| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | AA | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Unit | +0 | +1 | +2 | +3 | Beneficiaries | Thoughts | Statistics | Overall | Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | |||||||||||||||
2 | Apprentice | Useless | Weak | Balanced | Balanced | Phoenix, Immobile | I previously thought this piece at +1 was entirely bad, but swap synergy (basically Phoenix) makes even the useless-looking +1 version able to spend 2 to shift the egg back. +3's "Balanced" is extremely bordering on Strong because of this, but it lacks kingattack. 3/17/2024: If you are planning on using Apprentice+ for phoenix and fireball swap, do at least consider Dove+++'s existence. | Thanks for graphis Aplet123 | ||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Archer | Under | Under | Under | Weak | Promoters, Stall (fake) | Not a real minion. +3 is a promoter that happens to have attack. Has a fake combo with stall, because it doesn't really help. | Useless | 20 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
4 | Axeman | Strong | Strong | Weak | Weak | Stall | Crazy board control for 1 cost at +0. This beat Militia (that costed 1 and had 4 penalty) in a Classic style tournament. | Short for Underpowered. | Under | 64 | 18 | 22 | 10 | 14 | ||||||||||||||
5 | Banshee | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | Enchant (fake), +3 with Phoenix and Immobile | If you were there to see the nerf this piece got (full teleports down to 3 teleports at base), you would never play it. That being said, it is more close to Balanced than another Weak unit. | Weak | 122 | 28 | 31 | 37 | 26 | |||||||||||||||
6 | Bat | Useless | Useless | Under | Weak (Combo: Balanced) | Hoplite | Bat+2 is very obviously a worse Dove+2. This piece happens to be used in some Hoplite armies right in front of the corner Bishop, a novelty by henclucky that uses its horizontal far move. Even so, this is 5 cost for a similar thing to something Princess++ uses, and I'm not convinced it's the best option, but it's playable. | Balanced | 83 | 27 | 22 | 20 | 14 | |||||||||||||||
7 | Bishop | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Weak | Hoplite, Rush, Reach | Put it in a corner. Mild synergy with swap. +2 is weaker than the other two "Balanced" ones. | Strong | 28 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |||||||||||||||
8 | Bomber | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced | Rush Nuance | This thing is just annoying, you nuance some rush armies and armies that use minions that cost more than the Bomber, and it also has annoying nuance push synergy. It also nuances Samurai, but Bomber itself has some free kill nuance against it. | Short for Overpowered. | Over | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||||||||||||||
9 | Dryad | Under | Under | Useless | Useless | Rush Nuance | It is now [Pay 2] and useless. | Short for Gamebreaking. | Broken | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
10 | Duelist | Weak | Strong | Balanced | Balanced | The +1 upgrade literally adds double mobility for 1 cost. 4/17/2024: Changing +2 to Balanced from Weak. And maybe +0 deserves it too. +1 to +2 is one of the fairest upgrades there is. | Weak + Balanced + Strong | 233 | 60 | 60 | 65 | 48 | ||||||||||||||||
11 | Fireball | Weak | Strong | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Stall, Swap | The classic strategy is to put a Fireball+ on c/f, so only two, which prevents Comet nuance. However, it now has to deal with ThunderMage and Wrath and sometimes FrostMage and Aquarius. This is one of the most nuanced pieces in the game, even though it has insane attack range. This means you can try to avert the nuance somewhat and get a ""balanced"" result, but I have not seen a successful army do that yet. 3/18/2024: For Fireball+, "Nuanced: Weak" probably does not give this thing enough credit. Again, insane range and it nuances armor and phoenix. And if you play only 1, Comet's relevance is useless. I am buffing it to just say Strong, DESPITE the nuance. | Useless + Under + Over + Broken | 88 | 23 | 32 | 13 | 20 | |||||||||||||||
12 | FrostMage | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Thunder | Freeze is not ideal for stall because of the turn commitment. Anyway, it gets nuanced by Status-Immune and Alchemist, especially the part where you want to use this with Thunder, so it is unplayable. | Not Balanced | 238 | 56 | 70 | 58 | 54 | |||||||||||||||
13 | Ghost | Under | Under | Balanced | Balanced | Armor Nuance | No army enjoys playing +0 or +1 even if they can (Behemoth Minotaur uses Ghost on d/e). Recently +2 and +3 got cost +1, which means despite them being 'balanced', are shoved to the side for units with kingmelee at a lower cost. | How many units have nuance? (A unit with nuance should be interpreted as depending on the frequency of the nuance, which will usually be infrequent. Bomber is usually Weak even though it's Strong with nuance.) | Nuance | 53 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 14 | ||||||||||||||
14 | Guardian | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Strong | Expensive Knight Attackers, Greed+++, SoulKeeper+3, Vampire | All tiers are slightly stronger than they appear due to kingmelee. The special action is usually ignorable. Although I have not seen a strong competitive army with +3 yet, it has been recently buffed and teetering on playability, so I am going to say Strong because there is so much potential for it. | How many units get nuanced? (A unit that gets nuanced, at higher ratings, should be interpreted closer to the 'nuanced' level. FireElemental++ is a Strong unit, but will never be playable at high ratings (3500+) because it gets nuanced.) | Nuanced | 81 | 17 | 27 | 19 | 18 | ||||||||||||||
