My thoughts on the current version of scrolls (Alpha 0.77):
I feel that growth as it currently stands is a lot more
powerful than order and energy by a long chalk.
You only need look at the top 20 players currently, although I’m not
100% I would say that nearly all of them are running growth, or a variation of
growth mixing in with one of the other factions.
Growth has everything the other factions can offer. I will
list the main strengths of each faction as I have come to understand, from what
I have experienced. I think for growth to be properly balanced, some cards need
to be removed or vastly altered to balance it with the other factions. Although
providing them with equally powerful cards such as Quake, God Hand and Kinfolk
Brave would be another step in the right direction, I am aware that balancing a
game like scrolls is a very difficult process. We are still in alpha and a lot of changes
will happen over the course of time, but as I said these are just my thoughts
on the current version of the game.
Order:
Strong structures.
Great unit synergy.
Utility low cost spells.
1 turn unit buffs.
Energy:
Reasonably strong removal spells.
Ability for very fast single idol destruction (1 turn)
Decent siege structures with high health.
Growth:
Great endgame (God Hand, Quake)
Great unit synergy Wolves
Powerful low cost units (kinfolk
brave)
Good defensive structures
2 sources of global cool down
reset (3 if you run mangy wolves and use wolves as your primary creatures)
Decent card draw (fertile soil,
sister of the fox)
Fat Units (most units have
minimum 2 hp if not more)
Global attack buffs (god hand,
crimson bull)
As it stands, growth seems to have the best of what the
other factions can offer. It is common
knowledge that growth is by far the strongest of the factions and although we
are still in beta, I feel some things wouldn’t hurt to be put down on paper.
A key short coming of energy and order is that they seem to
have very weak endgame in comparison to growth. Energy has Iron Ogre, which is
a 7 drop fattie with relentless. But it is
quite slow with a cooldown of 3. It also has thunder surge, which is a great
spell but dealing only 2 damage feels a little weak, especially with the cost
being 6 and most units having +3 HP by the time you can drop it.
Order lacks a good 7 drop, but has the Honourable General, a
solid 6 drop creature which is good -but pales in comparison to the growth
drops of higher or equal value. It also has the Royal Vanguard, again a solid
creature but not as strong when compared to the likes of growth. The Knight
Scholar could be good, but a reduction in health and therefore cost would make
him a more useful and viable unit. I believe that order needs a more solid 7-8
drop, as the end game order has is substantially weaker when compared to growth
or even energy.
Other Suggestions:
I feel a maximum hand size would be a great step forward;
mass draw is a bit too powerful at the moment.
Capping the hand size at 5, then at the end of your turn having to
sacrifice cards to meet the maximum hand size would be very useful. By capping
the hand size, you limit the amount you can drop and therefore decision making
becomes more difficult and requires more skill.
Another suggestion would be for another game format, which
would be best 2/3 games, in between games you can have a separate card pool of 10 that you can swap
cards in and out of your main deck. For example, when using energy you may not
want a Tick Bomb in the main deck - but when you find your opponent is using a
lot of structures it would be good to swap out your Shock cards for Tick Bomb.
Again by doing this you add another layer to the strategies presented to you
and effective use of countering your opponent’s deck and what you have seen so
far.
Closing Thoughts:
Scrolls is an amazing game with a lot of potential, the
actual user interface is quite tidy, although it could be improved in some
areas. For example, displaying the card you have clicked on over the right hand
side of the screen can at times make it very challenging to target enemy units.
For example using Shock displays the shock card on the right side of the screen,
covering the very units I wish to target. Also, when moving the curser, this
can often show the other cards in my hand. At the moment I am countering this
issue by clicking on the card I wish to use (such as burn), then clicking
somewhere away from the field, then clicking on the unit I wish to target. Taking
an idea from MTG duels of the planeswalkers, you could zoom in on cards using
the middle mouse wheel rather than always displaying a large image of the card
on the right of the screen.
I have big hopes for scrolls and with what has been shown to
us so far. I believe that there is a lot of potential to have a very active and
competitive scene, which I highly look forward to participating in.
Again what I have said here, you are more than welcome to
disagree with or challenge me on this is just my thoughts on the current game.
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