Leader Ability play rates and win rates in Season of Magic

[Six-Sided-Prism]

I like the idea of making Invigorate something which is able to be used repeatedly over the course of the game, but for it to be balanced, you would either need to increase the cooldown time (probably to 3 turns) or else make the effect buff a random unit in your hand instead of one you choose. If it was a straight copy of Royal Inspiration, it would almost definitely be broken. Buffing cards in the hand is strictly better than buffing cards on the field. Unfortunately, this entire conversation is probably moot. I don't see CDPR making any large changes to the game in the foreseeable future. They seem to only ever adjust the provision limits of leaders, and even that is done sparingly. Still, it's nice to dream.

 

[Barracuda88]

... If it was a straight copy of Royal Inspiration, it would almost definitely be broken. Buffing cards in the hand is strictly better than buffing cards on the field. ...

Tbh, I don't really see why that's supposedly to be some kind of an axiom. Why is it "strictly" better? RI can interact with Inspired tag. Onslaught can proc GS and Dagur and help with bloodlust abilities. Why are carryover points so much better? If that was actually true, Handbuff and vigor would have been all the rage, and it's never been tier one. Ever.

 

[Six-Sided-Prism]

Tbh, I don't really see why that's supposedly to be some kind of an axiom. Why is it "strictly" better? RI can interact with Inspired tag. Onslaught can proc GS and Dagur and help with bloodlust abilities. Why are carryover points so much better? If that was actually true, Handbuff and vigor would have been all the rage, and it's never been tier one. Ever.

It's the versatility. Buffing a unit on the battlefield will only increase your points for the current round whereas buffing a unit in your hand can increase either your current round score or a future one. There's an inherent advantage regardless of any additional benefits you may gain from said hypothetical unit's effects.

Although, I am willing to admit that with the current card pool, it might not matter too much. As far as I know, only a handful of Scoia'tael units have effects that benefit from handbuffing, and Aglaïs and Sheldon Skaggs are the only ones capable of generating a significant advantage. And as you mentioned, Northern Realms/Skellige have tons of cards that benefit from units being boosted/damaged on the battlefield, so Royal Inspiration and Onslaught have tremendous synergy with their respective factions.

 

[Biggubossa]

Nice to see which factions are strongest now