15 | Hoplite | Weak | Over (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Hoplite Rush +3: Angel (fake) | Basically must be used with a Hoplite Brick (2x3). The effects on the usual idiot minion line usually completely destroy it. You are going to get nuanced by stall and defensive units (ranger, necromancer, behemoth, pyromancer, soulkeeper, sometimes samurai) and HOPLITE LOSES AGAINST STALL. However no one wants to play stall for their own sanity, which is why the Hoplites infest the meta instead. - SoulKeeper is less effective than Pyromancer at nuancing Hoplite due to it being more takeable. - When you play against Necromancer it's really obvious how good it can nuance Hoplite. - A Behemoth SPAM army can actually get nuanced by Hoplite instead of the other way around, if Hoplite is too good at trading away all the minions. - Hoplite+++ spam might look very good because Hoplite+ spam with two Hoplite+++ seems to be good, but it's actually not good. The reason is the amount of downtrading that happens. This is why Angel is listed as a fake combo, because Angel death effect is a crutch to deal with this - the combo is a bandaid, not an extra synergy. | Obviously, what consitutes Balanced is my opinion, and some have set it lower or higher. It's worth mentioning that among higher ranked players, they will try to use the best possible pieces, so in that case Balanced will definitely be a disadvantage. If you want to mod this, take note that the statistics maybe won't set perfectly if you add a new unit (row). | ||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Knight | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Weak | Counter to Free Kill Nuance | The purpose of this unit is to trade it. Or you can cause a repeat with Knight+2 against free kill nuance, which Punf did once against me. It's not perfect due to on-kill defense, though. | |||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Militia | Weak | Under | Weak | Weak | Charm Nuance | This unit has definitely been nerfed too much, but the point is to use it for defense. But why do that when Axeman is a thing? It basically only has defense as roles (lower tiers, to ignore the penalty), or promote at higher tiers as it has a decent body and moves 2 squares. But no army wants it. | |||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Pawn | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Strong (Nuanced: Under) | Weak (Nuanced: Under) | Under | High Cost Minion Nuance | Free kill nuance ruins it. However, +1 can sometimes nuance against high cost minion lines, if you get the first turn and can set up board control. +2 can be used as an instant suicide in rush just to clear out the slot by making an empty threat. | PIECE GALLERY | ||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Penguin | Weak | Weak | Weak | Under | It's a really budget defense option that you do not want to move. Despite me giving it 'Balanced' for a long time, it has consistently underperformed for me, and is not in any competitive armies. That means I will sadly give +0 a "Weak" despite it being BUFFED since last time I reviewed it (with backwards movement). | CHESS EVOLVED DISCORD BALANCE DISCUSSION | |||||||||||||||||||||
20 | PoisonMage | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Weak | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | So, +0 is probably the best tier. It does free kill nuance, has great mobility (compare to Ranger+0's free kill nuance), and can trade for some ~5-cost minions without much disappointment. The future tiers do not improve its free kill ability very much, so they start to suck. Then +3 allows for sideways free kill nuance, but also costs way too much now. It is also the most nuanced piece due to using status. | ORIGINAL ARCHIVE LINK | |||||||||||||||||||||
21 | Shieldsman | Weak | Weak | Under | Under | Greed+++. That's pretty much it. | Like Guardian, +0 and +1 are theoretical because no one has found a good consistent army with them yet. Currently people think it's just weak. 5/30/2021: You know what, I'm dropping it from Balanced/Balanced/Weak/Weak to Weak/Weak/Under/Under. I was staring at this thing in the corner of my army protecting a Greed and wondering why the hell it wasn't a FrostMephit. | |||||||||||||||||||||
22 | Skeleton | Weak | Weak | Balanced | Weak | Necromancer | This review is for the standalone Skeleton you put in your army: All of these are terrible units on their own and the army should be designed to be upgraded by Necromancer into the +3 version. Also the promote is completely irrelevant. | |||||||||||||||||||||
23 | Slime | Under | Under | Weak | Under | The worst kill deterrent ever. It's worth noting +2 used to be 4 cost, got nerfed due to seemingly being overpowered as a kill deterrent, but is now back at 4. However, the armies that were used with Slime++ have not come back. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
24 | Spearman | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Push | Harpy Spearman and AirElemental Spearman is a combo that, in theory, makes the Spearman uptrade. Unfortunately it's a rush so it gets nuanced, but it is an interesting army with legit positives, as AirElemental is not a poor unit. | |||||||||||||||||||||
