Ancient Bonds Expansion Launch!
We have 39 new cards arriving in this expansion with a focus on tribal synergies between minions with a unique type like Arcanysts and Golems, a new Keyword “Bond” that triggers when minions of the same tribe are played to the board, and a variety of new strategies and effects to try out in your decks. Check out a few of the new cards below, and see the full set.
These new cards can be collected from Ancient Orbs purchased through the in-game Armory. Ancient Orbs are a special type of Spirit Orb, similar in structure to Bloodborn Orbs from our previous Rise of the Bloodborn Expansion. Each Ancient Orb contains a full playset (3 copies) of 3 unique cards from the Ancient Bonds expansion and will never contain duplicates of any card you have already owned. This means that after opening 13 Ancient Orbs you will be guaranteed to have added 3 copies of all 39 new Ancient Bonds cards to your collection.
Ancient Orbs cost 300 gold or $2.99 each. Alternatively, the entire Ancient Bonds set can be purchased for $19.99 by buying a one-time purchase 13 Ancient Orb bundle.
Balance Changes
Cards that have a mana cost of 0 are uniquely powerful, as they don’t limit the other actions you can take on your turn. We are increasing the cost of two 0-mana cards, Inner Focus and Slo, as they were proving to be too efficient and were limiting the strength we could give new cards going forward.
Inner Focus (Songhai Spell – Core Set) – Cost changed from 0 to 1.
There are so many stylish combinations of spells that Songhai players use to burst their opponent, with Inner Focus acting as the centerpiece of some of the more egregious cases. We’ve increased the cost of Inner Focus to 1 in order to up the cost of some of the more destructive turns, especially those involving multiple casts of Inner Focus or otherwise full turns with Inner Focus added in for free.
Slo (Lyonar Minion – Denizens of Shim’Zar set) – Cost changed from 0 to 1.
Slo accomplishes a lot in the early game. It could snag a mana tile to let Lyonar play more expensive cards a turn earlier, take over the board alongside other minions, or allow Lyonar to cast Holy Immolation with only 4 mana. We’ve increased Slo’s cost to 1 to curb these early power plays.
For roughly 1 week after the change, Slo will be disenchantable for full spirit value. Disenchant values are not applicable to Inner Focus, as basic cards are not craftable/disenchantable.
Other Changes with Ancient Bonds
Kara Winterblade (Vanar General – Core Set) – Bloodborn Spell changed to “Friendly minions summoned this turn gain +1/+1”.
Kara’s previous rework left her trailing behind the other Generals, and many of the tools she wanted to use to catch-up didn’t quite work when you had to cast your Bloodborn Spell before summoning them. Now, Kara’s BBS will work both before AND after you’ve summoned minions for the turn, allowing you to keep your options open while making a number of select cards much more appealing.
Diamond Golem (Neutral Minion – Core Set) – Stats changed from 4/11 to 5/11.
Diamond Golem wants to prove its worth in Ancient Bonds. Thankfully, this extreme pressure has the friendly Golem looking sharper than ever!
Upcoming Roadmap
- iOS Beta currently in limited testing, ramping up to wider testing soon.
- Android build in development.
- Additional game modes including continuous draft with cross-faction decks.
- Weekly boss battles.
- Continuing card expansions throughout the year, including sets of different sizes (expect the next expansion to be larger than Ancient Bonds 39 cards!)
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://news.duelyst.com/duelyst-patch-1-82/
