Anna Henrietta... Create, RNG, high variance (she can create any card). Just wow. Playing against Anna Henrietta is like playing around Kambi; you want to, but it's not really possible because your strategy is based on a sequence, needs to have some cards on the board and needs a particularly good card played later. Those are some fundamental concepts of "strategy" aren't they? If you don't follow that strategy, you will lose anyway. So this is a strategy game where your endgame is revealed by an opponent leader, who then can use that strategy against you and pick a Geralt or Draug for example. She can create any card, no matter how many provisions. How is this fair? It is simply not in my opinion. So let's change Anna Henrietta.
Edit: I made a suggestion, but it was a bad one. Still thinking what would be better for Anna.
Although I despise her ability when I face her, I must admit that it's very creative and unique, so I can't propose a better one. But, if they rework NG as they say, they should definitely lower her provisions because her ability can be too powerful. 13p like Fransesca, Foltest and Harald is fair, I think. She is fine in NG's current state though.
IMO Woodland and Bran are the most powerful and popular leaders who need some serious rework or nerf to their provisions.
No, she is fine. Her ability can be good and bad at the same time depending on which cards you have on your hand so she is perfectly fine. Besides sometimes when she steals a powerful card from your hand she can't do very much with it because that card might need some sinergy so... at least for me she is balance because of this.
She is one of the best leaders to face monster decks too.
Although I despise her ability when I face her, I must admit that it's very creative and unique, so I can't propose a better one. But, if they rework NG as they say, they should definitely lower her provisions because her ability can be too powerful. 13p like Fransesca, Foltest and Harald is fair, I think. She is fine in NG's current state though.
IMO Woodland and Bran are the most powerful and popular leaders who need some serious rework or nerf to their provisions.
Woodland is fine because right now there is a lot of tall removal in the game. You have a lot of options (cards) to deal with it... so Woodland is fine. And yes, Bran is extremely powerful right now because Coral and some other Skellige cards.
Actually all of the complaints lately go back to one design flaw - and that's not even RNG. It is unlimited cards. Ability to grab any card, or grow in strength with no upper limit, or unlimited recharging, etc.
All cards and leaders, where the ability is somehow limited (like do 1 dmg per turn, or something) work perfectly well in terms of competitive gameplay. But the matches currently are mostly won by the player that has more unlimited cards (or can get them through to the end)
And regarding Anna, it's not gamebreaking that she can do it once in the match. But then there's Damien and she's already at 2x. That's when it starts to hurt.
I'm not yet to a competitive deck with Nilfgaard, so my knowledge is limited. But I would bet there's cards that copy Damien for a third of fourth time Anna ability. And that will break your neck.
Actually all of the complaints lately go back to one design flaw - and that's not even RNG. It is unlimited cards. Ability to grab any card, or grow in strength with no upper limit, or unlimited recharging, etc.
All cards and leaders, where the ability is somehow limited (like do 1 dmg per turn, or something) work perfectly well in terms of competitive gameplay. But the matches currently are mostly won by the player that has more unlimited cards (or can get them through to the end)
And regarding Anna, it's not gamebreaking that she can do it once in the match. But then there's Damien and she's already at 2x. That's when it starts to hurt.
I'm not yet to a competitive deck with Nilfgaard, so my knowledge is limited. But I would bet there's cards that copy Damien for a third of fourth time Anna ability. And that will break your neck.
Indeed, that ability to grab anything (and repeat) is not balanced at all. There's no provision limit on what she can grab, so how are her provision points decided? The only possibility is a rough average due to the high variance in value. A leader or a card with such a high variance is simply not balanced. And then, based on different experience with different decks, some people will say she is OP (getting their Geralt or Draug, or Ozzrel used against them) and others will say she is fine, because she didn't get much value. That's actually a sign that she is unbalanced, isn't it?
P.S. Shouldn't a card/ability like Damien be neutral to be fair?
Indeed, that ability to grab anything (and repeat) is not balanced at all. There's no provision limit on what she can grab, so how are her provision points decided? The only possibility is a rough average due to the high variance in value. A leader or a card with such a high variance is simply not balanced. And then, based on different experience with different decks, some people will say she is OP (getting their Geralt or Draug, or Ozzrel used against them) and others will say she is fine, because she didn't get much value. That's actually a sign that she is unbalanced, isn't it?
