Oath of the Gatewatch Preview Day 1!
Hibernum_JC
Posts: 318 Mover and Shaker
Hey folks!
I’m here today to start talking to you fine players about the upcoming expansion which is dropping next week, on June 28th: Oath of the Gatewatch!
First and foremost, we’d like to take the time to thank you. All the feedback we’ve received throughout the previous weeks and months is incredibly appreciated, and even though it’s not always positive, we always strive to make the best game we can within our constraints.
Now that this is out of the way, let’s start talking about Oath of the Gatewatch. We’re taking a slightly different approach with this expansion - we want to get to the next juicy bits of content quicker, so instead of releasing a huge major expansion with around 150 cards, we’re making conscious decision to reduce the new cards for OotG to 53. WIth this, we can focus on having cards that are more interesting and have a more significant impact on the game. We cherry-picked the cards we found to be more interesting and worked around them so make a more interesting set. Also to note that for the Gatewatch set, cards are of Uncommon rarity and up - there are no Commons in the set at all.
We are also not fully releasing the entire set of cards in one go this time around as well. We know it may be an unpopular issue, but I’ll explain the logic behind it. We are putting many of the Gatewatch cards as rewards for various things, and doing so makes it incredibly unappealing for players if they’ve already looted the cards in boosters in contrast to winning them through gameplay. It also makes you feel good if you’ve managed to beat a particularly difficult piece of content and have a trophy piece of sorts to show off your deck in Quick Battle with, and this is something we’ve seen that feels consistently good with players. Regardless, all the cards will be eventually added to the Gatewatch boosters, so there’s no need to worry. Also keep in mind that if there are cards that you DO want in Gatewatch boosters that are currently released, you have better odds of getting those cards when the card pool is smaller.
We’re also doing something a bit different with the Gatewatch boosters. You will not be able to directly buy Gatewatch boosters. You get a free Gatewatch booster when buying a BFZ Big Box, and you’ll get a guaranteed extra Gatewatch card when buying a BFZ Fat Pack. You can also get Gatewatch boosters for playing as rewards, so you’ll be able to get those cards.
Gatewatch boosters always contain a guaranteed Rare card, so you’re sure to get value out of those boosters. Some of the Gatewatch Rares are incredibly powerful, and I’m also showcasing a few here today for you folks!
Gobin Dark-Dwellers is a new card in the line of Goblins that makes Zada decks much more reliable and brings a mechanic Red isn’t used to seeing - returning cast Spells to your hand (and ramping them up in the process!). While it’s a tiny bit expensive at 13, the fact that you can return Spells is incredibly important, as you can order your cards so that you can cast a spell that costs 6 or less, then cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers and cast the spell right again! This is strong both with or without Zada, as it can give you a bit more reach with some spells.
Sylvan Advocate is another card that might look a bit expensive as a 3/4, but considering the amount of gem changers Green has, it’s very easy to have 8 or more Green gems on the battlefield. When that happens, this meek 3/4 becomes a very, very powerful 9/10 for 15, which is unprecedented. Overall it’s very strong, and you can be sure that you will win many games with it.
Deepfathom Sulker is a new Devoid card that has a very significant advantage in card draw - whenever any of your creatures deal combat damage, you will draw a card. This essentially gives you the possibility of drawing 4 cards per turn (counting your basic draw) pretty easily, and works very well with some of the spell pump cards - make a deck full of cheap spells to pump up your Noyan Dar, for example, and you can make sure your hand is always full of cards to cast!
Remorseless Punishment is another of those cards that looks very expensive (and it is! But I hear Pyromancer’s Goggles makes spells pretty cheap…) that is very Black-centric, with a unique function. It both makes your opponent discard cards AND destroys creatures, but if you’re fearing your opponent is already out of cards (or creatures!) you’ll still get a very strong benefit out of it. Dealing a potential 20 damage if your opponent has no creatures and cards in hand is very, very strong, especially for Black, who doesn’t have a lot of direct damage to the face.
