Hey guys! Today we continue the revision of Trial of the Gods card set. This time we gonna take a look at Light and Magic cards. In case you missed the first part, take a look at Death and Deceptions cards and see how they evolved during the GU internal testing. Also here is a link to the full list of cards.
This time around we have access to card art also so big yey for that one. If you want to see all the card take a look at gu.cards.
DISCLAIMER:
"All of this data is subject to change before and after the release of Trial of the Gods.
Many card names are placeholders. Many cards do not have tribes assigned, but will prior to release.
rarity of cards are not final. Some of these cards may be deleted. We may add cards prior to release."
- Card names in parentheses () are the old names if the name got changed
Light Cards:
Fortify
Changed from: A 2 mana spell card that reads: Draw a card. Give a creature "At the end of your turn, if this creature is at full health it gains 2 health. Otherwise, it heals for 2."
Well, this wasn't a surprise. Fortify in the original version was way over tuned so this was a required fix. Even now I think this card will be good enough to see some play, not the best card anymore but for the purpose of maintaining board control in a Midrange type of strategy, this is still a decent option. 2 mana to heal for 1 isn't that great but at least it recycles itself so you don't waste your hand resources. In most cases, Light is able to defend its creatures or at least a specific one with Heal god power so getting 2-3 health out of this card isn't far-fetched and so we might see this card used even in a 50% weaker version.
Olympian Guard (Athenian Guardian)
Changed from: A 2 mana 1/2 Olympian creature with Frontline and reads: At the end of your turn, if this creature has 3 strength or less, give it +1/+1.
Another broken card that we see getting toned down as expected. Still strong for sure but it doesn't go over the top, basically, over two turns, it gives you a body of a 3-drop with the addition of Frontline. Shenanigans to synergize with this effect are still equally possible. Like that one with Reformation to lower his strength to 1 so that he can gain even more stats over a couple of turns. I think we can safely say this will remain the staple in Light decks even now.
Bardelys, Parthene Orator (Salter, High Athenian)
Changed from: A 3 mana 2/2 legendary creature with Ward and Roar: This creature gets +1 strength for each enemy creature and +1 health for each friendly creature.
Just a minor change here and its and extra health point. As I said before, this can easily be a decent 3-drop, for example on the board of 4 creatures, 2 on your side, and 2 on the opponent's side it would be a 4/4 in the previous version. Now it will be a 4/5, which is a premium stat line for a 4-drop and I guess this is alright. It gives more justification for a Legendary status on this card.
Isadora, Daring Patrician (Phyrne, Aristocrat Courtesan)
Changed from: A 6 mana 3/3 legendary creature with Backline that reads: At the end of your turn, if there are no friendly Athenian Guardians on the board, summon one.
Stat line a bit weaker but the effect is now more "streamlined" since now you get the same effect each turn no matter what. I guess it makes more sense that way, and the slightly weaker body doesn't even mean a nerf in this situation, because now this card can be affected by effects that Light uses to buff creatures with 2 strength/health or less and possibly it will be easier to defend her while she brings infinite value, I mean, give her Ward or a ton of health and you are good to go. Zoo decks will greatly benefit from this card.
Dowsing Blade (Parsimon Razor)
Changed from: A 1 mana 1/1 relic that reads: At the end of your turn, move the Chosen One two cards closer to the top of your deck. Afterlife: Give the Chosen One +1/+1 and move it two cards closer to your deck.
This card is an amazing support card for the Chosen One. It looks like it was a bit too much so they decided to remove additional two spots the Chosen One cheats up the deck. A really minor change, don't think it changes much about this card, still looks really solid.
Dragon of the First Pillar
Changed from: A 7 mana 4/4 Dragon creature that reads: At the start of your turn, give +1 strength to each friendly creature. Roar: Choose one -- This creature gains backline, or This creature gains frontline and +4 health.
When I first saw this card, I thought man its stats are so bad but it has the ability to adapt to the given situation when you decide to play it. Now with the additional +2 strength to now an aggressive option it feels like it might be in the right place. Nothing else about this card changes but now it doesn't suck as much or not at all. We'll have to see though if this card manages to get a spot in the Zoo decklist because it is clearly meant to support that archetype. Maybe potentially it can fit in Mystic decks because of the Dragonkin Caller being a tutor for this card. Anyway, the card is better now, maybe even how it should be.
Trial of the First Pillar
Changed from: A 6 mana spell that reads: All creatures have their strength and health set to 1. Summon a 1/7 Pillar with frontline and can't attack.
This card was definitely really strong and maybe even too strong but that wasn't the real problem. Light already has a huge variety of board wipe/control options and this was just stacking up on that pile. This change doesn't necessarily make the card better but makes the Light card pool healthier. Now, this spell looks more in line with the Zoo/Midrange decks rather than Control which in my opinion is much better. Setting stats on creatures 2/2 benefits this type of strategy in many ways while the pillar is still able to defend from 3 enemy creatures that were affected by this spell, which is enough. Even though the Pillar can't attack it will do a great job of defending your valuable creatures like Isadora or Battle Cleric so that they can produce more value. Overall a really nice change.
