Update
BAN AND ERRATA UPDATE 09/04/2024
UVS Games Game Design Team
There are a few changes to the UniVersus Standard and Spotlight Banned and Errata list this month. This month, we have both some power level adjustments, as well as cleaning up some interactions that are a bit unclear.
Since the release of AOT a few characters rapidly jumped out in the meta. While we anticipated these specific characters' strength, the impact they have had in gameplay and the meta as a whole was more severe than we had hoped.
MIKASA ACKERMAN
Old: Response Discard 1 card: After you play an attack, clear 1 card from your card pool. This attack gets +1 speed for each time you have played this ability this turn.
New: Response Discard 1 card: After you play an attack, clear 1 Weapon card from your card pool. This attack gets +1 speed for each time you have played this ability this turn.
The first change we are making is to Mikasa Ackerman. Mikasa was intentionally positioned to be a premiere 7hs aggro character. We knew her potential for loops or long attack strings was powerful, but generally because of her ability costs it was paired with a very “All-in” aspect that you would try to mitigate with your deck choices. Unfortunately what we’ve seen is these All-ins are having success at a rate higher than we would like to see, especially on turn 2. With that in mind we are starting with a light errata that should push Mikasa into slightly less optimal tools and we will keep an eye on her from there.
REINER BRAUN // REINER, ARMORED TITAN
Old: Enhance: Your attack gets +2 damage. You may commit or sacrifice 1 foundation. If you do, ruin 1.
New: Enhance [Your Attack]: This attack gets +2 damage. You may commit or sacrifice 1 foundation. If you do, ruin 1.
Next up is Reiner Braun and his Armored Titan transformation. The pairing of Reiner and Mikasa as top decks has created an interesting, but not ideal impact on the format. The tools and strategies you want to run to fight against one of the 2, leave you in a very vulnerable position vs the other. Reiner’s impact is really shaped by his ability to race to his Armored Titan side and set the opponent so far back with his ability to force the rival to Ruin that they can’t recover. The speed at which he reaches the threshold to transform and then punish his opponents for attacking him has made playing against Reiner into a negative play experience for an extraordinary number of players. With Reiner we are going to start by adjusting the punishing experience while attacking into him, and continuing to monitor his impact from there.
GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS
Old: First Form [Once per game] Commit, discard 4 cards: Destroy all foundations. Only playable if there are 10 or more foundations in all stages combined.
New: First Form [Once per game] Commit, discard 4 cards: Destroy all foundations in all stages. Only playable if there are 10 or more foundations in all stages combined.
During the development of Godzilla, the intent of this card was always to destroy all foundations in play. This change is just to clean up the wording for consistency and clarity.
JIRO’S BASS
Old: Enhance Remove 2 Applause counters: Your attack with greater speed than damage gets +1 speed and +3 damage.
New: Enhance Remove 2 Applause counters from your character: Your attack with greater speed than damage gets +1 speed and +3 damage.
The change to Jiro’s Bass comes with a rules clarification about counters. This update to the text brings it more in line with other cards that remove counters from another card, pointing to the specific card that it is pulling the counters off of.
Rules Update - Counters
This is more of a clarification than an alteration of the rules, but with all the Walls being built with the release of Attack on Titan, it’s an important one. Where counters are concerned and paying a cost by removing them, by default you are only able to remove them from the card that has the ability you are playing. If a card allows you to remove counters from another card, it will reference the card you may remove the counters from.
Rules Update - Stamina
Another clarification, rather than a change. Similar to the above information about counters, Stamina can only be paid for by the card with the ability being used. You cannot lose stamina from 1 backup to pay the cost of an ability on a different backup.
We are very early into the Attack on Titan metagame, and we don’t take these adjustments lightly. We wanted to get to what we felt were the most important adjustments for the game's health as quickly as possible. This does not mean we don’t hear your concerns on some of the other cards and characters not talked about this month. We are going to continue to stay active in ensuring a fun and diverse metagame for our players, and as more data comes in about the impact of Attack on Titan, the more confident we can be in making the correct decisions for the games health.
Errata and Legality Document is here.
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