October 10th - Balance Updates

Today we have some nerfs to a couple of top decks in the interest of diversifying more of the metagame, along with a handful of Power buffs. Oh, and the return of Zabu! 

• Zabu
  • [Old] 2/3 - On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.
  • [New] 1/2 - On Reveal: On Reveal: Give each 4-Cost card in your deck -1 Cost.

We know it's been a long wait to see an update to Zabu, and we hope you find this one satisfying. For quite some time our intent was to use Activate to land on a new Zabu, but we couldn't find a design that hit the right mark between too weak and too strong with that ability. This version fueled some novel strategies internally, and we like how a 1-Cost Zabu paired thematically with Shanna and Ka-Zar, so we're looking forward to seeing it in the wild. 

• Hellcow
  • [Old] 4/6 - Activate: Discard 2 cards from your hand.
  • [New] 4/7 - Activate: Discard a card from your hand.

The change from On Reveal to Activate for Hellcow accomplished our goal of adding life to a card that had fallen out of use, but we overshot the mark with regard to its strength in Hela decks. Those decks have persisted at a play rate higher than we'd like, even though the winrates have been flat. To add further pressure in the interest of a diverse metagame, we're tweaking Hellcow to be less effective in the deck. 

• Widow's Kiss (White Widow)
  • [Old] 0/0 - Ongoing: This has -3 Power. Disable this ability if your side of this location is full.
  • [New] 0/-4 - Destroy this when your side of this location is full.

An archetype we've learned a lot about over the last year is the "clog" deck, a broad term describing decks that aim to win by filling up enemy locations before turn 6. These decks were weak for a long time, but as we explored the design space they've become a consistent mainstay. Clog decks do provide a meaningful metagame pressure that we want to retain, but our current suite of clog cards has proven too strong. The decks are overperforming, but we're also challenged as designers because we want to make new cards for every archetype, but don't want to have more clog cards on par with White Widow.Moving forward, we're going to aim for more of our clog cards to have "out" clauses that let the opponent adjust their play to free up a location. This will make them more fun to play against, and also allow us to create more cards in the space. This particular change is a solid knock to White Widow, and we'll monitor her performance in its wake in case it merits more compensation. One thing we do like about it is that Red Guardian is now a combo with Yelena! 

• Viper
  • [Old] 3/5 - On Reveal: One of your other cards here with the lowest Power switches sides.
  • [Change] 3/5 -> 3/4

Similarly, our change to Viper has created a card that's very effective at its job–so effective that we think it could stand to lose a point of Power. We could've reverted to the old effect that gave away a random card, but we think this design has ended up more fun for the Viper player by enough to justify solving with an adjustment to the Power instead. 

• Kingpin, Scream, and Fisk Tower
  • [Change] No longer affects unrevealed cards.

We generally don’t let things afflict unrevealed cards unless otherwise stated, but these cards and location weren’t consistent with that philosophy. While Juggernaut specifies that he can move unrevealed cards, these don’t in turn state that they can afflict unrevealed cards. It’s important that we keep interactions consistent and predictable. If Kingpin can afflict unrevealed cards, then it gets confusing if Hazmat can’t.While we could have maintained these as exceptions or even added more exceptions, that's a slippery slope that burdens players. We've been happy with holding a line on the game ignoring unrevealed cards unless necessary for a specific function, such as Juggernaut. One reason is that it's much easier to visually track what happens to them and more consistent for implementing elements like VFX. We hope this will help keep interactions in the game intuitive and consistent. 

• Scream
  • [Old] 2/2 - When an enemy card moves, steal 2 Power from it. (once per turn)
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 2/3

We're aware that losing the interaction with Juggernaut is a knock to Scream's strength, and many players may even have been specifically excited to acquire Scream based on this combination of effects. To compensate, we’re giving Scream a small buff. 

• Grand Master
  • [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Move one of your other On Reveal cards here to the middle location. Its ability happens again.
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 2/3

Grand Master is a really fun card to brew decks with, and it's been underperforming. This extra Power shouldn't put it over the top, but removes some of the downside of leaning into a card that has some situational hurdles to climb already. 

• Emperor Hulkling
  • [Old] 6/11 - At the start of the game, copy the text of a random 6-Cost card.
  • [Change] 6/11 -> 6/12

Our internal testing yielded some very powerful Hulklings, but we overcorrected on those balance results and released this card weaker than we'd have preferred to target. We know 5-Cost is a popular request, but that version of the card was in particular too strong. We're going to stick at 6-Cost and find more fun with more Power. 

• Okoye
  • [Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Give every card in your deck +1 Power.
  • [Change] 2/2 -> 2/3

Last but not least, a classic card from early Series play. Okoye has been left behind by some stronger scaling 2-Cost cards lately, but Okoye also does some solid work alongside cards like Scarlet Spider. Like Grand Master, this is a fun card that's seeing less play than we'd prefer, so we're adding some Power. — That's all for this week. Until next time, happy snapping!