The first Trial of Champions launches and the start of Season 2
A new Trial of Champions leaderboard is live for 30 days starting at 3 PM PDT and ending on April 10th at 3 PM PDT. Players who rank in the top 7 will earn exclusive rewards, including the Legendary Combat Medic and an alternate 2D card art version of Epic Shockblade Smuggler.
To level the playing field, all players will be reset to 0 valor in Season 2 as the Trial of Champions will be ranked on Valor.
While we would prefer to do a partial valor reset to preserve some of your progress in previous seasons and to protect new players from veterans, a full reset was simpler and we didn’t want to delay the event any more.
Matchmaking is now done by Valor instead of by Deck power.
A new Legendary card, Veil Devourer, is available with increased drop rates for a limited time in the Veiled Recruit store tab. All pulls from this pool are Rare or better, when you pull a legendary card from this pool, you have a ~23% chance that it will be a Veil Devourer.
Loot pool changes after Trial of Champions ends:
April 10th: Veil Devourer joins the regular loot pool at the standard Legendary drop rate.
April 24th: Combat Medic joins the loot pool at the standard Legendary drop rate, making it available to all players.
Many cards have had wording and functionality updated - references to Graveyard, Exile, and Territory have been removed
Part of a continued effort to streamline mechanics that are confusing
Default match length reduced to 75 seconds
Broad changes made to reduce lethality, especially on units that gained Brutal in the previous patch.
Ranged units in general had their attack reduced because they benefit more than melee units by having Thief
In-game speed increased to 1.1x.
Modified VP Crystal Spawning so crystals appear on turns 4/8/12/15/18/21
Where player 2’s first turn is turn 2.
We are monitoring feedback regarding crystals and can adjust if this still feels too often.
Card-Specific Changes
Banner of Conquest
Changed effect to: When your commander is on high ground and has no enemies or allies adjacent to them, your units have +attack
We hope that this effect feels less free while playing into Orange’s theme of taking the high ground.
Renamed to Flag of Conquest to differentiate it from Inspiring Banner
Baroness Ruby
Increased damage 3 to 4
Bloodbound Pages
Increased HP bonus 3 to 4
Buccaneer
Changed ability to deal damage equal to its attack instead of half its attack.
Cannoneer
Reduced attack 10 to 9
Cultivator
Increased attack bonus per spawned seedling
Updated leveling curve
Director Petra
Changed to 22 hp, 1 attack, 4 movement.
Helps improve clarity on commander health since armor is not displayed on the commander health bar.
Updated leveling curve.
Enfeebling Glove
Increased damage 2 to 4
Enlistment decree
Increased HP bonus 1 to 3
Exhume
Now returns a random ally. No longer references Graveyard or opens Graveyard.
Field Scholar Gear
Changed to give Bonebreaker instead of Thief
Force Blast
Updated wording
Grave Spores
Stats increased to +3/+3
Now that Pebbleborn is not a Minion, Grave Spores needs a little help since the unit it spawns doesn’t attack immediately
Inspiring Banner
Reduced attack bonus 3 to 2
Lifespring Seedling
Now triggers even if no target is healed
To reduce board clutter
Matter Transmogrifier
Increased bonus attack 4 to 5
Midas Crystal
Increased bonus Armor on hit 4 to 5
Updated leveling curve
Mind Melter
Reduced cost 6 to 5
Reduced attack 8 to 7
Osprey Deadeye
Reduced HP 7 to 5
Pack Awakener
Changed to draw a unit with cost 4+ on hit and reduce cost of the drawn card by 1.
Changed to give permanent Kaboom.
Pebbleborn
No longer gains Minion
We heard you that Pebbleborn sometimes being a Minion and sometimes not is confusing. Minion was removed because newer players were confused when their units acted on their own and this is one of the first units they encountered.
Plainsguard
Reduced cost 6 to 5
Reduced attack 5 to 3
Professor’s Handbook
Increased cost threshold for spells 3 to 4
Increased HP gain 1 to 3
Shifting this away from “I cast Astral Bolt 3 times and win the game” and more into general specialty spell usage.
Progenitor
Reduced HP 11 to 9
Quantum Turnkey
Reduced attack 4 to 3
Queensguard Auger
Changed to give Flurry on hit always instead of relying on territory position
Reduced attack 8 to 4
Queensguard Dog
Reduced attack 8 to 7
Rankbreaker
Gained Brutal
Bonus attack reduced from +5 to +3
After gaining Brutal, Rankbreaker really tore through everyone
Shockblade Smuggler
Added +1 move to activated ability
Updated leveling curve
Sharpshooter
Reduced attack 6 to 5.
Reduced bonus attack 5 to 4
Steam Valve
Increased damage 1 to 3
Stolen Strategems
Increased attack reduction 3 to 4
Stormbell Adept
Reduced cost 8 to 6
Reduced attack from 10 to 8
Reduced health from 13 to 10
Tome of Echoes
Increased stats given by +0/1 to +1/2
Updated leveling curve
Tune Up
Increased armor bonus 2 to 3
Updated leveling curve
Can now target Commanders
Tunnel Helion
Updated wording
Twin Serpents
Increased poison damage from 2 to 3
Increased attack reduction 1 to 3
Updated leveling curve
Zephyr Monk
Reduced attack 3 to 2
Reduced bonus move to allies +2 to +1
Zephyr Monk was hitting too hard after gaining brutal and enabling too many non interactive play patterns due to the massive movement it granted allies.
Bug Fixes and Changes
Fixed an issue with Banner of Conquest throwing an exception when used with Seismic Boots
Fixed an issue with Concord Artisan effect triggering off Crystals
Fixed an issue with Exhume throwing an exception
Fixed an issue with Pawnbroker not showing a Venomous value
When Shockblade Smuggler steals equipment, the equipment will have its durability reset to its starting value
HUD/UIUX
Continued iteration on Card Collection and Deckbuilder UIs
Updated Card Upgrade Screen
Upgrade screen is now an overlay in your collection
Added right-click to upgrade functionality
Added ability to upgrade cards from your deck list
Known Issues:
Buccaneer tooltip still specifies ‘half my attack’
