Patch Preview (September 28)

Just gonna go through every card that was listed.

Nerfs:

Viego - Yeah like you can hit his initial stats and it won't matter too much because he's a grower not a shower.

Hate spike - mystic shot for 1 might have been an overstep

Thousand tales - too much card advantage with no down side could just cycle and it would be fine

Riptide sermon - yeah 1 face dmg is fine for this card and it will still be great

Concurrent timeliness - rasa fraza hurmergurd sorry little freak out there for nerfing this meme

Harrowing - yeah one card shouldn't be so game winning

Mark of the storm - once again the fact that a one drop wasn't only mystic shooting and stunning he was get exciting was probably a bit much

Rite of calling - yeah particularly problematic when the card tutors for bontu big o dog God at 22 stats, so a nerf here is nice

Decimate - back to back decimate is literally been a game defining play pattern for as long as I can remember at 6 mana its a little more taxing for the aggro player.

Buffs:

Leona - yeah haven't seen daybreak since its literal release great buff target

Tahm Kench - yeah soraka tahm shouldn't feel so bad to play and win with

Nocturn - honestly this deck is really close to being competitive with Diana so this buff might really matter

Master Yi - God yes 12 dmg in Ionia is impossible, and if you run him in noxious as a combo piece the deck suffers on the control spectrum so making him easier to turbo is good

Fiora - Grapler gonna be happy that she goes back to a 3/3 and at those stats is legitimately frightening and thats good she should feed on grandma bunny to keep the deck in check

Swain - probably gonna make it easier for him to land on 5 leveled so it's more of a gangplank level threat

Sun guardian - really hard for daybreak to close put games so big overwhelm plus stun is a good combo

Illoi - honestly still a really good card, and reverting her nerf will make her great again, but the tenticle smash nerf will remain for balance I personally don't play that card in Illoi anymore

Morning light - more daybreak stuff

Ohrn - once again he's a damn good card already but has weaknesses to stun and bounce say 8 levels off 8 dmg swing then he's guaranteed to come down on 7 pre leveled and threatening overwhelm

Solari Steilacorn - hasn't been a card but might be a valid healing choice for daybreak into aggro.

Vilemaw and twisted tree line - Kalista fearsome with the ghosts hadn't been a deck so absolutely throw it a buff

Eula, paper tree - kinda the meme portion of thr patch but every great patch need meme buffs so that makes me happy

Shireking spinner - I love this card for flavor give actual spider tribal a threatening follower and it wasn't that bad to begin with

Ritual of renewal - can be 6 mana and then you try to double cast with karma worth experimenting 

Rippers bay - it's the only bad lurk card so absolutely make it do something

Lethiathan - 8 drops in this meta need to be game winning and its initial overwhelm stats of 5 is too low for where thr game is right now

Magical journey - its the Bard grandma card that defined the archetype, except it was bad and nobody played it maybe now it cycles?

Realms caretaker - more meme buffs which is good

Rock bear - midrange landmark hasn't been a deck for a looooong time probably a yeti now and that's very strong

Fun Smith- pushing the new equipment synergy to jam up your spell dmg

Mammoths- these are the bad freijord transform cards and while transform is better than people think it could use a finisher

Wind singer - units that bounce is a very blue magic mtg kinda card and it's over priced in LOR

And thats it for the patch

I would pre-rate it a 8 for very good. Hits what it needs to, buffs underplayed Champs, and followers, and some fun meme stuff.

Source to specifics of upcoming changes?

Specifics haven't been posted yet we were just giving a preview for the patch.

Nerf timelines to 4 mana and it's a good patch. 

Random effects like Concurrent Timelines can be part of the game for sure. But they should NEVER be competetive. They should enable cool stuff in pve should create interesting decks... not take away the downside of etb units that they tend to be very understatted with no real tradeoff

Here are the specifics from their balance presentation/livestream https://imgur.io/a/pOHTBUf

What I got wrong: 

1. They overhauled Leona and put in the extra effort. She now challenges and has barrier so she acts like a midrange Diana which suits targon better.

2. The overhaul extended to the entire kit sun guardian now grows based on number of daybreak and only costs 3. Other changes are impactful cost reductions to spells.

3. Nocturn levels off fearsome, so he can be built with kalista and twisted tree lines instead of Diana.

Things I got kinda right:

1. Kenein, and hate spike revert

2. ILLOI revert

3. Sermon dmg reduction

4. They hit Concurrent timeliness but also targons Peak thank God, because you could ramp to 5 and hit asol on 6

5. Viego got hit, now costs the same as bontu dogo bogo

6. They just hit stats on 9 tails instead of cards still a 3 of in my oppinion.

7. Harrowing and rite of calling cost increase

8. And of course my biggest call decimate at 6 thank God.

9. Swain got overwhelm and lethiatan costs 7 that's big.

10. Yi didn't get easier to level but now permanently reduces spell cost. So you slowly accrue 0 cost spells in hand over time that is a powerful effect but still a bitch to level

11. Ohrn levels at 8 dmg so he can land flipped on 7

So I change my rating to a 8.7 for the extra work put into Leona and Nocturn.