MArcomage

Also soulcleaver is now too badass. First you plague yourselves to 1 magic. And then BAM! =4.
I like how shadow wolf was ressurected from previous nerf.
Academy nerf is clever
Also i think we need some summon horde card. Orc school? :)))))

Here's another feedback from me:
Abyssal viper - it should be great. Cheap hand cleaner, good potential resource income, nice way to increase token counter.
Academy - nice change, similar to Byakko. I guess it will prevent its spam.
Cultists, Earth elemental, Soul cleaver - it probably will be great against Destruction/facility reducing. Not like I would take it over Restoration, but these card are definitely better than before. Although I'm not a fan of any kind of destruction cards.
Globe of Myr. I don't think that it will be better with simply reduced cost. After all, you can take it in Mage/Legend or facilities+ deck - and 3/3/3 cost wouldn't be a problem.
Locust swarm - I like it much more with this condition.
Obsidian gargoyle - awesome! It will finally become worthwhile to be taken in Unliving deck.
Sacred forest - I'm glad to see this change :)
Werewolf... In fact, I'm not sure about it. 12 damage is great for a common (look at Centaur tribe), but 8r cost and guaranteed 12 wall in non-hidden mode... I use it now in my rush/Beast/Frenzy deck, but I'll probably replace it with Abyssal viper or even Dire wolves after change.

Cultists, Earth elemental, Soul cleaver - Destruction/facility reducing???

Damalycus wrote:
Also soulcleaver is now too badass. First you plague yourselves to 1 magic. And then BAM! =4.

Nice combo with Glacial Temple as well, making this appealing for decks that use bricks and/or recruits exclusively. I might add it to my Unliving deck.

Here is the last preview of the (pre-final version) balance changes and the Horde keyword preview. Due to tight schedule the update will be divided into two parts - balance changes will be up at Christmas and new cards will be on the New year.

I wish there were an easy way to filter out the actual changes from the renames, new pictures, and invisible code fixes.

The Horde effect is unique, but I was really hoping for a negative effect to really turn things on their heads. Oh well.

Grammar issue: It should read either "...if recruit costs of the..." or "...Horde cards is greater than..." to have agreement between plural and singular. Best would be to say "...if the sum of the recruit costs of the..." and "...is greater than..." (with "is" refering to the singular "sum") so not to suggest that all three have to individually be greater. That is, assuming I'm reading it right. If it is that all three have to be greater, which does seem less OP, then go with "costs" and leave "are" as it is.

I'm also unclear as to whether this triggers if the neighboring cards aren't Horde. Will a single, Common Horde always discard a matching bricks-only Common, or only when it is fully flanked? In that case, do positions 1 and 8 only require neighbors 2 and 7, do they look to 8 and 1 on the other ends as neighbors, or do they never trigger the effect?

OK, I think I'm done editing my post now... I just kept thinking of more to ask.

Thx for text correction :)

Current Horde effect works like this:

1 - N = recruits cost of the played Horde card
2 - increases N by recruits cost of neighbouring horde cards (if there are any)
3 - if N > recruits cost of the matching card the effect triggers (can't replace a card of higher rarity than the played card, though)

Balance changes highlights:

- Abyssal viper
- Cultists
- Earth elemental
- Magnetic whirlpool
- Master thief
- Globe of Myr
- Infiltrator
- Locust swarm
- Revolt
- Risen angel
- Sacred forest
- Soul cleaver
- Werewolf

If you have any more questions ask away ;-)

Locust swarm worries me, particularly since it will be more likely drawn with Revolt with its shrinking card pool. The options to defend against Locust swarm are going to be far fewer.

I like the new Werewolf.

I think the new changes to revolt greatly increase the card pool for revolt. If I'm interpreting it correctly, it can now draw many recruits-only keyword cards, including cards like Kraken, Pirates, and Valkyrie, but it can no longer draw many of the cards we know and love, including Reserve Forces, Troll Bridge, and Conscript Army.

It looks like there around 60 potential cards for it to choose from, about half of which are uncommon. Right now there are 20 potential cards to choose from, 13 of which are uncommon.

I'm not sure whether the increase in recruits gained will offset the lack of defensive options and lesser probability of drawing a specific card, such as Orc Regiment.

Ah, I didn't read it thoroughly enough. I spotted the change from stock gain to recruits gain and didn't see the change to the drawing rules.

Not a big fan of the locust swarm change. I don't necessarily think it will make it overpowered, but it does it make less interesting. It was cool how you could forfend it with just militia or far sight + green.

The horde effect seems kind of overpowered. Especially since it's being attached to lots of cards which were already adequately powerful.

Other than that, I like the changes.

Now I'm sure about new Werewolf. Please, leave him as he is now. It's crucial for rush Beast deck. Especially in rush against rush. If you want to buff this card - remove 1 recruit from its cost. That's it.
That new concept is very good, but can you implement it as a new card, not as Werewolf?

Nothing to address -tower decks? In case anyone hadn't noticed, most players are using them for short games. It's laughable. Can't blame people for using OP decks I suppose but, it's not like there's a lot on the line here: better to be original and lose ever-often than be a compensating corvette-driver sheep-clone.

Anyhoo, "don't hate the player, hate the game". I don't hate the game, but if we fix the unbalance, it would force so many people to create their own individual decks instead of just endlessly emulating one-another.

Do you mostly play hidden games, Ayrton? In the non-hidden normal-length games I play, I don't see -tower decks too often.

(And if I do, I'm usually happy to see them. My tower construction deck can build tower much more efficiently than my opponent can destroy it, and just having Lookout towers in my rush deck makes it practically immune to -tower decks.)

Ayrton wrote:
Nothing to address -tower decks? In case anyone hadn't noticed, most players are using them for short games. It's laughable. Can't blame people for using OP decks I suppose but, it's not like there's a lot on the line here: better to be original and lose ever-often than be a compensating corvette-driver sheep-clone.

Anyhoo, "don't hate the player, hate the game". I don't hate the game, but if we fix the unbalance, it would force so many people to create their own individual decks instead of just endlessly emulating one-another.

I agree

Ayrton wrote:
Nothing to address -tower decks? In case anyone hadn't noticed, most players are using them for short games. It's laughable. Can't blame people for using OP decks I suppose but, it's not like there's a lot on the line here: better to be original and lose ever-often than be a compensating corvette-driver sheep-clone.

Anyhoo, "don't hate the player, hate the game". I don't hate the game, but if we fix the unbalance, it would force so many people to create their own individual decks instead of just endlessly emulating one-another.

Now you actually can counter-rush tower- decks. In fact, when Dark pegasus and Watchtower were nerfed, my Beast/Frenzy/rush deck is able to outrush tower-. And even defend from it with Lookout towers, Citadel towers and even Chateau.
I think tower- decks at this moment are overused and overestimated. Decks like this are really good only against decks like Mage/Legend, Burning or Nature, that need some time to enable themselves and don't have enough tower+ cards. Counter-rush with any type of rush deck can break tower- deck very fast - it usually doesn't have enough defense and enough resources to use defensive cards.

Yes, I'm kinda defending tower- decks after tons of hate from me before last nerf :)

will we have the update tonight? or tomorrow?
I can't wait, I want to see how Horde will change the game. I hope Horde deck is not overpowered

I'm holding off on starting new games until the update takes place. Nothing more confusing than having cards in your hand and deck completely shift in usefulness mid-match.

hm, i thought current games will have no effect

i thought that last time too

I've had cards alter mid-game for probably every update. Whether or not it still happens, though, it's more a matter of wanting to rebalance the decks and start fresh.