Ethereal seems fine in most cases.
This interaction is where it feels broken. Being able to use your leader every turn is just too much value when you get +3 points on top of that.
So it's a complicated issue to solve. Neither the leader or ethereal seem problematic on their own, but when combined they become frustrating.
The best way to beat it as it is is to keep pushing and not allow them to bully you out of the round with that early combo. I know it is easier said than done at times.
This interaction is where it feels broken. Being able to use your leader every turn is just too much value when you get +3 points on top of that.
So it's a complicated issue to solve. Neither the leader or ethereal seem problematic on their own, but when combined they become frustrating.
The best way to beat it as it is is to keep pushing and not allow them to bully you out of the round with that early combo. I know it is easier said than done at times.
Ethereal would probably still be in Ysgith at 11 provisions. I agree with Hegemonkey that's its a problem in that deck. You can use Ethereal in Arachas Swarm or even deathwish decks and its not a problem because you either need to set it up in previous turns and/or there's a finite amount of targets to transform. Its still a good card there, but it's not the star card of those decks.
Ethereal is just as bad. I fail to see how it being neutral matters when the only faction that can utilize it to this extent is monsters.
I'm convinced that the main reason why Ethereal is such a powerful card is he's unkillable in most cases.
Of course. Ask yourself how often you can deal 4 dmg to two different units in one turn. The devs should as well if they seriously think it's only worth 9 provisions.
And by the time you get rid of it you've already lost because you wasted so many resources getting rid of a single cheap card, maybe there's even a Caranthir for double the fun.
Ethereal is easily fixed; I can think of several ways:
1. Make power apply at start rather than at end of turn. This allows an opponent one round to respond.
2. Make Ethereal unconsumable. Then a locked unit blocks further conversion of summoned units.
3. Give fruits of ysgith power a cooldown period on top of its current condition.
4. Give Ethereal an additional property such as “Whenever ethereal takes damage, inflict one damage on adjacent units.” Then a row full of Ethereal has considerable drawbacks. (I don’t like this one as much because it favors Skellige.)
Dealing with OP Greatswords is not so simple.
1. Make power apply at start rather than at end of turn. This allows an opponent one round to respond.
2. Make Ethereal unconsumable. Then a locked unit blocks further conversion of summoned units.
3. Give fruits of ysgith power a cooldown period on top of its current condition.
4. Give Ethereal an additional property such as “Whenever ethereal takes damage, inflict one damage on adjacent units.” Then a row full of Ethereal has considerable drawbacks. (I don’t like this one as much because it favors Skellige.)
Dealing with OP Greatswords is not so simple.
Or you can just play SK SW and just win the game. 
Since ST is now shite, I wanted to join the gang and tried SK. I had faced Caranthir, Renew, Ethreal (with Haunt, you know, the typical MO deck) and I had no problem in winning them. Yes, they get +4 points per turn, but hey, SK has no problem with that. Even if you don't draw well (no GS, no problem) it doesn't matter.
Since ST is now shite, I wanted to join the gang and tried SK. I had faced Caranthir, Renew, Ethreal (with Haunt, you know, the typical MO deck) and I had no problem in winning them. Yes, they get +4 points per turn, but hey, SK has no problem with that. Even if you don't draw well (no GS, no problem) it doesn't matter.
There seems to be a big with ethereal next to the beast. It keeps the strength that the beast had after transforming.
Ethereal is definitely undercosted, this was easy to see as soon as it was announced at 8prov., and the laughable nerf to 9prov. demonstrates the dev team doesnt understand their own game and its balance at all.
Ethereal is usually played turn 1 or 2, so its unlikely you'll be able to stop it without leader ability. You can lock it but its highly unlikely the opponent wont have a purify/move/consume to counter that lock.
I found the best way to deal with Ethereals is:
a) let them fill their rows, maybe they even miscalculate the space left and end up discarding cards. Then punish with lacerate or Lambert Swordmaster (not very good in this meta, except to deal with Ethereals or SY Fireswarm)
b) "out-engine" the Ethereal. 4pts per turn? NR laughs at that, and this is even easier considering Ethereals rarely packs much control to stop your engines
This is just an example. I even got tired of using the charges, and the opponent used Yrden R1 which i found amusing knowing what he had in store on R3 and much he would need it.
c) use SK and destroy Ethereal with Wild Boar of the Seas and Hemdalls
Ethereal is usually played turn 1 or 2, so its unlikely you'll be able to stop it without leader ability. You can lock it but its highly unlikely the opponent wont have a purify/move/consume to counter that lock.
