I played elusives a bit after patch 1.0, before I got cards from new expansion, and my opinion is: they are not bad, but definitely not top tier. May be good for the beginning, especially as deck is rather easy to learn, but at some point you will have to choose something else to climb further (or meta will shift to their favor or they'll get buffs, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?).
List given by OldManSanns is okay, I played a very similar one. Some Rising Tides cards may be taken into consideration, but I didn't analyze it deeply.
In addition, there's a reason that Ephemeral units don't have too much defensive power. They are way cheaper than non-Ephemeral ones (similar non-Ephemeral unit would cost approx. 2 more) and they have many ways to generate additional offesive power (e.g. Shark Chariot, Hecarim). Thus, they win almost all battle trades when they attack. They have so much offensive power that an opponent is usually forced to sacrifice his non-Ephemeral units and key spells to prevent defeat. Thus, it's fair that defence is their weak side.
And something I have to point out, because I heavily disagree:
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Also, as the player playing Ephemeral units you would also have to think more about whether or not to block or attack with them.
Right now, there's no reason to put an Ephemeral unit on the field in offensive turn if I don't intend to attack with it, unless it has some additional non-battle effects. I don't think your change gives any serious reasoning to do so, maybe with an exception of mentioned Yasuo deck (usually, it gives even less options, as units won't trigger Last Breath). In defensive turn, it even trivializes tactic - right now, you have to think whether you play and waste a unit, when your opponent may intentionally not attack in answer. After change you just play it and if he doesn't attack - no problem, recall.
I guess they made decision based on statistics - no immediate change probably means that [Hearthstone Card (Unyielding Spirit) Not Found], despite annoying mechanics, doesn't have so huge win ratio. Althought it may be frustrating to play against it, probably it's comboes are not so consistent. If that's true, a simple nerf would kill a card, thus Riot decided to analyze it deeper.
However, against certain decks the combo can be unfair and unforgiving.
In fact, that's the point of Fiora and Unyielding Spirit.
By design, these cards have a property I'd call "countermetish". They are gamebreaking if an opponent has no answer to them... but they are not that good if he does. The same deck constructed around Fiora may be great in one meta and awful in another. If it was too easy to answer her, nobody would play Fiora.
On the other hand, I must agree that Unyielding Spirit seems to be available to deploy a bit too early. But I don't think it needs anything else than cost nerf. Heightening it's price even by 1 would give more time to an opponent and burn more resources, giving slightly bigger chance to outspeed the deck. Which is crucial, because if another deck has no direct answer to a buffed unit, it's only way to win is to outspeed.
Cards with so few counter options that are exclusive to certain decks take a lot of the fun away from the game for me. I can deal with my losses (they are many lol), but when a card gets thrown down and my decks counter options are extremely limited (i.e. I am playing Demacia/Freljord and can only hope I've drawn purify), I just surrender and move on to the next game. I would like to look back at my plays and say, "Maybe if I did this or that differently, maybe next time. Lesson learned!" All I get with cards/combinations like this is a completely helpless feeling which isn't fun at all.
In fact, there ARE other ways to deal with buffed Fiora when you play Demacia/Freljord. A point is not to kill her, but to prevent her from achieving alternate win condition before you win. And this may be done by frostbiting her or by using your own barriers. [Hearthstone Card (Unyielding Spirit) Not Found] is an expensive card, so as a cost, your opponent will probably lose some control over the board, opening a way to win by destroying his Nexus fast enough.
I definitely wouldn't play 3 x Rhasa + 3 x Vengeace. This is an overkill (literally xP), especially because you can use at most one Rhasa/Vengeance per turn. I think you need no more than 3-4 of these, but some decks don't play even one.
I also think that 3 Rekindlers are too many, two should be enough.
Harrowing is a great card, I agree. Played in a good moment, it just wins a game. Additionally, most of decks play SI mixed with other factions, so I admit you to try so too. As far as I know, SI+Demacia (with Rally for winning and Vanguard Redeemers for draw) is considered top tier now. You may also play with Ionia, so you have access to Deny (game-saving spell) and Shadow Assassin (draw + blocker againts elusives). Or play with Noxus, going more aggro. Or with PZ, so you have Thermogenic Beam, Get Excited and Mystic Shot for even more control.
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To make room for the above, I'd be dropping Vile Feast, personally. It's a fairly weak card at the two mana slot.
I wouldn't agree. It allows you to get rid of some annoyings units, does the math againts some units, it also gives a way to level up Elise (this is important from time to time, especially againts elusives). And the most important: it gives you a cheap blocker, so you don't have to sacrifice a better unit.
