If you participated in the preview patches, then you will automatically have access a day early on the 23rd. As long as any new account is registered before the 20th it will get this same early access. Regardless, everyone will be able to access the game when open beta starts on the 24th.
A new event is coming to The Elder Scrolls: Legends! Introducing the Ballista Gauntlet, where the lane you choose to deploy your creatures matters more than ever. Compete against other players until you reach nine wins or three losses - whichever comes first. Each run through the Gauntlet costs one Event Ticket or 150 Gold, up to three maximum runs.
Ballista Gauntlet: January 17 – January 20 In the Ballista Gauntlet, the normal Field and Shadow Lanes have been replaced! On the left is the Ballista Lane, which deals damage to your opponent if you control the most creatures in the Lane. On the right side is the Library Lane, which reduces the cost of actions by one Magicka as long as you control a creature there.
Will you fight for the more aggressive Ballista Lane or make the most of your actions in the Library Lane? Can you make the most of both? Your deckbuilding skills will decide! Rewards are earned with each victory and player performance is tracked on the leaderboards. Place high enough in the ranks at the end of the event and you could receive additional rewards!
The Ballista Gauntlet begins Friday, January 17 at 12pm ET and closes at 12pm ET on Monday, January 20. Events in The Elder Scrolls: Legends change regularly, so check in often to see what new challenges await!
It seems like we just got Flame of Xulta yesterday (it was actually October) and Promises by Firelight last month, but we're already getting a new set with 200+ cards in February! Echoes of Eternity will be the eighth full set for the game since it first launched in November of 2016.
Sol has faded, and nightmare has engulfed Xulta. A great horde prepares to march on the plateau of Sol’s Altar, shrouded in whispers and fog. Cultists in blackened bone armor stand alongside corrupted paladins, their gem tattoos consumed with sickly light and their minds seething with terror. Overhead, corrupted dragons dominate the skies, their fires illuminating the horde below.
Eremot has come for the Xultan Throne.
Deep in Xulta’s ancient past, the nightmare Eremot was once turned back by a band of champions who united to face a threat too dire for any to overcome alone.
Now, generations later, the skies above Sol’s Altar darken once more. Eremot has returned with a hunger too great for all of Xulta to contain, and a corrupting touch that bends others to his foul service. Will new champions rise to meet an old enemy, or has the Time of Ancestors run its course?
Find out in Echoes of Eternity, the eighth set in Eternal, bringing over 200 new cards to the game next month!
The Champions of Xulta Bundle
As Xulta braces for a desperate last stand, gather round and heed the stories that could just be its salvation: The Champions of Xulta are a bridge between past and future, between legend and life, brought together by the Ancestors to defend their people.
It’s also your chance to collect some sweet Avatars from Xulta’s history, and stockpile Echoes of Eternity packs for launch day! The Champions of Xulta Bundle is available right now, and contains:
10 Premium Avatars in two distinct styles – Each Champion as they existed in legend, and in life!
The Ancient Nightmare Premium Card Back
32 Packs of Echoes of Eternity to be opened on the day the set releases!
1,200 Gems
The Champions of Xulta Bundle is available on all platforms for $39.99.
And, as a special thank-you to players who support the ongoing development of Eternal, purchasing the Champions of Xulta Bundle directly from the DWD Store will also net you:
500 additional Gems
1 Draft Ticket
Spoilers
Spoilers for Echoes of Eternity will begin this Sunday on Twitch, during the Finals coverage of ECQ: Strange Lands. Help us crown a champion, and join us for a first look at the new set!
Spoilers will also be returning to the Eternal Community Store! A limited number of spoilers will be purchasable for 35,000 Influence each beginning on Monday, January 27. Community Store spoilers are released in batches, so you’ll have multiple chances to grab one if you miss out the first time.
Eremot’s power has grown over the years, and fear seeps into the hearts of the people of Xulta…here’s a first look at the horrors awaiting you when Echoes of Eternity releases next month!
Stay tuned for other pre-release activities and offerings in the coming weeks. We’ll see you on Sunday for the Finals of ECQ: Strange Lands and more spoilers from Echoes of Eternity!
Yes, Rhys the Redeemed was originally in the Shadowmoor expansion. It can be used in the new Historic format, which is a non-rotating format unique to MTG Arena.
Weren't even born - sheesh! You whippersnappers don't know the struggle of waiting until the next Duelist (MTG's premiere magazine) to be published to learn about all the hot decks that were being played by the pros! ;)
Looking at Gary and thinking about how much he shook up the format in the past, it made me stop and recall "The Black Summer". For all you old-school MTG players, this happened in the summer of '96 when Necropotence launched to the front of the meta and was absolutely rampant, destroying dreams and life totals for several months. Oh, those were the days!
