OTA Balance Updates- 03/21

We hope you have been enjoying the Avengers vs X-Men season, even though it has felt more like Thanos vs Discard. Time (stone) to discard the hesitation; here are your OTA balance updates for 03/21.

Captain Marvel

At the end of the game, move to a location that wins you the game. (If possible)

[Old] 4/4 - At the end of the game, move to a location that wins you the game. (if possible)
[Change] 4/4 -> 4/5

Developer Notes

Captain Marvel at 4/5 proved to be one of our strongest cards last year, but times have changed. The deck Captain Marvel most strongly supported has been substantially weaker in the new metagame, and at 4/4 Captain Marvel hasn't seen the level of play we'd like. Given we think the metagame can tolerate the stronger card once again, we're excited to try this buff and hope it can stick long-term for one of our most exciting cards and characters.

Apocalypse

When you discard this, put it back with +4 Power.

[Old] 6/8 - When you discard this, put it back with +4 Power.
[Change] 6/8 -> 6/6

Developer Notes

Discard decks have moved from the middle to the top of the metagame over the last month, fueled by some strong and exciting new releases. We want Discard to be a great deck, but it's been just a hair too strong. Apocalypse is the single best-performing card in the dedicated Discard archetype, so we're taking away a little bit of its base Power. We considered reducing the triggered buff ability instead, but when possible we prefer to push strength into the "dreams" of our cards, and Apocalypse has an exciting one to grow.

Mind Stone

On Reveal: Draw 2 1-Cost cards from your deck.

[Old] 1/1 - On Reveal: Draw 2 1-Cost cards from your deck.
[Change] 1/1 -> 2/1

Developer Notes

Thanos has become a bit of a problem for the metagame. When we adjusted Time Stone, we briefly mentioned that the design of Thanos can be constraining. Specifically, the versatility of the Stones give the deck a lot of room to maneuver and adapt to whatever the metagame becomes. In all cases however, the strongest Stone in the deck has consistently been the Mind Stone. We considered removing its second draw, but ultimately that's a very appealing part of the card. So for now, we're taking the unusual approach of making it a 2-Cost card. We don't think this is likely to fully solve the "Thanos problem," but hopefully it meaningfully addresses the archetype while we investigate a wider range of solutions.

Psylocke

On Reveal: Next turn, you get +1 Energy.

[Old] 2/2 - On Reveal: Next turn, you get +1 Energy.
[Change] 2/2 -> 2/1

Developer Notes

We buffed Psylocke many months ago, and since then the card has enjoyed a range of interesting homes. In recent months, Psylocke's use has become restricted to almost exactly Thanos, where its performance is surprisingly among the strongest cards in the deck. Given we're looking for some ways to shave strength away from Thanos in the current metagame, that makes reverting Psylocke's buff a logical step, albeit a small one.

Adam Warlock

After each turn, draw a card if you're winning here.

[Old] 5/4 - After each turn, draw a card if you’re winning here.
[Change] 5/4 -> 5/5

Developer Notes

As previously discussed, we made the last change to Adam Warlock with an abundance of caution. Since then, we've seen it was a very minor improvement for a small number of decks, so we're going to push on a little bit more. We believe the design could go to 5/6 fairly easily, but one of the archetypes we're interested in here is Cerebro-5, which can be a difficult deck to serve. So we're trying the smaller buff to see how that goes. None of this is to say that we won't pursue other Costs or a more dramatic rework later, but for now we're going to try nudging things more softly.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Developer Notes

Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy have struggled to keep pace with even the early Series metagames, as their risky abilities don’t offer quite enough compared to alternatives. In addition to boosting their total Power potential, we're taking the opportunity to try lining their buffs up on the same Power gained, rather than having different combinations of Power for each card.