The Patch According to Discord: 0.2.15

Introduction

Welcome to the fourth Patch According to Discord post. Like the Meta According to Discord, this is a crowdsourced endeavour from various players of mostly a fairly high level; thanks to everyone who filled out my survey.

How It Works

I asked respondents to rate changes that weren’t clearly direct buffs on a three point “scale”: “Buffed”, “Nerfed”, or “Situational”, and requested a comment (especially for “situational” responses).

For the buffed or nerfed cards, I asked respondents to rate the changes from “Not Impactful” to “Impactful”, on a scale of 0-3.

The Fun Factor is a rating on a scale from 1-5 whether the change makes the game more or less fun to play overall. I’ve included quartiles to give an idea of how the mean is influenced by outliers who love or hate the change.

For the faction standings, I asked players to rank the factions from best to worst, allowing ties if they felt they were equivalent. I then averaged the rank assigned to each faction and ranked the average. There are other ways of interpreting the data, which might produce different results, but this is close enough.

Faction Standings

1. Lyonar (1.32)
2. Magmar (2.06)
3. Songhai (3.18)
4. Vetruvian (3.71)
5. Abyssian (3.91)
6. Vanar (4.21)

Summary Infographics

Brought to you once again by the excellent ZeroUnderscoreOu.

Breakdown

Mixed Adjustments

Amplification

0 Mana – Give a damaged minion +3/+0. ➝ 2 Mana – Give a minion “Grow +2/+2”. Grow allies with Grow.

Buffed (15): Previously, Amplification had very little place outside of the Trilucidator OTK combo; the change opens up some new options for lines of play with the card. +2/+2 for 2 mana could be quite useful by itself, so the extra value might be icing on the cake. It’s nice to have a bit of support that might make Grow minions less painfully unplayable.

Situational (11): As Grow support, it might be too niche to actually see any play. It’s probably now an overall okay card, as opposed to useless in most places but completely broken in one. 2 mana is a bit much to just slide into a turn, especially compared to Greater Fortitude, so it may still be pigeonholed – just to Grow, not Trilucidator.

Nerfed (7): Although it has more general utility, it’s probably pushed out by everything else Magmar has. Grow as an archetype is still pretty bad, to the point of dragging this card down rather than being boosted by it.

Overall: Buffed, but very different.

Fun Factor: 4.12 (Median 4, 1st Quartile 4, 3rd Quartile 5)

Glacial Elemental

3/3: Infiltrate: When you summon a Vespyr, deal 2 damage to a random enemy minion. ➝ 3/2 – Infiltrate: When you summon a Vespyr, deal 2 damage to a random enemy minion.

Buffed (26): Obviously, not having the effect chained to Infiltrate is better than the alternative, especially since how hard it is to activate Infiltrate varies depending on matchup and starting side (for instance, playing as P2 against Lyonar opening with Windblade Adept makes moving forward a risky business). With this, even though it has less health it can be dropped on board along with some Vespyr combo to immediately get value even if it’s removed right after that. It’s still not guaranteed to be removed immediately, even though it is much easier to remove.

Situational (3): Being at risk of immediate clearing by Riftwalker, Tempest, or other 2 damage effects is a substantial drop in stickiness, but if Riftwalker becomes less popular this should equally become stronger.

Nerfed (5): Dying to Riftwalker in particular is simply too big a hit.

Overall: Overwhelmingly Buffed, although it is more easily removed.

Fun Factor: 3.18 (Median 3, 1st Quartile 3, 3rd Quartile 4)

Buffs

Syzygy

Give an allied minion +2/+0, another +0/+2, and another Blast this turn. ➝ Give an allied minion +3/+0, another +0/+3, and another Blast this turn.

Zoo Vetruvian obviously loves this; Vetruvian has tended to struggle with ways to actually pay off building a board before 9 mana for Time Maelstrom. Giving a 2 attack minion +3 attack allows it to remove 5 health targets (quick maths), which is a key breakpoint for Silverguard Knight, historically Spirit Harvester, and in some metas Veteran Silithar. Obelysks can also make good use of it, giving Dervishes attack and Blast and Obelysks health. Opinion seems divided on whether this makes a good card too strong, or an okay card good.

Average rating: 2.38, “Significant Impact” (Median 2, Mode 2)

Fun Factor: 3.59 (Median 4, 1st Quartile 3, 3rd Quartile 5)

Archon Spellbinder

5 Mana 6/6 – All spells cost 1 more to play. ➝ 6 Mana 8/8 – Your opponent’s spells cost 1 more to play.

It’s cracked. It’s the best 6 drop in the game. It might also be the best 7 drop in the game, and the best 4 drop. Having it widely played helps keep a lid on potentially toxic cards like Time Maelstrom, and abusive combos like Trilucidator (before the Amplification change gutted that). On the other hand, having great stats and a great ability generally seems a bit much; it was initially nerfed for a reason.

Average rating: 2.55, “Large Impact” (Median 3, Mode 3)

Fun Factor: 2.97 (Median 3, 1st Quartile 2, 3rd Quartile 4)

Nerfs

Spirit Harvester

At the end of your turn, deal 2 damage to other minions.➝ At the end of your turn, deal 1 damage to other minions.

Metamorphosis - Flash Reincarnation - Spirit Harvester is still a full one-sided clear with dispel, leaving it with a substantial role. As long as it sticks, even though 1 damage is a lot less than 2, you still can’t overdevelop your board or Metamorphosis will still be a blowout. Without the threat of Meta, it’s much less of a choke on the opponent’s ability to play the game, but it’s also less of a choke on your own – for example, Kujata now survives a turn with a Harvester on board. In fact, although this is listed under “nerf” and most people see it that way, you can definitely see it as a buff because of the reduction in self-damage.