25 | Spider | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Strong (Nuanced: Balanced) | Balanced | This is seriously a strong contender, especially with the new promote and +2 and +3 allowing for a 1-turn promote. However, it's still not commonly played, even though it looks like it has so much going for it. This is due to many potential things: poison is bad in endgame, especially bad for defense (if you run a pair, it may get 2 for 1'd even by a mid cost minion), awkward colorbound movement, and getting nuanced. The ideal situation for +0 and +1 is a midgame with no enemy free-kill nuances, and there are a pair of Spiders encroaching and primarily threatening enemy Champions. +1 can be used as an instant suicide in rush just to clear out the slot by making an empty threat, like a 1 cost transparent unit. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
26 | Swordsman | Under | Under | Weak | Balanced | Stall (fake) | Hey I'm using the same scores that I used 2 years ago. I think I underestimated the stall of +2 and +3. However those have been nerfed, so my scores are the same. 8/23/2021: Why the hell was it Under/Under/Balanced/Weak? The last tier gets like 6 moves or something stupid, that last tier is at LEAST balanced. | |||||||||||||||||||||
27 | Tiger | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Under (Nuance: Strong) | Under (Nuance: Balanced) | Balanced | High Cost Minion Nuance, Push | Hey I'm using the same scores that I used 2 years ago. +3 is actually still 'playable', just overshadowed by other kingattackers. The main purpose is to nuance people that can get forked because the Tiger+ hits two higher cost minions. | |||||||||||||||||||||
28 | Warrior | Balanced | Weak | Balanced | Balanced | Hey I'm using the same scores that I used 2 years ago. Warrior+ probably isn't that weak, and Warrior+++ is mildly weak compared to the best 11 costers. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
29 | WindMage | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | WindMage+0 is kingattack as well now. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
30 | Alchemist | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Weak | Weak | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | This has a really sad comparison to PoisonMage. The longer range and cure is better, but it costs 3 more and has less moves. Despite being nuancing, it still can be nuanced, so while I loved to free-kill nuance with my Alchemist in the past, it's just not viable anymore. 8/7/2021: Honestly, if you're running Alchemist, you should probably NOT run +0. The reason is because it's worse than the other free-kill at the cost, so you're only running it for nuance, and even +1 is better for nuance. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
31 | Arachnid | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | +2 is probably most viable for rush, but it's actually just not worth it. It is very generic and will play like Spider. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
32 | Basilisk | Under | Under | Useless | Useless | |||||||||||||||||||||||
33 | Berserker | Strong | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | +2 and +3 are slightly weaker than other tiers. Best is base for the insane attack range for this cost, but it's just awkward. (you should know that "kingattack" stuff is considered Balanced now, instead of Strong) | made by main_gi donut steel | |||||||||||||||||||||
34 | Crusader | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Has too many nuancers with FrostMephit especially as a diagonal, and also armor. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
35 | Dove | Useless (Combo: Balanced) | Under (Combo: Weak) | Weak (Combo: Balanced) | Weak | Rush, Phoenix, Dovewall, Thunderchant | This piece is multiple potentially positive effects that don't really synergize well together. - 0 cost transparent unit in Rush, which I came up with - At +3, it is a long ranged swapper, so Phoenix. - Dovewall. The enemy death is like a fake bad extra turn, so with several doves, 8 fake extra turns every death gotta be worth something right? You need to basically really open up one side for this to work. - Thunderchant. Kill your own Dove and enchant SK or Lilith. Almost always combined with Dovewall, but if not, then that is a thunder+enchant army. However, it is still a non-minion as it has no attacks. | |||||||||||||||||||||
36 | Drake | Strong (Nuanced: Balanced) | Strong (Nuanced: Balanced) | Balanced | Balanced | Became ridiculous after gaining teleports, specifically +0. However, it can definitely be nuanced by lower cost units, and this is particularly a problem because most of them are diagonals (unlike RoyalGuard++ which at least has diagonals to not get nuanced as hard). Because of that, a drakespam army can be great but you can get blindsided by nuance. 3/17/2024: Updated +1 to (Nuanced: Balanced). | ||||||||||||||||||||||
37 | Fencer | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Well, I called it way before everyone else, +3 (which has teleports) is just bad, it was bad when it costed 12 and it's definitely bad now. 7/31/2021: Fencer+ actually looks plausibly insane. I'm not sure still. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
