Shattered Empire:
Out With The Old...

One of our goals in Shattered Empire was to cull the chaff, so to speak, from the original set. Onyx Edition was designed with a strong eye towards draft play, and as a result, several cards exist in it that are of limited usefulness in the game's current medium. We took a hatchet to several of these cards, across all card types, looking to replace them with more useful or interesting reprints or totally new cards.

in addition to cutting draft-focused cards, we also looked to replace some of the 'filler' Personalities in each clan. These are mostly off-theme reprints that were never quite good enough to see play in a constructed format, or, in some cases, Personalities that simply ended up being consistent underperformers.

It was also necessary, purely for storyline purposes, to excise some Personalities that no longer made sense to have in the environment, being that they were dead. Not Shadowlands dead, but dead dead, or otherwise no longer appropriate as Personalities.

Not even Clan Champions were safe from the harsh cleaver of 'For Storyline Purposes."

Two of the biggest areas of change have to do with the Akasha and the Mantis. In Onyx Edition, the Akasha was 'brand new', and it was felt that a larger amount of Personalities was needed to 'fill out' the Clan. Unfortunately, this resulted in a glut of Naga Personalities that will never see play. The Akasha has evolved in scope as a Clan as well, now not only incorporating Naga but also Ratlings and the Kitsune.

Mantis, of course, had the exact opposite problem: In Onyx Edition, they didn't exist anymore. So, we found several chaff Personalities from the Akasha and the Unaligned Personalities to give Mantis a base as well, putting it on parity with the other Clans.

In Onyx Edition, there were 21 Akasha Clan and 15 Unaligned Personalities. Many of these Unaligned Personalities were in Onyx specifically to fill draft slots focused around keyword drafting, or as generic low rarity draft deck fillers. In Shattered Empire, there are 15 Akasha Clan, 15 Mantis Clan, and 5 (!!) Unaligned Personalities. 

One last topic: Some cards needed to be replaced simply because, for lack of better terms, they were too good. Too strong, too ubiquitous, or involved in degenerate decks that luckily never made it out of our playtesting team into the larger player base.  We felt it was necessary to replace these cards, but in order to preserve the Onyx environment that people enjoy playing in, they are simply 'phasing out' of the card pool, as opposed to being outright banned. 

Next time, having said farewell to some of the old, we'll turn our attention to some of the new cards on their way in the set (all new, not new reprints)!

Thank you all for your continued support!