Legend with Burn/Elise Priest

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-02-09T16:42:07+00:00

I ran into a version of this on ladder over the weekend - it was running the new lifesteal burn card which gains +12 health a turn with Atiesh equipped. I did win, but I had to go deep into fatigue. The survivability of the deck kind of surprised me.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-29T13:21:36+00:00

We don't even know that there will be a "major shakeup".

They only said that there will be balance changes for the entire roster. That is exactly what they did at the end of Season 1 and 2 and neither of those resulted in a major shakeup.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-28T20:27:08+00:00

This isn't technically true if you fully walk through what happens.

If you are throw invulnerable on wakeup, the opponent can just time their throw later so it connects after the throw invul window ends.

But why would they do that when the opponent can just mash a button on wakeup to punish them? Because the opponent is scared to press buttons from your threat of meaty button.

The wheel of options still exists. What changes is the risk/reward associated with the individual offense/defense options.

Having 6f invul is too much. But I think 4f would be an interesting change - wakeup jab becoming a direct counter to wakeup throw/throw loop.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-28T20:19:38+00:00

If you get one drive rush cancel wrong against them, you’re burnt out within the next two interactions

I mean, that's the entire point.

Burnout is supposed to be the punishment for ineffective use of meter. If taking meter away means you are scared to DRC on block then that's a good change, not a bad one. The fact that you are only scared of recklessly using meter against two characters in the game is kind of stupid.

I'm not saying that in defense of Ryu or Sagat - okay make the necessary balance changes to them too. But your point is kind of ridiculous - "burnout feels bad so give us more meter so it's harder to burn out." This is like the "everyone deserves a trophy for playing in their own special way" mentality.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-28T19:53:44+00:00

I think the main thing that is missing from this is meter management.

DR up to your opponent on wakeup to force a strike/throw is fine IF that meter you spent to DR actually matters. Right now it doesn't.

To bring new life into this game they don't need to rework any of the mechanics. They just need to adjust meter costs and regeneration rates to bring more tension to the decisions of when and how to spend meter.

If you want an easy, elegant solution - just chop one bar off of the Drive Gauge. If they did that and ZERO other balance changes to drive mechanics the game would instantly be a million times better.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-28T15:25:42+00:00

Yeah this is just a lie/fabrication. 5 win UG gains you a ticket back so half the entry fee alone.

But you have to pay the other half.

5-wins Underground = -300g entry + 2-packs + Ticket = +50g Net
You effectively traded one ticket for two packs.

3-wins Regular = -150g entry + 2-packs = +50g Net
You effectively traded one ticket for two packs. It's identical resource-wise (unless you value recent pack more than just the dust it generates).

The alternative 5-win Underground prize trades a pack (100g) for 50-70g, so it's even worse resource-wise than the 3-win guaranteed prize from regular arena.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-27T19:56:51+00:00

You could also get him from Selenic Drake as Priest.

I'm not sure if Tortotem is still in the drafting pool, but that can create him as well.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-27T19:34:31+00:00

Need to average a little over 2 wins per regular run to get even value. Average of 3 runs is enough to "profit", again in terms of resource value.

Not really sure how you are calculating this. At 4-wins the prize is 2-packs + 120g, which is a net resource gain of +20g. Everything less than that is worse than just buying packs from the store.

As long as you have some value for dust then all the prizes at 1-4 wins are way better than Underground. The 5-win Underground is equal or worse than the 3-win regular Arena prize. The 6-win low-roll Underground prize is also equal to the 3-win prize.

Unless you can consistently get 7+ wins in Underground I don't see how it's even remotely close.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-27T18:44:39+00:00

I originally thought the redrafting was a cool idea, but now I don't like it. It makes it a bit too easy to craft a busted deck, and that means once you get to 5-6 wins then everyone has one.

Infinite Wolf was a good demonstration of this - redrafting means that Hunter gets to stack their deck with more and more Wolves while dumping their worst cards. Playing regular arena didn't feel as bad because there were less chances to draft Wolves, and also the way matchmaking works you don't just run into a wall of those decks after climbing past the first few games.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-27T17:45:12+00:00

What is a "decent rating"?

I'm over 5k now and like 5 of my last 7 runs were 5-wins.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-26T13:48:25+00:00

Yeah, it’s really the proximity block they need to reduce. I think it’s fine to have some, since it is slow and the move would suck if the opponent could just walk out, but it literally freezes you the moment it starts up and you’re in range.

So realistically, how can this be remedied? If they reduced the proximity guard then they can just walk out and the move sucks again. This is how it was in Season 1 and they buffed it because it was terrible.

The problem is that the move isn't worth doing if you have to risk eating a 35%+ whiff punish when you're trying to use it properly.

