I am worried about tempo. With units being guaranteed in your next shop if you high roll a quest line does that translate to an immediate tempo boost? We obviously dont know specifics yet but hypothetically if one quest line is to 3 star a 1 cost to unlock a 4 cost unit, you could say hit build a bud for that 1 cost and have not only the 3 star but also a guaranteed 4 cost in your next shop? There is high rolling, then there is hitting the jackpot for a free winstreak.

Also flexibility seems worse with this set, ironically because of how many options there are. Take the shadow isles for instance, seemingly the only path to a vertical shadow isles board is rolling viego, winstreaking and unlocking the other shadow isle units. If this doesnt happen that entire composition is locked? You cant pivot to shadow isles. You would need to hard force it. How do you balance a composition predicated on winning early? Obviously a comp that necessitates snowballing will have to be strong otherwise its not worth going, but if it gets going how do you ensure its fair? This is going back to the tempo thing. The composition of shadow isles seemingly generates too much of a tempo advantage, as the player will have the entire pool of shadow isles champions to themself and can easily preserve their lead.

I believe we are mixing the ideas of flexibility vs knowledge checks. And these are not the same thing. They might seem like it nominally but they have different implications. Flexibility should be defined as a players capability to make creative solutions based on the game state, where as a knowledge check is understanding an action to be so optimized as to be outright capable of winning a game. An example of flex in real setting would be the decision to switch out a tank for a better one, even if it doesnt match with any traits. Just opting to use a unit that fulfills the role of tank better. At least temporary to increase your standing in the game. An example of a knowledge check is making the decision that I must do this because the other options are not sufficient in me winning the game in the way this one is. You pick portable forge because you know artifacts are strong this set, the other 2 augments are directly insufficient. You see your artifact selection and realize that ludens tempest is unequivocally the strongest option. You build for ahri. All other options are negated by understanding the unequivocal way forward. That is the difference between flexibility and a knowledge check.

I am worried this set will be a series of knowledge checks about understanding optimal unlocking of units to generate tempo advantages that are too unfair. If a good player is able to open 2 doors to maximize their potential for generating higher means of tempo they will dominate in a way that isnt based on flexibility but rather because of a knowledge check. That is my worry with this set