Mid-Season Balance Patch: March 16th, 2026
Ok, I know nobody likes swabbing the decks but it’s gotten pretty ridiculous! These decks are absolutely filthy across all of Galaxy. Time to crack our knuckles and mop this back up.
The Mop Returns!
After Sorcerer’s Mop was retired to a magical janitorial closet upstate some 6 months ago, we have noticed that Toys have failed to keep up like we’ve wanted to in the format. To help them clean up the competition, we’ve decided it was time. The Mop is so back.
Card Changes
The Butcher & Butcher’s Cleaver
The Butcher and her Cleaver have been a favorite and powerful build-around since their induction with Candylar. When we design cards such as these, we often want them to be something fun to do but not at the expense of other strategies. Butcher has slowly edged into that later category and as such is taking two hits.
The first will slow the competition of her quest to the beginning of the fight. The second is a slight reduction in the additional stats the Cleaver grants. We hope this lets other archetypes be able to keep up with Butcher in the mid game.
Elm Minster
Elm Minster’s effect has slowly been overshadowed over time. We wanted to buff his ability but importantly give him a more targeted direction to help Mages specifically.
Charon
Charon is one of those Captains that has never quite lived up to our goals for him since his release and we wanted to give him a bit more reward for his mini-game of “replace the Golden character”.
Guardian of the Grove
Guardian of the Grove is kicking it up a notch and buffing all your slots! We are giving this legendary some more upside and a fancy new character type 👀
Puck & Pix
Puck & Pix have had a long history as some of the best picks early in games. Pix in particular has continued to result in more full heart losses than we prefer early in games. We like to maintain the symmetry between these two cards so we are reducing both to +2 bonuses.
Rudolph the Red
The fog has been rolling in and Rudolph the Red is here to light the way. We’ve decided to make his magic shine a little brighter so more people want to take him on their adventures!
Once Upon a Galaxy x PAX Collab
We are excited to announce a year-long collab with Penny Arcade and PAX!
If you are attending any PAX event this year, keep an eye out for the digital goodie bag and unlock Early Access to Baba Yaga and the sweet exclusive Baba Yaga alternate art illustrated and signed by Gabe!
but I might eat them.
The next event is PAX East March 26-29 and Baba Yaga joins Galaxy in April!
March Monthly
The March Monthly is coming later this week! There are a few quick changes we want to highlight:
- Monthly Tournaments will now grant normal game card rewards, Victory Loot and stars like normal async games.
- When you qualify for Day 2, you now get 2 entries!
Best of luck to all Monthly competitors, we are excited to see how folks learn and adapt from last month!
Other changes/fixes
- Lucky Leprechaun now works correctly when doubled with Timeline Duplicator.
- Rumpelstiltskin now works correctly with treasure discovery modifiers with the following exceptions:
- Lucky Chest and Luckier Chest
- Smug
- Boots of Magic Find
- Rumpelstiltskin now works when doubled, he can now find Timeline Duplicator and can be revealed off Thing in the Ice.
- You will receive 2 Treasure Shops and then 1 Normal Shop.
‘Til next time…
Another balance patch is in the books. Come let us know what you think in the Discord, on Bluesky, Reddit and Instagram.
If you haven’t left a review yet, it is an easy and free way to support Once Upon a Galaxy and we are really grateful to everyone who has taken the time to do so.
Til next time,
See you in the stars…
