What are tribes? and why is tribal balance important?
For those of you who follow me you are probably aware of my gods unchained escapades (if you need a quick summup/review of the game check out my review from a while back), and that I've been playing between mythic and auric gold in "the rubber band" for a while now. Something I've realized in Gods Unchained is there is a rather unbalanced assembly of the established tribes: aether, nether, mystic, olympian, anubian, structure, atlantean, dragon, amazon, guild, and viking. Certain tribes are ludicrously populated, while others have such a low card count that you can barely assemble a viable tribal deck with one god let alone multiple. In this speculative analysis we will be exploring which tribes are currently dominant, which need some attention, and which have received recent attention and the meta effects caused by the tribal cards added.
But Why are tribes important? And why is tribal population important?
Tribes are important to maintain a somewhat even population throughout (not every tribe has to be "perfectly even" metawise but their overall card populations shouldn't be drastically different from each other) to allow for players to create and enjoy a varied gameplay experience and to allow for tribal synergy and strategy to be "built on" as time goes on. Tribes in GU, Magic the Gathering, and any card game also define the game's identity. Building out tribes in turn builds a more potent and unique impression for the player, especially when TCGs/CCGs tend to be compared to each other. Allowing a few tribes to become overpopulated while others remain as a handful of cards isn't good for establishing setting and providing the building blocks for more "varied" expansions with a few cards from every tribe instead of expansions/minisets with a more singular tribal focus at the forefront to compensate for lack of attention (ie Band of the Wolf). Frankly, we are likely looking at a few more minisets/expansions that focus on ONE tribe similarly to band of the wolf (at least until the tribes are a bit more evened out in overall card population).
Which Tribes DON'T need additional affection?
The following tribes DO NOT need additional love/card population in recent upcoming sets: Nethers, Guild, Vikings
- Why not?: Nethers: | They sport THE strongest meta cards in the game for ANY tribe. Cards like demogorgon, perserverance, Netherswarm lord, and Woodcutter Imp. These cards are overtuned and grant this tribe a massive edge in the game, not to mention they are the LARGEST tribe in GU by a wide margin with over 107 unique nethers to collect. They don't need additional population or "holes to be filled". The only vaid exceptions to this would be domain nethers for any god aside from deception and death, as these would have to be used with a god that can't implement "zombies" and require additional deckbuilding to use to it's full potential (not just slotting in a new nether to the tried and true zombie control deck that has been popular since necrosceptre was released).
- Why not?: Guild: | Guild is a faction that has roughly 80 currently available creatures. HOWEVER, most of them are available for deception EXCLUSIVELY. Adding additional neutral guild creatures mostly benefits this god and doesn't really generate a variety of play, more faction specific cards for other gods would be desirable but if implemented MUST be exclusive to gods outside of deception. This tribe could use some population for other gods but SHOULD NOT be prioritized over others tribes that are a bit more desperate for tribal synergy.
- Why not?: Vikings: | Vikings are unlikely to see attention in the next set aswell, and with good reason. They are a heavily populated tribe similar to Guild (except instead of deception being the god with the majority of vikings it is war). This tribe is actually 4th place lowest overall card population at 59, but much akin to zombies this tribe is rather oppressive and any additional fun "neutral viking" will likely be slapped into yet another aggro war viking shell. Vikings for any god aside from War would be welcome and something this tribe needs.
The following tribes shouldn't be the main focus of the next set due to recent tribal focus in the Band of the Wolf launch: Olympians
- Why?: The main reason behind this is essentially "They just focused on this tribe", and additionally the overall card variety is ample at over 90 available cards in this tribe. They also don't need to add additional cards to their ranks at this time, maybe in a while after addressing some of these very low card populations in other tribes.
Which tribes NEED some love/ card population? Why?
The following tribes could use a bit of love/card population: Aethers, Atlanteans, Dragons
Why?: Atlanteans | Atlanteans are the second lowest populated tribe numbered at 49 total cards (42 if you exclude the exceedingly scarce Etherbots set) and are missing many core functions. On top of this there have only been 4 atlanteans released since Genesis (GU's first set that occured almost 5 years ago). This tribe has had the LEAST additions to it since Genesis. It's overdue.
Why?: Dragons: | They are the most underpopulated tribe in GU and only have a roster of 19 cards. This tribe is in a dire need for additional cards to even come close to the second least populated tribe (Atlanteans at 49). It's starkly apparent that this tribe needs additional card population the most.
Why? Aethers: | Aethers have had attention and tribal synergy and their time in the spotlight during the Trial of the Gods era. In my opinion they are definitely behind Dragons or Atlanteans in priority but are most certainly 3rd place, and unlike Olympians their "spotlight" set was years behind us. Despite having their "time in the sun" there are only 52 Aethers in total.
Talking Tidbits and Some Additional Thoughts
Overall Tribes should be the focus and in particular DOMAIN specific cards, there have/are too many "value staple neutrals" that populate every deck and make ranked play feel like a rather uniform churn at EVERY rank due to this. The same value neutrals are plopped into every deck across every god, the same staple neutrals used in every aggro lineup, the same neutrals are used in every control matchup etc. etc. etc. Adding a variance of cards (which will ideally have to be limited to specific domains due to the overtuned neutrals that already currently exist) will breath new life into ranked and reduce the problems caused with the repeated creation of numerous chase neutrals. The current GU team has a tough task ahead of them and many previous teams (quite frankly) dropped the ball harder than a shotput, so there will be some recovery time to expect any serious balances. Still though, I'm looking forward to the future of GU and I hope these tribes see a little love. Cheers everyone, don't forget to hit that follow button if you like what you see. (Reminder: this is a speculative analysis)