First impressions of ST changes 5.1

[Barracuda88]

1. Deadeye Ambush: So... no trap elves anymore, and the "ambush leader" is actually going to be playable with "just" elves. Might even be a better match now than dryad-spawning Strike. Kind of a boost for elf decks, I guess? Maybe? Sucks for Ambush decks, though. No leader or elf synergy anymore, which leaves deck builders to Hawker support and... what? Those goofy pyros? I'll probably make a nice meme deck of it later today for a good laugh.
2. Yaevinn. Aw man. This was one bonkers OP card ST had. A 7p sniper you could absolutely SWING a tall deck with. I expected maybe a point or two provision raise, but a 50% nerf? F.
3. Barclay. A dwarf equivalent of Yaevinn, except no one actually used it, because unlike hard removal, it's so easy to counter a boost. Same 50% nerf though, effectively turning him into a Mahakam guard that costs 7p instead of 4, with the HUGE PERK of boosting another unit instead of self. Great job. No one will ever play this card again.
4. The Boar. Don't really get this change. Is this supposed to help movement decks? Can't figure it out. Will have to test.
5. Mystic Echo. As expected, the ME fix is based solely on the Brokilon cheese. Is 1 provision nerf going to fix the cheese? Probably not. Is it going to make building a non-cheese ME decks harder? Yes. Yes it will.
6. CoH. Play a card ability nerf. Needed, I guess, though it's not like it wasn't already restricted by build requirement.
7. Pitfall 7 to 6. Woohoo! Meme trap deck, here I come.
8. Etriel/Muriega nerf. Was either 7 for 7 by themselves, or up to 20 for 14 together in a perfect scenario. Now 7 for 8 by themselves, 20 for 16 together. Kind of fair, I guess, except the fact that there are double the restrictions compared to other cards: not only you have to play both for maximum value, you ALSO have to have the targets.
9. Willow 6 to 5. Poison and harmony. Fine.
10. Bowman. Yay, a bone. So we don't just nerf, see? We buff, too! Probably going to replace the Officer as the "extra" elf in the deck now.
11. Feign Death. Honestly not sure why FD needed a nerf. The scenario is already laughable compared to almost any other. There's a reason ST never run the Caretaker.

Now, the good news: ...

 

[StrykerxS77x]

I'm eagerly waiting for the good news........ ohhhh boy!

 

[DRK3]

2. Yaevinn nerf - i think this was necessary, Yaevinn was really cheap and always provided way more value than its cost, and removal which SHOULD always cost more. Isengrim and Yaevinn were guaranteed picks on any elves deck, now Yaevinn might not be, but with a bit of row placement strategy he will still be worth it.

4. i think the change to boar is to make him worse in movement decks. If used without external movements, it should work exactly the same, but now you can longer move him to back row and use the attack every turn.

 

[rrc]

4. i think the change to boar is to make him worse in movement decks. If used without external movements, it should work exactly the same, but now you can longer move him to back row and use the attack every turn.

Boar always worked like that. With external movement, Malena or Brouver or even with Dragoons, you could always move him to Ranged from Melee and have 2 damage done every turn (theoretically). I always include Malena and Boar every time I want to try movement and get depressed.

The only change is, now, Boar can get zeal if we control a Dryad so he is 7 for 7 on deploy if there is a Dryad ally before he gets Boiling Oiled/Assisinated.

 

[Barracuda88]

2. Yaevinn nerf - i think this was necessary, Yaevinn was really cheap and always provided way more value than its cost, and removal which SHOULD always cost more. Isengrim and Yaevinn were guaranteed picks on any elves deck, now Yaevinn might not be, but with a bit of row placement strategy he will still be worth it.

4. i think the change to boar is to make him worse in movement decks. If used without external movements, it should work exactly the same, but now you can longer move him to back row and use the attack every turn.

2. Yeah, Yaevinn was definitely OP, but I still feel like this was too harsh. He was limited to elf deck builds and he was kinda useless in short rounds. 1 or 2 provision points woulda done the job, imo. And yeah, he might still be worth it, but even with the deadeye leader ability (can you spawn 3 deadeyes in the same turn?), you'll still spend at least half a round setting him up and he still needs a target to cash in.

4. Ohh, it makes sense now, the boar. They sure did show all those movement deck abusers ruling the meta! Yeah...

 

[Raziel_888]

Spoiler: Quote

1. Deadeye Ambush: So... no trap elves anymore, and the "ambush leader" is actually going to be playable with "just" elves. Might even be a better match now than dryad-spawning Strike. Kind of a boost for elf decks, I guess? Maybe? Sucks for Ambush decks, though. No leader or elf synergy anymore, which leaves deck builders to Hawker support and... what? Those goofy pyros? I'll probably make a nice meme deck of it later today for a good laugh.
2. Yaevinn. Aw man. This was one bonkers OP card ST had. A 7p sniper you could absolutely SWING a tall deck with. I expected maybe a point or two provision raise, but a 50% nerf? F.
3. Barclay. A dwarf equivalent of Yaevinn, except no one actually used it, because unlike hard removal, it's so easy to counter a boost. Same 50% nerf though, effectively turning him into a Mahakam guard that costs 7p instead of 4, with the HUGE PERK of boosting another unit instead of self. Great job. No one will ever play this card again.
4. The Boar. Don't really get this change. Is this supposed to help movement decks? Can't figure it out. Will have to test.
5. Mystic Echo. As expected, the ME fix is based solely on the Brokilon cheese. Is 1 provision nerf going to fix the cheese? Probably not. Is it going to make building a non-cheese ME decks harder? Yes. Yes it will.
6. CoH. Play a card ability nerf. Needed, I guess, though it's not like it wasn't already restricted by build requirement.
7. Pitfall 7 to 6. Woohoo! Meme trap deck, here I come.
8. Etriel/Muriega nerf. Was either 7 for 7 by themselves, or up to 20 for 14 together in a perfect scenario. Now 7 for 8 by themselves, 20 for 16 together. Kind of fair, I guess, except the fact that there are double the restrictions compared to other cards: not only you have to play both for maximum value, you ALSO have to have the targets.
9. Willow 6 to 5. Poison and harmony. Fine.
10. Bowman. Yay, a bone. So we don't just nerf, see? We buff, too! Probably going to replace the Officer as the "extra" elf in the deck now.
11. Feign Death. Honestly not sure why FD needed a nerf. The scenario is already laughable compared to almost any other. There's a reason ST never run the Caretaker.

Now, the good news: ...

1: Actually I've always thought that Eldain was kinda anti-trap since you can't revive them from graveyard or reuse them with Iorveth. You couldn't use it on the mantis and not at its best on mahakam horn. It also reduced the synergy with the pyroman dwarf or those 'if you control an artifact' cards.
5: ME is still fine, even with the Etriel/Muriega nerf. There are so many cheap but good bronzes now...
11: feign death by itself was ok(ish, compared to other scenarios at least) but could end in a huge swing in elves swarm decks and even more now with eldain.