After playing in the tournament, getting destroyed by round 4, and then watching the rest. I decided to make a banlist wishlist. After doing this, I ended up realizing I had way too many thoughts and didn't want to explode the Discord with a gigantic write-up. I am going to write my overall thoughts on the meta right now, plus explain each card and why they are here.

Currently, the meta does have a mix of a couple of aggro, midrange decks, and control decks usually built around the same couple of cards. I don't think this itself is a problem since the game only has one set, which is incomplete right now. However, those few cards cause very frustrating gameplay, even if I have no problem with the rest of the cards in the deck or the overall strategy. I can respect the latest patch not wanting to change the meta before multiple tournaments, and I'm not upset that we got very few changes to what was dominating the format. But, I do feel like there is a big issue with agents that cost 1-4 energy and need to be removed quickly, or else they can snowball the game. It's not very fun when you don't open an answer for your opponent's Mycologist and have to watch as you not only take unavoidable damage each turn, but they also get free units from their 1-drop. Most of the agents on the list that I would like nerfed follow this logic of early snowballing. I think if these cards were to be looked at I would have even more fun with Chrono than I already do!

Sap Sapper/The Botanist: If you watched the tournament, I don't have to say anything; you should already hate this card. But I will quickly summarize for those unaware. This agent causes immediate speed 1-3 damage to all agents, which should never exist straight up. It's a snowball agent where, if you can't remove a 4-5 durability agent, they get to not only build up their own board but threaten damage to all agents at any time and make combat impossible for low-health agents. The worst part is even without the damage to all agents, this card would still be broken because it's an infinite agent generator. Even in sprout lists that aim to swarm the board, this card is still found in lists.

Supernova: I feel bad asking for this card to be nerfed. I have made fun of Sungrace for being useless for so long that it most certainly deserves its spot at the top of the meta. But simply put, this card is not fun. This card obliterates control decks. You can never spend all your energy against Sungrace because they could slam a Supernova, go back to full, and suddenly dump their win conditions out while you can't respond. Okay, so why can't you just open pass or spend low amounts of energy? Because then that charges future Supernovas, since they always get a higher benefit because of overflow effects. I don't like cards that skew matchups so far in your favor and would like this card to be changed.

Chronal Scan: Scan has caused so many issues. From all the way back to the first new batch of cards revealed, it was copying Springloader Hopper and Magma Denzien. Now it's copying 0 mana 8/8's with Wandering Mountain. This card has proven it is going to continue to be a problem for a long time if it isn't taken care of swiftly.

Timestop: This card isn't strictly broken; in fact, it's a bit of a win-more card. Timestop is never going to get you back into the game by denying a single action. But if you're already ahead, Timestop is going to make sure you're ahead. This is just due to the nature of singularity swarming and relying on Ziv. Timestop should most certainly have a cost to it, such as discarding or potentially exiling a card from hand if discarding is found to be too strong. This way you still get an energy advantage over the opponent but give them card advantage.

Fervent Mycologist, Glade Grazers, and Sleepy Druid: I grouped these all together because they fall into the same pattern of early game snowballing units I have repeatedly brought up. The key offender here is Glade Grazers. Sure, if you have removal, it dies to anything. However, if you do not remove this evil deer the turn it comes down, prepare for it to be outside of removal range for the rest of the game. All of these cards generate too much value alone, and I would really like them to be looked at.

Focused Adaptation: I haven't seen much hate on this card; I just really don't like the way it plays out. Feels like there is often little counterplay to not only how much healing this can give you but also due to the fact it fully heals the unit. Outside of double hard removal like Hush Now, every time Adaptation is played, it feels like you just have to eat it and try next turn again. Not so fast felt the same way, and that card was changed, so why not Adaptation as well?

Wom, Dreaded Wom: Don't be fooled by its "sweet" name or the fact that Wom got pushed out of the meta before the tournament; this card is pure evil. The toxic part of Wom is that you simply cannot play around it. On initial reading, you might think Wom is fair; you just have to avoid playing low-attack units, until you realize that Wom can simply reduce its own strength to easily immortalize with no work, and once immortalize can buff the entire board to ridiculous levels with the help of a single disarm card. You have to kill this agent in a couple of turns; otherwise, you will absolutely lose the game, which I don't think is a fun play pattern.

Bloodline Tracker, Blazing Shifter, Young Cindercoil: This is the only section I was unsure about. With Sapper being nerfed, burn would almost surely rise to the top, which can cause player frustration. Some players made it to the top 16 with burn lists already, even with the meta being hostile towards the deck. I thought these cards stood out the most in lists, especially Bloodline Tracker, which can deal a large amount of damage and far more than other 1-energy cards if not removed instantly. Even if it is removed instantly, it's still 1 damage, which is the average for the energy cost.

Temple Analyst: This card did see some success in the latest tournament, being brought to the top 8; however, the deck itself was quite unpopular due to being inconsistent. Well, if it's not that good, why is it here? The card is horrifically unfun. The deck is bad since you need too many specific pieces (Card draw from Acolyte or Cleaner and buff spells), but if it gets the right cards feels completely unstoppable. This causes the opponent to feel as if they had no agency in the game. I feel like the team should consider changing this card completely.

Unstoppable Growth: This one is mostly a joke since it isn’t widely played, even though I do absolutely hate this card. It feels like a hard thematic fail when every other piece of removal Lifeblood has is through striking agents with throwdown and through confront. Except this card is just a straight-up board wipe for all but one of your agents. With very few ways to give something like evasive or overpower, this card always feels like it ends the game when played.

Overall, I think the game is wonderful. I enjoy most of my matches and even if I got kicked out of the tournament early it was quite enjoyable. That said it could definetly be improved as with all things. Thanks for reading all my insane thoughts and opinions! Please let me know in the comments if you agree/disagree or what you would like changed!

Current Meta thoughts + Banlist Wishlist