It feels wrong to write this post with Shim’zar around the corner but I just couldn’t keep to myself anymore. I don’t even know how to describe my feelings right now: Sad? Mad? Upset? Disappointed? besides, we don’t have any official dates. You can take it as a rant, complaint, I don’t care. I’m just voicing my opinion.
[details=Warning]
- This post might contain inappropriate language, so if you easily feel offended you might not like it.
- This post might be too honest for your liking.
- It could also be too long so… Grab a cup of coffee, sit down and enjoy your reading
[/details]
Remember when Vetruvian used to be great? They were always on the top spot. People feared them. They would play very carefully whenever they faced a Vetruvian: Lign up to prevent them from unleashing the fury of the stars on them. Disperse themselves to avoid a laser beam coming up from nowhere: Vetruvian’s Golden Age. But then, people had enough! Living in the shadows of the Vetruvian, always competing for the second spot… They rebelled.
They complained about everything that made the Vetruvian so great: The Portal Guardians, the Wildfire Ankh, the Starfire Scarab, the Aymara Healers, the Stars’ Fury, their ability to bend time and finally, the Scion’s Third Wish: their strongest spell.
It wasn’t long before the Vetruvian Imperium crumbled. All what made them so great was suddenly gone… They were knocked out from the top spot to the bottom of the list…
Sorry, I couldn’t come up with a better way to describe it 
I feel like Counterplay is doing it wrong: taking without giving something in return (unintentional FMA reference) is wrong. By no means I claim to know better than the design team, but that’s exactly what happened to Vetruvian: they started taking out all the key cards that made Vetruvian good without giving them anything in return to balance their loss. Third Wish? Gone! (twice) Starfire Scarab? Nerfed! Stars’ fury? Nerfed! Wildfire Ankh? Nerfed! Portal Guardian? Nerfed! Time Maelstrom? Bum! Gone! And what’s what they get in return? 2 shitty Bloodborn spells! Yes, the worst of the batch! (After Starhorn, of course.) Now Vetruvian is, and without question,
[details=the weakest faction]
These are the factions ranked by various well known players. Notice how no Vetruvian deck makes it past the 10th spot. They even take the last spot in 3 of them of them. [/details]
I am well aware that it’s a difficult faction to balance due to their complexity, the proof is Zirix’s Bloodborn Spell: The “Face Monkey” deck was top tier and when the spell was changed… Bum! To the bottom of the list!
As a Vetruvian fan boy main, it’s heartbreaking to see your favorite faction going down, reduced to rubbish. It’s so sad to see the most interesting faction so low…
[details=This is killing all the fun for me]
Do you see that? And guess what? February is where all started: First, the changes to Portal Guardian, Stars’ Fury and the first Third Wish. And then the rest followed.
I’ve been having a very hard time keeping up with the other factions, and if that alone wasn’t enough, the metagame became super fast, only aggro on the ladder and as a control player, that hurt a lot.
I’ve been enjoying the game until that season, then all the fun I’ve been having was suddenly killed. As a consequence, now I gave up on my rank and I’m just goofing around with different decks trying to find something that will satisfy me, just a way to kill time instead of playing seriously. I only play 2-4 games per day and then quit usually taking breaks of 30m to 1h between each one of them. I’m sure I’m not the only player affected.[/details]
Edit
For some reason, the last 2 spoilers aren’t hiding… Now even the forum is against me…
A little bit more thought could be put before starting to carelessly take out card after card, literally butchering the faction. I’m not trying to be rude, but that’s what I feel it’s happening.
3/6 Epics and 2/4 Legendaries (without counting Saon) were nerfed. In comparison to other factions, this is ridiculous.
- Songhai: 3 Legendaries and 2 Epics were nerfed, 1 basic was buffed, but they can still stand strong after all they’ve been through.
- Lyonar: 1 basic was nerfed, 1 Epic, 1 basic and 1 common were buffed.
