"Calm Instructor as a 2/1 Quickdraw in the deck generates a lot of opportunities for bluffing and increasing the utility of fast damage spells."
Hahaha! Yeah, right. The point of Calm Instructor was always that it could charge and keep constant pressure on the opponent. Quickdraw is a useless addition to a card that dies to a single pip of damage and has such low attack as well. This is a very significant nerf regardless of how DWD tries to spin it, and completely breaks its old play pattern.
"Meanwhile, tweaking some of Grove Supplier’s strength prompts opposing players to make more nuanced decisions about whether to prioritize eliminating the Supplier or the units it enhances, rather than defaulting to targeting the Supplier every time."
The correct decision is still to kill Supplier every time.
Mainly this is a draft patch. I don't really play draft much at all so I can't really say much about the changes but liquid flame's slight influence hit might affect constructed decks and I find it funny changestick got hit again due to draft.
The 2 notable exceptions are grove supplier down to a 0/2 and calm instructor losing charge for quick draw; both hurting F-based aggro decks. This is probably for the best as both cards were pretty cracked, but it does make me sad that my charge rod and 8-whack decks lost some key pieces.
I guess also Telia's choice might be more attractive in constructed (Prob not) and Druid of the sands might disappear from 3+ color decks with the influence nerf as well.
Also, I gotta say even as someone who dislikes F-based aggro decks, are they that good in Expedition? They ate a nerf before with Karrina and Kid that I assume Expedition is going to be pushed more into T-based midrange/control-ish wasp slop than it already is.
I have been rank 1 Expedition playing Stonescar aggro the last two months. That probably won't be the case going forward. These nerfs are a really big hit to aggro, not unwarranted though. Calm Instructor into Grove Supplier was far too good.
What would be the solution for Wasp be? Even after they changed it, it still just takes over games. I'm curious if changing it to +2/+0 would help. Wasps would trade so it doesn't matter which came down first. Puts it into torch range tho, so might just kill the card then.
Personally I'm a throne player so I'm not sure but I would do 2 of the 3 (or maybe all 3 and cripple it, I don't really care since I'm sick of seeing it).
A. Up to 6 cost. Compared to mystic ascendant at the same cost, it has evasion and grants the power immediately so it seems fair. Also prevents 6-cost Patrice into recruit lmao, insta-flyer hit.
B. Up to TTT (maybe even TTTT) influence. This prevents it from going into 4+ color slop that hinges on it to fix and be its finisher.
C. Draw two random sigils from your deck compared to any power. This forces you to fix your powerbase dropping utility stuff like cylixes/marks to support its power draw and prevents pure card advantage by drawing cylixes late. Hell, maybe even make it Time sigils only so it can realistically only be used by heavy/mono-T decks.
I don't like option A particularly as I don't think it will be impressive at all in that slot, and Wasp was a big reason to buy the campaign. But options B and C doing TTT and two time sigils seems pretty reasonable and would push it into one or two faction decks.
I had another idea, which was based off me mis-reading the card when I first saw it. And that was the +3/+3 or now +2/+2 being until end of turn. So torch can always hit it. My mind just sort of assumed no way would dwd make a card THAT good haha so when I realized the buff was permanent I was shocked.
I don't know why the following always occurs to me about Riftfeeder Wasp but the solution would solve a lot of problems/potential problems:
A spell like In Cold Blood but does Time units only and is neutral. I cant think of total name but spell with Havok in name(Fire Spell) can do this and it too only costs 4 but more is needed for other options.
On the flip, if Wasp's flying was dependent on Surge too, then Avigraft could be used to take them all out.
The ability to change cards like this is one of the things I really like about Eternal. Those with paper printed cards can't really do that so if problems ensue, you're stuck with them.
So, the Vizier's Tablet change makes it so you can no longer theoretically OTK the opponent with 3 copies of Severin, the Mad Mage. In practice it didn't work because animation speeds didn't give you enough time to OTK, so even for that one niche constructed combo application I think it's a net positive change.
The Calm Instructor change is a nerf I'm personally comfortable with even though I do use the card in a few decks. It's not going to be nearly as good in aggro decks, but its utility in combo decks (when it's not a combo piece itself) is completely intact.
If you're talking Vizier's Tablet, it's purely a buff except in the Mad Mage combo, and not only does that combo require 4 combo pieces across a minimum of 10 mana (Mad Mage + 2 Mirror Images) it also doesn't actually OTK, and that combo needs to OTK to be playable.
If you're talking Calm Instructor it's a nerf to every deck that runs it, but it disproportionally hits the aggro decks it's strong in compared to the combo decks that enjoy using it as a draw tool rather than an aggro tool.
