The new season will start on Monday, September 29th.

Greetings, citizens!

Following the deep exploration teams of the Votann, we descend into the depths of the Webway and into Commorragh with the Drukhari. This season will bring malice in abundance, along with a much-anticipated new Drukhari Warlord! Let the torment begin!

Seasonal Balance Changes:

Following our updated formula, this season brings buffs for three Warlords and one nerf, of those getting a buff, two placed lower – Hatred’s Embrace [68] and Uthar the Destined [67], but given their recent buffs we won’t make further changes within 3 months of the last one. And Buri is at [64] but as a new Warlord, and a lead from the front Warlord as well, we’ll let him settle before looking at any changes.

Position: 66th | Winrate: 73.3% | Playrate: 0.4%

Keeper of the Truth: Each time you select an attack type that is different from the one you selected in the previous turn, your deployed cards receive a [25->40%] boost to their attack stats.

Azrael has always looked good on paper, but has been hard to pull off and often hovers in the lower quartile of Warlords. This season, he’s the closest to the bottom he’s been. Trying to build a balanced deck, and sometimes having to punch upwards into an unfavourable attack, can be tough, and the pay off up until this point hasn’t been worth it. With a significant buff to the boost amount the risk should be rewarded, particularly with cards you can get to stick around.

Position: 65th | Winrate: 73.9% | Playrate: 0.4%

Way of the Short Blade: When your last card is deployed, your deployed cards heal to full Wounds and your melee attack Readies [5 -> 10] times.

Both Shadowsun and Farsight are on the list for older Warlords in need of full reworks, but while we are waiting for that to happen, we’re having some fun with what we’ve got. Doubling the ready amount gives almost 2 full bars of melee ready and means Farsight is a much more likely 1HKO against all but the most resilient of Warlords, if you can draw out the enemy Warlord first.

We’ve been examining a lot of lower/mid cost Berserker options and Skarin definitely falls into that camp, but we don’t want to remove them from the game entirely, so rather than a trait swap we are looking at a decent increase in Wounds to support this role.

Position: 63th | Winrate: 75.4% | Playrate: 0.5%

Quicksilver Swiftness: While friendly cards are above [40 -> 25%] Wounds they attack first while defending.

Like Azrael, another strong rule on paper, it’s too easy to deny the Masque their ability. With this change it should be much easier to be more reckless with your attacks, given trying to preserve your attack back triggers led to an uncharacteristically defensive playstyle on a Warlord that should be all about all out attacks.

Position: 3rd | Winrate: 87.5% | Playrate: 2.9%

Righteous Slaughter: Each time a friendly card makes a Melee attack, increase its Melee by +20%. In addition the first time Angron would be killed, it instead heals for [10 -> 5%] for every card destroyed in Melee (up to a maximum of +80%)

So, Angron is the hot topic, and rightly so. Although coming in 3rd currently (yes Greyfax and Cawl are still on top), he’s since a massive growth in winrate season on season since his release going from 80.8% to 84.3% last season to 87.5% this season, with him likely to hit the top of the table next season if the trend continues. 

For this pass, we’re hitting his revive ability, halving the amount each melee kill grants him, leaving the +80% still theoretically possible if both lists bring max bodyguards and all are killed in Melee. Having such a huge beatstick needing to be double-tapped is what makes him excessively difficult to beat, and so nerfing that, without bringing down the general theme and mechanics of his decks, is the logical first place to hit.

With the Warlord changes done, let’s have a quick look at the Drukahri bodyguard changes:

Additionally, we’ve got a couple of extra bodyguard trait changes to broad the access to traits in certain factions and lists:

And finally, let’s look at the cards added to the general pool!

Cards added to the general pool: