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A Major DBS Update Has Arrived!

We’re pleased to announce the latest Wonders of the First DBS adjustment, becoming effective Jan 20, 2026.

We made changes to 141 cards, or about 35% of the card pool. 80 cards had increases and 61 cards had decreases. The overall total DBS of the card pool increased by about 4.5%. Adjustments came after careful review and feedback from our dedicated playtest team, which includes some of the top deckbuilders in the game.

At the very high end were adjustments of +20 or more. A particular standout is Lumina Scarab, which got an extremely high +55 point adjustment. The Scarab has had its time to shine, showing up in highly competitive constructed decks, but when it wins it can lock out opponents from playing their cards. Lock-out decks are fine in doses, but we don’t want them to be strong indefinitely.

A number of cards were previously severely undercosted, such as Murkmire Incarnate, which is often an easy board wipe for lands, and Utterly Complex Compound Bow, which can act as oppressively repeatable removal and card draw.

We also took a careful look at a few ubiquitous combos, such as Old Man “Rocket” Ricker and Pastel Bloom Drake. This combo has been powerful in tournament play for quite a while, and while we don’t want to remove it completely, it should come with a higher cost. Boneharvest Harp and Staff of the Eldritch Tribesman are also combo pieces that raise red flags if they’re too cheap.

Another adjustment of note is Caelith Leaftracker, who got an adjustment of +25, almost as much as Murkmire. Caelith isn’t problematic, but she’s nearly an automatic include. She’s so efficient that she can do good work in almost any deck. Her higher cost reduces the number of auto-include builds.

Early on, we wanted to make sure players had a chance to use some cool high-energy cost Wonders, so we costed a lot of Wonder removal pretty high in terms of DBS. With the latest adjustment we made an effort to give players better tools to remove problems. This meant substantially reducing costs of some spot removal like Soul Jar Mastery, Rend, and others. 

A number of cards that were strong in early testing haven’t shown up in winning tournament decks, such as Viking Sage of the Forge, Deep Pincer, and Tony Thickfur. We adjusted a bunch of these downward by around 10-15 points to see which, if any, become more appealing for builders.

We also reduced costs on “play a third” lands like Celestium Heights, to reward builds that commit to a particular orbital or pair of orbitals.

With a few exceptions like Lumina Scarab, we take a non-deterministic approach to crafting the meta. We don’t want to force players into certain decks. We just want to influence how often we see them. We are mindful not to take away players’ favorite toys. This means fan favorites like Moonfire Crystal Mouse should still be playable for a long time, and if we overcost a card we can always bring it down again in the next adjustment.

The next big metagame shakeup will happen with the release of Call of the Stones, which will double the size of the card pool and have its own big DBS update. This January adjustment will get us partway to that environment 

Below is a list of all the changes, sorted by highest to lowest adjustment.

We’re looking forward to your questions and comments on Discord!

Brian Tinsman

Lead Game Designer,
Wonders of the First

Card NameNew DBSChange
Lumina Scarab8030
Pastel Bloom Drake3229
Utterly Complex Compound Bow3127
War’rinoco, Nature’s Firstborn3126
Staff of the Eldritch Tribesmen3628
Murkmire Incarnate3126
Tendrils of Light and Shadow2825
Caelith Leaftracker4825
Blauzophel5524
Deathmarcher Knight2522
The Power of Three3021
Boneharvest Harp4421
Raziya Balakai3120
Old Man “Rocket” Ricker3120
Noctarum the Lost3020
EthosRelic FR-389020
The Lamp of Luferia2219
Corruption Warp2218
Briarmaw2218
God’s Eye Release1815
Cedarshade Ruins1815
The Blazing Phoenix Pub2014
Mountain Ridge Mammoth1814
Thought Tempest2213
Divine Conduit4813
Witch Warden1512
Cast Out1512
Autumn, Essence Animated2312
The Great Usurper2211
The Awakening1211
Princess Aurora Waveheart2211
Open the Cosmos2011
John Breakbang2211
The Mount of Helios1610
The Betrayer of Ironskin Clan3310
Sirius Aetherblade5010
Seer’s Gaze6019
Nova Matrixbender1510
Dimensional Piercer2010
Hester Dust329
Gravitational Grasp129
Galactic Sovereign Throne309
Desolation189
Cosmic Cataclysm689
V-8 Wanderer307
Tempest Bomb106
Sunfire City86
Market of Lost Wonders126
Epthus, the Lost Sword106
Clearsky Eyrie126
The Prisoner105
Stellar Harmony Tea Set205
Stealthy Spriggan255
Reforged Summoning Platform285
Path of Light405
Onglepod305
Moonfire Crystal Mouse305
Lynx Pawsong285
Eternitum the Space Lich105
Commander Bathr’Al105
Rhinagi Vogal144
Resonance Reach104
Nexus Phasebringer354
Indra’s Citadel224
Blossom’s Bite84
Warfang Fortress163
Purpuria the Mystic Flame83
Jorambe83
Galewraith, Protector of the Skies83
Galen Mosspaw83
Emma “Fixem” Shockbite83
Alister the Unbroken83
Aetherion of Boundless83
Rage of the Ancients62
Phoenix Quill122
Percival “Galeheart” Stormwind122
Ethereal Grove422
Dark Magic Hydra72
Ashenleaf52
Gorrash, The Dreadful691
Short-Range Forcefield Deployer19-2
Set Sail20-2
Eye of the Maelstrom8-2
Vortexis Walker20-3
Strange Mutated Mass22-3
Scarlet Devourer22-3
Rylan Windstrider19-4
Fire Flower of the Inferno26-4
Ward of Serendipity18-5
Valkeria Velorum18-5
Thorwing Thunderbeak18-5
Tech Nomad Nix18-5
Slade Darkfur18-5
Rockskin Shredder20-5
Kraken of the Inferno18-5
Crystalsilk Spider20-5
Caroline Candole18-5
Summon Crushing Rock14-6
Pyraethos of Solfera5-6
Cindermaw the Scalder25-6
Azure Vault56-6
Starhorn Capra18-7
Stratos Windrider60-8
Sir Reynard15-8
Quantum Boots15-8
Mirage Terrain12-8
Floral Diadem of the Verdant Queen15-8
Floki, Born in Fire2-8
Desert Survivor NBC Suit15-8
Kishral Vivasynth, ChronoTitan14-9
Vulcan Vale5-10
Verdant Cliffwing15-10
Tik Nollegee13-10
Rootling Terror65-10
Pinkspore Dreamcap15-10
Oakthorn’s Elysium5-10
Glacium Keep5-10
Fungolith Colossus15-10
Fortress Orcscar5-10
Forgotten Draugr15-10
Feline Entity of Dreams35-10
Entangle45-10
Deep Pincer40-10
Celestium Heights5-10
Cairnvox Soulforger50-10
Bio-Circuit Plant5-10
Solaris Stormcaster44-11
Whiskey Raider11-12
Romalax Starwielder18-13
Experiment X7v1-355-13
Versi Holoheart40-15
Xyrendra of Dimensional Forces50-18
Sylira Shadowstalker50-18
Deconstruct40-19
Viking Sage of the Forge30-20
Tony “Fortune Hunter” Thickfur48-20
Redstooling Hunter42-20
Soul Jar Mastery40-24
Sirocco Blast40-24
Rend40-24
Azure Sky Cetacean50-25
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