7/13/23 Balance Review

A handful of buffs and nerfs coming through, leading us hopefully to a healthier overall metagame

General Changes: Poison has been disabled

While im sure many of us had hoped poison would be fixed, at least now we wont have to worry about making a play that would fail when poison didnt tick. I look forward to when poison is properly working.

Card Buffs: Change
Szerro’s Notes

Alchemical Brewmaster: Power increased from 0 to 1

As a 4 mana 0/3 I was rarely able to justify spending my turn and mana on Alchemical Brewmaster. While the 1 power is nice, I dont think it is very meaningful. Since the Brewmaster is coming down on turn 4*, its just happening too late into the game to heave meaningful impact. In addition, the Brewmaster often needs a turn to get to an ally it can buff. Brewmaster is still too inefficient to be worth the include at the moment.

*I am curious about how Brewmaster may function in a Billy deck. It is possible that a turn 3 Brewmaster can be quite useful


Scourge of Monsters: Gain 1 armor and effect changed from “draw a card when I kill a unit with 3 or more power” to “when I kill a unit with 2 or more power draw a card.”

Scourge of Monsters just got the glow up of a lifetime. The 1 armor pushes it into 4 mana 4/5 territory, which is a classically powerful statline in many TCG’s. In addition it is now very realistic for Scourge of monsters to get multiple draw triggers off before dying or ending the game. I believe Scourge of Monsters will be a Powerhouse for the time being.

Stormcaller: Mana cost reduced from 5 to 6. Changed from Melee to Ranged.

Stormcaller coming down a turn earlier is a solid buff. 5 mana for a 4/4 ranged is a solid deal. Stormcallers Warcry effect is also able to buy you a ton of tempo. I can see a world where Stormcaller can be the top end for a midrangy style deck, that looks to play control early, and pivot into the beatdown role after Stormcaller enters play.


Ruinous Madman: Power increased from 1 to 2

This buff isnt a huge deal, since you play the madman for his AOE effect and not the body.
2 power is 2x better than 1 power and that’s just a fact. Now the leftover Madman body can fight a bit better or slap the enemy golem a bit harder.


Consult the Dead: Cost reduced from 6 to 4

Huge buff, now you wont just lose the game playing this card. I still don’t think consult the dead is good yet, but were getting there. Lets see some more tools to get units into the graveyard and then we can cook. Consult the Dead is a dangerous card. It has the ability to draw an insane amount of cards in 1 turn. I imagine this card will be unimpressive for a while, then one day we will reach a critical mass of cards that work great with Consult the Dead. At that point Consult the Dead will take over as a massive value engine for a graveyard centric deck.

Card Nerfs:

Deft Hunter: Health down from 3(+1 armor) to 2 (0 armor)

Rest in peace Deft Hunter. You flew too close to the sun. At 2 HP Deft Hunter dies to Saskia and Lightning Shock for free. Your 4 drops cannot be dying to such cheap removal without generating significant advantage on its first turn in play. While Deft hunter can still take over the board, I think now she is too frail and will not be able to nearly as often as she once could.

I would have preferred if instead of such a harsh nerf here, instead, Deft Hunters range gets reduced to 4 hexes, and Mortal Strike is reduced to 3 mana.

Charging Lancer: Mana cost increased from 2 to 3

Charging Lancer was potentially the best card in the game last patch so I think this nerf was needed. Charging lancer is still perfectly playable at this statline. I would be curious to see how Charging lancer would work as a 3 mana 1/3 so it could get use out of its retaliate effect more.

Fashionable Pyromancer: Range reduced from 5 to 3

This nerf feels a bit too harsh. Pyromancer was really good on some boards, but really bad in many situations too. I would like to see this card at 4 range rather than 3. I feel the same way about this card as I do Deft Hunter.

Splinter Volley: Damage reduced from 3 to 2

Splinter Volley will nolonger be able to kill Billy, Cloaked Wanderer, Warlock of the Vault, and many other cards. It is also now much worse at weakening bigger units. I would have rather they not changed splinter volley, and introduced a coin so player 2 can use Splinter Volley to catch back up.

Cloistered Scribe: Stats down from 3/3 to 1/2

Cloistered scribe now dies to Saskia for free. Sure you get a Teleport and Lightning Shock, but your going to need to spend that Lightning Shock on Saskia, in the end the Cloistered scribe player is probably down mana. I would much prefer the Scribe to be a 0/3. I still think Cloistered Scribe can potentially go over the top of Saskia alongside Franky.

Card Rework:

Promising Trainee: Stats changed from 2/2 to 2/1. Nolonger gains 1 HP after taking damage. Instead has 1 armor.

I predicted that the Trainee would be one of the best, if not the best card in the game when it was originally spoiled. Lets be perfectly clear here, this rework is a nerf. The extra power is great, dont get me wrong, but overall this is a nerf. The reason I believed Trainee was so powerful early on is because it could indefinitely fight 1 power units and shrug off all damage. This is nolonger possible, making the trainee much easier to deal with. Tenacious Trainee will not carry buffs like Ogre Blood Transfusion nearly as well as before. That said, Trainee is still a staple 1 drop and an excellent card.



This has been a solid round of changes. I think the game will be in a healthier spot now, however I feel as though we are ignoring the elephant in the room. Currently in my opinion the game revolves around Saskia. If a card is dying to Saskia for free, then the card is not very good.