38 | FireMage | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | Longrange | No one found a good army for it, it's unreliable, half getting nuanced, the only good thing about this is that it can sometimes nuance Pawn with the destroy or something. You might find a video of someone getting nuanced by a rush setup that used FireMage but it's seriously unreliable. | |||||||||||||||||||||
39 | Frog | Balanced | Weak | Balanced | Balanced | All of these would be good if they were regular move/attacks, but they aren't. The main issue is that the enemy can put a piece behind the one that would be leaped in order to block it. So you have to try to displace that, which causes more problems. 3/25/2024: Apparently this is actually a Common rarity. hahahahahuahjaaahahahaha | ||||||||||||||||||||||
40 | FrostMephit | Strong | Balanced | Weak | Weak | Destroy, Minotaur | FrostMephit+0 is deceptively strong. Everyone knew it was good, but with the concept of nuance, this unit is like no other. If you imagine the traditional powerful minions - FrostMephit+0, Samurai+0, Drake+0, RoyalGuard+2, FrostMephit+0 is amazing because the others are downtrading against it, and there is no 1 coster able to compete but Mercenary and that has a bad matchup against other higher cost stuff. It also has a synergy with some on-kill stuff: Ranger, SoulKeeper, Minotaur. These are one-and-done triggers, it doesn't synergize with Vampire for what should be obvious reasons. It says "Immune to Freeze", but it's really immune to nuance. My previous ratings still apply. | |||||||||||||||||||||
41 | GiantSlime | Weak | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Weak (Nuanced: Under) | Strong (Nuanced: Under) | My previous ratings still apply. It got a buff but it's still bad. 8/12/2021: Whoa, whoa, why was this "Weak/Weak/Under/Under" without mentioning any nuance? That needs to be changed. It gets nuanced by destroy, freeze, petrify, and transform, and FrostMephit too. That's horrible, but its effects on an army without that are quite good. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
42 | Gnome | Weak | Under | Under | Weak (Combo: Balanced) | This unit gets nuanced in so many ways it's not even worth marking it as a nuanced unit. You really need to max the kill-deterrent double-dip it allows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
43 | Hostage | Weak | Under | Useless | Useless | Stall | Hostage+0 is a stall unit, but it's still unused. 4/11/2024: This is late, dunno why I never included it, but it can *pretend* as a freekill support unit. There are many times when a FireElemental can't get a kill because it can't go in position as it's being attacked by blockable-range 2. This can act like a Wisp sidegrade to allow that. So that's an idea. | |||||||||||||||||||||
44 | Hydromancer | Under | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Hey it has Legionary+0 range at 8 cost. Oh wait, it gets nuanced by cure and FrostMephit. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
45 | Legionary | Weak | Strong | Balanced | Balanced | Watch disr's videos (xDurdead1 on youtube), Legionary+ is one of their most commonly used units. Worth noting that in this update Medusa and Taurus+++ are basically better than it, but Legionary+ is still really good. The main reason is that diagonal range 3 is extremely uncommon so it outranges many things. Arachnid+0 and Medusa have this range 3 as well, but they are colorbound. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
46 | MageTower | Weak | Under | Useless | Useless | It's actually important to note that MageTower at 8 was actually overpowered in a base only tournament, which is why it gets "Weak" and not "Under" at that tier. However the reasons it would be 'overpowered' at 8 in the real game are a bit different, it would just be too good for board control. The outranging is the main thing with this thing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
47 | Necromancer | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | So much utility as a free kill nuance. Beware that it becomes worse at endgame, and +0 drops off the hardest and you won't find an excuse to trade it. 3/24/2024: I am really questioning this piece. It is sometimes so good and nuancing some Samurai/Militia/Salamander type stuff but those are really out of the meta due to FrostMephit and Mercenary, which can avoid it much easier. Paired off with big endgame dropoff and it's currently not good in this meta. So I will edit it to be Weak: Nuance Strong on all tiers, when it used to be just Strong. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
48 | Nexus | Useless | Weak | Weak (Combo: Balanced?) | Weak (Combo: Balanced?) | Phoenix, Low Cost | The "combo", of course, is Phoenix. But it also works well with low mobility high attack cheap stuff like Envy and Knight. It just costs so much to do it that it's very questionable. 4/17/2024: Is it questionable? I dunno. I've now been in a Phoenix-double nexus meta, and Nexus++ does insane work in that build. It's a phoenix invulnerability aura (basically) plus a super beacon. It makes Beacon itself look stupid. It does get nuanced by Thunder though, annoyingly. | |||||||||||||||||||||
49 | Paladin | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | We've got to the point where this might be on the weak side but it has been buffed in cost several times. It's just in an awkward place. The swaps aren't that special, if you want defense you should full commit with Chastity. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