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I don'T get triple Glimpse Beyond when you barely even run any tokens that you would want to sacrifice at any point
Because you don't want to sacrifice units, you want to draw cards when your unit would die anyway. Usually you should kill a weak blocker (spiderling) or a unit targeted by enemy spell. Drawing two cards for just two mana is super good. In addition, it's a great counter to lifesteal units - they can't lifesteal if they don't attack.
I played elusives a bit after patch 1.0, before I got cards from new expansion, and my opinion is: they are not bad, but definitely not top tier. May be good for the beginning, especially as deck is rather easy to learn, but at some point you will have to choose something else to climb further (or meta will shift to their favor or they'll get buffs, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?).
List given by OldManSanns is okay, I played a very similar one. Some Rising Tides cards may be taken into consideration, but I didn't analyze it deeply.
Wish you good luck :).
I think you don't see many consequences of such change. Yasuo is not the only problem, some more examples:
- Splinter Soul, Dawn and Dusk - you can combo it with any card that have strong Play effect.
- Mark of the Isles - you can save a unit from death by spell damage for the next round,
- Fae Bladetwirler - like... OPOPOP.
In addition, there's a reason that Ephemeral units don't have too much defensive power. They are way cheaper than non-Ephemeral ones (similar non-Ephemeral unit would cost approx. 2 more) and they have many ways to generate additional offesive power (e.g. Shark Chariot, Hecarim). Thus, they win almost all battle trades when they attack. They have so much offensive power that an opponent is usually forced to sacrifice his non-Ephemeral units and key spells to prevent defeat. Thus, it's fair that defence is their weak side.
And something I have to point out, because I heavily disagree:
Right now, there's no reason to put an Ephemeral unit on the field in offensive turn if I don't intend to attack with it, unless it has some additional non-battle effects. I don't think your change gives any serious reasoning to do so, maybe with an exception of mentioned Yasuo deck (usually, it gives even less options, as units won't trigger Last Breath). In defensive turn, it even trivializes tactic - right now, you have to think whether you play and waste a unit, when your opponent may intentionally not attack in answer. After change you just play it and if he doesn't attack - no problem, recall.
I guess they made decision based on statistics - no immediate change probably means that [Hearthstone Card (Unyielding Spirit) Not Found], despite annoying mechanics, doesn't have so huge win ratio. Althought it may be frustrating to play against it, probably it's comboes are not so consistent. If that's true, a simple nerf would kill a card, thus Riot decided to analyze it deeper.
In fact, that's the point of Fiora and Unyielding Spirit.
By design, these cards have a property I'd call "countermetish". They are gamebreaking if an opponent has no answer to them... but they are not that good if he does. The same deck constructed around Fiora may be great in one meta and awful in another. If it was too easy to answer her, nobody would play Fiora.
On the other hand, I must agree that Unyielding Spirit seems to be available to deploy a bit too early. But I don't think it needs anything else than cost nerf. Heightening it's price even by 1 would give more time to an opponent and burn more resources, giving slightly bigger chance to outspeed the deck. Which is crucial, because if another deck has no direct answer to a buffed unit, it's only way to win is to outspeed.
In fact, there ARE other ways to deal with buffed Fiora when you play Demacia/Freljord. A point is not to kill her, but to prevent her from achieving alternate win condition before you win. And this may be done by frostbiting her or by using your own barriers. [Hearthstone Card (Unyielding Spirit) Not Found] is an expensive card, so as a cost, your opponent will probably lose some control over the board, opening a way to win by destroying his Nexus fast enough.
I definitely wouldn't play 3 x Rhasa + 3 x Vengeace. This is an overkill (literally xP), especially because you can use at most one Rhasa/Vengeance per turn. I think you need no more than 3-4 of these, but some decks don't play even one.
I also think that 3 Rekindlers are too many, two should be enough.
Harrowing is a great card, I agree. Played in a good moment, it just wins a game. Additionally, most of decks play SI mixed with other factions, so I admit you to try so too. As far as I know, SI+Demacia (with Rally for winning and Vanguard Redeemers for draw) is considered top tier now. You may also play with Ionia, so you have access to Deny (game-saving spell) and Shadow Assassin (draw + blocker againts elusives). Or play with Noxus, going more aggro. Or with PZ, so you have Thermogenic Beam, Get Excited and Mystic Shot for even more control.
I wouldn't agree. It allows you to get rid of some annoyings units, does the math againts some units, it also gives a way to level up Elise (this is important from time to time, especially againts elusives). And the most important: it gives you a cheap blocker, so you don't have to sacrifice a better unit.
Because you don't want to sacrifice units, you want to draw cards when your unit would die anyway. Usually you should kill a weak blocker (spiderling) or a unit targeted by enemy spell. Drawing two cards for just two mana is super good. In addition, it's a great counter to lifesteal units - they can't lifesteal if they don't attack.