Posted October 26, 2025 by MasN3
This update is mostly here to revise the base set, and migrate to the new ability infrastructure. With better AI, some card evaluations also changed, so I've rebalanced a few cards according to what the new AI is telling me.
As an aside, when it's your turn to play on the Pythonmancer client, one of the cards will be shown in a black border. This is [AI]'s recommendation.
This patch also features flavor/reminder text on cards.
Rule Change
The target life total to win the game has been changed from 300 to 320 - turn #. I insist every game MUST end eventually.
Base Set Changes
Titan (A12) 6/26 -> 7/21
This one is a change not motivated by balance, but by design. Back in swfmancer, pretty much every class had a 6 attack card, usually costing 8 mana, establishing 6 attack to be where creatures cap out. Tank (Mech) and Greater Lich (Death), Angel of War (Paladin), Archangel (Cleric) etc. all had 6 attack.
Meanwhile, Titan's 26 hp was not out of place, with the elementals at 24, Dragon at 26, earth elemental at 29. The statline has been updated to make it reflect modern design better, and make it easier to balance damage vs destroy based removal spells.
Hydra: 2/19 -> 2/20
Hydra has been underperforming in the stats. I want to give it a buff before trying anything more radical.
E5 has been underperforming in the stats. I've replaced a FWA managen die with FWAE for p1, and two FWAE dice with FWAEE for p2. For consistency, I also replaced the F die as p2 W5 with a FE die.
In summary, the managen table now looks like this:
| with | Astral Codex Ten | F3 | W5 | E5 |
| p1 | 7W -1 F, -1 A, -1 E | 2 rand= rand rand | 2 W FE rand | 2 E 2 rand |
| p2 | 7W | 3 rand= 2 rand= 2 rand | 2 W FE 4 rand | 2E 5 FWAEE |
What's happening in Aether
While the jury is still out on Darksteel Piston, the cheap Quintessence is clearly in Resto color pie. Quintessence is thus now Resto, with its cost lowered from 6 to 5.
I've also added a modal Quintessence of Sorts:
Darksteel Beacon (Restorer 6)
R: +4 life.
Magnetic. Indestructible.
0/4
Evoker gets a new toy, a clear knock-off of A5:
Perma-Fence (Evoker 5)
! Modify opponent with -3 regeneration.
0/15
Ritual of Glory had been replaced by Ritual of Fibonacci. It has the extremely significant upside of costing 8 aether rather than 9. In exchange, this core is a [41] rather than a [44], and multiplies charges by 1.618 (rounded) at the end of turn, rather than 2. This change is meant to allow more time to react post-ritual and encourage more interactive gameplay. The new ritual is in fact a bit weaker, (would be same power at [44]), but all of this is due to an AI improvement with it. Formerly, the AI would think its maximum useful aether is the highest cost aether card it has, which is less then 8, and proceed to promptly waste its aether before reaching the ritual.
Playing with Shrapnel a bit more, here's another creature, inspired by the hearthstone creature of the same name.
Meteorologist (Illusionist 5)
! Store shrapnel equal to your highest mana.
3/13
And finally, it gets its own rune as well.
Rune of Shrapnel [Illusionist -9]
R: Store 1 shrapnel.
Chain Reaction (Banisher 4)
! Attack all creatures.
+1 power per creature.
4*
Elvist Bow (Illusionist 2, -1)
! If your opponent has exactly one creature, destroy it.
Another balance pass over the cards:
Graveyard [37] -> [42], unloads at most 2 skeletons per turn.
Turn, Rank 4: Life Adjustment -1 -> -4
Machine Turret: 1/19x2 -> 1/16x2
Chain Darts, Rank 2/3/4/5/6/7: Life Adjustment -1/0/0/0/0/0 -> -1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2
Murazond, Unbounded: 11/11 -> 10/10
The Chinese Codex: [47] -> [43]
Magic Missiles: 4/6/8/7+ power -> 4/6/6+/4++ power.
Wargear: 5/20 -> 6/20
Hanging Gardens: 0/12 -> 0/13
Rejuvenate, Rank 6-9: Replaced with
Triangle Rejuvenate, Rank 6/7/8/9
! Heal yourself. Repeat this with 1 less power.
0+/2+/4+/6+
The Stone Rain line from banisher is getting an upgrade:
| Cost | Old | New |
| 0 | Stone Rain, Rank 0 [44] ! Attack all creatures. 4 | |
| 1 | 6 | |
| 2 | 8 | |
| 3 | 10 | |
| 4 | 12 | |
| 5 | 10+ | |
| 6 | 6++ | |
| 7 | 0+++ | Day of Judgment ! Destroy all creatures. |
| 8 | Cloudkill, Rank 8 {+2} ! Destroy all creatures. | Fumigate ! Destroy all creatures. ! Gain X life. This spell has +1 power for each enemy creature. 0* |
| 9 | Cloudkill, Rank 9 {-6} ! Destroy enemy creatures. | Plague Wind (-6) ! Destroy enemy creatures. |
Blind Prophet is removed. There's not much point having it now that Statue of Mana has been printed.
Rune of Frost is getting retired, and Rune of Apprenticeship is being replaced with the following two cards:
Rune of the Novice [-8]
Your basic spells have +1 power.
Codex of the Archmage [43]
Your basic spells have +3 power.
Your aether spells have +1 power.
Start frozen with 2 less aether.
end of patch notes