One of the most awaited OTAs ever has landed. Because of last month's robot takeover “imbalance” OTA, players have been waiting with baited breath to see what, if any, of the robot changes stuck. I was surprised by which ones they decided to keep! But we didn't just get the rebalancing of the tech cards, we also got a full regular OTA full of buffs and nerfs, including one to the season pass card! I'll walk you through all of the changes and give you some ideas for how to build in the new meta, now that tech is back on the table.
Just as Kate Bishop has the arrows in her quiver, Second Dinner has OTA balance 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?
Return of Tech
First, let's talk about the tech cards.
Killmonger, Cosmo, Shadow King, Alioth, and Red Guardian are all returning to their pre-robot forms.
The only one of these I disagree with is Killmonger. Killmonger having a massively reduced play rate made the game more interesting. I would have liked to see them stick with the single lane Killmonger, but make him a 3/5 to compensate. Shadow King was surprisingly still effective at 3/3, but the other three were basically dead cards in their nerfed states. I look forward to getting some interaction back.
Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Enchantress are staying in their robot forms. I personally preferred NTW at 3 and think she's a fun and unique card, but she retains some fringe playability at 4/5 because of the extra baked in power. Speaking of extra power, I loved 5/8 Enchantress during the robo-pocalypse. I definitely played more Enchantress the last couple weeks than I had in the prior few months.
It's not really a buff (5-Cost can be limiting, 5/9 would have been better), but I felt she had a more interesting role as a counter in decks that could afford her while providing a decent pile of points in matchups when she wasn't needed. In particular, I played the heck out of her in my End-of-Turn deck and I think she is excellent in that type of role. Moving her to 5 also differentiated her more from Rogue and gave that card more room to breathe as well. Enchantress also has a powerful role to play in Sauron decks, especially considering what they decided to do with the most important tech card in the game…
- Pre-Robot: 4/3 - On Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards here that have 10 or more Power.
- Robot: 4/2 - On Reveal: Destroy all enemy cards here that have 10 or more Power.
- New: 4/3 - On Reveal: Destroy an enemy card here that has 10 or more Power.
So, they kept him at a single destroy, but gave him back a point of power. I don't think he's going to have the effect they describe in the patch notes as “a potent check on solitaire-esque huge point decks running wild.” He was already overplayed for his impact before the robo-pocalypse, and very few decks will be improved by including him in his current form. I’ll still play him in C3 now. I would have liked to see him at least destroy the highest cost card instead of a random 10+ card. Then, he would have a slightly higher chance to be the meta sheriff they want him to be. Welcome to the new points-y era of Snap, it's here for the foreseeable future.
- [Old] 3/2 - At the start of each turn, give all cards in your hand +1 Power if you’re winning here. Otherwise, move this to another location.
- [Change] 3/2 > 3/3
Viv Vision’s initial datamined card with End of Turn text was an interesting, but far too powerful card. With ‘start of turn,’ she's a lot less interesting, even if they do bring her up to a higher power level by adding extra power. I'm not sure playing against a snowballing Viv will be fun, but it will be easier to accomplish with her extra power.
- [Old] 7/10 - Game Start: Begin a Summoning Ritual. (Add step 1 to hand.)
- [Change] 7/10 > 7/12
When they changed Dormammu's spells a couple of OTAs ago at the end of July, they should have just committed and given him this additional power. Instead they nerfed him to 10 and he still wasn't able to gain any traction. At 7/12, I expect to see a lot more players attempting Dormammu's quest.
- [Old] 6/16 - On Reveal: Destroy your cards at other locations.
- [Change] 6/16 > 6/18
Destroyer still didn't see much play, even after his intriguing change to exclude his own location. At 6/18 I believe there will be some legitimate uses for him. I'm planning to try Nimrod decks, Armor/Ongoing decks, Ramp decks, and Dracula dump decks.
- [Old] 2/1 - Activate: Give one of your cards at each other location +2 Power.
- [Change] 2/1 > 2/2
Awesome Andy was perhaps a touch underrated but he was far from awesome. Now as a 2/6 he might have some additional utility with cards like Lasher, Frankie Raye, and Sebastian Shaw, and he'll definitely fight for a spot in the upcoming Jocasta decks.
