Minion Masters is getting a sizeable overhaul to the way that cards are balanced in the upcoming patch version 1.11. The balance changes are primarily targeting low-cost cards to handle the way that they fit into decks, with a specific aim on 1-cost cards.
“Currently, we feel that the mana slot is offering far too much value for cards that should be primarily included for their cycling value, and we should not be able to out-value cards of higher mana costs,” the team writes in the Steam update notes. They name cards like Screaming Scrat and Sewer Scrat as two of the “biggest offenders,” as there’s no large downside to including them in decks due to their barely-significant cost and ability to take bridges and apply pressure.
BetaDwarf also discusses that they hope for this to help lay the groundwork for another rework the developers have in the works targeted towards the Wild Card mechanic. Otherwise, they hope that tweaking the efficiency of the low-cost cards can help make a more interesting play space in control and bridge mechanics, allowing players to create a more diverse array of choices in their decks.
We're discussing Upcoming Balance Changes in our latest blog post, and sharing how you can get FREE Slither DLC with Twitch Prime! Read all about it here: https://t.co/X0cjf2uOJG
— BetaDwarf | Working on Project F4E (@BetaDwarf) March 12, 2020
The major changes are as follows:
Blood Imps
- Mana cost now 1 instead of 0
- Damage increased from 10 to 15
- Attack speed increased from 1 to 1.1
Nether Bat
- Mana cost increased from 1 to 2
- Damage increased from 20 to 35
- Reduced Aggro range removed
Bats Bats Bats!
- Mana cost increased from 4 to 5
- Duration decreased from 6 to 5
Screaming Scrat
- Mana cost increased from 1 to 2
- Damage increased from 60 to 100
- Health increased from 60 to 100
Sewer Scrat
- Mana cost increased from 1 to 2
- Poison duration decreased from 5 to 3
- Now armored
There are a handful of other miscellaneous changes that aren’t direct changes to minions. Armored Scrats, for example, will now turn into a regular Scrat when their health runs out instead of just dying. Their damage has also been halved from 20 to 10. The Illusory Cleaver’s damage has also been halved from 20 to 10.
Bridge Buddies has been reverted back to summoning Armored Scrats if you control the bridge rather than always summoning them and giving them haste. Finally, Propellor Horde has had the amount of units it summons when activated by rage to be lowered from 10 to 8.
These aren’t all the balance changes, as BetaDwarf intends to tease more out as they approach the patch release date of the 26th of March. Still, this is a considerable number of changes, and presents an interesting switch to the meta.
It’s certainly a blow to low-cost swarming “zerg”-style decks that relied on a high number of low-cost weak minions to aggressively take over the battlefield, but it isn’t the end of them. Many of these changes are just tweaks without buffing or nerfing any of the cards, so it’ll be interesting to see how it affects gameplay, especially given all the new cards that were recently added with the Saving Jadespark Jungle DLC.
