New Planeswalkers, cards and offers! (05/06/2016)

Hibernum_JC

Hi folks! It’s me again!

Today I’m here to talk about new stuff we’re adding to the game today.

First, we’ll talk about a new Planeswalker to be released as a reward for this weekend’s Quick Battle event - Tezzeret, the Seeker!

Tezzeret is another legacy Planeswalker we’re adding to the game. He’s Blue and he has a unique focus on Supports. All 3 of his abilities work with Supports in different ways, and he is truly built to be a Support machine.

Let’s have a look at his abilities. His first one is called Filigree Barrier, and it increases the shield value on his Supports by 1. At rank 1, it increases the shield value of one support by +1, but at rank 4 it increases the shield of each of his supports by +1, making each and every one of them much more resilient. This ability costs 6 Loyalty at every rank.

His second ability is called Transmute, and it lets him Fetch the next Support from his Library as well as give it mana. At rank 1, it gives it 6 mana, while at rank 4 it directly puts it on the board. This ability costs 12 Loyalty at every rank.

His third and ultimate ability is called Artificer’s Skill. This is how Tezzeret wins games - it gives one of his creatures +X/+X until the end of the turn, where X is the amount of Supports he controls on the board times a certain amount. At rank 1, it multiplies the amount of Supports on the board by 3, but at rank 4, it multiplies it by 10. If you have 5 Supports on the board at that time, it grants +50/+50 to a single creature until the end of your turn (and this is without the various buffs the Supports bring that creature!) This amount of power is incredible, and it greatly synergizes with his Supports and other abilities to deliver a painful hit to his enemies.

Overall, we’ve seen that players do not play with many Supports (bar some, obviously) and with Tezzeret we hope that this will bring a whole new archetype to Blue.

Tezzeret will be available this weekend as a reward for Quick Battle.

Next, we’ll talk about the new card being added as a special offer: Shrine of the Forsaken Gods!

This Rare colorless Support card is ideal for ramping up your mana! It also comes with a big bonus to mana generation for your colorless cards.

At 5 mana, it will pay for itself in 2 turns, and it comes with a shield value of 3! All in all an excellent Rare card that should be useful in most decks.

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods is available now through special offers!

We’re also adding new cards into the card packs! The following cards are now lootable in the card packs:

Hero of Goma Fada
Undergrowth Champion
Defiant Bloodlord
Prism Array
Crumble to Dust
Exert Influence
Akoum Hellkite
Beastcaller Savant
Guul Draz Overseer
Lantern Scout

Last but not least, we’re super excited to reveal our very first dual-colored Planeswalker, Kiora, Master of the Depths!

Kiora is both Green and Blue. What this means is that using her, you can put any Blue, Green or Colorless card in your decks. This alone makes her a force to be reckoned with! She has a focus on Spells, and combines the best elements of both Blue and Green - she has access to Green’s ramp and big creatures and Blue’s Control and defensiveness.

Being dual-colored, her mana gains are a bit different than other Planeswalkers. At level 60, she’s at +3 Blue and +3 Green, but at 0 for every other color. She also can use 5 Creatures, 6 Supports and 8 Spells at level 60.

Her abilities are all very strong. Her first ability costs 6 and both drains mana from your opponent AND gains mana at an equal rate - at rank 4, this Drains 6 mana and you gain 6 mana! This is an incredible ramp tool that combines both Blue and Green’s strengths beautifully.

Her second ability Fetches the next creature from your Library and gives it mana - from 3 to a whopping 16 at rank 4! The ability costs 12, so while she can’t use a lot of creatures she can easily ensure she gets some on the battlefield.

Her third ability is a game-changer and is what is sure to scare off every one of your foes! For 24 Loyalty (this is a lot, but bear with me!) it summons from 1 to 4 8/8 Blue Octopus tokens with both Reach and Trample! At rank 4, this summons a 32/32 on the board, which will be very difficult to deal with!

Overall, we wanted Kiora to feel very strong and unique. Her strengths are really based on both colors, and she can effectively deal with her enemies in so many different ways that she’s a blast to play and build decks for.

Kiora, Master of the Depths is available NOW through special offers!

madwren

Wait, so when I was trying to get some Lantern Scouts, they weren't even in the game?

Seriously?

Nice heads up you gave us, there.

buffbeardo

Malcolm Mclaren is smiling in his grave. "ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"

majincob

madwren wrote:

Nice heads up you gave us, there.

They said elsewhere on the 1.4 updates announcement that they would be releasing additional cards later. And you can see a full list of what cards are "lootable" in the vault by selecting the ! on the Battle for Zendikar box.

However, putting all the developed cards in the cardlist and not saying "coming soon" or some such on cards not yet available was an oversight in design from a customer relations standpoint.

Small consolation for those who feel burned.

Knowing that they would be releasing additional cards later I only bought 1 BB to get some commons/uncommons to start playing with the new cards now and am reserving the remainder of my crystals for when all the cards are available and we know how many crystals the new planeswalkers will cost.

madwren

majincob wrote:

madwren wrote:

Nice heads up you gave us, there.

They said elsewhere on the 1.4 updates announcement that they would be releasing additional cards later. And you can see a full list of what cards are "lootable" in the vault by selecting the ! on the Battle for Zendikar box.

However, putting all the developed cards in the cardlist and not saying "coming soon" or some such on cards not yet available was an oversight in design from a customer relations standpoint.

I have no problem with them releasing cards later. It's the creation of the illlusion of availability--through having them visible in Show All--that was extremely deceptive to those of us who invested some time and/or money in accessing those cards. We had absolutely no reason to believe they would display cards in Inventory that weren't even in the game. That defies logic, common sense, and reasonable expectation.

majincob

madwren wrote:

It's the creation of the illlusion of availability--through having them visible in Show All--that was extremely deceptive to those of us who invested some time and/or money in accessing those cards. We had absolutely no reason to believe they would display cards in Inventory that weren't even in the game. That defies logic, common sense, and reasonable expectation.

Exactly