Deck Sharing & Balance | IWC 0.92.1 Beta Patch Notes
[h2]Features[/h2]
Chat now supports sharing of deck saves!
Right click a deck in a deck explorer and select ‘Share to Chat’, decks in chat can be previewed by hovering over them, and saved by double clicking, or right clicking them.
Return of Ranked Badges
Ranked Badges return from IW1, these badges will be rewarded based on your highest Rank reached, similar to how profile borders are earned.
Battlefield & Fortress Visual QoL Changes
While in-game, each Fortress will change its art depending on the most recently played Location, in particular this is tied to Battlefield changes and now both will revert when a location is destroyed.
[h2]Rule Changes[/h2]
[h3]Lives[/h3]
The Lives keyword now triggers before death replacement effects. For instance, if you play Second Wind on Avatar of Lingbao, it will lose a life the first time it dies, rather than triggering the Avatar ability.
[h3]Resurrection[/h3]
Added the Resurrection X Keyword, for Aletas, Risen of Avarrach, Nero’s Experiments, and The Last Sleeper. This is mostly a cosmetic change, and doesn't affect Mutating Dead in most cases.
[h3]Consume[/h3]
Changed the Consume X Keyword from “+X/+X and heal X”, to “+X attack and heal X”. We have buffed many Consume cards to compensate.
We would like Consume to be a bit more offensively-oriented. Currently Consume is very powerful when blocking, especially when the consume value is 2 or greater, and even more so against token strategies. We also think it’s undesirable that Consume builds up a lot of both max hp and damage together, as giving an extra life or otherwise fully healing a Consume character can raise its health to unexpectedly very high levels that are a burden to keep track of. Finally, we want to simplify the mental combat math, as currently Consume 2 can block infinite 4/4s; with this change, you would need Consume 4 to block infinite 4/4s, akin to Bloodthirst 4.
[h3]Conditional drawing[/h3]
When an effect says to draw a card with a certain condition, it will now pick randomly from your deck rather than drawing the topmost card that meets the condition. This affects Seek the Prophet, Seeker of the Unpurged, Alearem the Prognosticator, Dragon of Autumn Wind, and all Recruit effects. Subject 1/MN-Y was already changed to this in a previous patch.
[h3]Returning from the Removed Zone[/h3]
Effects that Remove a card temporarily will now return that card to the Support Zone instead of the zone it was taken from if (and only if) they could return the card prior to the end-of-turn phase. (Unless the card was removed from the Command Zone, in which case it returns to the Command Zone. Nice try.) This affects Verore Kidnapper, Kidnapped by Demons, Nysrugh the Hungry, and Mega Unit 01.
[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed Taxera ignoring card types other than Characters.
- Added slight variation to Card resolution SFX in order to help reduce audio fatigue.
- Added proper Undead art for transformed Infected Monk & Infected Purifier.
- Upgraded to Unity 6.
- Fixed players resigning forcing the other player out of the game mid resolution.
- Fixed an issue with card stamp scaling.
- Fixed deck builder type filters disabled by default.
- Fixed deck builder mana curve UI element size.
- Fix to audio clipping on deck hover.
- Possible fix for “If you steal Haste creature with infect, you still cannot assign zones for it”.
[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]
[h3]Cards with Consume[/h3]
Alpha Demon Grants Consume 1 → 2
Hungry Devil Consume 2 → 3, 10/8 → 10/10
Infernal Chef Grants Consume 2 → 3
Consuming Swarmer Consume 2 → 3
Helmouth Labourer Grants +3/+3 and Consume 3 → +4/+4 and Consume 4
Devil of Despair No change
Xac Consume 6 → 8 (Lord of the Pit)
Nysrugh, the Ravenous Redesigned to:
4 costNysrugh, the Insatiable Consume 3 → 5
Consume 2
When another Character you control dies, Nysrugh gains +2/+2.
7/7
Nysrugh, the Hungry Consume 3 → 4, 21/13 → 21/17
Hungry Abomination Consume 2 → 4
Reckless Abandon No change
Demonize and The Demon Wastes No change
Descension Consume 3 → 5
[h3]Nerfs[/h3]
By the way, if you are interested in giving your opinion on these balance changes, join our Discord! Patreon subscribers get to vote on changes as well.
Hulking Sniper only hit Deployed Flying characters (no longer hits Commanders)
It’s no fun for your commanders to die on turn 1 just because they fly.
Asu-Ra Hunts enemies only.
Quick activations from sacrifice plays are too consistent and reduce the fun of his quest.
Aleta, Immortal Sufferer activation changed to:
Exhaust, Remove a Character from your Graveyard: Create a 4/4 Undead that is Removed if it dies.
