It’s been four months since the last patch, but this doesn’t mean development is slowing down! If anything, it’s very encouraging news. After multiple playtests (including our first-ever public test!) only a handful of cards need tweaks. The Unwell Kingdom is nearing the end of its design phase, and with only 20 or so cards left that need art, we’re firmly in the final polish phase! As such, I’m trying to make smaller changes—fewer full re-designs, and more tweaks to sand off the rough edges of play patterns.
Here are the patch notes for this month:
(REWORK) Monkey’s Mark
Reworded for clarity
Monkey’s Mark was too wordy for what it does. Rather than add an entire line redefining what “Equip” means, I realized it would be more straightforward to avoid the keyword outright and directly say “
: Attach this Equipment to target creature.”
While I was in there, I also removed the requirement for damage to by dealt by “a source you control”. This felt superfluous, and it’s much easier to see “double all damage” and understand what that means.
(REWORK) Whittler’s Work
Quality-of-life improvements
Whittler’s Work saw three changes. For a legendary, 5-mana spell, it moved glacially slow: do nothing the turn it’s played, then on your turn create a Plant token with summoning sickness. By having all this happen on your end step, the card now creates a blocker right away and lets you attack when it gets back to your turn.
Next, the way it recycles creatures into Plants is now slightly different. Instead of mill 2, pick a creature from your graveyard, it’s now mill 1, but lets you pick a creature from any player’s grave! And lastly, as pure quality of life for an effect that triggers each turn, the creature picked goes straight to the bottom of the library, no need to shuffle again and again.
(REWORK) Grub, Apprentice Chef
Changed Food payoff from a triggered ability to an active ability, now costs 
and loses target 2 life, up from 1.
Grub over-performed in the Unwell Kingdom’s first ever playtest, and got nerfed as a result. Back then, it could make a Food token on EACH end step, which turned out to be way too much free value when paired with removal spells. The life loss used to be “each opponent” as well, and since that first test was Two-Headed Giant, it effectively doubled up its effectiveness and made the card look even scarier than it actually was.
However, since then, the nerfs have proven to be too heavy, and Grub has struggled to find a place in the meta. Losing 1 life per Food token just doesn’t feel threatening enough, but when combined with the 3 life gained from the Food itself, making that life swing bigger seems unwise. Instead, I’d like to try replacing the life gain entirely. Now, by spending , Grub can sacrifice a Food directly to make an opponent lose 2 life, forgoing the token’s built-in life gain. This should make the card more proactive, and keep numbers moving down.
Worth noting, this change will break one synergy with Spitts, Furnace Keeper, but still work great with Goblin Berries.
(REWORK) Study Buddy
Removed defender/hexproof abilities, now creates a Wizard token on entry. 1/3 →1/2
Study Buddy already got some reworks to give its fellow Wizards some extra toughness, but the angle of protecting enchanted creatures has continued to feel irrelevant. Originally, this was intended as a tech card to maintain your Concentration Auras, especially back when Concentration could be broken by merely becoming targeted. Since that’s no longer the case, an already niche card became even more niche. Even in decks that want to play Concentration effects, the biggest pain point has actually not been protection, but struggling to keep enough bodies on board to enchant in the first place!
So as much as I want small tweaks, Study Buddy is getting a radical rework and now brings his own buddy! Gone is the hexproof effect, along with defender (The old version of the card truly just sat on the board). In its place, Study Buddy is now a 1/2 that creates a Wizard token, which itself becomes a 1/2 with that extra toughness. Hopefully, this new direction will do a better job of supporting the “Wizards matter” angle of Blue.
(REWORK) Conjurer’s Courier
Reworked effect into a sac/discard ability, removed need to shuffle
Conjurer’s Courier has been in a weird spot. Its effect was flavorful and pretty fair, but something still felt off. I didn’t like how much text was crammed in there, and the option to shuffle it back into your library slowed games down in paper (It used to synergize with Library Wisps, but that also got reworked for similar reasons). Lastly, it broke convention with other two-color cards in this set, which cost one color to cost and another to activate abilities. Unlike the others, you couldn’t activate this ability from hand, meaning you’d always need at least blue to consider running this card.
The new wording aims to simplify, while keeping its identity of flexibility and card advantage. Gone is the awkward format of exiling cards face-down and putting them in hand, replaced with nice, straightforward card draw. This removed an entire line of text. The activated ability is now a “discard or sacrifice” effect, so some red decks can now consider it in drafts… though the blue side is still much better.
I considered making that last ability more flashy—something like discard your entire hand and draw 2-3 cards—but at this point in development, I’d rather not take big swings if I can avoid it.