P.S. Shouldn't a card/ability like Damien be neutral to be fair?
No, and please stop complain. Just play her and you will see because she is perfectly fine. If you are keeping your stronger cards until the end of the match and then she copies one of them is your fault as player. Damien is fine too so stop.
I don't mind Henrietta actually, but I do mind Damien De La Tour, and all Henrietta deck seems to include this card. That's outrageous, if that card alone is not outrageous. Meaning all Nilgaard leaders can play their leader ability twice. That doesn't make much sense even through Nilgaard does need to become a better faction.
Henrietta is perfectly fine, her ability fits with Nilfgaard. Playing the ability once is not overpowered, it's pretty equal to most leader abilities/provisions. But playing it twice is overpowered. Yes, this can be stopped, but mostly it can't because all Henrietta's are desperate to play the leader ability twice, which means almost all of them brings purify units to remove a lock and/or a graveyard card to play the card from the graveyard. This alone is a sign that Henrietta + Damien = overpowered.
I think the issue is Damien De La Tour as a card in it's own right. Perhaps the provisions need to be 14, similar to Dandelion: Poet, and perhaps also the card power needs to be lower.
If every Henrietta is do desperate to play this card that they bring a 13 provision graveyard card to do so, there is something a bit suspicious about this combination.
I'm not yet to a competitive deck with Nilfgaard, so my knowledge is limited. But I would bet there's cards that copy Damien for a third of fourth time Anna ability. And that will break your neck.
No, and please stop complain. Just play her and you will see because she is perfectly fine. If you are keeping your stronger cards until the end of the match and then she copies one of them is your fault as player. Damien is fine too so stop.
Here we go with "complain" again. You don't agree, so I "complain". Can I complain about people who always use the word "complain"?
"keeping your stronger cards until the end of the match" For several decks this is fundamental for the strategy. For example, are you going to play Draug early? You will lose if you play powerful cards earlier because they don't get value. So that's why Anna is OP for several decks (especially with Damien) and not for others, similar to Usurper.
Why do all Henrietta decks bring purify and graveyard units to make sure they can play leader ability twice with Damian?
Damian is not fine, he is 11 provisions and allow ALL Nilfgaard leaders to use the leader ability twice. I'd agree it is fine if it was a 14 provision card like Dandelion: Poet.
Here we go with "complain" again. You don't agree, so I "complain". Can I complain about people who always use the word "complain"?
"keeping your stronger cards until the end of the match" For several decks this is fundamental for the strategy. For example, are you going to play Draug early? You will lose if you play powerful cards earlier because they don't get value. So that's why Anna is OP for several decks (especially with Damien) and not for others, similar to Usurper.
Do it before she can steal it. My answer is yes. Besides other finishers like Hubert or Foltest Pride for example are safe if you play them late because you need sinergies to get value. Seriusly she's fine.
I won't even play against Anna decks. A leader being able to reveal your entire endgame strategy is a cheap, highly unfair mechanic. Cards allowing her to potentially duplicate your endgame cards two or three times is something I'd even go as far as to call objectively broken.
Yeah, there are some workarounds, but the workarounds are highly situational whereas Anna is not. I mean, Anna is always there and nothing short of Usurper is going to change that. Meanwhile, you have to bank on the fact that you've got exactly what you need to counter the Anna play and that's pure RNG. Likewise, even a bad Anna reveal is a win for the Anna player because it still gives them the opportunity to strategize and try to play around whatever you had planned for that round. It's not even worth trying to play against imo and the fact that anyone would try to excuse it honestly boggles my mind.
I would like to see people here actually play Anna Henrietta themselves, and see how they have outrageous winrates I agree that Draug or Geralt are some of the cards that hurt to play earlier to play around Anna Henrietta, but there's always some cards that are weak against specific decks.
I mean just compare using Draug or Geralt against Eithne, there'll be nothing to Draug (everything will be removed ) and there'll be nothing to use Geralt at. So is Eithne broken too? As mentioned above, if anything a slight increase in provision cost for Damien or Anna Henrietta herself we can talk about, but having played Anna Henrietta (and moved on from playing her) I'm not sure even this is needed.
14 provisions for Damien please, and there is nothing wrong with Anna Henrietta. Those who complain about that are typically people with a "short engine" ending or some "special ending".
