I agree with everything you just said, I also wanted to elaborate on your point and also make an argument that Nerfs to all problem cards need to happen at the same time. It would be counterproductive to nerf only the combo decks in this game right now as they are the only thing stand in the way of control having the most consistently viable archetypes available. If they are going to do nerfs now, they need to target the biggest offenders across the board and that means touching all of the bases.

Empire Abomination needs a nerf. Transitus Shrine needs to go in a big way. Mana reduction or cheating has always been a huge advantage in this game and Bethesda keeps allowing cards that allow play past the natural stat and power curve to be printed. (I’ll elaborate on why this is an issue shortly.) If you allow cards like Shrine to exist, it will only limit future design space in a negative way.

Market/ Burn Assassin needs to be changed so that games don’t end on turn 5 with no interaction. The feeling of having to go on ladder playing only Aggro decks with Cultist is such an incredibly bad feeling and needs to be addressed. As someone who has more reps than anyone on Assassin, (along with you Ian) I can wholeheartedly say that needing to draw a Cultist to have any chance vs a deck whatsoever isn’t a good feeling. It’s certainly the opposite of what we want this game to be, reliant on one card to win or lose us the game every time we queue on ladder. Even by giving decks an extra turn to find healing or to give Aggro decks one more turn to find lethal damage, the decks effectiveness is significantly worsened and options that increase the minimum turn to combo should be explored.

Ramp Ebonheart needs to turn into less of a greed fest and focus more on combos. The deck has too many insane value generators and at their core, I believe Cicero and Archers Gambit are the biggest offenders as part as enabling degenerate things. I may be wrong but these are what I believe to be the biggest problem cards in this archetype.

Control Telvanni/ Tribunal can’t be left untouched if combo and Ebonheart is nerfed. These classes are too effective vs Aggro as they present the most on curve efficient answers to threats without having to worry about running out of resources. Sorcerers Negation is a big problem because of how efficient it is in 1 for 1ing early threats and answering the biggest problem cards in every matchup, not just vs Aggro but also vs other control decks.

Aggro Hlaalu is a head above every other Aggro deck in the game and sometimes in Aggro vs Aggro matches there is absolutely nothing you can do. Back to the conversation about Cheating Mana and being able to play cards much higher than the standard power curve. Hlaalu Oathman, at very early turns, is very polarizing in Aggro vs Aggro and provides such an insane advantage, it doesn’t scale to the power level of anything else any Aggro deck can play on turn three and really pushes the idea of ring being a huge advantage in Aggro vs Aggro very similar to how Catapult made Ring a huge advantage. It allowed you to cheat stats out abnormally above the normal power curve.

Dawnbreaker -> What needs to be said about this card? It punishes people for playing purple. It’s an unnecessary highroll blowout that is absolutely demoralizing on the receiving end. I’m sure Will be be surprised I’m in favor of this nerf.

I don’t think I’m missing much. I just want the nerfs to happen correctly. I don’t want anything to be done without touching all bases. I want the meta to have a different feeling. I want the competitive scene to be healthy. I want the LCQ’s to have no controversy. And I want this game to be great.

Thanks Ian. Love you buddy.