OTA Review | 09/10 | With Decks!
This week’s OTA has been described as a “doozy” by the devs, but this is an OTA that will be seen just as much for what didn’t change as what it did. Does it represent a major shake-up, as the devs seem to believe or is it more about the future than the present? We’ll go through all of the changes, discuss the implications, and hand out a few decks to get you started in this “brand new” metagame!
The Changes
- Scorpion Brand New Day: 6/8 ⇨ 6/6
- Blink: 5/8 ⇨ 5/7
- Venus: 3/3 ⇨ 3/2
- Gambit Horseman of Death: 3/5 ⇨ 4/6
- Isca the Unbeaten: 4/3 ⇨ 4/2
- Vulture: +3 Power ⇨ +4 Power
- Nicholas Scratch: 1/2 ⇨ 1/3
- The Collector: 2/2 ⇨ 2/3
- Spider-Sense: 6-Cost ⇨ 5-Cost
- Mister Fantastic First Steps: +2 Power ⇨ +3 Power
- Majestic Wingbeat: +2 Power ⇨ +3 Power
- Superior Iron Man: 5/7 ⇨ 5/8
Analysis & Decks
Scorpion 6/8 ⇨ 6/6
Scorpion BND has become the “big combo” solitaire deck. It’s a role that some deck always fulfills. This deck is tough to interact with, so I’m happy to see it lose a couple of points of Power. This doesn’t change much fundamentally for the deck, but decks that already have decent matchups into it should be able to win quite a bit more often.
No Blink or Thanos Necessary
The Blink builds for Scorp are still totally fine, but if you're looking for something that doesn't use her (or Thanos FF, as most of the High Evo builds seem to), give this a try. Polaris does heavy lifting here.
Blink: 5/8 ⇨ 5/7
Blink got hit because of her role in the best-performing Scorpion BND decks. This once-generically strong card has been relegated to a greedy combo piece. I’m not sure this nerf was totally undeserved, but I would like to see her decoupled from the greediest combos in some way.
Venus: 3/3 ⇨ 3/2
Venus landed with a bang, but it was only a couple of days before the excitement of all those little pings of Power faded beneath the reality of the card’s actual performance. However, since then Venus has slowly but surely chugged uphill, getting better and better with each new synergy piece that was released. She can definitely handle the loss of this point.
Gambit Horseman of Death: 3/5 ⇨ 4/6
This is a card for which the performance stats don’t matter to me at all. It’s an unpleasant card with an uninteresting play pattern. The last “nerf” was puzzlingly gentle at the time, but did have an effect on the card’s play rate. However, moving Gambit HoD up to 4-Cost will hopefully reduce the primary frustrating play pattern with this card, copying and repeating its effect.
Honest Gambit?
Can an honest single-Gambit strategy work, as the devs suggest? I'm skeptical, but this looks fun at least.
Isca the Unbeaten: 4/3 ⇨ 4/2
Isca has certainly been a strong lane winner, but removing a starting point of Power to a card like this is an extreme hit. I don’t worry that this card is completely dead, I worry that it’s completely dead outside of Aurora decks, where it will still shine. I fear Second Dinner has taken one of their most compelling (though occasionally frustrating) cards and made it a lot more boring.
Vulture: +3 Power ⇨ +4 Power
Is this a big enough buff that Vulture-centric move decks that just try to make a giant Vulture will be viable? It’s nowhere near the old doubling Human Torch (who was deservedly murdered), but this does strike me as a powerful card that is worth playing around with. Taskmaster is just one direction I’d love to try.
Rocket Surgery
Does Vulture make a better Torch backup plan than Dagger?
Nicholas Scratch: 1/2 ⇨ 1/3
This is the first of several buffs that are not aimed at this season, but are aimed at the future Scarlet Witch, Queen of Chaos. Nicholas Scratch has always been the kind of card that eventually has its time to shine, once we get enough powerful skills. I think we’re getting awfully close to that point now.
The Collector: 2/2 ⇨ 2/3
The second piece of the Scratch/Scarlet buff package, Collector does have some interesting other uses. Hey, looks! It’s a tiny buff to Discard!
