Patch Notes 9.2

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Quite a lot of things are happening with the 9.2 update. This patch introduces the newest expansion in the Price of Power set: Thanedd Coup, coupled with a Aretuza focused Journey. On top of that to keep things even more interesting, we introduce numerous balance changes, some of which adjust the existing cards to unleash their new potential when played along with the newly introduced cards. Read on all of the changes and new features below.
New Features
High resolution textures for game boards

A New Journey!
  • New type - Meet Alissa & Tissaia de Vries - Powerful mages that will introduce you to life in Aretuza, a magical academy for young ladies.
  • Rewards - A lot of new rewards to unlock in the Standard and Premium paths, including gameboards and a new type of vanity: music - connected to the boards.
  • Contracts - Unlock even more ornaments by playing matches with your favorite vanities.
  • Story - Alissa's diary from the time when she was a young student at Aretuza, added each week along with new quests.
Draft changes:
  • New logic - You will now be able to add and remove card packages during your run, in between fights.
  • Rerolling restrictions - Rerolling your deck will now be available only after playing at least one match.
  • UI changes - Added tweaks to the Draft UI to reflect these changes.
New expansion trees in the Reward Book:
  • Melusine
  • Leticia Charbonneau
New expansion: Thanedd Coup
  • 26 new cards
ChangesNeutral

Snowdrop: Ability changed to:

Zeal.

Order: Draw up to 2 cards, then shuffle the same number of cards back to your deck.

Whenever you draw a card, boost self by 2.

Dev comment: Along with Birna Bran and Istredd, we made a slight change to Snowdrop to have it work in a similar way as Morvran Voorhis. It makes the effect easier to use and removes ways to shoot oneself in the foot.

Lacerate: Provisions changed from 7 to 6.

Aguara: True Form: Provisions changed from 11 to 10.

Royal Decree: Provisions changed from 10 to 9.

Surrender: Added Tactic category.

Provisions changed from 8 to 7.

Skellige Storm: Provisions changed from 7 to 6.

Fisher King: Provisions changed from 7 to 6.

Devil's Puffball: Provisions changed from 7 to 6.

Ability changed to: Damage an enemy unit by 3.

Deathblow: Poison adjacent enemy units.

Thaw: Added Nature category.

Sunset Wanderers: Provisions changed from 11 to 13.
Monsters
Koshchey: Armor changed from 3 to 2.

Endrega Larva: Armor changed from 2 to 1.
Skellige
Birna Bran: Ability changed to:

Deploy: Draw up to 2 cards, then discard the same number of cards.

Artis: Provisions changed from 9 to 8.

Vildkaarl: Provisions changed from 9 to 8.

Knut the Callous: Power changed from 6 to 7.

Harald Houndsnout: Provisions changed from 8 to 7.

Yoana: Provisions changed from 7 to 6.

Delirium: Provisions changed from 6 to 5.

Derran: Power changed from 7 to 8.

Freya's Blessing: Provisions changed from 6 to 5.

Heymaey Herbalist: Provisions changed from 5 to 4.

Power changed from 2 to 1.
Northern Realms
Stockpile: Ability changed to:

Order: Spawn a Volunteer on an allied row, then reduce the Cooldown of Northern Realms units in that row by 1.

Charge: 3.

Istredd: Ability changed to:

Zeal. Patience.

Order: Draw up to [1] card(s), then shuffle the same number of cards back to your deck.

Whenever you draw a unit card, boost it by 1, if it's not a unit, boost self by 1 instead.

Keira Metz: Changed Deploy to Zeal, Order.

Dethmold: Changed Deploy to Zeal, Order.

Dev comment: We're changing Keira Metz' and Dethmold's abilities to allow them to synergize better with Tissaia de Vries.

Shieldwall: Provisions changed from 13 to 14.

Cintrian Envoy: Added option to not pick anything when using the order.

King Foltest: Power changed from 6 to 5.
Scoia'tael
Francesca: Ability changed to:

Veil.

Whenever you play a Special card, remove one Counter.

Counter: 3.

When Counter reaches 0, spawn and play a copy of the last Special card you played. If it is Neutral, give it Doomed.

Vanadain: Provisions changed from 8 to 7.

Ability changed to:

Deploy: Move up to 2 cards from your hand to the bottom of your deck. Add Waylay to your hand for each card moved that way.

Whenever you play Waylay, spawn Elven Deadeye on this row.

Dev comment: Player will now be able to pick between 0 and 2 cards to shuffle back.

Freixenet: Power changed from 5 to 6.
Nilfgaard
The Guardian: Added Doomed.

