The PTR balance notes were put up on Discord tonight. Starting from a high-level, what excites me the most about these changes is that they are (for the most part) more measured than balance changes in the past. Balancing requires skill and precision - not sledgehammers. I'm happy to see that philosophy applied.
I won't go over all the changes (you can read them yourself here. I will highlight some of the big ones in several categories.
Expected Nerfs:
Oddi
Finnian
Pangolin
Sole Survivor
Sudden Bloom
All pretty reasonable tweaks. Tones down the power a bit without destroying the card. Finnian card prices immediately nose-dived $20, but I'm not taking it out of my deck. Why would I?
Expected Buffs:
Phalanx Lieutenant
- Phalanx Lieutenant - Stats increased. Change stats from 4/1 to 5/3.
If you have been following me for a bit, you hopefully read my earlier post where I said the following:
Other cards are so hilariously bad that they are likely to receive buffs before the balancing phase is over for Divine Order. Skeletal Hoplite and Phalanx Lieutenant have armor and will almost certainly get another look as part of any change to the armor mechanic. I picked up 2x of each.
Here's the Phalanx Lieutenants I bought
As of writing, the shadows are $2.94 and the golds are $17. No one's buying lambos off of four cards, and my Skeletal Hoplites didn't get any love (yet), but that wasn't really the point. The point was longer-term: looking to gods farming. I've now got 2x of a really good card in gold to help me farm - in every deck. I listed the shadows to recoup my initial investment.
Other Mostly-Expected Buffs:
Inspiring Skald
Caged Berserker
They were way too strong then nerfed way too hard. They are now receiving measured buffs. You love to see it.
Talismans. All of them.
They all were pretty much terrible. Now they may actually see play but don't appear over-tuned. Blazing Talisman stands out as a relic with no durability loss (like necroscepter). They are slowly but surely trying to resurrect control Nature. This is a good step on that road.
Unexpected Changes
Blight Bomb
- Blight Bomb – Text changed. Change text from “ Destroy a creature with health 3 or less.” to “Destroy a creature with health 2 or less.”
This is a huge change to Death. Blight Bomb is/was in every death deck. It was the bane of Black Jaguars everywhere (one of the reasons I gave them the boot from my nature decks). I think it's going to take time for people to realize how big a change this one was - at least for Death. Importantly, this change makes the Phalanx Lieutenant viable. Death's trivial removal is what has killed so many cards with high armor and low HP. (1 HP cards die to the god power!)
This change also increases the value of several of the Death cards currently slated for the Core Set Refresh. As of now, many of these destroy creatures with 3 HP or less.
Counterfeit
- Counterfeit – Text changed. Change text from “If your opponent has a relic equipped and you don’t,equip a copy of your opponent’s relic. Otherwise,draw a card.” to “If your opponent has a relic equipped and you don’t ,destroy it and equip a copy of it. Otherwise,draw a card.”
From an awful card to perhaps the best relic removal in the game. Card prices have exploded as a result. It may get toned back down a bit, but I like the card. Most of War/Nature relics have blitz, so they will get half value before it can be stolen. Enduring Shields though...
Conclusion
The new balance team continues to impress. Perfection is not the standard I hold myself to, so I won't hold anyone else to it. I have some quibbles, but overall, this is a solid list. Also know that they do PTR for a reason: to collect more data before going live. If Phalanx Lt or Countefeit are OP, they can easily be adjusted again before going live.
Lastly, these changes aren't the "armor rework" we've been hearing about. That is still to come.