Friday, October 26, 2018

Season 4 Hot Takes



What is the beginning of a new season of Guild Ball without some serious hot takes? Having some deep thought theory talks as well as some very tight, and fun games I think that I am ready to share my thoughts. With that being said, let’s dive right into things. I won’t be doing hot takes for minor guilds, as I think minor guilds all have inherent weaknesses and flaws, but will be including minor guild crossover models for certain major guilds.





Alchemists:


Where do we even start with this team.. I mean, they are completely different than any of the past 3 seasons. Smoke has become an absolute menace on the pitch. She has the potential to put out some serious damage with her Infuse character play to one player a turn, while having all of the other players tick down 3 damage a turn. If you are looking into winning a tournament she needs to be planned for, because without a plan she can be a handful. Midas.. he isn’t the crazy man he was at the start of Season 3 but I think he does what smoke is doing, except less efficiently. He was left in the middle of goal scorer and condition giver.. His 2 dmg is on 4!





With Captains out of the way, let’s get into the squaddies. They are crazy efficient with their new rules Beaker Keeper, Test Subject, and Reactive Solution. Pretty much expect to always be poisoned and burning against a smoke team. If your plan to remove conditions is strictly with Rest and Encourage, you may be in for a rough time. Also, Vitriol is back and scarier than ever to give the Alch’s a great ball retrieval piece and striker.





I believe Alchemists to be a top tier team with easy access to momentum, the ability to deny the opponent of points, and a good football game.





Blacksmiths:


Having 6 possible captain choices could lead to quite a lengthy section so I am going to narrow it down to my top 2 choices. Anvil and Hearth are the two I believe will be seeing the most time at the captain position. They offer the most to the apprentices and that is what the masters are all about. Hearth legendary, Armoury will lead to a turn of serious hurt. While Anvil bringing a team wide dodge in, While the Iron is Hot and Singled Out. He is quite the set up piece. Let’s not forget about him bringing Sentinel and his legendary, Tested Mettle. An Anvil legendary turn will be a tough rock to move or dislodge.


The Smiths apprentices are their weak point, but they can still be quite difficult to take out (Iron went to 3/2!!). These are the models that are going to be doing the point scoring and what should be focused in on. Seriously, why would anybody attack Anvil? With that being said, unless Burnish is on the table, teams with range damage should continue to give Smith’s a hard time.


Blacksmith’s are also a top tier team in my eyes. They can fight, score, deny (somewhat), and are flexible.





Brewers:


Well the first downer team to talk about. Tapper got better having his KD moved from 2 to 1, thank goodness. While Esters lost out on her “control” character plays Blast Earth and Fire Blast, she did gain Tooled Up and Quick Foot to take the place of her former songs. Ester’s got worse, only way to say it. The only redeeming factor for her is a team with Esters and Hooper will give Alchemists a tough time.


Decimate got worse, as she needed to but is still one of the best squaddies in the game. Friday is a great striker. Vet. Spigot will probably finally see the pitch, as will Stave with his new Heroic Play.


Brewers don’t break into my top tier of teams but are still a team capable of winning games. They lost out on Esters control, need to be fighting to get momentum, and their football game leaves something to be desired. The changes they received in season changes didn’t do anything to shore up their weakness overall to raise them up with all the things they lost.





Butchers:


Ox got enough to be seen as viable option to actually not play Fillet. This is the biggest buff any team can receive. Having two viable captain choices come draft time makes your options greater and that’s the best thing you can get. Just don’t let Ox get to far forward.. He didn’t become invincible.


The squaddies that got their playbooks looked at, just kill more now. Shank going up to a 4 influence cap again is great, he can reliably do damage in the scrum. The 3 cap in season 3 was unnecessary because player’s didn’t come on with 6 or less health anymore for him to just off anymore. oBrisket will be on every team as well now instead of vetBrisktet


This is where I have always had my problems with Butchers much like Brewers, they excel in fighting and have one model who scores. That isn’t a recipe for winning tournaments. They will struggle with teams that can condition and control them if they stay out of fighting them.





Engineers:


The good ol’ cogs. They have what I like in every team, a flexible pair of captains who offer drastically different play-styles from each other. The only notable change is on the back of Pin Vice’s card where she lost the [Mechanic] tag was removed from her Legendary Play, Well Oiled Machine.


Hoist finally became mortal, losing Tough Hide. Thought after a lot of thinking, he doesn’t lose his auto-include tag. Salvo, and Locus both received major buffs and will be seeing a lot of the table. I was the only one preaching that vVelocity was amazing in season 3, but now she is not a secret gem anymore. She is an efficient striker, and still can lay down a load of hurt with a few buffs put out.


Engineers are a very flexible team, with loads of options which will both be their saving grace and downfall. They are a mid tier team with potential to be top tier with more playtesting. They have access to football, fighting, and denial methods making them a great team in my eyes.





Farmers:


What a short lived boogeyman they were. Thresher barely made is a few months in season 3 and Grange also lost a lot of his season 3 prison style game play, his scoring may see more incorporation now because of it. Both captains came down in power level, but still look to be alright.