Promises by Firelight has had a major impact on the Throne metagame, and no card contributed to that impact as much as Endra, Shavka’s Champion. Endra developed a passionate following, pushing her to the extreme with dedicated combo decks built around playing Shavka’s Song as much as possible. This wave of new Endra decks truly shook up the Throne landscape for the first time in a while.
In the days that followed, players quickly adapted to the new threat. While Endra decks have continued to be the most popular, their overall usage has declined as the format has adapted to them. In fact, even the most successful Endra decks of the past week have had barely above average win rates as the metagame has become particularly hostile to unit recursion strategies.
Endra has undeniably warped the format; and while some of that is good, too much can limit deckbuilding. Overall this has turned out much tighter than we’d like; there were too limited a mix of viable strategies to fight back with. Highly tuned versions of the Endra deck have also proven too fast, making opening hands more swingy than desirable.
While there is a place in Eternal for combo decks, and Endra can lead to some fun ones to play with, she’s come out of the gate too strong and too popular for how frustrating and repetitive it can be to play against game after game. To that end, we’re making a couple of nerfs to help bring her back into line with the rest of the format.
Nerfs Endra, Champion of Shavka – Now 3FFF (was 2FF) Endra’s efficiency was just too great, and the faction requirements meant to reduce the ease at which she could be exploited by three and four faction decks was insufficient. By increasing both her cost and influence, her core functionality is being preserved as both a compelling option for combo decks and “fair” decks, while slowing her down and increasing the opportunity cost.
Note: As Endra, Champion of Shavka is only available from the Promises by Firelight campaign, falling outside of our normal system for refunding crafted cards, we are giving a one-time grant of a 1,250 gold to users who purchased the campaign (similar to previous campaign changes). Users who upgraded the card will receive an additional 1,250 gold. Players will of course keep all their copies of Endra.
In looking carefully at the cards surrounding Endra, we identified two specific cards that were the primary contributors to the problematic elements of the card. The first was Evenhanded Golem, as many of the best synergies and themes that worked for it also worked for Endra and stacked together too efficiently. The change to 3-cost addresses this area. The other card was Haunting Scream.
Haunting Scream – Now 3PS Play a unit with cost 5 or less from your void (was 2PS Play a unit with cost 4 or less from your void). Haunting Scream has long been one of the most dangerous cards in the game, given its ability to cheat power costs, combined with its powerful synergies, burst, and one-turn kill potential. While Endra was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak, this is far from the first time Haunting Scream has gone too far. That said, the card is a fan favorite, fun to build around, and can be a backbone of countless strategies. While Haunting Scream is quite strong, we mainly want to slow it down a little and reduce the ease in which it can be played as part of a multiple spell turn. The change to 3-cost is a meaningful one, and we also wanted to take this opportunity to increase the range of Scream options by allowing it to bring back 5-cost units. We’re very sensitive to the risk of any changes surrounding Endra potentially impacting non-Endra decks; so this Haunting Scream change is not one made lightly. Our hope is that this actually increases Haunting Scream’s functionality in a real way, while also slowing it down in a much-needed way.
Sidebuffs Sandspitter – Now 3TT 4/2 (was 4T 5/2) Predatory Carnosaur – Now 6TTT 5/6 (was 7TTT 7/7) Sandspitter’s Summon is more powerful the earlier it can be played, so we believe this change to be a substantial buff, opening it up as a potential option for combatting certain types of combo or spell-heavy strategies.
Predatory Carnosaur has been crowded out at the 7-spot and we thought it would be an interesting option to revisit, particularly as a tool against large Aegis units. We explored the possibility of a return to 6/6, but found it to have too much of a suppressing impact on mid-sized units. Our hope is that this change improves the speed and ease at which it can be used to for specific tasks, without crowding out other potential options.
While our hope is that both of these changes increase the playability of these cards, they are not strict buffs and will both be eligible for refunds, as will Haunting Scream.
Buffs As announced last month, we’ve been planning a series of buffs that promote novel deckbuilding and increase the range of counterplay available to players looking for tools against combo, spell-heavy, or void-based decks.
Charchain Flail – Now 1FF (was 2FF) Gilded Flames – Now 3F (was 4F) Phoenix Stone – Now 2F (was 3F) Arcanum Hourglass – Now 2T (was 3T) Bisma, Revered Elder – Now 3JJ (was 4JJ) Embargo Officer – Now Shift 1 (was Shift 2) Tax Collector – Now Ultimate costs 5 (was Ultimate costs 7) Treasury Gate – Now 3J (was 4J) Eye of Winter – Now 2P (was 3P) Regression – Now 2P (was 4P) Fearbinder – Now pay 2 (was pay 4) Hideout Pistol – Now gives Voidbound to units it kills. Vile Collaborator – Now 2/3 (was 2/2) Knucklebones – Now 6FP (was 7FP) Avisaur Patriarch – Now 3TTP (was 4TTPP) Withering Witch – Now 1/4 (was 1/1) The goal with these changes is to help enable a variety of uncommon decks, spawn some new ones, and hopefully provide a few more options for when unusual strategies go too far.
