Uncle Ector's Appraisal of Space Treasures

I wonder how much actual experience these people have on these items, but that might just be me. Sure, you can disregard experience when discussing the theoretical limits of a build. It's just important to know that cards and items become apparently strong or weak in a context.

I actually think there's a decent quantity of understandable opinions in @Ector's appraisals. I think he's discussed some items that are actually decent but are not seeing much play because of their rarity. Ewix's Evolving Ensemble seems perfectly fit for a crushing dwarf warrior due to the quantity of crushing attacks you can get with Mimetic Crown and the synergy of high health and enduring resistance from Adaptable and Reliable Mail.

However, I think the ensuing "discussion" is more of hate-answered-with-hate than actual useful discussion. I'd rather see people discussing cards' strengths and weaknesses and the validity of Ector's opinion in a given context. You can say Cushioning Armor is outright overpowered in theory, but if the meta is full of fire mages (I'm just citing an example) how is this opinion valid in the context?

I'd like to see some actual item appraisal in the succeeding discussion since this is an item review thread, but if this thread is truly for intellectual rambling I vote that this thread be moved to the off-topic section.

C'mon, guys, what's all the hate for?

 

OK, guys, looks like I have to start the new thread of discussion myself Let's discuss the metagame shift and the changes to the well-known archetypes.

• The classic "two warriors + priest" party, with Mass Frenzy and Blind Rage. It's going to be punished by Nova Axes and Cushioning Armor, but I don't believe it will completely vanish. We'll inevitably see different variations of it, including the variants with Mimetic Crown to get the card advantage.
• The classic burning party (two wizards + a priest, or all three wizards) will become stronger, not just for the new items, but merely for the fact that warriors will have to pack anti-armor cards which aren't very effective versus the wizards.
• The classic Volcano party will become even stronger with Accelerate Time. Looks like I'll have to rate all the Accelerate Time items a bit higher
• The elven warriors will become more popular with The Softener. It really helps to keep the fragile elves alive, much more than any other armor.
• We will see a new kind of priest: an unholy radiated maniac with two Cursed Radcannons. He is going to form parties with two wizards to apply maximum pressure on the enemy. I'd like to try such party!

What do you think about the new metagame?

 

Double warrior with support priest will still be plenty strong. Double-Edged Sword elves was a very strong build before the expansion and it ignores Cushioning Armor. I also think you are vastly overestimating the effect Cushioning Armor will have on the metagame. It is not easy to get and costs a major token that not everyone is willing to pay. Just look at Defender's Block. Undeniably powerful, yet almost no warriors are willing to pay for it.

Warriors packing anti-armor cards will do fine against wizards. Sundering Strike is still a medium sized attack and it chews through Toughness. There is no classic triple let alone double burning wizard build. There are relatively few top tier burning spells so there would be too many redundant attachments. Even if Cushioning Armor does become the best thing since sliced bread, there will still be plenty of Reliable Mails floating around from stuff like Crusty Helm.

Volcano sees almost no play, both due to rarity and diminishing returns as you go up in rating. Accelerate Time does not solve any of the problems Volcano builds previously had. It only serves as a win more.

Elven warriors are already plenty popular. They don't need no fancy schmancy armor.

The advantage of a priest providing its own burst spells is that you no longer need to bring wizards along. The party you describe runs the risk of drawing too many burst spells and not enough buffs. The best buffs, Savage Curse and Unholy Wellspring, come two to a divine item at best. You'll have 30 attacks and only around 6 buffs to do it with. Not to mention all your major tokens will be tied up with the Cursed Radannons. I highly doubt dual Radcannons will become a thing.

My own prediction is that things will settle back to something resembling the old metagame once that new card smell wears off. Weapons and staves were the crux of most builds and the new expansion brought relatively few new toys that can stand toe to toe with old staples. Kind of a bleak outlook so hopefully I'm completely wrong.

 

Kinda partially disagree with both of you.

I think all the cards mentioned by Ector will somehow blend into the current meta, thou likely not in an extremely prominent way.

Save for Accelerate Time. That's probably one of the EttSC cards we'll likely have to learn how to deal with.

Also think Force Field is gonna become extremely popular very soon. I do not think it'll dominate the meta for a long time, but it's likely to be among the most sought cards of the expansion.

