Today's OTA includes some buffs to cards near the bottom in play rate and even more nerfs to interaction cards, with one tech card receiving a shocking nerf! I'll walk you through all of the changes and what they mean for the upcoming metagame!
Just as Kate Bishop has the arrows in her quiver, Second Dinner has OTA changes as their balance arsenal. I'll give each change a rating from 0 to 4 arrows and a final overall rating as well. Did Second Dinner hit the target with this OTA or did they miss the mark?
- [Old] 1/5 - End of Turn: Discard this from your hand.
- [Change] 1/5 > 1/4
Black Cat was probably a smidge too powerful, but she's also a hard card to nerf. In the blog, the team said that they “still believe she can function in that more preferable spot as a card that actually gets staged at 1/4,” but I don't agree. I think players will play Hydra Bob before her always, and if they're searching for a second low-cost option, they'll just move on to Martyr in decks that take up enough board space, Titania in decks that can throw priority, or simply play a disruptive 1-Cost like Spider-Ham instead. Black Cat's play rate is about to plummet in anything that doesn't include Fantasticar. Cerebro 4, which has been on the rise, gets a new tool, though.
- [Old] 1/3 - On Reveal: Remove the abilities from all Ongoing cards in your deck.
- [Change] 1/3 > 1/2
This change is minor, but it's a good one. Sauron needed to be aggressively statted because the deck wasn't especially strong. With the demise of Shang Chi and some other meta shifts, the deck is as powerful as ever, so we can drop the pretense that Sauron’s effect is a downside.
- [Old] 4/7 On Reveal: All cards played next turn don’t reveal until the game ends.
- [Change] 4/7 > 4/6
Super Giant had been extremely effective against a variety of strategies, not just End-of-Turn. This card is great against Destroy, Zombies, Move, Bounce, and any deck that relies on impactful abilities going off on turn 5. She has a reputation of not being especially easy to play, but being in a meta where Super Giant was super effective meant that a much larger group of players took the time to learn her intricacies and when best to deploy her. I didn't find Super-Giant’s play patterns to be especially frustrating, they felt more like skill-based interaction, but with a meta so suited to her I can buy that she could stand to lose a point of power.
- [Old] 6/9 - On Reveal: Remove the text from all unrevealed enemy characters here.
- [Change] 6/9 > 6/8
I'm glad they reverted Alioth from his tech-pocalypse stat line of 6/6, but I'm definitely not going to cry about Alioth going down to 6/8. I think ensuring that priority is an important part of the game is an admirable goal, and Alioth can still help with that mission at 6/8.
- [Old] 2/2 - You can move this once. Ongoing: Enemy cards here can’t move.
- [Change] 2/2 > 3/4
I'm not entirely sure what world the devs are living in when they say “Move doesn’t have much room to breathe with the amount of Mercury that players
get to play ‘for free,’” but I would like to move there. I think Move is among the best decks in the game and that Mercury isn't a silver bullet against it. I think Mercury is a cool card and she's significantly less compelling at 3/4. She's another major boost to Cerebro 4, though.
- [Old] 1/2 - When this is discarded or destroyed, regenerate it at a random location and you get +1 Energy next turn.
- [Change] 1/2 > 1/1
This doesn't change much for the card or the archetype as a whole, but I kinda like this change simply on the grounds that X-23 just feels like the kind of card that should have a 1/1 stat line based on how powerful her effect is.
- [Old] 6/4 - On Reveal: Copy the enemy card(s) with the highest Power played this turn, but on your side.
- [Change] 6/4 > 6/5
Will this get people to try to use more Leader to counter Sauron decks? Will people experiment more with the mostly moribund ramp archetype? Could he push his way into prio-fighting decks as an alternative to Alioth? Unlikely. But this does make him a little more appealing in the only place I've played him recently, limited time game modes! We know there are a lot of those coming up and he's pretty good in nearly all of the ones we've seen so far.
- [Old] 3/3 - On Reveal: Give all cards in your hand +1 Power.
- [Change] 3/3 > 3/4
Even in hand buff decks, Nakia is almost always a quick cut, but unlike some other single-point changes, I do think this makes her more appealing. The problem is, she's in a spot where she's competing with Phastos and First Steps Mr. Fantastic, two cards that aren't exactly setting the world on fire, and I still don't think I'd play her over either of those.
- [Old] 3/4 - On Reveal: Merge this into one of your cards here. You can move that card next turn.
- [Change] 3/4 > 3/5
I'm a big Peni Parker fan! I've liked this card ever since it was released. It's a great Wiccan curve-filler, is solid with Quinjet, and the extra energy she can get from either SP//dr or other merge cards like Agony is underrated. However, even a Peni-lover like me has been letting her languish in my collection. Peni feels like she’s been power crept out of her niches by other cards that received buffs like Luna Snow, Domino, and Jennifer Kale.
She just feels too weak and the SP//dr often isn't the best card to play out even after you've generated it. The SP//dr actually started as a 3/3, so this is part of a continued effort to improve it. 2/3 into 3/5 does sound great on paper. I'm curious to see if she'll make it into lists with the upcoming merge payoff card, Man-Spider or as an enabler for Superior Spider-Man. Several of these OTA changes seem aimed at next season's cards.
- [Old] 3/4 - On Reveal: +1 Max Energy. Ongoing: You can only play 1 card a turn.
- [Change] 3/4 > 3/5
Electro is another card that is outclassed by Luna Snow, and he's also got stiff competition coming up from the aforementioned Superior Spider-Man. The single best Electro play line is Electro into Blink, so I'm skeptical how much a power buff actually helps him. The devs mention Man-Spider here as an alternative way to get rid of his downside, but I feel like there are a lot better things to be doing with both cards than that.
Final Rating - 1/4
I'm skeptical of the increased emphasis on synergy and combos, but even aside from those concerns, what is meant to excite us from this OTA? Leader? Nakia still feels too weak and even the most exciting change, SP//dr, might just end up being a part of a new combo package with Man-Spider or Human Torch. Hopefully the next OTA includes more exciting ideas to build around.