Channel, due to being a banner magic, is a high risk pick for little payoff.
Replacing a Channel with a new block/attack card, “Divine Flash”.

Divine Flash | Common | Attack

Gain 6(7) block. Deal 2(3) damage. Suspend – Deal 2(3) damage.

As time has gone on, I have realized that banner magic is very restrictive and have slowly removed it from cards. I think the suite of Light Beam, Light Blast, and Aegis can retain themselves as over-stat’d options when the player is in critical need of one of those functions.

The buff card suite with banner magic will continue to have the banner magic restriction.

As a side comment, it was brought to my attention that “Suspend” didn’t have a cheap attack card. So, Dimension Walker can have some love with the inclusion of Divine Flash.

Rewrite

Scry 1(2) -> Scry 2(3)

Rewrite buff to help match it against other common block cards

Reinforce Banner

A “plant” arrow has been added to the background art of Reinforce Banner to be consistent with other plant/recall cards.

Bugfix: Time Sickness (de)buff

This was already fixed in 1.5 but there was no note about it. Time Sickness was supposed to be a debuff but had been coded as a buff for some reason. Time Sickness is supposed to be mitigatable through Reflect/Artifact which it now correctly does.

Suspend Damage // Pulse | Lightning Next // Light Next

With the inclusion of Divine Flash, all suspended damage sources will be grouped into the one power “Lightning Next”. In summary, this has almost no effect on gameplay but I will leave a detailed explanation below.

A more impactful gameplay change is that Pulse will resolve its damage at the start of the turn before Lightning Next resolves its damage. This means that a stack of 40 suspended damage will not be wasted on an enemy which was going to die to pulse.

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As for removing the “Light Next” suspend damage power. Theoretically, a player could use an Invoke Lightning and then also use Consuming Light with Maintain Light and have two instances of start-of-turn damage. These powers could randomly target two different enemies or the same enemy. So, if you somehow had enough energy (5) for this (which was supposed to be available to the Suspend archetype through reveal leyline) there was a small upside to potentially eliminating two enemies simultaneously. However, this didn’t work all the time because if the first instance was fatal to an enemy there was still a chance that the randomly rolled target for the second instance was the already dead enemy. By grouping all the suspend damage together it removes the chance of multi targeting and standardizes the outcome of dealing “overkill” damage to one enemy. However, it should feel more intended now instead of potentially being perceived as buggy.

Thank you again for playing the Flagbearer!

Plethora of card changes aimed at buffing some weaker Flagbearer cards. Major changes to Aegis Bash, Excalibur, and Reinforce Banner.

Fortress // Inspiration

Applied for 2 (3) turns -> 3 (5) turns

This buff was mostly for Fortress but Inspiration benefits being the offensive version of the buff card. Similar to the reason why Hopeful Plea used to be a high risk card, un-upgraded, Fortress would only stick around for 2 turns leaving it uncertain whether the buff from the card was actually going to be used.
Giving it an extra turn upfront while leaving room to effectively upkeep it infinitely with the upgrade should position these buff cards as more reliable scaling options.

Recall Focus

Recall. If the flag is Recalled draw 1 card -> Recall. Draw 1 card. If the flag is Recalled draw 1 card.

The upgrade still grants [and gain 1 energy].

Raising the floor on Recall Focus so it is less risky to pick. As if this card is in your hand on a turn where either Recalling is bad or you are not Planted leaves a lot to be desired for the card.
Additionally, this is to address Flagbearer’s difficulty producing a quantity of cards to play. Often, manipulation cards offer high levels of selection but due to being unable to produce a quantity of actions, cards which produce energy are undermined (the suite of Focus producing cards).

Rewind [/b}
(Upgraded) Innate. Draw the top non-status card… -> Draw the top 2 non-status cards.

(Innate is removed from the upgrade)

Similar to the above, this change is aimed to help support decks which can produce mana and need things to do. Innate wasn’t helping this card much anyways.

Recall Swirl

Gain 8 (11) Block -> Gain 10 (13)

The weak application is still 1 (2)

Reinforce Banner

Must be planted. Gain 7 (10) block and 1 (2) Aura: Might. -> Gain 5 (8) block and 2 Aura: Might. Plant.

Reinforce Banner was one of the two cards that directly interact with Aura: Might. However, the condition of being planted (the only one mind you) made it an overall weak pick. I liked the gameplay of being able to use the card multiple times and have a stronger planted stance for a few turns so the card now flexibly gets you planted or gives a reasonable scaling option when needed.

Excalibur

Banner Magic. The target loses 28 (38) life. -> The target loses 28 (38) life. Aura: Might affects this card 5 times. Recall.