Stone Haven Outfitter is another good card for card draw in white. He’s also an Ally, so he has great synergy with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and his 2 abilities are very strong - giving +2/+2 and Berserker to all your creatures gives White some very good offensive board control and is sure to turn the tide. Note that his +2/+2 applies to everyone, including himself, so he’s effectively a 6/6.
Finally, Captain’s Claws! This is a particularly exceptional colorless Support that spawns an Ally every time you attack, making it perform very well with Ally decks - getting free constant Ally reinforcements means you’ll trigger Rally very often, and it’s very strong in Ally-specific decks.
This is it for today! Tomorrow I’ll introduce more new cards!
I’m here today to start talking to you fine players about the upcoming expansion which is dropping next week, on June 28th: Oath of the Gatewatch!
First and foremost, we’d like to take the time to thank you. All the feedback we’ve received throughout the previous weeks and months is incredibly appreciated, and even though it’s not always positive, we always strive to make the best game we can within our constraints.
Now that this is out of the way, let’s start talking about Oath of the Gatewatch. We’re taking a slightly different approach with this expansion - we want to get to the next juicy bits of content quicker, so instead of releasing a huge major expansion with around 150 cards, we’re making conscious decision to reduce the new cards for OotG to 53. WIth this, we can focus on having cards that are more interesting and have a more significant impact on the game. We cherry-picked the cards we found to be more interesting and worked around them so make a more interesting set. Also to note that for the Gatewatch set, cards are of Uncommon rarity and up - there are no Commons in the set at all.
We are also not fully releasing the entire set of cards in one go this time around as well. We know it may be an unpopular issue, but I’ll explain the logic behind it. We are putting many of the Gatewatch cards as rewards for various things, and doing so makes it incredibly unappealing for players if they’ve already looted the cards in boosters in contrast to winning them through gameplay. It also makes you feel good if you’ve managed to beat a particularly difficult piece of content and have a trophy piece of sorts to show off your deck in Quick Battle with, and this is something we’ve seen that feels consistently good with players. Regardless, all the cards will be eventually added to the Gatewatch boosters, so there’s no need to worry. Also keep in mind that if there are cards that you DO want in Gatewatch boosters that are currently released, you have better odds of getting those cards when the card pool is smaller.
We’re also doing something a bit different with the Gatewatch boosters. You will not be able to directly buy Gatewatch boosters. You get a free Gatewatch booster when buying a BFZ Big Box, and you’ll get a guaranteed extra Gatewatch card when buying a BFZ Fat Pack. You can also get Gatewatch boosters for playing as rewards, so you’ll be able to get those cards.
Gatewatch boosters always contain a guaranteed Rare card, so you’re sure to get value out of those boosters. Some of the Gatewatch Rares are incredibly powerful, and I’m also showcasing a few here today for you folks!
Gobin Dark-Dwellers is a new card in the line of Goblins that makes Zada decks much more reliable and brings a mechanic Red isn’t used to seeing - returning cast Spells to your hand (and ramping them up in the process!). While it’s a tiny bit expensive at 13, the fact that you can return Spells is incredibly important, as you can order your cards so that you can cast a spell that costs 6 or less, then cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers and cast the spell right again! This is strong both with or without Zada, as it can give you a bit more reach with some spells.
Sylvan Advocate is another card that might look a bit expensive as a 3/4, but considering the amount of gem changers Green has, it’s very easy to have 8 or more Green gems on the battlefield. When that happens, this meek 3/4 becomes a very, very powerful 9/10 for 15, which is unprecedented. Overall it’s very strong, and you can be sure that you will win many games with it.
Deepfathom Sulker is a new Devoid card that has a very significant advantage in card draw - whenever any of your creatures deal combat damage, you will draw a card. This essentially gives you the possibility of drawing 4 cards per turn (counting your basic draw) pretty easily, and works very well with some of the spell pump cards - make a deck full of cheap spells to pump up your Noyan Dar, for example, and you can make sure your hand is always full of cards to cast!
