I was playing a lot of Northern Realms lately (right before I decided to not play until I see if the next patch fixes this horrendously awful meta), and I've noticed a lot of cards being very powercrept, so I decided to make a thread about how to bring them back to life a bit. I will try to keep the changes humble but noticeable.
Ban Ard Tutor: Make it be able to boost a non-mage by 2.
Temple Guard: Remove the row lock.
Temerian Infantry: Either make him 4 provisions or buff his base power to 4...
Lyrian Landsknecht: idk, at the very least give him 1 armor so his inspiration can't be pinged as easy lol.
Rivian Pikeman: Imagine if it had "Bonded: Resupply buffs by 2 instead." but then reduce the damage on his order down to 1 OR if he was 5 power and Veiled (could be compared to Dun Canel Guardian which is also currently a useless card, though then that would mayybe be too many Veiled units in NR which could rly then pwn some other decks that rely on giving statuses so I am not a fan of this one)... OR simply make him 4 provisions.
For this one I offered 3 different options to make him playable simply because it's such a horrible card atm that you can't go wrong with buffing it lol (well, obviously you can but you gotta be really bad at balancing then).
Carroballista: Remove the row lock from it's order.
WHY does this card even have a row lock for it's order?? It makes no sense, not only does it cripple the card but it also makes no sense when you look at the card art since it's a ballista on a horse-drawn cart THUS it's a MOBILE light artillery weapon, thus moving it around is made much easier since it's not static artillery.
Reinforced Trebuchet: Reduce provisions down to 4.
I understand that this card is intended to be NR's mirror to NG's Alba Pikeman (who are 5 provisions) but the simple fact is that "crew" condition is now much harder to pull off then "bonded" and it's rly not worth the hustle.
Zoria Runestone: Make it Warfare or Spell.
For obvious synergy since currently it has no synergy whatsoever and might as well be a 4 provision card that would still not see any play cuz of randomness. :]
Kerrack Frigate: I'd just give it Zeal on the condition you have Devotion (it's honestly a decent card as is).
Sile de Tanserville: Give her a shield, OR give her a shield AND 5 power AND increase provisions to 7.
I offer 2 suggestions here (though I am more a proponent of the 1st one).
Odrin: Complete rework needed! Explained below.
4 Power, 6 provisions, gold.
Once per turn: Buff self by 2 if a unit on this row uses it's order.
Inspired: Also buff adjacent units by 1.
I actually tried playing this card one game just to see how it goes and it went pretty damn bad lol. He felt like a 5 provision bronze, and even then not a very good one.
But this is not the main problem - The main problem with this card is that it is completely redundant with the existence of Trollololo, because both of these cards try to fit THE EXACT SAME PURPOSE, except Trollbro does it slightly better. I've instead devised a way to make Odrin work completely different and thus not compete with Trollololo.
Bloody Flail: Increase the minimum amount of instant damage to 3 (up from 0) and reduce maximum amount of bleeding to 5.
This way it's at least not SUPER SLOW cuz, at 8 bleeding this card is impossible to use practically since you usually want to remove stuff earlier rather then 5 turns in after which the card becomes useless lol.
Trollololo: Give the bro a cooldown (3) (or 2).
Obviously the problem with this card is that you have to decide when to stop accumulating armor and turn it into points... Very awkward and honestly an unfair handicap to the poor chap, no sense for it to be like that. :/ By giving him a cooldown we fix this problem and give him slight synergy with other cards that interact with the cooldown effect in NR. He's still not amazing card, I mean I don't see him competing with the likes of FLEDER or Crow Clan Preachers (I think they need a slight nerf but nvm now), but a humble yet still playable card he would be (always the option to reduce provisions to 6 exists but I like to be very careful with buffs).
Botchling: Already talked about it here ==> old Botchling thread
Nathaniel Pastodi: Decrease provisions to 6.
Ves: Reduce her cooldown to 2 (down from 3).
The fact that she can only give zeal every THREE of your turns makes her not a worthy card. At 3 cooldown she might as well be a 6 provision card.
Black Rayla: Decrease provisions to 7.
Am also contemplating to give her Zeal if Devotion...
Vandergrift: Reduce provisions to 7.
Vandergrift's Blade: Full rework needed but I don't have any ideas rn.
Sabrina's Inferno: Decrease provisions to 7 (down from 8).
This way it's in league with SK's Offering to the Sea.
Nenekke: 7 provisions; No row lock:
Fully heal a unit and then buff it by 1 (charges, zeal and stats stay the same ofc).
Currently a useless card at 9 provisions, so plenty of room for improvement.
Falibor: Decrease provisions to 10 (down from 11).
Philippa: Blind Fury: Decrease provisions to 10 (down from 12).
Prince Stennis: For him there are multiple options... 1st would be to just reduce his provision cost to 6 (down from 8) and call it done. Could also increase his power to 5 and then make him 7 provisions. If this sounds like a lazy and uninspired solution then I have another solution below.
6 power, 8 provision.
Order (Melee): Give Rupture to an enemy unit.
Order (Ranged): Boost all units in an allied row by 1.
Currently, being an 8 for 8, Prince Stennis is an unplayable card and thus is also an empty canvas on which we can make any new card we would like. I was previously thinking to give Dethmold in NR an order that gives Rupture, but since they recently buffed him into a somewhat playable though uninspiring state (mage swarm?), I decided to suggest a similar approach to Stennis (he did play a role in poisoning Saskia so this is a nod to that).