Spider-Sense: 6-Cost ⇨ 5-Cost
The last time Spider-Sense was changed it was a real head-scratcher. Why in the world would they try to “buff” this card by giving it Power and increasing its cost, given its main issue is a lack of Moveable cards. Now, it gets the full buff, keeping the extra Power, but going back down to 5-Cost. I honestly think it’s pretty good now, and there are a number of places I would like to try it out.
Charlie Sense
Now we only need to play 4 Moveable cards to be able to play out Spider-Sense alongside Cannonball. Notably, Spider-Sense can be played under Professor X, so you can unexpectedly swing a Prox lane you're losing by a lot going into the last turn, giving you a lot more flexibility on where you can play him.
Mister Fantastic First Steps: +2 Power ⇨ +3 Power
Ok, this guy is really powerful now. Similar to Spider-Sense, this is another card they gave a half-step buff to last time that didn’t quite land as hard as they’d hoped. I know this buff is aimed at Superior Iron Man (more on that later), but this is just a generically good card again.
Majestic Wingbeat: +2 Power ⇨ +3 Power
This is the headliner change. I know people are probably pretty happy to see Scorpion and Gambit nerfed or Vulture buffed to a playable level, but this is the change we’re going to remember. A 1/3 Skill with oodles of synergy upside is ridiculous. ⅓ Agony was stong, but, given what’s currently ruling the meta, this is a really risky change. Between what we already have, buffs to skills-matter cards in this OTA, and more synergy pieces coming on the horizon, this is about to be a top 5 card in the game. This is the early clubhouse leader for the next “buff they regret and quickly revert.” Get ready to see even more Wingbeat.
Superior Iron Man: 5/7 ⇨ 5/8
Geez louise, how weak were this card’s stats that it necessitated so many buffs in its favor? I already saw decks using this effectively, whether as a value piece in Thanos FF decks or greedy Moon Girl decks. Don't get me wrong, I think the card landed a little low. But I really don’t think this card was weak enough to make Mr. Fantastic FS a generically good card again, make Majestic Wingbeat potentially problematically strong, and giving this an extra point of Power on top. Their vision for this card is as a full build-around? I guess they just really want this card to be good this season, huh?
Superior Value
Our goal here is to play out Superior Iron Man out alongside APM! Value!
Greedy SIM
Just make big Sims! A less greedy version could be made with Shaw, Sinister, or Brood as backup plans.
The Untouchables
How much of the issue with Superior Iron Man (and Kluh) is about the meta being warped around Thanos Fractured Frontier, rather than their own Power levels anyway? It is very surprising that Thanos FF didn't get any kind of change given his sky-high play rate. I would also have loved to see Jane FF go to 3/3, possibly even more than a Thanos change. Some of the nerfs here were aimed at the one of the most popular Thanos FF decks (Isca and Venus), but the buff to Majestic Wingbeat is a buff.
Why is Thanos escaping the nerf hammer? I believe it's due to the way he enables a variety of mid-range strategies. There is always a best Thanos FF deck (Anti-Polar Magneto at the moment), but the card isn't best played on Turn 6 and that makes it more of an enabler of strategies through it's copying and discounting than a traditional build-around. I do like that Thanos allows multiple strategies to thrive. However, the card is going to necessitate a nerf on play-rate ground eventually. I'm surprised it wasn't this time, but I expect something next time around.
Final Thoughts
The biggest buff recipient this week is arguably Scarlet Witch, Queen of Chaos, who releases at the end of the month. I was luke-warm on her before, but I'm a lot hotter now!
The OTA is large and does have a couple of harsh nerfs that will affect play and win rate (Isca, Gambit). However, despite the size of this OTA, I don't believe it's going to shake up the metagame as much as the developer notes seem to imply. Thanos Fractured Frontier is still out there running around and the nerfs to Scorpion BND were gentle enough that it should remain a top deck. None of the buffs are likely to lead to a new tippy-top tier deck, despite how much move-enjoyers may be excited by the buff to Vulture – that's a niche group. Mr. Fantastic First Steps and Majestic Wingbeat are going to allow super-greedy decks and a lot of those strategies are still going to center around Thanos FF. Maybe Superior Iron Man is now good enough to get in on the action as a value piece – the role I expected him to have initially. The decks may change a bit, but the top card in the format won't.
