• fixed the Wind deckbuilding pack mistakenly missing a card

• Changed the attribute allowance in deckbuilding to 6-12 from 8-10 (meant to add this to yesterday's update but it slipped my mind, oops)

trying out something new at the suggestion of my friend Sound who recently went through a big playtesting binge with me

the previous 8-10 attribute restriction made deckbuilding very limiting. by loosening the restriction, I can hopefully make deckbuilds a more fun and interesting process and potentially allow for slightly more powerful plays

this update sees an overhaul to the Ice archetype, various balance changes and new martial actions

A massive set of changes has been made to the Ice archetype of the Water cardpool in an effort to add cohesion to the playstyle, as well as giving the cardpool a proper win condition. there are too many changes to go over in this post, but the highlights include:

• changing all of the cards that cared about the opponent's stamina to instead act similarly to the tax-based effects seen elswhere in the archetype but tax the opponent's stamina instead of their energy
  
• making all the effects in the archetype that increase energy costs also increase stamina
  
• reworking Coldsnap into the kind of attrition-based win condition the archetype was sorely lacking
  
• adding more effects that allow you to set up Glaciate cards more consistently and with less energy spent to do it.
  
• Making the Freeze prime impact drain resources slightly, making it useful even when an opponent is stocked up on energy and stamina.

ten new martial actions have been added to the game, bringing the Martial cardpool up to be on par with their elemental counterparts

Burst Keyword

• Now prevents the next three impact lines you resolve this turn from being negated

This change is to make burst actions that act as big combo starters feel much better to use. Previously there were far too many ways to play around burst actions, making the only ones worth using the ones that provided an immediate benefit regardless of the outcome. Hopefully, combo-starting Burst actions should feel a lot better to go into now

Break Keyword

• Cost increased to 6 from 5

Breaks were previously costed very aggressively, making games really easy to stall out without advancing the game state in any meaningful way. This cost increase should hopefully make breaks a bit more of a resource commitment and provide more windows for a player to find an opening and close out the game.

Barrier Cycle

• no longer limited to one copy per deck
  
• now draws you a card before the tutor effect

for a very long time I was worried that these tutors would be too strong for the game. In practice, they ended up being quite weak. I feel comfortable enough removing the once-per-deck restriction from these cards, as well as letting them be a proper card advantage effect with the extra draw

Immovable and Earth's Bond

• mixup cost increased to 6 from 5

these cards' Win abilities have proven strong enough in recent playtesting to warrant shifting their mixup costs to 6

Contingency Plan

• Added a (T) ability that recovers life when the card is discarded

Slice Through

• (T) ability deckout damage replacement effect now reduces the damage to 7 instead
  
• (T) ability energy generated increased to 5 from 3

the changes made to Slice through proved too oppressive against traditional mill decks, who often rely on the damage that deckouts provide. This change should hopefully provide both playstyles with the ideal scenario; traditional mill decks still get good damage out of it, while self-mill decks get a lot of energy acceleration

Terminal Velocity

• (C) Ender damage boost increased to +2/+4 from +1/+3 (reverted from a much older update)

Supreme Friction

• (W) ability duration extension effect reduced to 2 from 3
  
• (W) ability now allows the opponent to pay 3 energy to prevent the duration extension

the previous duration of an Electric leash token extended by Supreme Friction's (W) was far too oppressive for the vast majority of decks to deal with. It's getting toned down significantly with some added counterplay.

Deafening Impact

• (F) ability now requires an energy cost of 3 to resolve

Deafening impact felt awful to be on the receiving end of, as it provided way too much value for such a minute cost. Hopefully players who run the card will need to make actual decisions on when to opt into just the mixup or just the initiative steal, and have a much harder time doing both

Gravity Well

• (W) ability life loss now scales with half the combined values rounded down, instead of their full value

Souldrinker

• (P) ability drain boost reduced to 1 from 2

Resurgence and Toxic Fumes

• Break removed from one and given to the other

Anima Shard Token

• (P) ability life recovery amp increased to 2 from 1

Fervent Denial

• Added a one copy per deck restriction

Expunge

• (F) ability is now optional

Protective Rune token

• Duration increased to 4 from 3

Elemental Amplifier token

• (A) ability is now a Meterburn
  
• (A) ability cost increased to 4e from 1e
  
• (A) ability reworked; previously increased select impact values by 2, now lets you resolve a select impact twice
  
