Artifact official screenshot of the Axe card

[Update]: Artifact 2.0 has been announced. There aren't many details just yet, but there will be a beta soon!

Valve's card game Artifact is in a bit of an unfortunate spot right now. Despite launching with some pretty respectable numbers, it has rather quickly deteriorated to the point where it averages less than two thousand players at any one moment. Whether this is due to the in-game economy, balance problems, lack of features or a combination of all three, I have no idea, but it's becoming quite apparent that Artifact will need a lot of work in order to live up to its potential.

With that in mind, I am glad to say that Valve has now released yet another balance patch, as well as a briefly stated that they are "still in it for the long haul" with Artifact. In classic Valve tradition they didn't exactly elaborate what their plans for Artifact are, but I can only hope they'll manage to turn the ship around like they've already done with the early version of CS:GO.

As for the update itself, it's mostly a bunch of item balance changes and bug fixes. You can find all of the details over at Steam, but if you're just interested in the balance changes, here's everything that's being tweaked:

Blade of the Vigil: Cleave increased from +2 to +4

Keenfolk Plate: Added "Equipped hero's attackers have -1 Armor"

Stonehall Pike cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold

Stonehall Plate cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold

Barbed Mail cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold 

Assassin's Veil cost reduced from 6 gold to 4 gold

Phase Boots cost reduced from 6 gold to 5 gold

Broadsword cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold

Keenfolk Musket cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold

Chainmail cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold 

Fur-lined Mantle cost reduced from 7 gold to 6 gold

Red Mist Maul cost reduced from 10 gold to 9 gold

Obliterating Orb cost reduced from 10 gold to 9 gold

Ring of Tarrasque cost reduced from 12 gold to 10 gold

Cloak of Endless Carnage cost reduced from 13 gold to 10 gold 

Claymore cost reduced from 15 gold to 14 gold

Platemail cost reduced from 15 gold to 12 gold

Hero's Cape cost reduced from 15 gold to 12 gold

Once Valve announces what exactly they have planned for Artifact, or when they release a major update, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, I hope you have fun!