Patch Notes 11.6

[iiislllland]

Hey everyone and welcome to the Patch Notes for 11.6!

This is another patch in between card drops so we are bringing the next batch of reworks and updates to existing cards.

This time there is a general nature theme but every faction gets some attention.

For an overview of this patch, check out the Developer Update with Molegion, Ola, and Ryan:
New Features
Introducing the Cycle Progression System - Kicking off our new progression system is the Summer Cycle. Each Cycle promotes different card sets, and in order to complete quests and unlock new rewards in this system, you will need to play Ranked mode using decks made from cards in these Cycle-specific sets.

The Base set, Starter set, Thronebreaker, and Novigrad cards are supported by all Cycles. The Summer Cycle additionally supports cards from Crimson Curse and Way of the Witcher.

The Summer Cycle starts with update 11.6, and is available until the end of update 11.8.
ChangesNeutral
Musicians of Blaviken - Power changed from 6 to 4.

Provision cost changed from 6 to 4.

Ability changed to:

If you have no other 4-provision cards in your starting deck, start on your Ranged row.

Phoenix - Added new part of ability:

Deploy: Gain Vitality (5).

Ragh Nar Roog - Is now an artifact.

Spell tag replaced with Scenario.

Provision cost changed from 9 to 13.

Ability changed to:

Doomed.

Scenario: Progress whenever you play a gold unit.

Prologue: Spawn Cataclysm on both enemy rows for 2 turns.

Chapter 1: Damage an enemy unit by 5.

Chapter 2: Spawn and play Clear Skies.

Saer Qu'an - Ability changed to:

Deploy: Damage an enemy unit by the number of units you control.

Scepter of Storms - Added new part of ability:

Order: Increase the row effect duration on an enemy row by 1 turn.

Skellige Storm - Now has the Nature tag.

Tempest - Now has the Nature tag.

Provision cost changed from 5 to 6.

Ability changed to:

Play all copies of Biting Frost, Impenetrable Fog, or Torrential Rain from your deck.

Wolfsbane - Now has the Organic and Alchemy tags.

Ability changed to:

Set an enemy unit's power to 1.

Biting Frost - Now has the Nature tag.

Clear Skies - Now has the Nature tag.

Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Impenetrable Fog - Now has the Nature tag.

King Cobra - Power changed from 3 to 2.

Armor changed from 1 to 0.

Provision cost changed from 5 to 4.

Spring Equinox - Now has the Nature tag.

Provision cost changed from 4 to 5.

Ability changed to:

Boost an allied unit by 0.

Increase the boost by 1 for each Nature card in your starting deck.

Torrential Rain - Now has the Nature tag.

Wolf Pack - Power changed from 2 to 1.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Boost self by 1 for each allied unit on this row.
Monsters
Morvudd - Beast tag replaced with Relict.

Power changed from 6 to 1.

Provision cost changed from 8 to 12.

Ability changed to:

At the end of your turn, while in hand, deck, or graveyard, increase own base power by 1.

Fiend - Beast tag replaced with Relict.

Power changed from 3 to 8.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Decrease own base power by 1 for each unit on the opposite row.
Skellige
Delirium - Provision cost changed from 5 to 8.

Ability changed to:

Echo.

Choose between a random bronze Skellige Beast and a random bronze Skellige Human that were not in your starting deck, then Spawn and play the one you chose, and Spawn the other in your graveyard.

When Doomed, choose between gold ones instead.

Gigascorpion Decoction - Ability changed to:

Damage a unit by 1 six times or split 6 damage randomly between all units on an enemy row.

Ulfhedinn - Power changed from 4 to 6.

Provision cost changed from 7 to 10.

Added new part of ability:

Bloodthirst 3: Damage an enemy unit and units adjacent to it by half their power instead.
Northern Realms
Falibor - Power changed from 7 to 6.

Ability changed to:

Whenever this unit receives a boost, damage a random enemy unit by the same amount.

Keira Metz - Provision cost changed from 9 to 12.

