The Trial by Frost midseason patch will be arriving March 21, bringing with it some major changes for a few cards at least. The patch is one of the milestones planned with the release of the set, and comes with a State of the Game AMA from Equinox staff discussing the decisions made.

We already know that Ozma and Haven will be receiving an errata, but that doesn’t stop us from making wild guesses about what else will be in the patch. Each of us will have a go at predicting what we are going to see, and the community can laugh at us when our guesses are completely wrong.

Gavken

I expect to see most of the cards receive errata in this patch, but I’m not sure that all the cards will make it out alive. I don’t expect to see anything new added to the naughty list, and yes that means Small Step will escape for now! Here’s my views on the suspended cards …..

• Ozma I think will get errata to change the card draw from a -> to a hand only ability. This will largely fix the power level.
• Haven – I think it will be errated to have it only give the boost for the first card played from reserve and it will apply to both Axiom and Bravos.
• Gericht – The offending Unique will get the insertion of the word “other” before “character gains fleeting” in its ability to stop the self loop.
• Foundry Armorer Uniques – My hope is that they put a restriction on loops down from 100 to something more sensible like 3 or 4 which should keep the power  in the cards but not make them a problem any more.
• Moonlight Jellyfish Unique – Honestly I have no idea about this one. I do hope they find a fix for it as the Jellyfish Preservation Society are keenly interested in its wellbeing!

I expect to see Mana Flare added to the why does this thing exist list. Now I know that this is not an official list, but its on my personal list.

The Bravos Hatter

So just like Gavken, I will try to look in my crystal ball, I stole from Baba Yaga! Hereby my hopes and fears for the upcoming 21st of March!

• Ozma – I like how Gavken is thinking on this card, but instead of a hand ability, it will be a reserve ability. This makes sure you don’t draw a card immediately and are vulnerable to sabotage before drawing that card. Common one stays the same, maybe the rare does get this ability from reserve but without any conditions like the Baba Yaga!
• Haven – Long time this card had been a Haven for the people from the land of Reserve. But no longer! Haven must now be tapped to give the next character you play a boost or target character gains a boost! This way, the Bravos card can be changed as well as it might be deemed too powerful. Does the Axiom on still has Resupply? Yes, I think it will still have this.
• Foundry Armorer Uniques – The most problematic ones are the infinite loop ones. I think they fix the loops by adding an extra condition like: “Unless you control 5 or less characters.” This way they fix the loop problem without needing a counter or something to keep track of it.
• Small Step, Giant Leap, Massive Ban. At least a man can hope, gone are the days you are toe to toe with an Yzmir player just to lose to a small step. I really hope the news will come they ban this card. This way, playing against an Afanas will make it somewhat bearable. Instead of drawing 4 cards in the last turn just to hope for a small step draw.

So these are the things I predict we are going to see. I might be complete wrong, just as the power level of Afanas, or I might be spot on, just like the art of KS Tanuki! Let’s hope for the best!

Kbyanyname

I’ve got a couple ideas about where the game generally stands, but also I’ve got a couple to share here that I think are just fun.

• Ozma – I think you could solve her issue in Ordis fairly easily by just adding “non-token” to the condition for drawing a card. That still encourages token generation or clever sleep activation to get the benefit.
• Haven – My favorite way to approach this would be an errata that makes it into an exhaust for the effect or the first character played from reserve for the turn. This would be fine for Bravos as well, I recognize that it’s one of the strongest tools in the current Bravos kit!
• Moonlight Jellyfish – I have no idea how to manage this one without mostly removing the “losing fleeting when sacrificed” effect; but we do have some precedent for powerful uniques losing their standard key “features” such as Hydracaena or the Kraken. Why not here as well?
• Foundry Armorer – I tend to agree with Gavken that uniques like this should be constrained to three loops and let back into the wild. It’s fine to have strong uniques, but the 100-loop limit feels fully disconnected from the reality of how they’re used and what they feel like to play against. No single unique should feel as though it breaks the game.
• Gericht – This one is frustrating because it seems so easy to fix with the addition of an “other than me” in the phrase.

All right, now for the takes that aren’t accurate but are correct (according to me):

• Mana Flare – The idea behind this is solid, but it’s set up the wrong way for this to be useful for Atsadi! Instead of making a card cost one less mana, the phrasing should be something like “For the next card played, pay its stated cost. Treat it as though its hand cost is +5 mana.” This would allow Atsadi to make lower-cost cards like 2-3s feed into his ability, while also providing options to allow him to draw more than the six maximum additional number of cards over the course of a game he can get with mana costs only going up to 10 (as opposed to Rin, who can technically now draw a maximum of 16 additional cards per game with Persephone/Magic Beans now). I know this errata leaves Kojo and Basira in the cold but, listen, they’re both doing fine. Also, this card should be cheaper.
• Small Step, Giant Leap – Regardless of the mana cost, this card should have some way to respond built into it. I like the idea that when it’s been played, the opponent has to reach a particular stat line by the end of the afternoon or it will go off and advance a side at dusk.
• Spindle Harvester uniques – I would Celestial Blast these. I’m not sure what else to do with them. They should at the very least never self-anchor.
• Mass anchor uniques – Additionally: Smite from orbit. A loop limit might be useful here, but after three anchors, an unstoppable force has mostly been set into motion.
• Afanas – To make him more interesting and reduce his overall high challenge, he needs to get an errata in one of a couple ways:
  • Only spells played from hand provide a boost to characters he controls;
  • Only spells targeting characters you do not control provide a boost to characters he controls;
  • Only the first spell played in a turn provides a boost to a character he controls
• Atsadi – I know there are successful Atsadi players out there, but even at a high level of play and some new TBF support (Mana Flare notwithstanding) he can’t keep up generally with others effectively. He needs an errata that allows him to lower the card draw threshold on turns where he hasn’t been able to activate it (possibly through exhausting the character?). I also like the idea of giving him an extra card draw every time he uses up every single mana available to him in an afternoon, which connects to his concept of giving every fight everything he’s got.
• Sigismar – I know that I am throwing stones while living in a glass house as a Kojo player, but having a token in play each turn allows Sig to effectively always require the opponent to play at least two characters each afternoon just in order to keep up with his offense, and that’s before he gets any additional permanents into play. I think an interesting way to continue his token gen play while making him have to focus more on tactics would be to errata his ability to read: “At dusk, if you have an Ordis Recruit in play, one Ordis Recruit gains Anchored.” This would keep him from having too strong a presence at the start of the game and reward him for continuing to keep recruits on the field; it would also make removal of his recruits even more of punishing, as opposed to something he can just make more of right away.

The Coin Pusher

I promised myself I wouldn’t say anything here, but I guess I can’t trust myself. I honestly hope that Equinox keeps responding to the community, but realizes that it’s not only the ones shouting the loudest that should have a voice. I’m worried about too many changes coming to this young and enjoyable game, making people lose faith in the game. So what I hope for most is as few changes as absolutely necessary and maybe even a reinstating of already suspended or changed cards.