Doadrick Leumaerts: Power changed from 6 to 8.
Syndicate
Roland Bleinheim: Power changed from 7 to 6.

Jackpot: Provisions changed from 15 to 13.

Lined Pockets: Provisions changed from 16 to 15.
Game Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that resulted in the tooltips being shown longer than intended when the opponent plays their cards. The game should feel faster now.
  • Failed Experiment will now work properly when Spawned on the opponent's side through Operator.
  • Deafening Siren's tooltip now properly reflects that it's Doomed.
  • Erland of Larvik's Order will now be deactivated when player has no boosted units in the deck.
  • Hubert Rejk's counter now resets when it leaves the board.
 
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Snowdrop: Ability changed to:
Zeal.​
Order: Draw up to 2 cards, then shuffle the same number of cards back to your deck.​
Whenever you draw a card, boost self by 2.​
Dev comment: Along with Birna Bran and Istreed, we made a slight change to Snowdrop to have it work in a similar way as Morvran Voorhis. It makes the effect easier to use and remove ways to shot oneself in the foot.
Oh, my - this is a game changer for me.
I have all-too-often played Snowdrop as my first card in a match and activated her ability, losing a card in the process.
Nice to see the change coming to Birna Bran too, although I rarely open with her.
I look forward to see how the other changes work out in play.
 
Music being an equippable vanity is awesome. I remember it's been discussed during TWiGs, but I never would have expected it to happen this soon.

New draft will take some getting used to, but I like the new look.

All in all, everything new I've seen I've liked. :D

No card changes that would be relevant to me. Except now I can play Sunset Wanderers if I want to... I never did before because the card was so overused and ridiculous.
 
Shouldn't the patch notes for provision changes to leader abilities say something like "Jackpot: Bonus Provisions changed from 15 to 13." as it's hard to tell compared to the provision changes to normal cards if it's being buffed or nerfed, unless you specifically know the name on the left is a card or leader ability.

E.g.:

1. "Jackpot: Provisions changed from 15 to 13."
2. "Delirium: Provisions changed from 6 to 5."

1 is a nerf, but 2 is a buff, even though both numbers decrease.
 
another thing is that dunno how others but i dont have witcher event stuff like icon and border, only title- butcher of blaviken, kinda i feel robbed....
 

rrc

Forum veteran
Only three changes to ST. And IMO, all three are irrelevant.

Francesca: The change is only meaningful for the 9P Epic and the 6P Orb. Unity is still worthless and super costly and the conditions are hard. I still think Orb is pretty horrible card for its provisions and in 2 weeks time no one will play these card. Now everyone will try to get a meme worthy video for chaining.

Vanadain: It hurts me to see that the devs try so hard to make this card worthy but they are not fixing the actual problem. Vanadain's whole concept is "I can make your 4P card to play for 6 points rather than 3 points". Most of the times, the Waylay plays for 3 points. It is a very bad card. Vanadain promises that he will make that card played for normal value. How is this interesting or worthy enough to play him? If you want Vanadain to be useful, change Waylay, not Vanadain.

Frexinet: Who?

The devs gave hope by acknowledging that ST is in a very bad state and that they promised that in this patch ST will become strong. So, the patch notes have nothing I can see which will make ST strong. So, they believe that these new 4 cards are going to make ST very good. Somehow I don't see how it can happen. Only time can tell whether their vision on Spellatel is right or wrong and whether ST will remain in this dead state or will raise.

10 buffs for SK! I am not saying SK shouldn't get buffs. All the cards that are buffed probably deserved buffs as we never saw them. Why can't the same treatment be given to ST. For every one unplayable/unplayed SK card ST will have three unplayable/unplayed cards. When they want to buff one faction which is already in good spot, why can't they give the same treatment for ST which is in really bad state? I can never logically understand their approach.
 
Only three changes to ST. And IMO, all three are irrelevant.

Francesca: The change is only meaningful for the 9P Epic and the 6P Orb. Unity is still worthless and super costly and the conditions are hard. I still think Orb is pretty horrible card for its provisions and in 2 weeks time no one will play these card. Now everyone will try to get a meme worthy video for chaining.

Vanadain: It hurts me to see that the devs try so hard to make this card worthy but they are not fixing the actual problem. Vanadain's whole concept is "I can make your 4P card to play for 6 points rather than 3 points". Most of the times, the Waylay plays for 3 points. It is a very bad card. Vanadain promises that he will make that card played for normal value. How is this interesting or worthy enough to play him? If you want Vanadain to be useful, change Waylay, not Vanadain.

Frexinet: Who?

