After many months of careful consideration, with the last patch, we made the decision to errata Afanas. This errata has breathed new life into the game's diversity. While three Heroes—Treyst, Sigismar, and Kojo—have taken a central place in the meta, this change has also paved the way for others like Fen, Basira, Atsadi, Teija, and Nevenka, all of whom we've seen performing well on the leaderboards in recent weeks.

The decision has been well-received by the vast majority of the community. Our conversations with players—whether they were Afanas players or not—indicate that the errata was appropriate and has been largely accepted. We understand the disappointment of some players seeing their Hero weakened, but we remain convinced that this was a necessary decision for the overall health of the game's environment.

UNSUSPENDED

Starting October 3rd, Yzmir players will once again be able to use Helping Hand (Rare). Our internal testing has shown that the card is now naturally balanced by the Afanas errata, and we believe it has reached its intended state without posing future issues. We will, of course, continue to closely monitor Afanas' performance following this reintroduction.

With this un-suspension, we want to restore Afanas' original gameplay intent and tools, which we now believe are properly aligned with the current meta. This should also enable Yzmir players to explore new deck-building dynamics.

SUSPENDED

In the last patch, we shared our concerns about the gameplay experience of the Bugfix combo (see the Whispers from the Maze Mid-Season Patch notes).

While strategies using the combo haven't dominated the current meta, we've seen a lot of frustration from players facing decks that exploit this unwanted mechanic, as it often prevents any counterplay. The interactions created by this combo lead to confusing, uncontrollable, and frustrating board states that are outside the experience we want to offer.

Based on these findings, we made the decision to suspend Bugfix. A Treyst Bugfix deck winning the WCQ Barcelona on September 7th has only reinforced our decision.

This step gives us the necessary time to explore different adjustment options—whether it's a targeted errata or an update to the game's rules—in order to make the card's function clearer, more intuitive, and aligned with our original design intentions. While we've already identified some potential solutions, we'd rather continue testing to ensure we find the healthiest and fairest approach possible.

BANNED

The Unique Moonlight Jellyfish were suspended several months ago due to a combination of unforeseen interactions and a power level that was far too high for their cost. Their effects, which centered on sacrificing cards and interacting with the Discard and Reserve, turned out to be far more powerful and unpredictable than we anticipated. Its problematic recursivity and excessive synergy with other mechanics created a huge issue.

The problem was compounded by the nature of the Unique cards themselves: each Jellyfish has several distinct effects that are difficult to evaluate across all possible game situations.

Since the suspension, our testing teams and game designers have worked extensively on this complex issue with every new patch. We explored numerous options, including adjusting their costs, preventing them from targeting themselves, adding a mana cost to send them back to the Reserve, and imposing an additional cost for their sacrifice ability. But each of these solutions only partially solved the problem, all while compromising the cards' original design, pointlessly increasing their complexity, or reducing their effects too drastically.

Because of this, we've made the difficult but necessary decision to permanently ban all Unique Moonlight Jellyfish. Any errata aimed at bringing them into a healthy gameplay experience would have simply made them unplayable. We'd rather take responsibility for this decision and offer compensation to our players instead of finding a workaround. Furthermore, the risk of unwanted future interactions would have required us to permanently monitor every new mechanic that interacts with them, which simply isn't a viable long-term solution.

With this ban, we are officially introducing our compensation policy for cards affected by our balance decisions. This policy applies to cards that have received an erratum or have been banned, like Moonlight Jellyfish.

We know that losing access to a card can be a tough experience for any player. With this compensation, we hope to open up new gameplay possibilities for affected players by providing new, randomly distributed Unique cards you can use to build your strategies around.

Specifically for Moonlight Jellyfish, we want to offer every player who currently owns one or more copies a compensation of one random unique card from the current set (Skybound Odyssey) for each copy they own. Additionally, to make up for the long wait between the initial suspension of Moonlight Jellyfish and the rollout of this policy, we will also give every affected player one extra Skybound Odyssey unique card.

The full details of this policy will be shared next week and will take effect with Skybound Odyssey’s Season Patch, after the set’s release.

ERRATUM

During our latest internal testing, we identified an unwanted interaction between Will-o'-the-Wisp and The Western Wind, a new card from Skybound Odyssey. Specifically, when these two cards are played together, their combined effects allow a player to move an opponent's expedition back for a cost and rarity level that we believe is too low for such a powerful effect.

To ensure an optimal gameplay experience for all players, we are issuing an erratum for the Common and Rare Lyra versions of Will-o'-the-Wisp to prevent this interaction from being exploited. This erratum should not significantly impact the way Will-o'-the-Wisp has been played in Lyra decks so far.

The new text for Will-o'-the-Wisp is as follows:

“If an Expedition facing me is in {O}, it can’t move forward during Dusk, except due to {O}.”

We have also decided not to issue an erratum for the unique Lyra versions of Will-o'-the-Wisp. Our internal tests have shown that using a unique slot for this type of powerful effect is both balanced and acceptable, and we believe it will help create more diversity in Lyra deck-building strategies.

• No changes : Baba Yaga (Ordis, Rare)

• New : Moonlight Jellyfish (All Uniques)

• Removal : Kadigiran Mage-Dancer
• Suspended : Bugfix

Our testing has shown that Kadigiran Mage-Dancer, even when paired with Helping Hand, is now at a power level that aligns with our expectations. The card remains a cornerstone of Afanas' strategies, and removing it would weaken the Hero to the point of making its decks unviable. Given the current meta, we no longer consider this card to be a problem.

This season patch will go live on October 3, 2025, for all platforms, including Board Game Arena, in-store, and competitive play. We hope the time between this announcement and the effective date gives all players a chance to review the changes and adjust their strategies accordingly before the patch goes live.

Our official errata and ban compensation policy—which will compensate for all bans as well as past and future errata—will be revealed in full detail next week.

The first part of the policy, which covers errata, will take effect immediately. This will provide compensation for players who own a card that has received an erratum. The second part, which deals with banned cards (like Moonlight Jellyfish), will take effect after the launch of Skybound Odyssey. This part allows you to receive unique cards for owning one or more banned cards.