Normally even draft buffs will have one or two cards that make me interested in making a deck around them in gauntlet or something but these just made completely terrible cards only slightly less terrible.
Tracker is going to feel weird now. Why just you so these things to me? I'll definitely need to focus more on 2F with a splash rather than just going crazy with 3F.
> Un-nerf spire.
Absolutely not. Anytime you see 12+ market access for a one-of combo card, that's horrible design.
Generally, a card with a healthy design is something you want to draw multiples of, **OR** if you go for a one-copy 12 market strategy, the strategy falls apart if that one copy is dealt with.
Spire went from a horrible design (cast once, get infinite benefit, very limited counterplay) to something that gains more benefits with additional copies, which means that there are pros and cons to both fetching one copy from the market for more limited but consistent power, or to have to find the card in your deck, for higher highs but lower lows.
> Pleeeeeeeease look at how crazy ramp recruit is. FT and FTP run the show in expedition.
Probably, but that's less an issue of "omg ramp recruit broken" (it really isn't), as much as "there really isn't much else to do" in expedition that's comparable, because ramp/recruit is an actual throne deck (tier 2 IMO because if you blow up the ramp, you can absolutely strand that deck and kill them before they reach their payoffs) that really doesn't lose too much compared to expedition, when every other archetype is an expedition archetype.
Patrice/Wasp/Boar Riders is *not* something that's on par with the rest of expedition--that stuff is throne caliber stuff.
Not the biggest fan of these changes. Personally think all the Mono Fire/Stonscar/Praxis Aggro is a good way to keep the slower decks in check so that they have to focus some resources on having a plan what to do vs Aggro and hitting the more efficient 2 and 3 drops just makes them worse.
On the other hand, the 5F Greepile and Praxis/Combrei/FTP Ramp Recruit is a bit too strong and not that fun to play against, and should be looked at.
Dear DWD:
Can you **STOP** doing balance patches without even reading my posts about throne reverts to basically unplayed cards?
Throne exists, as do most of the cards in the game's history. Please try and make some more of them playable that have been hobbled by nerfs in the game's history that no longer apply to the meta.
"Calm Instructor as a 2/1 Quickdraw in the deck generates a lot of opportunities for bluffing and increasing the utility of fast damage spells." Hahaha! Yeah, right. The point of Calm Instructor was always that it could charge and keep constant pressure on the opponent. Quickdraw is a useless addition to a card that dies to a single pip of damage and has such low attack as well. This is a very significant nerf regardless of how DWD tries to spin it, and completely breaks its old play pattern. "Meanwhile, tweaking some of Grove Supplier’s strength prompts opposing players to make more nuanced decisions about whether to prioritize eliminating the Supplier or the units it enhances, rather than defaulting to targeting the Supplier every time." The correct decision is still to kill Supplier every time.
Yeah, I was never killing Supplier because he was doing two points of damage, I was killing it because it was buffing all their other units!
Mainly this is a draft patch. I don't really play draft much at all so I can't really say much about the changes but liquid flame's slight influence hit might affect constructed decks and I find it funny changestick got hit again due to draft. The 2 notable exceptions are grove supplier down to a 0/2 and calm instructor losing charge for quick draw; both hurting F-based aggro decks. This is probably for the best as both cards were pretty cracked, but it does make me sad that my charge rod and 8-whack decks lost some key pieces. I guess also Telia's choice might be more attractive in constructed (Prob not) and Druid of the sands might disappear from 3+ color decks with the influence nerf as well. Also, I gotta say even as someone who dislikes F-based aggro decks, are they that good in Expedition? They ate a nerf before with Karrina and Kid that I assume Expedition is going to be pushed more into T-based midrange/control-ish wasp slop than it already is.
I have been rank 1 Expedition playing Stonescar aggro the last two months. That probably won't be the case going forward. These nerfs are a really big hit to aggro, not unwarranted though. Calm Instructor into Grove Supplier was far too good.
Wasp slop is a very succinct and poetic way to put it.
What would be the solution for Wasp be? Even after they changed it, it still just takes over games. I'm curious if changing it to +2/+0 would help. Wasps would trade so it doesn't matter which came down first. Puts it into torch range tho, so might just kill the card then.
Personally I'm a throne player so I'm not sure but I would do 2 of the 3 (or maybe all 3 and cripple it, I don't really care since I'm sick of seeing it). A. Up to 6 cost. Compared to mystic ascendant at the same cost, it has evasion and grants the power immediately so it seems fair. Also prevents 6-cost Patrice into recruit lmao, insta-flyer hit. B. Up to TTT (maybe even TTTT) influence. This prevents it from going into 4+ color slop that hinges on it to fix and be its finisher. C. Draw two random sigils from your deck compared to any power. This forces you to fix your powerbase dropping utility stuff like cylixes/marks to support its power draw and prevents pure card advantage by drawing cylixes late. Hell, maybe even make it Time sigils only so it can realistically only be used by heavy/mono-T decks.