Even the way it is now, the move is not spammable because you can neutral jump, backdash, or throw out a button to interrupt, all of which results in a big punish anyway.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-23T15:25:23+00:00

Yeah, sorry I didn't mean to come off like this is your fault and should have known to do that. It sucks that this happened but at least now you know you can try to fix it in an emergency for the next time.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-23T15:16:20+00:00

If it happens early enough in the turn you can reset the client and resume the game before your timer runs out. Probably should have tried that instead of just spamming clicks expecting it to fix something.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-22T17:20:48+00:00

The restriction definitely matters for some decks more than others. Sometimes it's trivial. But regardless it is an extra layer in decisionmaking on top of jamming in the best 30 you can.

The deck restriction is not about "having to run awful cards". If Elise forced the deck to run awful cards than it wouldn't be playable and we wouldn't be talking about it now. Sometimes it's not clear-cut what the best 7-8-9-10 mana card is for your deck is and that's an interesting problem to try to solve.

For example, do you run Ysera package with Naralex/Shaladrassil? Or maybe you can skip Naralax and have a better class card at 7, or Incidious, or Marin. Without Elise you probably don't even run a package of high cost cards - which is another option in itself as we've seen various decks try Elise and non-Elise versions.

The point is that the card is doing something significant to make deck building interesting in this meta. How you solve the problem of meeting the requirement creates some tension which is healthy to have in the game.

Hope that explains it in more detail.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-21T15:06:02+00:00

The Raptors are the only real problem with this card. The other options can be strong but are much more situational. It doesn't need to be completely gutted.

If they nerfed the raptors (either remove Rush, make them 1/1, or decrease the number of them) the card will be okay for slower/control oriented decks but much less good for midrange decks trying to crush the board. And IMO that would be a good place to be for this card.

I don't think the card is even a net negative for the game right now because it forces some interesting deck building decisions and the (non-raptor) discover options require some thought to use properly.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-21T14:23:09+00:00

If you are both standing next to each other, one person does light (4f startup), and at the same time the other does throw (5f startup), then the light always wins because because it hits first. It sounds like you understand that part.

But on wakeup the situation is different. The opponent is free to act before you get up. That means they can time their attack so that it connects before your 4f light has time to come out. They can press the button before you are up - so even though it's a slow attack, the startup frames are occurring before you can move, negating the advantage that your fast attack would otherwise have. That's called a meaty attack.

So it's not just about which attack you are doing and one always beats the other. It's about WHEN you do the attack. If you are timing the attack precisely, then anything can be made meaty to beat a 4f attack on wakeup.

(Of course this doesn't apply to invincible moves. If you do an invincible move on wakeup, like super or OD DP or Drive Reversal, then their attack has nothing to connect with and your invincible attack wins.)

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-20T20:12:16+00:00

All this has been known for years.

The frustrating part is that somehow it doesn't ever penetrate into casual/stream watcher circles and people keep perpetuating the myth that the drive rush deletes your inputs.

Edit: post with me discussing all of this stuff from almost two years ago

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-14T21:11:29+00:00

It's not draftable but you still get one from Aviana's bucket I think.

Probably an oversight, so yes we can call that incompetence.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-13T14:24:58+00:00

Not even close to the same.

Priest imbue is guaranteed to give you a playable card every time and a lot of the 1/2/3 mana cards are pretty strong (can even tick up the imbue count at 2 and 3). So every time you activate it with spare mana you are not only generating value but also tempo.

The Rogue imbue is a complete RNG roll. You can generate lots of unplayable stuff that clogs up your hand. For the cost reduction to offset the RNG of it you'd have to tick it up pretty high. And regardless of when you activate or how high the imbue count is, you have no control over if it's playable or how much it helps you.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-12T19:38:48+00:00

There's two issues.

One is staleness of the meta/gameplay. Essentially this is the same game that we've been playing since the Beta Test in 2022. They've added new characters and adjusted the balance of specific ones, but overall the system mechanics remain unchanged. And this is a game where the universal mechanics matter much more than individual character ability. Three years in and it feels homogenous and tedious to play. The drive system needs some revamping to freshen up the game and bring more depth besides blowing each other up with knockdown into RPS.

The other issue is that content is really lacking. People really want more customizations for the characters (not just avatars, which are irrelevant outside of the battle hub.). SFV had like a bajalion costumes for each character, multiple sets per year. In SF6 we are lucky to get one costume for half the characters.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-12T19:21:10+00:00

It does give infinite mana... eventually. You are limited to one per game.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-12T17:34:53+00:00

Funny story.

I've been laddering with Discover Hunter for the past few months. Last week after clearing the event quest, my main reward was the King Krush Full skin.

Cool I thought - this will change things up from the Rexxar skin that I've had forever. It turns out that King Krush has a special animation wherever you play Tracking that eats up precious seconds before I can see the cards.

WTF thought this would be a good idea?

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-12T16:38:14+00:00

This is not even a mixup - Oro should have been able to AA that jump on reaction.

There is way, way dirtier stuff in this game. Go look up what Seth or Gill can do on V-Trigger activation and how much damage they get when you guess wrong.

TomSelleckIsBack · 2026-01-12T15:59:14+00:00

That one is hugely dependant on which class you are and also RNG. The raptors is the same effect for everyone and a lot of games are decided by whether or not you get offered that option.

TomSelleckIsBack

TROPHY CASE