CDPR need to look at the 5 META's and bloody well do something to balance it.
Where is the lore in Hen Gaidth sword killing Roche to replay Roche? Where's the lore in Francesca's Mystic Echo being able to spawn a bunch of dwarf engines you can do nothing about? Where's the sense in having hugely powerful "order" cards, yet introducing Defenders to mean that you can play them without any punishment?
The game's in a nonsensical state at the moment. Defenders need to be removed full stop, they're a dreadful idea prone to ludicrous abuse. Having ONE viable leader ability per faction is utter nonsense. What's the point in Eithne, Adda, Woodland, etc., when they just don't do anything?
I had one match where I had a 26 point lead. Without much effort my opponent pulled that back with just two cards, and went on to win the match. Utter bloody nonsense, because it was META tactics and a positive deal that helped.
The synergies that are supposed to matter - deathwish, movement, slavery, etc. - are all hampered by a low variation of available decks. The lack of usefulness of spells, weather, etc., makes it impossible to see a lot of variety. The minimum 13 unit hand also smashes variety and should be abolished. Unitless are ugly decks, but are they uglier than playing against the same Ardal- inspired NG seize game after game? It shows how much CDPR care about, that they added a unit minimum, but made it JUST enough so Ardal could have 12 tactic cards in a viable deck.
I say reduce the amount of hefty influence cards - either remove defenders entirely or make them at least 12 provs and un-creatable by bribery. The game still suffers hugely from being a reaction/prevention model first, as in stop the opponent as opposed to do your own thing. I've literally played a Roche/Syanna combo and it hasn't been enough against basic removal. Similarly I've beaten interesting SK self-harm decks by having a selection of anti=play cards.
I get the feeling the game's just not of interest to CDPR. I don't think it'll ever get where it should be.