A Look at Limited... and the 97th card

Another PVP season has come to a close and the story of the season was clearly the rise of Bothar vs. MEK.

In the Standard Top 100, MEK was the most used hero, and Bothar came in at number 4, behind the reigning champions Arcanos and Thania. Both MEK and Bothar sported a 53% win ratio, which while good, is nothing spectacular (both Uunys and Devroth had the same win ratio).

Where the two really had an impact was Limited.

In the Limited Top 100, Bothar has solidified himself in the top spot, appearing in 31% of games and had a win ratio of 68%. Who did Bothar prey on? MEK. While MEK was running around giving aggressive decks a fit, Bothar was primed and ready to punish these players.

The most successful Bothar deck was run by the winner of this season's Limited Ladder, the Ancient kingdom's biggest proponent: Cewen.

Here is the deck:

Cewen worked to lock opponents out with the combo of Raise the Guard and Prophet of the Void. With so many decks relying on inexpensive cards to keep up pressure, opponents could find themselves sitting watching as the Prophets grew under Surge of the Ages with few options to fight back. And if one Prophet could be removed, Titan General is happy to join the party and make the Prophets even bigger.

I spoke to Cewen after the season and he feels that this deck is the best Limited has to offer, with so few immediate answers to a wall of Prophets (T'rror, Realm Crusher, Echo Blast, Divine Wrath). In his view, the deck is weakest against Arcanos spell-spam decks and other well-built Bothar decks.

Are we concerned about the rise of Bothar and MEK? Not yet, but we will of course be watching over the next season and the release of Gods Reborn to see how the meta responds to this new threat (as well as continuing to watch Arcanos and Thania).

The 97th Card

As you know, when we announced Gods Reborn, we stated that it would contain 96 cards. Well today it was decided that we would be adding a 97th card to the set... one that some of you might recognize:

Originally intended as a prize card, and inadvertently teased in the promo section of the collection, the Staff of Stability has been moved to the booster set so that everyone can get it. And in an era of very strong charge based builds, it could have a significant impact on the metagame. Just look at Cewen's Bothar deck above. Staff shuts off 11 cards. Versus the MEK decks that run Charge Orb and Charge Potion it has even more of an effect, and of course it blanks Goblin Scavenger completely.

For Heroes that have low charge costs like Shadow and Felincia, the Staff can help them compete against more powerful ultimates and give them time to seal victory.

Note that Staff does not prevent the three charges gained at the start of each turn, it just forces players to play the charge game fairly.

Spooky Bundle is Back! - Release Notes September 24th

Just a quick update today to make a couple of small fixes, and put the Spooky Bundle back on sale!

That's right, by popular demand, we've put the original bundle back on sale with a tiny change:

Do you see it? Roaming Bloodsire has had its cost reduced to 4 mana. 5 mana for a 2/3 just was too much for such a situational ability, and with Gods Reborn bringing some very interesting toys for the Vampire tribe, we decided it was time to give the original Kingdoms CCG vampire a boost.

The bundle will be on sale until November 1st, and includes 50 Gems along with the cards for just $10 (USD).

We've also fixed Realm Champion and Eternal Dragon. They're back to their indestructible glory.

Survey Rewards

First off I want to say thank you to everyone who has answered our survey. The feedback has been great.

In regards to the 20 Gems, we're going to start handing them out tomorrow. We will be doing this by hand, so it might take a couple of days to get yours, but rest assured that everyone who gave us their in-game name WILL get their Gems.

We want to hear from you! Help us make Kingdoms CCG better!

We know that you're passionate about Kingdoms CCG, so here is your chance to let us know how we're doing, and help us decide what we'll be doing next.

Just fill out this survey.

As a thank you, we've left space for you to enter your in-game name. If you send this to us, we'll send 20 Gems to that account (once per player, please). It's totally optional, so if you'd like to stay anonymous, that's totally cool.

And as a little bonus, the final art for Gods Reborn has started rolling in. Here's an early favourite:

Quick Update - September 18, 2015

We made a small update this morning with the following changes:

1) The card text on Mindshocker has been clarified to state that it only works on combat damage. It has always worked this way, but the old text didn't make this clear.

2) German is working again. We've been doing some international testing and noticed that the German translations weren't showing up. This has been fixed.

3) The new Arena prizes are ready to go. Just three days left in the season!

4) Lots of prep work for Gods Reborn. We're aiming to make this our best set release so far. Stay tuned for more details!

Just for fun, here are sketches for the next three alternate art prize cards. Can you guess which cards they are?

Announcing...

Coming October 2015

Gods Reborn will be the sixth booster expansion for Kingdoms CCG and the third for Ganz Studios. This new set contains 96 all new cards, with even distribution across the six Kingdoms.

The battle between Elara and T'rror's demon army was so massive, so destructive, that it has awakened forces from beyond the borders of the Euna we know. New races have landed on the shores of Euna and have aligned with the six Kingdoms, bringing new powers and strategies to the war-torn battlefield. With them has come a Harbringer, whose prophecies have given rise to an Old God, and foretell the birth of a New God who will change Euna forever.

What will you find in Gods Reborn? How about:

• A 2 mana card that can banish Elara
• The first Legendary Spell
• The most requested Rune Word ever
• An Elemental Kingdom Dragon
• Tribal cards for Beasts and Vampires
• A 12/12 creature
• Cats, Snakes and a Unicorn
• A 0-mana discard spell
• "Immune from Gear"
• much, much more!

(Click to See Full Size)

Join the discussion on the official forums, and get ready for some of the most exciting new cards ever!

Patch Notes: Sept. 3 - Triumphant Fixes!

Just a quick update today to fix some issues from the last release. A number of the new Hero Triumphs weren't coded correctly and weren't accumulating stats, but rather overwriting you old stats each time. This has been fixed so you will now be able to complete these triumphs properly.

The affected Triumphs are:

Arcanos' 8th: Banish 25 enemy cards with Ice Blast
MEK's 7th: Prevent 100 damage with Forged Shields
Bothar's 6th: Destroy 50 gear with Hero abilities
Bothar's 8th: Draw an Ancient card with Surge of the Ages 20 times
Felincia's 10th: Steal a creature with 7+ ATK with Sword of the Sand

Additionally, we've added a way for Arena players to see their current Rating when not in the top 50. If you click on the Prize button (the little gold coins) your rating is now listed in that window. We are working on getting your number of games played in that window as well.

STAY TUNED

We will soon be announcing the next booster set, and tell you all what we will be working on for the rest of the year, including the much awaited mobile version of Kingdoms!

Cheers!