The Future Meta - Conquest of Kumanjaro Speculation

[ringkichard]

The Conquest of Kumanjaro spoilers are coming along nicely, and there's a trend:





11-13 mana cost defensive creatures, hard to kill, designed to endure turn after turn of attacks, but with generally low attacks themselves.

The game is also introducing three new condition counters that seem to be designed for longer games than shorter ones:

A new damage over time effect that encourages healing, an alternate form of damage that is only worth playing if your opponent is healing, and better Cripple, to freeze creatures in place.

Aside from making tournament rounds less likely to finish in 75 minutes, what might the effect of these new cards be?
I can potentially see a resurgence in spawnpoint conjurations like Lair. If they're easier to defend, and if the game is likely to go longer, they're more likely to benefit the caster.

Mana denial strategies probably also get stronger, maybe? If the game is going to be decided by slower creatures grinding it out instead of aggressive all-or-nothing attacks, differences in channeling are going to matter more. Essence Drain and Mana Siphon look really good in that kind of meta.

Maybe Swarms will get better? Right now, the consensus seems to be that swarming your opponent isn't a great plan because your weenies die easily. These new defensive creatures have weak attacks (and no sweep or AOEs), so a flood of creatures might last longer against them. Attack Spell AOEs would still be a problem, though.

Obviously, the next cards spoiled could change all of this, but to me it looks like a deliberate adjustment to the tempo of the game.
What do you think?

[piousflea]

Swarms will be a whole lot better against the new generation of Guards. The new Guards have crappy 3-dice attacks and only gain a defensive bonus on the first attack they suffer, so they are tough against single big attacks but weak against swarms. Against swarms you're still much better off with the ole' Iron Golem, or a Dwarf Kriegsbiel.

[sdougla2]

Swarms are already amazing, but they are fragile, so you need to be careful in how you use them. Using swarms carelessly can easily set you back, but careful swarm plays are quite rewarding. It helps to have an alternative threat so that losing your swarm doesn't set you back to square one. Still, swarms will be better against the new guards than against powerful guards like Knight of Westlock and Iron Golem, I agree with you there.

I wouldn't say that Bridge Troll fits in with that description as well as the others. It's good at playing defensively, but it's actually quite strong offensively as well. A 3 dice attack is pretty weak for a creature costing more than 10 mana, but a 5 dice attack is quite respectable. Buff it with Bear Strength and it hits pretty hard.

I'm not sure what to make of the Intercept creatures yet. They seem decent defensively, but Tanglevine will be amazing against them, and they're awful offensively.

[Wiz-Pig]

The Dwarf Panzerguard may look like it has a weak attack, but in a Warlord deck it's attack could easily get to respectable 5 dice while guarding without any enchantments or incantations boosting it. Drop a Bears Strength on him and and Standard Bearer on an ally and you are up to 8 dice while guarding.

[baronzaltor]

The Dwarf Panzerguard may look like it has a weak attack, but in a Warlord deck it's attack could easily get to respectable 5 dice while guarding without any enchantments or incantations boosting it. Drop a Bears Strength on him and and Standard Bearer on an ally and you are up to 8 dice while guarding.

+1 armor/melee if he manages to score a vet token.

[ringkichard]

I wonder if you could do a version of this where you play a Barracks, and a mana flower/outpost so you can spam Panzergardes to stop the rush. Then you switch from Dwarves to Goblin Slinger and summon all 4 of those. It's not as efficient as a normal swarm strategy, but 4x Slinger has a major advantage over vanilla swarm: you can keep them all in separate squares so they can't be AOE'd. If you have the opportunity, mix in Royal Archers or the shooty legendary dwarves to help with big targets. Spread everyone out, use Horn of Gothos to cast Release Volley! every turn, and just bury the other guy in brute force.

Chain Lightning is still a beating, but maybe that can be mitigated other ways.

[piousflea]

The thing about the Interceptors is that you don't want to buff their attack. Their biggest advantage over classical Guards is that they can intervene against ranged attacks, but if they do so they do not get any counterstrike. So any melee buffs they have are completely wasted.

It is worth noting that 1 ranged unit + 1 Interceptor will still lose against 2 ranged units, as the interceptor can only intercept 1 attack per round. So for a pure ranged duel, it's still better to have pure ranged. However, keeping an Interceptor in the same zone as your Mage can prevent your opponent from Fireball/Bouldering you to death.

[Wiz-Pig]

Obviously if you are using him for his intercept ability then it would be pointless to buff him. We were talking about being able to confront swarm tactics more effectively with these weak attack defenders.

[ringkichard]

If you're fighting a swarm you don't need an 8 die attack, but the banner will help a a lot. 4 is a lot better than 3, and it'll help you get your vet token to bump you up to 5.

On the other hand, against a book that wants to swarm, you probably just summon Sweepy Dwarf, Corazin and a Butcher and do your best not to fight a swarm with the wrong tools.

[ChimpZilla]

My two biggest takeaways from this set so far:

1. Seeking Dispel and Decoy are going to get more milage. Before, there weren't many non-mandatory defensive enchantments and the rest were mostly buffs, de-buffs, and soft removal. Now, especially with Tranfusion, you have the psychological aspect of arguably the best mechanic in this game in play, incentivizing hiding those enchantments and using Purge and Destroy Magic. The Enchanter's Wardstone adds a cat an mouse dynamic to the meta on top of all this.

2. More diverse, control style builds could be a thing. Beastmaster, the most narrow mage class IMO, gets some much needed board control in the spider and Rudolph. Interceptors help Spawnpoints to a degree. I'm curious about the yet to be spoiled familiar conjuration and what role that will play in this.