The devs gave hope by acknowledging that ST is in a very bad state and that they promised that in this patch ST will become strong. So, the patch notes have nothing I can see which will make ST strong. So, they believe that these new 4 cards are going to make ST very good. Somehow I don't see how it can happen. Only time can tell whether their vision on Spellatel is right or wrong and whether ST will remain in this dead state or will raise.

10 buffs for SK! I am not saying SK shouldn't get buffs. All the cards that are buffed probably deserved buffs as we never saw them. Why can't the same treatment be given to ST. For every one unplayable/unplayed SK card ST will have three unplayable/unplayed cards. When they want to buff one faction which is already in good spot, why can't they give the same treatment for ST which is in really bad state? I can never logically understand their approach.
Did they actually say they were going to make ST "strong" with this patch? lmao. And speaking of SK, I'm by no means an SK expert, but Freya's Blessing was an absolute staple already, and I think that buff was HUGE. Delirium buff was HUGE. Those are great cards.
 
Did they actually say they were going to make ST "strong" with this patch? lmao. And speaking of SK, I'm by no means an SK expert, but Freya's Blessing was an absolute staple already, and I think that buff was HUGE. Delirium buff was HUGE. Those are great cards.
How was Freya's Blessing "an absolute staple" ?
The issue was that if you were reviving 4-5p cards you would just waste provisions.
 
How was Freya's Blessing "an absolute staple" ?
The issue was that if you were reviving 4-5p cards you would just waste provisions.
It was a staple by already being included in every alchemy deck. And reviving from graveyard shouldn't just be a free "extra bronze" for SK, with the Veteran tags and discards and all that. Not that I think FB is now OP or anything, but this "wasting provisions" thing is not really a justification for going down to 5. In fact, as happy as I am for my SK friends, and despite your exhaustive explanation, I'm not really sure WHY it was buffed.
 
Only three changes to ST. And IMO, all three are irrelevant.

Francesca: The change is only meaningful for the 9P Epic and the 6P Orb. Unity is still worthless and super costly and the conditions are hard. I still think Orb is pretty horrible card for its provisions and in 2 weeks time no one will play these card. Now everyone will try to get a meme worthy video for chaining.

Vanadain: It hurts me to see that the devs try so hard to make this card worthy but they are not fixing the actual problem. Vanadain's whole concept is "I can make your 4P card to play for 6 points rather than 3 points". Most of the times, the Waylay plays for 3 points. It is a very bad card. Vanadain promises that he will make that card played for normal value. How is this interesting or worthy enough to play him? If you want Vanadain to be useful, change Waylay, not Vanadain.

Frexinet: Who?

The devs gave hope by acknowledging that ST is in a very bad state and that they promised that in this patch ST will become strong. So, the patch notes have nothing I can see which will make ST strong. So, they believe that these new 4 cards are going to make ST very good. Somehow I don't see how it can happen. Only time can tell whether their vision on Spellatel is right or wrong and whether ST will remain in this dead state or will raise.

10 buffs for SK! I am not saying SK shouldn't get buffs. All the cards that are buffed probably deserved buffs as we never saw them. Why can't the same treatment be given to ST. For every one unplayable/unplayed SK card ST will have three unplayable/unplayed cards. When they want to buff one faction which is already in good spot, why can't they give the same treatment for ST which is in really bad state? I can never logically understand their approach.
For the most part I agree with your reasoning, with the exception Vanadain. I doubt ST spells/mages will ever be a thing if the current cards remain the same. Francesca takes too long to offer value. Whisperer is removed way too easy. Sorcerer can be disabled with just 1 damage ping. Elven Seer needs to wait 1 turn to provide value and plays into tall punish. Saov is, as bushy said, a horrible version of SY boat. Orb of Insight is too expensive and it seems that it has been designed to synergize with Elven Seer and Francesca (in the sense that they spawn an additional copy, thus giving you carryover).

Vanadain's main problem was its lack of flexibility. The fact that you HAD to move 2 units to your deck and then have them replaced by 2 waylays, with no other option is bad. Regarding waylay, the card has already received a 1 provision buff. Giving it 1 more damage would mean that it becomes a 7 for 4 without Vanadain. One change I thought about it would be to trigger deathblow regardless if you control Vanadain. But that would make it a 10 for 4.
 
So, next to no real changes, everything else got boosted by one provision or power... Average cost just keeps getting lower and lower. It's not like you can already just put almost everything in one deck. Surely this will never become a problem.
 
It was a staple by already being included in every alchemy deck.
What alchemy deck? I haven't seen one in ages. The last time someone used FB... that must've been half a year ago, though I don't play frequently anymore. So that's probably why it's buffed. It is never OP as base power buffing is hasn't been a thing for years in SK (except with the new card, which is exciting). I doubt SK is taking over anytime soon, despite these buffs, which is a good thing.