Remorseless Punishment is another of those cards that looks very expensive (and it is! But I hear Pyromancer’s Goggles makes spells pretty cheap…) that is very Black-centric, with a unique function. It both makes your opponent discard cards AND destroys creatures, but if you’re fearing your opponent is already out of cards (or creatures!) you’ll still get a very strong benefit out of it. Dealing a potential 20 damage if your opponent has no creatures and cards in hand is very, very strong, especially for Black, who doesn’t have a lot of direct damage to the face.
Stone Haven Outfitter is another good card for card draw in white. He’s also an Ally, so he has great synergy with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, and his 2 abilities are very strong - giving +2/+2 and Berserker to all your creatures gives White some very good offensive board control and is sure to turn the tide. Note that his +2/+2 applies to everyone, including himself, so he’s effectively a 6/6.
Finally, Captain’s Claws! This is a particularly exceptional colorless Support that spawns an Ally every time you attack, making it perform very well with Ally decks - getting free constant Ally reinforcements means you’ll trigger Rally very often, and it’s very strong in Ally-specific decks.
This is it for today! Tomorrow I’ll introduce more new cards!
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Comments
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Hey, that's all great!
FIX UNDERGROWTH CHAMPION.0 -
shteev wrote:Hey, that's all great!
FIX UNDERGROWTH CHAMPION.
I remember seeing you saying it's buggy - what exactly are you referring to?0 -
Use a destroy spell on it. Nothing happens.Hibernum_JC wrote:shteev wrote:Hey, that's all great!
FIX UNDERGROWTH CHAMPION.
I remember seeing you saying it's buggy - what exactly are you referring to?0 -
Rootbreaker wrote:
Use a destroy spell on it. Nothing happens.Hibernum_JC wrote:shteev wrote:Hey, that's all great!
FIX UNDERGROWTH CHAMPION.
I remember seeing you saying it's buggy - what exactly are you referring to?
Also, Disable may or not be working on it, depending on what the hell Disable is supposed to do. What IS Disable supposed to do? [Please... nobody who isn't a developer answer this question].0 -
Just looked up the set online, and it seems as though there's only one dragon in it, and I assume the Eldrazi horde will make the cut over it.
So much for my hopes of more Sarkhan synergies. But some of the potential mythics look like they'll be pretty powerful if/when they get translated over, so those should be fun to see! Especially Tazri and Kalitas.0 -
I like the card changes in the other thread. I'm not super thrilled with most of these new cards though.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers looks ok. Not great, but ok. It's terrible if you don't have a spell in your graveyard. If you have a useful 6 mana spell in your graveyard though, it fells like a 7 mana 4/4 menace creature, which is reasonable. I've played Coralhelm Guide before, so this card is passable.
I don't like Sylvan Advocate. It feels too much like Deep-Sea Terror, but more expensive, more vulnerable, and doesn't reinforce as well. In exchange, you can get some damage in when you don't have the right number of green gems. I would be much happier with this card if the cost was lower, and the bonus was lowered too. As is, the variance is way too high. Note that this card reinforces terribly. Most of a card's "budget" should go towards base power, toughness, and enter-the-battlefield effects. When this isn't the case, the card ends up being terrible to draw in multiples.
Deepfathom Skulker has a power / cost ration 1/4. The sweet spot tends to be around 1/2. Blue doesn't have trouble filling it's hand right now. I don't see this card getting much play.
Remorseless Punishment falls into the camp of cards that I don't want to play with, and I don't want to play against. It is really expensive, so it tends to clog up my hand and not be available when I need it. However, it feels terrible when the AI randomly cascades into it. I guess the design is ok, but it doesn't appeal to me.
I'm surprised that Stone Haven Outfitter doesn't directly mention supports. The flavor and paper magic card suggest that it would. Regardless, the base stats on this card are low for the cost, making it bad at reinforcing. Sure, the first one is a 6/6, and it gives your other guys +2/+2, but it also turns them into suicide attackers. This card compares poorly to Embermaw Hellion (to be fair, Embermaw Hellion is ridiculously good).