If I had to bet though, I'd say we will be getting some unexpected surprises out of the new Move cards. People seem to be extra focused on the flashy stuff right now, but I think we got some extremely cool mobility tools.

 

If they had Mass Frenzy, they don't completely ignore it, as each Double-Edged has only two Impaling Stabs. But, yes, the armor's effect is minimal versus them.

Was Vibrant Pain easy to get before the rebalance? Still, it dominated the metagame, and some people had two.

Nothing strange here: the price is too high, not only in tokens, but also in the bad cards that usually come with it.

But it doesn't have Step. Even the best attack is useless if you cannot reach them.

Well, of course only one wizard is burning, the other is controlling/armor removing. And there should be a LOT of armor removal.

Accelerate Time allows to deal 16 damage to the enemies instead of 8, but that isn't all. You may trigger the acid terrain to remove enemy armor, trigger the Healing Beacon to get healing right now, and so on.

How do they keep alive without the armor? Nobody can hope that he's going just hit himself and don't rcccive the hits.

Two Radcannons + three Skull Of Savage Iljin = six Curses, and you still have the blue tokens for boots, skills and shield. Don't forget that the Radcannons accelerate card drawing.

I don't believe in that at all. Many cards will radically affect the metagame, and it will inevitably move towards armor and armor removal.

 

Aaaaand...now I remember why I stopped responding to these things. Thanks for the reminder. As you were.

 

Apparently Flak writes one comedic essay about Nimble Strike and that determines the nature of the entire metagame. WOO I AM IMPORTANT

 

Let me guess... I am what I was, and I am... which? Do you really consider yourself so omniscient that nobody should argue with your opinion?

 

I absolutely welcome other people's opinions because as infallible as I may seem, even I get stuff wrong once in a while. I simply don't enjoy talking to walls.

 

So I'm a wall, I see. In order to avoind being a wall, I should always agree with you. If I don't, I shouldn't tell that to avoid being a wall. Actually, you just don't like to prove your point, and I do.

 

I don't like to prove my point because I don't feel like my points need to be proven. My opinions of the previous metagame as well as my predictions for future ones are backed up with hundreds of actual matches. In fact, I played more matches to get my guild on the podium (shoutout to Walking Carpets) than the entirety of the rest of my time in Cardhuntria so I feel I'm very well versed in the previous metagame. My points were pretty straightforward in my eyes but if anything was ambiguous then I apologize. Anyone wishing I would elaborate on why I thought something I thunk needs only ask and I will explain my reasoning to the best of my ability. But not here, there are too many walls around.

 

You could write nothing more, that's enough. You don't realize that most people on the forums don't know you and never played with you. Even if they believe you're right, they still want to know why. Honestly, if you're so proud about your experience, you should make youtube clips and post them on the forums. That's the only way your experience could be useful to somebody else.

 

That seems pretty strong. Even Searing Pain does not have more burst attacks, than a priest can have. So two priest with that package and a control wizard could do a good job. But that build is even more aristocratic than the four Searing Pain build.

 

Let me rephrase that. I don't feel that people need to know that I believe in my opinions. I say my opinions once and that's it. If people disagree so be it. I do not tout my accomplishments because I don't believe they are relevant. I will not tell people that their opinion is wrong. I know better than to tell people what they are thinking. However, I will correct someone if they make a mistake about something I feel that I know a lot about. In this case, it was stuff about the previous metagame. No one needs to believe what I say about that either but that doesn't make them any less true to me.

 

I am thinking about one priest + two wizards party. One wizard will be burning, another will carry placement control and armor removal. Yes, it's aristocratic, as every burning build, but if you already have three Skulls, like many players do, you need only two Radcannons

 

How can a priest have more than 6 burst attacks with only 4 major tokens? Are you talking about singleplayer?

 

How can a wiz have more than six burst 2 attacks?

 

Well you never said burst 2 attacks but I did misread what you said.

 

Right, I just talked about searing pain. But since it is the optimal way to get burst two on wiz, my statement is true for burst two in general, what i did notice after i posted my answer.

 

I agree 20% with you Ector. I think that you're subestimating some cards and items.