Prevents it from sustaining itself indefinitely for small initial investment to make it more interesting to build around and less powerful as an incidental inclusion. Since Core 2013, self-mill effects have gotten a lot stronger, and Sleepers has gained more sacrifice effects.
Aleta, Immortal Caretaker activation changed from +0/+4 to +0/+3.
Aleta, Immortal Tinkerer activation changed from +3/+3 to +2/+2.
These two Aletas are miles stronger than the rest because of the value they add on each activation. 3 or 4 stats for 1 resource is a pretty fair trade when normally playing characters, but buffs often have “haste”, and can be put on charge and vigilance characters to increase their immediate value. They are so efficient that activating them often takes priority over playing cards on curve, even during early turns of the game. This works against their goal of being useful commanders to fill out your curve with. We would also like to promote other commander options without making them this strong.
Avatar of Lingbao, Avatar of Yuanshi, Avatar of Daode Exhaust for 2 turns on death and clarify how death prevention works in the card text. Example: "If Avatar of Lingbao would die, it instead Exhausts for two turns and removes all damage, buffs, and debuffs."
Avatars are really powerful boss characters that all 3p cards should aspire to be more like. But they are really annoying to play against because you get no reprieve unless you have hard enough removal for them. This change should give more decks a fighting chance against them. Additional changes to the Avatars are planned to improve the playability of the less popular ones, especially with this nerf in mind.
Champion’s Companion change ability to:
Pay 1: Move target Deployed Unique Character you control directly in front of Champion’s Companion. Activate this only once per turn
Haste granting is a dangerous ability; we would like to have less of it, especially in the Overseers. Still, this should keep some of the things that make Champion’s Companion exciting while constraining positioning and adding more ways to interact with it, both for the user (such as using it to dodge battlefield removal when the foe has the initiative) and the opponent (such as exhausting Champion’s Companion to mess up the movement of a Unique Character).
Champion’s Herald change ability to:
Exhaust: If Champion's Herald is Deployed, return Champion's Herald to your Hand, then target Unique Character in your Hand costs 1 less until the end of the next turn.
Similar idea to Champion’s Companion; still lets you get a character into battle faster, but in this case still spend a turn in the Support Zone, and doesn’t work as well with topdecking.
Taunt move to front of Defense Zone → move to Assault Zone.
Assault Zone is more consistent with Ancient Aggression Emblem, better for avoiding stalled-out games, less powerful with Entangle. Losing front-of-zone makes it less of a free kill against whatever you want. It could maybe be front-of-zone if the cost was raised, but we would rather leave it at 1 cost.
Humble 2 cost → 3 cost, no longer permanent (return to normal when leaving play)
Reduce the speed at which Humble can totally shut down a commander. Add counterplay with flicker or resurrection effects. It should still be phenomenal at answering buffed threats or powerful card effects of many kinds.
Celebration of Heroes 1p → 2p
1p FD is packed with a lot of great value. Celebration of Heroes is one of the best ways to seal a victory in any character-based deck and we think makes for a good reason to consider 2p FD for your deck.
Untapped Wilderness 3 → 4 cost, reduces costs to a minimum of 1.
Untapped Wilderness is disproportionately good compared to every other source of Warpath ramp. As soon as you can play two cards per turn it’s already twice the power of BLBP, and turning 1 cost cards free is even more absurd. Plus it works on the turn you play it, and is hard to remove. Cycles of cards including Warpath typically have the Warpath member at a higher cost, because of how good it is to be Warpath and have access to this kind of ramp. We would like to put more power into other Warpath cards, and less in this one.
Dragon Collar Only steal for one turn, but work on 15+ instead of 20+:
Take control of target enemy Character on the Battlefield with attack 15 or greater and Exhaust it. Return it to the opponent’s Support Zone at the end of next turn.
We would prefer if sideboard cards stole the game less singlehandedly. This is a significant nerf to many situations, but if you can trade it away on the steal turn, or secure the win that turn anyways, it’s just as effective as before. 15+ makes it consistent with the WP/GI archetype.
Jinhai Dojo Can only train each character once.
3 Cost Location
Pay X: Remove X target allied Deployed Characters that haven’t been trained.
Pay 3, Exhaust: Move all Characters Removed by Jinhai Dojo to the Assault or Defense Zone. They gain +4/+4 and become trained.
Dojo can be uninteractive for the opponent, since you can keep hiding your whole army in the dojo over and over for very cheap.
Kidnapped By Demons 4 cost → 5 cost
Kidnapped By Demons is premium removal that bypasses many protective effects and can be unanswerable in some decks. It's pretty much an auto-include in any 1p Exiles deck. An increase to its cost should make it more fair and increase deck diversity.