- Magmar: 1 Legendary, 1 rare and 1 common were nerfed. They lost Mana Burn, that knocked them from the top spot, but they can still compete totally fine in high ranks.
- Vanar: They’ve only seen buffs, not a single nerf. Plus, they got Mana Burn (which was a terrible idea. Like if they needed more single target removal…)
- Abyssian: 3 Epics and 1 common nerfed, 1 common buffed.
In addition to that, they all got good Bloodborn spells to balance their losses.
Vetruvian? 3 Epics, 2 Legendaries and 1 common nerfed, 2 basics buffed. I can’t even tell if the Second Wish change was a nerf or a buff, but it was a direct hit to their independent drawing capabilities. Like if they needed more buffing cards… Only Oserix and Aymara survived the apocalypse because they’re on the weak side. It won’t be long before Aymara also goes down, enjoy her company while you can!
Wheather Shim’zar will make justice or not… It’s very unlikely. Yeah, yeah, “we don’t know all cards yet” “It’s too early to jump into conclusions” but judging by the first leaked card: “Opening Gambit: reduce the cost of all your structure minions by 1” this isn’t promising. It’s already 1 bad card out of 12(?) compared to the other ones. The Obelysks and Bastion are already cheap to summon. There will probably be 2 or 3 more structures coming with a cost ranging between 2 and 4 mana, probably a 5 cost one, so I don’t see this card being that good.
The other factions have somehow grown stronger over the past year, but all what Vetruvian did is grow weaker season, after season. When Shim’zar drops, that will mean more strenght to the other factions as well. There will surely be a couple of broken cards. Will Vetruvian be able to catch up? I don’t think so, unless they get 2-3 broken legendaries they might have a chance.
As I stated earlier: I’m not trying to be rude (I’m just in a bad mood). The design team can sometimes make bad decisions, but they are sooo obvious! Without counting the total chaos the Alpha was: Songweaver was a mistake, Sunsteel Defender was a mistake, Lantern Fox was a mistake, Jaxi was a mistake, Keeper of the Vale was clearly a mistake, Martyrdom was a mistake, Kara is a mistake, Chakram will most likely be another mistake,
[details=Divine Bond is a mistake]
I lost faith in the developers when they reduced the cost of DBond. I was really hoping that card to disappear but nope! They buffed it instead! But we’re not here to talk about that. It will be going into a separate thread. There’s so much this card is doing wrong. [/details]
Solution:
Well Mr. Know-it-all, what’s the deal?
When we talk about balance, people tend to look at the Legendary and Epic cards. They forget something important: the little ones also contribute to the power level of the faction. So I’m here to discuss just that.
When a card is fine, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s happy like that: we could push it forward a little bit more without making it game breaking.
With this continuously evolving metagame, some cards become outdated, completely outclassed by the new ones or there’s no longer use of them when certain cards disappear.
Let’s say… When your computer becomes old and outdated, you’ll most likely want to buy a new one or upgrade it. The same principle applies here: If a card becomes weak because it is no longer useful, we can’t just turn a blind eye one it because it didn’t cause any trouble in the past. A redesign will most likely be needed to adapt it to this ever changing metagame.
These are the cards I feel we can patch to “squeeze” a little bit more power out of them without overdoing it. They are ideas that randomly pop in my head while playing.
Sand Trap
My question is: Why the hell isn’t this a tile effect?! Why?! It doesn’t make any sense!
My suggestion: Keep the cost as is and change the text to: “Choose a tile. Enemy minions that step on that tile can no longer move.”
By “minions that step on that tile” I mean even if they want to walk through it. Their movement will be interrupted and they’ll be trapped.
Voilà! It makes perfect sense now! Besides, it’s another tile effect outside of Shadow Creap.
Long story short : a trap.
Fountain of Youth
Raise your hand if you’ve seen this card played at least once.
Lower your hand Timmy! sigh
As expected, no one…
My suggestion : Keep the cost as is, the effect as well but add: “Restore 2 health to your general for each healed minion”
The General has also the right to rejuvenate… Besides, it’s very hard to have more than 2 minions on the field…
It’s essentially another healing option outside of Aymara.
