This Is Halloween_2

With the new season, and the upcoming of Natural selection, it is time again to see who has been able to adapt to a changing meta game, and who has fallen prey to the wind of change ...

So I have updated my personal list fore nature cards in PvE, and am now sharing it with you :



Methodology is the same I used for my fire tier list :


 
1) Power level : How strong "in general" is the card in it's own tier, compared to that tier power level in the game. I split it in 3, the ones clearly on top, the one clearly at the bottom, & I group the rest in a middle pack.

2) Flexibility : When or in which conditions I can use a card in a game. It takes a lot of parameters into consideration (fixed tower, what kinds of units it can attack, is it fast or not, condition of activations, ...). Same as above, I split it into 3 categories, the cards that can be played in lots of conditions/configurations, the most situational ones, and the ones that are either a bit situational, or are lacking in a number of fighting configurations (melee units and towers are often considered 1 by default for example). The higher the tier, the harder i tend to note flexibility.

3) Scalability : +1 point. The question is whether my card is consistently played at a higher tier than its own or not, exactly like another card of that tier. For example, lifeweaving or curse of oink are scalable. More tricky, surge of light is while eruption isn't because while the massive healing of surge makes it completely playable in T2 like another T2 spell, eruption does lose significantly in power to cost ratio at T2 compared to other cards. For T4 card I consider the ability to scale through power or with the size of my army.

4) Synergy/Combo : +1 point if the card is an essential part of a combo or the heart of many synergy. Note however that the card must be an integral part of the combo, and not a fuel for the combo, or a replaçable one. For example, rioter's retreat (G) would get +1, but not the commandos themselves, since they merely act as the fuel, and could be replaced (albeit by something a bit less efficient). However, both phoenix & embalmer's shrine are integral part of their combo.
5) Adjustment : Since no rating is perfect, I do give myself a 1pts margin of ajustment, to split affinities, or for example a card's power level & flexibility were both rated 1, but realistically are closer to a 1.5 score. I also use it if a cards see in practive more or less play than the unajusted score would suggest.

Nature T1 : 



Nature T2 :


Nature T3 :



Nature T4 :


  

Ingame Name: ThisIsHalloween
Card Name: Lost Railgunners
Tier & Orbs: T3 - Frost/Shadow/Neutral
Type of Card: Unit
Model : cultist rifle
Power Cost: 110/110/105/100
Size: S
Attack-Type: Ranged
Counter-Type: Special

Passive Abilities:

Soul-Piercing Shot - Autocast : Every 2,5 seconds, unit fires necrotic projectile at ennemies that deal 24 / 25 / 27 / 30 damage. Has a long range of 40m.
Ethereal Dissipation - Passive : Hostile units and buildings attacked by Soul-piercing shot will have their armor dissolved and take 30% more damage. Frozen ennemies take 100% more damage instead. Lasts for 10 seconds.

Hard Grip - Passive : unit can't be knocked off walls.

Revenant's Doom - Active : Activate to bestow the unit with a curse that will make it resurrect in case it dies. The resurrected revenant will only be a shadow of its former self but it will be endowed with the same abilities and equal in strength. After 25 seconds the revenant will then die once and for all. May only be triggered once.
Explanation of idea behind the card :

The card is there to fulfill 3 roles : adding a new T3 S ranged unit into the game, bolstering Lost Soul defense at T3 when defending a wall, and giving access to Lost Soul army to a long ranged unit which goal is to combo with your units, as well as a number of spells.

Hard grip makes the unit perfect for holding a wall section at T3.
The long 40m range is there to allow our unit to stay in the back of your army while it is debuffing the ennemy, or to give an impressive 50m range when defending a wall section.

The last interesting part is the debuff. It is of course here to either enhance your defense by making your towers deal more damage, or to help your army deal more when pushing. LS at T3 suffer a bit from focus fire on a single big targets, relying often on frost and shadow card for the job, so this card will help.
The 100% debuff vs frozen targets is what is really interesting. It allows to combo with frost spell, but also lost converter in defense, by "negating" the 50% armor buff of frozen units. BUT since it is a 100% debuff on frozen targets, and NOT an ignore frozen armor buff, it means that you can combo with effects that ignore frozen armor buff to not only negate the armor, but also do +100% damage against the targets.
The idea is to combo the card with lost converter + northern star in defense, and coldsnap + ethereal storm B when pushing.