Average rating: 2.55, “Large Impact” (Median 3, Mode 3)

Fun Factor: 4.27 (Median 4, 1st Quartile 4, 3rd Quartile 5)

Decapotheosis

0/8 ➝ 0/6

🦀 CRAB IS GONE 🦀

Regardless of how powerful Crab exactly was, most people disliked either the card itself or the way it warped the meta by driving people to play loads of counters to it to avoid default losing to highrolls like Magmar’s potential turn 2 Lady Locke - Flash Reincarnation - Crab (for a 1/7 Provoke, Veil and a 2/8 Provoke, Veil). At 6 health it dies to a 4 damage AoE effect and a General attack, making it much easier to bring under control without triggering a swarm. It may still be playable, but the general opinion seems to be that it’s moved from a jokey card that was crushingly powerful to a jokey card that’s… a jokey card.

Average rating: 2.12, “Significant Impact” (Median 2, Mode 3)

Fun Factor: 3.58 (Median 4, 1st Quartile 3, 3rd Quartile 5)

Isbee’s Monument

At the end of each turn, deal 2 damage to this and heal both Generals for 2. ➝ At the end of each turn, this gains -0/-2 and heals both Generals for 2.

This change is intended to prevent the unforeseen interaction where Isbee’s Monument on an Emerald Aura tile would deal no damage to itself. This restores the correct clock to the minion’s life, preventing shenanigans where any kind of more aggressive deck had to spend 12 damage on the Monument or it would get infinite value. Opinions are divided on whether this leaves it as a staple stalling tool or a rare choice for a very slow deck.

Average rating: 1.79, “Noticeable Impact” (Median 2, Mode 2)

Fun Factor: 3.76 (Median 4, 1st Quartile 3, 3rd Quartile 5)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to:

.	.	.	.	.
Scuttle	Razhael	calvin	Deathremar	BaldEaglePC
Raputha	The 14th aspect	Jay	MagisterSieran	Sm1les
Decoy	solobruiser	incognito	Kopiuyt	Kieran (I’m pretty sure this isn’t Kieran’s channel monkaHmm)
Ghosterdriver	ShatteredGlass	KLuebbert	GSValhalla	Cairill
Sinbread	utracjusz	Smarty	Timmy	ZeroUnderscoreOu
Abracadani	Harpu	Evo-Devo Oil (Cassiopea)	Pasty	…and 5 anonymous respondents.

Hot Takes

Take	Owner
I was very strongly considering putting Abyss at 2nd in terms of faction strength. The amount of removal and early game tempo they can generate can lead to game winning boards before a slower gameplan can pan out for the opponenet. Though i don’t see anyone else running a deck like that except Josh. Also i’ve yet to see Aggro Vanar running 3x polarity, as it answers both sloth and isbee even cheaper than natural selection. Aggro Vanar being slept on.	Scuttle
Deathblighter 4 3/4 the enemy general can’t heal during his turn	Razhael
There is one too many factions in the game.	Anon
I miss crab a little.	Evo-Devo Oil
Metamorphosis and time maelstrom are spells that make the game so boringly oppresive, thore are strongly one sided, they might have a big cost and conditions yo make them a true winning condition, still they swing games into [sic][?]	Deathremar
The Dooly discord is its own worst enemy. During the Crab-patch, Doomposting and “gaem is ded” spread like wildfire thanks to a few very vocal individuals	BaldEaglePC
Golems arent good enough yet </3	Raputha
#makezenruivetclusive - make vet great again :) also obelysk support would be nice. Thanks	Anon
Fuck harvester [cold take – editor]	Jay
Bounded Lifeforce should be 6 mana. It would more playable without it being too strong. I think it offers a lot of interesting game decisions but it isn’t being played due to it high cost.	MagisterSieran
I biased asf but with Magmar there was always something to worry about. It was a scary faction to play against. Now it just feels like you can play against it turn by turn without thinking ahead and that makes me kind of sad. Also songhai needs to be a restrictive faction not a full face faction. Incog does a cool job with his decks I want to see a songhai shift for sure.	Sm1les
Lyo is genuinely overrated	Decoy
rift must be 2/2 like repulsor, also running 3x spiral is actually ok	incognito
A good Abyss deck (exercise for the reader to figure out which) is better than whatever Vet, Vanar and Hai can play atm	Kopiuyt
The game could be much more fun with a slower pace. The original design was made to compete with Hearthstone that was fast and instantly gratifying. Duelyst would be the world’s best game by being slower (the minions sturdier, the removal scarcer, etc).	Anon
just add the three novas to your 40 deck	Kieran
Release support for dying wish minions or change araki headhunter. I’m bored of my zoo decks having to devolve into opening gambit spam.	ShatteredGlass
Vanar needs a massive rework	Anon
Still feel like Lyonar is the best faction throughout D2. Basically, had no real changes besides Divine Bond and Sunriser. Which hasn’t made a real difference to power level of the faction in comparison to the rest. Other factions had changes to their power level through the patches but Lyonar feels unaffected, untouched while being boring to play with and against. [not sure how hot this is – editor]	GSValhalla
I personally don’t like seeing changes made to Lyonar as I see Lyonar as the fairest Faction, nothing they do is special they are just very efficient at it. Thusly I like metas where Lyonar is the best deck but ideally that other decks can arguably take that spot.	Cairill
Give Abyssian a good 2 drop so we dont need to just play neutral 2 drops :D <3	Sinbread
The meta isn’t that bad atm	Timmy
55 card limit was a mistake.	ZeroUnderscoreOu
Vindicator is currently underpowered	abracadani

Harvester Jumpscare

Spirit Harvester was mentioned once in the patch notes and 16 times in the survey responses.

Did you find the Spirit Harvester?