Windstorm Obelysk
The worst Obelysk. The Vetruvian are inventors (according to the lore), and a good inventor always finds a way to improve their creations so…
My suggestion: Keep the cost as is, the body and the ability as well but add: “they can move 1 extra tile”
“Wind” makes me think of “move freely” and flying, but giving them flying is off question. So I opted for a similar effect. Plus, it pairs very well with Zirix’s Bloodborn redesign that I will suggest later on. It gives the Poop Dervishes a purpose.
Entropic Decay
This one is tricky…
My suggestion : Reduce it’s cost to 3.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking, but first, let me take a selfie(…pun out of place) tell you something:
Vetruvian excels at long-ranged combat. They can keep their distance and control the board at the same time. All the Flying and Blast options they have prove that. Just give them some room to breathe and you’re screwed.
Comparing EDecay to it’s counterparts we have:
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Martyrdom: It used to cost 3, then lowered to 2 and the increased back to 3. It has infinite range and the drawback is that it heals the owner of that minion. It can also be used on your own for an emergency healing or to trigger Dying Wishes immediately. It outclasses Entropic Decay.
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Onyx bear seal: Cost 3, infinite range and the drawback is: it transforms the enemy into a 0/2 that cannot be attacked. Is that really a drawback? A 0/2 is useless unless you have a way transform it into a threat. It outclasses Entropic Decay.
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Aspect of the Fox: Cost 1, infinite range, transforms without triggering Dying Wish nor Death Watch. The drawback? It transforms the enemy into a 3/3 with no abilities. It’s very easy to kill it in the same turn so it’s not a very big deal. It outclasses Entropic Decay.
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Egg Morph: Cost 4, infinite range, it doesn’t trigger Dying Wish, the drawback? It transforms the enemy into a 0/1 egg that hatches into the same minion after a full turn. Is that really a drawback? I don’t think so. Entropic Decay is outclassed once again.
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Dark Transformation: cost 5, infinite range, it destroys a minion and summons a wraithling on that tile. The drawback? It triggers Dying Wish. It’s a tie due to it’s cost.
Entropic Decay however, requires your general to be in a position where you can reach your target in the next turn, forcing you to put yourself in harms range. Your opponent can easily take advantage of that luring you to a valuable ED target and then closing in on you.
This limitation doesn’t justify it’s cost.
Oserix
I know I said “little cards” but compared to Grandmaster Z’ir, Spectral Revenant, Dank Nemesis, the asexual lizard and Pandora this card is sh!t. It’s so slow it’s effect never triggers.
My suggestion: Keep the cost, change the stats to 6/6, keep the flying but change the Dying wish to Opening Gambit: “Equip a random artifact from your deck.”
I believe this was the effect of the old Artifact Hunter… Oh well…
Spectral Revenant has immediate value, Grandmaster also, if you suicide the same turn and Pandora as well. You’re paying 7 mana to get a 6/6 Flying minion and equip a random artifact from your deck. That’s generally your only play for that turn.
A 7 drop is worth 20 stats (Dragonbone Golem as a reference), the flying ability is worth 1 stat (Putrid dreadflyer as a reference) so that’s 19 stats left. An opening gambit this strong would be worth 6-8 stats. So that’s 12-13 stats left. Or heck! I’m not good with minions! I just want it’s ability to be an opening gambit!
This would really give a push to Vetruvian’s late-game.
As you can see, they’re practically the same. Instead of coming up with total reworks, I wanted to keep the original idea but tweak it a little tiny bit to give Vetruvian a little bit more power…
Bloodborn Spells
Psionic Strike
“Your general deals double damage to minions this turn.”
(Couldn’t find the card image)
There’s nothing bad with the idea it’s just… Badly implemented.
First, you have to reach the minion and second, you have to smack your face on it. This wouldn’t be a problem if we had infinite Hexblades.