Ceaseless Hunger Can no longer target the enemy Command Zone, only requires your Character to be Deployed, not on the Battlefield. New wording:
Target an allied Deployed Character and an enemy Deployed Character. Ceaseless Hunger deals damage to each equal to the other’s attack. If your Character survives, it gains Bloodthirst 4 and is fully healed.
The change to make the targeting symmetrical reduces the wordiness and the tracking needed to play the card correctly.
[h3]Cult of Verore[/h3]
Aether Acolyte 4/4 → 5/5
This card was not very rewarding even when playing a lot of Abilities, especially compared to currently dominant aggro threats. It’s pretty good with Tinker.
Hellkeeper 5 morale → 2 morale, change effect to:
When Hellkeeper dies, if it was Deployed, create a 0 cost 6/6 Demon token with Flying in your Hand and in your Deck.
Hellcaller top of deck → hand:
When you Deploy Hellcaller, place target Demon card from your Deck into your Hand.
Thunder Apprentice 3/3 → 4/3
A fun card to make slightly scarier. More life pressure, can trade with more 1 drops to raise the floor on it.
Grotesque Brute Change card text to:
Cannot block
When you play your second Ability in a turn, Grotesque Brute gets Indestructible until the end of turn.
Summoner of the Deep Makes 6/6 flying demons instead of 4/4.
This seems like a good sac outlet of choice for sac decks. They deserve one like this.
Aleta, Immortal Sorceress Add splash damage to activation:
Pay 4, Exhaust: Deal 6 damage to target Character on the Battlefield and 2 damage to each adjacent character.
Twins in Gray rework:
8 costWe want this to be a sweet 1p CoV commander in spellslinger decks. Make as many Acolytes as you want in a turn instead of just one!
When you play an Ability card, Twins in Gray gains +2/+2. If Twins in Gray is Deployed, also create an Aether Acolyte.
10/10
Agent Mereor Change to:
When Agent Mereor kills an enemy, all your other Agents in Play gain +1/+1.
Pay 2: Target a Character. If it's an enemy, deal 3 damage to it and heal your Fortress for 3. Otherwise, heal it for 3 and deal 3 damage to the enemy Fortress. Activate this only once per turn.
Aleta’s Attendant 2 → 3 morale burn
Masked Initiate 4/6 → 4/9
Acolyte of the Crypt 2/2 → 4/4
Battlefield Scavenger Defense Zone → Battlefield
Neophyte Summoner 2/2 → 2/4
Verore Brute 8/8 → 4/16
Intimidating Brute -1 attack → -2 attack, 10/12 → 15/12
Alearem the Prognosticator No longer requires deployment; can draw cards from command.
Defiant Brute Opponent sacrifices a random character from the same-named Zone. (Was previously fully random.)
Verorian Hydra 10/10 → 12/12
Heat Wave 3 → 2 cost
[h3]Descendants of the Dragon[/h3]
Xi, Who Wanders Far Change to:
At the start of combat, if Xi, Who Wanders Far is attacking, the first enemy Character in the Assault Zone has its attack set to 0 until the end of turn.
Undisturbed Monk is in the Support Zone → Deployed and did not enter combat, 4/12 → 4/15
(so you can keep it in the back of Defense too, just in case)
Inspire Gain “and each Character with the same name”
We want to start making a “same-name matters” archetype in DoD/WP. It’ll be fun for Unified Protector and Invincible Defender. Maybe beast tokens or One of Many too.
Peaceful Garden All Characters deal 2 less damage → All Characters in play get -3 attack.
Since this is symmetrical it can be spicier. While we're at it, let's make the effect more visually apparent and remove the noncombat character damage reduction to keep it simple.
Vengeful Warrior 2/4 → 2/5
Inspiring Soldier 7/8 → 8/8
Unified Protector Gain “Pay 3: Recruit a Unified Protector.”
Meditating Monk +2/+0 → +3/+0
Shieldbearer 4/14 → 6/14
Jade Golem 8/12 → 8/18
Resolve of the Dragon two turn → one turn exhaust
Xi’s Plea 20% -> 25%
Vigil +0/+2 → +0/+4 if you control it
Like Ferocity. Great Wall of Jinhai 4 → 3 cost
The Great Fortress of Xia Han 7 cost → 6 cost, heal 5 → heal 6 per turn
[h3]Overseers of Solace[/h3]
Carlota’s Honor Guard Buff to:
4 cost 8 moraleMake this a better 3p player even without Carlota.
Flying, Vigilance
While an allied Carlota is Deployed, she gets Untouchable and Carlota’s Honor Guard gets +6/+6.
10/10
Melosia, Champion of Despair 2p → 1p, 8/8 → 10/10, gain new effect but require Battlefield.
5 cost 13 morale
1p OoS
Flying
While Melosia is on the Battlefield, when the enemy Fortress is damaged or your Fortress is healed, your opponent loses that much morale.
