Karn Bundle Card Changes *Updated (5/22/18)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

As many of you are aware, the 2.6 update brought with it Magic: Puzzle Quest's first look at the Dominaria card set; bringing with it Karn and 6 new Dominaria cards. We were excited to hear that many players jumped at the chance to try out our first Colorless Planeswalker, as well as the 5 cards he came with; one of which was the powerful card, Gilded Lotus.

As more and more players experimented with the card though, the team quickly realized that Gilded Lotus was a very strong card; one that unfortunately needed to be changed.

One of Oktagon's designers stated:

"In its released form, it would become an auto-include into most decks, since every Planeswalker would simply be better with it. The goal was to create a card that could increase match options for PWs with distributed negative mana bonuses, [as opposed to making] match options irrelevant by making every match a great match. Now it should help even out some negative mana bonuses, while leveling PWs, as well as fit into some niche decks once they are leveled."

We understand that having to balance a stronger-than-intended card can be frustrating to players, but especially so when there was no announcement communicating it. We sincerely apologize for this oversight, and we'll be taking steps in the future to make sure we inform the community of changes like these ahead of time.

As a gift for your patience and understanding, all players that purchased the Karn bundle are eligible to receive 80 Mana Crystals, so they have everything they need to get their hands on a Dominaria Booster Pack once the set goes live. Please reach out to Customer Support, and they will be more than happy to credit you with the Crystals.

Thank you all once again, and thank you for being a part of our Magic: Puzzle Quest community.

Update: Players no longer require a purchase receipt when reaching out to Customer Support for the 80 Mana Crystals.

babar3355

Some people hate the Nerf, most of us understood the need for a Nerf.  But, the level of the Nerf is what makes us unhappy.

khurram

I appreciate the thought process behind your decision but players don't want compensation really. They want a card they will use and not simply throw at the trash heap. 

Probably, make it cost cheaper than 9 mana.

GrizzoMtGPQ

I'm getting $2.60 back from a $20 purchase. Seems low. 

ZW2007-

That reply to the situation was not a real or acceptable reply. What about the other cards included with Karn? Were they that game breaking? Why have those not been addressed?

As to the power level of Gilded Lotus and the fact that 

As more and more players experimented with the card though, the team quickly realized that Gilded Lotus was a very strong card; one that unfortunately needed to be changed. 

Perhaps, and maybe this is just my opinion, the team shouldn't have:
1. Included such a unique, new and powerful ability for sale as part of a cash purchase.
2. Released such a card without testing it first.

The problem here is that the team is rushing to pump out content and catch up to paper magic for some unknown (to us players at least) reason and the players are the losers. Those of us that bought Karn paid for the right to be your beta testers. That is so not cool.

It also reeks of a cash grab. This powerful card was thrown out there in a way that made the Karn bundle more appealing. Surely a "very strong card" such as this was already play tested by the designers and wouldn't be nerfed only three weeks later. Surely I can feel confident in purchasing this card. Guess not. It seems to me that Karn was rushed out as a way to provide a stopgap to the lull in purchases in between content releases. 

I love this game. I have been playing it for over two years now. I hoped to see it thrive but things like this make me want to watch it fail. Am I being dramatic? Probably but obviously I don't care about that. I just have three words for you:

Not. Another. Dime.

madwren

Seems like people should be getting a guaranteed rare back, not an 80-crystal pittance.

ZW2007-

madwren said:

Seems like people should be getting a guaranteed rare back, not an 80-crystal pittance.

80 crystals is good for about 70 orbs, if you're me at least.

stikxs

If the intent was to help pull-up PW with negative match bonuses, why not just make it +2 to colors < 0/-1? Maybe give it another shield/lower cost if that proved to be not much help to high level PWs (only helps 2 out of the first 10 PW alphabetically at 60). I'm not against the change, but the degree is pretty far and makes it just as bad while leveling PW as those at 60.

Gilesclone

The problem is, that you didn’t balance it, you made it worthless.

And how exactly was Jousting Javelin broken?

Enygma6

ZW2007- said:

80 crystals is good for about 70 orbs, if you're me at least.

Save it for DOM, you might get 135 with that new-set bonus.    

As for the adjustment to the Gilded Lotus, I can understand this, though I do not enjoy it.  Several of my early favorites in Ixalan had cost increases, but they are still somewhat regulars in my decks.  
The Lotus was already a fragile support, I do not think it needs to be an expensive fragile weakened support.  Cost increase (I’d play it if it cost 11 and gave +2’s) or ability reduction (+1’s for cost 7) would make more sense to me.  If both, then at least give it 4 shields.  

