ANCIENT BONDS
PRE-EXPANSION EXPECTATIONS
Duelyst's third expansion is centered around the tribal synergies of Golems and Arcanysts. Lyonar, Magmar, and Vetruvian received powerful Golem synergies, whereas Songhai, Vanar, and Abyssian now wield powerful Arcanyst decks. Except for Arcanyst Songhai, an archetype that saw wide play before the Mana Vortex nerf, these new archetypes are fresh and untested.
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Vote on post-expansion scores here.
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TOP 10
82
80
78
76
76
76
74
73
73
72The best cards in the expansion fit snugly into Magmar's new Midrange Golem build. All but one of the minions on this list are Golems, and likewise, it is widely perceived that Golems received much stronger support in the expansion. However, cards like Dreamshaper, Boulder Breacher, and Celebrant may turn out to be less impressive-- and thus they may make way for some underestimated Arcanysts.
MOST DIVISIVE
29
28
28
28
27
27
26
26
26
26(Scored by standard deviation, not mean)
Unsurprisingly, most of the most controversial cards are the most random. Nightshroud contains hidden RNG in that the random order of summons from Death Knell significantly affects its potential, and most of the rest are quite overtly random. Randomness has long been a point of contention in Duelyst game balance, and it doesn't seem that it will be going away soon.
Unsurprisingly, most of the most controversial cards are the most random. Nightshroud contains hidden RNG in that the random order of summons from Death Knell significantly affects its potential, and most of the rest are quite overtly random. Randomness has long been a point of contention in Duelyst game balance, and it doesn't seem that it will be going away soon.
WORST 10
20
48The biggest underperformers of the expansion have been the spells. Two-- Blood of Air and Mana Deathgrip-- have seen wide play across all archetypes, but the rest have fallen flat. Given the redundancy of Life Coil and Blood Echoes and the extreme RNG of Joseki and Cascading Rebirth, this comes as no surprise.
BOND
64
58
51Bond is the new keyword of the expansion. This effect triggers when a card is summoned from any source given that there exists a friendly minion of the same tribe on board. The conditionality of this Battlecry effect makes it difficult to properly evaluate card strength, and the fact that it works with resummons makes it unique among on-summon effects.
55
55
50
69
65
51
68
70
61
71RARITY
Common
57
57Rare
57
57Epic
62
62Legendary
66
66Since rarity indicators have no real meaning in the Bloodborn and Ancient Bonds expansion model, it's not surprising that average scores don't differ too greatly by rarity. However, the legendaries which seem to be pushing new archetypes may see large score fluctuations contingent upon the ultimate success of those archetypes.