10/10
Rescue Angel rework:
5 cost
Vigilance
If your Fortress has 50 or less health, Rescue Angel costs 0.
At the start of combat, if your Fortress has 25 or less health, Rescue Angel Ascends and gains +3/+3 and Flying.
6/12
Agent Coyle, Ascended Rework:
7 cost
Flying
Each turn, the first time that Agent Coyle, Ascended enters combat with another Character, Remove that Character. The second time a Character is Removed this way, Transform into a 25/25 Flying Unstoppable Angel Dragon.
10/10
Daclerius, The Law 6/6 → 5/8
Adaptive Drone 5 → 1 morale
Serennia, Champion of Life Now properly grants Lifelink 2, 6/6 → 10/10
Azael, the Torn 10/10 → 10/14
Angelic Veil Preemptive. Until the end of turn, your Fortress gets Barrier 1 and cannot be dealt non-combat damage.
Die Another Day 9 → 6 cost. Your Fortress health and morale can’t drop below 1 this turn. Remove all other copies of Die Another Day from your Hand, Deck, and Graveyard.
[h3]Sleepers of Avarrach[/h3]
Plaguebearer 2/2 → 2/5
Giving Zombie tokens +1/+1 is a noble aim we want to support - surviving a 4-damage sweeper is a good start towards that.
Patient Zero change to:
8 cost 10 morale
When you Deploy Patient Zero, kill target Character on the Battlefield.
When Patient Zero kills a Character, that Character is Raised to your Support Zone under your control.
14/14
Looming Resurrection 1% → 2%
Huge buff, taking this from a moonshot long-term investment to a much more reliable source of value. Should be more usable in Rift Run now especially.
Best Fiends minor wording change:
When you Deploy Best Fiends, Raise all other Best Fiends from your Graveyard to your Hand.
One of Many Exhumed dies → enters
The game needs more dies triggers generally, but having less complexity to track on the field is better in this case. Does the opponent want to spend effort to try avoiding killing this? Not really, probably.
Engine of Reincarnation rework:
7 cost ArtifactIt is better for cards like this to keep the game state moving rather than locking up your resources each turn, so we’re reworking this from an activation into a late game value artifact. The flavor of degrading immortality is cool, and better gameplay than a truly never-ending army that can block forever on the ground.
At the end of turn, summon a 4/4 Undead for each nontoken Character you control that died this turn, and a 2/2 Husk for each non-Husk token Character you control that died this turn. These tokens are Removed if they die.
Acid Rain 2 → 3 damage
Poison 3 → 4 damage
Super Infectious Zombie 6/12 → 7/14 :) Aleta, the Cured Immortal Pay 6 → Pay 5 to activate
[h3]Misc[/h3]
Cannon Fire 3 → 2 cost
This seems like a large buff, and it is. But think about Death Ray! Too many removal spells in this game are really weak and can’t actually stand up to tempo plays.
Laser Cannon 5 damage → 7 damage
Laser Cannon being 5 cost means it should be higher-impact removal. Being able to trade well against an army of smaller characters or a smaller dragon should make it more useful.
Unending Drone stats increased 2/2 → 3/3, morale cost also increased 1 → 2
Unending Drone has struggled to keep up with the stats of other swarm strategies. We don’t want it to be too good at stalling and trading off forever, though.
Hunt 5 → 4 cost
Corrupted Forest +2/+0 → +3/+0, -2/-0 → -3/-0, cost 8 → 9
Shrapnel Launcher Deal 4 damage to target Character on the Battlefield and each adjacent Character.
Mathilda ‘Mads’ Fianna Pay 4 → Pay 3 to activate.
Bounty Hunter, Demon Hunter, Drone Hunter, Infection Hunter Gain Reach, and change from “Deals double damage to TYPE.” to “When CARDNAME deals damage to a TYPE, kill it.”
Dugg Keep Fortress health above 100 if Dugg dies (but can’t heal further. Technically a game rule change, not a Dugg change)
Deflect 3 → 2 cost
Explore 4 → 3 cost
Infinite Possibilities 5 → 4 cost
[h3]Swarmers[/h3]
Brutal Swarmer 8/8 → 9/9
Unending Swarmer 8/8 → 9/9
Warped Swarmer rework:
2 cost 3 morale
While Warped Swarmer is Deployed, when an Insectoid you control dies, if it was killed by an enemy Character, it deals 2 damage to that Character. Otherwise, it deals 2 damage to the enemy Fortress.
6/6
Sentinel Swarmer 4 → 3 cost, 6/6 → 7/7, Draw only once per turn. New text:
When another Insectoid you control enters the Deployed area, if Sentinel Swarmer is on the Battlefield, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.
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