect isn't crucial to Arishem, so we've adjusted the effect to only add cards that didn't start in your deck.Lastly, you'll see above that we updated the text's structure. We'd planned to make this change in 2025, shortening "start of game" triggers into a keyword, but we're previewing it a bit early since Arishem's change was ready to go. 

• Typhoid Mary
  • [Old] 4/10 - Ongoing: Your other cards here have -1 Power.
  • [New] 4/10 - Ongoing: Your other cards here have -2 Power.

Since we shifted Typhoid Mary to focus the drawback on one location, Mary's seen a big surge in play and winrate, fueling variations of the Surtur shell. Surtur is still the clear best deck, so we want to weaken some of its core slightly–but many of the cards don't have "wiggle room" given the significance of 10 Power and specifics of their effects. We could revert Typhoid Mary, but chose to pursue this middle ground instead given the new design was more fun to play with. 

• Alioth
  • [Old] 6/10 - On Reveal: Remove the text from all unrevealed enemy cards here.
  • [Change] 6/10 -> 6/9

Similarly, Alioth is unnecessarily providing some extra tools to a strong Surtur strategy. We use Alioth as a fairly specific kind of tool, and churning its strength is one of the ways we can create fluctuation within the metagame. It doesn't need any special help to earn the right slots. 

• Enchantress
  • [Old] 4/5 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards here.
  • [Change]4/5 - 4/6

Since the last time we experimented with this improvement to Enchantress, a fair bit has changed–including how often people play Enchantress. That's noteworthy because several strong Ongoing cards are current pillars of the metagame: U.S. Agent, Darkhawk, Quinjet, Gorr, and Morbius, at least. Rogue has been doing a lot of heavy lifting lately, and we do want Enchantress to also serve as an effective dial, so more Power is warranted. 

• Black Widow
  • [Old] 3/4 - Activate: Add a Widow's Bite to your opponent's hand.
  • [Change]3/4 -> 3/3

Shifting Black Widow to Activate didn't weaken her as much as we expected–it's possible the Grand Master shenanigans were a distraction, and these decks are better when they're more focused. Since we did still want to wind up with a Black Widow nerf, we're reverting the stats back to 3/3. 

• Frigga
  • [Old] 3/3 - On Reveal: Add a copy of the last card you played to your hand. (if able)
  • [Change]3/3 -> 3/4

We were conservative with Frigga, because cards that copy other cards can multiply other buffs in unpredictable ways. Given Frigga has turned out to need some more strength, some extra Power may help Frigga find a more consistent home. 

• Shuri
  • [Old] 4/1 - On Reveal: If you play your next card at this location, double its Power.
  • [Change]4/1 -> 4/3

How the times have changed! Once a metagame tyrant, Shuri fell to the bottom range of our winrates for individual cards last week. Given the card supports unique gameplay flows, we wanted to restore a bit of glory to it now that a range of archetypes are capable of competing with its Power output. 

• Lockjaw
  • [Old] 4/4 - After you play a card here, swap it with a card in your deck.
  • [Change]4/4 -> 4/5

Uncapping Lockjaw's swaps brought Lockjaw back to life, but there's room for a little more. One major element holding Lockjaw back has been the continued success of Darkhawk decks, which threaten to incidentally shut Lockjaw down, but that's not the only bad matchup. A point of Power will help Lockjaw more often hold its own. 

• Stormbreaker
  • [Old] 0/1 - On Reveal: Double Beta Ray Bill's Power.
  • [Change] 0/1 -> 0/3

The "Asgard deck" that leans on Jane Foster to consistently buff Thor and Beta Ray Bill to new heights is one of our more novel and creatively satisfying decks. As such, we want it to be a solid contender in competitive metagames. However, the deck has fallen on hard times, and Beta Ray Bill was one of the weaker pieces. A 7th Power for Bill would buff the base rate while also being doubled alongside Stormbreaker, which is a bit more strength than we want to add right now. Distributing some Power to the axe is a nice middle ground. 

• Cerebro
  • [Old] 3/0 - Ongoing: Your highest-Power cards have +2 Power.
  • [Change] 3/0 -> 2/0

We love Cerebro–it's a novel deck that challenges deckbuilding prowess. But with the recent uptick in strategies using strong Ongoing cards, it's suffered a bit of splash damage along the way. OTA changes also often impact Cerebro, forcing the deck to adapt constantly. This is a pretty big change, but it might be just what Cerebro needs. 

• Elsa Bloodstone
  • [Old] 3/3 - Each card you play to fill your side of a location gains +2 Power.
  • [Change] 3/3 -> 3/4

Last but not least, we're giving Elsa Bloodstone an additional point of Power. There's a lot of competition among 3-Cost buildarounds right now, and we want Elsa fighting on even ground. Happy Winterverse to all! —That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!