Ban crest of rage

[The_Medina]

So I haven't played Spoils in a long time but decided to give it a shot recently and was appalled at the power level of some of the Crest cards. Crest of Rage in particular seems slightly OP. Am I the only who sees this card as a problem? In my opinion characters are the best card type in this game. If I am not mistaken, dealing lethal to an opponents influence is currently the only way to win. Does it make sense to give the faction with the most efficient and fast creatures a card like Crest of Rage? It seems hard to compete with. So I decided to do a little research on the matter. I'm not sure if any of you pay attention to major tourneys (I hope you do); however, a lot of these results are pretty much 50 percent of the top 8 playing Warlord aggro. I understand that I can be hard to pin point which card(s) in the 75 are actually causing the issue; however, I have a strong hunch that it's the card that allows you to re gas after your opponent finally manages to fine a way to compete with all of the efficient bodies you just throw their way. It's very frustrating to play against (especially from the perspective of a control player, which is already hard to manage in this format) when your opponent is CONSTANTLY getting the best threats from their deck...over and over...

As I said before, the Warlord decks are filled with efficient cards, and it can be difficult to pick the problem child; however, I feel as if this would be a good place to start.

Immediate banning please.

[Brad Meine]

What major tourneys do you speak of? There hasn't been a major tourney in 5 years.

[The_Medina]

The forum won't let me post the links, but I was looking at the German Open, Australian Nations, and Top 8 from last year's Gencon.

[Ken Pilcher]

Hey there Medina,
I am going to be very blunt here and very transparent.

One thing to remember is that the meta is very narrow right now because there are not enough major events to allow for meta shifts. The first archetype to come through in almost any games meta is always aggro. Warlord is aggro. Those events ran very aggro fields because that is the most obvious archetype in any meta.

Another note is that The Spoils is NOT those other games. The power level in The Spoils, when compared to other similar games can come across as very high. Comparing power levels across games is never a good idea. I understand first impressions and while your first impression of the Warlord deck is that the ability of the crest is what is strong, there are many more factors than the simple search. Many will argue that the threshold boost alone is actually the issue. Others will say that Crest of Rage isn't even the issue.

That being said I am not completely denouncing the power of Warlord. Yes, it is powerful and many say it is creating a very unbalanced meta, but I assure you, there are decks that beat it.

Last (and this is the transparency side). The current meta you see is partially the result of a meta created during a major transitional stage of the game. The release time between sets has been much longer than anyone would have ever imagined. (thankfully that is about to be remedied) Many of the tools to fight this meta are coming. While, in my opinion, there are current tools to combat the aggro Warlord archetype, there will be new tools to help spark some creative answers and support already existing answers that many of the players just haven't seen yet.

I hope you are patient enough to allow for the natural balance of the game to occur. As the play base grows and the consistency of events increases, we will see a much more diverse meta at the upper level.

We will keep a close eye on the meta and of course we will listen to the players as much as possible. Our job is to give you the tools you need to be creative, be competitive, and have fun. Whether you are a Dominic, Deckster or Victor, we want you to enjoy yourselves while playing.

Remember to Have Fun, Play Spoils!

[Bizze]

Yes, Warlord is extremely powerful and Crest of Rage, together with Crest of Obsession, are the two most powerful ones.

There are ways currently to combat that, however. The mono Rogue Ass deck has a fairly good chance if it can establish Ass early as well as using Peculate or Breasticles for some early steal. Looping decks with Inadequate Wand and/or Gilded Yurt can also outlast the Warlord deck if they can get the loops going as early as possible. I myself lost Swedish Nationals due to triple Yurt and Quotidian Ejector turn 3... ^_^;

If the above alternatives fail, just build a Resource Investment OTK deck or the trusty Banker Warlord Writ/Bile. With Gold Summit and a timely Selective Gluttony, you won't mind Gideon and Spry Archer much... ^_^

On a personal note, I can't wait until the Spoils start to rotate so that we can create new decks without power-creeping the other trades to combat Warlord.

But for now, I put a lot of faith into Seed 3 and Shade of the Devoured Emperor!

[ImInneren]

I never had problems with Crest of Rage o.O
I think, the best is Crest of Elitism. Elitism play so much Ressources, that there comes so many little 1 1 3 Tokens, but even with Obsession, Rage or Elitism I can get around with.

So many decks can beat Warlords...
I think even Rogues are better! Or some Elitism-Chars (Rogue have many speed and can kill immideatly and Elitism have many different speedgroups)

[La_Sin_Grail]

This doesn't even begin to point out the possibility of bask bile combo :P That deck had a pretty easy time with many aggro decks. Look at the Gencon list I won constructed with the year before. I actually didn't play in last year's constructed nats because I didn't have time to get my hands on a deck... but I sure beat a lot of aggro in 2010 nats!

EDIT: As a side note, don't believe Brad. Nationals in both 2009 and 2010 had more people than any of the Bus tour 2007 stops.

[The_Medina]

Fair enough, I look forward to seeing the new answers soon.