Hai. Long time, no see. So, personally, I'm terrible and play incredibly champ heavy and enjoy phalanxes, and naturally AoEs are the death of me. Do you think, with a small price increase (ie 40-45 from its current 35), giving tainted statue preordained would be a good way to increase the viability of anti-spell decks? Conversely, would just that change be enough?
I dont think rellying on a single rune has ever been enough, Spellsword and bookburner help with the anti-spell too, check them out!
Oh yeah I know. I still have my named spellsword that goes in almost every single one of my decks . Currently though, the possibility of drawing such a staple rune to an anti-spell deck leaves it dead in the water and, in my experience, even if you draw it early then it isn't a crazy deterrent.
I like preordeined because you can have a 28 runes BG and possibly rely less on draw luck. But lategame it hurts a lot in my short experience with cheese decks.
Yeah, but that's why I think it would do so well with draksar. The following is a lot of nora, but if one could get a draksar lord + legionnaire + a couple of our famed beaters, it could actually make regeneration pretty decent, and a pretty decent late game. It would still be pretty weak against getting ranged/bombed to death, which I feel would be totally acceptable.
Tainted statue is fine. Especially if you're playing Drakkies. You've got weaken spells in your spellswords to help even better deal with aoes.
Oh yeah, tainted statue is fine. I'd argue that draks aren't really that fine though; however, this argument may be invalid since I'm basing this off what I've seen, heard, and had limited experience playing with recently. I actually haven't played for rank... since probably around the time Axeraiser was still in SLer and we were still running the first IS vs SL wars. Also, I definitely am not playing meta decks as can be seen by my one post in the split deck section. So of course, a grain of salt. I doubt we will be getting more anti-spell runes any time soon (and if we did I would prefer it effects both players), and this seems like the ideal rune to buff to increase the viability of anti-spell decks since it effects both players. It's not included in the vast majority of decks and you have to build around tainted statue or else it'll probably end up biting you in the end. With sermon, commander: draksar, banner, spellswords, draconic force, violent, nexus aura, regeneration, and the SL bonus, forcing the enemy to fight unit to unit definitely makes sense within the faction. Additionally, it grants a "new" play style to SL besides the "lol powerturn now" we've all grown to love, while leaving that a completely viable tactic. Even if there was a larger increase to cost, the opposing player can play a few low cost spells, or a couple higher cost spells before we'd break even norawise. Additionally, playing tainted statue at the wrong time would most likely end you, which in my eyes is better than just having it in the deck and praying that it comes up. You'd actually have to try to plan around when the enemy would use spells on you, while trying to build up forces, while handing out a couple equips. In other words: is tainted statue fine? Yeah. Are anti-spell decks currently viable? No. Are drakkies fine? I'd argue no, but they have the tools and potential. Increasing the double edged sword nature of anti-spell decks, with an emphasis on the deck building component, could open up a new play style within SL. It would definitely need some tweaks, but I personally think it could breathe some new life into what is arguably the most stale faction.
I disagree with several parts of your assessment. Drakkies decks are entirely runnable at the higher levels competitively. They do still have a few problems, one of the largest being regen, but hopefully we'll see that get addressed at some point. Anti-spell decks are indeed viable, SL is better suited than most for it, especially with the Spellsword changes. It'd be better once sand abilities are costed properly. Just because something isn't being run doesn't mean it isn't viable. SL has a pretty strong equip pool to draw from and more anti spell nonsense than most factions. SL will remain a stale faction until poweturns are changed. No amount of other tweaking will bring that about. So long as we have DB and Quickening hanging around we will continue to get champs that hit you in the face or hit you in the face harder. And that's not changing until Gedden decides that SL no longer is simply "the powerturn faction." When and if that will change. I couldn't tell you. But I am quite certain that he has been made fully aware of the problems of DB and Quickening and the general style of SL as a faction.
Fair enough. While I will personally remain hopeful for future buffs to our anti spell capabilities, I will concede and I see your side.
Tainted Statue, Book Burn on Bookburner, Spellsword's Weaken Spells, Antimagic Field (and to a lesser extent Sk. Wylder with Spell Charged). We have a lot of ways of dealing with spells, so I guess I'm wondering what you feel is missing.
My apologies, I should have been a bit more clear with that I suppose. I'd prefer more double edged spell denial. With the exception of Tainted Statue there, all of those can be splashed into normal decks at ease and used to shut down power turns/AoEs of your opponents while still using your own. There is no negatives to putting firestorms/DB/quickening/burning sands/acid storm/etc in a deck with spellsword/antimagic field/book burner, unless your book burn at poorly timed moments. More emphasis on building the deck around it and shutting spells down instead of playing around your own spell blocks but still having access to all your staples.
