Hi, thanks for this thread, it's quite interesting and it helps me think about future changes. You said most cards are ok, but which cards do you consider a bad pick in most situations? And is Chaika OP as in should be nerfed?

I'll mention my favorite cards that didn't make your list:

• Gluttony: I pick this almost every time, it's always an easy way to thin the deck and can give strength when you need to kill something faster and heals when you don't.
  
• Envy: This card just puts in a lot of work for 1 energy. Being a shapeshifter can help on the turn you use it, and giving your 1st card synergy every turn gets you your free draw from the 1st synergy of the turn faster and consistently, on top of the benefit of enabling decks with multiple series by itself. Gets crazy with Eve, too.
  
• Greed: Gold gain is great, and the defense this card comes with is fantastic. Plated Armor helps you block each turn, and if something would break through the Plated Armor the Malleable will kick in to not only protect you, but protect you from losing entire stacks of Plated Armor from one multi-hit barrage or multiple small enemy attacks. Malleable might not be useful in every fight, but it's won me a couple fights against the Heart's multi-hit attack and I think that's what counts the most.
  
  
  Owari no Seraph
• Ferid Bathory: THE reason to make an exhaust/legacy deck. Strength to help you kill, heals to keep you alive. This bad boy in a deck with a Hitei makes you feel bad for some of the enemies you'll come across, with all the gold, heals, and strength you'll be piling up.
  
  
  Fate
• Archer: I actually love Archer, it just puts in work pretty often. Some enemies come with built-in debuffs to trigger Archer automatically, and even the ones that don't are easy to slap some debuffs on, I especially love to use Archer with Caster in Fate decks because the strength-down will trigger Archer each turn, leaving the enemy weaker and on a clock. Decks that gain strength will be dealing increased damage multiple times a turn with a few debuffs, on top of Caster I love using Archer with Roy's burn or Poison decks.
  
• Berserker: Simple, but this is the single best card for Guren to pull, and the strongest card when it comes to breaking block, making it fantastic when you can combo it with Guy or Lizard Priest.
  
  
  Hitsugi no Chaika
• Akari: She does a lot of damage very easily, it's worth mentioning her Mark debuff doesn't go away until after the poison damage hits 1 time, which triggers the Mark to add poison 1 extra time. Even just the basic combo of Akari+Tooru will leave the enemy with 8(12) poison, which when triggered on the enemy's next turn will go up to 9(14) due to the Mark triggering one last time. Akari is basically the best card in any of my Hitsugi no Chaika decks, it does massive damage with Tooru, Layla, and Viivi and if you pick up Shin suddenly each stack of her poison is even bigger.
  
  
  Gate
• Pina Co Lada: Nothing fancy here, but in a deck that triggers multiple synergies a turn that block is extremely valuable. If you have Envy in the deck, Pina Co Lada becomes free block every turn as soon as you play your 1st card, with potential for more, making it often better than metallicize.
  
  
  Overlord
• Entoma: A feed-like card that doesn't exhaust itself, and can upgrade forever even by itself? Sign me up! If you get offered Entoma early on it's an easy card to keep upgrading, not only giving you a card that ramps up in damage but also giving yourself more health, especially if you can wait out until drawing Entoma to finish things off, assuming Hunger doesn't reduce the damage to 0 first. This card (along with other Augmentable cards) work especially amazingly with Scar, as even with a fully upgraded deck Scar can keep buffing Entoma over and over, giving you 2 cards capable of buffing her.
  
• Gamma: A key card in any Orb deck, offering not only shapeshifter to give synergy effects to stray orb cards like Guy while also supporting the Fate and FMA synergies, but also being the only card to actually give orb slots on top of the orb it gives, all while giving you more energy next turn.
  
  
  Honorable Mentions
• Illya: She tries her best.

Originally posted by EatYourBeetS:

Hi, thanks for this thread, it's quite interesting and it helps me think about future changes. You said most cards are ok, but which cards do you consider a bad pick in most situations? And is Chaika OP as in should be nerfed?

Well actually i want to discuss about balance in balance tread as these are just my opinion which based heavily on my play style. Compare to base game, animator is kinda like The Ironclad since he build around offence and strength but you can also build orb like The Defect and do poison like The Silent. Since there aren't enough card right now strength is the way to go for me.

Stun is definitely OP but i feel like it might be necessary. It's OP but not an instant win card either. But he fact that you can duplicate card, necronomicron for double attack give you lots of time to set up. So depend on how hard you want this mod to be, Chaika may be just fine. I'm not quite sure you can beat ascension 20 act 4 if we nerf all the strong card.

