Enter: Nidhoggr
Nidhoggr, One Year Later — Why This Change Matters
Nearly a year ago — December 30th, 2024 — The People’s Guild submitted what became one of the most debated proposals of the Rebellion era: a rework of Nidhoggr, the Dragon airdrop summoner.
For those who want to revisit that original discussion, the full proposal can be found here:
https://peakd.com/hive-13323/@thepeoplesguild/nidhoggr-adjustment-proposal-addressing-airdrop-balance-and-improving-tactics
The core issue was simple:
Nidhoggr wasn’t delivering on the promise of what an airdrop summoner should be.
For a card positioned as the crown jewel of the presale – the one YGG earned the right to design — it quickly fell into obscurity.
Among all the legendary Rebellion summoners, Nidhoggr led the second-fewest teams into battle. That number alone said everything.
Furthermore, despite being the most mana-costly summoner in the game, being handicapped by its Forced Reduction debilitation meant it never led teams into battle in the biggest mana matches, a fact that was thrust further into the spotlight with the recent adjustments to battles' average mana caps.
But the DAO proposal to rework the card failed. And the deciding vote didn’t fail because the voter disliked the idea — they explicitly said they hoped the team, not the DAO, would handle necessary corrections.
And now, months later, the team finally has.
And in my view, they absolutely made the right call.
Doing Right by YGG — and by the Players Who Bought the Dream
It’s important to remember what Nidhoggr represented.
YGG invested heavily to earn the design slot for the premier Dragon summoner of the set. Players invested heavily in the presale expecting something powerful, flexible, meta-relevant — the kind of card Dragon is historically known for.
Instead, the card landed flat.
The design didn’t match the hype.
And Dragon’s identity eroded further while dual-element summoners took over the high-mana landscape.
Whether intended or not, Nidhoggr’s original design did not honor the expectations around that airdrop.
This change corrects that.
It restores dignity to the design.
It respects the spirit of the presale.
And it acknowledges what many players felt from day one:
Nidhoggr deserved to be more.
Dragon Needed This Change — Badly
Over the past 2 years, Dragon has lost its traditional place as the premier “big mana, big ceiling” faction.
Dual-element summoners did not just join the conversation — they supplanted Dragon almost entirely.
What made Dragon exciting historically?
Its ability to slot into any lineup and amplify it
Dominant, high-mana powerhouse builds
The creative freedom to draft without elemental constraints
All of that had quietly eroded.
This rework gives Dragon its foundation back.
It makes Dragon matter again.
The new Nidhoggr isn’t just stronger — it’s more interesting, more flexible, more distinctive and more capable of anchoring a top-tier lineup. It creates build opportunities for Dragon that simply haven't existed in our latest iteration of Modern format.
For the first time in many moons, Dragon feels like a deliberate strategic choice again, not just a luxury pick for when nothing else fits.
From a gameplay perspective, this change doesn’t just help Nidhoggr — it strengthens the entire meta.
On Precedent — Why Adjusting Cards After Minting Is the Right Call
This is the part where the controversy really lives.
With this rework, Splinterlands has clearly signaled that minted does not automatically mean untouchable. And for some players, that crosses a line.
They worry about instability, shifting goalposts or the sanctity of “permanent NFTs.”
I hear that concern.
But here’s the truth:
A TCG that refuses to fix mistakes is a broken TCG.
No competitive game — digital or physical — remains balanced forever. Some designs don’t age well. Some fall flat. Some warp the meta in ways no one expected. Freezing these outcomes in permanently doesn’t protect players; it condemns the game to stagnation.
For me, this change increases trust.
I trust a team that is willing to protect the meta.
I trust a team that prioritizes fairness and fun.
And I trust a team more when they make difficult adjustments because it’s in the best interest of gameplay — not because it’s the easiest path.
Some see this as the team overreaching.
I see it as Splinterlands stepping into the reality of a modern, living TCG.
Balance changes aren’t threats.
They’re maintenance.
