BAN AND ERRATA UPDATE 11/5/2024
UVS Games Game Design Team
There are a few additions to the UniVersus Banned and Errata list this month. These additions go into effect on Monday, November 11th, 2024. This month's focus is adjustments to decks that are producing earlier wins than we want and getting in front of some potential long term issues. First, the following cards are receiving errata.
Card Errata Update
Ryukyu
Smiling Titan
Ryukyu
Old:
Response: After you play a card, if it has no abilities, draw 1 card and you may add 1 card from your hand to your momentum.
New:
Response: After you play an attack card, if it has no abilities, draw 1 card and you may add 1 card from your hand to your momentum.
The idea of a character essentially putting an ability on otherwise blank cards is one we like because it provides a puzzle for players to solve. Ryukyu’s momentum ability, however, pushes that boundary a bit further than we’d like given our normal power curve on gaining momentum. As a result we’re making this adjustment to keep the puzzle solving element intact while keeping her power level closer in line with our desired levels for generating momentum.
Smiling Titan
Old:
Enhance [Tenacious]: Your attack gets +X speed and +X damage. X equals your attack's printed difficulty minus 4.
New:
Enhance [Tenacious]: Your attack gets +X speed or +X damage. X equals your attack's printed difficulty minus 4.
Smiling Titan was always meant to swing big and get rewarded for it. The idea of playing just 1 or 2 HUGE attacks each turn was one we wanted to encourage with the release of Attack on Titan. In practice, Smiling has been very consistent and punishing to 7 hand size characters in particular. Smiling requires specific answers, and while that isn’t a problem by default, the problem stems from how punishing it is for most decks when you don’t find those tools. We believe this change helps provide more space for 7-handers in the format while still allowing Smiling to be effective in showing off its unique game plan.
Banned Card Update
Risky Encounter
Twisting Azure Inferno
The following cards are being added to the ban list in the Standard format.
Risky Encounter
Risky Encounter has proven to be an extremely effective tool in competitive play. Mainly as an end of string finisher that comes in for huge damage. Most significantly for us, the card is an outlier tool in decks killing their opponent on turn 2. The Death symbol “Casino” decks, Toga, and others are utilizing it to devastating effectiveness in the early stages of the game. It has proven to be both too fast and too consistent. We want to reduce the number of games ending on turn 2, and this is the obvious place to start.
Twisting Azure Inferno
Twisting Azure is a card we’ve already taken action on in Retro and have been watching closely in Standard for some time. It’s a card that has elements we like, but a dangerous ceiling. The tug of war for the damage of the attack to activate its powerful enhance was an engaging one, especially with the improved damage reduction options available in Dark Tournament. Twisting seemed to come and go rapidly from popular to absent from the meta. When it did show up, it was often in top decks that also had other problematic issues that needed attention. With the current tools available the card is consistent, able to win the tug of war easily in most cases and almost always being used to win the game earlier than we would like to see.
With the release of Attack on Titan: Origins of Power, and these changes to our Banned and Errata lists, we’re excited to see the new Standard format develop. We will be continuing to keep our eye on several cards that have proven to be very popular cards in top decks following the release of Attack on Titan: Battle for Humanity, and as always take action on anything that proves to be problematic. Our goal is to continue to foster a diverse competitive landscape that has a majority of games ending within healthy turn windows.
Errata and Legality Document is here.
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Keep an eye on our site https://www.uvsgames.com/ for official news and next month's Ban and Errata update!