Helping Hand and Baba Yaga, major cards in two of the most victorious decks in competitive play for the Trial by Frost season, have been suspended in the Whispers from the Maze season patch. The game also received a rule change which stops Small Step, Giant Leap from ending the game immediately on its use. Some suspended uniques are able to rejoin their decks after targeted errata.

Check out our full list of cards currently with important errata or on the watchlist/under suspension.

Card suspensions

Ordis’s out-of-faction Baba Yaga is suspended, having been on the watchlist since the last mid-season patch. The card supported a play style for Sigismar providing multiple low-cost cards while drawing more to hand. It has been the most commonly played rare in Ordis decks in online competitive tournaments since February, followed by Ordis Attorney (who is also included currently on the watchlist). The suspension affects only the Ordis rare, directly leaving unique versions of the card available to continue to be played.

Returning Ozma to the field in the mid-season patch was instructive for the team, indicating that targeting Ordis’s card draw was the correct approach to get more balance, according to the article. The goal is to encourage Ordis players to slightly raise their mana curve and work within the new constraints. While some errata options are in discussion, the team has chosen instead to wait to see how the suspension affects Ordis’s play.

Yzmir’s out-of-faction Helping Hand is also suspended, sharing a spot on the same watchlist. The team pointed out that its inclusion in Afanas’s decks supported a high win rate when it showed up in play. Notably, they suggest that it provides a “synergy with Afanas that’s too powerful for the current metagame,” which alludes to the idea that a later meta might support it. The article also notes how powerful uniques can abuse the card’s use. Similar to Baba Yaga, Helping Hand has been the most commonly played Yzmir rare in online competitive tournaments since February.

The faction’s rare Kadigiran Mage-Dancer took second place in April, and currently remains on the watchlist alongside Ordis Attorney. With the rule clarification, Small Step, Giant Leap has been removed from the watchlist altogether. While no change has been made, uniques with repeated abilities remain on the list as well.

Rule change

Rather than directly changing Small Step, Giant Leap, the team made a more general change to the game’s rules. With the new patch, the game ends after Night in a new phase called “Check Victory” when a player’s expeditions are on the same region or crossed. Playing Small Step, Giant Leap used to end the game immediately on play when tokens met, making it an unofficial, instantaneous alternate win condition. The rule change allows opponents to use their afternoon to try to make up ground or push one expedition back, which means it also affects Grand Endeavor. The goal is to create an opportunity to react when an opponent uses one of these powerful cards, according to the article. Small Step, Giant Leap has been at the center of card balance discussion in the official Discord server nearly since the launch of the game last year.

Uniques

Unique Foundry Armorers have been released from suspension with a slight change to some of their capabilities after having been benched since the start of TBF. The new wording continues to allow creation of additional Brassbugs but limits their reach to the same expedition, and breaks potential infinite loops. Each change only affects uniques with either related phrase, leaving others untouched. The changes are as follows:

• Before: When a Character you control gains 1 or more boosts – Create a Brassbug 2/2/2 Robot Token in target Expedition.
• After: When a non-Token Character you control gains 1 or more boosts – Create a Brassbug 2/2/2 Robot Token in my Expedition.
• Before: When I gain 1 or more boosts – Create a Brassbug 2/2/2 Robot Token in target Expedition.
• After: When I gain 1 or more boosts – Create a Brassbug 2/2/2 Robot Token in my Expedition.

Gericht’s uniques for both Bravos and Lyra have finally been allowed to join the field, having been suspended before they were even actually able to be collected at the start of TBF. The new wording breaks potential cycles for infinite boost loops, with wording as follows:

• Before: When a Character you control gains 1 or more boosts – You may have target Character gain Fleeting.
• After: When a Character you control gains 1 or more boosts – You may have target Character other than me gain Fleeting.
• Before: When I gain 1 or more boosts – You may have target Character gain Fleeting.
• After: When I gain 1 or more boosts – You may have target Character other than me gain Fleeting.

Moonlight Jellyfish uniques, suspended at the start of TBF, have still not found a way back to the game through errata.

Team meta insights

While Sigismar has been ascendant throughout the season with Afanas not far behind, there are still a wide range of decks able to be played, according to the article. Even in the results of the Tumult Championships, each faction has seen some success, with the exception of Axiom.

In the past month, each of the factions has won at least one online competitive event, including Axiom. Compared to the other heroes, however, Sigismar and Afanas won more first-place victories than all other heroes combined. The two are currently tied for the highest number of wins overall throughout the TBF season. While Afanas will be showing up among the WFM heroes for limited play, Sigismar will be sitting this round out. For nearly the entire TBF season, Sigismar has been something of a lightning rod for fan discussions for both limited and constructed play between his easy-to-approach hero ability and the cards available to him in the Ordis set.

The team is satisfied with how Haven has been welcomed back to some Axiom decks without being a requirement, though it hasn’t done enough to support the faction currently. The team will be watching to see how the metagame is shaped through the release of Whispers from the Maze.

The new patch takes effect immediately, and named cards have already been updated within the official app. As with previous patches, the team is still developing a compensation system for those who own affected cards, with any solution treated retroactively.

The results of the Tumult Championships, which ended May 11, will be shared May 22, according to the article. In keeping with the milestones announced with TBF patch, the next patch should be expected roughly two months after the release of WFM. The next AMA from the team is expected sometime during the week of May 19, streamed from the Altered Youtube channel.