To put simply, this card was supposed to be a difficult to play Bludgeon clone but was virtually unplayable. The “story” or “picture” of the card was supposed to be the final big attack you do before passing the turn. I.e. the gameplay pattern was to play some kind of turn, end on a recall, then slam dunk them with Excalibur. Instead, it ended up causing tension with taking advantage of Aura: Might and was effectively unplayable.
This change looks to have the card feel like what I initially intended. The flag gets recalled into a beeg Excalibur that uses all the leftover energy in the flag (your Aura Might count).
(Honestly, this card has been really fun in playtesting I hope you enjoy it!)

Aegis Bash

Deal 7 (?) damage. If it deals unblocked damage, remove all artifact or stun.

Now: Deal 11 (16) damage. Remove all artifact and apply 2 vulnerable.

Aegis Bash was initially supposed to be the offensively slanted version of Omit Second. This was supposed to allow a critical mass of stuns to be selected during the drafting process while still being able to progress the fight.
However, this card ended up being worse Omit Second that was still picked in service of the more passive Flagbearer deck strategies. It did not serve its purpose in promoting a proactive approach.
So, in order to both nerf (?) the slower gameplans (because this stun wasn’t really for them anyway) this card has been changed to help proactive decks by applying vulnerable. Additionally, it may be more critical for a proactive deck to land a temporal spike or Aura: Drain immediately due to having less inevitability through Pulse scaling. So, the card keeps its niche effect of removing artifact to help with fights like Sentries, The Heart and Automaton.

Dimension Walker

Both effect now apply the same amount of buff of 3 (4)

This is partially to fix a bug with the card but also because there was no significant reason the numbers were different for both effects.

Aura Slow

Energy Cost 1 (0) -> 2 (1)

Initially, Flagbearer was intended to have easy access to defensive scaling thereby making cards which apply weakness less valuable and justifying Slow’s cheaper cost when compared to Shatter. However, Slow instead ended up being the king of defensive scaling cards and effectively an auto-pick. The mana cost nerf should bring it line with similar options.

Aura: Drain

Lose 3 (4) Strength -> Lose 3 (5)

Small buff because the 3->4 upgrade was lacking.

Bladework // Chaser

7 damage -> 8 damage

Crystallize Flow

7 block -> 8 block

Small buff for all my Suspend homies.

Aura Essence

Text updated to be consistent with other pseudo-modal cards. It functions the same.

Thank you again for playing the Flagbearer!

It’s crazy to me to think that there are 6000 some odd people who have given the mod a try and I want to keep refining the experience to be fun for you and everyone else who plays!

Good luck climbing the Spire, Flagbearer!

Note: I forgot to roll up the version number (whoops)

bugfix
Hopeful plea now correctly applies block modifiers when played by cards which play it from a different zone from hand.

Invoke Lightning

Deal 9 damage Suspend – Deal 9 damage… -> Deal 11 damage Suspend – Deal 11 damage…

Invoke Lightning is now buffed by 4 damage total. This card contests a spot as an “uncommon card that deals damage” which draws heavy comparison to Seraphim Feathers. Invoke Lightning both dealt less upfront damage and scaled worse so it is being buffed.


Consuming Light

Energy Cost: 3 -> 2
Base Damage: 23 -> 20

Maintain Light is updated to have the same numbers.

Before this change, Consuming Light was a very weak card. It was supposed to interact with bonus energy generation cards in order to have a bigger cost card to spend the energy on. Unfortunately, even with rushing upgrades such as Retrace or grabbing an early Channel this card would still be very hard to justify playing. The 4 mana investment to get full value was very tough.

So, the card is being brought in line with Invoke Lightning’s numbers but with some emphasis still on extra energy generation. Overall, higher damage per energy but doesn’t 2x scale unless you can play both halves of the card.


Hopeful Plea

Base: Suspend – Gain 13 Block -> Gain 3 Block. Suspend – Gain 10 Block
Upgraded: Suspend – Gain 16 Block -> Gain 3 Block. Suspend – Gain 13 Block

Upfront Block has been added to Hopeful Plea. This change is in line with the reasons Dimension Walker was introduced. In addition to Suspend effects needing some help getting to next turn, Block cards at uncommon are an interesting case.

Particularly, StS drafting often skews towards attack cards first with base Defends staying in the deck for longer. This means that decks are more often selective when adding block cards. Since Hopeful Plea gave no upfront Block it ends up being a very risky choice that can be run ending. In order to make Hopeful Plea a safer choice, some Suspend Block has been traded for upfront Block.

 

Tear Reality

Before: Put a card from your exhaust pile into your hand (and Retain it). Exhaust.
After: Paradox. Put a card from your exhaust pile and discard pile into your hand and Retain them. Exhaust.