Also what I consider a bad pick are most of the time cards that are slow. Like Chung, i don't want him because 7 block with no benefit for 3 turn is slow. So does that mean chung is bad? Not really, when i play elsword or force to pick chung or i get him from relic/event his Aoe is doing quite well too. Darkness I don't really pick her but that just normally you don't want to take damage. She is pretty useful when you have lots of cards to upgrade. Biyoriko is also a good card that I won't pick since we don't really have that much 0 cost attack card. Eve is also fine but when you compare her to konayuki which ramp your damage faster or gurren which get damage faster you might not need her after all. Greed al also what I'd avoid since I don't like to get hurt but getting gold is also a strategy you want to build around. Albedo is better now but unless I'm getting cards to synergy her I still don't want her. Also I don't pick much card from overlord series too so even with synergy she is still hard to use for me.

Elsword

1. Chung - 1E Gain 7(9) Block. Cooldown 3 : Deal 16(20) damage to ALL enemies.
   
2. Elsword - 1E Deal 9(11) damage. Cycle 1(2) card.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 4(7) damage to ALL enemies.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 5(8) Block. Next turn, gain 2 block.

Elsword ia one of my favorite start. Elsword himself is an ok card which work with any deck but normally you should just forgot that you have him in the deck since he is never be a main part of our strategy. I've learn to appreciate Chung more. I'd even pick more Chung to my deck. The play style is to 'Charge(or reload)' Chung to be at 0 Cooldown. You do this by stalling the fight that you can stall. You can even take slight damage while doing this too. Chung is the main reason that Elsword start is strong even in high ascension since you can fight elite easily. You want to upgrade him asap which will just make your life easier not only in term of damage but stalling too. This start is also a good start in any deck.

The main weakness of this start is that you generally don't want to spam choosing cards from Elsword. Lots of cards in the series are good but you'll be lacking a consistent damage. Eve could work but she is hard to find. Elesis is a good finisher but since she work with any deck there is no real reason to build the deck mainly using Elsword cards. You might want o build the deck from other series first then grab cards that help you from Elsword later.

Owari no Seraph

1. Yuuichirou - 1E Deal 9(11) damage. Legacy: Add Asuramaru(+) to your discard pile.
   
2. Asuramaru - 1E Deal 12(20) damage.Gain 1 Intagible, Strength, Dexterity and Artifact. Purge.
   
3. Shinoa - 1E Gain 7(10) Block. Apply 1 Vulnerable to ALL enemies. Synergy: Also apply 1 Weak.
   
4. Strike - 1E Deal 6(9) damage. Legacy: Apply 1 Vulnerable to ALL enemies.
   
5. Defend - 1E Gain 5(8) Block. Legacy: Apply 1 Weak to ALL enemies.

This is a good start for Lagacy deck. You got Yuuichirou which is kinda bad for attack but still better than a strike. His real strength come from his Legacy which give you Asuramaru which is an awesome card. You also get Shinoa which is also a good block. She peel artifact quite well. Since you are building Owari no Seraph you'll also proc her Synergy quite easily. The extra weak is pretty useful.

For Legacy deck you'll want these card.

Maes Hughes - Aoe Damage

Mitsurugi - Extra strength (personally i don't like him that much though)

Mikaela - Best card to proc legacy

Gillette - for his Legacy stun Well avoid him for now T^T

Hitei - You might not actually need Hitei but she still thin out your deck make your deck more consistent. I really like her in legacy deck.

Witch - Legacy for potion is very good.

Riku - Need to upgrade him once but he is also a good Legacy enabler. Also remember that when he exhaust defense you get 0 energy Strike and when you exhaust strike you'll get 0 energy defense.

Shimakaze - She is kinda useful in Legacy deck only that she generated Dazed and she draw lots of card. Most of the time you won't be needing her.

Togame - She is very flexible card that can be useful to Legacy deck. She is by no mean a priority pick for the deck.

Wiz - After the nerf. She is a lot weaker and drop a lot in priority. She is still a useful card to have depend on your deck since she still combo nicely with lots of cards.

Ferid Bathory - He is super powerful and a must have. Both Strength and Hp gain is what make the deck strong.

Goblin Slayer - He is good and scary to have at the same time. You'd want lots of cards that can exhaust card since the goblins are very annoying. I feel like multiple copy of him work better. He also combo nicely with wiz since you can get more copy of him. He can also be your main finisher.

You might want to consider purge these series

Fate - No core card that you want.

Elsword - No core card that you want.

Gate - No core card that you want.

Overlord - No core card that you want. There are some good card that can be good though but most are not important.

Fullmetal Alchemist - Maes Hughes is not really that important. Also scar might be nice but you need your core card more.

Kantai Collection

1. Shimakaze - 1E Deal 3(4) damage. Gain 3(4) Block. Draw 3(4) cards. Shuffle 1 Dazed in your draw pile.
   
2. 249 Gold
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 6(9) damage. If this card is removed from your deck, gain 35 Gold.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 5(8) Block. If this card is removed from your deck, gain 35 Gold.

