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Rules Discussion / Hand of Bin-Shalla, Temple of Light, And Battle Fury Errata - Explanation
« on: July 19, 2013, 08:57:49 PM »
Arcane Wonders takes the highest pride in the product we have released. Issuing errata or changing cards is something we do not take lightly. Every decision about gameplay has hours upon hours of playtesting behind it. So, it is for the continued health of the game that we issued errata on the Temple of Bim-Shalla and the Temple of Light.
We have been watching these two cards closely for many months now. The play environment they create, does not contribute to a healthy game. Especially in conjunction these two cards create an incredibly powerful, fast, and simple combo that has found it’s way into a vast majority of spellbooks. Our own playtesting has shown that, while beatable, this combination is still dominant and dangerous. The Hand of Bim-Shalla in duplicates both allows for unintended aggression or defense, regardless of board location. Having an unequipped, unenchanted Priestess swinging for seven or more dice was never the intention of the card. The Temple of Light compounds this problem by providing an easy way to apply dazes and stuns as well as serious damage, for free. Temple has constantly shown that it provided quick game turning plays without requiring further cost.
We never want to issue errata, and as I’ve said we do not take this lightly and have playtested many options. We opted for what was least disruptive for the original intention of the card. Hand of Bim-Shalla became unique, because this was the least disruptive edit to the card. Even with this errata in place, Temple of Light still had possibility for large swings as it always has a one-sixth chance to stun, and a chance to daze. These still make Temple of Light dangerous and disruptive to the tempo of the game. Adding a cost to the attack was the most natural errata. This way you still have opportunity for important stuns and dazes, but not for free. Even if all you have is a Temple of Light and a Hand of Bim-shalla out, you can do a two die attack with a fifty percent chance to apply a status effect for two mana. This is in line with how we originally intended this card, this also frees up our design so that we can add more temples in the future with less restriction.
Battle Fury was a slightly different story. Before Mage Wars released, we intended that bonus melee and ranged would not apply multiple times. It happened that Battle Fury worked outside of our original design intent, and our errata corrects it.
As always we are very reluctant to issue errata, but in this instance action was required. We are happy that out of almost 300 unique spells released, only three of them have required further attention. This is less that one percent of spells printed. These spells will also be appearing in an upcoming release, with the revised wordings.
Arcane Wonders appreciates our fans and values their feedback. Thank you for your loyalty and support as we endeavor to bring you quality future products!
Aaron Brosman
Assistant Designer
We have been watching these two cards closely for many months now. The play environment they create, does not contribute to a healthy game. Especially in conjunction these two cards create an incredibly powerful, fast, and simple combo that has found it’s way into a vast majority of spellbooks. Our own playtesting has shown that, while beatable, this combination is still dominant and dangerous. The Hand of Bim-Shalla in duplicates both allows for unintended aggression or defense, regardless of board location. Having an unequipped, unenchanted Priestess swinging for seven or more dice was never the intention of the card. The Temple of Light compounds this problem by providing an easy way to apply dazes and stuns as well as serious damage, for free. Temple has constantly shown that it provided quick game turning plays without requiring further cost.
We never want to issue errata, and as I’ve said we do not take this lightly and have playtested many options. We opted for what was least disruptive for the original intention of the card. Hand of Bim-Shalla became unique, because this was the least disruptive edit to the card. Even with this errata in place, Temple of Light still had possibility for large swings as it always has a one-sixth chance to stun, and a chance to daze. These still make Temple of Light dangerous and disruptive to the tempo of the game. Adding a cost to the attack was the most natural errata. This way you still have opportunity for important stuns and dazes, but not for free. Even if all you have is a Temple of Light and a Hand of Bim-shalla out, you can do a two die attack with a fifty percent chance to apply a status effect for two mana. This is in line with how we originally intended this card, this also frees up our design so that we can add more temples in the future with less restriction.
Battle Fury was a slightly different story. Before Mage Wars released, we intended that bonus melee and ranged would not apply multiple times. It happened that Battle Fury worked outside of our original design intent, and our errata corrects it.
As always we are very reluctant to issue errata, but in this instance action was required. We are happy that out of almost 300 unique spells released, only three of them have required further attention. This is less that one percent of spells printed. These spells will also be appearing in an upcoming release, with the revised wordings.
Arcane Wonders appreciates our fans and values their feedback. Thank you for your loyalty and support as we endeavor to bring you quality future products!
Aaron Brosman
Assistant Designer