I found the best way to deal with Ethereals is:
a) let them fill their rows, maybe they even miscalculate the space left and end up discarding cards. Then punish with lacerate or Lambert Swordmaster (not very good in this meta, except to deal with Ethereals or SY Fireswarm)
b) "out-engine" the Ethereal. 4pts per turn? NR laughs at that, and this is even easier considering Ethereals rarely packs much control to stop your engines
This is just an example. I even got tired of using the charges, and the opponent used Yrden R1 which i found amusing knowing what he had in store on R3 and much he would need it.
c) use SK and destroy Ethereal with Wild Boar of the Seas and Hemdalls
The best way I found is movement. You can demonize some very nice cards, like any tall unit or dettlaff/ruehin.
There's also row punish, locks, etc.
Admittedly, the fruit interaction is a bit whack, even so.
Maybe they should just change the description to:
Doomed.
If at the end of your turn the unit to the right is not a Demon or a token, transform it into a base copy of self.
The moment this card is not autoinclude in Fruits of Ysgith, is the moment this card becomes trash tier.
The leader provides best possible synergy with that card, thus if it isn't played it is even less so for any other leader.
Keep that in consideration. 10provision is probably ok.
And yeah this ability should be reserved for monsters only.
The leader provides best possible synergy with that card, thus if it isn't played it is even less so for any other leader.
Keep that in consideration. 10provision is probably ok.
And yeah this ability should be reserved for monsters only.
Exactly what I was thinking too. In it's current form it's just cheap af.
You can't "demonize" Ruehin as he is already a demon (and he is not seen much among Monster decks, so not the best example), but he can stop the transformation train - until consume comes.
As to your suggestion about Ethereal - he will be most useless with such a description as most played cards are of 3 base strength. For Ethereal to be somewhat good there has to be a 2 point body, all of which either require something to be on board or just a very slow cards in general (I highly doubt you will play wolfpack or peasant militia with Ethereal just to get +2 on him once or twice a game); the only "good" cards for Ethereal train is the witcher trio (which all of you consider laughable at this point) and oakcritters in ranged (which is a slow play with hopes that none of them gets removed).
Honestly I would suggest reducing Ethereal's base power to 3 and giving it 1 armor to be as difficult to remove, while still each generating 1 less point (so only 2 per turn, unlike the previous 3 per turn, which is a lot more justifiable considering how unanswerable Ethereal is).
Yeah, Ruehin is a demon. Not the best example. I was more referring to the dettlaff/ruehin consume combo, which can be disrupted by movement. I actually ran into a deck playing dettlaff/ruehin and ethereal right before posting that.
And as for it being useless, well, it would definitely be less useful that it is now, though wolfpack, the witchers and oakcritters are far from the only cards that could be played into it. There are golds, there are 1-point units such as the bomber, skirmisher, nekker. There are spies. That said, you probably won't be able to build your deck around Ethereal the play-it-and-forget-it eternal engine. It would be used in a more strategic, less greedy way.
The other decent option is, like IncognitoXI said, keep the tokens, but lower the body to 3, which would limit the cheese to 2 points a turn at least.
Nekkers have thrive, so turning them is just counterproductive; skirmisher can be 2 strength unit and bomber deals random damage, making him unreliable; besides you'd have to hope they'll stay on board to use Ethereal on them.
Before I wrote my first post here i did check all possible cards that would be "...somewhat good" for Ethereal to transform, golds included (which is why I said most cards require some set-up or board state). These are gold cards that will give +2 on transformation - all tutors at 8 provision, Whoreson's Freak show (after using insanity), Vincent Meis, Regis, Yenifer of Vengerberg, Aguara; True form, Geralt Yrden and Igni; NR Philipa and Avallac'h the Sage that give +3.
Spies are only used by Nilfgard (and not too many of them I might add); only other spies that can be transformed are Villem (which is not used due to his inconsistency) and Sabrina (which is usually activated immediately).
Also trust me - had developres REALLY done what you suggest, they'd see just as much complaints (if not more) about making Ethereal unplayable as they see now about him being OP (on which I tend to disagree).
It's the interaction between ethereal and fruits of ysgith thats being considered op, not ethereal on its own.
The easiest way to solve this is just give gernichoras fruit a demon tag. Ethereal would still be playable with every other token in the game while not being as mindless as it is now.
However I don't think this will happen anytime soon since it seems the devs wanted to make fruits of ysgith into a meta leader.
The easiest way to solve this is just give gernichoras fruit a demon tag. Ethereal would still be playable with every other token in the game while not being as mindless as it is now.
However I don't think this will happen anytime soon since it seems the devs wanted to make fruits of ysgith into a meta leader.