• added a (P) that increases Dash, Kindle, Heal, Grind and Drain impacts by 1

Evenly Matched

• (C) Ender hand size increase now scales with difference, instead of difference plus 1

Hard Reads

• (T) ability can no longer affect Burst abilities

5.3.2 update

-overhauled the Rulesheet for improved clarity, including a review page on how to resolve impact lines (which has been the most common pain point when learning the game)

- Added a playstyle overview pdf which includes a more detailed description of the fighter's playstyles

- removed the second easter egg (in light of recent events, I have decided that the reference was in very poor taste and it has promptly been reverted)

This update comes with a big buff to Tatsuyo, a few minor card changes to Grounded and Burning, as well as an update to the game's Easter egg


X-Slash

• Dash impact increased to 3 from 1
  
• Pushback impact reduced to 1 from 2
  
• Burst effect's Fury cost has been rescaled from X fury plus three to twice X fury plus two.

During this character's initial draft, X-slash was meant to be Tatsuyo's big Fury payout effect, letting him set up his topdeck for crazy Blaze combos. As the character's actions finalised however, Fury ended up playing a far more important role in his normal combo game due to Kaminaga Teachings. X-slash's burst effect is a bit too random to spend ten energy on at its current Fury costs, so it's being changed to use up way less fury than before for the same amount of cards scried. Its impact line is also being changed to actually help Tatsuyo's positioning and make up for his low base speed, instead of hindering it with an abysmal 2 pushback it previously had.


Kaminaga Teachings

• {A} ability re-worded to be more concise
  
• {R} ability can now select Chain abilities
  
• {R} ability now resolves the selected ability as though your most recently played action were the source.

Even though there are a couple cards whose win abilities really synergized well with Kaminaga Teachings such as Rage Knuckle, they were way too few and far between in Tatsuyo's colors to make proper use of consistently. As a result, I'm letting it target Chain abilities for added flexibility, and making it resolve as though the most recent card you played was the source so that you can make better uses of keywords like Starter or Ender.


Howling Blade

• Damage impact increased to 3 from 2
  
• {F/C} ability's damage increased to 3 from 2

The damage on this card was too low overall, especially when having to lose Initiative in order to optimize it. These changes should make it a much better feeling card to draw overall.


Rancor

• Dash impact increased to 3 from 2

A very simple buff to help alleviate Tatsuyo's low base speed.



Grounded

• Removed the {A} ability that let you pay 2 energy to give a card +1 Grind.
  
• Added a {T} ability that lets you pay 1 energy and 3 life during the upkeep step to force your opponent to discard 3 cards from the top of their deck.

The old A ability was an awful energy sink that didn't benefit the archetype nearly enough, making Immovable almost completely outclassed by Reflecting Shards in the Block attribute's deck space unless you're in desperate need of a lower-cost Mixup option. The new effect should help mill-focused strategies far more by immediately enabling Fossilize's combo extension at a competitively low cost.


Burning

• the Second {T} ability's duration extending effect changed from the amount of unique occupied spaces minus one to half the amount of unique occupied spaces rounded down

previously, it was a tad too easy to stack Burning's duration to basically the whole match and then some, as well as causing a bit too much of a stranglehold on an opponent's movement decisions. This change should make the duration feel a little less overkill, and give opponents a little bit more leeway when moving, allowing them to at least move one space without essentially refunding the condition's duration for that turn.

• Added Snap points to the board's trackers
  
  
• Updated the easter egg with two new characters
  
• Changed the statlines of some of the previous easter egg characters slightly
  
  
• Added a new easter egg, a reskin of an already existing card (hidden in a different location than the first easter egg)

This update sees some various balance changes and typo fixes. A physical prototype of this game is now at various stages of completion, so this is *the* final version of the game for the time being (for better or worse.)

Snapjaw

• damage reduced to 4 from 5
  
• {F/C} ability reworked; Previously let you select up to four cards from the opponent's discard pile and send them to the bottom of the their deck, giving you energy and potential hand discard based on the amount. Now lets you suspend cards from any player's discard pile, giving energy and potential hand discard.