Ability changed to:

Patience.

Order: Play [0] unique bronze Spell(s) from your graveyard and give it/them Doomed.
Scoia'tael
Telianyn aep Collen - Order ability changed to:

Spawn and play Backup Plan. If this unit is Doomed, damage an enemy unit by the number of Doomed units you control instead.

Cargo - Order ability changed to:

Replay a non-Neutral Agent, Bandit, or Soldier that wasn't played this turn and give it Doomed.
Nilfgaard
Duny - Power changed from 7 to 6.

Added new part of ability:

When entering the battlefield, boost self by 1 for each Spying enemy unit.

Mangonel - Starting Charges changed from 1 to 2.
Syndicate
Tatterwing - Power changed from 6 to 1.

Provision cost changed from 7 to 11.

Ability changed to:

Immunity.

At the start of the game, set the power of all other units in your deck to 1 and own power to 25.

Oxenfurt Guard - Cooldown removed.
Game Fixes
Certain Order abilities with Cooldowns no longer become selected at the start of the turn.

Emhyr var Emreis can no longer target Immune units.

Playing Kelpie can now correctly be canceled.

Naiad Fledgling can no longer trigger Vitality when Symbiosis only appears on the opponent's side.

 

[IvarVonEverec]

Very cool idea introducing this cycle progression system so crap cards which haven't been played for years will finally see play again.
A better solution than what some CCG's do: a rotation.

 

[Brippe]

Please some balance fix .... please the ladder is a nightmare

 

[saodhar]

Another patch full of minor meaningless changes.

Musicians and Morvudd feel really dumbed down.

One more trainer (this time for weather effects). Yay?

And are there any plans to actually fix the game? Daily quests are a mess, same as contracts. And trinkets management is a nightmare.

 

[ThisIsMe_Chrissi]

GN decks might build around Musicians of Blaviken now

 

[Barracuda88]

-More uncounterable weather... Good? Ehh. Idk about that
-Tempest, a 6p card to play for about 12 point AND thin 2 cards out of the deck? Hmm...
-Delirium is magic compass-lite
-Nice Falibor and Keira changes.
-Glad to see "prepared" nonsense going away, but I don't think it's going to be enough to save The Heist. That card should NOT be 11p.
-Kind of interested in non-devotion Nature's Gift potential, but not really optimistic about it
-Another patch without changes to reavers. I guess we're all supposed to just counter them with weather now.

 

[thormation]

On the whole, I like the contents of this patch, especially the change to Ulf which is long overdue.

My main gripe is the unnecessary change to Spring Equinox. That card has a very unique and necessary functionality that might only be useful in certain metas and meme decks, but truly had no adequate substitute. A Purify that could take out an entire row of Infused units, or Bleeding units, or units with Vitality, or Locked units was a critical counterbalance to certain oppressive decks. Also it was one of the few cards that allowed you to have a crack at Immune units. The only cards that had even a portion of this functionality are Tempest, which is far too localized and is also being changed, Ceallach, which only can be used on your side of the board, and Siegfried, who is the closest substitute but more of a Purify nuke that will wipe out all of the Statuses you want to keep yourself.

Again, I appreciate the changes to many of these cards that had foundered in obscurity for ages, but please consider those cards who have unique functionality. Replacing a unique ability with a generic boost makes Baby Botchling cry, and you don't want that.

 

[Kaltlicht]

On the whole, I like the contents of this patch, especially the change to Ulf which is long overdue.

My main gripe is the unnecessary change to Spring Equinox. That card has a very unique and necessary functionality that might only be useful in certain metas and meme decks, but truly had no adequate substitute. A Purify that could take out an entire row of Infused units, or Bleeding units, or units with Vitality, or Locked units was a critical counterbalance to certain oppressive decks. Also it was one of the few cards that allowed you to have a crack at Immune units. The only cards that had even a portion of this functionality are Tempest, which is far too localized and is also being changed, Ceallach, which only can be used on your side of the board, and Siegfried, who is the closest substitute but more of a Purify nuke that will wipe out all of the Statuses you want to keep yourself.

