Targeting the OTA/Patch
Welcome to Target the OTA, where we rate the latest balance patch and build around the changes. This week’s OTA features a long-demanded buff and a change to one of my favorite cards, but mostly consists of small changes. I'll give you my thoughts, 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?
Jennifer Kale had some uses already. However, those uses were extremely niche and the card was never going to develop a wider play rate. At 2/3 more players will experiment with her and she may start to find additional places to contribute.
The buff to 3/2 is usually tricky since you're losing out on Ravonna and Mr. Negative interactions, but those aren't relevant in Marvel Boy's case. He's just returning to his release state. I disagreed with SD’s initial nerf to Noh Varr and am happy to see his point returned.
ZooC
Noh Varr Spells
Green Goblin has felt like a less attractive clog option as of late. With so much power running around, he felt more like a space-filler than a way to contribute negative power. One less point isn't much, but it definitely gives me an excuse to play more of one of my favorite combos in the game: Titania and Green Goblin on the same turn.
TitaGoblin
I've seen Doom 2099 fans clamoring for a buff, but this probably isn't the one they had in mind. The Doombots themselves went from 2 power down to 1, then eventually down to 0. Doom was putting out way too much power upon release, but it's certainly safe to give him a point back. Adding it to Doom rather than a bot further protects him from Red Guardian. To those who feel this buff still isn't enough, I want to say wait for Invisible Woman, First Steps before demanding an extra point be put back on the bots.
Mirage has been a little underrated lately. Opponents are playing great Mirage targets these days. However, putting a 2/2 on board definitely felt weak. I hope more players will be convinced to try Dani out since she has some of my favorite variants in the game.
V Hand Mirage
W Hand
I've long felt like Bullseye contributes too many points on his own, regardless of whatever his current win rate may have been. I don't think a loss of a point dulls him very much, but I definitely think he didn't need to be a 3/3 given his role.
Getting a buff to one of our seven cards without abilities is interesting and represents an overall growth of power in the game. However, Thing was always the worst of the vanilla cards, even before the introduction of High Evolutionary, so this point is long overdue. It almost certainly won't have an impact on his play rate in something like Patriot, but it's targeted towards the evolved Thing anyway. It's nice to see Ben get buffed in FF season and there's renewed reason to try him out in High Evo decks alongside Fantasticar. Ben was always the best pilot in the FF, so it makes sense for him to see play with the Car. However, I still don't see him making HE lists even if he is now a potential 4-Energy, 12-Power play between his debuffs and the +2 from Fantasticar. Ben will remain the worst HE target while I expect the upcoming Thing to be the worst First Steps card. Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew can't catch a break!
NTW is another card that's always been a bit of a pet card of mine. This change is important to keep her viable long term since skills were such an easy workaround to her. I wouldn't have minded an extra point like Mirage, though.
Zabu has been a menace lately. However, he's been a lot more successful at very High MMR than elsewhere, which is always a tricky situation to balance. Zabu remains powerful, but the loss of a point will have people looking at other options or forgoing him and relying on Mr. Fantastic and Surge as ways to discount the same cards instead.
Final Rating - 2/4 Arrows
It might seem odd to give an OTA where I basically like all of the changes such a middling score. I always say the best OTAs are the ones that make you want to open a deck-builder. What's the primary attraction here? Mirage? Doom 2099? There's too little here to really get excited about, even if I agree with the direction of each change. An OTA needs at least one big change or a buff to a forgotten card to rate highly.
That being said, the meta is in a good spot and bigger changes can be saved for when we need churn further down the line. The hand buff decks are strong, but I'm happy to give them leeway since they're so new (yes, they're still brand new, I know Snap fans tend to be pretty impatient). Moreover, there are fewer totally unplayable cards right now than ever before. Other than Kang, there's not much that needs urgent attention. When we really need a shake up there will be plenty of directions in which to go.