The players all had their basement damage upped but their ceilings all stayed about the same so they will hit hard consistently, considering they still bring a lot of influence to the table. I really like Ploughman, and Windle got better but can still be a major liability.


I think Farmers are a great team to learn with because they have some neats tricks with some basic positioning, but nothing like in season 3 and are very straight forward. I see them as a mid level team because they have some minor control in Take one for the Team, Fork Off!, and Protective Instincts. Their defensive stats will continue to let them down and let your opponent to live the dream, but they can fight and have some interesting scoring options.





Fisherman:


Fish are in this really weird spot right now with their captains. I think Shark with Navigators coming out are going to be one of the boogeymen at tournaments once the Navigators are released. Shark basically remained unchanged from his end of season 3 state, and that is fine. He is still great. Corsair on the other hand.. Wow the changes! His playbook is the first thing that jumps out at me. No more momentous damage in fish, phew. He doesn’t have a repeatable momentous result on his playbook until the 3rd column which leaves something to be desired. His new legendary play is really strong, but without momentous damage it looks like it will just be a harassment tool.


Let’s start with Kraken. He is Corsair’s new best friend, taking that from vetSiren who is now probably going to be left on the bench (I want to say unfortunately but she deserves a time out). Jac seems like he will be joining vSiren on the shelf for the upcoming season. The two key additions to Fish, are Fathom and Horizon. They both do exactly what Fish want in players and at least one if not both will be in every Fish team.


Fish-Nav’s are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the tournament scene with the amount of threat they will be able to put on the ball. What they lack in denial or defense tech they make up for in all out offense.





Hunters:


Well my personal bias is going to show for Hunters since I have been playing them since the Hunters changes halfway through season 3. They were one of the top teams at the end of season 3 with the addition of vMinx and Minerva and they only got better because they “finally” got a second captain, in Skatha. Skatha was released early on in the teasers, and she is over the top. I fully expect her to get a little bit of a nerf in the near future. Theron and Skatha are a great compliment even though they can both play the exact same game style.


Hunters have amazing squaddies but how can I write about them without bringing up Seenah. The bear got quite a few things changed and he is amazing now. He will rip any player apart! Minerva and Mataagi are both huge additions from the Falconers guild and they really make Hunters sing.


I will go more in depth on the Hunters in a later article because I can talk about them all day long.


I believe Hunters are the best team in the game. The have the best control, above average scoring, excellent fighting, and can play a complete range team that denies whatever the opponent wants to do. With that being said, they are still a fragile team and that is their weakness. But expect to see a lot of Hunters on the tables at tournaments.





Masons:


Honour stayed pretty much the same, and Hammer now plays different than before now that he has to pay for his plays, which significantly cuts his damage potential, but guess what he doesn’t really care and I’ll explain in the squaddies section. Mason’s captains continue to be flexible and compliment each other very well.


Granite, vHarmony, and vChisel are going to be the new prison in Masons instead of Brick and Marbles like in season 3. They will slowly move across the table until they can get a model in the blender for Hammer and Chisel. It looks like it is going to be a serious nut to crack.


Mason’s continue to be the jack of all trades team with some serious new control/denial rules. They can fight decently, and score decently. I see the Mason’s as that team that can be top tier with some serious play test but currently look like a gatekeeper at a tournament as of now.





Morticians:


Wow new Scalpel is good! Having played a recent game against her, she really can disrupt a pitch. Initially she looked like a yo-yo style of captain, but she wants to dominate the middle turns with some 2” sticks surrounding her. Obulus is still the go to guy if you want to keep one model in your death circle, while she can just make an entire enemy team and her own team be in completely different places.


New bonesaw is amazing, but I think he will be better suited for a rats team and not a morts teams. vGraves is amazing, but is still competing against oGraves for Tooled Up. Ghast receiving a 1 inf base increase, made him actually viable to be on the table, especially in a Scalpel team. Skulk will see his play in Morts team just because he is annoying with 0 inf and a 2” stick, while Pelage doesn’t bring much in my eyes. Cosset is finally the damage dealer who doesn’t need to hurt herself, coupled with Tag Along on Dirge and Back to the Shadows, she became less of a liability.


Morts are still a team that will not allow their opponent to do what they want to do, so forget your plan when you play them and take what they give you. They are back up near the top after a season off from glory. Expect to see a lot of Scalpel on the table.





Union:


Union still have one of the most flexible captain pairs in the game. Rage lost vFangtooth but he should never have had him. Blackheart is still going to do a janky goal game which is going to be harder to pull off with the loss of sSpigot. New Harry is great. He is like a mix of Benediction and old Averisse by having good momentous double pushes and brings singled out. oFangtooth will take vFangtooths place in the roster because he no longer hurts his own team on his heroic. Mist should still be in every team, and she finally got her momentous T back on her card.





They are going to be a team that gets win’s at tournaments but still believed that they are over hyped much like they were in season 3. They have a serious weakness to any control. Messing with their plans seriously puts them on the back foot. They have so many options with so many different players that they can easily leave some helpful tools on the bench. I believe they will be a mid tier team at the start of this new season.


Rhett T

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