The previous version of this card was intended to be a trade-off effect; delay your milling game-plan in exchange for energy ramp and refreshing your hand. In practice, the downside of delaying the opponent's deckout felt incredibly bad and clunky. The new version will actually make future deckouts past the first slightly quicker, as the suspended cards won't be shuffled back into the deck.
additionally, it has gained the utility of letting you suspend out of your own discard pile, for cases in the early game where the opponent doesn't have any appealing cards to suspend (if they have enough at all), and you're willing to sacrifice potential endgame consistency for short-term benefits

Poach

• old {A} ability let you choose between giving a linked action of your choice the combo impact or suspending an action form the opponent's discard pile temporarily and letting you link that card from suspension. This has been separated into two abilities: a higher cost {A} ability that allows a linked action of your choice to gain the Combo impact, and a new {R} ability that lets you suspend an action from the opponent's discard pile, then lets you link any one of their suspended actions for the turn with additional benefits

As it turns out, it can be more difficult to use an opponent's own cards against them in practice than originally thought. This change is to encourage players to actually use the effect of linking an opponent's cards, rather than rely on the simple combo extension effect. The newly updated suspension effect will also play into the new deck-thinning motif Sakan has going on, with the Snapjaw changes potentially synergizing quite well.

Chrono Strike

• Damage increased to 2 from 1

Isabel is doing a tiny bit less damage during an average game that I would like. Hopefully this damage buff as well as the buff to Time Distortion can bring her up to speed

Rewind

• {W} ability energy generation increased to 2 from 1
  
• {R} ability energy cost increased to 4 from 3
  
• {W} and {R} abilities now let you place yourself onto any space that is adjacent to your timewarp token, instead of directly into your timewarp's space

This card's main function was way too easy to completely shut down by simply occupying an opposing timewarp's space. It's a cool effect that I want people to be able to use, so it's getting a bit more leniency on where you can position yourself. This added leniency does mean that the response ability's cost needs to be increased to compensate.

Time distortion

• {F/C} ability damage increased to 3 from 2

Chain Lightning

• Range impact increased to 3 from 2
  
• {A} Meterburn cost changed from 2 energy and X stamina to X in any combination of energy and/or stamina.

Chain lightning felt a bit too clunky to get any meaningful value with, as the base range was too small and the cost to increase it was always just barely too much. These changes should hopefully make the card much better to use even when there aren't a lot of tokens in play to optimize the card's damage.

Delirium

• {R} now suspends the action instead of returning it to the opponent's hand.

This should help delirium carve out a bit more of a niche in the impact negation cards, letting you suspend an opponent's key combo pieces at the cost of not necessarily stopping their combo.

Way of the Turtle

• {T} ability can now only reduce one source of damage per turn

this is to prevent a potential feedback loop where, once a player can no longer pay the tax, they're stuck being unable to do any damage for pretty much the rest of the game. This new version should now have some more counterplay and still be strong when three copies of it are in play, without breaking the game

Warding Sphere Token

• {T} ability overhauled. Previously let you suspend a card face-down during the upkeep step, now lets you name an attribute after the opponent sets their first flipped action for the turn, before it actually gets flipped.
  
• {W} ability changed so that the effect is based on if opponent’s flipped action shares the named attribute instead of sharing the attribute of the suspended card.
  
• {W} ability damage dealt on successful prediction increased to 5 from 4.

the previous version of this card was incredibly convoluted and also needed you to make a prediction with little information to go off of. The potential synergies that could maybe be found with other cards was, in my opinion, not worthwhile enough to warrant how it plays out in practice, so it's being massively streamlined. The new effect's timing being during the outcome step instead of the upkeep step, after the opponent has moved, should give players more info to make predictions based off of.

Slippery Ground token

• reworded {T} ability for improved clarity

Scorched Ground token

• {T} ability no longer potentially deals damage to the controller

A simple quality of life change to make the token feel better to use for the intended characters.

• certain easter egg fighters got minor balance changes
  
  
• Tokens and conditions no longer have dedicated pouches on the deckbuilding board. Instead, every card pack for fighters, elemental actions and martial actions include any relevant tokens or conditions.