At first glance This seems to be the best starter but it's actually pretty risky. This deck start off super weak which in high ascension is very risky. You don't have power to fight elite early. You want to get to shop ASAP to spend your gold and make your deck better but you might also find nothing at the shop. You can't really get relic with your gold either since the deck is so weak that you need attack card ASAP. You can try to get some potion too which will help you in fights. Another weakness of this deck is that you probably don't want to choose the option to lose all your gold for your blessing which is the main point of playing this deck. Curses are also pretty bad since with Shimakaze you tend to draw your curse often.

Apart from that I think this deck is the most flexible start. You can get lucky and get good rare card that will form nicely into deck in shop. Shimakaze is also very flexible card. She can be in almost any deck and be useful.

*****************************************************************

Fullmetal Alchemist :

1. Alphonse Elric - 0E Ethereal Boost 2(3): Gain 1 Focus. Legacy Obtain Armored Alphonse(+).
   
2. Armored Alphonse - 1E Gain 4(8) Block. Gain 2 Plated Armor. Synergy: Channel 1 Lightning.
   
3. Edward Elric - 1E Deal 5(9) damage. Cycle 1 card. Activate a Bonus Effect based on the card you cycled.(Channel->Atk - Lightning, Skill - Frost, Power - Dark)
   
4. Strike - 1E Deal 5(8) damage. Cooldown 1: Channel 1 Lightning.
   
5. Defend - 1E Gain 4(7) Block. Cooldown 1: Channel 1 Frost.

Katanagatari

1. Emonzaemon - 1E Deal 9(11) damage. If this is your 3rd Attack in a row, Purge this and obtain Entou Jyuu.
   
2. Entou Jyuu - 1(0)E Once per turn. after you play an Attack, increase its damage by 2 this combat and draw 1 card.
   
3. Nanami - XE (Strongly) Counter the enemy intent.

Goblin Slayer

1. Dwarf Shaman - 1E Deal 6 damage. (Gain 3 Block.) Channel 1 Earth.
   
2. Priestess - 1E Boost 3(4) : Gain 2 Regeneration. Synergy: Gain 4(6) temporary HP (Affected by Block modifier).
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 8(11) damage. Exhaust.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 7(10) Block. Exhaust.

Konosuba

1. Kazuma - 1E Gain 5(7) Block, then Deal 5(7) damage. Synergy: Draw 1 card.
   
2. Aqua - 1(0)E Heal 5 HP. Reduce this card's healing by 2 this combat.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 5(8) damage. Boost 1:Heal 2 HP.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 4(7) Block. Boost 1:Heal 2 HP.

Fate

1. Rin Tohsaka - 1E (Apply 1 Lock-On to ALL enemies.)Channel 1 random Orb. Synergy: Gain 7(9) Block.
   
2. Alexander- 1E Deal 10(13) damage to an enemy and 5(6) damage to every other enemy. Legacy: Gain 3(5) Plated Armor.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 5(8) damage. Apply 2 Poison.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 5(8) Block. Cycle 1 card.

Hitsugi no Chaika

1. Tooru - 2E Deal 5(7) damage 3 times. Reduce this card's cost by 1 this combat.
   
2. Akari - 1E Discard 1 card Apply 2 Marks of Poison to an enemy. Gain 4 Block.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 8(11) damage. Exhaust.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 7(10) Block. Exhaust.

No Game No Life

1. Couronne - 1E Gain 9(12) Block. Synergy: Draw 1 card.
   
2. Jibril - 1E Deal 10(12) damage. Increase this damage by 20(25)% for each Debuff on the enemy.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 6(9) damage. Retain your rightmost playable card.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 5(8) Block. Retain your leftmost playable card.

Gate

1. Kuribayashi - 1E Deal 9(11) damage. Synergy: The target loses 4(6) Strength this turn.
   
2. Tyuule - 1E Apply 2 Poison to an enemy for each (/other/) Non-Attack card in your hand.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 5(8) damage. Next turn, draw 1 card.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 6(9) Block. Retain.

Overlord

1. Cocytus - 1E Deal 8(12) damage. Absorb Armor. Synergy: Increase this card's damage by 4(6) this combat.
   
2. Pandora's Actor - 1E Gain 3(6) Block. Shapeshifter. Synergy : Gain 4 extra Block.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 5(8) damage. Increase this card's damage by 2 this combat.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 4(7) Block. Increase this card's Block by 2 this combat.

