Hey folks, I have been playing a bit of fireswarm recently as it is one of my favorite archetypes. Recently feels like control has died down a little bit so it isn't as hard to play but I have one suggestion that I think would make a huge difference in the playability of this archetype and it is to make the eternal flame a location. I have seen a few streamers suggest this and I think it would add a lot of depth to the archetype, a lot of times I play eternal flame late into round 1 or a bleed and my opponent passes right after so it is basically a really expensive way to spawn 2 zealots, it feels really bad to have bled out since it is one of your big payoffs for swarming. On top of that it can be hard to get your fallen knights or the other preacher that boosts with each spawn (the 4p one) to stick since they trade down to cheap removal, having the eternal flame on the board at the start of a round could give your delicate engines a bit more staying power if you decide to use the order early. This deck is particularly susceptible to bleeding because its short round is very weak so having a location with some swarm payoff would give a little bit of bleed resistance.
There are a few other sort of wishlist items that I have thought of but I know that they are maybe too strong - I would really like a passive for the congregation leader that gives you a coin whenever you spawn one or more units. This could be accompanied by increasing the fee for making units from helveed and the spawning priest but I have been really enjoying the passives added to other abilities and I think that this would make sense with the archetype.
The other would be to give the cleric tag to the firesworn tokens and add more cleric synergies, that card that has the tribute reduced for each cleric to buff all units on a row is really cool and getting more cards with cleric synergies would add a lot of flavor to the archetype.
The last one is to have a tribute on the fallen knights that gives them some armor. I know that they are already strong but so much of the strategy behind this deck relies on them surviving and having them die to cheap removal feels really bad. I generally start round 3 with no coins because you dry pass for a long round but if you are able to survive a bleed and get a fallen knight for a short round 3 it would be nice to have your carryover give your units some resiliency.
The control has not really died down, it is the way it is at the start of every new patch, a lot of people trying a few new decks, cards, archetypes, etc. Give it a week, maximum 2 and the meta will once more switch to control. After all, the best SY deck received 0 nerfs. In fact it received a semi-buff with The Sausage Maker.
I completely agree on making Eternal Flame a location, getting the same treatment as Totem.
As for a passive, the best passive I can think of is related to coin generation. Firesworn archetype struggles with generating coins. Maybe adding 'Gain 1 coin whenever you play a Cleric' as a passive leader ability would even the odds. This could encourage you to play more clerics than just the Flaming Rose one and Helveed. In turn it can help Scribe to get the 2 coins necessary for his tribute and Keeper can reduce his own tribute, thus making him playable. This way you don't need to increase Helveed's fee either.
Fallen Knight should probably get a permanent 1 armor IMO. For such a vital card, getting removed by 4 dmg specials is a bit unfair. Firesworn is built around these bronze cards to generate value. Almost all the other cards, bronzes and golds, are there to compliment it.
The tokens are fine as they are and they do not need the Cleric tag. You can generate a lot of these tokens in a single turn and that would make Keeper of the Flame a bit too good. Maybe add the Cleric tag to Eternal Fire Disciple (and make him 4 power).
Another card that should get more attention is Eternal Fire Inquisitor. Firesworn as an archetype is more of an engine/pointslam one rather than control/damage one. It just doesn't have any cards that do damage other than Dies Irae, Damnation and this guy. The reason why he does not get play is that this archetype has minimum interaction with your opponent's cards to ensure that you can hit the deathblow. As such, Inquisitor will most of the times be a 5 for 5, which is awful. There should be a condition to trigger the deathblow even if the targeted unit doesn't die. Like maybe 'If you control Helveed, always trigger deathblow ability'. This way, chances are higher for him to play for 7 for 5. This way he might see some play, although the current state of the game expect of 4p bronzes to provide 7 points while 5p bronzes provide 8 or more.
Another problematic card is Dies Irae, more specifically it being an Echo card. This card provides best value in a long round, when you had the time to swarm your board. In short rounds, this card can be more expensive than its payoff actually is. It suffers from the same thing Ard Gaeth suffers, meaning that these cards are always playable and provide most value in long rounds. Therefore the Echo for these 2 is awkward.
