Make Greatswords less great
I'm not just talking about the card, but the deck that rules the meta. In past couple weeks it had the best win rate on high ranks (better than Brouver Spy abuse), and is one of the most popular decks.
The reason is the combination of powerful engines, insane consistency, resilience against most removal and some broken cards and combos that are overpowered even in isolation.
With all the nerfs happening and suggested to happen to Brouver and Henselt, I think it's only fair that this deck would also get some nerf.
So here's my package of suggestions to make the archetype a bit less strong.
My first variant may not work well cause it's as much a buff as a nerf, which may make him too strong just in a different way. I would change his effect to "Strengthen by 1 on turn end if it was damaged this turn." (Similar to Farseer buffing.)
It would result in: ( (+) I consider effectively a buff, (-) a nerf)
(-) It would only generate 4 points over 2 turns instead of 6 with lightship.
(-) Removing the reset would remove the quasi-immunity to damage. Damage happening in opponent's turn wouldn't even trigger his ability, and if he got damaged in own turn for multiple points (like weather + ship + Spearmaiden) it would still only be 1pt Strengthening.
(+) Both carryover and direct point generation would be more linear, no 2 turn cycle anymore. With lightship they would generate each turn 2 direct and 1 carryover points instead of 1 direct on first turn, then 5 direct point and 2 carryover on second. Some might argue though that the 2 turn cycle brought in a nice tactical layer when playing against the card, as in you need to use the your damage card in just the right moment. However it also make the card more binary, i.e. if they remove him you gained nothing in 2 turns.
(+) Since the effect would now check getting some damage this turn instead of damaged state, buffing him would no longer be counterintuitive but a viable option to keep him alive.
In the second variant I would simply remove reset effect and leave the rest mostly the same. I'd probably make it Strengthen by 1 each turn start instead of by 2 each 2 turns to compensate a bit, but this variant would still be more of a nerf than the first one.
I'm not just talking about the card, but the deck that rules the meta. In past couple weeks it had the best win rate on high ranks (better than Brouver Spy abuse), and is one of the most popular decks.
The reason is the combination of powerful engines, insane consistency, resilience against most removal and some broken cards and combos that are overpowered even in isolation.
With all the nerfs happening and suggested to happen to Brouver and Henselt, I think it's only fair that this deck would also get some nerf.
So here's my package of suggestions to make the archetype a bit less strong.
- Hym and Skjall shouldn't be able to pull Udalryk. While it's not part of the deck's core, it's just yet another Spy abuse, that's also crucial to why the archetype (and other SK decks) are more successful than they should be. In my opinion all Spy abuses should be eliminated, although I'd be happiest if they just eliminated CA Spies as a whole.
- Pirate Captain should pull random Dimun unit instead of choosing one. The Captain is the main reason of why the deck is so insanely consistent. It's one of the few real Bronze tutors, that actually fetches what you need (the only other example comes to mind is Heymaey Protector, but he rarely can capitalize on this). This mechanic shouldn't exist on a Bronze card and while I'm not a fan of random unit drawing it would put him in line with NG's Recruit and Dwarven Agitator. I think he would still remain good addition to the deck, but it would be at least a risky card to play until you have a Ship in the grave.
- Corsair's power should be lowered to 2 or even 1. It's a unit that puts another unit on the board, so it shouldn't be that strong. All other bronze cards that do this in one way or another give only 1 or 2 points in addition, and I see no reason why this one should provide more.
- Restore's set power should be lowered to 4 or 5. It's too easy 19pt Silver even with Bearmasters, with current Captain -> Corsair -> Longship it's also 19pt, but also includes an engine (and again not that hard to setup). Although the best solution would be to completely rework the card instead, cause I think it's bad design: in order to not be OP it relies on no low power targets to exist in the game, that would let him generate too much value (we've already failed on this one), and the "putting back to hand" mechanic just makes no sense, other than an interaction with Bearmaster and Veterans that is just too strong and easy to exist.
My first variant may not work well cause it's as much a buff as a nerf, which may make him too strong just in a different way. I would change his effect to "Strengthen by 1 on turn end if it was damaged this turn." (Similar to Farseer buffing.)
It would result in: ( (+) I consider effectively a buff, (-) a nerf)
(-) It would only generate 4 points over 2 turns instead of 6 with lightship.
(-) Removing the reset would remove the quasi-immunity to damage. Damage happening in opponent's turn wouldn't even trigger his ability, and if he got damaged in own turn for multiple points (like weather + ship + Spearmaiden) it would still only be 1pt Strengthening.
(+) Both carryover and direct point generation would be more linear, no 2 turn cycle anymore. With lightship they would generate each turn 2 direct and 1 carryover points instead of 1 direct on first turn, then 5 direct point and 2 carryover on second. Some might argue though that the 2 turn cycle brought in a nice tactical layer when playing against the card, as in you need to use the your damage card in just the right moment. However it also make the card more binary, i.e. if they remove him you gained nothing in 2 turns.
(+) Since the effect would now check getting some damage this turn instead of damaged state, buffing him would no longer be counterintuitive but a viable option to keep him alive.
In the second variant I would simply remove reset effect and leave the rest mostly the same. I'd probably make it Strengthen by 1 each turn start instead of by 2 each 2 turns to compensate a bit, but this variant would still be more of a nerf than the first one.
