Ban and Errata Update 04/02/2024
UVS Games Game Design Team
There will be one (1) card added to the UniVersus Standard Banned list this month.
The following ban will go into effect on April 8th, 2024.
Snack Time
Snack Time
In the aftermath of our first Standard rotation and the release of Dark Tournament, while we are still working from a smaller sample size of high-attendance events, there have been a few noticeable patterns emerging. The most significant of these is the success of the Death symbol. While we have our eye on some of the Death characters who are specifically putting up the most success on the symbol (We see you Younger Toguro and Shigaraki 3), the success of the symbol has been incredibly broad, and Death as a whole has separated itself from pack win rate wise, especially in bigger events.
Back when One With Nature was originally added to the banlist, the team had an in-depth conversation about also banning Snack Time. Snack Time provides a similar value as One With Nature, all while sporting a significant Deadlock ability and an even lower difficulty. We chose not to ban it at the time because the symbols on Snack Time were mostly in the middle of the pack performance-wise, and it was a key tool for the gameplans that did have success, but the card stayed very high on our radar. The rate of return for discarding cards to Snack Time has proven to be too high for this sort of overall package. In the previous metagame, the Good Symbol was doing similar things to the current Death package, drawing lots of cards with the abilities on its attacks and turning the extra cards into offense. Once we banned One With Nature, some players adopted Raiding the Villain Hideout as a 1 or 2 of, but most players just pivoted to playing more offense in their attack lineups. With One With Nature gone, Good’s win rates and high-level success dropped slightly, and it rejoined the rest of the pack. It was still a successful symbol, but no longer an outlier. This is the outcome we are also hoping for the Death symbol. We don’t want to cripple the symbol; just bring it in line with the other symbols in competitive play. Snack Time’s other symbols have some decent options to pivot to if they want a place to discard excess cards (Set the Record Straight, Raiding the Villain Hideout, and Prone to Dry Eyes) that are built with healthier rates of return.
As always, we will continue monitoring the metagame after this change. We are committed to trying to ensure the standard meta is a healthy and diverse experience. The card pool shakeup since the release of Dark Tournament is significant, and we love seeing all the new ways our players are trying to capitalize.
Three (3) cards will receive an errata this month.
The following erratas will go into effect on April 8th, 2024.
Ice Sword Execution
Storm of Arrows
Nott’s Flask
Ice Sword Execution
Old
Enhance: Name 1 foundation. Commit all copies of that foundation.
New
Enhance: Name 1 foundation. Commit all copies of that foundation in all stages.
Ice Sword Execution missed these three important little words “in all stages”. Adding these to the card ensures that the effect of the card is played as intended.
Storm of Arrows
Old
You may spend Ranged Weapon attacks from your card pool as though they were momentum to pay for this attack's Echo ability.
New
You may clear 1 other Ranged Weapon attack from your card pool as though you were spending momentum to pay for this attack's Echo ability.
Storm of Arrows is receiving this errata for two reasons. The first is that while implementing this new terminology (clear and spend), we found ourselves not quite hitting the mark. This errata puts the card more in line with the intentional formatting of such abilities. You cannot spend a card from your card pool, as spending is specifically to put a card from momentum in the discard pile. This update just makes sure each term is being utilized correctly.
The second reason for this update is that Storm of Arrows was not intended to clear itself after resolution. Now you must clear 1 other Ranged Weapon attack rather than the loophole of playing Storm of Arrows and clearing itself just to clear your card pool. This still leaves Storm of Arrows with plenty of powerful interactions and uses in a deck, and we’re excited to see how players incorporate this attack into their decks.
Nott’s Flask
Old
After you build this asset, add 3 Booze counters to it. If there are no Booze counters on this card, your attacks get -2 speed.
New
After you build this asset, add 3 Booze counters to it.
If there are no Booze counters on this card while it is in your stage, your attacks get -2 speed.
Nott’s Flask is missing text that limits its static effect from only causing the player’s attacks to get -2 speed while it is without counters when it’s in the stage. This errata provides the necessary scope for the effect.
Clear and Spend
The last point we’d like to cover is to remind everyone about the introduction of the terms ‘Clear’ and ‘Spend”. A question we’ve been asked a lot since their reveal has been, “Do these work retroactively? When I discard a card from my card pool, does that count as clearing for critical role cards?”
The answer here is yes. The rulebook update today should also reflect this information. To reiterate, game text that states the following should be treated as meaning the same thing:
“discard _ card(s) from your card pool” is synonymous with “clear _ card(s)"
“discard _ momentum” is synonymous with “spend momentum”
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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!