It’s the cost increases to the other DOM supports that baffles me.  I bought Karn the day he was released, and have only found niche uses for the Lance and Candle (mainly baiting Vraska).  The Compass still hasn’t shown itself to be of much use in my deck builds.  These did not appear to warrant any cost increase to me.

This explanation ought to have been up front in the release notes, not left for us to discover when digging through the gallery.

Gilesclone

Except for Lotus, I’ve never seen any of the other Dom cards that came with Karn in play.

jtwood

I think it’s worth saying that this type of input is welcome and we all wish there was more of it. 

Please provide more communication - and maybe not under such stressful circumstances. 

Aeroplane

Too many holes in that explanation , especially, after the destructive nature of River's Rebuke nerf of only 3 extra mana. Create a card to level PW? Really? Go dig up your receipt and will give you 80 crystals? Really? Doesn't explain the nerf of the other cards. 

I would of accepted a " Yeah, we screwed up , we'll just drop the mana bonus by one or increase the the mana cost by 2-3.

Thuran

Wait a second!

DOM will be 80 crystals each pack, so a 400 crystal PP? That is snowflaking tinykitty! 

Hope it turns out the paragraph was just badly written and not Ocktagon deciding to rip us off worse than they already did by reducing event rewards -_- 

Still kudos for giving the crystals, even if i madre my position clear that i dont believe anyonevwjo bought karn deserves Them, and that d3 would be in the right not to give anything. 

Way to go above and beyond or way to try and put out the potential PR damage, which it probably is.

Azerack

I concurr with @ZW2007 's point #2 and I've commented, though infrequently, about the lack of playtesting for MtGPQ, in general.

I think even Baral could have been discovered MUCH earlier on had they playtested the cards, themselves. With access to ALL of the cards, playtesters could make the "worst" decks they could and have found issues like Baral's insane looping and Gilded Lotus' not-really-that-insane-not-sure-why-people-think-it's-so-overpowered mana gain issue.

In addition, playtesting finds bugs which we end up finding for them. 

If I heard that DOM was going to be a little later because they were playtesting and finding issues, I would applaud that, not gripe, so that's my $0.02... 

THEMAGICkMAN

I can't even see myself using it in low level planeswalkers, it's just too little impact. far better ramp cards out there.

Quantius

If packs go up to 80 crystals each, I'm just uninstalling.

Brakkis

I would just like to point out that Gilded Lotus's pre-nerf +2 Bonus as a Rare is completely off-set by the Uncommon Dampening Sphere that's being released with Dominaria that has a -2 bonus effect.

Theros

I got karn around 2 weeks after release. If they had communicated ahead of time, I wouldn't buy him. The timing of the announcement is not ethical. 80 crystals for compensation is quite insulting; it's like giving a candy to a crying child to quiet him/her. We spent $20 for the deal. Many of us got more than 80 crystals (and some pinks) from last PVE alone.

More problematic was the fact that they that they overnerfed Lotus to uselessness and unnecessary nerf other cards. We would love some explanation for those.
Many were first time buyers who were disappointed and a  pity 80 crystals is not a good way to create loyalty or do business.

The best compensation is to reworks the lotus into something acceptable and people have provided some solid ideas. Please listen to the community or come up with something better; there is no shortage of ideas. You guys can do better than the nerfed lotus. A  better re-tweak will go a long way to comfort people that got lotus for $20. How is 80 crystals  supposed to do that?

HelloKitty

I bought the Karn bundle specially for Gilded Lotus. I had to have that card to remain competitive. I'm not sure how to respond now. 

I love this game. I put many countless hours into it, as well as @$600 us. But it may be time to move on. I certainly will never spend another penny on any "bundle".

bk1234

Thuran said:

Wait a second!

DOM will be 80 crystals each pack, so a 400 crystal PP? That is snowflaking tinykitty! 

Hope it turns out the paragraph was just badly written and not Ocktagon deciding to rip us off worse than they already did by reducing event rewards -_- 

Still kudos for giving the crystals, even if i madre my position clear that i dont believe anyonevwjo bought karn deserves Them, and that d3 would be in the right not to give anything. 

Way to go above and beyond or way to try and put out the potential PR damage, which it probably is.

IXN and RIX were 80 / 120 / 320 for their first month and then went down. 

I'm sure this is the same case. 



Let's wait for  @Brigby to clarify when he returns to the office before we jump the gun.