50 | Phantasm | Under | Under | Under | Under | Yup, still trash. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
51 | Pikeman | Weak | Weak | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Pikeman+2 and +3 may appear to be "oh my gosh, look at that range for a minion!" Then you get nuanced by Behemoth spam and delete the army. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
52 | Portal | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | No one found a good army with it, and it's a non-minion. Best is OMEGAULTIMATE's behemoth/minotaur which uses it to put 2 behemoths on row 4 quickly, and even that, the impact of losing 2 minions is felt. 5/20/2021: It's worth noting that few units really combo with Portal. You need stuff that doesn't get bullied by minions or lower-cost champions that are likely to come out, but also have bad mobility. That means stuff like PoisonMage doesn't fit, and even Legionary and Berserker are not great if your opponent just bullies it with lower cost stuff. If you think about it this way, stuff like Ranger+0, Necromancer+0, HauntedArmor+0 and Behemoth+0 are the best kinds of combos with it in general. There's also the rush usage, which you *could* in theory use a high-coster with, like a high tier Crusader, except those can get nuanced. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
53 | Prince | Under (Combo: Weak) | Under | Balanced | Weak | Hoplite Rush | Prince+++ got nerfed, but not Prince++. lol okay There is an interesting case for the Hoplite army, which uses Prince because moving 6 minions out of the way leads to terrible king safety. I started using Prince+0 to save points since it is 3 less points spent on a champion slot that is too slow to go into the battle anyway, and so that is the standard. | |||||||||||||||||||||
54 | Princess | Useless | Under | Balanced | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Princess+++ got nerfed, but not Princess++. lol okay Princess+ is actually quite a nice unit in beginner matches. I remember making many promotes with it. But you really want ++, it does well in so many places despite usually being a non-minion. It has so many neat threats, you can do a suicide promote for a discovered attack, to ignore morale loss if it gets forked, to just save a turn. AND combos with RoyalGuard++. The only reason it's not listed as Strong is because in some matches it is a non-minion, such as... stall. 8/23/2021: By the way both Princess++ and Princess+++ feel absolutely excellent in endgame situations, it's just difficult to judge their power because it is a non-minion. Last tier gets (Nuanced: Weak) due to like, a Bishop pointing at it, and it's especially bad to have it if you need to swap to the first row (then it takes 3 turns to promote). | ||||||||||||||||||||||
55 | Pyromancer | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | Got a recent buff, but it's just awful. All of these deserve "Under" with a nuance of Balanced, but this is a nuance piece that can punish minion blindspots but has a terrible base body, AND it can get nuanced. 3/29/2024: If I were to talk strategy for this piece I would bring up that magic-destroy and mutual defense work poorly together. One of the few magic destroy weaknesses. The nature of Pyromancer's teleports also doesn't help, most of them force a break from defense if it was defending anything. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
56 | Ranger | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | Free kill nuance. Actually all tiers are strong, but +1 is probably best. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
57 | Rook | Balanced | Balanced | Weak (Nuance Combo: Balanced) | Weak | Hoplite Rush, Reach | Yes, +2 has a NUANCE COMBO, a novelty found by e3Gewinnt to avoid getting this army type nuanced by SoulKeeper++, you use the teleport to stop them from moving to the 3rd row. Other tiers have reach in endgame. | |||||||||||||||||||||
58 | Samurai | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Weak | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Free kill nuance ruins it very badly. A lot of stuff 'combos' with this (Lust+, Aquarius) but usually, either the samurais die or the champions die, and then the combo dissipates. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
59 | Snake | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Under (Nuance: Balanced) | Under (Nuance: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | This is a joke and will CONSTANTLY get nuanced. Theoretically best tier is +3 due to 4 cost and getting a minion 2-for-1, which is good against many minions in the game, except that champions exist. 1/20/2022: +1 and +2 have added nuance to be just okay, honestly. And +2 from Useless to Under. It has its uses of being annoying to FrostMephit and stuff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
60 | StoneMage | Useless | Useless | Balanced | Balanced | Stall | This is """balanced""" as a huge joke for stall, and even has an irritating thunder "synergy". | |||||||||||||||||||||
61 | Sylph | Under | Under | Weak (Nuanced: Under) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Push | Two uses for this: Pushing an enchanted Lilith or HauntedArmor as a threat, or ++ or +++ as board control. Both get nuanced hard. +++ also gets specifically nuanced by SoulFlare++. | |||||||||||||||||||||
62 | Templar | Under | Under | Under | Under | Stall | Stall doesn't like this unit, and really it has no home. Supposedly you'd wanna use it with Egg or an otherporter like Nexus. But it's just not good. | |||||||||||||||||||||