Seems it's more popular these days to complain about what goes against YOUR deck, than to complain about unbalanced things in the game in the interest of the game in general.
The outrage mob, "my deck is hurt by XYZ, so change it!". Be reasonable folks and try to talk about and suggest what is best for the game not your own deck. For me that is bumping Damien to 14 provisions, alike to Dandelion Poet. Refreshing a leader ability is a VERY powerful play, it should be expensive and make you think twice before including a card like that. 11 provisions is not that cost. 13 would maybe also work.
I think she is good, but not overpowered. She should probably remain as is until some meta is discovered.
Gutting her ability would remove a lot of flavor of the game
I have neither, and as I said, it's not Anna by herself. It's the combination of Anna with Damien and Kingslayer. What comes too short in this discussion is that Anna is not just copying your best cards. Anna also allows your opponent to see 3 of your cards. That's a potential 9 card reveal! How should one counter that? Some people play Usurper, but even that card can only block one Anna ability. Damien counters Usurper.
Sure, Anna on her own is (awkward but) fine. But nobody plays her as a bystander. When you see Anna, you always see a deck built around her. It's the same with Bran. On its own, Bran is just fine. It's the discard deck built around him, that makes it seem so powerful.
My proposal would be to not touch Anna, to increase Damien to 14 prov and to not allow him to be copied through Kingslayer. That would make Damien less attractive, Anna as a leader keeps her value and playing against such a deck is not quite as frustrating.
(Those with Anna decks that usually play ranked: Play your deck in season mode. Sure win against all decks, if you really know your cards and their synergies. Plus, it should be a lot of fun playing Anna a total of 5 times)
On her own I don't think she is better or worse than any of the other Nilfgaard leaders. But I rarely see any other Nilfgaard decks include Damien, and I always see Damien included in Anna Henrietta decks, so I might be wrong.
Thanks for sharing that, it was quite interesting, and it also shows that a "typical" Anna deck will bring Damien, and even cards to support him/duplicate him, like Kingslayer and renew. I'm just surprised you do not have the purify/assimilate card as well, to unlock Damien if needed and gain assimilate that works with your two Duchessa Informants. Quite typically alot of those Henrietta deck includes the purify/assimilate card as well. Even if the deck is not a spy deck, they use it to protect Damien.
I have neither, and as I said, it's not Anna by herself. It's the combination of Anna with Damien and Kingslayer. What comes too short in this discussion is that Anna is not just copying your best cards. Anna also allows your opponent to see 3 of your cards. That's a potential 9 card reveal! How should one counter that? Some people play Usurper, but even that card can only block one Anna ability. Damien counters Usurper.
9 card HAND reveal as well, not even deck reveal. Yeah, that is overpowered. Even 6 card HAND reveal is. Deck reveal would be different. 3x or possibly (expensive) 6x hand reveal is not something I would find outrageous.
My Usurper deck is perfectly capable of locking down Anna permanently. The only time it fails is if I'm silly enough to lock Damien instead of removing. In those cases Anna often plays purify/assimilate to unlock it, and I failed to prevent Anna.
My proposal would be to not touch Anna, to increase Damien to 14 prov and to not allow him to be copied through Kingslayer. That would make Damien less attractive, Anna as a leader keeps her value and playing against such a deck is not quite as frustrating.)
I don't think that would work. Kingslayer is suppose to be able to change into ANY card, and what you are suggesting is a 1 card exception. That sets a bad precedence and is a bad solution in general. I think bumping Damiens provisions is sufficient to make less people use Damien, and decrease the chance of Damien+Kingslayer+Renew replay. If Damien is 14, that would be 14+11(?)+13, which would seriously weaken the rest of the deck. Chance is, if Damien provision was increased, people would bring either "renew" or Kingslayer instead of both.
For this reason I think 13 provisions is not enough, but 14 would be enough. 9x reveal with risks, would be an expensive move and the risk/reward would change significantly.
But then again, I don't know how it would be for decks without alot of Nilfgaard locks or powerful destroys, but I personally think generic powerful destroys should be an auto include in almost all decks.
I agree that Draug or Geralt are some of the cards that hurt to play earlier to play around Anna Henrietta, but there's always some cards that are weak against specific decks.