1. Bard chimes proc at end of round instead of on draw so you can't play your buffed units till next turn so its not immediate tempo value in what's supposed to be a slow deck.
2. Kaisa evolve plus 1 or 2 keywords, she isn't Evelyn or Gnar she's not designed to level on curve given her current power rating.
We could stop the list there but now we can get into personal preference territory.
1. I'm still of the oppinion that Annie TF is one of the best decks in the game and will explode in winrate once these two changes land ^
2. Illoi similarly might be a bit too consistent, and may become the new Bard after changes.
But thats it from me while there are two champion cards that are busted bonkers broken, and two other champions introduced that are a little over the power curve I can't say that the game is fundamentally unbalanced overall it's pretty good.
In terms of winrates bard is outperforming Kaisa. They also fixed the sharpsight bug where it used to level her at burst that was a joke.
But sure 1 more keyword to evolve will probably put her from 54% to 52% and be a niche deck at that point.
But the total ubiquity of Bard is something that can and should and needs to be fixed if LOR is going to continue being a game that encourages champion diversity.
Outside of Kaisa and Bard I consider Ionia and Shurima.to be healthy and fine. It's when the champions are this good that countering disruption borderlines on toxic.
Yeah, depending on your preference for worse best champ, is largely down to your personal pressure points and play style.
Kaisa is strong but I intrinsically understand the counter.
Snap your answer on turn 5 before passing turn priority, that makes sense I can wrap my head around that, although demanding such a rigid response is frustrating for players who want to play their own way, in a card game.
Bard is my personal least favorite champion, because he breaks the conventions established by the "Runeterra Region"
Ie. you can put any type of my card in your deck you want, but I convey no inherent advantages beyond deck flexibility.
This is how Jhin, and Evelyn works and it's perfectly fine and balanced.
Bard on the other hand provides massive statistical improvements both in terms of win rates and actual follower stats just by existing, just by being a thing, just by having the card in your deck and not even in hand.
This is dumb, please rebalance Bard cards so his kit is self sufficient, and remove his free stat improvement of 3 chimes per turn when he's the only Runeterra champion that works this way.
Imagine if Temo planted 3 shromes in your opponents deck per turn for free with 0 interaction.
So yeah while evolve can definitely be easily tweaked by demanding one more keyword to proc, Bard needs a full rework, because every deck he's in is improved by his mere presence, and I don't know about you guys but I didn't sign up to play Legends Of Bard the card game.
its no secret that Kaisa and Bard are essentially tied for both best champions
So which do you hate the most, big board and high tempo followers, or small followers and big tempo champion?
Honestly i still think this is the most fun you can have in LoR right now, beyond these two big perpetrators ^ the win rates are exceptionally balanced
And I can run my brews and hit 6 wins in row with decks like Lurk, Deep, and Ramp.
But these matchups remain problematic and you just have to accept that sometimes when you que in you will get blown up.
If you accept that you're at a disadvantage being off meta you'll have a great time
and it's better then last season where I just saw the same 3 decks over and over again, here we have a great deal of diversity outside of Bard.
Why well it has a proactive turn 4 play in a deck that does nothing till turn 5.
No merciliess, broadwing, and bird don't count.
Now yes the 8 drop is okay, it's generally worse version of the arsenal and can't really close out games, but it is in fact a card.
-------------But what else do we see from the first part of the set-------------------
Bard Illoi at 56%
TF Annie, and Azir Irellia, Annie Jhin at 53% very respectable
Like don't get me wrong if they want to make it so evolved needs 1 more keyword to activate go nuts, might drop the deck down an entire percent point
But then that percent goes straight back into Annie still one of the top played champs, and Bard who goes in everything, and Illoi one of the strong on curve powerhouses.
I don't think the new set destroyed the meta, anymore then Annie and Bard did before Kaisa.
I do think she counters the meta, and that really pisses people off.
So Evelyn is an amazing card with an amazing champ spell. Like legit in the right deck your opponent has no chance, really digging shen right now because devluating blocks really help you get the maximum value from Evelyn.
But with all that said there are literally only 3 cards worth playing in her kit. Domination and vora and Evelyn herslef, playing more husks does nothing when all you need to do is curve into her.
