Three months have passed and it’s time for us to react to the development of decks and the different powers of clans with updates to the ban list, restricted list, and splash ban list. Read on to find out what will change!
We have announced it before, and the new lists are here. This time, we decided to nerf the two clans that are still considered to be the best at the moment (Crane and Crab), removed a couple of cards that took stole the fun, and helped Unicorn, who seemed to have been underrepresented as always. These lists will be used in the upcoming tournaments and will, most likely, change again in a few months. Let’s go!
Updates to the Ban List
Bake-Kujira (pet named “The Whale”) is banned. Many players hated it, whilst others loved it. It was the most expensive card in the game, but it’s effect was game warping and too effective. We wanted to create a monstrous beast with TtM and wanted its effects to be worthy of the legendary sea monster. But we went too far. All too often, players were annoyed by it because there simply was no counter play.
This Goblin, Slovenly Scavenger, as all mass recycle effects in every game—ever—, is used only to boost strategies that allow you to draw your entire deck and want to avoid the honour loss from it. The main issue is that it reshuffle itself, too. It’s never been used in non combo decks, so we decided its days are numbered. It is banned.
The close-to-undead Crab character, Deployed Garrison, is the third card that hits the Ban List. Even though its effect is interesting, it is often perceived to be an abuse of recycling. In Crab, it often gave free draws plus a body in the conflict, or just free bodies for provinces like Weight of Duty or Courteous Greeting: in other words, it often played around the costs of Floating Fortress or province costs, allowing the player to do a lot of things without actually spending cards in hand. We briefly thought about another errata for this card (which would have always removed the card from the game when it leaves play), but with a look at future sets, we decided to simply ban it.
Updates to the Restricted List
Remember this old Bushi of the Crab Clan? This lil’ guy, always loved by crab players, has been on the Restricted List for a long time. It has an incredibly weak body, but it provides a free draw for “borrowing” a fate for that turn. Since a very good target for sacrifice (Garrison) was banned, we decided to free Kaiu Envoy.
Noble sacrifice is added to the Restricted List, but at the same time, it is also freed from the Splash Ban List.
This card has been proven to be very effective in Crane with Mark of Shame. For this reason, Noble Sacrifice (aka “Bridge”), is added to the restricted list. On the other hand, it’s freed from the splash ban list since it is less problematic without mark of shame—but still good!—in Scorpion and an interesting pick of a restricted card for Lion and Phoenix
Our last change to the Restricted List is Command the Tributary, which is freed from the list. It was originally added because of the first version of East Wind. Now that Khanbulak Benefactor has left the pool of legal cards, there is really no more reason to have this card restricted.
And that’s it for today! All changes become effective starting tomorrow. As always, let us know your opinions on discord, leave a comment, or send us an email! We will closely monitor future tournament and leagues and will adjust the card pool with updates to the three lists accordingly. Next time, maybe even with a new set. 😉
