Kalasle's FF Tier List -- PS4 -- 8/30/17

These represent my opinions on power and balance right now. Additionally, these are descriptive opinions -- listing how strong I believe a theme to be is separate from how strong or weak I would like those themes to be. Each BG has a sentence or two to explain my reasoning.

I have widely varying degrees of experience with all these BGs. All opinions are therefore welcome.


Tier System

Spoiler

tier 1: Top level competitive deck. It’s as good as anything else out there, playable at any rank. This won’t be what’s holding you back.

tier 1.5: Almost or maybe tier 1, but underplayed, underrepresented, or maybe under-countered, this bg can get top level in the hands of a great player but has a couple unresolved problems.

tier 2: It can win games, but is unlikely to survive against fierce competition, or has a few absolutely terrible and irreconcilable matchups.

tier 3: Ass-tier. These BGs are often pipe dreams, based on aesthetic more than strength, and usually have numerous bad or blatantly unwinnable matchups.

WHERE IS DECK [x]?
For sanity' sake, not all decks will appear in these lists. If you don't see a deck somewhere on these lists, assume the deck is tier 1.5; I've either intentionally left it off the lists, or don't know much about it, in which case it's still probably tier 1.5. Tier 1 decks are hard to make, and tier 2 decks need some special reason to want to build them in the first place, but tier 1.5 decks are a dime a dozen.

TAGS
Decks may have tags of various kinds. This helps to distinguish them from similar decks, or otherwise note something useful about them. Here are a few important tags:

• "Deck to Beat" -- Decks to Beat are the best of the best. To be tier 1, a deck must have at least a fighting chance against these DTBs. Consider these a branch of tier 1. These aren’t necessarily stronger than other tier 1 decks, but they represent a metagame presence to which other decks must have answers.
• "Junk Variant" -- Junk is also called Meta or Goodstuff. If a theme deck is tagged with Junk Variant, that means it is similar to that faction's Junk decks; it will play alike, use many of the same runes, or both.

Tier 1

what are these?
Tier 1 decks are the standard competitive stock. They can compete against everything; if something is holding you back, it isn’t the deck.

Spoiler

ST Beasts [Deck to Beat]

SL Junk [Deck to Beat]

UD Junk

IS Junk

ST Junk

KF Junk [Theme Variants]

FS Junk

SP Junk

Fae

Liches

Trash (Tier 2 and lower)

what are these?
These decks may be fun, but they are not good. While most decks can reach tier 1.5, trash decks stand out for being mediocre. Temper your expectations.

Spoiler

Bok

UD Wizards

SL Equips

SL Fire

SL Acid

Mutations

Sand

Arrow Eaters

Vampyres

SP Constructs

FS Beasts

IS Equips

Trees

Garu

ST Adaptive

NKD

Slags

Goblins

 

ISisOP verified by in-game mod

 

And who gave you the crown and made you king ?

 

Hold on lemme find my picture of CorpsE global messaging IS is OP.

Edit: Couldnt find it but I found this instead.

 

No Splits.

 

Yeah, splits are in the works, but there are a LOT there -- 28 more combinations, and multiple BGs within those combinations. Plenty of those have unexplored GS options and other synergies people have barely touched. It's next on the list, but may be a while.

 

I agree with most of what I've read that I'm familiar with.
But, I'd actually rate ST Beasts as straight up T1. I don't understand the part about SL Meta being T1, we don't even have a real meta GS formed yet, I kinda doubt it's T1. It's generally agreed that currently in SL, themes are stronger (for example, Skeezick).
Also, I've started playing Wings and I don't feel they're quite 1.5 by your system. But then again, I'm probably a terrible player so...

 

ST Beasts might be. I've only played against them a bit and seen a couple games. Perhaps I was too zealous in stripping bias out because those were bad matchups.

I said SL GS is tier 1 because it's mostly a theme with a bit less synergy in exchange for a few options. I should probably clarify my GS definition to reconcile that, but staying technical to it, GS will always be at least as good as the best theme within a faction. Maybe that needs a fix.

I was torn on Wings as well, and got some input on them. It was a fine line between 2 or 1.5, certainly one to watch.

 

I'm not sure Sand is full-on Tier 3, they got some neat buffs in the last few patches and I'd say are around Tier 2, or at least 2.5

 

I always read your name as Khaleesi...

 

I've been playing Sand for quite a bit, before switching to Wings a couple of days ago. I think Sand is T2, or at worst a 2.5, as Spieky said.
They have some nice stuff and a general game plan, they just... get straight up rolled over by T1 decks. Also, their alt damage is so damn squishy. Rolling Shrieker is quite nice now tho. And 16 AoE dmg Imperators (with Mantle) are sweet.

 

Skeletons are like tier 3.Maybe 2.5

 

I mean, if you don't know how to play them, I guess.

 

I did. Kneel, peasant.


Also I would indeed consider ST beasts as Tier I. The stats pile up rather easily and it thrives on champs that are usually part of GS decks. Plus it seems to be the go to thing whenever someone wants to "prove" they can play every faction. Or so I've heard. Maybe.

Nice list!

 

Once I see ST beasts in action some more, I may bump them up to tier 1 -- I'm inclined to agree, but again, I'm worried that's just me as a FW/Worms player. Sand could probably stand T2 a well. They have good stuff from other themes at the very least.

 

Yeah, Sand lacks some options, but with Mantle any SL champ can sort of become a Sand champ. Because of that and some general flexibility, I believe SL GS would emerge out of a Sand module.

 

Good thread, agree with most.

 

Skeles is totally 1.5 material, such late game, such surge, such boost, such altar of bones such wow

 

Well, FF UD wizards.