You missed my point entirely, man.
Every faction has (potential) powerplays (please define what you consider a "powerplay"). I don't see how especially NG is a "potential powerplay faction" and should therefore always be below 50% winrate. Argumenting that way "justifies" literally everything you want. Why not make a "tricky" playstile more rewarding for the players who mastered it and give them a higher winrate? Why does it need to be below average? And isn't the ideal 50% winrate for all factions?
A powerplay, by definition, is a move or, sometimes, a strategy, that dramatically tips the scales in your favor. Something like this should always involve either risk or chess-deep planning, for the sake of fairplay. NG has unparallelled control tools, which, in the right hands, is a winning ticket, a bag of potential powerplays. Check Habblas recent video on Regis and what his NG opponent did to him with all-control deck to get some idea of how this works.
Assimilate by itself isn't strong, the accompanying cards make it strong. Those cards were unaffected by the nerf so not much had changed. Everyone lost a leader so NG is in no worse a position than others. NR and SK being OP affects everyone but NG is right behind those two
Oh, I dunno. Maybe a nearly-infinite supply of locks and (comparatively) cheap removals, that shut down enemy engines while powering yours AND putting down more bodied units? Or, perhaps, Cahir, who can win games singlehandedly if your opponent just doesn't have a pretty specific tech combo? Or a whole bunch of cards that allow you to copy your opponents' units as you deem necessary at the moment, and not entirely randomly, to the point where you can put their key combos together better than them (my two Matrons, every f****ng time), while also fueling your Assimilation engines? Ability to steal a powerful unit they like like another defender for just 9 provision to play it later? Copying the same powerful card from your opponents deck with double bribery? Ruining your opponent's entire gameplan by locking his leader ability he very much depends on, while your deck is built with it in mind? Pulling out his finisher or an important combo piece with Cantarella? Ability to replay a scenario - nah, wait, not "a" scenario, but the most powerful scenario in the game, while also bullying something important out of your opponent with a 6-point card in an otherwise drypass round?
[...] It's just that it's become painfully obvious when new metas presented them with a real challenge. It sure drew a lot of people who like it easy and powerful, and now that it actually requires some degree of thinking, they consider NG weak. No, it was made balanced, but you guys still play it as the same almighty bully that it isn't anymore. The hubris - NONE of the ballers I've played against had even a hint of row punish in a swarm-leaning meta, not even an attempt at meaningful refineent of the deck. Not even once. Because they're too accusomed to not even needing those, I just don't see another explanation.
Alright, now I know what you mean with unfair advantage in the hands of a decently skilled player. But I fear you simply mistook skill for luck. Cahir sticking or Cantarella pulling out stuff is heavily dependent on which deck you are facing and which cards your opponent actually has in his hand, not how "skillful" you are. This would mean that one could influence the outcome of RNG Bribery or Imperial Diplomacy and that is and has always been a pretty far-fetched conspiracy theory. I think the two of us are done here, have a good oneOh, I dunno. Maybe a nearly-infinite supply of locks and (comparatively) cheap removals, that shut down enemy engines while powering yours AND putting down more bodied units? Or, perhaps, Cahir, who can win games singlehandedly if your opponent just doesn't have a pretty specific tech combo? Or a whole bunch of cards that allow you to copy your opponents' units as you deem necessary at the moment, and not entirely randomly, to the point where you can put their key combos together better than them (my two Matrons, every f****ng time), while also fueling your Assimilation engines? Ability to steal a powerful unit they like like another defender for just 9 provision to play it later? Copying the same powerful card from your opponents deck with double bribery? Ruining your opponent's entire gameplan by locking his leader ability he very much depends on, while your deck is built with it in mind? Pulling out his finisher or an important combo piece with Cantarella? Ability to replay a scenario - nah, wait, not "a" scenario, but the most powerful scenario in the game, while also bullying something important out of your opponent with a 6-point card in an otherwise drypass round?
And these are just the most egregious examples, there're many more. All of those are extremely potent "tricky tools", that no one else seems to have. Other fractions have to get by with devices that have hard numerical limits and/or much stricter conditions, and are generally straightforward with few exceptions like SY!Philippa or Keltullis, of which the first comes with heavy price, and the latter is hard to operate, which is how it should be.
You accuse me of insincerity while failing to notice how your favorite fraction has all those neat UNIQUE tools. It's either that you have a very tenuous grasp of other factions, or indeed are being what you accuse me of being - a hypocrite
[...] It's just that it's become painfully obvious when new metas presented them with a real challenge. It sure drew a lot of people who like it easy and powerful, and now that it actually requires some degree of thinking, they consider NG weak. No, it was made balanced, but you guys still play it as the same almighty bully that it isn't anymore. The hubris - NONE of the ballers I've played against had even a hint of row punish in a swarm-leaning meta, not even an attempt at meaningful refineent of the deck. Not even once. Because they're too accusomed to not even needing those, I just don't see another explanation.
Post automatically merged:
Add.: How is Assimilate a meme deck?
Alright, now I know what you mean with unfair advantage in the hands of a decently skilled player. But I fear you simply mistook skill for luck. Cahir sticking or Cantarella pulling out stuff is heavily dependent on which deck you are facing and which cards your opponent actually has in his hand, not how "skillful" you are. This would mean that one could influence the outcome of RNG Bribery or Imperial Diplomacy and that is and has always been a pretty far-fetched conspiracy theory. I think the two of us are done here, have a good one
Please stay respectful, insults like that won't make your claims more credible. There are different opinions, obviously, but there is no need to write something like that.
"the worst faction" is your subjective claim, barely supported by reality. "The statistics" you refer isn't necessarily indicative of objective weakness. Could be anything, the first thing coming to mind is obsolencense of these decks, exacerbated by lack of experimentation. Now, this is my subjective experience, but this at least seems to be supported by other accounts on this forum - people don't really try anything, so it's not like have the right to complain...especially when complaining in question concerns some of the most toxic decks ever.
"Top ladder" and "tournaments" don't prove literally anything, because for all intents and purposes, upper ladder players and especially tournament players play a very different game with different rules. Meta snapshots aren't really the gospel either, by the way. There's no doubt their lists are strong, but the tier assessment is still a very subjective things, and our favorite community is prone to pack mentality, many people just follow the top dog without trying to do their own math. AgLads wasn't a thing before some youtube guys tried mixing MF with Aglais. It's quite strong, too. And so is Ace of Plays' recently-built siege engines thing, that wasn't on any meta snapshots. And hybrid Cintrian Royal Guards...
Uprising Draugr was a top-tier deck with inflexible game plan...well, any uprising deck, really. Didn't stop them from being soul-crushing cancer for a while. Flexibility is an advantage, but not the defining or indispensable trait of a strong deck. As long as your deck is strong enough to force a long round 3, you're all gucci. I know this from personal experience, too - my gameplan is most of the time subjecting my opponent to extreme row punishment, where I can't ever change the order of the last four turns and have very strictly divided card sets for R1 and R3, hence the need for f**ktload of tutors. These types of decks have flexibility of a crowbar.
Except Assimilate decks have their own decent engines, and usefulness of stuff you copy is just icing on the cake. Can't always have the vanilla flavor, sometimes it's prunes. Like for everyone else in this game. This vulnerability isn't exceptional - it's in line with what other factions have to deal with, except requires more creativity. Which, again, is fair, considering how outlandishly powerful can it be under favorable circumstances. High reward necessitates high risk counterweight.
[Edited for tone. -- SigilFey] Same thing as before applies - why should you be exempt from the risk of running tall units?
I wish this was true, but sometimes it's just pretty damn hard to believe....