Battle Priest
Changed from: A 3 mana 2/5 Mystic creature with Roar: Gain 1 favor for each enemy character.
As many favors generating cards, Battle Priest's Roar effect got doubled and this is just to compensate for doubled costs of cards in the Sanctum I'd guess. Now losing 1 health was a bit surprising but it seems that the Mystic archetype in Light has a lot of potential so that's the reason behind this nerf.
Magic Cards:
Form of Power
Changed from: A 1 mana spell that reads: Deal 2 damage to an enemy creature and 2 damage to your opponent's god.
Dealing 4 damage for 1 mana was just too much and I agree this had to be changed. Dealing only 1 damage to opponent's god is fair for a 1 mana removal that also removes any 1-drop and a couple of 2s and 3s. Combining this card with a spell boost is still going to be very powerful because it essentially adds 2 damage per boost. Nothing more to add here.
Virtuous Vision
Changed from: A 5 mana 5/5 Aether creature with Roar: If you are holding an Aether, reduce the cost of a spell in your hand that costs 3 or less to 1.
Quite a change for this one. Aethers seem to form some kind of aggressive style of play for Magic in general in this expansion so getting a random 1 mana spell seems even better than pulling from a larger pool it did in the last version. All of those spells can easily help aggressive strategies to deal damage, avoid Frontlines, and drawing a card. The only bad one is actually Lost in the Depths so sometimes you will be just straight out unlucky if you get that one. Because of this, one less strength makes a lot of sense to make this card less impactful on the board while simultaneously providing you with value. Nice change!
Mana Auditor
Changed from: A 3 mana 2/4 Aether creature with Roar: Reduce the cost of a random Aether in your hand that costs 3 or less to 1.
I guess they realized that Magic is getting a bit too much Aggro cards so this one was totally remade to fit in a different style of deck. Unlocking 2 mana is quite strong, especially since Magic already has a lot of different mana ramp cards, so this being a 6-drop isn't that bad because you can expect to play this card 1-2 turn earlier than normal. This card by itself will help maintain the whole control style of play so I'm really glad to see this one added in the expansion.
Melt
Changed from: A 7 mana spell that reads: Deal 1 damage to a character for each spell that costs 3 or less in your void.
This change actually made me laugh for a bit. I didn't really think this will happen but it kinda makes sense. There are a lot of cycle and draw cards in Magic, and even more with this expansion so of course, it was easy to go crazy with the damage. It seems that during testing they realized that it is getting out of control so the threshold was needed. 10 is an appropriate number, moves away from the deckbuilding focus on just mindless card cycling until you can one-shot the opponent but it still feels rewarding when you deal 10 damage with a single card. Too bad we didn't have the opportunity to see how crazy this card would escalate when given to players but oh well.
Trial of the False Reflection
Changed from: A 5 mana spell that reads: Summon a copy of target creature. The copy has "At the start of your turn, summon a copy of this creature."
Oh boy, what a nerf. Of course, it was broken on 5 mana, and it kinda feels it will be strong on 7 too. I mean, you can copy any creature, even something like Echophon so it is fair that it costs you a lot of mana too. Not only that newly summoned Echophon can attack immediately but if your opponent can't get rid of it, it's game over. So yeah, 7 mana is fair. Also, another playstyle change for Magic, usually you would use this, if it was 5 mana in Midrange or even Aggro deck, now it is more in the Control range so it won't be a pressure making card as much as value-generating one.
Blessing of Magic
Changed from: A 4 mana spell that reads: At the end of the turn, gain favor equal to the amount of health your god is missing.
A big overhaul of the card. But it fits more into the Magic theme than going by the missing health, something you would expect from a Death card. In terms of potential, it is not that much different as you can get at maximum 27 favor but without the risk of being on only 3 health remaining. Definitely a better version of the card that will be a huge contributor to a Divine Messanger deck. Can't wait to try it out now!
That's it for today. Quite a number of changes in Magic and Light too, and in a really good way. I like how they reconsidered the state of Magic cards as now it feels like there are going to be more options and ways to play this god. Light was pretty much in the good spot from the beginning so some tweaks here and there didn't change the way we are going to see him being played out.
Gods Unchained Official Roadmap:
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Useful tools for Gods Unchained statistics, meta, deckbuilding, leaderboards, etc. :
https://unchainedstats.com/
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Current List of Cards in Sanctum Decks:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GodsUnchained/comments/fhsqnl/sanctum_deck_update_13032020/
Markets:
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Raffle:
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Thank you for reading!
,z3ll