I’m gonna post up my thoughts I have about the impact of the ban list and how I think it should be iterated on.
-
I think the biggest success of this format was the impact it had on Corp diversity. In every faction but HB we saw a very healthy mix of IDs (and etf had a pretty wide variety of archetypes), and it was not clear which deck was best in any given faction. Corp / runner balance was excellent where I was able to play decks on both sides where I felt I had reasonable matchups across the board.
-
Runner balance was less healthy, where whizzard and Andy both dominated. There were about 2 decks in each I’d (frantic / temujin - regass / taps). This was negatively impacted by the banlist, as dumble and hate bear were knocked out of existence. However, the positive impact that had on Corp options and overall balance was a greater positive imo, but it’s partially a judgement call. Additionally, each of these factions had options that were proven to be top tier (DLR Maxx, Gabe) and geist also can see play. This is not massively out of line with worlds meta, with temujin whizz / Andy being the top decks being similar to hate bear / temy whizz in levels of diversity.
-
Temujin is still dumb and busted. However, it’s such an important card to the meta game in terms of stuff like assets and money + hhn / midseasons nbn decks, that it’s hard to know the impact of removing it from the meta game. It definitely can afford more restrictions than it has ATM, and should unquestionably be on the mwl. It’s power level 100% deserves more than that, but you’d need a bunch of testing to make sure op econ midseasons and asset spam weren’t too busted. However long term there is no debate, this card needs to go.
-
Shaper still has problems with assets. They’re a little bit better but not really enough to get shaper over their issues. However, since the tournament basically requires 1/3 people to be shaper, I got to see a variety of shaper decks on display, and quite frankly I’m glad they’re terrible. The late game powercreep of shaper in the last cycle has been absurd for a fraction that already specialized in the late game. The decks I saw: smoke, noob kit, congress Kate, Nexus Kate have varying degrees of setup weakness and late game strength, and it tends to lead to garbage gameplay (with congress Kate being the worst offender). Versus basically all of these your plan is go fast and try to win before they setup while they try to get setup, which is quite frankly a terrible 2 player game that’s repetive, uninteresting, and non interactive. Tapwyrm, Beth, net mercur, all lead to this sort of gameplay, and I’m terrified in the slowed down post rotation world are going to be dominant. Congress Kate in particular is the most toxic deck I have ever seen, and is the equivalent to prison corp decks but worse, and only held in check by the fact it isn’t actually good atm.
-
Assets didn’t seem incredibly broken to me, seeming really bad against whizz, 50/50 against Crim, and really good against shaper. I think most people would rather them be a bit worse, and fihp seems the dumbest and therefore best target.
-
Degenerate decks existed (DLR Maxx, hottubs, ci7) but didn’t feel terribly oppressive and I don’t think we’re better than other faction options. Additionally some people do really like to play these sorts of decks and for the most part the goal isn’t to make them unplayable but make them not the best option and not meta warping, which I think was true for all of these.
The changes I would make to the format are as follows:
Ban: friends high places
Mwl on: temujin
Mwl off: prepaid, desperado, lady
Want to make prepaids more even power curve relatively better compared to other shaper decks, want to make temujin less dominant and asset spam slightly worse. I think long term if shaper ever gets good underworld contacts and Beth both need a nerf, and temujin should be banned as soon as rotation happens as we’re losing midseasons and a bunch of operation econ.