63 | ThunderMage | Under | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | This unit is slightly weak, and while the nuances (Tombstone, Fireball, Valkyrie, Nexus, Beacon) are extremely powerful when they happen, they rarely do. If you use this unit, it should be in a combo... except sthunder (stun+thunder) also gets nuanced hard, and Wrath is like ThunderMage but with bonus defensive effect. The annoying combo is if your opponent falls into the trap of using a champion to swap an immobile minion out, and then you Comet the champion. Again, entirely fictional due to nuance. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
64 | Toad | Weak | Weak | Under | Under | Again, the main issue is that the enemy can put a piece behind the one that would be leaped in order to block it. So you have to try to displace that, which causes more problems. +2 and +3 wouldn't even be good if they were regular move/attack instead of move/leap attack. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
65 | Wisp | Weak (Nuanced: Useless) | Weak (Nuanced: Useless) | Weak (Nuanced: Useless) | Weak (Nuanced: Useless) | NullMage lol, also PoisonMage lol, also Alchemist lol, also Lich lol, also all decent 2 cost minions lol Last tier has """synergy""" with Phoenix (fake). | ||||||||||||||||||||||
66 | AirElemental | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced | Balanced | Weak | Push | Push synergy involves nuance, meaning it can suck sometimes. Nuanced by NullMage so it's actually unplayable. Although this one probably gets affected least out of all the NullMage nuances due to the push and longer range. | |||||||||||||||||||||
67 | ArchBishop | Weak | Weak | Under | Under | Overpriced board control. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
68 | Beacon | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | Beacon is a non-minion and it's sadly not good enough, although I wish it was. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
69 | Behemoth | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Minotaur, Behemoth, High Cost Minion Nuance | Can combo with Minotaur and combos with itself. The main joke is how badly it nuances high cost minion lines, or someone who plays like "Lilith PoisonMage Necromancer" and then it does nothing against Behemoth spam. | |||||||||||||||||||||
70 | Butterfly | Useless | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak | Strong (Nuanced: Balanced) | Push, Tombstone (fake) | Luckily you choose to activate this ability, so you don't have to, if it will just get nuanced by stupid things like StonePillar or ThunderMage on the same square. Skeleton principle: Butterfly+1 without the ability is a Skeleton, which is trash. So it's trash if you can't use the ability. You definitely need the push-2 trick to be up on turn value. 3/29/2024: Something is a bit weird about the tiering here. Butterfly+1 is the best at actually using the ability. I'm also not sure you NEED the push trick because so many armies can't contest a Butterfly+ going up twice naturally. Has synergizes with Wrath/ThunderMage because you can empty the location and prevent many trash units from occupying the spot. BUT if you're making that army you need to have longrange king threats to be able to capitalize on it - so don't get tempted into also putting the petrify/freeze package because you now have thunder. You don't have room to have Butterfly+/Thunder/Longrange/Petrify in the same army. | |||||||||||||||||||||
71 | Chastity | Strong | Weak | Weak | Under | Stall | I love how every stupid idiot in the community, when they hear "Chastity is OP", think people are talking about + or ++ or +++ and they are all stupid unplayable trash for idiots. However I was wrong about base when it costed 5. It didn't become overpowered, it went to strong, about as good as Pride in stall. | |||||||||||||||||||||
72 | Demon | Balanced | Weak | Balanced | Balanced | All tiers are kinda weaker than you might like, although Demon++ has a pretty crazy comparison to Dragon. You might think Phoenix combos with Demon+++. Well you can try it, but it's really not that much of a combo probably. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
73 | Dragon | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | Due to nuance, higher and higher tiers get worse, best is base. The issue is that this unit doesn't exactly have synergy except kinda with Minotaur. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
74 | EarthElemental | Strong (Nuanced: Under) | Weak | Weak | Over (Nuanced: Balanced) | Thunder | Is incredibly good with Thunder, except the army gets nuanced so it's unviable. Nuanced by NullMage so it's actually unplayable. 6/3/2024: :lormand: :lormand: :lormand: :lormand: :lormand: :lormand: Recent developments over the past month has unveiled a "3EE" army which uses 3 EarthElemental+++. Mega P2W vibes over here. This army zones so much that it's incredibly resistant to null. However it still may have issues against armor, beacon, and Alchemist. But it's so good I need to switch it from "Weak (Nuance: Over)" into "Over (Nuanced: Balanced)". | |||||||||||||||||||||
