Bugfix & Balance Patch | IWC 0.88.3 Beta Patch Notes

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[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]
Increased default maximum Hand size from 7 to 8.


Rita, Unshackled Increased draw limit from 7 to 8 to accompany hand size changes


Jewel of Madness
Increased card draw hand count limit from 6 to 7 and changed trigger from start of turn to End of turn.

Goal: Jewel of Madness hasn’t made a splash in competitive play much yet, but it was significantly overperforming in testing for its cost and purity. We want Jewel to help enable big-hand strategies but require a bit of dedication to get value from, so the threshold of cards needed was increased (This also conveniently preserves symmetry with Crystal of Madness). Additionally, it was unintended for the trigger to count the card you drew in the same turn, so the trigger was changed from start of turn to end of turn, so that you can better measure by the cards left in your hand when you end the planning phase.


Thea Wolfborn
Changed “is on the battlefield” to “is in play”

Goal: Allowing Thea to function anywhere in play based on her ability essentially costing a resource, and the low tempo gain from the buff. We hope she'll be more exciting in Rift Run, and maybe even as a commander. The middleground of "if Deployed" is a possibility to pull it back a bit if we need to, but we're not expecting it to make excessive waves.


Infernal Chef
Change: 4/4 to 4/6

Goal: Infernal Chef has a decent ceiling along with a big blocker, but we want to raise the floor a bit, so it can at least survive one combat early in the game. This should help it buff its teammate to the right side, which otherwise will rarely get to experience the true joy of Consume. It's a slight shame to leave the statline of the original Chef, but I guess time has given them thicker skin.


Nysrugh, the Ravenous
Change: 5/5 to 7/7

Goal: The new Nysrugh is underperforming due to being weak and vulnerable for its cost. Early on, you can feed it in the Command Zone, and that's still the ideal use case for it, but there's a lot of competition for the Exiles commander lineup, including things that provide more utility or grow faster. We'd like it to start out a little more acceptable in order to help out decks which make use of its unique ability; the downside should keep it in check in a fun way, along with a lack of evasion when attacking.



Vasir, the Chained Prince
Change: 7 cost to 4 cost AND When killed or removed, place him 3 cards from the top instead of shuffling in.

Goal: This card was really bad. You should get better payoff for your investment. Giving it some juice borrowed from Candit, the Demonic should improve its consistency as a recursive threat. Unchaining him manually from the Command Zone is still as slow as ever, but if you find a way to kill him, you'll be rewarded much more, and he's less embarrassing to play from hand. All together, we recognize this might not be enough to make the card super strong still, so we're willing to take it further if that would be cool and fun.


The Martyr of Death
Change text to: When The Martyr of Death is killed by an enemy, kill all Deployed Characters.

Additionally, The Martyr of Life and The Martyr of Chaos have had their trigger conditions changed to enemy-only instead of deployed as well. Xi, Martyr of Peace won't be changed.

Goal: With the ability to play and kill your own Martyr of Death as early as turn 5, there's often nothing you can do about it despite being heavily telegraphed. Figuring out how to maneuver this card and kill it at the right time should make it more interesting to play with and against. We also want commander removal to be more intentional in deckbuilding, and less of an incidental bonus.

The Martyrs are sure some weird cards. We may consider small buffs to the other martyrs, but think they'll make it out okay.


Distraction Drone
Change: Gain Reach.

Goal: This card's main purpose is on the offensive, but it could use a little love as a defender. It can't have flying for mechanical reasons, but it just really feels like it should at least block fliers to distract them.

[h2]General Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed Exiles set cards not saving to decks correctly.
  
• Fixed deck zone card display not correctly ordering cards when targeting deck.
  
• Fixed deck zone card display card ordering ignoring card style.
  
• Fixed missing filter option to filter for the Sanctuary Social stamp in inventory.
  
• Fixed Genesis Spy triggering if it deals 0 damage.
  
• Tormented Thrall will now trigger on any friendly non-sacrifice effect, not just the effect of an Ability card. (This restores it to its original Infinity Wars function.)
  
• Soul Reaper is no longer Unique.
  
• Quickplay UI now saves last selected game modes.
  
• Added Piercing, a new combat keyword previously present in unkeyworded form on Profane Critter, Project Hellfire, Vasir’s Dreadknight and Morningstar Wayclearer. These cards have been updated to have Piercing.
  

[h2]Wording Improvements[/h2]

• Spec Op has been renamed to Drone Hunter. Hunters unite!
  
• Martyr of Life, Death, and Chaos have each been renamed slightly (adding “The”) to better indicate their Unique status.
  
• Fixed Rancid’s wording to match its card effect.
  
• Many cards were updated to clarify the distinction between Ability cards and card effects (formerly, both were sometimes called “abilities”). Additionally, “activated abilities” are now referred to as “activated effects” for similar reasons.
  
• Clarified wording slightly on Genesis Battlesuit, Klore, and The Calamity.
  

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