The Great Yakkening

We feel there were two or three main issues to address since the last patch, and that to address one incorrectly could mean exposing a different problem altogether. We wanted to tackle them with the big picture in mind.

The first issue we had to address was “Yak Attack.” There’s no arguing that it was appearing far too commonly in games. There are a lot of reasons for why this suddenly became a reality. In short, as we’ve slowly peeled back the outer layers of certain aggressiive decks in preceding patches, a previously tame card like Yak Attack is no longer kept in check by an overall “faster” meta. Putting a microscope to the card, we can easily see the absurd amount of value in can generate in a safer environment. To be blunt, we feel Yak Attack is severely undercosted in its current state. However, we didn't want to “hotfix” this one card only to expose a set of other issues we predict would surface afterward. In other words, we’re trying to stay one step ahead of the predicted meta here.

The second and third issues we wanted to address were improving all Colossi designs, and curbing the predicted dominance of Blue after aggression is toned down yet again. Colossi were originally designed as a way to bring games to a conclusion more quickly if decks were built around them properly - especially for our Pandora mode. Time has shown that these designs have some inherent flaws in them and can lead to poor player experience, so we’ve decided to overhaul them entirely. In addition to the Colossus, we’ve hit a couple of Blue’s other “key” cards to put them where we feel is a better spot. Read below for the full list of changes.

The New Yak Attack

Yak Attack

Event

9f

Summon three 2/2 Angry Yaks with Haste.

The New Colossi

Wavecrash Colossus

Creature

6f LL

0/8

Gains +1/+0 when you create a colored land while this card is in your hand or deck.

Primeval Colossus

Creature

6f FF

0/8

Gains +1/+0 when you play a creature with 5 Life or more while this card is in your hand or deck.

Volcanic Colossus

Creature

6f MM

0/8

Gains +1/+0 when an enemy creature dies while this card is in your hand or deck.

Windstorm Colossus

Creature

6f DD

0/8

Gains +1/+0 when you play an event while this card is in your hand or deck.

Other changes

Humbling Vision

Event

2f LL

Reduce a creature's Attack by half (rounded down).

Ruunin's Avenger

Creature

6f FF

5/5

Taunt.

Gain +1/+1 for each time you've been dealt damage this game.

Shaytan Vampire

Creature

7f DD

7/4

Gift: This creature drains 2 life from all adjacent enemy creatures.

Water Elemental

Creature

4f L

2/3

Aquatic. Gift: Create a lake.

Developer discussion

If you’d like a more detailed explanation of these changes, please continue reading!

We’ve already discussed Yak Attack’s situation above. Let’s talk about some of the other changes.

The New Colossi:

We’ve come to realize the core mechanic behind the previous Colossus functionality just doesn’t work well in Faeria. There are a lot of different situations in which we think they just weren’t working out perfectly, and we saw this reflected as well in player feedback.

In the end, it was all about finding a solid redesign for them. We've settled on an iteration where their cost doesn't change over the course of the game, but can still result in great value if you build your deck around certain archetypes. It was also important that these Colossus can keep doing their intended job in Pandora mode, which we are continuing to make ready for public release.

Humbling Vision:

The previous version of Humbling Vision was a necessary evil in a meta where the mid-late game was dominated by cheap 8/8 Colossi. It’s also a card we’ve felt didn’t match up with Blue’s design philosophy very well, and functioned far too often as a soft removal tool. One consequence of this is that we feel it slowed games down way too much. As aggressive decks continue to have less tools, it makes sense that it is now also safe to adjust what used to be Blue’s answer to aggression in many cases. The new design should still allow for Blue decks to come back in a game and has been lowered in priced to 2 Lakes, seeing as it is a much more stable and less "swingy” card now.

Ruunin's Avenger:

This is the only strict “buff” in this patch. We’d like to see this card have more play. Its design is almost purely about being able to come back from behind in games. It should also give one more option against decks that want nothing more than to slam repeatedly against your face.

Shaytan Vampire:

Slight nerf here. Shaytan Vampire is a nice strong body and a great tool to wipe out a swarm of weenies, something we think yellow shouldn't be too excellent at. There was also an issue with higher end card distribution costs for yellow. There were many, many 6 costs - then suddenly costs jumped to 10. This creature is now the first yellow card at 7 faeria.

Water Elemental:

The Blue elemental was clearly above all the other elementals. It was simply an auto pick in most Blue decks. We like having these types of cards pushed because they develop the board, but the protection ability simply made this creature way too strong. We’ve instead given it aquatic and tweaked its stats to be more in line with the 3 other elementals.

And that's that!

So long, and thanks for all the yaks.

-The Faeria Team