I dunno why, but I feel elo has gradually drifted towards nukes, stoppers, and 50-50s.

Instead of treating each round as a opportunity to gain a small advantage, either in pills or life, that you can take into the next round as part of a gradual buildup process until a win becomes inevitable, many elo players treat the 4 rounds as 4 cups to hide their ball (nuke) under, and make their opponent play the guessing game

There's been a significant increase in power and gap of new cards. Not playing the ball-and-cup game leaves you vulnerable to a slew of new cards with 8 power, great gap, and no weakness to speak of. UR needs strategic cards that can help control and outplay the 50/50s, as opposed to the current trend of constantly adding to the line-up of high gapping cards that are impossible to shut down.

Wats all you need to do is Play Roots or Ghiest lol .. The only reason there's no "Total Domination" is because UR doesn't give SOA cards Power cards !

It does become a guessing game Sub especially when you face a hand like Jautya Uranus Aliester or Kenny Artus Azel ...
But I guess those Dr's coming back stop Life Cards but Poison cards are still at a high. Majority of people go with the trend for

Example now in Elo you don't go 2 hands without Seeing some kind of Sakhrom with Jautya / Petra / Uranus / Aliester / Murray Ngrath.

Ghiest have become a clan to use in Mono or a half deck , Hriger coming has helped a lot because Ghiest just didn't have 3 good 4* for a 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 format And you can't play 3 2*

Cuz you've got a choice from Z3r0 D34d + Mok who are great but then they've banned Arkn so your main options left are :
Elke (Too predictable , pill with her high you get in 3 damage , blatantly 2 - 3 pillz if they want to attack with it , and if you try countering a big card 6 power won't help)

Ludmilla (It's min is a bit too high especially with cards like Methane , Wardom XU52 Render this a 1 turn thing , 6 power gets you nowhere even with Soa.)

Wurmhol (I mean he's a very easy 3 damage and he can be used to take out a big card. But depends if you call the bluff he's basically useless , if you pill relatively high to counter a card it's 1 damage in . That's why it's easier for a easy 3 damage.)

Maybe i'm just underrating Wurmhol but Ghiest have come back.

As a long-time elo player
Elo has long its esssence
I have to agree
When you have to play decks that "get rid" or counter those 50/50 decks that can be used as a guessing game ( +n life per damage, heal n max n, poison n and n.), you'll see those decks that overpower your deck

Deck variety is very wide these days
Or should I SAY VERY RANDOM

the more release, the wider it goes. The harder it is to fit a deck versatile enough for elo...

I think the game has actually gotten a bit easier to play for people who do not like decks that build "gradual advantages". For example, Freaks are AWESOME. Azel and Greem are back! And for those who say SOA isn't still dominating the scene, look at Jean and try running an Ulu Watu deck with Eddie... you will see how much SOA is in the game still. However just from doing the valentina missions, i would say that mono "gradual win" decks are completely viable. Hell even split decks can still be viable, with cards like Neil, Tremorh, and the Frozn clan.

However, there are some cards that I strongly disapprove of right now, those being Jean, Saki, Troompah, Beeksboy, and possibly Clover and Tuck.

Anyways, i really love this game, and have spent a good life savings on cards. That being said, i wish they would stop making so many new blood cards that are rare and game changing. The money grabbing scheme is kind of making the game less competitive. Wish i had time to write more, but real life is calling

What I dislike about the recent trend is that it shifts the game from being strategic to being intuitive.

Instead of counting pills, working out various scenarios, and developing contingency plans, now it's all about intuitive guesses on when your opponent is gonna nuke. It's getting harder and harder to mathematically corner your opponent these days, not when he can simply blow the game with a 50-50 nuke-or-bluff in the very first round. You can only rely on intuition in those situations.

I know intuition is an important part of every card game, but the fact elo matches are random makes it very hard to get a good grasp of your opponents' skill level. That lv 27 "noob" might actually be a good player's second account, and that lv 68 "pro" might've joined the game last month and spent his time in DM. And since the game only lasts 4 rounds with emphasis on the first and second, by the time you get an accurate read of your opponent's skill level the game is already over.