February 12, 2018
With the release of Wave 2, Lightseekers: Mythical, what is happening to cards from Wave 1?
Wave 1 and Wave 2 are fully playable alongside each other; cards from Lightseekers: Mythical are there to complement Wave 1, not replace it.
However, we are going to see a few card and rule updates. These updates will come into effect on the release of Lightseekers: Mythical.
The list of cards that are banned from competitive play has been extended:
Skyrider This card offers more powerful flexibility in deck building than we are happy with, and circumvents a lot of otherwise important choices.
Shadow Wraith It too often creates a frustrating gameplay experience.
Moon Song NEW – This card prolongs games in a way we’re not happy with.
Pollen Weaver NEW – This card has been on the watch-list for a long time. It went under the radar as a damage reduction card that was not balanced according to our standards (see Turkle Captain as a comparison; 2 damage reduction with a condition, but for first hits only).
Note that these cards are not necessarily permanently banned. As new cards are released in the future, some cards that are currently banned may become unbanned.
For a more in-depth update on the reasons for these bans scroll down to the end of this page.
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The Heap NEW TEXT: “When one of your other Mechanical buffs [Expires], heal for 2 and [Draw] 1 card.” The change here is that the effect only triggers if a Mechanical buff [Expires], not simply leaves play. |
We are going to phase out the ‘Power’ mechanic from Wave 1. It has always been an effect we have been unsure of, and, after a lot of discussion, we have decided to remove it. There are a few reasons behind this decision:
It’s a stumbling block for all new players trying to learn the game.
It causes a lot of edge case mechanics that are hard to understand (e.g. Anti-Gravity Snail and Ritual of Awakening being affected by ‘Power’).
In order to balance around it, we are forced to design cards in some weird ways that cause further confusion.
We will not be designing any future cards that use the ‘Power’ keyword. However, because most of the current ‘Power’ cards live within the Nature Order, we don’t want to simply ban them all, as this would quite drastically shrink the pool of Nature cards, but we are instead retroactively changing what ‘Power’ means:
Starting from the release of Wave 2, ‘Power’ will only increase damage and healing done. We appreciate that this is quite a big nerf to cards such as One with Nature and Beast Master, but we want to keep it simple as we do not intend to use this mechanic going forward.
With the release of Lightseekers Wave 2, we want to be transparent and take this opportunity to discuss the current state of the list of banned cards and our reasoning behind them.
To start, we want to be clear and open with saying we in no way enjoy banning cards. We aim to only ban cards that we feel have a negative impact on how a game plays out, not just banning a card because it is perceived to be more powerful than others.
If you see a card on the banlist that looks like it doesn’t belong, it is likely because even though it might not have made it into competitive play or everyone’s decks, we’ve been testing it internally and are being proactive in preventing it entering the competitive space and creating a negative experience. We opted for this approach, rather than introducing bans during the Wave, making it appear like a knee-jerk reaction should the card appear in play, as well as also being harder to track accurately when a card has been added to the list.
As ever, we plan on having an open and honest relationship with you, the Lightseekers community, and are happy to discuss these cards going forward if players feel like they truly don’t belong. It is also worth noting that cards in future Waves will aim to resolve issues we’ve found with some banned cards, and as a result may remove a card from the ban list in the future.
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Skyrider (along with Shadow Wraith) is a card that has been on the banlist since our first major tournament at PAX East. The reasons for its banning are threefold. Firstly, it reduces the number of decisions that are made during deckbuilding; it makes it possible to not include any cards that deal damage or provide healing, and instead run all utility cards that are given the optional choice of always being damage or healing when necessary. Secondly, it reduces the number of decisions that are available during a game, as cards will always be the best choice for every situation. Thirdly, these powerful effects are on an item, which is a card type that has few ways to be interacted with so once a player has Skyrider in play, there is a high chance that it will be in play for the remainder of the game.
As with most of the cards on the banlist, there is no reason to say it will be banned forever, as each new Wave of cards comes out, all cards on the banlist will be reviewed to see if its safe for them to return to the game. |
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Shadow Wraith (along with Skyrider) is a card that has been on the banlist since our first major tournament at PAX East. The primary reason that Shadow Wraith is banned is because it goes against the core gameplay of Lightseekers; that is to say, the main mechanic is to play cards, and having a card that prevents players from playing cards, any cards, goes against that. Other cards like Paralysis Bug and Subjugator stop players from playing specific categories of cards, but those cards can still be interacted with, but Shadow Wraith means that board states that can’t be interacted with can be built up in safety.
Unlike other cards on the banlist, which have a chance of returning to the game, Shadow Wraith is not the type of card that we want in decks, so will stay on the banlist indefinitely. |
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Moon Song (along with Pollen Weaver) is a card that has been added to the banlist as of the release of Wave 2. This card has been banned to accommodate the time limits that are present in competitive matches of Lightseekers. Setting two players back to their starting life totals is not a broken effect in casual setting, but it does add a considerable amount of time to a game. In a format where rounds go for between 45 minutes and a 1 hour, and up to three games are played, it is not feasible to allow this card.
As with most of the cards on the banlist, there is no reason to say it will be banned forever, as each new Wave of cards comes out, all cards on the banlist will be reviewed to see if its safe for them to return to the game. |
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Pollen Weaver (along with Moon Song) is a card that has been added to the banlist as of the release of Wave 2. This card originally slipped under the radar, but has since landed on our watchlist as offering too much damage reduction potential. In comparison to a card such as Turkle Captain which offers similar damage reduction but limits it to only the first hit in a turn, Pollen Weaver offers too much value on its effect.
As with most of the cards on the banlist, there is no reason to say it will be banned forever, as each new Wave of cards comes out, all cards on the banlist will be reviewed to see if its safe for them to return to the game. |