And everything else is too understated to be playable. Sulfur is a 1/3 that doesn't cycle gross, hate spike is so much worse then vile feast or mystic shot it's not even funny, allure is a meme, solitude and Steme don't really help Evelyn do what she's trying to do.
So in summary amazing champ my favorite from the new set, but just a frickin awful kit, that needs stat buffs on her followers or post release support.
The spellshield is focus speed, so snap vengeance snap obliterate fish, snap will of Ionia all are solid counters to a deck that only has one wincon.
Now if they wait till turn 6 to play her and back up with a deny, does that mean your deck has no proactive moves till turn 6 thats problematic regardless of opponent.
Like you should be able to just take the deny use up their spell mana and vengeance a second time when you have the token/turn priority.
Like I dont play the new Champs but I recognize the devs were saying to themselves hmmm Annie, Bard and Illoi are essentially curve beasts that are top of their archetypes. So let's print some tempo Champs to counter, and I think thats an okay solution when you have this much power creep.
So streamers are starting to complain about the meta after the new set.
While generally on board with straight forward powerhouse decks like Annie and Bard they are drawing the line at the 3 new tempo oriented Champs introduced with the new set.
Now I understand the issue, if you're a streamer whose credibility depends on getting to masters you're gonna hate teching between control Annie, big follower Bard, and big Champs from the new set.
Infact the meta in un-techable there is no best climbing option, and honestly I'm kinda fine with it.
We've talked in detail about how nobody wanted to nerf Annie and Bard so instead the devs just released a bunch of counters.
So its going to feel like queuing into a whirlwind but if you don't care about being the most hard-core try hard that ever was you can actually have a lot of fun with the new cards and opponents you'll run into.
Not everything needs a solution, not all problems need to be solved sometimes you just have to enjoy the journey the devs have laid out for you.
I dont play Azir Irelia but it's a cool deck people should feel like they have the ability to play.
Same with sundisc, Yassao, deep, thralls, Lurk etc.
Yeah I know the stats haven't changed, we already talked about how without nerfs Annie and Bard would remain dominate.
The only thing that has changed is the number of options, and solutions at your disposal to play around or counter these established archetypes as a clever brewer.
But no if you played Annie Tf all last season, you can play Annie TF all this season if you want, nothing new there.
Its no secret that I generally despised the first part of Worldwaker as a standalone set.
Obviously good cards were printed that did obviously good things, and played for obviously good wincons.
But generally speaking I feel that the new cards have done a great job of answering certain intended problems.
Like sure Annie Tf will still put up great winrates, but it can be more easily countered now.
Bard puts out overstated followers but with two new high tempo Champs follower stats don't matter as much.
New archetypes were created that have unique play patterns that are interested and dynamic, demanding creative player responses.
With everything we've seen here I can confidently say that World Waker had been salvaged and any left that the expansion has to show us will only be further possitive developments.
Some archetypes only really come into their own after further support is released for them. Might be like that for world waker Champs, there's nothing really stopping the devs from releasing more skill cards, more husks, more chimes, more hollowed, more evolved.
In that context these "runeterra" region Champs might end of feeling like their own stand alone regions after a while.
I like the new decks quite a bit in terms of their place in the meta, and balancing out other archetypes by contrast.
The fact Kayesa is like boom burst speed spellshield onto a quick attack overwhelm body is very tough for Annie to disintegrate.
Bard is still strong, but he's a strong tempo card in a world with demon girl comming down as a 6/6 on 4 with keywords sometimes.
Also hollowed decks have infinite attack to trade into over stated bard followers.
So while the new expansion decks are generally "strong" but not op they are generally better as healthy answers to over represented archetypes present last season.
Yeah, by the numbers Bard is S tier and goes in everything.
Annie is A tier and goes in everything.
The ravenbloom nerf will be necessary after they nerf bard from 3-2 chimes per copy.
Because the only thing stopping Annie decks from being S tier is that they gain value slowly and Bard gains insane value by turn 3. (Stupid design for a "temo" card)
So for those who have looked at the stats lately they will know that Annie and Bard are the two highest played Champs in the game in terms of the number of high tier lists they are present in.
