13/1/26:

Metagame:

In the last month, the most popular decks were Cheater/Gambler (24% of the field), followed by Bureaucrat/Protector (18%). All classes were represented in the most popular decks. The metagame is well balanced, so there is no need to nerf/buff any classes drastically.

Overall Direction of Patch:

What we would like to encourage is bluffing on the flop by creating big pots, making for interesting decisions for both players whether to continue and play important hands instead of grinding small pots. I believe this is the most appealing part of poker, and by changing some action cards we would like to push this experience to Showdown even more.

New Cards:

Inventor:

Atomic Shift - New kit for Inventor. The goal is to have a small effect improving your hand whenever you play a card. Other classes have a powerful way to interact (Red Tape, Final Notice, Silver Bullet), so putting this aspect into the game should again give more options during deckbuilding.

Protector:

Split Vision - Protector class is very proactive, putting opponents under pressure. Easy to combo with Fantasy Land/Pocket Mirror. The goal is to make the game where interactions start preflop, so threatening with Fantasy Land + Split Vision makes interaction cards like Jacking/Expose Weakness more appealing.

Rebel:

Hostile Territory - Rebel is a class where both players have limited resources. This card exactly fills such a role. It will make deckbuilding trickier since if this card becomes popular, it might be correct to play fewer universal cards.

Cards Removed:

Inventor:

Reshape - Too much text on the card/overly complicated design.

Protector:

Blessing - Interactions with other cards were unintuitive/complicated for new players and not popular among regular players.

Rebel:

Value Bet - Overall not very exciting card, too basic/weak.

Cards Changed:

Bureaucrat:

• House Cut: Points changed to 4 (from 0).
• Dry Board: Points changed to 7 (from 3).
• Thought Police: Now steals an action card from an opponent's deck instead of getting a copy. Makes the fatigue strategy slightly better.
• Wealth Tax - Tax: Draw a card instead of stealing 5 chips. Now it's better in multiples/with Ante Up since you can play more cards with Tax in the same hand (before, Wealth Tax often canceled tax for the next card if the difference was 30 points, for example).

Cheater:

• No changes.

Gambler:

• Maniac Backfire: Reveal a pocket card at random instead of removing 10 chips from the pot. Now you can rely on Maniac bringing 20 points to the pot for sure, so setting up a strategy for 1 big hand is more stable (for example, with Pot Control). On the other hand, the backfire is painful.

Inventor:

• Chain Reaction: Part where opponent gets 10 points removed makes the card more powerful.
• Fading Echo: Points changed to 7 (from 3), automatically discards the lower card (makes it impossible for new players to misclick).
• Low Blow: Changed to Universal - Buff, gives you more versatility (for example, use on flop and fold if you miss).

Protector:

• Poker Faces: Shuffle 20 random face cards instead of 1 of each (makes the card stronger), points adjusted to 2 (from 5).
• Savor the Moment: Changed to Universal (you can now play it on the flop, threatening to double the points), points adjusted to 8 (from 9).
• Pocket Mirror: Automatically discards the lower card.
• Card Protector: Points changed to 7 (from 5).
• Trap: Points changed to 0 (from 4) and No-show changed from 3 to 6 points.

Rebel:

• Revolution: Changed to Universal (better synergy if you need to empty your hand in early stages).