Upgrades 1 energy to 0 energy.

Tear Reality was on my shortlist of underwhelming cards but the reason was very unclear. This card was meant to buyback the powerful exhaust cards available to the Flagbearer, for example Time Walk. The upgrade allowing more flexibility by retaining that card.

This, however, implies that a powerful target has also been drafted, most of which are rares. Unlike Ironclad, there are significantly fewer ways to exhaust cards to use this card effectively. So, Tear Reality has been buffed to be a Retrace adjacent buyback card with explosive potential when it can buyback a Time Walk and a card to setup for next turn.


Shelter

Base Cost: 2 -> 3
Upgraded Cost: 1 -> 2

This card is The Flagbearer’s copy of Barricade. Initially, the condition of needing to be planted was used to justify the lower energy cost of Shelter. However the effect, regardless of condition, is still extremely powerful. While this change may be seen as turning Shelter into “worse Barricade”, I believe the character is well postured for taking advantage of the stacking excessive Block and this effect should match that cost.


Rewind

Before: At the start of your turn, add the top card of your discard pile to your hand.
After: At the start of your turn, add the top non-status card of your discard pile to your hand.

It was brought to my attention that Rewind would very often, in later fights, just add back statuses that enemies would shuffle into your discard pile. This would result in burns and wounds being recycled and the card advantage of Rewind being lost.

Uncommon card draw powers are often situational choices and Rewind’s way of giving draw power is already hard to take full advantage of without needing to deal with picking up statuses. So, the card no longer adds statuses to the player’s hand.

It still adds curses, which may or may not be changed in the future.


Sacred Ground

Base: Pulses deal 1 additional damage -> … 2 additional damage

Sacred ground buff. Initially this card was nerfed as the scaling when combined with Mystical Pennant seemed too strong. This however means that many of the other generic pulse cards, meant to act as AoE for the character, are a tougher sell without Mystical Pennant. So, Sacred Gound is up to 2 instead of 1 to allow for it to be more easily picked when the player wants it.

Bugfix

Shelter now applies barricade instead of blur. This was due to a bug where blur would apply multiple stacks when using Time Walk.

Bug Fix
Banner Magic cards are now correctly use-able when relic swapping or entering other stances through Prismatic Shard cards.

Card Text

Recall Focus' upgraded text is now less ambiguous about its use.

Potions!
3 potions have been added to The Flagbearer. Inspiration Elixir, Command Potion, and Bottled Aeons.

Inspiration Elixir | Common
“Deal 3 additional attack damage and gain 3 additional Block from cards for 2 turns.”
As one of the Flagbearers main features is buffing "Strength" and "Dexterity", this common potion adds another “Flex-type” effect that mirrors the gameplay of the class.
Also, it’s not a “banner” potion though I thought that’d be funny.

Command Potion | Uncommon
“Plant or Recall.”
Simple stance switcher potion akin to Watcher’s Stance Potion.

Bottled Aeons | Rare
“Take an extra turn after this one. Time Sickness 1. End your turn.”

(With Sacred Bark) “Take an extra turn after this one. End your turn.”

Time walk in a bottle! I was very on the fence with this one but deemed this is acceptable when compared to Ghost in a Jar (effectively time walk or double time walk). Hopefully it can help smooth out your scaling turns or pop some Suspend effects for you.

Also, see Time Walk changes.

Time Walk

Before
Base - “Ethereal. Take an extra turn after this one. End your turn.”

Now
Base - “Take an extra turn after this one. Time Sickness 1. End your turn.”

Initially, Time Walk’s upgrade was supposed to allow access to the option of discarding Time Walk at the end of your turn to Grimoire or Retrace it later at a better time. This is a very interesting player decision that I feel represents the playstyle of the character well.

On the other hand, non-upgraded, the card was very much an “auto-play” card as it had Ethereal. This was a weird trade-off considering the context of the character. In order to allow for more decision making with non-upgraded Time Walk, Ethereal has been removed in favor of giving the player Time Sickness as the downside.

The upgraded version is unchanged.

Text Changes
Various miscellaneous text changes have been applied to cards, powers and relics.

Token Cards

Chaser, Maintain Light, Pulse, Time Cruse, and Focus now all correctly render as Colorless cards.

Various wording changes to make the text of cards and effects more consistent.

Massive thank you to Ocean for spotting all of these. You can see the detailed breakdown of everything they spotted in the feedback discussion.

Ethereal Banner

"Trigger Plant and Recall twice"

Now

"Whenever the flag is Planted, Pulse an additional time. Whenever the flag is Recalled, gain an additional Energy"

Comprehensive text added to Ethereal Banner to clarify what it does.