Zirix has the ability to open portals to other dimensions (that’s from where the Dervishes come from according to the lore), so if Zirix has the ability of an Obelysk… Why not give Sajj the ability of an artifact?
So I came up with this: Keep the current effect and add: “Receive half the damage from them” (rounded up)
The added effect is essentially a weak 6version of Hexblade.
Take a moment to look at the sprite and make a connection with the effect. That alone suggests It’s something to do with “playing with your opponent’s head”, altering their senses? Reducing their strength perhaps?
If you reduce your opponent’s defense by half (current effect), it makes sense to reduce their strength by half as well (new effect). So you deal double damage to them and receive half the damage in return because you’ve weakened them.
A few examples: If you attack a Healing Mystic with your Bloodborn, you deal 4 damage and receive only 1 in return. Attack windblade adept: deal 4, receive 2. Attack an Ironcliffe Guardian: deal 4, receive 2 (1.5 rounded up) and so on.
Your opponent will want to keep his minions out of Sajj’s range so Entropic Decay is completely useless unless they make a mistake. That’s another reason to lower it’s cost.
Iron Shroud
Terrible, absolutely terrible…
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First: The random spawn doesn’t make any sense now that it’s no longer a Wind Shroud. How come Riva can choose where to summon the Heartseeker and not Zirix?
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Second: The Dervish is totally useless. It’s just a vanilla 2/2 with no particular use. Lilithe can use her wraithlings as sacrifices. Vetruvian doesn’t have any use of it.
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Third: What’s with the name? Iron? Really? All I can see is Sand! Sand Dervish would’ve been a more fitting name. Between that and the second point, it earned the name “Poop Dervish”, useless as a sh!t.
My suggestion: Keep the random spawn and give the Dervish Provoke.
The Wind Shroud has rush, so why not give the Iron dervish a keyword ability as well? If future Dervishes are added, they could each have a keyword: Fire Dervish with Frenzy, Water Dervish with Forcefield etc. Iron… It’s a sturdy material although they’re clearly made of sand… So Provoke is a fitting ability.
Now the random spawn makes more sense! It still dies to the general so it’s not a very big deal. They can prevent some damage if you’re lucky with the spawn.
They can be used alongside with Windstorm Obelysk 2.0 to give them a purpose in life. And if you’re lucky enough to get a swarm going on… You have Fountain of Youth to keep it up and heal at the same time!
Bum! a new complex synergy created from existing cards!
Will these changes make Vetruvian top tier again? I doubt it. But will they make them viable again? Most likely yes. They’ll be able to climb a couple spots in the rankings.
These Bloodborns would enhance Vetruvian’s Control play style, it’s their speciality right? And they’re practically the same as the original ones! Just slightly tweaked.
Just one last thing, it doesn’t really have anything to do with the balance of the faction but:
Starfire Scarab has a blue blast so I was thinking… What if we distinguish the generals with different blast colors? 
We could give the blue one to Sajj since she has a blue sword, and Zirix can keep his orange blast because he has a fire weapon… I’m a big fan of small details like this
Please CounterPlay, I humbly beg of you, make it happen! Make Vetruvian great again! I’ll give up my Prismatic Serpenti if it’s a price to pay 
I’d be happy to see at least the Bloodborn Spells changed.
Note
I wanted to serve the thread with a little bit of salt but my hand slipped… I’m sorry!!
Heck! Why am I even bothering… When was the last time I’ve seen a suggestion make it to the game? Oh! It never happened!
. I really like the changes you’ve suggested, especially regarding their BBSs and Oserix. With the espansion, I hope they add some cards to help protect their obelysks/structures, such as a minion that protects them from dispell as long as it is on the field. Also, what are your thoughts on making pyromancer a 2/2? The +1 health would save them from 1 damage pings, and at the same time it would still be weak to dispell, ranged, and almost all 2 drops that get too close while efffectively making it a somewhat safer play.