Captain's Claws are extremely overcosted. The +1/+0 is tiny. The spawned allies consume a precious creature slot. If I understand the card and stacking rules right, the spawned kor allies will only stack with those that come from Retreat to Emeria and Unified Front. Also, if that first creature you control gets disabled (or you have no creatures), then the support does nothing. Yes, you'll trigger rally, but 18 mana to trigger rally is a lot.
You know what I'd be excited to see? Powerful cards that cost under 10 mana. Most of the BfZ previews also focused on expensive cards. I want to see exciting cards that are lower on the curve. Did you realize that there are only three uncommon+ creatures that cost 6 or less? That's a great area for me to get excited about.0 -
Wouldn't stone haven outfitter be better if based on supports?
White already has good supports(the best ones overall imho) so a creature support centric would have made sense.
Something like: all creatures you control gain +1/+1 for each support you control. Whenever a support you control is destroyed, draw a card.0 -
knthrak wrote:I don't like Sylvan Advocate. It feels too much like Deep-Sea Terror, but more expensive, more vulnerable, and doesn't reinforce as well. In exchange, you can get some damage in when you don't have the right number of green gems. I would be much happier with this card if the cost was lower, and the bonus was lowered too. As is, the variance is way too high. Note that this card reinforces terribly. Most of a card's "budget" should go towards base power, toughness, and enter-the-battlefield effects. When this isn't the case, the card ends up being terrible to draw in multiples.
Of all colors reliant on having a plethora of its own gems, green is the one most likely to benefit from the effect, though. YMMV, but green decks I play (and against) generate green gems like crazy.0 -
With my Kiora deck, I generate so many green gems, the board explodes and resets to a random number of green gems. With the animist's awakening nerf, that may not be the case anymore.madwren wrote:Of all colors reliant on having a plethora of its own gems, green is the one most likely to benefit from the effect, though. YMMV, but green decks I play (and against) generate green gems like crazy.
That doesn't counter the reinforcement issue though. Also, if we ever get "real" PvP, the opponent will have some amount of control over whether you have a large sylvan advocate or a small one. So make a green match just before attacking into the advocate, and you have a small advocate to deal with.0 -
Captain's Claws looks pretty exciting to me. It's not for BFZ Gideon obviously but that's fine, he doesn't need any more boosting. However, it's colourless which means it will work for Green/Red/Black/Blue Ally decks. In particular it makes Green Ally decks much stronger. Veteran Warleader will get a +2/+2 every turn. Tajuru Warcaller will trigger every turn. This will make it more viable for non-BFZ Gideon planeswalkers to play Ally decks imo.
Deepfathom Skulker looks to have some serious synergy with Sphinx's Tutelage. And Noyan Dar as mentioned. I look forward to trying Jace control decks again with this card.
Now that straight mana gain is viewed to not fit with Red's theme, is this going to be patched/changed soon after/before release? It seems contradictory to preview this and then change Avaricious Dragon and Abbot of Keral Keep on the basis that the ability doesn't fit with Red's theme. I hope there's a good explanation for this.Hibernum_JC wrote:
Gobin Dark-Dwellers is a new card in the line of Goblins that makes Zada decks much more reliable and brings a mechanic Red isn’t used to seeing - returning cast Spells to your hand (and ramping them up in the process!). While it’s a tiny bit expensive at 13, the fact that you can return Spells is incredibly important, as you can order your cards so that you can cast a spell that costs 6 or less, then cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers and cast the spell right again! This is strong both with or without Zada, as it can give you a bit more reach with some spells.0 -
span_argoman wrote:
Now that straight mana gain is viewed to not fit with Red's theme, is this going to be patched/changed soon after/before release? It seems contradictory to preview this and then change Avaricious Dragon and Abbot of Keral Keep on the basis that the ability doesn't fit with Red's theme. I hope there's a good explanation for this.Hibernum_JC wrote:
Gobin Dark-Dwellers is a new card in the line of Goblins that makes Zada decks much more reliable and brings a mechanic Red isn’t used to seeing - returning cast Spells to your hand (and ramping them up in the process!). While it’s a tiny bit expensive at 13, the fact that you can return Spells is incredibly important, as you can order your cards so that you can cast a spell that costs 6 or less, then cast Goblin Dark-Dwellers and cast the spell right again! This is strong both with or without Zada, as it can give you a bit more reach with some spells.
