I'm no IS expert but i felt like playing with paladins and made this bg. i played it a few weeks ago with some succes. i really liked the whole branded theme tough. My strategy with this bg is deploy 3 4 champs, go in brand someone either with relic or ability and one turn him. then thanks to the tankiness of my champs and spells and equip (desperate heal, granite braces, grim hym, impervious) he cant kill me and then i keep branding them at least thats the goal. pros: i had fun, everyone has sinergy (except zhedin which is a shame he isnt a paladin) cons: lot of expensive champs, lack of strong range, i think i have no shatter I think i could really improve this bg making some changes but i just put some champs i think are cool (not necesarily the best) like inquisitor, cardinal, talgar etc. regarding the spell just threw some iconic spells without thinking about it dunno if there are better options, again i'm no ISmaster. I do think this theme could be competitive though with some adjustments.
It's a fun looking BG But ultimately you're right it's not what I'm really looking for atm. I feel like IS has been lacking a lot in terms of having a edge. Personally I hate it when people argue that IS is still one of the more dominant factions when everyone can do what we can do but better. I have some success with the grintmaw and I can't seem to do anything with the dwarf bg. It's funny because these are solid bgs on paper. However everyone else seems to have a counter. Smh.
- Well people get mixed up in semantics I think sometimes. IS for the large part of it's existence has been vanilla AF. It has fluxuated fromt time to time but ultimately imo, has very little in the way of "surprise" moves or things your opponent aren't anticipating. - People rarely say ... "oh man you surprised me with that hammerstrike dude! or what !?!? that champ had RD on it???? " This does not mean they aren't powerful but just one dimensional feeling... sometimes people confuse "sexy" with "powerful". . . something something... but your mom likes it or whatever Im supposed to say after that
I don't ever see anyone playing a horse deck. Centaur Savage Charger Knight Elite Skirmisher Fist of Bastion Mounted Hawkmaster Mounted Kinsman Plains Savage Sarnghavian Centaur
I've tried a couple beastie/barb decks that have been alright but not a straight up "horse" deck. Centaur Savage is one of my favorites.