Hell, I use the little mummy cat in my Trials white node deck. Quite shamelessly. Other than the black kill spell, that and the white Cartouche are surprisingly standout commons…
And this thread is why I’m loving standard! The game feels fresh and exciting, and the flatter power curve allows room for cards that would otherwise not see play.
I, for one, really like skywhaler’s shot as virtually unconditional white removal!
I appreaciate that the lower Tiers probably like the challenge of playing against weak cards, but I did not make my way to Platinum Tier to play against cards like Enthralling Victor.
Matchmaking is the issue. Not standard. I’ve faced weak decks, and I’ve also faced very strong decks. The stronger decks of course had no AKH cards, as they ignored objectives.
Well, you’re right there. Matchmaking (and, also, card balance). The guy I’m just facing now doesn’t appear to be playing for the objectives in TOA… Gideon 1 playing Enlightened Ascetic and Murder Investigation (also, a Dynavolt Tower!).
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter if it’s not Standard’s fault that it’s being broken by matchmaking, and card balance. These problems exist, they aren’t going anywhere, and Standard will suffer badly as a result.
Playing with cards that you’ve never used before is good. Playing against terrible cards that no-one has ever played before with good reason, that’s not good.
It begs the question how that player made it into platinum in the first place. Perhaps it’s also an issue where a player’s mastery should be based on the current level of mastered cards, and not total mastery level.
Another theory is, since this is a brand new set, perhaps some players have come back after a lengthy break?
Also WTF? I ran into the Enlightened Ascetic as well. No match for my new bird warrior.
I’m wondering if Autofill has something to do with this too. People enter a deck with lots of now banned cards and autofill while they either don’t play or play other nodes before they fix the deck up…
@ElfNeedsFood - it’s possible you saw a combo piece, and that the AI failed to launch the combo.
In a Saheeli deck, for example, Bonded Construct has synergy with her 1st ability (with Thopters on board, it can attack), her 2nd ability (it’s a construct, so it gets a pump), and her 3rd ability (casting a Bonded Construct will help to power up any vehicles which are in your hand). It casts for free with Day’s Undoing. Also, with Day’s Undoing, if you discard a Scrapheap Scrounger when you cast Day’s, and if the Day’s spawns a Bonded Construct, and if that Bonded Construct should meet with an unfortunate accident, then the Scrapheap Scrounger can be cheated into play.
@shteev - you complain about cards which you think are overpowered, and you complain about cards you think are underpowered. If you can’t deal with War Oracle, “run more removal”.
But we’re in a phase of accomodating to the new circumstances. I really appreciate it personally because I don’t want to still face Olivia and the Pig and whatnot three blocks from now. Also, this will change once the new good cards become more available. I played against an almost completely rare/mythic-AKH deck today and it was not easy. This is what change feels like.