I thought that was a bit funny when I first saw it too, but after thinking about it, I believe its to make the card play more similarly to its paper MTG equivalent. Both Ava Dragon and Abbott draw you extra cards, and don't actually have much to do with mana gain. Dark-Dwellers, paraphrasing from MTG jargon, reads "Choose a cheap spell in your graveyard, cast it, and remove it from your graveyard". The immeadiacy of the effect I think is prompting the mana gain, as otherwise gem cascades would fill the first card in hand. This explaination doesn't quite work completely, as PQ Dark-Dwellers will be able to return and hold a Chandra's Ignition, for instance, but it's my best guess.0 -
Undergrowth champion is bugged. Swift recogning does not destroy it after being disabled with ajani s first ability. Not sure if other disabling options even work on it except ajani0
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There's quite a big thread about Undergrowth Champion on this very forum....
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=45238
I notice the thread on Undergrowth Champion in the 'Bugs and Technical issues' subforum is three times bigger than any other thread there...
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=43964
And here they are talking about it over on Reddit (NSFW... TL;DR: they don't like it)
https://www.reddit.com/r/MTGPuzzleQuest ... ng_broken/
I notice from there, incidentally, that you can Reclaim Undergrowth Champion for free mana.
PLEASE don't tell me that you've just redesigned Skaab Goliath so that Kiora can run both and Undergrowth Champion will just pump him up for free.0 -
span_argoman wrote:Now that straight mana gain is viewed to not fit with Red's theme, is this going to be patched/changed soon after/before release? It seems contradictory to preview this and then change Avaricious Dragon and Abbot of Keral Keep on the basis that the ability doesn't fit with Red's theme. I hope there's a good explanation for this.
While straight mana gain doesn't fit with Red's theme, it doesn't mean we can't use the mechanic. It just means it'll be used far more sparingly.
In this case, the straight mana gain is necessary - the goal of the card is to make a spell return to your hand and make it castable very quickly. The only way this is feasible is to give it mana (or possibly lower it's mana cost, but that's something I actually try to avoid doing unless necessary because it's not very clear). This is different than Abbot or Avaricious Dragon's main goals. Red's acceleration theme is through gem destruction, generating unreliable free matches. I'll look into making a post detailing what the design philosophy for colors will be, moving forward, as it's something that I find interesting and I'm sure players would like the insight.0 -
Hibernum_JC wrote:shteev wrote:Hey, that's all great!
FIX UNDERGROWTH CHAMPION.
I remember seeing you saying it's buggy - what exactly are you referring to?
WOW! I mean seriously, WOW!
I have no idea why I even bother with this game at this point.
I am a person coming from a lot of free to play games. I've spent money on every such game that I played for more than a few hours. I've spend hundreds of dollars on League of Legends. I have spent money in this game once and I play since December. And I'm not gonna do it again. Do you know why? Because everything is overpriced and I don't feel like I'm getting enough for what I'm paying. I want to, I really do, but every time I open the shop and see how high the prices are, I close it. And not only that, the one time I paid, I felt cheated. I got nothing for the money I spent. Never making the same mistake.
I've been asking for a colorless mechanic for devoid spells for three months. This is a core mechanic in paper Magic. The introduced a new mana color for it. It was that important. A game that has had only 5 mana colors for more than 20 years, introduced a new color for Eldrazi. So they could make their synergy work. And you're destroying all that.
There are like 10 posts per day in this forum and you can't take 15 minutes a day to read them and maybe give an answer.
Undergrown Champion and his bugs have been discussed many times in this forum. Not only it's the most unbalanced card ever, but it's bugged. It needs a total rework IMO.
