9 Kings Adds a Literal Time Lord — Here’s Why That’s a Big Deal for Deckbuilder Fans

9 Kings Just Bent Time – And The Roguelite Deckbuilder Is Better For It

Time mechanics usually scream gimmick, but this update actually caught my attention. Hooded Horse and Sad Socket just added the King of Time to 9 Kings, pushing the roster to a proper nine and slipping time travel directly into a run. As someone who bounces between Balatro, Slay the Spire, and Monster Train, I don’t see many deckbuilders risk rewinding an active run. That’s the kind of swing that can either unlock new strategies or blow up balance. 9 Kings has quietly built a reputation for smart, emergent strategy during Early Access – so this is the right kind of experiment.

Key Takeaways

• The King of Time adds cards that reward both hyper-speed play and deliberate, slow setups – pacing becomes a strategic choice, not just a byproduct.
• Time-travel cards can send you back to earlier “years” in the same run, potentially letting you re-route decisions with new information.
• The new Rainbow perk lets you ban specific Kings from a run — huge quality-of-life for players sick of hard-counter matchups.
• It’s a free update to a $19.99 Early Access game that already holds a 92% Very Positive rating and a Golden Joystick nomination.

Breaking Down the Update: Tempo Is Now a Resource

The King of Time’s core idea is simple but spicy: some cards reward you for playing fast, others for playing slow. Most deckbuilders nudge you toward one tempo based on your deck archetype — draw-&-dump combos push speed; control shells stall. 9 Kings is explicitly incentivizing both ends of that spectrum within a single kit. That creates meaningful tension in hand management: do you burn through your turn to trigger “rush” payoffs, or sandbag plays to stack delayed effects? If the card pool supports both routes, this King might be the most replayable archetype in the game.

The headline, though, is the literal time travel. Cards that rewind you to earlier “years” in a run aren’t just cute flavor — they’re run-shaping levers. Imagine whiffing on an event or misreading a matchup, then rewinding with a stronger deck and better scouting. The upside is obvious; the design risks are, too. Do resources duplicate or get re-rolled? What happens to items you picked up after the rewind point? Does the RNG seed stay stable to prevent degenerate loops? If Sad Socket threads the needle, this will feel less like a cheat button and more like an advanced planning tool for veterans who love route optimization.

The Rainbow Perk Is Sneaky-Important

Alongside the new King, there’s a Rainbow perk that lets you ban specific Kings from appearing in your run. That’s a small line in patch notes with big implications. Roguelites live or die on the “one more run” itch, but nothing kills momentum faster than repeatedly hitting your worst matchup. Opt-in bans give players agency without flattening difficulty — you’re curating your experience, not toggling an easy mode. I’ve seen similar ideas in community mods for other deckbuilders, and when developers embrace it officially, run variety tends to increase because players aren’t rage-quitting out of hard counters.

Pair that with balancing and general QoL improvements, and this reads like the kind of foundation patch that sets up a long tail of content. The studio even says the “foundations are finally complete” with nine kings in the mix — which sounds less like “we’re done” and more like “now we can build interesting game modes on top.” That’s consistent with how Hooded Horse handles Early Access across its strategy lineup: lock the core, then iterate hard.

Why This Matters Right Now

We’re in a renaissance for card roguelites, and originality is getting harder to find. Balatro twisted scoring economy, Wildfrost doubled down on positional play, and now 9 Kings is taking a shot at timeline manipulation mid-run. That’s a genuinely fresh angle. It also aligns with what the community has been rewarding: games that let you express mastery through planning, not just raw APM or luck. The rewind mechanic could empower deep thinkers without shutting out newcomers, especially if the UI clearly communicates what rewinding preserves versus resets.

And yes, value matters. This is a free update to a $19.99 Early Access title with a 92% user rating and over 12,000 reviews, plus a nomination for Best Early Access at the Golden Joysticks. That doesn’t magically guarantee quality, but it signals a healthy feedback loop between devs and players — the exact environment where risky mechanics can mature instead of getting rolled back at the first sign of trouble.

What I’ll Be Watching

Three things will make or break this update. First, clarity: time travel is only fun if the rules are transparent. If I’m rewinding, I want tooltips that spell out what I keep, what I lose, and how map states change. Second, balance: the fast/slow split needs parallel power ceilings so one pacing path doesn’t invalidate the other. Third, meta health: the Rainbow ban is fantastic, but if the King of Time becomes oppressive, the perk shouldn’t be a band-aid that papers over deeper issues.

For now, I’m excited. 9 Kings was already a spotlight in the strategy roguelite space; giving players the power to mess with time and curate matchups feels like a smart, player-first escalation rather than empty spectacle. If the promised new modes land, this could be the update that graduates 9 Kings from “promising EA darling” to a staple in the genre.

TL;DR

The King of Time update doesn’t just add a new boss — it reframes how a run unfolds by turning pacing into a deliberate choice and letting you rewind years mid-run. The Rainbow ban perk is a stealth MVP for player agency. If the rules are clear and the balance holds, 9 Kings just leveled up in a way that actually matters to deckbuilder fans.