In preparation for printing a physical prototype, this update sees a variety of updated assets and a small number of balance changes

This update sees an important new mechanic being introduced; If a player loses an outcome but is not within range of the opponent's flipped action, they may now resolve up to one Win ability from their flipped action, immediately after resolving Loss abilities.
This change is being made to add more depth to positioning and breathe new life into the vast array of utility cards that rely on Win abilities for their most powerful effects. Previously, they always felt mediocre to use because of how skewed the risk was for their reward. With this change, players can now opt into backing away from an opponent before the outcome step to greatly increase the chances of securing a Win ability resolving no matter what, giving a lot of powerful effects increased reliability. Just be careful not to get baited by Projectiles.

With the above-mentioned change, Blocks need some minor compensating. Blocks are receiving an increase to their range impacts across the board to make them less vulnerable to being cheesed by Dodges, who have a lot of strong Win abilities in their ranks and the Stamina to dip back in on a winning Outcome.

The damage-increase activated ability introduced a few patches back, while perfectly useable from a raw mathematics perspective, ended up feeling really bad to use in practice and ended up seeing little use at all. As a result, I'm removing it and adding a new 6-cost universal Response that lets a player resolve a Win ability from their flipped action if they did not already resolve it this turn. This is for those lost outcomes where you got outranged, but you ***really*** want that important Win ability to go through regardless, at a relatively steep energy cost.

Because this update is the version I'm looking to print a physical prototype, it's important that I tie up any loose ends and ensure that I am completely satisfied with the gameplay of every character. On that note, the rework to Fang from the previous update didn't quite hit the mark. So she's receiving another (and hopefully final) overhaul in an attempt to make her Gash condition a more interesting and essential part of her gameplan

The first big change is to her Gash condition, which now deals more damage each turn the more duration counters are on it. This should help turn the condition into a scary ticking timebomb for the opponent and make turns where Fang discards lots of cards feel far more impactful

Next up, Fang's Win ability where she could spend energy to discard a card from her hand is being changed to a Loss ability where she may look at the top card of her deck and choose to discard it. This should give her a nice consistency boost in matches where she's on the back foot.

Next, her Burst Action Jagged Fortune has been completely overhauled. Previously it was a projectile that discarded two cards from the top of her deck then dealt damage to the opponent based on their Gash condition's duration. Because that effect is being re-integrated into the Gash condition itself, Jagged Fortune instead is now an Attack that discards the top six cards of her deck, then lets you return a card from the discard pile to your hand. This should serve as a much better High moment for the character, setting up devastating Gash damage for the next few turns while giving you some good consistency.

Next, Siren's Kiss is now a Projectile, opening up her deckbuilding options significantly. It has also gained Quick Strike, allowing her more leniency when going for risky discard plays

Next, Charm has had its Mixup ability removed and its resource gains spread out more evenly. The previous version was too good as a self-contained engine, and this new version should hopefully feel better at its worse and less free at its best.

Finally, Broadside is receiving a massive overhaul. Previously, its damage scaled with the number of cards you have discarded or suspended in a turn, with an ender effect that let you remove a duration from the opponent's Gash condition to recur two cards from your discard pile. the newly updated Gash and Jagged fortune are serving those niches far better now, so Broadside is becoming a high base damage card with the situational ender effect of letting you delay suspended cards with Quick Strike being sent to the discard for an additional turn. Most importantly however, is that it is receiving the Break keyword, giving fang a powerful new Control option that feeds her newly improved Gash condition.

A bunch of assets have received updated visuals, since these are the versions that will be seeing a physical printing. This includes new counters, tweaked reference cards, and a newly updated board with dedicated space for tokens and integrated resource trackers. The digital trackers still remain, in case you find them more convenient to use

additionally, the Flip/Chain hybrid abilities introduced in the previous update now has a unique ability icon, instead of awkwardly having the Flip and Chain icons right next to each other.

Finally, the statlines on each fighter card are now utilizing the interface of the easter egg fighters for improved clarity.

This update brings a few new quality of life changes in an effort to improve overall game feel.




two new ability types have been introduced to the game: Flip abilities (which resolve when flipping a card) and Chain abilities (which resolve when linking a card). These abilities will be replacing every triggered ability in the game that previously triggered on flip or on link. Keywords affected include Burst, Mixup, Ender, Flow and Encumber.