Accel World

1. Kuroyukihime - 1E Discard 2 cards. Add Black Lotus(+) to your draw pile. Exhaust.
   
2. Black Lotus - 1E Deal 7(9) damage to ALL enemies. Gain 5(7) Block. Blur.
   
3. Strike - 1E Deal 6(9) damage. Recall: Deal 4 damage to a random enemy.
   
4. Defend - 1E Gain 5(8) Block. Recall: Gain 3 Block.

Generally good card(80 - 90% of the time you'd want these cards after your core)

Mitsuba - Generally a good atk/block card for lots of fight mainly elite and boses

Gilgamesh - Good attack card if you get him early. He also generate lots of gold for you

Elesis - She can be your finisher and the best part is that she can work with any deck.

Biyorigo - I've come to like or addicted to this card. If you compared her to Konayuki, she is actually a lot better with the down side that she is about 1-2 turn slower to be useful. After that she will be better and scale a lot similar to how 'Demon form' work. You also didn't actually have to do 4 attack in 1 turn too which is what I miss read at first.

Guild Girl - She is not bad to have. Free cycle what you don't need for free every turn is nice.

High Elf Archer - Free damage and free draw and also scale well with strength Piercing. This card is amazing. Get 1-2 of her.

Lizard Priest - A decent block choice. Sometime she has lots of value in lower huge amount of block from enemy. He also work well if you have overrun cards.

Chaika Trabant - Stun most of the time is a free turn. One of the best pick if you didn't have an important core card you need to pick first.

Sword Maiden - She give you almost an extra turn. The artifact is also nice. Even after the nerf without retain that she became more unreliable you'd still want her.

Higaki Rinner - The recent version does give you more useless or worse effect overall but He's still good. At least 0 Energy shapeshifter is already good enough.

Viivi - Could be one of the best attack card in the game which scale nicely with strength.

---kill card trio---
Generally you wouldn't want more than one of these card. And the earlier to get these card the better.

Entoma - Hardest to use. She is pretty weak without upgrade. Her card stat is fine but hunger made her a lot worse since she normally don't have enough attack to finish enemy. When you upgrade her a lot her stat is not that much better. She still get lots of damage for only 1 energy attack card which is still very good. Her main point is that you get 2 max HP for every kill. She might not have the power to win game but she help you a lot.

Scar - He is strong. Super strong or you could say that he is OP which might be true. Upgrade even a random strike or defense make the game much easier. If you hit your main card that will be even better. Don't be discourage to stall and take some damage (less than 10 preferably) since one upgrade equal 1 bonfire. You can just use bonfire to rest instead.

Krul Tepes - She make the game much more forgiving and she enabler card like Darkness. If you can get 6+ blood vial you'll get lots of heal most of the time enough to heal you to full every fight. However she is the only one of the three that doesn't actually make your deck better. Her stat is decent for 2 energy attack card but there are lots of better cards to deal damage.

I have noticed Tet is one of the cards with the lowest pick rate right now (about 6%), I think that's because you may not know that its effect actually count as discard, so very good in recall decks, I gave him a buff with the last patch though, that should help discover the interaction.

@Birp
Have you tried caster outside of orbs deck? I think the damage is good by itself and the strength down is more of a bonus effect (though obviously very good against multi-hit enemies), and a permanent debuff for Archer and Jibril (I'll probably also change jibril to scale 20(25)% for each debuff instead of a fixed 50%).

Caster is always a one card wonder without help. Just one is enough and you generally only want one since her dps isn't really going up by having more. Dark orb damage the second time you play her is useful as high damage or as finisher.

Tet is hard to use. Getting him early and he won't do anything much. In late game, I'm not sure i would like him either. I also don't like recall cards in general.

I think right now Scar might be the strongest card to get early. Fully upgraded deck is good. Scar is also very good with unlimited upgradable card.

Also right now I think Katanagatari is one the the strongest serie to go for. Even a common like Konnayuki is strong enough to help carry some run. Nanami is one card energy sink that is great in any situation. Togame is draw engine. Biyorigo is a good win condition which is comparable to demon form. Azekura is fine as a block card. Shichika is ok-ish. I used to value him a lot but he isn't that great for me in high ascension. Rinne is fine since random and synergy often give you lots of value.

Right now every series has good cards that i want which is very nice but generally I almost always purge these 3 series

Elsword - I start Elsword for Chung but I don't like the other cards that much except for Elesis which is a good card but not strong enough to go for.

Fullmetal Alchemist - I like pride for a bit since he is kinda good for a block. Scar is also godly but he is not a win condition. I don't like the rest as much.

Fate - Gilgamesh is also a God but getting him late is not great. Caster is also good. Emiya Shirou is surprisingly good. I also like Illya and Saber but I can't get it to work well enough for the heart. Lancer and Alexander are fine for attack card but they won't win you the game.

* By the way I for got that I purge GATE as often too. Gate is like you go full Gate or not at all I think