A bit weird that ST doesn't get anything. People were complaining about it being the worst faction.

The Jackpot deck I played is not impacted at all by this change, but I guess it's enough to make most people abandon the deck.

It's good they put the Journey concept on hold. There's only so much 'vanities' one can select. A fresh board and music might entice me to buy this.
 

rrc

Forum veteran
...

Vanadain's main problem was its lack of flexibility. The fact that you HAD to move 2 units to your deck and then have them replaced by 2 waylays, with no other option is bad. Regarding waylay, the card has already received a 1 provision buff. Giving it 1 more damage would mean that it becomes a 7 for 4 without Vanadain. One change I thought about it would be to trigger deathblow regardless if you control Vanadain. But that would make it a 10 for 4.
If Waylay always spwans a Deadeye, it plays for 6 for 4. If Vanadain is present and he spawn a DeadEye, then he would have played for 9 for 7 (still not worth it). As long as Waylay can (and most of the time plays for 3 points) Vanadain is an absolutely horrible card. He will not even be part of a Tier 3 deck. May be someone will use him to add two Waylays and Snowdrop to shuffle and Simlas for 4 Waylays.. that is only worthy if they are a content creator and doing it for other's entertainment.

In his current state and in Waylay's current state, he will not see any play in any remotely competitive scene.
 
What alchemy deck? I haven't seen one in ages. The last time someone used FB... that must've been half a year ago, though I don't play frequently anymore. So that's probably why it's buffed. It is never OP as base power buffing is hasn't been a thing for years in SK (except with the new card, which is exciting). I doubt SK is taking over anytime soon, despite these buffs, which is a good thing.
You're exaggerating. Battle trance gedy decks are fairly common. Probably second most common SK deck after Flurry. I've had decent success with with them over the last couple of seasons, whenever I felt like breaking out of the rut that ST has been lately. Now those decks have been made better.
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If Waylay always spwans a Deadeye, it plays for 6 for 4. If Vanadain is present and he spawn a DeadEye, then he would have played for 9 for 7 (still not worth it). As long as Waylay can (and most of the time plays for 3 points) Vanadain is an absolutely horrible card. He will not even be part of a Tier 3 deck. May be someone will use him to add two Waylays and Snowdrop to shuffle and Simlas for 4 Waylays.. that is only worthy if they are a content creator and doing it for other's entertainment.

In his current state and in Waylay's current state, he will not see any play in any remotely competitive scene.
On the "bright" side, I just noticed that Thaw is a Nature card :D :D
 
Music no longer being determined by the opponent's faction is taking some getting used to. It feels weird hearing NG music and then the opponent turns out to be MO or something. :D

I don't think the "Expansions" contract category was there before? That's a nice QoL addition.
 
I don't mind the buffs on SK since they hit cards that are very rarely played (should have also buffed Ulfhedin and Tuersach Axeman since they have 0% usage), but why can't ST have that much or at least close to that much buffs to their pile of unplayable cards?

Nerfs to Foltest and Koschey are good though SUPER tiny. :] I would have had slightly stronger nerfs to those since they were in over 90% of NR and MO decks being played last month.
The nerf to SSW (I truly despise this card even though I was myself forced to use it cuz if I didn't I'd 90% lose vs ppl who did use it) is good but idk if it's enough, the support this card has in the light of all the different "draw" support cards is just mad.

Also: Bearification = INSTANT 10 power poinstlam -_- to support alredy toxic traps or megascope shenanigans = I hate it before even seeing it played lol.
Meanwhile other 6 provision cards have to work over a few turns to reach 10 points (Bearification should be 9 points :p).

How to fix Megascope:
Make it 5 provisions and add the following lines:
If the target is a 4 provision card, buff it by 1, if the target is a 6 provision card, delay the timer by 1 turn.
 
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I liked the Vanadain change It felt awful to play him and putting cards that you wanted in the bottom of the deck. The provision change makes it more appealing since the 8prov spot is good for Isengrim already if you are playing elves anyway. The Freixenet is good for harmony and devotion which I tried but I don't think it's a big deal since piloting the deck is already awkward.

Those changes for sk feel big in my opinion and they are adding up
 
I don't think the "Expansions" contract category was there before? That's a nice QoL addition.
Pretty sure it was, at least it didn't strike me as odd as if it wasn't there yesterday. I check the contracts section often to see what I want to complete from the "not yet completed" list.
 
Love the cosmetics!
The new game board looks fantastic!
 
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