As always, we’ll be continuing to monitor community feedback and gamewide play data to make sure each of Eternal’s formats is fun, healthy, and exciting to explore. Keep an eye out for our next set of balance changes coming in the last week of January!
Most of us have been together for 6 years or longer. It's great when you have a team that gets along and works well together. Flux has always been a fantastic leader and I'm honored to be part of this site! I'm looking forward to lots of new content and seeing where 2020 takes us!
Gotta hand it to you, KANSAS. Your insight and evaluation of these new cards has been great! I've done card rating and evaluation for years, so I understand the kind of time and effort that goes into it. Thanks for sharing with us!
Nice evaluation on the new cards! I already despise Blue and can see that Ashiok's Erasure is going to be high on my "most hated" list. I also agree that Chainweb Aracnir will be versatile, especially in draft formats. Don't forget you still have the Escape cost, which includes exiling four cards from your graveyard, so it does have some limitations on re-playability.
Hmmm, I haven't seen any email that mentioned a specific date. However, in their instructions on changing usernames, they state in January you'll get a non-dismissable pop-up prompting for the change when you try to login to your account. In February they'll remove the region selector screen and you'll be forced to go the website to even login.
Regardless, I DO believe LoR will launch again in January. I just don't know when. I hope you're right, though!
From the ECQ: Strange Lands on Twitch we've got several spoilers from the new set.
If you participated in the preview patches, then you will automatically have access a day early on the 23rd. As long as any new account is registered before the 20th it will get this same early access. Regardless, everyone will be able to access the game when open beta starts on the 24th.
Yep, I messed it up. Thanks for the correction and keeping me honest! =)
Thanks for catching that!
The new TESL Gauntlet starts today for one event ticket or 150 gold per run (up to 3). This event will be available through January 20th.
It seems like we just got Flame of Xulta yesterday (it was actually October) and Promises by Firelight last month, but we're already getting a new set with 200+ cards in February! Echoes of Eternity will be the eighth full set for the game since it first launched in November of 2016.
Spoilers start this Sunday on Twitch during Finals coverage for the Eternal Championship Qualifier: Strange Lands at 1:00pm ET.
Sadly, mobile is not ready yet. They hope to have it playable on mobile during the first half of this year. Right now it is only available on PC.
It's this little dude!
Yes, Rhys the Redeemed was originally in the Shadowmoor expansion. It can be used in the new Historic format, which is a non-rotating format unique to MTG Arena.
Weren't even born - sheesh! You whippersnappers don't know the struggle of waiting until the next Duelist (MTG's premiere magazine) to be published to learn about all the hot decks that were being played by the pros! ;)
Looking at Gary and thinking about how much he shook up the format in the past, it made me stop and recall "The Black Summer". For all you old-school MTG players, this happened in the summer of '96 when Necropotence launched to the front of the meta and was absolutely rampant, destroying dreams and life totals for several months. Oh, those were the days!
I am ready to dive back into Runeterra!
New balance changes landed today for Eternal with nerfs and buffs all around!
Most of us have been together for 6 years or longer. It's great when you have a team that gets along and works well together. Flux has always been a fantastic leader and I'm honored to be part of this site! I'm looking forward to lots of new content and seeing where 2020 takes us!
Gotta hand it to you, KANSAS. Your insight and evaluation of these new cards has been great! I've done card rating and evaluation for years, so I understand the kind of time and effort that goes into it. Thanks for sharing with us!
Nice evaluation on the new cards! I already despise Blue and can see that Ashiok's Erasure is going to be high on my "most hated" list. I also agree that Chainweb Aracnir will be versatile, especially in draft formats. Don't forget you still have the Escape cost, which includes exiling four cards from your graveyard, so it does have some limitations on re-playability.
Hmmm, I haven't seen any email that mentioned a specific date. However, in their instructions on changing usernames, they state in January you'll get a non-dismissable pop-up prompting for the change when you try to login to your account. In February they'll remove the region selector screen and you'll be forced to go the website to even login.
Regardless, I DO believe LoR will launch again in January. I just don't know when. I hope you're right, though!
Do you know some info we don't, that nails down a specific date? They did tweet earlier today with a "See you in game soon!" but no other details.
It was a great year for HS and I look forward to much more in 2020! Awesome job on the article, Flux!
I'm not sure the deckbuilder was live when the OP made this thread, so I'm thinking he put a LOT of work into all those images.