Warning: Big Big Big Post. Watch out!
Alright, so before we really get to the bulk of the post, I need to clarify that you
can talk about a deck being OP, just as you can talk about a card being OP. UP, not so much, since a deck can't be *under*powered. A deck being underpowered is almost always simply a case of a deck not being built very well so while it is low powered, it isn't underpowered.
Now, a deck needs to have it's effect on the game analyzed to decide if it's OP and then the deck needs to be analyzed itself to decide what part of it needs to be nerfed.
So let's do that with fire stall!
Coming off of CL, you probably know how powerful fire stall is. Time and time again, I've based my decision on what to fight with on whether or not I thought they'd take fire stall. Now a deck that influences the game in such a way, where you need to consider the possibility of it at all times, is considerably over powered.
And the reason you need to specifically consider firestall is because of its few counters. I can list them off the top of my head:
--Quanta denial decks (Pestal, the shutdown, earth/darkness)
--Fractal rush decks (Frogtal, FracCharger, FracPhoenix (usually))
--Light/Fire DG Style (But only half the time)
Now, that's not nearly enough. Especially since out of those, only the shutdown and phoenix fractal actually a very viable deck for other matches. Not to say they don't work, but aren't the best.
So I think we can all agree that fire stall is an overpowered deck. Now the next question to ask ourselves, is what makes fire stall so powerful? What can we tweak so it's not as powerful?
I bet you just said SoG. I know, I'm a damn magician.
Well,
it isn't. Good try though. Shard of gratitude's function within fire stall is akin to electrocutor's function within Rol/Hope. The core deck still functions without it, but it makes certain matchups possible and others easier. But if fire stall didn't use it, it would be perfect, right? Well we have to consider that nerfing SoG doesn't necessarily mean fire stall wouldn't use it. I mean, if electrocutor had its cost increased by one, would Rol/Hope stop using it?
No. So giving SoG the small nerf (+1 cost, or -1 healing) it needs (it does indeed need the nerf, but not due to fire stall) wouldn't work. SoG would still function perfectly in the deck, by letting you be more conservative with your control and helping fire shield kill immortal creatures. Not as well, but well enough for the purpose. In fact, the difference would be negligible in the case of fire stall.
So the only other alternative is give SoG a very large nerf, like making it only heal 3. Now you could argue that that would make it un-used in fire stall, but that's a nerf exactly like sundial got: half its power. SoG isn't as powerful as sundial was, so by no means does it need a nerf of equal power. Nerfing a card so much simply to make a single deck less OP while making countless other decks unviable is stupid.
Okay, so we've decided that nerfing SoG isn't the way to go to solve the problem of fire stall. Let's look at the rest of the deck:
Rage Elixir
Fire Lance
Fire Shield
Burning Tower
Fahrenheit
Explosion
Let's remove burning tower and fahrenheit and fire shield since they're weapons/shields/towers (not necessary to the strategy).
Rage Elixir - 3
for 6 damage. Lightning is 1
for 5 damage.
Fire Lance - Similar to other pump spells. Not OP.
Explosion - Steal, for 3
, destroys a perm and then plays it on your side. 1
for just the destroying seems fair.
But one of these has to be overpowered, right? Since fire stall is overpowered and all.
Wrong.
Just because a deck is overpowered doesn't mean the cards in it are. Rather, it means the cards work too well together. With 12 CC cards (+ fire storms) and 6 Perm control cards, you can basically destroy anything the opponent plays, and then use leftover lances to win. That's what makes fire stall so powerful: the ability to destroy anything your opponent plays. Not any singular card is OP, but because the cards generate so much control as a whole it's overpowering.
So here we have a deck that is dominating the PvP spectrum, a deck without any cards we can nerf to make it not dominating. Seems like a catch 22, right? The only way to nerf a deck that needs nerfing is to nerf the cards in the deck, right? But nerfing the cards in the deck is either undeserved or won't change the deck enough, right?
Well there's one other way to fix this. You can change cards without nerfing them. And if you choose the right card, the effect outside of the deck will be very small. Which brings me to my suggestion:
Make fire lance change to "Target creature gains +2/-3 for every 10 fire quanta in your possession."What does this solve? Well, fire stall is still viable as a deck out deck, but suddenly it's a lot slower. And think about it. What deck, other than fire stall, specifically utilizes fire lance's ability to target health as a win condition? None that I can think of. At the same time, it opens up new opportunities to use fire lance as a buff card. This seems the ideal change to me: nerf fire stall, while keeping everything else the same, and actually promoting originality.
That said, it would then set itself apart from other pump lances. Siphon life and ice lance both target health. But they're different in other ways. Why not make fire lance special in its own way? Also, the name *may* need to be changed.
And that's it. I think.
