When we started laying plans for more Ivion content, we also took this opportunity to tweak and smooth a number of oddities. This article lists the major changes coming to the core rules in our next release.
'Near' and 'Free'
When writing rules text for a card, you have very limited real estate to work with. Our first two changes are new wording for old effects that pare down the number of words necessary to explain something. The first change is near. To be 'near' something it to be 'in or adjacent to’ it. Moving forward, instead of using in or adjacent to, near will be used instead. Second is free. When you play a card for 'free’, you are playing that card “Without paying or gaining resources”.
Type update
In Ivion, cards have types. Previously, there were a full SEVEN types: Instant, Travel, Aura, Ability, Attack, Buff, and Debuff. A card’s types were determined by what that card did. In the new rules, there will only be two: Ability and Attack. The new system is simple: if the card can deal damage to a target as soon as it resolves, then it is an Attack. Otherwise, it is an Ability. One of our main goals when we updated the Ivion card format was to remove unnecessary information on cards. It was very rarely relevant that the Huntsman’s “Runic Slaughter” was an “Ability Attack Debuff Ultimate”. One of the removed card types, ‘Travel’ does appear on a number of cards, such as the Ultimates of Wilder and Ancient. In these cases, a ‘Travel’ card is any card whose effect causes a player to “Travel”.
Feats
One of the big changes coming is how players qualify for Feats. Previously, a “monocolored” archetype would count as 2 instances of that color for the purposes of qualifying for feats. So an Ancient Giant Druid’s colors would be “4 red, 2 green”. We are changing this. Monocolored archetypes now will only provide 1 color towards qualifying for Feats. That same Ancient Giant Druid’s colors now are “2 red, 1 green”. As part of this change, we are removing a color pip requirement from each monocolored Feat in the first set. Moving forward, Feats that would have required 2 instances of a color will now only require one. This means that Jarl can now qualify for Resilience even if it does not have a gray Class.
Playing Cards
We are changing when players pay Resources during card resolution. Previously, a card’s Resource costs were only paid upon the card’s resolution. But between the card being played and resolving, those resources were ‘allocated’. Allocated resources were nebulously neither spent nor in a player’s Resource pool. We are removing this middle step. When a card is played, Resources are immediately spent. If that card is Meta-Countered, its controller gains back the Resources spent to play it. For the card-slinging aficionados reading, this has some notable gameplay implications. Since Control is removed whenever a player spends any Resource, under this change Control is removed as soon as a card is played, even if it is later Meta-Countered. This change speeds up gameplay by allowing the active player to immediately remove control instead of waiting for their opponent’s response, reduces complexity by removing the awkward and rarely relevant “allocated” Resource status, and increases interaction by allowing players to remove response-blocking Control upon playing rather than upon resolution.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check out our new Kickstarter, entering the fray on September 1st, 2020!