With all the new cards for Once Upon a Pyre being revealed for Syndicate, Northern Realms, and Monsters, the only other changes left that could put their archetypes into the meta would be tweaks to existing cards. Because of this, I wanted to jot down balance changes I hoped or expected to see come with Once Upon a Pyre and see what everyone else thought might be reworked to reinforce the new cards.
Syndicate
- Damnation buff, perhaps targeting any 3 units instead of 3 adjacent units
- I could see power or profit buffs to the bronze witch hunters
- Unsure whether Tamara will be changed, since witch hunters can't swarm like witchers can and Tamara requires a tribute for her effect unlike Vesemir
- Hopefully a Wheel of Fortune rework as a damage payoff card for bounty
- I'd like to see Eventide Plunder or Line of Credit reworks, the first is too conditional while the latter doesn't even seem worth it even with the new Syndicate Crown tokens
- I hope Blood Money is reworked, Whoreson Junior basically has the ability now and even in a bounty deck Lined Pockets or Pirate's Cove would probably be better leader abilities than it
Northern Realms
- We know that there are 21 upcoming balance changes for Northern Realms, along with a confirmed Runeword rework
- Some special cards getting the spell tag like Vigo's Muzzle or Offering for Gerhert of Aelle
- I am hoping for Keira Metz to get reworked to have more synergy with mages or even become a spell tutor again (though it would need a provision cap to exclude Oneiromancy), perhaps her current ability could replace Iris von Everec's
- Think we may see reworks for Dethmold and Sile, I still don't see the former being played in mage decks and the latter is powercrept to obscurity
- With the charge archetype being announced for a complete overhaul, I think we might see Cintrian Spellweaver and Aretuza Adept, along with the aforementioned golds, being completely changed to work with the new cards or incorporate the Patience keyword, especially since the new mage cards don't have anything to do with charge
- Sabrina's Inferno not affecting mages either could be an interesting change that puts it on the map
Monsters
- Chort, Fiend, Morvudd, and Tourney Shaelmaar all should have the relict tag instead of the beast tag, so I could see some changes in that department (though if this were to happen Morvudd's ability should probably swapped with some other beast)
- This is more of a meta prediction but I think we may see the rise of Ihuarraquax into She Who Knows as a R1 closer, especially since the unicorn counts as a Relict
- Changes to existing but never-used relict cards would be great, don't remember the last time I saw Chironex, Unicorn, or Doppler outside the deck builder. Dudu might finally see play outside of Vypper meme decks if his ability is changed in a way that keeps his relict tag
- Unsure whether Crones will see a rework, but if they were changed to affect base power instead or if their abilities started at 1 but increased by 1 for each Relict played I could see them coming back in Relict decks
- Imagine if Allgod was changed to boost the base power of units in your deck instead of just boosting them. Could end up being great for carryover Relict decks
This has just been an unfiltered pile of things I thought of when seeing the new cards. What do you all think might be coming with the new expansion in terms of changing existing cards?