Everyone expected this after the last Weekend Ranked was dominated by Magic decks. As many people have predicted, the balance team quickly dished out a balance update that addressed the biggest issues plaguing the game last weekend. In general, I feel that this series of buffs to Light and nerfs to Magic are pretty well-balanced and will likely make for a more diverse variety of decks this weekend.
The Big Nerfs
Wyrmbreath and Crystal Rain pretty much went back to their pre-CSR forms, while Leyhoard Hatchling is slightly better than before (3/3 body instead of a 2/1). My verdict? Leyhoard Hatchling will most likely be gone from most Magic decks just like how it wasn't included in almost all well-performing decks before.
In my opinion, these Magic nerfs are great. Magic wasn't a weak faction before, and now it'll most likely go back to being one of the middling classes among the rest. Even with just half a day of playing, we start to see other decks rising to the top.
Much more balanced! I'm sure the play and win rates will even out this week; as a player, I'm generally happy with the changes but I hope the balance team does do more playtesting before they release these many changes at once. And not just balance - my anecdotal experience is that the number of gameplay bugs has slowly been racking up in numbers, making for unfun experiences sometimes. One can only hope that the next expansion doesn't end up introducing even more bugs.
Testing out Aether Magic post-nerf
Deck link: GUDecks
This isn't the most cohesive of decks; I just wanted to see whether the Aether tribe worked well with Metamorphosis while testing out Magic's ability to stay competitive in general. I also unpacked an Ekrileth, which was pretty fun to play with.
Some ideas and thoughts:
No All-Seeing Spire: Perhaps good?
Light decks are coming out of the woodwork, and oftentimes the All-seeing Spire just turns into fodder for Light's Levy. Plus, the number of Munosian Infiltrators I've faced has reached an all-time high. With no way to protect the All-seeing Spire in this deck, I'm strongly considering including 2x Cram for the extra draw, but I don't have 2 copies yet.
The Crowded 5-mana spot
With Crystal Rain being nerfed back to 5-mana, it does seem like running both Crystal Rain and Shaped Blast is a bad idea, since it crowds the 5-mana spot. Probably better to run something like Faraday Cage or Vow of Learning.
Planetar Centurion is great!
Depending on my opponent, I can choose to delay playing Planetar Centurion until I accumulate enough Aethers in my hand for a big burst of value. Comparing this to City Planner, I feel that Planetar Centurion is often more likely to survive a turn because it dodges a few common removal patterns like Hunting Trap and Lightning Bolt (plus 1-damage ping). This makes for a more likely Metamorphosis play the following turn.
Plus, many Aethers also have high mana costs. This makes finding a target for Metamorphosis a little easier.
Metamorphosis is still awesome
After playing lots of Metamorphosis, I find that it is usually not a good idea to play it on a creature on the turn it is played. There are many ways that it can flop, giving you a creature that is even more easily removed than the original one. That being said, it's still awesome if one of your 7-drops stays alive for a turn. Also, it can be extremely valuable in retaining board control if your opponent inflicts burn on your creature by playing something like Falling Star. Transform doesn't carry over any status effects and it can be worth it to play Metamorphosis just to continue to control the board.
Ekrileth: Not bad, not OP
Ekrileth isn't overpowered, but it can be really strong in control-vs-control matches where no one does anything and you rack up a large hand by turn 7. A 9/9 with Ward is always tough to clear. Perhaps it would work better with 2x Cram.
Results
| Opponent God | Deck Archetype | Score (Wins / Total Games) |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Control Nature | 3 / 3 |
| Midrange Nature | 3 / 3 | |
| War | Relic Zoo War | 0 / 1 |
| Frenzied Aggro War | 1 / 2 | |
| Aggro War | 1 / 1 | |
| Magic | Clone Magic | 0 / 1 |
| Card Draw Magic | 0 / 1 | |
| Death | Zombie Death | 1 / 2 |
| Board Wipe Death | 1 / 1 | |
| Deception | Control Deception | 1 / 1 |
| Light | Control Light | 1 / 1 |
| Aggro Light | 0 / 1 | |
| Total | 12 / 18 |
With no more Leyhoard Hatchling as effectively 1-3-mana removal and 4-mana Crystal Rain, this deck performs poorly against aggressive decks. It can be tough to tide over the first few turns especially since CSR introduced a good deal of good early-game cards. In particular, after the Light buff, some games just become unwinnable quickly due to how fast they snowball.
That being said, I do feel like Magic is now much more toned down and balanced. The variety of decks being played also seems to suggest that meta-finding is now in full force.
Conclusion
I'm glad the balance issues got sorted out quickly, but at the same time, I'm quite concerned with the number of gameplay bugs that have been arising as a result of these quick changes. The gameplay seems to be even more sluggish than before, with some interactions not displaying correctly. (more so than before due to their supposed new action queue system) I have strong hopes for GU - the team seems to be more attentive these days than before; I just hope that the development team can keep up with the speed of changes.
Hammer icon from Freepik.