Again, I appreciate the changes to many of these cards that had foundered in obscurity for ages, but please consider those cards who have unique functionality. Replacing a unique ability with a generic boost makes Baby Botchling cry, and you don't want that.

Also my only concern, I cannot even fathom the row purify not existing.

 

[Brippe]

No on uses Spring Equinox....

 

[PunkHooligan]

We're still waiting for Saskia's Journey...

 

[quintivarium]

Initial impressions:

• Musicians of Blaviken -- very interesting change. I don't know if it will work, but I look forward to trying it.
• Phoenix -- not enough buff to interest me in the card
• Ragh Nar Roog -- I hate scenarios. This one seems reasonable, and a neutral scenario is over-due. But I still hate scenarios.
• Saer Quen -- Certainly a worthwhile improvement that could even impact the meta, but not a particularly inspiring change.
• Scepter of Storms -- nice, interesting boost.
• Tempest. -- I very much like the new ability, but I hate the change. I think the current Tempest ability serves an important role in the game -- if it is underutilized -- buff the effect, don't abandon the multiple purify. Do bring the new ability, but in a new card.
• Wolfsbane -- A very interesting and unique power is replaced with a boring power not that different from several existing cards. I understand that Wolfsbane was almost never used -- but at least it was interesting and strategic. The card could have been buffed without losing an interesting effect by making the card more match-significant. I could see it being worth playing with 3 or 4 points of damage instead of 2 -- even with a reflective provision cost increase. Wolfsbane in its current form requires a lot of set up (both in play and deckbuilding) All that the card needs is for that setup to have a reasonable payoff. Two points damage was not enough.
• Clear Skies -- another buff to spawn archetypes, but these buffs probably merely help offset the buffs to various row effects.
• King Cobra -- I don't expect any change to how and whether the card is used. Irrelevant.
• Spring Equinox -- a junk card becomes a different junk card.
• Wolf Pack -- arguably the weakest card in the game becomes a different weak card.
• Morvudd -- I think tampering with base powers is dangerous -- in many ways, it is an uninteractive Melusine. It may not be imbalancing, but it definitely limits design space and risks binary interactions.
• Fiend -- taking from deathwish to support relicts; not a change I appreciate.
• Delirium -- the change significantly hurts alchemy decks by eliminating one of the two real damage cards available. in the archetype (an archetype already lacking control). And the replacement ability is too random -- the card will fluxuate from a total tempo waste to match deciding. Serious players will quickly avoid it while weak players will lessen the overall playing experience to highroll their way to undeserved wins. I dislike the change.
• Gigascorpian Decoction -- this attempt to replace the old Delirium does not offset the loss of one of very few removal cards for alchemy decks.
• Ulfhedinn -- Ulfhedinn now becomes a significant card, but I don't know if the buff is enough to make it enticing. Time will tell.
• Falibor -- To me, the most interesting part to this change is that it occurred. When I began playing Gwent, Falibor was a mainstay of NR decks. His now being considered sufficiently useless that the card ability is justifiably scrapped clearly shows just how powercrept the game has become.
• Keira Metz -- This is another remove or lose card -- in an archetype that already has other remove-or lose cards. Even if the card is not itself imbalanced, it is horrible for the game. Remove-or lose cards eliminate all depth of strategy; they cause matches to be decided by draws (fail to draw removal and lose) or match-up (fail to play a deck with enough removal and lose) rather than by quality of play (i.e. they are ALWAYS binary). Moreover, by forcing players to take more removal, they both narrow the meta and they reduce strategic interaction as strategy requires having cards survive on the board to interact with. This card alone offsets all good things with the update.
• Cargo (and related changes) -- I appreciate the attempt to make it harder to repeatedly replay Vanadain. But the replays are more enabled by purify than by Renew (the only card really impacted by the change. Since the problem is clearly Vanadain (and not Cargo at all), I suggest changing Vanadain (which would also fix other problems). The effective nerf to Telianyn appears completely unjustified, and I believe is only necessitated by the ill-advised way the interaction between Cargo and Vanadain was addressed.
• Duny -- an intersting way to promote use of the card.
• Mangonel -- seems like a reasonable buff.
• Tatterwing -- This change makes no sense to me. 25 points for one unit fails to justify setting all other units to 1 power. (if a typical deck plays 16 units averaging only 4 power, it plays 64 points. A Tatterwing would cause 15 units to play for 1 point and one unit for 25 -- a total of only 40 points -- you are effectively sacrificing 24 points.) Moreover, even if a deck can be constructed from so few units of such low power that Tatterwing would make sense, an immune unit that tall is vulnerable to the likes of Igni and Curse of Corruption. The new Tatterwing is simply not strong and consistent enough to justify the extreme deckbuilding impact for such a risky card. And loss of a huge number of points to a small number of cards is a very binary interaction.
• Oxenfurt Guard -- this change is very nice. Guard is now playable (an unlimited 1-1 spender with a limited 4 points for 2 coins opportunity) without being OP.
• Addition of Nature tags -- irrelevant except in ST; a potentially nice boost for Symbiosis decks.