Dethmold having Rupture on order would actually make much sense since his flavor text is about making someone "vomit his own entrails". :]
Ban Ard Tutor: Make it be able to boost a non-mage by 2.
Temple Guard: Remove the row lock.
Temerian Infantry: Either make him 4 provisions or buff his base power to 4...
Lyrian Landsknecht: idk, at the very least give him 1 armor so his inspiration can't be pinged as easy lol.
Rivian Pikeman: Imagine if it had "Bonded: Resupply buffs by 2 instead." but then reduce the damage on his order down to 1 OR if he was 5 power and Veiled (could be compared to Dun Canel Guardian which is also currently a useless card, though then that would mayybe be too many Veiled units in NR which could rly then pwn some other decks that rely on giving statuses so I am not a fan of this one)... OR simply make him 4 provisions.
For this one I offered 3 different options to make him playable simply because it's such a horrible card atm that you can't go wrong with buffing it lol (well, obviously you can but you gotta be really bad at balancing then).
Carroballista: Remove the row lock from it's order.
WHY does this card even have a row lock for it's order?? It makes no sense, not only does it cripple the card but it also makes no sense when you look at the card art since it's a ballista on a horse-drawn cart THUS it's a MOBILE light artillery weapon, thus moving it around is made much easier since it's not static artillery.
Reinforced Trebuchet: Reduce provisions down to 4.
I understand that this card is intended to be NR's mirror to NG's Alba Pikeman (who are 5 provisions) but the simple fact is that "crew" condition is now much harder to pull off then "bonded" and it's rly not worth the hustle.
Zoria Runestone: Make it Warfare or Spell.
For obvious synergy since currently it has no synergy whatsoever and might as well be a 4 provision card that would still not see any play cuz of randomness. :]
Kerrack Frigate: I'd just give it Zeal on the condition you have Devotion (it's honestly a decent card as is).
Sile de Tanserville: Give her a shield, OR give her a shield AND 5 power AND increase provisions to 7.
I offer 2 suggestions here (though I am more a proponent of the 1st one).
Odrin: Complete rework needed! Explained below.
4 Power, 6 provisions, gold.
Once per turn: Buff self by 2 if a unit on this row uses it's order.
Inspired: Also buff adjacent units by 1.
I actually tried playing this card one game just to see how it goes and it went pretty damn bad lol. He felt like a 5 provision bronze, and even then not a very good one.
But this is not the main problem - The main problem with this card is that it is completely redundant with the existence of Trollololo, because both of these cards try to fit THE EXACT SAME PURPOSE, except Trollbro does it slightly better. I've instead devised a way to make Odrin work completely different and thus not compete with Trollololo.
Bloody Flail: Increase the minimum amount of instant damage to 3 (up from 0) and reduce maximum amount of bleeding to 5.
This way it's at least not SUPER SLOW cuz, at 8 bleeding this card is impossible to use practically since you usually want to remove stuff earlier rather then 5 turns in after which the card becomes useless lol.
Trollololo: Give the bro a cooldown (3) (or 2).
Obviously the problem with this card is that you have to decide when to stop accumulating armor and turn it into points... Very awkward and honestly an unfair handicap to the poor chap, no sense for it to be like that. :/ By giving him a cooldown we fix this problem and give him slight synergy with other cards that interact with the cooldown effect in NR. He's still not amazing card, I mean I don't see him competing with the likes of FLEDER or Crow Clan Preachers (I think they need a slight nerf but nvm now), but a humble yet still playable card he would be (always the option to reduce provisions to 6 exists but I like to be very careful with buffs).
Botchling: Already talked about it here ==> old Botchling thread
Nathaniel Pastodi: Decrease provisions to 6.
Ves: Reduce her cooldown to 2 (down from 3).
The fact that she can only give zeal every THREE of your turns makes her not a worthy card. At 3 cooldown she might as well be a 6 provision card.
Black Rayla: Decrease provisions to 7.
Am also contemplating to give her Zeal if Devotion...
Vandergrift: Reduce provisions to 7.
Vandergrift's Blade: Full rework needed but I don't have any ideas rn.
Sabrina's Inferno: Decrease provisions to 7 (down from 8).
This way it's in league with SK's Offering to the Sea.
Nenekke: 7 provisions; No row lock:
Fully heal a unit and then buff it by 1 (charges, zeal and stats stay the same ofc).
Currently a useless card at 9 provisions, so plenty of room for improvement.
Falibor: Decrease provisions to 10 (down from 11).
Philippa: Blind Fury: Decrease provisions to 10 (down from 12).
Prince Stennis: For him there are multiple options... 1st would be to just reduce his provision cost to 6 (down from 8) and call it done. Could also increase his power to 5 and then make him 7 provisions. If this sounds like a lazy and uninspired solution then I have another solution below.
6 power, 8 provision.
Order (Melee): Give Rupture to an enemy unit.
Order (Ranged): Boost all units in an allied row by 1.
Currently, being an 8 for 8, Prince Stennis is an unplayable card and thus is also an empty canvas on which we can make any new card we would like. I was previously thinking to give Dethmold in NR an order that gives Rupture, but since they recently buffed him into a somewhat playable though uninspiring state (mage swarm?), I decided to suggest a similar approach to Stennis (he did play a role in poisoning Saskia so this is a nod to that).
Dethmold having Rupture on order would actually make much sense since his flavor text is about making someone "vomit his own entrails". :]
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