Opening up the Skies over Jaelara
Hi everyone! Shehan Salgado here, a member of the Genesis Battle of Champions Rules Team and a Head Judge. Coming to Genesis on Jan 1st 2024 are some major changes to how Flight and Aerial will work. So without any fuss, let us dive right in and take a look at what those changes are and why we will be doing them.
Flight Tactics
First up is Flight!
Currently Flight is: This Combatant can move into a spot even if it is occupied.
OLD: Angel of Justice can move onto the same spot as Angel of Retribution.
We will be moving to Flight: This combatant can move onto spots occupied by non-flight Permanents.
NEW: Angel of Justice can’t move to the same space as Angel of Retribution, but can still “fly” above Wading Kurma.
Combined with a complementary update to the movement of combatants without flight.
Combatants without flight can move onto spots occupied by Permanents with flight.
NEW: Wading Kurma can now move to the same space as Angel of Justice, “underneath”.
Wow, that seems to be a lot more words. What's going on here? If you have played Genesis with or against Summons with Flight, you have probably encountered the same one-sided interaction space we have. Summons with Flight have long maintained a dominant position in board control, able to carve up the arena, directly and physically blocking movement from any “grounded” summons, and then, in a single round, switch to an aggressive stance, moving forward through spots with any other combatants and ignoring the opponent’s positional play. I think we all remember the first time we saw Angels, Sphinxes and Dragons moving directly over another summon, using two movements and rotations to attack free of reprisal, from a position 180 degrees from where they were.
With the update, it is easiest to imagine each set, Combatants with flight and without flight, operating on two vertically stacked layers of the board. Flight above, and non-flight below. Each set of combatants doesn't interfere with the movement of the other set. To be clear these “layers” don’t exist for game rules, but it is a great framework for visualizing how these work.
Our imagined “layers” of the arena. Just for our understanding.
Why are we doing this? With this change each set of Combatants will be able to move around, either on the ground or in the air, attacking and having access to the same style of “run past” movement on each other. Meanwhile, within their own realm, on the ground or in the air, each set is exerting the same movement blocking interactions on their own. That’s right, Summons with Flight will now block the movement of other Summons with Flight. The same defensive formations we are used to using on the ground will now be a part of the Flight combat space, and we are excited to see how players use these tools going forward.
Aerial Maneuvers
The second major change is to Aerial. Currently Aerial Reads:
Aerial: The only Attack abilities that can target this combatant are range attack abilities.
OLD: Angel of Justice cannot attack Angel of Retribution with its Holy Attack [3].
This will be changing to:
Aerial: Unless the targeting Combatant has flight, the only Attack abilities that can target this combatant are range attack abilities.
NEW: Since it has Flight, Aerial does not affect Angel of Justice and it can attack!
With this change, we are providing an exception to the aerial ability, allowing Summons with Flight to target Aerial summons with ANY ability they play, not just Range Attack abilities.
Why? Well, Aerial is good. Really good. Like, really REALLY Good. Meta-defining and, in the hands of the best players in the world, Pro-play-warping championship-winning good. We already saw the proliferation in Cast and Range abilities in the Origin set on summons, and when a single mechanic is warping one or multiple card types, it is time to take a step back and think about what is happening.
Aerial, and flight to a degree, are what I like to call “funnels”. Each mechanic “funnels” and condenses card choices in deck building, exerting pressure in a single direction to a single conclusion. Flight was previously, on average, a step up from not having Flight, and Aerial was a couple more (large) steps above that. You always wanted to be the one on the higher step. Now, you don’t have to comb over each summon you want to bring to the arena and sigh in sadness because you have to bring along specific ability types, just to have a chance to interact with aerial if it shows up. Aerial is and will remain a strong defensive ability against “grounded” summons, however, an entire swath of Flight Summons are now dusted off and waiting in the wings, attacks prepped as additional tools for you to bring to the arena.
Loving where we came from, and looking to the future.
In design, nothing is as constant as iteration. As we grow alongside you, our players, and what matters to you, we need to take what we learn and provide you with the tools to also iterate, adapt, overcome and, most important of all, HAVE FUN (overfun?). While changes like this are never desired, sometimes they are needed to open up design space, deck play space, and make the game the most fulfilling version it can be. Rule changes which will have larger impacts on players are not made lightly, and are always preambled with exorbitant amounts of discussion and debate, deep into the night.
These changes are happening because we believe these changes will lead to a better play experience for you, and we hope you enjoy the new answers and questions they will provide you on your game table. But, even more than that, we hope you will continue to journey as our companions as Genesis, the game we all love, grows, morphs and transforms into the strongest version it can be. See you in the arena Champions!
