As mentioned last Friday, we’re applying a small balance patch today. Read on for more!
Balance changes
Tree of Everlife
Card text now reads:
Production - gain 7 life. Give a random creature in your hand +7/+7.
We have made several important changes to Tree of Everlife. Both of its effects have been redesigned into one single powerful Production effect.
“You are immune to damage” has been removed and replaced with +7 life to your orb on Production. This means the opponent will generally have one extra turn to react to the Tree before its ability has any effect on the field. It also means opponents will no longer be completely locked out from finishing out the game with orb damage, provided they can outpace the healing that the Tree now provides.
In addition, its buffing effect now only targets a single creature in hand during Production. Notably, the Tree can now target any creature in hand, not just green creatures. We feel this will prevent players from hoarding all of their ‘best creatures’ in hand until Tree is played, and make games that involve the card more active in general.
Crystal Flower
Faeria cost increased from 3 to 4.
After our first significant change to Crystal Flower, we’ve continued to observe this powerful Oversky card in play. While we think its power level is at a much more appropriate spot, we feel that it is probably still too difficult for most players to deal with on a general basis. We don’t want our players to feel continually oppressed by any one single card, and therefore are confident that increasing the investment required to play this card as soft removal will tip the scales more in favor of the opponent in many situations, yet still maintain Flower’s usefulness.
Wood Elemental
Decreased from 3/4 to 2/4.
There has been a lot of focus on elementals in general since Oversky’s release, and we’ve decided to tone down Green’s specifically. It’s no secret that Green, by design, has many of the most powerful land ramp cards in the game, and we feel it’s appropriate at this point to bring Wood Elemental down to a level that may be more in line with the other elementals. We’ve been very happy after the last change to the elementals that Green’s has become so popular, but we no longer feel that it needs to so heavily carry land ramping on its back at this point. With only one less attack, it still should see a lot of use in many styles of Green decks.
Bug fixes
A bug involving recruitment rewards with the Adventure Pouch in some instances has been fixed
tree of everlife led to really bunker games, i like the +7 lifer every turn much more then just invuneralbe
also appreciate the crystal flower nerv, it will see still lot of use atm. i think if you destroy the flower yourself (or the skywhale) and then your creature can move the turn, it would be in the right place. but gj with the faeria increase
wood elemental: was the strongest elemental, but why nerv it? it goes into the category of “wild growth nervs”, because other cards are too strong, nerv the one who is combinated with it. but as i said, it was the #1 elemental and is still ok.
things that i m looking forwards to happen:
frog tosser: 6 faeria
sky whale: 8 faeria
the cards really have so much power lvl for their little cost, and u can still get out the lands pretty easy. and frog tosser 6f or sky whale 8f will still be viable and more fair compared to their superstrong effects.
Tree of Everlife really got changed for the better.
I liked the invulnerability mechanic though - but on something as strong as the tree it was way too much and I agree with the removal of it.
Crystal Flower nerf was needed, but I don’t know if Faeria cost was the way to go.
Wood Elemental nerf was not really needed. Much like Bazzinga I just feel it is a nerf because other cards get too strong.
I also agree Frog Tosser and Sky Whale desperately need a nerf even now.
I agree with Bazzinga in that Frog Tosser can use a Faeria increase, though I personally think 7 Faeria is more appropriate. But starting the cost increase with +1 is something I can agree with, and then we can always see if another +1 cost increase is necessary later.
In regards to Sky Whale, I also think it needs a nerf even now. Like I said with Crystal Flower, I don’t know if cost increase is the way to go. Instead, what if Swallow can only target adjacent creatures?
I know it has been proposed before, but I wonder why it has not been done yet. There may be a really good reason… ?
Now mono green decks have worst removals, almost worst mobility and worst land ramp.Wood Elemental is just garbage in mono green decks. 2/4 is arithmetically equivalent to 4/2 or 3/3, but in the game 2/4 is almost useless for mono green.
because all the other elementals were good too… really the only good one is the water elemental now, and the wood elemental would be a good card without the land ramp. If you need land ramp in green with a body you should consider the seed sower, or if you just want value go for the earth crafts. I think the reason the wood ele got nerfed was because we saw 3 copies of it in every green deck and it did need to be adjusted
Sorry, but is not true. Axe Grinder has 4/3 and powerful gift for 3 faeria. Sagami Warrior has same 3/4 and more powerful(overall) dash 2 for 3 faeria.Triton Warrior has 4/4 and much more powerful jump for same 4 faeria. I’m not talking about an octopus…
I tried to use it, but it is worse even than the elemental in the current state.
It is deadborn card.
Earth craft is very good in multi-colored decks and maybe not bad in green rush, but not in mid range. Mono green decks get not too much benefits from elemental’s land. You need the land to fulfill the requirement for the golem and get a little closer to the opponent (because the green creatures don’t have mobility). If elemental can not cause a little damage then it is very weak card for decks of such type.
We saw 3 copies of Axe Grinder, Groundshaker, Flame burst, Saiefer’s wrath in every red deck.
We saw 3 copies of Wind soldier, Soul drain in every yellow deck.
We saw 3 copies of Flash wind in almost every yellow deck (except yellow rush).
We saw 3 copies of Battle toads in every blue deck.
We saw 3 copies of Frogify in many blue decks.
Nerf Flame burst? No. Because removals is strong feature of red.
Nerf Flash wind? No. Because mobility is strong feature of yellow.
The reason the wood ele got nerfed because it looked like a simple way to weaken GB. The problem is that BG get much more benfits from land unlike green.They needs elemental’s land and taunt, not its attack.
Tree is too expensive now for it’s meh effect - very slow , need reduced land req
Crystal flower nerf is perfect imo - fearia cost feels balanced
Wood elemental - we’ll see , feels overkill
Salamender buff - waiting for it xD
The tree still feels overpowered. Once out, if you do not have an immediate response to it the owner will get incredibly powerful creatures, often for cheap. All you need is a taunt creature down just in case and before you know it your hand will be like an army of buffed Veruvian force for the cost of 3-4 mana each
Land in this game isn’t like land in MtG, It’s just a progression gate like the mana cap system of hearthstone, if not now you’ll get it the next turn. All this means is the tree is for slow decks that need a lot of land, it’s blatantly a finisher. The problem is considering greens specialty for special land development it is quite possibly the best snowball legendary in existence. It rewards so much for something so easily obtainable, all you need is a little land development and you’re golden and in most cases you definitely can afford a turn or two’s wait. Compare this to other snow ball cards. Want Ostergoth out? Gotta kill a bunch of cards or whack a gnat senseless costing you health or faeria and up to 5 turns(assuming the gate takes no damage) just to get an easily blockable 13/13 with haste out.
There are basically a lot of good, powerful cards that require a bit of build up to get working and many of them require far more effort than simply building land, yet none have an effect equal to that tree. That tree basically turns your cards into monsters people put their entire deck into in the moment of a turn. 7 life back per turn is also pretty powerful, probably the best healing in the game. The 7 life per turn alone is probably enough for the card.