I've already spoken about why ravembloom is a problematic and poorly designed card in its current iteration aka should buff spells not creatures, both is too powerful for a 1 mana landmark.
But Bard is a whole nother kettle of fish. Annie while being the A tier queen with 3 lists, Bard is the S tier king with two lists but can essentially be jammed anywhere and win as Mogwai often complains.
Why is this? Well high rolling in a word, boom two chimes okay that's a 4/4 for one mana, boom another 3 chimes k that's a 7/7 on turn 4 and you basically nothing to increase the chime level in your deck except run Bard as a champion.
Now you'll say that's astronomically low ods, and I would say yes but turns out free wins are free wins and in a game based around a 50-58% matchup table free wins are king.
The new cards and new expansion are looking to learn lessons from mistakes of the last but at the end of the day if bards free chime placement isn't nerfed 3 - 2 and ravenbloom doesn't stop globally buffing creatures even creatures spawned like tokens the metas not really going to change in a healthy way like it should.
Just my two cents, but a lot of players are getting sick of hearthstone Bard and I'm one of them and Annie I always hated soooo plz Riot just tweak them a bit.
Here's the list
1. Bard chimes proc at end of round instead of on draw so you can't play your buffed units till next turn so its not immediate tempo value in what's supposed to be a slow deck.
2. Kaisa evolve plus 1 or 2 keywords, she isn't Evelyn or Gnar she's not designed to level on curve given her current power rating.
We could stop the list there but now we can get into personal preference territory.
1. I'm still of the oppinion that Annie TF is one of the best decks in the game and will explode in winrate once these two changes land ^
2. Illoi similarly might be a bit too consistent, and may become the new Bard after changes.
But thats it from me while there are two champion cards that are busted bonkers broken, and two other champions introduced that are a little over the power curve I can't say that the game is fundamentally unbalanced overall it's pretty good.
In terms of winrates bard is outperforming Kaisa. They also fixed the sharpsight bug where it used to level her at burst that was a joke.
But sure 1 more keyword to evolve will probably put her from 54% to 52% and be a niche deck at that point.
But the total ubiquity of Bard is something that can and should and needs to be fixed if LOR is going to continue being a game that encourages champion diversity.
Outside of Kaisa and Bard I consider Ionia and Shurima.to be healthy and fine. It's when the champions are this good that countering disruption borderlines on toxic.
Yeah you can hourglass, you can deny with Kaisa
And Ionia can bounce and stun and deny with Bard shen.
So its no surprise that the two least interactive champions are also experts at disrupting your opponents disruption.
Saying which flavor of meta is more toxic is like asking which flavor of ass you'd rather eat on a plater, the answer is throw both of them out.
Yeah, depending on your preference for worse best champ, is largely down to your personal pressure points and play style.
Kaisa is strong but I intrinsically understand the counter.
Snap your answer on turn 5 before passing turn priority, that makes sense I can wrap my head around that, although demanding such a rigid response is frustrating for players who want to play their own way, in a card game.
Bard is my personal least favorite champion, because he breaks the conventions established by the "Runeterra Region"
Ie. you can put any type of my card in your deck you want, but I convey no inherent advantages beyond deck flexibility.
This is how Jhin, and Evelyn works and it's perfectly fine and balanced.
Bard on the other hand provides massive statistical improvements both in terms of win rates and actual follower stats just by existing, just by being a thing, just by having the card in your deck and not even in hand.
This is dumb, please rebalance Bard cards so his kit is self sufficient, and remove his free stat improvement of 3 chimes per turn when he's the only Runeterra champion that works this way.
Imagine if Temo planted 3 shromes in your opponents deck per turn for free with 0 interaction.
So yeah while evolve can definitely be easily tweaked by demanding one more keyword to proc, Bard needs a full rework, because every deck he's in is improved by his mere presence, and I don't know about you guys but I didn't sign up to play Legends Of Bard the card game.
its no secret that Kaisa and Bard are essentially tied for both best champions
So which do you hate the most, big board and high tempo followers, or small followers and big tempo champion?
