The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
We have had a few days for the meta to settle down, so let’s look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly that resulted from the latest OTA.
The Good
As far as OTA’s go, I think that this one included the most impactful changes. Of the eight cards they changed, I think that 4 of them sit pretty easily in the good category.
In a lot of the previous patches, they have done a good job of nerfing a lot of the good scaling two-cost cards like Elsa and Angela, either with both indirect and direct nerfs. Dazzler being lowered to two cost herself and possibly scaling to eight power is a fantastic change. This adds another scaling two-cost card to the mix with possibly the easiest trade-off to gain power. During a game, depending on the deck you are using, you will typically fill at least one location, which makes Dazzler a 4-power card which is a pretty good rate already. If you fill one more location, you get a 6-power card, already above the rate for two cost cards. Overall, it is a good change, and she is already starting to see use in both bounce and zoo-type decks with success.
Dazzler
This is a simple change but overall good. Destroyer sees little play, so adding one additional power will not make that big of a difference, but for the specific role that Destroyer plays, one power is significant. Typically Destroyer is going to solo a lane while you have the other lane protected, or you've placed a Cosmo in the lane, you are going to put Destroyer down so his effect does not go off. With 16 power, Destroyer can potentially beat a Blob and tie an Orka, as well as take care of most typically powered lanes throughout a game.
This is an odd one that I think both are in the good category but also can land in the bad category. Essentially with this buff, Selene gained 3 total power, which is a significant change to any card. When used, she can be a 5-point power swing if the card she hits is an essential piece for your opponents, and they end up playing it out. This also means she is no longer relegated to decks that include either Viper or Annihiluis to get great value which overall allows her to be used in more decks and have more avenues for deck construction.
The Bad part of this change is that she no longer has negative power. Many players appreciate having more than one drop in The Hood to toss over to your opponent's side and clog up your opponent's side. This change gets rid of that option, which to some feels bad, especially because most of the decks that will still make use of her will include Viper or Annihilus, so that's one less card to send over. However, I think overall, this will make her more useful in several different strategies and elevate her from a deck-building standpoint, so to me, she lands in the Good.
Selene
This was the change everyone expected to happen, and honestly, this is one of the better nerfs they have done to a problem card in a while. Unlike previous problem cards or overpowered cards where they didn’t do enough and had to go back again or instead nerfed cards around the problem card, which didn't fix anything, they took a direct approach and did a good job of taking an overpowered card and balancing it instead of changing it’s effected or making it rather useless. Making Blob a 6/0 with a typical minimum of 15 power or possibly more, he is still a good efficient threat at six cost but not overbearing where there is very little counterplay and you have to either play a Blob deck or tech your deck heavily to anticipate the match up that includes Blob. This is also a good change because it doesn’t drastically change the decks that he is in or mean he has to be placed into an entirely different archetype. Everyone can relatively play the same deck before the OTA, with the deck overall being a little less overbearing on the metagame. This change also opens up the metagame because we no longer need to account for Blob at all times. I still like playing Lockjaw with Blob and think he fits perfectly fine in that deck, although he isn't as easy a win anymore. But that means there is a chance for the game to grow instead of just being squashed under a big old Blob.
Blob
The Bad
This change makes me sad and happy at the same time. While I am glad my girl Elektra has gotten a little love by changing her power from one to two overall, this doesn’t affect her play rate or ability to put in a deck and be useful more often anytime soon. There are small cases where she will be useful, but with cards like Caiera and Killmonger, her text being a targeted 1-cost destroyer is not useful enough, and just giving her one extra power doesn't do enough to change that.
Honestly, when I first saw this, I thought it was a fantastic change. But after some playing and the meta settling down, she still isn’t that good. She has some different play patterns to think about because instead of moving maybe twice to get a lot of buffs, she can get big off of one big move towards the end of the game. But the move is just not in the best place, so the conditions for her power are temperamental at best, and until more enablers exist at lower costs, the decks she fits into won't be as consistent as one would want.
That all being said, she isn’t in the ugly category because this change does make her a better card. Maybe it's not a better card for a standard move deck. But she has way more upside now than she did before, and even if the way that you get that upside is conditional, there is less cost versus reward when you meet that condition. To me, this means she will fit into a deck at some point which very well might make this a good change overall.
Here is an interesting bounce move list with some solid ideas that uses The Living Tribunal to spread the massive power you can get from your move cards to all the locations. Give it a try.
Bounce Move
The Ugly
Honestly, this was a good OTA overall, so it's difficult to say what was Ugly in the patch, but if I have to pick something, it's both Viper and Hercules. They both received some consolation power and while that is nice, It isn't going to do anything. It's like breaking your leg and someone handing you a band-aid. Realistically, they could slowly add one power to many different cards, and there would be little to no change in those cards, so for me, these are irrelevant and ugly changes to cards that could be awesome.
Cerebro Watch
With any patch change Cerebro either loses or gains some new friends, so let's look at what has been added or subtracted to some Cerebro decks.
C2
The most notable change is Elektra's buff to 2 power. C2 has always been a pretty good Cerebro deck, and having a tool that can help deal with some pesky one-drops is a welcome addition. Snipping Black Knights or Nebulas is very fun, especially when your opponents try to play one of them in your storm lane. Honestly, while I mentioned Elektra in the bad category, this is one of the best things to result from her change. Currently, this deck boasts above a 50% win rate in both ranked and conquest.
Selene was also added to the potential C2 pool, but with her effect negating power, I don't think this is that useful unless you want to run Green Goblin for some reason. But give it a try and let me know what you think.
C5
Viper is now a possible candidate for C5, although I don't think this is a good idea because gifting your opponent one of your 5 power cards does not seem that smart. There is a corner case where Viper can eliminate unwanted cards from locations like Monster Island, Shadowland, or X-Mansion, so I've included this decklist to try out. It's always fun to see what can happen.
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Conclusion
Overall, this OTA was good. The meta seems a little bit more open than it did before, and while the same decks might still be top tier, there is now more room for other decks to flourish and not be oppressed by the lack of interaction with some of the cards affected in the OTA. Let me know what you think in the comments down below.