Burning Bog Blog 11: Major Gameplay Update and Balance Changes

## Welcome to the Eleventh Burning Bog Blog!

We have some extremely important news to share with you all on this edition. So please, carefully read the following:

## Patch Notifications

First we want to reveal to you our plans on how we will be releasing and notifying you about future updates.

From now on, **patches will now be dated and posted under the *Scourge Brawl Downloads* tab from the main menu.** These posts will detail everything changed, as well as provide a temporary download link to download only edited material from the patch. **After the following expansion releases, the temporary download link will be removed**, and you must instead download the updated expansion link that cards were updated from to get newly fixed cards.

**Future expansions will also now be released within these update posts, rather than having their own post dedicated to the download link.**

## Major Gameplay Update

This is our biggest announcement yet: an update to our core gameplay mechanics.

**From now on, the hero you select to play as at the start of the game instantly joins you in the battlefield.** This means that **you no longer have to play a hero card to activate your hero's on-going power.** Instead, this is how it works.

1. At the start of the game, your hero joins you in the battle, allowing you to use his/her on-going power once per turn.
2. Every hero has 6 life from the very beginning of the game. Your hero is only immune for the first two turns. Once it hits turn three, minions can start initiating on your hero, so build up a board fast!
3. Once your hero's life hits 0, you lose! Will you win early with aggression, or control the board early to win late? The choice is up to you!

On your right is the first hero we ever introduced into the game: Lyfos. This new card will act as a way for opponents to see who you are playing and how much life you have. For this reason, all hero cards will be discontinued. This means their play effects no longer exist and will no longer cause you to alter your play early game.

Here are some other few gameplay updates we will be making, along with some unintended interactions that have been clarified:

* **You can now hold up to 8 cards in your hand at a time, up from 7.**
* Minions can only initiate once per turn, unless otherwise stated.
* If *Ioxa, Molten Golem* initiates on the enemy hero due to *Reckless Claw*, it cannot initiate again.
* If *Ioxa, Molten Golem* initiates on the enemy hero, causing other minions to also initiate on them, those other minions cannot initiate again.
* A minion can initiate more than once per turn if otherwise stated or if forced to by another card (i.e. *Ioxa, Molten Golem*), so long as they choose an initiation first, before being forced to initiate.
* If *Bestial Wrath* summons a Beast with Ambush, which then initiates on the     enemy hero first, it cannot initiate again that turn.

## On-Going Powers Update

Because we are updating the gameplay and mechanics of heroes, we took this as a good opportunity to also tweak their on-going powers. On the right and above are the new ones.

### Hidden Artifact [Jordan]

We love the idea of Adapt, and although we want to fix that too, there are simply better ways of doing that: removing most of the cards that use it. We also found players rarely using Hidden Artifact, which now can be used constantly as a way to gain tempo when you are behind. It can also now be used to gain a further lead–or find lethal next turn!

### Dread Light [Numana]

The old on-going power ended up impacting Numana's board more than the

enemy's. For that reason, we bumped up the power, making it only hit enemy minions and also allowing minions with the same scare to also be frightened.

### Jade Mist [Irilla]

Since hero cards no longer exist, neither do a hero's play effects. Since ramping up to 10 energy is core to Irilla's identity, we've placed that text in her on-going power. This also now means using Jade Mist at 4 energy does actually push you to (6), whereas before it kept you at (5).

## Basic and Special Set Update

We are also going through the basic set and the special set once again to update some cards that could better cater to a hero's identity. Look out for these changes in the Discuss tab on the main menu, as well as some potentially new cards replacing old ones. For now, on the right are two newly updated cards!

We have also decided to add two brand new legendary cards to the Basic Set, one for Garagzhan and one for Invurdi. Look out for these cards in the Discuss tab on the main menu.

## Balance Update

We have been monitoring the power level of cards, and have decided to nerf a few. Here are the details:

* **Holy Colossus**
	+ Now states **"Play: Set a friendly minion's scare to 7."** instead of "Play: Set a friendly minion's scare to 7. If it already has 7 scare, give it +2 Health."
* **Unorthodox Pet**
	+ Now has **4 scare**, down from 5.

## Release Date

A patch post will go up in the Scourge Brawl Downloads tab from the main menu on April 18 with the download link and all the information on the new updates.