75 | Ghast | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak (Combo: Balanced) | Tombstone (fake), Butterfly (fake), Bishop Sacrifice Rush, +3: Immobile, Phoenix | I am saddened to say that this unit is probably weak. I played it at 8 cost and loved using it, but it just fails to teleport anywhere relevant in many matches, and transparency is an overall debuff. Also the +1 upgrade is interesting because it's better than the usual +1, having eight teleports at range 2 is usually very very good, except Ghast has so many teleports already and it is designed to want to trade. | |||||||||||||||||||||
76 | Harpy | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Rush, Push | Any value you get out of Push synergy is detracted from Harpy sucking. | |||||||||||||||||||||
77 | HauntedArmor | Strong | Strong | Balanced | Balanced | Push | +2 and +3 are still on the strong side. The whole point is to do a nuance uptrade, although anti-armor nuance does mess with it. Even so, it is not ruined by playing against anti-armor because it represents a lot of value if you kill the anti-armor unit. Edit: lol someone commented that armor is nuanced by unblockable, then deleted the comment. Yes that is a nuance of this game. | |||||||||||||||||||||
78 | LifeStone | Strong | Balanced | Balanced | Balanced | +0: HauntedArmor, Berserker +1: Behemoth, Taurus+++, Bishop Sacrifice Rush +2: HauntedArmor+ +3: Phoenix Thunder | All these are good as the most overpowered combo with it. +2 is probably the least useful tier. With a LifeStone army you need to find an excuse for your unit to die, like in Bishop Sacrifice Rush or Phoenix Thunder, or you want variety so you can revive good nuances (like running both HauntedArmor and Berserker, and then reviving the HauntedArmor if your opponent is nuanced by it). 3/29/2024: probably all tiers need Nuanced: Under because of all the stupid archer/snake/rushes that can kill this way too early. But I CBA | |||||||||||||||||||||
79 | Medusa | Strong (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Under) | Petrify is nuanced. That's why you cannot effectively play it at high levels despite having more range than Legionary in those comparisons. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
80 | Mercenary | Strong | Balanced | Weak | Under | Behemoth | Mercenary uptrades against FrostMephit but will have a weaker matchup against higher-costers. Mercenary+++ is trash even with max Behemoth spam. 4/17/2024: Not changing the rank or anything, but I noticed I never commented on why Mercenary is so good. It's just super efficient and its downside never happens against the most common scenario of a minion uptrade. | |||||||||||||||||||||
81 | Minotaur | Strong (Supreme Nuance) | Strong (Supreme Nuance) | Strong (Supreme Nuance) | Strong (Supreme Nuance) | Behemoth, Comet (fake) | Supreme Nuance. Yeah it's playable but very nuanced. Most common tiers are the first two because higher tiers cost more if you get them off. This is the ultimate overpowered kill deterrent, being a king kill threat. Play two Minotaurs so they have mutual defense, a solomater, and annoying units like Behemoth or Ranger so they can stand still. GodOfTomatoes "explains" why Minotaur works well with Behemoth: "The Minotaur [combos] with the Behemoth, because the Behemoth can disturb the enemy minion line, causing enemy and champions to come out sooner, which will give free fodder for your Minotaurs." | |||||||||||||||||||||
82 | Ninja | Weak | Weak | Balanced | Balanced | Despite being "Balanced", no one wants to use it (it's just a vanilla thing with no combos and Angel actually has combos), so it's all on the weak side. Last tier is probably Weak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
83 | NullMage | Balanced (Nuance: Over) | Weak (Nuance: Over) | Balanced (Nuance: Over) | Balanced (Nuance: Over) | Longrange, Stall, Reach | Nuances elementals, wisps, and a few other random things, while having great range. It really makes up for being a non-champion by being able to threat even in endgame. Do keep in mind the endgame threat is a little bad unless you do something like Vampire drain it, wait until morale decay, or nuance a morale-pay army, because NullMage cannot 'threaten' King with null, so you could end up with a situation where you still have to null everything else to win (including crappy minions). | |||||||||||||||||||||
84 | Patience | Under | Weak | Weak | Under | This unit does not combo with stall. This is because you only get the stall morale benefits if you can trade it, but stall doesn't want to trade. It also increases the chance you get nuanced by a rush. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
85 | Phalanx | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Strong (Nuanced: Balanced) | Strong (Nuanced: Balanced) | They will have anti-armor. Interpreting nuance: The first two are by default weak and get even worse if they get nuanced by anti-armor. The last two are by default weak and get strong if there is no anti-armor to nuance them. 3/22/2024: It seems like every army should use armor, the two-for-ones are too good. And actually the prev ratings (WNdU/WNdU/WNS/WNS) should be changed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
86 | Queen | Balanced (Combo: Strong) | Weak | Balanced (Combo: Strong) | Balanced (Combo: Strong) | RoyalGuard++ | RoyalGuard++ 4/2/2024: One comment here. In an army using too many RoyalGuard, Prince things etc, it becomes a melee-only army, which gets nuanced by Lich and Hoplite and stuff. Be aware of that. | |||||||||||||||||||||