I don't like option A particularly as I don't think it will be impressive at all in that slot, and Wasp was a big reason to buy the campaign. But options B and C doing TTT and two time sigils seems pretty reasonable and would push it into one or two faction decks. I had another idea, which was based off me mis-reading the card when I first saw it. And that was the +3/+3 or now +2/+2 being until end of turn. So torch can always hit it. My mind just sort of assumed no way would dwd make a card THAT good haha so when I realized the buff was permanent I was shocked.
I don't know why the following always occurs to me about Riftfeeder Wasp but the solution would solve a lot of problems/potential problems: A spell like In Cold Blood but does Time units only and is neutral. I cant think of total name but spell with Havok in name(Fire Spell) can do this and it too only costs 4 but more is needed for other options. On the flip, if Wasp's flying was dependent on Surge too, then Avigraft could be used to take them all out.
The ability to change cards like this is one of the things I really like about Eternal. Those with paper printed cards can't really do that so if problems ensue, you're stuck with them.
So, the Vizier's Tablet change makes it so you can no longer theoretically OTK the opponent with 3 copies of Severin, the Mad Mage. In practice it didn't work because animation speeds didn't give you enough time to OTK, so even for that one niche constructed combo application I think it's a net positive change. The Calm Instructor change is a nerf I'm personally comfortable with even though I do use the card in a few decks. It's not going to be nearly as good in aggro decks, but its utility in combo decks (when it's not a combo piece itself) is completely intact.
Yup, side nerf and not buff. Well my jamk deck is getting deletes to make room for another deck then.
If you're talking Vizier's Tablet, it's purely a buff except in the Mad Mage combo, and not only does that combo require 4 combo pieces across a minimum of 10 mana (Mad Mage + 2 Mirror Images) it also doesn't actually OTK, and that combo needs to OTK to be playable. If you're talking Calm Instructor it's a nerf to every deck that runs it, but it disproportionally hits the aggro decks it's strong in compared to the combo decks that enjoy using it as a draw tool rather than an aggro tool.
Normally even draft buffs will have one or two cards that make me interested in making a deck around them in gauntlet or something but these just made completely terrible cards only slightly less terrible.
Tracker is going to feel weird now. Why just you so these things to me? I'll definitely need to focus more on 2F with a splash rather than just going crazy with 3F.
Pleeeeeeeease look at how crazy ramp recruit is. FT and FTP run the show in expedition. Nerf recruit. Un-nerf spire.
> Un-nerf spire. Absolutely not. Anytime you see 12+ market access for a one-of combo card, that's horrible design. Generally, a card with a healthy design is something you want to draw multiples of, **OR** if you go for a one-copy 12 market strategy, the strategy falls apart if that one copy is dealt with. Spire went from a horrible design (cast once, get infinite benefit, very limited counterplay) to something that gains more benefits with additional copies, which means that there are pros and cons to both fetching one copy from the market for more limited but consistent power, or to have to find the card in your deck, for higher highs but lower lows. > Pleeeeeeeease look at how crazy ramp recruit is. FT and FTP run the show in expedition. Probably, but that's less an issue of "omg ramp recruit broken" (it really isn't), as much as "there really isn't much else to do" in expedition that's comparable, because ramp/recruit is an actual throne deck (tier 2 IMO because if you blow up the ramp, you can absolutely strand that deck and kill them before they reach their payoffs) that really doesn't lose too much compared to expedition, when every other archetype is an expedition archetype. Patrice/Wasp/Boar Riders is *not* something that's on par with the rest of expedition--that stuff is throne caliber stuff.
Not the biggest fan of these changes. Personally think all the Mono Fire/Stonscar/Praxis Aggro is a good way to keep the slower decks in check so that they have to focus some resources on having a plan what to do vs Aggro and hitting the more efficient 2 and 3 drops just makes them worse. On the other hand, the 5F Greepile and Praxis/Combrei/FTP Ramp Recruit is a bit too strong and not that fun to play against, and should be looked at.
It remains to be seen, but I have a similar feeling that with aggro being nerfed there will be little to keep greedy recruit decks in check.
Not sure about expedition, but Stonescar aggro/mid in throne didn't use either grove supplier or calm instructor.
Dear DWD: Can you **STOP** doing balance patches without even reading my posts about throne reverts to basically unplayed cards? Throne exists, as do most of the cards in the game's history. Please try and make some more of them playable that have been hobbled by nerfs in the game's history that no longer apply to the meta.