LogFAQs > #979836251

Patch Out

Alioth
[Old] 6/2 On Reveal: Destroy all unrevealed enemy cards here.
[New] 6/8 On Reveal: Remove the text from all unrevealed enemy cards here.

Since release, Alioth has been an important but polarizing card in the SNAP metagame. Its been hugely effective in creating more tension on turn 6, but the in-game effect can also be really frustrating. Losing your cards completely, no questions asked, is very powerful. Were sensitive to that, so as we monitored Alioth weve also thought about other ways we could implement the card. With the turn 6 metagame fairly settled these days, it felt like the time was ripe to freshen up the purple cloud with a new effect. Our goal here is to keep a fairly similar role, but to introduce more meaningful counterplay to the effect. We expect the biggest difference will happen with stuff like Magneto now being able to defeat Alioth either way.

Zabu
[Old] 2/2 Ongoing: Your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less. (minimum 1)
[New] 2/3 On Reveal: Until the end of next turn, your 4-Cost cards cost 1 less.

Were aware that Zabu is taking a huuuge hit here, but hear us out! In the last year, the game has shifted to revolve more and more around Zabus interaction with 4-Cost cards and their matchups. Right now, Zabu is probably at an all-time low, but the impact is still very real and 4-Cost cards that dont have strong synergy with Zabu are at a disadvantage. Weve been analyzing the data to better understand exactly what this has done to the metagame and what we might want to adjust, but Zabu is really clouding those measures. So weve decided to do something unusual here and temporarily rework this card into a state that we believe is weak enough to shift the way 4-Costs perform. We dont think that White Queen is suddenly good or anythingwe expect 4-Costs as a group to get weaker, and decks that can still cheat using cards like Ravonna, Hope, Wave, etc. to be stronger as well as 4-Costs that naturally have big stats, like Cull Obsidian. We may account for that a little with subsequent OTAs, but were also expecting to make a larger set of impactful changes later this year. So this change is really to help us vet that work, and we also dont expect Zabu to remain in this state permanently.

Sandman
[Old] 5/4 Ongoing: Players can only play 1 card a turn.
[New] 5/7 On Reveal: Players can only play 1 card next turn.

Like Mobius, Luke Cage, and Professor X, Sandman is the kind of tech card we want to be careful with. If Sandman is too popular, SNAP is just a less fun game due to the permanence of that Ongoing effect, so we deliberately aimed Sandman to be more niche. However, the low Power necessary for that balance has made it so that Sandmans often too weak to consider playing, even in metagames where the effect would be strong. Were trying a different tact here and switching to a temporary effect that can pack more Power because it doesnt warp the game as much, playing more like a turn 5 tech card than a turn 4 buildaround.

Lady Deathstrike
[Old] 5/4 On Reveal: Destroy each card here with less Power than this.
[New] 5/7 On Reveal: Destroy each card here with 3 or less Power.

This change looks fairly similar to Sandman, but its different in some nuanced ways. Lady Deathstrike was built around scaling with Power to provide an appealing goal for players, but that just hasnt worked out. When Deathstrike is good, its often just because the base effect is usefuland those times are few and far between. Most of the time the card is simply weak, and investing in buffing it is a trap. Weve decided to trade in the dream here with the goal of creating a more consistently useful card that players have to fear more meaningfully, and not exclusively in decks trying to do some gimmicks with her.

Strong Guy
[Old] 3/3 Ongoing: If your hand is empty, +6 Power.
[New] 3/3 Ongoing: +6 Power if your hand has one or fewer cards.

Were loosening the restriction on Strong Guys Power buff. The last numbers change we made was something of an experiment to see if we thought we could get Strong Guy somewhere, but ultimately combining poorly with both Apocalypse and your normal draw each turn has proven too heavy. Lets see how it goes!

Shadow King (text update)
[Old] 2/2 On Reveal: Set all cards here to their original base Power.
[New] 2/2 On Reveal: Set all cards here to their base Power.

Just a small update to remove the redundant original from this card.

Pixie (text update)
[Old] 2/1 On Reveal: Shuffle the Costs of all cards in your deck that started there.
[New] 2/1 On Reveal: Shuffle the base Costs of all cards in your deck that started there.
This change makes it more clear which Costs are being shuffled.