This change was done to make these very important effects much easier to distinguish at a glance when viewing the cards from your hand, as well as prevent confusion when flipping or linking a card thinking that the trigger resolves then, only to find that the trigger doesn't.
Currently, cards that triggered on both flip and link have both icons next to the effect. This is a temporary solution that I will be working to replace later on with a unique icon to indicate that the effect is both.




the Mixup keyword was a little too strong and seeing an overall cost increase in this update, with more standardized cost values based on the utility of the affected cards.

Previously, Mixups were costed aggresively low, making them a sort of catch-all answer whenever one was in hand. Hopefully, mixups should feel like an actual resource commitment now.




This update sees the introduction of a new universal Response ability, letting you trade loss compensation to resolve your impacts at the cost of 10 energy.

This is to allow players more opportunities to play during matches where the rock-paper-scissors just doesn't go in their favor, causing them to lose outcomes multiple times in a row. Because the options to spend energy during lost outcomes are limited overall, players naturally build up their resources when they lose back-to-back outcomes. This should hopefully give players an option to brute force their way back into the game for a big resource commitment (just make sure to check your opponent's resources first, in case they have enough energy to resolve a Break).



- Cosmic Insight has gained a Mixup ability that requires discard cards from the top of the deck, in the hopes of making its Burst ability far more valuable/useable for immediate plays

- Wildfire now deals damage when it expires by any means, instead of only by effects. This should make the condition far more threatening and hot-potatoey

- Judgement no longer affects Triggered abilities and now affects Flip and Chain abilities instead.

The final update to this mod for the foreseeable future, includes over ten pages' worth of balance and quality of life changes. This post will go over the biggest changes being made.




This update sees a reduction of life across the entire roster, in an effort to reduce the duration of a match. More importantly, the gap between the highest lifepools and the lowest have been cut dramatically, making the disparity in life between certain matchups feel far less exhausting. (for reference, prior to this update, there was a 19-point gap between the highest and lowest life values. This gap has been reduced to 9)




A new ability type has been added, allowing players to respond to an opponent's impact line after they resolve activated abilities with effects of their own. Timing-wise, They have always been kicking around in the form of Breaks, back when it was a triggered ability that occured before an impact line resolves. However, now it has been formalized into its own ability type, with a number of abilities being changed into Responses.
This should hopefully add a little more interaction for players who lose outcomes.

the Substitute, Break and Mimic keywords have been reworked into Responses, in addition to a few element-specific effects.



Two important changes have been made to the Universal Activated abilities; the Four-cost scry effect has become a Response instead of an Activated Ability, and a new three-cost ability has been added that lets you increase your flipped action's damage, but locking you out of combos for the rest of the turn.
The first change is to allow players who have lost the outcome to potentially set up their next turn a little better, if they have the energy to spend on it
The second change it to let players who won the outcome opt into a slightly more impactful one-card play, in the event they flipped a utility action and don't mind spending a bit of energy for a little added damage.




As one of the original five characters, Ryuki's age has begun to catch up with her mechanically. She previously struggled to space herself properly for Gust, making her ability to play a ranged game and combo from afar a bit too awkward for what was meant to be a zoner (C'theeb and Anji have the tools to not suffer in this regard).
As a result, she is receiving a large number of changes to boost her consistency dramatically and play a ranged game more viably (still not as good as the other zoners, which is fine. She leans more into midrange and setplay.)

• First, her triggered ability upon creating tokens is now a modal effect, letting her choose between extending the token's duration or increasing the range of her actions. Her bombs and smoke clouds have received duration changes to compensate
  
• Next, the Kick Bomb action has gained a dash impact, allowing her more leniency for positioning when necessary
  
• Finally, her Smoke Grenade action has had its Win ability split; the Energy generation has stayed as a Win effect, and the Smoke Cloud creation has become a flip/link trigger, allowing her to sacrifice damage for setup at the end of a combo. It has also gained the Mixup ability for some potent mindgames.
  
  
  
  
  Fang Rework
  
  Fang struggled considerably to come back from a rough start. Now that the life pools are much smaller, this weakness is too debilitating for her to function properly. She has received a number of small quality-of-life changes, in addition to buffs within the Wind cardpool, to let her set up gash's duration better and combo off more consistently when she has the chance.
  
