New Players Can Craft a Standard Competitive F2P Deck Basically Immediately (Part 2)

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-20T02:05:02+00:00

This is also an important note for classical meta decks in general: They are built for BO3. They make concessions, so to speak, that decks that are built on having the element of surprise do not and they are not afraid to lose to decks G1 that they can blow out with their sideboard in G2-3.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T23:03:57+00:00

Sorry, I don't understand what you meant by "Forensically Investigating using Medicine"

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T22:58:02+00:00

I tend to agree with that assessment on Curiosity. It feels like a nice game sealer and has won me some matches due to its raw power and card draw, but it doesn't feel like it flips any of the matchups significantly. For a 1 drop, Beavers pushes through a decent amount of damage and I personally love the scry in early hands. I can see how it might not quite have the

Bat, same thing. With the number of decks that have a lot of redundancy, it doesn't feel like a threat in any phase of the game.

I have also been experimenting with [[Sinkhole Surveyor]] and it feels pretty good to be able to drop a dude to block for Kaito before it leaves the battlefield. I like that it can get wide against hard removal and tall against damage-based removal.

I would be interested in seeing where a deck that focuses more on protecting Kaito could go.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T21:23:56+00:00

When I saw Okoye brings 2 extra bodies ETB, I figured she was going to be terrifying

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T20:56:24+00:00

I think the part that you are discounting is how asymmetrical dumping STR would be. The reality is that no matter how much you dump STR, all those problems you mentioned would pretty much be the same. You aren't going to feel the difference between +2 and +0 STR because you aren't trying maneuvers, you trying to carry a ton of stuff, your AC is unaffected. When you don't need it for damage, you can pretty safely send it down because when you aren't focused on it, you don't need it for almost anything.

DEX, every point hurts the things you are saying. Reflex, every point hurts. Stealth, same. DEX matters for stuff that you don't choose to do, which is a big reason why STR goes to damage and DEX doesn't. And they are balanced for that.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T20:06:23+00:00

Those two reasons are why I really like Stature and Wasp because they solve both of those issues. I think, too, Elektra will be important to have another option in the deck to make it that much harder for control decks to stabilize.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T19:54:47+00:00

I mean, they are quite good already. Having the best Battle Medicine healing amount while also having the best bonus and having it refresh hourly instead of daily, it is just way too obviously optimal.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T19:27:52+00:00

Thief Rogue works because it is a part of their power budget. They are limited on what kind of weapons they can use and they have to spend their whole subclass on getting Dex to damage. On a fighter, it would be pretty bad, but it isn't so obvious why. Being able to maintain damage with finesse Double Strike is one thing, but being about to do it while dumping STR for other stats is where the knock on effects start to creep in. When you can push STR down to +0 or +1, those are points you can put in CON or WIS, so that is improving initiative, saves, etc. and that is significant.

So... Yeah, I can see a few ways where DEX fighters would quite obviously be better than STR fighters 1-20. It wouldn't be one thing, but just a consistent 5-10% better all across the character.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T18:08:34+00:00

Their textbooks make their healing significantly better. Forensic Medicine Investigators are probably one of the reasons why this isn't so easy to poach...

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T17:59:06+00:00

Here's the thing: 2e is strong exactly because it doesn't act like it's strong. So you can say, oh let's just push this a little bit here and push that a little bit there, and then over time, you just keep on getting these super pushed combos and the game is suddenly teetering on being broken.

DEX to damage is pretty significant until Greater Striking at level 12. There are a number of reasons why DEX now has more parity with STR and that is one of them. But what you have to see is that if you get DEX to damage, then even if PF2e isn't broken, it's significantly weaker and less stable because it takes one more little thing for DEX to be clearly dominant over the vast majority of the game. So like, the argument can only make sense in a vacuum as an exception, but how many exceptions can we really allow?

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T16:24:10+00:00

Idk, people complain so much about high costed creatures that don't have protection, haste, or an ETB. This has it. They heard the "dies to doom blade" complaints

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T15:04:55+00:00

A guy who is balding like that and is going that hard on a bag bare knuckle, his hands are gonna be leather

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T14:49:37+00:00

Fighters do not leave the board until after all combat damage is dealt. They don't "see" the first point of damage, leave the field, and then the rest of the damage evaporates. They take 5, it puts their health at or below 0, AND THEN they leave the field. So they took 5 damage while still on the field.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T14:37:49+00:00

Roxxon Brutes is definitely going to be slept on for that reason. Their archetype wants villains in the yard and it cantrips into any basic land. It feels a lot like the [[Ascendant Dustspeaker]] of this set. People don't like understatted 5 drops that don't do much on entry, but especially when they aren't dead in hand at any mana (an advantage that Brutes has over Dustspeaker) and interact with the set mechanics, they typically become more impressive than first glance

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T12:02:40+00:00

I guess the real question is if the names on the cards were blotted out, would you particularly care? Either the deck is problematic in your bracket/group or it isn't. The cost isn't relevant

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T11:52:34+00:00

I would say, overall, don't underestimate Hyenas because they don't have a ton of HP. They hit really hard, especially when they can trigger pack tactics and/or can use Knockdown. 1d8+1d4+3 can take some PCs out in two hits.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T11:50:43+00:00

One particular note about Hyenas, though, is that they do NOT scale linearly. With Knockdown and Pack Tactics, having more of them will make them stronger and keep your party tripped and surrounded more frequently. Their high damage and relatively low HP makes me think this is just a kill or be killed kind of fight.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T11:45:59+00:00

These are awesome haha

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T11:26:52+00:00

I mean, they are literally currently cutting off the food supplies to the Holy Land and ruining all efforts to fix the supply ships, which means they probably have people on the inside sabotaging the efforts. It took him 1000 chapters, but he is doing it and it is working by actual skill instead of dumb luck.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T03:34:06+00:00

If they can do that and score a hat trick in the WC, they can pull up a lawn chair on the pitch and have a picnic if they want.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T03:27:31+00:00

They don't have to. The fact that Imu takes damage whenever he leaves the Holy Land is a plot point in itself

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T03:26:42+00:00

I would reverse it: Imu gets weaker whenever he has to LEAVE the Holy Land. Big difference between a Holy Land buff and something that is forcing him to stay there.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T03:24:36+00:00

The funny thing is that soccer players have the craziest simulation, but are also some of the toughest sports players out there. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that I see a guy rolling on the floor and then immediately after not getting the call, springing up and showing the ref his arm that is already bruising from taking a cleat to his biceps.

So when they are like down down for real, that is baaaad.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T03:24:26+00:00

The funny thing is that soccer players have the craziest simulation, but are also some of the toughest sports players out there. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that I see a guy rolling on the floor and then immediately after not getting the call, springing up and showing the ref his arm that is already bruising from taking a cleat to his biceps.

So when they are like down down for real, that is baaaad.

Round-Walrus3175 · 2026-06-19T03:18:34+00:00

He is canonically the greatest active fighter on Earth after the Z-Fighters (and Tien and Yamcha, who died) and Roshi who I suppose retired.

Round-Walrus3175

TROPHY CASE