I believe we can all agree that playing agains NG is simply not fun. There have been multiple treads about Usurper, Control, Ardal etc...
I'm a semi-old time player and I remember the times when Usurper wasn't that ugly to play agains. That was the time when he had 0 mulligans and NG did not thin their deck like there is no tomorrow.
Here is the comparison and the issue I see with NG:
- Before: NG was still focused on locks and control, however Usurper had 0 mulligans which made him not that reliable. The lack of (proper) thinning and mulligans pretty much made him a no-strategy leader which was kind of balanced wich his ability to denie the tactics of the opponent.
- Now: With the existence of Portal, and the incredibly stupid thinning combo that NG has (which pulls out an amazing amount of cards with in 1 turn - the marching orders miracle) Usurper becomes more reliable than almost any other faction leader - able to thin his shit cards out in no time and able to do huge tempo plays and pick and choose whatever remains in his deck for R3. To add injury to insult, the portal/scorpion combo is actually an ENGINE combo that is kind of not what this faction is supposed to be right? So when facing Usurper you have 2 choices - 1 use your removal(kind of limited in most decks that are not NG) to get rid of the scorpions/helga and THEN play your engines (which makes them very weak engines) OR 2 - play your engines 1st as you are supposed to do, but suffer the insane value of the 4proviisons scorpions (4prov? rly? for a removal engine?).
This whole thing applies to a huge extent to Ardal too, as personally I don't find huge differences between ardal and usurper decks (maybe a couple of cards at most, due to the ardal ability reset option). It's always portal with scorpions, Helga, Muzzle, the trio (thx for the provision BUFF CDPR, way to go to balance control by reducing their provision requirement) and the rest of the all too familiar tactics we have all seen.
The only way I see to balance those 2 guys (which currently amount to about 50% of games) is to turn them back to being unreliable (decrease mulligans, not provisions and make thinning more expensive and not a no-brainer).
Thoughts?
I'm a semi-old time player and I remember the times when Usurper wasn't that ugly to play agains. That was the time when he had 0 mulligans and NG did not thin their deck like there is no tomorrow.
Here is the comparison and the issue I see with NG:
- Before: NG was still focused on locks and control, however Usurper had 0 mulligans which made him not that reliable. The lack of (proper) thinning and mulligans pretty much made him a no-strategy leader which was kind of balanced wich his ability to denie the tactics of the opponent.
- Now: With the existence of Portal, and the incredibly stupid thinning combo that NG has (which pulls out an amazing amount of cards with in 1 turn - the marching orders miracle) Usurper becomes more reliable than almost any other faction leader - able to thin his shit cards out in no time and able to do huge tempo plays and pick and choose whatever remains in his deck for R3. To add injury to insult, the portal/scorpion combo is actually an ENGINE combo that is kind of not what this faction is supposed to be right? So when facing Usurper you have 2 choices - 1 use your removal(kind of limited in most decks that are not NG) to get rid of the scorpions/helga and THEN play your engines (which makes them very weak engines) OR 2 - play your engines 1st as you are supposed to do, but suffer the insane value of the 4proviisons scorpions (4prov? rly? for a removal engine?).
This whole thing applies to a huge extent to Ardal too, as personally I don't find huge differences between ardal and usurper decks (maybe a couple of cards at most, due to the ardal ability reset option). It's always portal with scorpions, Helga, Muzzle, the trio (thx for the provision BUFF CDPR, way to go to balance control by reducing their provision requirement) and the rest of the all too familiar tactics we have all seen.
The only way I see to balance those 2 guys (which currently amount to about 50% of games) is to turn them back to being unreliable (decrease mulligans, not provisions and make thinning more expensive and not a no-brainer).
Thoughts?
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