Honestly i still think this is the most fun you can have in LoR right now, beyond these two big perpetrators ^ the win rates are exceptionally balanced
And I can run my brews and hit 6 wins in row with decks like Lurk, Deep, and Ramp.
But these matchups remain problematic and you just have to accept that sometimes when you que in you will get blown up.
If you accept that you're at a disadvantage being off meta you'll have a great time
and it's better then last season where I just saw the same 3 decks over and over again, here we have a great deal of diversity outside of Bard.
Mogwai already mentioned this in his last video but sharpsight isn't a keyword granter and shouldn't level Kaisa at burst speed.
90% of the broken evolve mechanic can be tracked to this interaction.
To be honest the only good Kaisa list is Sivir Kaisa
https://runeterra.ar/stats
has a strong 55 percent winrate
Why well it has a proactive turn 4 play in a deck that does nothing till turn 5.
No merciliess, broadwing, and bird don't count.
Now yes the 8 drop is okay, it's generally worse version of the arsenal and can't really close out games, but it is in fact a card.
-------------But what else do we see from the first part of the set-------------------
Bard Illoi at 56%
TF Annie, and Azir Irellia, Annie Jhin at 53% very respectable
Like don't get me wrong if they want to make it so evolved needs 1 more keyword to activate go nuts, might drop the deck down an entire percent point
But then that percent goes straight back into Annie still one of the top played champs, and Bard who goes in everything, and Illoi one of the strong on curve powerhouses.
I don't think the new set destroyed the meta, anymore then Annie and Bard did before Kaisa.
I do think she counters the meta, and that really pisses people off.
So Evelyn is an amazing card with an amazing champ spell. Like legit in the right deck your opponent has no chance, really digging shen right now because devluating blocks really help you get the maximum value from Evelyn.
But with all that said there are literally only 3 cards worth playing in her kit. Domination and vora and Evelyn herslef, playing more husks does nothing when all you need to do is curve into her.
And everything else is too understated to be playable. Sulfur is a 1/3 that doesn't cycle gross, hate spike is so much worse then vile feast or mystic shot it's not even funny, allure is a meme, solitude and Steme don't really help Evelyn do what she's trying to do.
So in summary amazing champ my favorite from the new set, but just a frickin awful kit, that needs stat buffs on her followers or post release support.
The spellshield is focus speed, so snap vengeance snap obliterate fish, snap will of Ionia all are solid counters to a deck that only has one wincon.
Now if they wait till turn 6 to play her and back up with a deny, does that mean your deck has no proactive moves till turn 6 thats problematic regardless of opponent.
Like you should be able to just take the deny use up their spell mana and vengeance a second time when you have the token/turn priority.
Like I dont play the new Champs but I recognize the devs were saying to themselves hmmm Annie, Bard and Illoi are essentially curve beasts that are top of their archetypes. So let's print some tempo Champs to counter, and I think thats an okay solution when you have this much power creep.
Sounds like you're an Annie Tf main tired of getting countered. You know there's a lot of other decks out there that are easy to play.
Illoi Bard for example just go big and then their tempo doesn't matter.
Ummm, don't think anyone is saying counterspell is too strong.
And merciless hunter was already nerfed.
No if anything it will be champ tweaks.
But the problem is that Illoi, Bard, Annie are in a tug of war with the 3 new Champs.
You nerf one the other 5 just get stronger
Of course I'm a weirdo who can go 6/0 with Zillian Ekko so my fun is very much subjective compared to the meta crowd.
So streamers are starting to complain about the meta after the new set.
While generally on board with straight forward powerhouse decks like Annie and Bard they are drawing the line at the 3 new tempo oriented Champs introduced with the new set.
Now I understand the issue, if you're a streamer whose credibility depends on getting to masters you're gonna hate teching between control Annie, big follower Bard, and big Champs from the new set.
Infact the meta in un-techable there is no best climbing option, and honestly I'm kinda fine with it.
We've talked in detail about how nobody wanted to nerf Annie and Bard so instead the devs just released a bunch of counters.
So its going to feel like queuing into a whirlwind but if you don't care about being the most hard-core try hard that ever was you can actually have a lot of fun with the new cards and opponents you'll run into.