(BUFF) Library Wisps
4-drop → 3-drop
In the most direct example of parallel design in this set, I recently learned about the real MtG card Duelist of the Mind, Nathan Steuer’s World Championship design, which bears a striking resemblance to Library Wisps! A */3 flying and vigilance creature that gains power for each card drawn this turn? Seems interesting! Library Wisps obviously has its own traits that make it better fit this set, tying into Wizards, Enchantments, and Illusions all at once.
But one difference between them really stuck out: Duelist of the Mind costs 2 mana, while the Wisps cost 4! I don’t want this random common to be pushed as hard as a World Champ card, but I think there’s room for some middle ground. I’m going to try reducing the cost to 3 mana and see how it feels.
(BUFF) Contraption
7-drop → 6-drop
Contraption is one of the most expensive cards in the set. I’ve learned since starting this project how out-of-reach 7 mana really is in limited, and when this card got called out during our public playtest as costing too much, I agreed. It’s still a powerful card that makes an immediate impact on the board, but 6 mana still feels appropriate to try.
(BUFF) Weasel Warden
Now prevents any type of damage, not just combat damage
Weasel Warden hasn’t moved the needle with it’s strange, single-target Fog effect. Allowing it to prevent any damage should give it a bit more flexibility, and help protect a key creature from some removal spells!
(NERF) Cog
Inspire 3 → Inspire 2 if entering from graveyard or exile
After Practice Cactus‘s nerf earlier this year, it was only a matter of time before Cog got hit too. Both of this set’s colorless 1-drops have been fan favorites, in part because they’ve proven to be stronger than anticipated! Unlike Practice Cactus, Cog needs more specific setups to really shine, but it was intentionally designed to synergize with lots of different strategies. It gets aggressive Red Inspiration decks off to a quick start, provides a cheap body for Green Equipment and Blue Auras, and can generate even more Inspiration with Black reanimate/hoard effects or White blinks!
That last point is the biggest concern for this patch, specifically blink enablers like Yhamor, Belated Guardian and Ephemeral Unicorn which can easily snowball Inspiration tokens and spiral a game out of control. Now that I have a better idea of how impactful each Inspiration token can be, Cog’s extra payoff is getting toned down from 3 to 2.
(NERF) Higher Learning
+3/+3 → +3/+0
A minor nerf but a nerf nonetheless, Higher Learning‘s final payoff will no longer give extra toughness to enchanted creature. This is mostly to reduce confusion, since Concentration Auras are removed when the creature takes damage. A player might see that +3 toughness and assume the creature could survive a bigger hit, only for the Aura to fall off, thus removing the buff before damage gets reset at the end of the turn. This is a needlessly painful “gotcha”.
That extra toughness would only ever matter against -1/-1 counters or similar -X/-X effects. These are in this set and do see decent amounts of play (eg. Acid Spray or Cloudkill), but ultimately, I don’t think this angle is worth the potential confusion. As it is, the card is already doing plenty: drawing extra cards, removing hand size limit, and eventually turning a creature into a scary flying threat!
(NERF) Queen Lyndette
“Draw a card.” → “You become the monarch.”
Queen Lyndette still hasn’t gotten a proper chance to shine in playtesting, but she’s a Mythic for a reason. Her ability is extremely flexible, offering a choice between value, tempo, or board presence if you can find ways to reliably trigger it. There are plenty of options here too, whether it’s from Concentration Auras falling off, Sagas naturally concluding, or enchantment creatures getting removed or blinked… but the most reliable way this set offers to make an enchantment leave whenever you want is sacrificing an Inspiration token.
While all the options are scary, the potential to draw two extra cards per turn cycle this way seems like a step too far. Instead, I’m going to try changing it to “you become the monarch,” to limit it to only one additional card per cycle. I like this better anyway, since thematically it ties her to the other Queens of the Unwell Kingdom: Queen Gnarlnash and Putressa, Resigned to Ruin.
(RARITY) Thrashalla and Kieran’s Manipulation
Now that Thrashalla has sick new art, it felt wrong to keep it in the Uncommon slot. Kieran’s Manipulation feels like a perfect swap, since it’s now a flexible fight spell I’d love to see more often.
Uncommon → Rare
Rare → Uncommon
The end is in sight, and it’s very exciting! I expect to have a few more playtests while finishing up the remaining card art, and after that, it will be time to lock in the designs and send them to print. The set’s mechanics each feel like they’ve reached their final forms, lots of archetypes across colors are seeing play, and individual cards are requiring less and less tuning. Here’s hoping the next patch notes are even more minor!