After terrorizing the metagame for months, Disney Lorcana has announced that Bucky, Squirrel Squeak Tutor will undergo an errata effective August 9.
Much to the relief of many, Emerald’s “little uncommon that could” is finally being addressed, albeit in a different way than most expected. Rather than outright ban Bucky, Disney Lorcana has opted to errata the card, meaning its oracle text will be changed to a state deemed more balanced by the game’s developers. The change to Bucky is as follows:
Cost: 2 đź ® 3
Keyword: Ward đź ® No keyword ability
Updated ability: Squeak: Whenever you play a Floodborn character, each opponent chooses and discards a card. Whenever you play a Floodborn character, if you used Shift to play them, each opponent chooses and discards a card.
“Ursula’s Return gave Bucky players the opportunity to discard multiple cards from opponents’ hands as early as turn 2 while building up a board that was very difficult to interact with, creating a stressful environment that just wasn’t fun. Ward also made Bucky close to untouchable, taking away player agency to deal with a powerful and cheap threat. For these reasons, we’re increasing Bucky’s cost to 3 and removing Ward from him. Additionally, we feel that requiring Shift better represents the Floodborn experience, as many decks utilizing Bucky have mostly ignored using the Shift mechanic (outside of one sinister bird).”Ursula’s Return gave Bucky players the opportunity to discard multiple cards from opponents’ hands as early as turn 2 while building up a board that was very difficult to interact with, creating a stressful environment that just wasn’t fun. Ward also made Bucky close to untouchable, taking away player agency to deal with a powerful and cheap threat. For these reasons, we’re increasing Bucky’s cost to 3 and removing Ward from him. Additionally, we feel that requiring Shift better represents the Floodborn experience, as many decks utilizing Bucky have mostly ignored using the Shift mechanic (outside of one sinister bird).”
Ravensburger
While many are just happy to have the problematic card addressed, others have expressed concern with Disney Lorcana’s decision to heavily errata a physical card rather than just ban it. Typically, an errata is made to fix minor errors or add necessary clarification – something that Disney Lorcana has done in the past. With Bucky however, the errata represents a substantial change that makes the card virtually unplayable by competitive standards. Additionally, preexisting copies of Bucky will still have the old text, which is likely to lead to confusion for less enfranchised players.
Since Bucky is the first card to be functionally nerfed in this manner, only time will tell if the decision to errata rather than ban will be problematic. In the meantime, players can breath a little easier knowing the metagame for upcoming Disney Lorcana events will be squirrel-free.
The errata for Bucky will go into effect on August 9, coinciding with the local game store release of Shimmering Skies.
Read the original article from Disney Lorcana.