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.Its a neutral card. Isnt SK the real problem?
I'm convinced that the main reason why Ethereal is such a powerful card is he's unkillable in most cases.Ethereal seems fine 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.I'm convinced that the main reason why Ethereal is such a powerful card is he's unkillable in most cases.
I'm thinking here everyone knows well that SK has no problem with Etherals, just like with anything else.Or you can just play SK SW and just win the game.
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
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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
Exactly what I was thinking too. In it's current form it's just cheap af.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 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.
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).
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.