They’re care.
They’re stewardship.
They’re how you build a game meant to last.
The DAO Was Early — The Team Was Right — and the Game Is Better For It
The original TPG proposal wasn’t meant to dictate exact stats. It was meant to start a conversation the community needed:
What should Nidhoggr actually be?
The proposal failing didn’t end that conversation — it simply delayed it. And ironically, the reasoning behind the final “no” vote showed clear support for the change conceptually.
The spirit of the proposal was right.
The timing was wrong.
Now the team has taken the baton and executed the change correctly.
They honored YGG.
They honored the presale.
They honored gameplay.
They honored the future Dragon players will build.
And in the process, they established a precedent that I believe strengthens the long-term health of the game:
Card adjustments are not betrayals — they are proof of stewardship.
In Closing — Nidhoggr Finally Feels Like Nidhoggr
After more than a year of debate, frustration, stagnation and unmet expectations, Nidhoggr is finally the summoner it was meant to be.
A centerpiece.
A flagship.
A reason to play Dragon again.
This isn’t just a good change — it’s a necessary one.
And from where I stand, the Splinterlands team deserves real credit for making it.
Thank you, team.
Dragon is back.
And the meta is better for it.
Enter: Nidhoggr
Bam. Spot on.
Now we need to fix the mistake of changing the NAMES of cards that go back to the BETA era. Some things need to be corrected, stats being one when 'off' as was done here.
But the NAMES of cards... that's a whole other topic... and again I hope the team 'makes it right' like they did here!!
Korjack who?
Too right mate !!, better late than never, but it shouldn't have been so late.
I'll take better late than never all day. Cheers Tarab!
Well said. I'm glad the team stepped in and made the adjustment.
Niddy is finally in his rightful place near the top of the pecking order as a great Dragon summoner. Cheers UM!
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I love YGG but I can't agree with this.
To me this is one of the greatest mistakes Splinterlands has ever made. I'd take a Soulkeep mistake because that's an honest mistake, this one isn't. It takes away the whole point of ownership.
To start, the community should not be making decisions like this. Nor any gameplay decisions. But the team should not change cards after they are released, except for very few exceptions. Making small changes to stats, especially adjustments below max level is perfectly fine. Fixing abilities that aren't working as intended is also fine. The rework to Armored Strike makes it function like most people would expect, which is much better. The rework to Weapons Training was less ok since it was a pretty big buff and it had nothing to do with expectation on how it should work. Heloise added ability was ok because it existed before Final Rest and it would be much weirder to have Final Rest having added text to exclude Heloise.
Nidhoggr sucked. I saw Eternal Tofu and bought it right away. I saw Nidhoggr and I knew I didn't need it. Changing cards later takes away from these decisions. The moment I saw Nidhoggr I knew it wouldn't be good and most people did too. They had more than a month to change it before it was actually released. But that's not a reason to change it. Being a legendary dragon summoner also isn't. Being an airdrop also isn't.
All TCGs have cards that are amazing cards that suck and everything in between. A card sucking is no reason to buff it. Even ignoring non legendary dragon summoners, we can take a look at Sheng Xiao. It might have been better than pre-buff Nidhoggr in many scenarios but there was also almost no reason to use it over Akane, while there were some games for pre-buff Nidhoggr. So, while it might have been easier to use Xiao than Nidhoggr, Nidhoggr had more uses. Where's the buff to Sheng Xiao?
Dragon with Akane was pretty powerful in 99 mana. None of the dual splinter summoners could use Rage or a few other big mana dragons.
The problem is that now Nidhoggr is strictly the best summoner in Modern for any game with 70+ mana (not just for Dragon). And it's also probably the best even down to 50 mana. That means that any game where dragon is available and there's enough mana, if one player has Nidhoggr and the other doesn't, Nidhoggr is gonna win unless they mess up the team. This is terrible design. I've been losing a bunch of games to Nidhoggr. It's Nidhoggr spam season in Modern.