Since I have I've lost game only to Kiora, because she can use it better that my Nissa can. 3 lost games in more than 200 games. With a deck based solely on this card. And 3 losses from a deck built solely on this card.
And you ask "what exactly are you referring to"? Seriously?
No really values our opinions or even reads them. Why are there even subforums like bugs and suggestions. You release a new pack that's worth $100 for duplicates and a chance of a card I might need. You come to post the news on the forum. Open a couple threads and post a comment just to look like you listen.
Just read the reddit thread in the previous comment. And tell me this is the reaction you want from your game.
Not that you or anyone else will read this or bother to answer, but I don't care. I wanted to say what I had to. This game had great potential. Too bad it's ruined from greed.
People don't realize that they can earn more if they give better offers that more people are willing to buy.0 -
Alright, thanks for the answer. It would be very nice to see the posts about the design philosophies for the different colours.Hibernum_JC wrote:While straight mana gain doesn't fit with Red's theme, it doesn't mean we can't use the mechanic. It just means it'll be used far more sparingly.
In this case, the straight mana gain is necessary - the goal of the card is to make a spell return to your hand and make it castable very quickly. The only way this is feasible is to give it mana (or possibly lower it's mana cost, but that's something I actually try to avoid doing unless necessary because it's not very clear). This is different than Abbot or Avaricious Dragon's main goals. Red's acceleration theme is through gem destruction, generating unreliable free matches. I'll look into making a post detailing what the design philosophy for colors will be, moving forward, as it's something that I find interesting and I'm sure players would like the insight.
On the other hand, I think you could have handled people's concerns about Undergrowth Champion a lot better.0 -
Barrelrolla wrote:Hibernum_JC wrote:shteev wrote:Hey, that's all great!
FIX UNDERGROWTH CHAMPION.
I remember seeing you saying it's buggy - what exactly are you referring to?
Colorless is not a new color. It has existed since the beginning of paper magic. They did introduce a new symbol for it when they introduced mechanics where it mattered that the mana was colorless for certain effects. I do agree that not making devoid cards count as colorless cards does ruin the synergy of the Eldrazi theme.Barrelrolla wrote:
I've been asking for a colorless mechanic for devoid spells for three months. This is a core mechanic in paper Magic. The introduced a new mana color for it. It was that important. A game that has had only 5 mana colors for more than 20 years, introduced a new color for Eldrazi. So they could make their synergy work. And you're destroying all that.
There are like 10 posts per day in this forum and you can't take 15 minutes a day to read them and maybe give an answer.
Undergrown Champion and his bugs have been discussed many times in this forum. Not only it's the most unbalanced card ever, but it's bugged. It needs a total rework IMO.
...
And you ask "what exactly are you referring to"? Seriously?
I also think that it is crazy that an admin could not know what the issues are with Undergrowth Champion, there are multiple threads in multiple sub forums that discuss the card. It really does look like they aren't paying attention if they have to ask 'what bugs?'0 -
nexus13 wrote:
I also think that it is crazy that an admin could not know what the issues are with Undergrowth Champion, there are multiple threads in multiple sub forums that discuss the card. It really does look like they aren't paying attention if they have to ask 'what bugs?'
Or it's just that JC is the only person doing anything worth a damn on the game and he isn't paid enough(LOLTHOSEPRICESTHOUGH) to care much? Or just a MAJOR oversight, who knows... /shrug0 -
I know colorless existed since the beginning, but for the first time you have lands that specifically give colorless mana and spells that specifically require colorless mana. So it kinda is like a new mana color, that's what I meant.nexus13 wrote:Colorless is not a new color. It has existed since the beginning of paper magic. They did introduce a new symbol for it when they introduced mechanics where it mattered that the mana was colorless for certain effects. I do agree that not making devoid cards count as colorless cards does ruin the synergy of the Eldrazi theme.
I also think that it is crazy that an admin could not know what the issues are with Undergrowth Champion, there are multiple threads in multiple sub forums that discuss the card. It really does look like they aren't paying attention if they have to ask 'what bugs?'0 -
Thankfully I have yet to fight undergrowth champion0
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