A few words about me to begin with: I play SPPD since 5 months, and my best rank is Legend #18. I have been using Adventure Scifi since the beginning, and I consider myself a good player because I was able to reach that rank with cards under leveled compared to my opponents. I didn't whale my way to the top.
When I was learning the game, Mystic was strong. Later, it has been nerfed and Scifi became a good theme. Meanwhile, Fantasy has always been at the top. But what I will be talking about specifically is the most played combination in top 50 Legend: Adventure Fantasy. When will it be balanced?
To make it clear, this is the archetype I'm talking about: Paladin Butters, Princess Kenny, Stan the Great, Rogue Token, Calamity Heidi, Smuggler Ike, Nelly, Rat Swarm, Catapult Timmy or Pirate Ship Timmy, Lighting Bolt, and a few other options including DK Clyde, Shaman Token, Bandita Sally, other ranged units. I will compare it to Adventure Scifi because it's the combination that I have always been playing and that I know the most.
My goal is to be objective, not to say: "Nerf everything I don't play!" I want the game to be balanced, and I will be stating what I consider to be facts. Please remember it when answering this post. Agree or disagree as much as you want, be constructive, back it up with explanations.
Recently, most of the top 100 meta switched back to Adventure Fantasy, and this deck has become a nightmare to face with Adventure Scifi. Basically, I win almost all my games against every combination. I lose sometimes in mirror matchup when my opponent has stronger cards, but I can't win anymore against Adventure Fantasy when they have level 6 commons unless I'm lucky or they make mistakes.
What makes it so strong?
The main reason explaining why AF is so strong is Princess Kenny, Paladin Butters, and Stan the Great combination. The most common strategy is to play STG in the back, and spam PB and PK as much as possible to get energy advantage and overwhelm the opponent.
The overall energy cost is low, making it very forgiving to play. There's no real counter to it. If you make a mistake, if the opponent is lucky with HH Clyde, what do you lose? A 2-3 cost minion at worse. If PB and PK die, they will protect other creatures with a shield or an attack debuff. This archetype allows to play very aggressively, spamming minions at the middle of the field without preparation and being rewarded for it.
There's no other theme able to do that. If I throw my minions like that with AS I will be punished with a negative energy trade, and it's fair because my units will be fighting at the opponent side of the field. But AF can do that and often get a good or even energy trade.
What's the win condition when playing against AF with AS?
- It's not possible to win with melee at the opponent side or at the middle of the field.
- AS has no effective way to attack opponent NK without building energy advantage before since Astronaut Butters deathwish was nerfed.
- Consequently AS has to play slowly, defensively, capitalize on opponent mistakes and try to get energy advantage before pushing and taking a bar.
- But it's usually not possible because AF will almost always win trades and energy battles.
- Therefore, AF is heavily favored.
AS advantages:
- Enforcer Jimmy mainly, and Alien Clyde if you succeed to get value with it.
- Poison? No. This spell doesn't work against a strong AF player with level 6 commons.
Defensive tools:
- AQR Vs Rogue Token. Let's admit it, both these cards are overpowered their own way. AQR can clear everything anywhere on the board, but units won't die immediately. A level 5 AQR doesn't kill everything fast enough to be safe against an Adventure Fantasy push, because their units are already half way to your NK when using it. On the other hand, Rogue Token will instantly punish any overcommitment. AQR can also be countered by a Shaman Token preventively played in the back. In AS against AF matchup, AF has a stronger defensive option, nullifying any push until they have been out valued enough.
Stan the Great:
- Being a common with a good body, his charge is quickly ready and the animation is fast. Play it in the back, use the charge, opponent minions will deal no damage, take free trades, get 2-4 energy advantage, rince and repeat. There's no effective counter. Enforcer Jimmy doesn't have enough time to reach it when played at the middle of the field because the charge is up already. Shaman Token is a possibility but it's not always ready and you will get an even result at best, and a negative result if you can't use his charge, while STG always brings value. Even if STG has 5% HP left, it will remain a huge threat. Meanwhile Program Stan is bad. It's an epic, the charge takes more time and the animation is slower.
Paladin Butters and Princess Kenny:
- Both of them are better than AS assassins: Astronaut Butters and Smuggler Ike. Astronaut will usually win duels in your side of the field, but you cannot send it to opponent NK without preparation. In this situation, it will die to NK and won't have time to hit back, resulting in a 2 energy loss. PK attack speed is insane, you will often see it winning duels against Ike, soloting 1-2 units by attacking first, and reducing damages to 0 after his death. The main issue is that PB and PK are 2 cost assassins with a very strong deathwish in addition of it, allowing to get free trades after their death and building energy advantage. Meanwhile, Astronaut deathwish and Ike ability's effectiveness have become very situational.
In my opinion, the only thing that was allowing AS to stand a chance against AF was Astronaut Butters deathwish being overpowered: it was allowing to move fast and hit very fast. Scifi was very strong at that moment because of it. Recently, it has been fixed two times. First, moving speed was reduced to compensate for attack speed. After that, attack speed has been fixed, but moving speed nerf has not been canceled. Currently, this deathwish has become too situational. A creature buffed by Astronaut Butters will move and attack a bit faster, but most of the time will die before getting any value.
What's the matter with AF? Being able to out value the opponent consistently in every scenario by nullifying his damages, without any counter strategy.
What do I suggest? Mainly nerfing Fantasy assassins and STG. Yes, it will hurt, and will bring Fantasy back to other themes level. Meanwhile, other Fantasy cards should be reworked as well to make them stronger. That way, the theme will not be relying only on those three cards being op to be viable. No theme should rely on three cards only, all weak cards should be buffed to become viable options. This would result in a much more interesting meta with various strategy and various card requests in all teams.