Also, cards don't exist in a vacuum. It's not like buffing one card doesn't affect the others. Akane became way less useful because Nidhoggr is simply better in almost every situation now unless it's very low mana.
This is the web3, we pay for the cards and we pay a lot for them. This isn't the same as web2 games doing buffs and nerfs.
On top of that, in regular games there's usually a prohibition of participating in the competition and the market for people on the team and sometimes even family members. That doesn't happen here. What's stopping someone with knowledge that a card is going to be buffed to buy a bunch of copies? Especially because it's easy to have alts that the community doesn't know about.
Apparently this was also talked about before in a random non-official podcast but why did some people have access to this information and were sharing it like that? Players should not be expected to watch podcasts to know something so important.
Appreciate the thoughtful response here. Even if we land differently on this one, the conversation is important. For me, the core issue isn’t about undermining ownership — it’s about preserving a healthy, competitive TCG. Comparing Nidhoggr to stock, core-set cards like Sheng Xiao or Akane misses the mark — those were standard releases, not airdrops specifically designed as presale rewards and purchased as such. A card as central as Nidhoggr — the premier Dragon airdrop, the #1 presale prize, the YGG-designed summoner — simply wasn’t meeting the expectations or gameplay role it was intended to fill. Leaving it weak “because that’s how it launched” would have done more long-term damage to presale confidence, gameplay quality and Dragon’s identity than a careful adjustment ever could.
It’s also important to clarify: this was not the community dictating a change. The community expressed discontent, yes — but the team evaluated that feedback (hey, nidhoggr is a dogshit card), looked at the usage data (proved it's a dogshit card) and independently agreed that the most expensive, most celebrated presale card from Rebellion deserved better. This wasn’t governance overreach or DAO meddling – it was the team correcting a clear design miss. And regarding the podcast mention — the podcast that was called out was The People’s Guild and I can say with absolute certainty there was no alpha or inside hint about this rework coming. I was there and, while I have always hoped it would eventually come, I had no idea.
I understand concerns about precedent and post-mint adjustments, but to me, this change actually strengthens trust. It shows the team is willing to fix problems, protect the meta and support long-term game health rather than hide behind immutability.
Could communication around these kinds of changes improve? Absolutely.
Should there be clearer windows and transparency? Yes.
But the alternative — locking the game into imbalance because we’re afraid to touch a minted card — is worse for both gameplay and the economy. I’d rather see Splinterlands iterate toward a healthy meta than leave Dragon’s flagship summoner in the dumpster forever.
We could discuss the health of the game regarding alterations of cards, if we were talking about a nerf. Although, I would also be very against it. The balance can be achieved by printing other cards that fight it.
Even if you consider it special because it is designed by whoever spent the most on the pre sale, it's still just a card like any other from the core set. Sure, the name and maybe a few other things (I don't know exactly what because I never participated in the process) get designed by the person/group but it's still a card from the core set that you can open on packs, just not right as the set launches.
A bad card doesn't hurt a TCG, even if it's supposed to be special. Sure, people might be annoyed but not to the same degree a very OP card affects the meta. That's the biggest thing about this. Resources were spent for something that, at best, was totally unnecessary.
I didn't listen to the podcast so I don't know what was said but in Tavern some people said that it had been hinted at in the podcast. Regardless, the most important thing about the ethical aspect is that as soon as the team starts working on a buff, anyone with that knowledge can take advantage of this information and it is impossible to stop abuse.
And there's obviously the economic and gameplay aspects. Anyone who owned the card got benefitted, anyone who didn't and buys it now or faces it is losing out. Anyone with other dragon summoners loses out. And I already noticed that the meta is worse now because any big mana game where dragon is available, Nidhoggr is the best choice. Before, people had to choose between Akane and getting access to the big dragon monsters or Tofu/Lorkus and get better abilities but not use those strong monsters. Now they just pick the best abilities and have the big monsters.
Thanks for sharing! - @azircon
