- Guard now works. A Guard creature steps in to intercept attacks aimed at the empty lanes beside it, shielding your general instead of letting the hit through.
- Background music rotates through multiple tracks now instead of looping the same one.
- The War Chest has a lid sound when it opens, and legendaries get their own reveal flourish.
- Dragging a card shows a full size ghost that follows your cursor, so you can see exactly what you're holding before you drop it.
- The AI got a lot smarter. It reads the board, pushes the enemy general through open lanes, blocks real threats when it's low on health, weighs whether a trade is worth it, and aims removal at the most dangerous creature.
- Difficulty actually means something now. Recruit plays loose and forgiving, Veteran presses when it's ahead and turtles when behind, and Warlord stays aggressive and saves removal for the right target.
- Dian Wei, Loyal Guard dropped to 3/8 (was 3/11). With Guard working, 11 defense for 2 mana locked down too much of the board.
- Cao Ren bumped to 4/12 (was 3/8) so the 5 cost Guard finally feels like a proper anchor.
- Packs open quicker, with less waiting between each card.
- The main menu has real hierarchy now. Story Mode is featured and brighter while the other modes sit back, so new players know where to look first.
- All the menu cards use one label system: a title with a small subtitle in the same spot every time.
- Matched up the corner rounding and added a consistent dark fade behind every label, so text stays readable over the art.
- The Quit Game button is muted so it no longer shouts over everything else.
- The Community buttons (Feedback, Report a Bug, Discord) are bigger and easier to spot.
- War Council's Back button matches the red Back buttons used everywhere else.
- "Open Another" no longer kicks you back to the menu. It opens the next pack right where you are.
- Music no longer cuts out early. Longer tracks play all the way through.
- AI opponents can no longer get stuck during the mulligan phase. If a bot stalls there, it wraps up and moves on by itself.
- The card glossary can still take a second to open the first time while the card art loads.
- Outside the opening tutorial fight, there's no in-battle guidance for brand new players yet.
- The AI doesn't always spot the fastest possible kill, for example lethal through direct damage spells.