87 | Reaver | Strong | Balanced | Strong | Balanced | +0 is overshadowed by other stall units like Axeman/FrostMephit. This unit is still good for the situations it would be in, it just gets nuanced (but it's subtle because it gets nuanced by lower cost things). 8/22/2021: llama112 has an army that takes advantage of Reaver++ without getting so nuanced by lower-cost things. It uses 4 SoulFlare++ with the idea of trading a bunch of minions off, so then the 4 Reaver++R can run circles around it. 3/23/2024: Something is probably wrong here. Reaver has not been used for a while. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
88 | Salamander | Under | Under | Balanced (Nuanced: Weak) | Weak | Cost +1 and now unplayable, due to free-kill nuance. It is worth comparing Salamander++ to Samurai+0 though. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
89 | SoulFlare | Weak | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Strong) | +2 is the most impactful upgrade. Again, the problem: it gets nuanced and drops off in endgame. I really wanted SoulFlare+0 to be seen in an army but it's probably not happening. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
90 | Summoner | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | Comet Minotaur | This has a lot of random utility but it is still a non-champion. Best army still hasn't been found with it, I have seen TiDemieH use it with low cost kingattackers to be annoying though. | |||||||||||||||||||||
91 | Temperance | Strong | Weak | Under | Useless | 8/5/2021: I had all of these marked "Useless" for some reason. It's still not very good but it deserves more than that. You lose morale so you lose more to morale decay still, but the first tier has the aspect of trading off annoying units. That does mean that some armies (8 cost trading armies) will never get negatively very affected by Temperance. 8/23/2021: But HauntedArmor+ will often do way better than Temperance in a lot of situations, so armies that really need Temperance should use both Temperance and some armor. 1/30/2023: By popular request to relook at this again I'm changing from Under(Nuance Strong)/Under/Useless/Useless to Strong/Weak/Under/Useless. It's only fair because there are many times this is really great reach. Although it's a half hearted Strong. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
92 | Tombstone | Useless | Under (Nuanced: Useless) | Weak (Nuanced: Useless) | Weak (Nuanced: Useless) | Base tier is never doing anything relevant, and it gets nuanced by thunder. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
93 | Undine | Weak | Weak | Weak | Weak | Poison, Destroy | Honestly, +0 and +3 are the most impressive but don't hold up. | |||||||||||||||||||||
94 | Valkyrie | Weak (Nuanced: Under) | Under | Weak (Nuanced: Under) | Weak (Nuanced: Under) | Nuanced by Thunder, which will not be immediately devastating but cause opening issues wasting turns. Decent in middlegame, terrible in endgame, can't recommend this. 3/22/2024: Strategy wise, rush armies that intentionally want an army to die (pawn/spider/butterfly or something) could use this and attempt the classic 8 value fork. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
95 | Wizard | Weak | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Balanced | Immobile, Phoenix | Don't play +0. That one is legitimately weak, not "kinda weak but kinda balanced". This is a noob unit but isn't AWFUL to play, and is anti-armor nuance. 8/23/2021: All tiers above +1 are boosted to Nuance: Balanced due to anti-armor nuance, with +3 being Balanced due to Phoenix/Swap synergy. | |||||||||||||||||||||
96 | Angel | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Weak | Balanced | Strong | (Combo?): Minions with mobility threat like Pawn+, Spider+, and Reaver++ | +2 is generally worse than +0. Has a lot of potential nuance at all tiers, with repeats, turn 1 forks, and lots of solomate potential. | |||||||||||||||||||||
97 | Antimage | Balanced (Nuance: Strong) | Weak (Nuance: Balanced) | Under | Weak | This unit does not nuance magic in any significant way. 5/13/2024: Hmmm, these old ratings of Weak/Weak/Under/Weak are very suspect. I mean, base is paying 1 to lose 4 moves and gain immunity. That is the one paying the least for it (Antimage+ is paying 8 moves, +3 has a much weaker moveset). You could consider spamming it to allow stacking threats. Updating to BnS and WnB, I guess. The whole meme with it not nuancing magic is because you lose the moves in the same matchup you are fighting against magic. But the nuance is awesome if allowed since it turns Ranger++ into Mercenary and SoulKeeper into Knight. lol | ||||||||||||||||||||||
98 | Aquarius | Balanced | Balanced | Weak | Weak | Samurai, Minotaur? | The 1-turn freeze is only meaningful if it is immediately attacked. | |||||||||||||||||||||
99 | Comet | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | Weak (Supreme Nuance) | Under (Supreme Nuance) | Under (Supreme Nuance) | Minotaur | +1 is probably the best tier. Nuances Fireball. Nuanced by ThunderMage and status immune and status cure. It's just not playable. | |||||||||||||||||||||
100 | Enchantress | Useless (Nuance: Balanced) | Under (Nuance: Balanced) | Under (Nuance: Balanced) | Under (Nuance: Balanced) | Lilith, SoulKeeper | You know it's bad when the unit only becomes ""balanced"" from a successful nuance. That power comes from the best army with Enchantress, which is Lilith/SoulKeeper, getting a few free opening minions. Otherwise it's trash. Also it does not combo with Samurai, because it's too easy to avoid that even if you are getting nuanced. | |||||||||||||||||||||