Anything changing? I hope the merge cards are awesome and not horribly overcosted. Like combined cost of 25 mana max. I also really hope Bruna, the Fading Light has the ability to put “destroyed” angels onto the battlefield. This is my most wanted card for a fun Angel deck.
After the rebalances that were done to Kiora and Sorin on the last update, I’m surprised, and disappointed, that the more obviously overpowered Koth isn’t receiving a similar treatment this time, especially considering it’s a 250 crystal PW compared to Kiora’s 950.
Not only does he have the most ridiculous per-match mana gain of all PW and the 3rd highest max HP, but all of his abilities are cheap and disproportionately powerful compared to practically all others. Just as an example, let’s take the most recently rebalanced and more than twice as expensive Sorin. Sorin’s max level 3rd, at 21 loyalty, creates a support giving +4/0 to all creatures on life gain, which, under normal conditions, does not naturally happen. Koth’s Strength of the Mountain, meanwhile, costs 1 loyalty less (20), the created support has twice as much shield (effectively indestructible by matching) and gives +4/+4 bonus to all creatures on every red match by ANY player, no special conditions required. And if making a red match wasn’t common enough, his first ability destroys almost 25% of the board (potentially including opponent’s supports), except those very red gems, for a low 6 loyalty. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the ability be used without a red match happening either during or after its effect – more often, I see him running out of cards to fill, and his loyalty high enough for another cast next turn. For comparison, it takes Ajani three times as much loyalty to destroy less than twice as many gems with his ultimate at max level (and tough luck if your opponent has the same mana colour as you).
Seriously, how the devs considered tweaking Kiora but not Koth is beyond me…
It would be nice if the meld wasn’t an outrageous cost, but we’ll see when the gallery gets released. I worry that the meld benefit won’t outweigh the cost in having both cards in my deck taking the spot of something more useful.
I’m almost certain that koth isn’t currently a top tier Walker in any pvp format outside quick battles, where he dominates more because of speed than power.
Am I wrong or are we talking about 1 (ONE) bonus ribbon for those objectives? Seriously, what’s the big deal? If you really want to have an extra ribbon, you do the work, but no one is suffering for not doing it. Relax, everyone!
Blue Node: Clue supports should count (Tamiyo’s Journal, Ongoing Investigation, etc.)
Red/Green Node: Arlinn + low cost werewolves should work just fine (red has 2 uncommon 8 mana werewolves that kick major tail)…
White/Black: This one’s going to be fun… (tokens also count - Call the Bloodline summons vampires!)
Eldrazi: Don’t forget about the SCIONS (From Beyond, various spells, various low cost creatures, etc.)!
I’m guessing their use of “this week” and “next week” comes down to the certification process by Apple and Android. I assume the new application update either passed certification and a new bug was found that required them to resubmit for certification or the application update failed certification and needed to be resubmitted. While certification is speedier than in years past, it still takes time.
Well, quick battles ARE the quintessential PvP format… No bonus objectives, no artificial restrictions, just the purest comparison of PW, where speed IS (a form of) power.
Obviously, when having to summon specific types of cards, it helps to have twice as many possibilities at your disposal, as well as better card management options provided by multi-colour decks, but if one mid-range, single colour PW stands head and shoulders over the rest, I’d say this is a clear sign of imbalance.
In a surprising twist of fate a D3 employee read on these forums yesterday that players don’t appreciate maintenance taking 4-6 hour chunks out of events, and causing instabilities/game losses for players ingame when the patch drops.
In a tremendous show of graciousness, our overlords are going to delay the patch a week, leaving plenty of room for next Monday’s posts crying “I spent $400 on SoI BB’s and didn’t get an Emrakul, what gives!?”
Quick battles are where everyone builds unstable decks that focus purely on attack. Where speed matters and losses don’t. It is as far away from proper pvp as I can imagine it.
When gauging power level, nodes of power is probably the best indicator.
Blue supports should be a problem for any capable player without investigate counters. We’ve done that a million times it seems.
But your answer for red/green is a little wonky. Not everyone bought Arlinn and now she’s gone until the end of the month. It’s not really cool to design an event around her when she was only available for a week.