- [Old] 2/2 - Activate: After you play your next card, swap it with one from your deck.
- [Change] 2/2 > 2/3
According to the notes at the time, Second Dinner felt like their change to Lockjaw in June was a massive buff, but it definitely didn't work out that way. The extra point of power doesn't mean a ton for a card designed to cheat out giant stats, but it might shine a spotlight on the Inhuman dog again and get more people to give him a chance.
- [Old] 3/0 - On Reveal: If the last card you played has an Ongoing, copy its text. (if able)
- [Change] 3/0 > 3/1
I love this change. The game is in desperate need of a Mr. Negative nerf, but it's honestly a pretty hard archetype to nerf. Second Dinner was able to find a way to hit one card in the deck while simultaneously making that card better in almost every other deck it might be played in. And to be clear, Mystique wasn't seeing much play outside of Negative. Honestly, make her a 3/2
- [Old] 2/4 - On Reveal: Discard the card that costs the least from your hand.
- [Change] 2/4 > 2/3
This is another tricky one as discard has crept upwards in power level over the last few formats. However, as SD notes, it's hard to nerf the deck's giant scalers. It is nice to finally drop the pretext that Colleen’s effect is a downside; it's clearly played as upside exclusively. Let's set Blade to 1/2 while we're at it. However, I can't help but think this is partially to clear some room for the upcoming card, Zombie Power Man.
- [Old] 6/14 - Game Start: Draw Agatha. She controls your cards on even turns.
- [Change] 6/14 > 6/12
Agatha has absolutely been too strong lately. While I would have just reverted her to fully random and called it a day, Second Dinner has hit on a better solution, given how many people are enjoying her these days. She definitely doesn't need to be a 14-Power card the way she is currently being used. I wouldn't mind her going to 11.
- [Old] 4/7 - Ongoing: Cards can’t be added to locations except by playing or moving them.
- [Change] 4/7 > 4/6
The environment Stardust entered into was just perfect for her. Decks like Hela and Agatha were seeing upticks in play, the tech-pocalypse dramatically increased the amount of Zolas and Tigers hitting the board, and there were plenty of incidental hits with cards like Brood and Proxima seeing heavy play. I am curious about how much this nerf will do, though.
Decks like End-of-Turn were able to play a card like Stardust specifically because her power didn't make her a liability in matchups she didn't help in, and I'm not sure deck-builders will still opt for her at 4/6, especially when we have 5/8 Enchantress, 4/5 Juggernaut, 4/5 Fantasticar and a variety of Valuable 3-Cost cards that can all compete for that spot.
The New Metagame
Decks that use cards like Sauron, Zero, Nightmare or Enchantress to mitigate the downside of cards with big, raw stats are an excellent choice for this metagame since they can often stuff more than one 10+ Power card into multiple lanes. End-of-Turn decks will have to rely less on their big 1-Cost cards now with Killmonger back, but those decks are still in a prime position. Victoria Hand players will need to be smart with priority to dodge Killmonger, Enchantress, Rogue, and Red Guardian, but it should still be one of the meta tyrants. Old powerhouses that are coming back are C3 with Cosmo and Move decks with Cosmo and/or Alioth. The return of Cosmo is being slightly overlooked and will keep decks that combo off of cards like Wong, Black Panther, and destroy packages in check more than the new Shang will while fueling decks like those mentioned above.
Final Rating - 2/4 Arrows
Second Dinner kept and reverted different cards from the robo-pocalypse than I would have, but their choices are valid ones. The robot OTA didn't bring about the combo-centric, solitaire meta many feared. That was largely on the backs of the remaining interaction cards like Stardust and Juggernaut, so I'm not overly concerned that the meta game will become an unpleasant mix of points only decks without Shang around.
For such a massive OTA, this isn't going to be a total shakeup. I look forward to playing some Dormammu and trying to make Viv Vision and Destroyer work. Let me know in the comments what you think about the Shang Chi change/not change! See you next time for more OTA Analysis.