I can't speak for your quality as a player/how well you are piloting NR, but I can say that the meta has developed into a state where when people are using tech cards to deal with the strongest opposition that NR is what they'll be targeting. It's why you suddenly saw a card like Hen Gaedth sword pop up out of nowhere. This will in turn make the winrate of NR worse, but that doesn't mean the deck isn't OP or not super unhealthy for the game.
The duel interaction alone is one of the more insane things Homecoming has seen and is also the primary thing that makes the deck a problem in my opinion. A shield on Anna Strenger is strong but fair game but on Seltkirk/Anseis it's insanely oppressive. Sure, some match-ups provide better targets than others, but as far as facing swarm goes the only swarm deck on ladder I've seen is the fireswarm one and even they go tall through Fallen Knights/Jacques providing good targets.
The point swing and thus the reach these duels provide singlehandedly ruin the balance of the game as it simultaneously takes away one of NR's important weak spots, the fact it's a slow faction.
When I saw the introduction video, I was thinking shieldwall that will be massively strong and I heavily played around with shieldwall. Nevertheless, my success rate was low. Actually, I am most successful with Mobilization. Playing other fractions, I am usually more afraid when I have face SK warriors and I have an overaverage win rate against shieldwall.
Of course, Tesham mutna sword is a nice tech against shieldwall but what can you expect? You have maybe a shielded dueller with value of 10 max and kill him? But, I rarely face those shieldwall decks.
Nevertheless, I understand your point that it can be frustrating: First your opponent plays Anseis on Melee. Then he shields him and kills a strong card of you. Next turn there will be the 2nd strike with Viraxas. Best counter is here definetly protecting your big cards with defenders or playing them lately. Maybe on idea would giving Anseis Veil (but than it can not be blocked anymore).
But with Anseis there are many drawbacks:
- He can not be tutored by Amphious Assault. So probably that you do not even face him.
- NR shieldwall performs arguably bad against swarm deck which become more and more popular
The other dueller Seltkirk can be tutored via Amphious Assault but is not sure whether he survives because he has no Zeal
Regarding Viraxas:
For me Viraxas was the most difficult to play evolving card. With shieldwall it gets more probable that he has valuable targets protected by shield:
Best choices are:
-
War Elephant (+8 p if crewed)
- Both duellers (Potential Removal)
Ok alternatives are:
- Ildiko (+5)
- Vincent Meis if he finds a target
- Kerack Marine (+4)
=> Actually Shieldwall made Viraxas much stronger. Thus, I don´t understand why he is still the only evolving card costing only 11.
However, I am still curious on the report on season of the dryad and can here only communicate my own experience which is win rate <50 % and not TOP play rate.
