The current state of SY

Let me point out that Syndicate is one of my favourite and most played factions, or atleast used to be. The reason why is because SY used to be a niche faction , with niche archetypes that require setup and conditions to receive a payoff.

But since the last few patches, the dynamic completely changed, building decks around a mechanic or archetype is irrelevant, you no longer need cards that synergize properly with one another and with the leader for full effect, you can just pack the top end golds in any deck (Jacques, Sigi, Whoreson, Professor, Philippa) combined with the same mid-provision cards (Bleinheim & borsodi brothers) and the same lower-end cards (sewer riders, bouncers, tax collectors, sea jackals, mutant makers) and make any deck work.

Notice how most of these cards are all unconditional value cards that don't need much setup or sequencing with most of their value generated on deploy.

In terms of leader abilities, we run into the same problem, with the exception of Lined Pockets and Congregate, no leader promotes a specific playstyle, synergy, or archetype within its cards. Take Pirate's Cove, what archetype does this leader promote? not running a spender? Jackpot has only made the matter worse, removing any prior conditions required to play certain cards and making the relationship between spenders and generators irrelevant. Personally, I find MO & ST leaders to be the best ones in terms of design, as each individual leader promotes a completely different archetype to build around.

Personally, I'm not really sure how to develop syndicate further, because developers need to be careful not to design cards that just go well with any leader and any deck, the new bounty cards are a good direction because they are archetype specific.

Not sure if anyone shares my opinion, and would like to hear your thoughts