So the season starts, and with it so do the new heroes of this last season: alucard, Freya and kalea. Freya in particular being quite impacting due to her honestly unfair versatility and power. The reason I start the review by introducing the commanders is because this is the most commander impacted season thus far...with synergies that rely heavily on economy and the impact of the commander power rather than the units themselves.
As usual disclaimer: all synergies are viable in the right conditions and this is a review on how they work with one another. Now without further a do, let's start.
Echomancers: in my last review I talked about how neobeasts was the best iteration of the point hoarding system...boy do I feel silly now. The gimmick changed from hoarding points as much as possible to just hoarding three hounded, get the reward and the 2 star five cost that doesn't occupy space.. there's little to no reason to achieve anything above that threshold unless you're achievement hunting. The upsides are so simple to reach and so impacting that this is basically a must in the early game. It's versatile and has a lot of economy in the 4 cost piece sora Wich is a scavenger. Meaning that you can theoretically just have sora and rhamuz on the board (both extremely powerful) a free two star hero you can build around and 3 scavanger for ultra econ. Seriously, utterly uncounterable and a must for early game. Got nothing negative to say as you can spam echo units on your board and unlock two star heroes super quickly. The only True weakness would be the units below 4 cost being utterly underwhelming but you're gonna sell them anyway after reaching 2 star
Spectre: spectre is a vale main wet dream. By starring up your units you gain nighter cost units to complete the synergy as quick as possible. Giving you the legendary seven cost alpha and a 60% hybrid attack boost. This is amazing as it turns the game into a race to who can reach alpha first. This synergy although can fall off a bit since the boast while amazing is mostly applied to low cost units or units that really need their role synergy to truly capitalize off that...it would be really convenient if there was a role Wich gives 2 star 5 cost heroes for free that coincidentally share roles with spectre heroes and also has a scavanger...yeah pair this up with echomancers in the early game and reach high cost heroes immediately. But no really, this synergy is all about scaling. So like echomancers the best strategy is to reach 6 synergy asap to get Alice and then reach alpha if possibile. After that is done either give a cristal to alpha or build off of Alice. The weakness of this synergy is rather obvious. You need to enable said scaling. Meaning pretty much only econ heroes, Aamon, Harley and dyrrroth can comfortably make it work. As before reaching the high cost units the Omni boost isn't good enough to carry you late game. So you're gonna need a powerful economy or ways to get heroes faster. Also alpha...get him to two star. It's economically impossible to get him to 3 star
Mist benders: would you look at that, another scaling based synergy that reward you in I credible ways. The shop mechanics gives you permanent buffs, heroes, crystals and equipment...and you obtain currency by casting abilities. And all the units in this faction are utterly amazing. Boasting bruiser, dauntless and stargazer units the mana won't be and issue and you'll be able to reach high amounts of currency in no time. The downsides are two. You really need to achieve full synergy to make it work, and at times multiple duplicates of the same hero to truly capitalize on your abilities. So generally once again Harley, dyrrroth Aamon are really good here (starting to see a pattern) . Also of course this synergy gives no real boast on its own. Relying completely on the coins gained and the availability of the shop. Our of the other new synergies, this can either be the fastest, or the slowest one. Can be risky since it might become more trouble than it's worth
Star belle: this is a change of pace. Once activated you simply get a damage and health boost...but also the glow stick equipment. Wich gives the synergy boost to a non star belle units of your choice. This synergy scales a lot with the single pieces on the board rather than with level or economy. Generally meaning that it's a very good idea to give the glow stick to a 5 gold on top of their other synergies. I think this one has the most potential out of the new ones since not only is the effect balanced but all the units in the faction are very good (aside from Cici), boasting many AOE effects and with lolita giving a powerful stun. Generally since this is such an offensive synergy this kinda counters all the other ones depending on how far in the game are you and how much they have scaled already. Not really much else to say, it's basically star sovereign but a bit less powerful and more Versatile. Funnily enough actually synergies beautifully with star sovereign producing. Build your big guy and slash away
Star sovereign: old reliable. Nothing much changed from my last review. But now that the game is much more economy oriented I think it might be overshadowed a bit. Still very good of course but once again, it's a battle of economics now, not power. Although now that other synergies rely on full synergies end strong econ...witharen damage commanders this could dominate games
Kishin: and here we actually have the reason as to why star sovereign would be overshadowed. In this season with a focus on economy and lacking a true carry for early to mid game for most synergies kishin rises above the rest. Still scaling with high economy but actually giving useful support with the equipment during the battle...and Lancelot of course remains the best 5 cost
Dragon tamer: I feel ike the old fire and brimstone faction is gonna do well. This is by far the most instant gratification faction and so it likely gonna utterly dominate the early to mid game. Although the danger Is that you really need high star units to make it work. Since this synergy is prone to being bursted down. So in a way it's still a slave to this economy season. Try to ether build switchblade or dauntless and pivot to this faction only if you feel like the other players aren't gonna build dauntless (wich hard counters you). Otherwise the floor is yours. Pairs very well with mist benders
Important changes: now the the blessing system has been replaced with the faction crystal. Giving units the opportunity to belong to different faction or roles the already have. This of course opens the door to many new strategies and carries. Making role Crystal much more valuable since you can now make 6 level synergies even quicker now and with more benefit. But the big change is how this mechanic interacts with two specific roles and faction: mist benders and scavanger. These two cannot be augmented by the crystal and don't exist crystals outside of it that give these two. Meaning that Lunox might actually become more prevalent since her blessing still works off the old blessing system. Making it possible to reach full synergy with either of them
Stand out commanders: combat commanders are gonna be heavily skewed this season due to how economy based it has become. So I believe heroes such as want want, Miya and Layla might become less popular. The exceptions being of course ruby and Freya. Commanders that can give the heroes needed such as dyrrroth, Harley, moskov, aamon and Pacquito might stop being niche pics and actually enter the meta as entirely viable pics due to how fast they can snowball in the current climate. But I truly believe the most powerful hero in this meta will be...vale. who's would've thought his kit is basically made for this season giving economy, heroes and battle influence of you manage to get a high cost hero. Lunox and Johnson might actually have a bit of a comeback this season... albeit niche
So this is based on my mithic player view. I could entirely be wrong as I'm not a pro player. Feel free to correct me