• First, the energy cost of her activated ability has been moved to her Win ability and the Duration cost has been reduced slightly, making suspended actions far more reliable as combo fodder.
  
• Next, Gash now receives two duration counters instead of one when fang discards or suspends a card. This lets Fang make progress on her gash condition more easily when losing back-to-back outcomes
  
• Finally, Charm has received bonus effects for when Fang already has Initiave after discarding it, to make discarding the card while you're alreday on the back foot more meaningful
  
  
  
  
  Jason Lai Rework
  
  For the most part, Jason Lai has stood the test of time fairly well all things considered, thanks to a number of generally applicable tools. However, the damage reduction on his Passive ability could lead to games dragging out way too long in a game that already has game length problems. Jason Lai is getting some of his power shifted around as a result.
  
• The important change is his Passive ability being overhauled; Instead of reducing damage taken and extending condition durations while you have less life than the opponent, Jason lai not generates 1 energy when applying conditions, and extends their duration if they have less life.
  
• The second change is the rework of Haymaker, whose old effects have effectively been imported onto Jason Lai. To compensate, Haymaker has gained a new trigger that lets you discard a card when fliiped or linked, then apply a condition that the discarded card could apply or inflict. This should give Jason Lai more reliable condition setup.
  
  
  
  
  Wind Changes
  
  every element has received a number of small adjustments to damage that aren't worth diving much into, but I want to highlight some overhauls being made to Wind's Self-Discard archetype. This archetype struggled with any form of discarding that didn't strictly happen on won outcomes, which can be a perfectly valid weakness. In it's current state however, the weakness is airing on too crippling for the archetype to function properly. As a result, two cards are receiving changes
  
  First, Steel Rain is receiving an overhaul. Previously it was a card with quick strike that could be revealed from pretty much everywhere to give other cards quick strike as well. This felt bad to use in practice because dumping your hand to refresh your options is an important part of the game.
  As such, it's losing Quick Strike and its other effect requires it to be discarded from the hand to resolve, but is receiving the powerful new utility of letting you keep suspended cards with Quick Strike inbetween turns for every Steel Rain in your discard pile. What used to potentially be a poorly timed discard in the past can now be an incredibly powerful setup, allowing you to bank important Quick Strike cards for turns when you need them.
  
  Second, Slice Through is receiving an overhaul, replacing its previous discard/speed-boosting effect with the ability to generate energy on deckouts. Ironically enough, self-milling always put you in harm's way of a crushing deckout, receiving 10 damage just for playing the archetype the way it was meant to be played. Now, Slice Through will actually reward you for decking out by replacing that damage with energy acceleration.
  And just in case you aren't convinced, it has also gained Quick Strike, making it a powerful movement option for your combos.
  
  
  
  
  UI update
  
  The Attributes and Impact lines have been made bigger in an effort to improve clarity. Additionally, position-based Range impact have received an overhaul to remove as much ambiguity as possible. Having arrows literally point at the spaces that are hit should hopefully make those impacts read loud and clear compared to before.
  
  
  
  
  Resource-tracking board
  
  A board has been added to track your character's life, energy and stamina, in case you found the digital trackers too finicky. However, the digital trackers are still around in case you liked them.

This final major content update sees the introduction of the last character as well as Martial Actions, because Steam considers Google document links potentially harmful, there will be no specific update notes linked.

With this update, the game is pretty much complete. I still have one or two more updates planned long-term, one balance update where I adjust the health of all the characters one last time and one update to do a final pass on all the text, fixing any remaining typos and formatting errors I can find. Otherwise, I'll be more or less done with this mod. It's been a long time and a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the result.


Finally free after a millenia spent imprisoned, Sin Arashi tears through his opponents with ease using the combined power of the five primal elements. His inability to win outcomes with the same element in back-to-back turns makes him the ultimate deckbuilding challenge.


This update brings a new cardpool known as Martial Actions. This cards have no associated element and can be used by all characters, providing niche effects that can be powerful in the right context or when used with the right character.


• updated the Flipped Actions board with proper art
• Added new rules for Sideboarding