Welcome to Target the OTA, where we rate the latest balance patch and build around the changes. This week’s OTA is a whopper! We've got big changes to meta-relevant cards, major buffs, and even changes to Grand Arena to help that mode stay fresh for its final week! I'll share my analysis, ratings, and some decks to try right away!
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?
While it may seem quick to some since Sunspot was seeing some initial success with Fantasticar, Invisible Woman: First Steps is already turbocharging Sunspot to unreasonable levels. A 1/0 Sunspot is still in a great spot because it's gotten so much new support.
After Galacta was hit, some lists just straight up replaced her with Gwenpool. They each have slightly different strengths and use-cases and having them both at 4/5 will allow them to compete with each other or coexist in a safer way than the initial 4/6 versions allowed. I love both cards, but they were both too strong.
This is a clearly powerful buff, but I'm unsure if it's going to encourage players to find more uses for her or if it's going to increase her play rate in the home she's already found, Deadpool destroy. Perhaps it gives us a chance to try out Peni Parker again, which is another card, like Agony, that is certainly not bad but isn't seeing much play.
Penny Peef
Wow, that's a massive change. Moving the third ritual from 3 down to 2 should make Dormammu decks significantly more consistent and flexible. Dormammu is a relatively predictable deck, much in the same way that Apocalypse discard is, so this is a big, but a relatively safe change. Dormammu was previously a deck that could usually win one lane, but had no gas left to contest a second lane and this change should help that specifically.
Kid Dormammu
2/6 Black was probably a little underplayed, but it's the kind of card that was never going to gain much traction in a game that doesn't reward risky experimentation well. A 1/5 that you can always afford to play, but you have to use or lose, is an interesting design and I've definitely got several ideas for her already. She should slot in very nicely into Cerebro 5 and Zoo and keep in mind, she is an end of turn card!
Unlike some of my other favorite cards, Titania, Martyr, and Hydra Bob, she can't reliably be saved when you're facing a potential Killmonger deck, so Black Cat is going to need to go in decks that have some protection. I love that this buff is coming just in time for the new Black Cat series written by G. Willow Wilson!
Car Heist
Invisible Woman used to be my favorite card in the game. Even when his play rate isn't high, Alioth presents too much of a risk to rely on her. The extra point will help and may slightly raise her win rate in Grand Arena, but Alioth still poses a problem on ladder. You can use Invisible Woman to hide a Shadowking or Killmonger and protect Ongoing cards from Enchantress, but here’s a deck that doesn't mind being Alioth’d:
Hidden Power
Before Wiccan released, there was a question if it would be better to play a bunch of utility 1-Cost cards and Domino or Quicksilver and a bunch of good 2-Cost cards. Partially because of a major influx of super-powered 2-Cost cards, that has been emphatically answered in Quicksilver’s favor. With the Zabu nerf and the Domino buff, it might be time to dust off some of those Domino-Wiccan concepts.
Dominica
Ok. I've been using Mobius to combat the decks that are using both Surge and Mister Fantastic: First Steps alongside a bunch of tech cards, and he is reasonably useful for this. However, my fear here is that “good cards,” “rate decks,” “tech soup,” whatever you want to call them, are going to be the ones that end up adding Mobius rather than the ones combating them. At the very least this gives me the excuse to play around with Pixie and should depress Mr. Negative’s play rate for a while, so there are clear positives here.
Upon release, Blink was considered extremely powerful and was even a part of several top decks. Did she fall off because she's been surpassed or because people forgot about her? Using her to Swap out Electro or Jubilee are her best use-cases.
While I've seen a couple people enjoying Mole Man, he's mostly landed flat. For ladder, he needs this extra power and hopefully this helps him out in Grand Arena as well. Speaking of Grand Arena…
Grand Arena Changes
There have been a bunch of changes made to spice up Grand Arena! First up is a buff to Mole Man's Skill and a well-deserved nerf to H.E.R.B.I.E.’s.
- Old: 2-Cost Skill. On Reveal: Give each created card in your hand -1 Cost or +2 Power.
- New: 1-Cost Skill. On Reveal: Give each created card in your hand -1 Cost or +3 Power.
Author’s Notes:
This is a pretty big buff! The additional power plus Victoria Hand means you have massive power spike potential.
- Change: 3-Cost > 4-Cost
Author’s Notes:
H.E.R.B.I.E.’s skill was the single best card in the mode, so it makes sense to nerf it. H.E.R.B.I.E. still has a chance to be the best deck, but it will definitely be by a smaller margin if so.
Banlist additions
We've also got additional bans! I really liked when they did additional bans part way through the mode in Sanctum Showdown. Doing it this way, rather than being overly cautious, allows players to work through how the mode functions and find ways to exploit it while refreshing things for the home stretch and future runs of the mode. Agatha is a great ban because she was being put into decks with almost no downside, something that she was never designed for and misses the entire point of her text box.
Alioth wasn't actually as dominant in this mode as I'd anticipated, but he was still ridiculously strong. Banning him should also open more space for Invisible Woman. It is interesting that Viper alone was nerfed from the clog package, but I do think she was a powerful piece in that deck. I had even personally cut Annihilus from my Grand Arena clog deck because she often felt sufficient on her own, without him.
In addition to general changes that will impact Grand Arena, specific changes to Grand Arena Skills, and additional bans, changes have also been made to the pre-constructed decks. In particular, the initial Doom pre-con list was not able to keep up and has been improved. Mole Man has been changed to focus more on buffing all of your created cards with Victoria Hand and, now, Blue Marvel and Tao Mandala, which is a better strategy.
Mole Man Pre-con Deck
Out:
In:
Dr Doom Pre-con Deck
Out:
In:
You could stick with the pre-cons, but here are a couple of new decks to try if you want to maximize your win rate. While Clog is still probably great, Ongoing might be set to take over, and we have to try the new Mole Man!
Mole Hand Arena
Ongoing Takes Over GA
Final Rating - 3/4 Arrows
Whew! That's a big OTA! We've never had an OTA aimed at freshening up two different modes simultaneously. We got a good mix of deserved nerfs (Sunspot, Gwenpool, Herbie in Grand Arena) and buffs that make you want to open a deck editor (Black Cat, Dormammu).
I'm a little worried about the Mobius change and I wish they would have made Invisible Woman more resistant to Alioth like she was way back when he cared about cards played that turn, but overall it is a solid OTA and its size helps it. 3/4 Arrows.
Golden Gauntlet Worlds Qualifier 1 – Registration is OPEN
The first Golden Gauntlet World Championship qualifier is officially here! If you’ve been waiting for a chance to compete and shine—this is it.
- Free to enter
- Open to all skill levels
- Top 16 win prizes
- Go 5-1 or better? You’re off to Worlds!
Date: August 9/10th
- Event Starts - Saturday, August 9th, 2025 at 8:00PM EST
- Estimated End - Sunday, August 10th, 2025 at 5:00AM EST