Not everything needs a solution, not all problems need to be solved sometimes you just have to enjoy the journey the devs have laid out for you.
I dont play Azir Irelia but it's a cool deck people should feel like they have the ability to play.
Same with sundisc, Yassao, deep, thralls, Lurk etc.
Yeah I know the stats haven't changed, we already talked about how without nerfs Annie and Bard would remain dominate.
The only thing that has changed is the number of options, and solutions at your disposal to play around or counter these established archetypes as a clever brewer.
But no if you played Annie Tf all last season, you can play Annie TF all this season if you want, nothing new there.
Its no secret that I generally despised the first part of Worldwaker as a standalone set.
Obviously good cards were printed that did obviously good things, and played for obviously good wincons.
But generally speaking I feel that the new cards have done a great job of answering certain intended problems.
Like sure Annie Tf will still put up great winrates, but it can be more easily countered now.
Bard puts out overstated followers but with two new high tempo Champs follower stats don't matter as much.
New archetypes were created that have unique play patterns that are interested and dynamic, demanding creative player responses.
With everything we've seen here I can confidently say that World Waker had been salvaged and any left that the expansion has to show us will only be further possitive developments.
Some archetypes only really come into their own after further support is released for them. Might be like that for world waker Champs, there's nothing really stopping the devs from releasing more skill cards, more husks, more chimes, more hollowed, more evolved.
In that context these "runeterra" region Champs might end of feeling like their own stand alone regions after a while.
I like the new decks quite a bit in terms of their place in the meta, and balancing out other archetypes by contrast.
The fact Kayesa is like boom burst speed spellshield onto a quick attack overwhelm body is very tough for Annie to disintegrate.
Bard is still strong, but he's a strong tempo card in a world with demon girl comming down as a 6/6 on 4 with keywords sometimes.
Also hollowed decks have infinite attack to trade into over stated bard followers.
So while the new expansion decks are generally "strong" but not op they are generally better as healthy answers to over represented archetypes present last season.
No nerfs required.
I play Thralls fairly different as well with the emphasis on turbo, stall, heals, and even rock bears as a oh shit play.
Yeah like my version is a little different
Yes turbo deep is pretty easy thanks to tripple slaughter, and toss bug, dredge, and wanderer
I control the board early with 3 vile, 3 undergrowth, 2 tenticle, 3 devourer, 3 jaul hunters
Lots of draw with 2 eye naga, 3 abyssal, 3 lure
There's a few weak matchups when you forgo vengence and atrocity but generally speaking I find this list does well
Yeah, by the numbers Bard is S tier and goes in everything.
Annie is A tier and goes in everything.
The ravenbloom nerf will be necessary after they nerf bard from 3-2 chimes per copy.
Because the only thing stopping Annie decks from being S tier is that they gain value slowly and Bard gains insane value by turn 3. (Stupid design for a "temo" card)
So for those who have looked at the stats lately they will know that Annie and Bard are the two highest played Champs in the game in terms of the number of high tier lists they are present in.
I've already spoken about why ravembloom is a problematic and poorly designed card in its current iteration aka should buff spells not creatures, both is too powerful for a 1 mana landmark.
But Bard is a whole nother kettle of fish. Annie while being the A tier queen with 3 lists, Bard is the S tier king with two lists but can essentially be jammed anywhere and win as Mogwai often complains.
Why is this? Well high rolling in a word, boom two chimes okay that's a 4/4 for one mana, boom another 3 chimes k that's a 7/7 on turn 4 and you basically nothing to increase the chime level in your deck except run Bard as a champion.
Now you'll say that's astronomically low ods, and I would say yes but turns out free wins are free wins and in a game based around a 50-58% matchup table free wins are king.
The new cards and new expansion are looking to learn lessons from mistakes of the last but at the end of the day if bards free chime placement isn't nerfed 3 - 2 and ravenbloom doesn't stop globally buffing creatures even creatures spawned like tokens the metas not really going to change in a healthy way like it should.
Just my two cents, but a lot of players are getting sick of hearthstone Bard and I'm one of them and Annie I always hated soooo plz Riot just tweak them a bit.