The reason people run half-decks is to make up for the weakness of their other half. A half that has good round-winning power and gap, but is vulnerable to SoA clans, for example, can easily be "protected" by a low-star NM half. That may backfire 1/10 games, but generally helps make your deck more solid. Few t100 players play Mono on a regular basis.

Wow @prinz what a troll. how about clans like Fang Pi Clang, La Junta (to an extent), Jungo and as such? they have less reliant bonuses and thats why they are good in half decks. perhaps you are just thinking about clans with STRONG bonuses like All Stars, Montana and etc.

@ghelas yah hes right it makes up for the weakness of their other half. and something like La Junta + fang pi is just stupid (i see ppl running them all the time tho).

I completely agree, and most Clans have already evolved to that potential. I think it is a separation in skill as to who can play a clan mono though. As it isn't hard to play mono, most people will still be prone to play a half deck for that chance at minimizing their weaknesses or risking possible godlike hands. As stated above, more skilled players play mono decks, and that's because they have a better understanding of player's tendencies and how people play each clan. Having a consistent bonus was always best imo

The slide towards more mono decks has happened gradually. years before, mono decks aside from Rescue was quite difficult to construct without leaving a lot of holes.

Rescue was obviously able to do it. To some extent Piranas were able to do with. IThe arrival of Hawk and Lehane made mono Sentinels quite dominant -- but even then a strong Sentinel mono team had little choice but to run Aurelia, Dayton, or a 1 star William

Jungo was the first new clan to really move towards encouraging the use of mono decks. At the time this caused some annoyance to some people because the mono clans were able to gain a great advantage over 3-1 draws of split decks. In the past many cards were sitting ducks without their bonus (i.e. Tula was a staple in split decks and a great card... but ran the risk of turning up alone)

The arrival of Skeelz also encouraged mono deck play almost immediately.

There was a period of time that running mono decks was by far a safer option since you would have more stable draws vs the possibility of getting a 3-1 draw vs a player that has 120 points less than you, which would just kill your score.

Certain cards like Ulrich, Shann, Arkn, and Melvin arrived to patch the holes that the clans had... these made mono decks even better

Junx, Montana, and La Junta also had a period of being very good in mono (and Junx and Montana still do)

A few elo bans later that mono decks have been weakened... with Jungo atm experiencing a slight loss, but i imagine will not affect them too badly.

More cards that do not rely on their bonus have also been created. So something like Jean with no +2 life is still quite valuable. or a SOB/COB ability will find a way to be useful. As a result risking 3-1 draws is completely acceptable

The creation of clans that have defeat/revenge bonuses have also shifted play back towards split decks.

As more cards come out, more clans will become (or once againe become) mono viable.... i.e. a Frozen DR or a nasty attacking ability makes a good bluff card for Frozn.

Eventually bans will happen and mono will once again recede

edited by wasteroftime Wednesday 09/01, 08:58

Pretty much what wasteroftime said.

I feel that the problem isn't so much in increesed viability of mono that happened because the clans got larger and more varied (these days almost every clan has every ability in some capacity). The problem is that to avoid power creep while tryin to allow non +att clans to compete with the +att clans the developers made cards more bonus depedent in general.

This is really noticable with FPC 2 stars which need to be 7 power to be playable, but can't really have more then 2 damage without their bonus. Just how much the Frozn suck without their bonus is incalculable, and just about any Frozn in a 3 + 1 hand is a dud card. Junta *2 stars also suck quite a bit without their bonus (sure high power, but little impact). And then you have to consider all the clan staples which are support reliant (it's practicaly the only way to make a playable impactfull card in a non +att clan, or balance anything that would be mediocre if it wasn't in, say, Montana or Uppers). Once every clan has an 8/5 *4, a 6/8 +att *5, a +3/4 support att it will all come down to the bonuses.

And the bonuses are all over the place. Some are so weak cards like Spyke or Kalindra need to be printed just to justify thier existance. And some are the Uppers - the worst designed clan of all time IMO, and what the devs were smoking when they came up with that bonus is beyond me. I suppose they started out with all the weak unplayable ones and then printed Jackie and Zatman like they did with Spyke