 

[rrc]

I don't understand the change to Cargo. Does it mean that if I play heist and then play Vernossil and if she is not removed on that turn, I can play all three cargos on her in one turn? Same with Isengrim or Yeaven? If so, this could be the most broken change in this patch. I would love this change, but I am afraid that it would get nerfed so hard that elves would be unplayable. When nerfs are given to ST, it is given generously.

 

[WhiteWolf4207]

Falibor change is worst. IMO, he will see barely see play to no see play at all. And I didn't liked Keria change too. In this removal meta imagine 12p card which have to stick for at least 1 turn. At least make her 7-point body. Keria's recent ability was fine she just few stat buff. Tempest 6 provision card that tins 2 cards, just wow. bare minimum it should be 8 provision. Now Spring Equinox, I hate this. This hurts my Vyper deck. Also, the reworked ability of Spring Equinox is too good for 4 provision. It should be 5p or 6p. And I can't understand why they didn't nerfed / reworked cultists and reavers. Other than that, nice changes.

 

[betraymechino]

I don't understand the change to Cargo. Does it mean that if I play heist and then play Vernossil and if she is not removed on that turn, I can play all three cargos on her in one turn? Same with Isengrim or Yeaven? If so, this could be the most broken change in this patch. I would love this change, but I am afraid that it would get nerfed so hard that elves would be unplayable. When nerfs are given to ST, it is given generously.

This is a change made to simplify Cargo's tooltip as well as fix interaction with spies.
And no, you can't use all 3 Cargos on one card, because if you try to replay a doomed unit, it'll get banished.
What you can do however, is play Verno on the back row and then replay her on the front row.

 

[ThorgerWolff]

The end of MO beast deck?

 

[quintivarium]

I just realized that change to cargo also allows schirru to be replayed — and (probably not real significantly), Pyrotechnician, Saskia, and Skirmisher.

 

[saodhar]

new cycle quests look fun for now. but does anyone know if the cycles will come back next year so we can continue to lvl 250 - or will it be a different summer cycle with a new reward?

 

[quintivarium]

I misjudged. We now have another broken (50 point), unpreventable Simlas combo. This game has become such fun.

 

[Barracuda88]

A 50-point unpreventable Simlas! My my, I'm behind. So far I only managed to figure it out with 2 seers on the board, but those seem preventable, dang it.

 

[saodhar]

okay, what the hell? got a cycle quest of damaging units 10 times with WoW cards and of playing 10 SK WoW cards. first quest progressed (even thought the game was unranked, second didn't move at all).
UPD haven't seen a patch this broken for a long time. also, whose brilliant idea was it to create a quest "Play 10 insectoids from WoW"? There are 3 insectoids there in total, 1 of them is Viy). So minimum 5 ranked games with WoW insectoids? What fun!