So there it is : a 40m range, T3 S unit, which can't fall off wall, debuff ennemies, and debuff them even more if they are frozen.
There's no counter on the unit as I considered the +30% debuff and 40m sufficient (PvP balance), but it's true that the unit attack is a bit low for its cost and no counter type.

PS : The card was 1st created by Spirit Alpha on the discord, though it was slightly different. I freaking loved the concept, so I decided to bring the card into the competition so it has a chance to shine. Credit must go to him for both the original concept, and the art (I slightly edited the numbers, but he did 100% of the work); and probably the reward too.
To Spirit Alpha, I loved your idea, and I hope it is selected and made into a card.

 

Ingame Name: ThisIsHalloween
Card Name: Lost Railgunners
Tier & Orbs: T3 - Frost/Shadow/Neutral
Type of Card: Unit
Model : cultist rifle
Power Cost: 110/110/105/100
Size: S
Attack-Type: Ranged
Counter-Type: Special

Passive Abilities:

Soul-Piercing Shot - Autocast : Every 2,5 seconds, unit fires necrotic projectile at ennemies that deal 24 / 25 / 27 / 30 damage. Has a long range of 40m.
Ethereal Dissipation - Passive : Hostile units and buildings attacked by Soul-piercing shot will have their armor dissolved and take 30% more damage. Frozen ennemies take 100% more damage instead. Lasts for 10 seconds.

Hard Grip - Passive : unit can't be knocked off walls.

Revenant's Doom - Active : Activate to bestow the unit with a curse that will make it resurrect in case it dies. The resurrected revenant will only be a shadow of its former self but it will be endowed with the same abilities and equal in strength. After 25 seconds the revenant will then die once and for all. May only be triggered once.
Explanation of idea behind the card :

The card is there to fulfill 3 roles : adding a new T3 S ranged unit into the game, bolstering Lost Soul defense at T3 when defending a wall, and giving access to Lost Soul army to a long ranged unit which goal is to combo with your units, as well as a number of spells.

Hard grip makes the unit perfect for holding a wall section at T3.
The long 40m range is there to allow our unit to stay in the back of your army while it is debuffing the ennemy, or to give an impressive 50m range when defending a wall section.

The last interesting part is the debuff. It is of course here to either enhance your defense by making your towers deal more damage, or to help your army deal more when pushing. LS at T3 suffer a bit from focus fire on a single big targets, relying often on frost and shadow card for the job, so this card will help.
The 100% debuff vs frozen targets is what is really interesting. It allows to combo with frost spell, but also lost converter in defense, by "negating" the 50% armor buff of frozen units. BUT since it is a 100% debuff on frozen targets, and NOT an ignore frozen armor buff, it means that you can combo with effects that ignore frozen armor buff to not only negate the armor, but also do +100% damage against the targets.
The idea is to combo the card with lost converter + northern star in defense, and coldsnap + ethereal storm B when pushing.

So there it is : a 40m range, T3 S unit, which can't fall off wall, debuff ennemies, and debuff them even more if they are frozen.
There's no counter on the unit as I considered the +30% debuff and 40m sufficient (PvP balance), but it's true that the unit attack is a bit low for its cost and no counter type.

PS : The card was 1st created by Spirit Alpha on the discord, though it was slightly different. I freaking loved the concept, so I decided to bring the card into the competition so it has a chance to shine. Credit must go to him for both the original concept, and the art (I slightly edited the numbers, but he did 100% of the work); and probably the reward too.
To Spirit Alpha, I loved your idea, and I hope it is selected and made into a card.

 

Really happy that you found your way back into the game. Welcome.
The progression speed into the game is much smoother now, and the community is overall welcoming.
Do not hesitate to join the discord, it is quite active, and you will find a ton of help for deck making, PvP advices, and replay of challenges.
Outside of PvP, and special decks, the game is on the lower end of RTS in term of micro required, so do not be afraid (and even the most complicated decks or top PvP is still miles away from what is required in games like StarCraft, so no worries 😉).
You are also coming back at the start of our 2nd season. Take a month to complete the normal achievement of the game (with plenty of rewards), and then come, join and participate to the 2nd season, it is quite interesting and popular.
You will also see that plenty of useless cards have been rebalanced in the new game, and that 3 new maps have been added (with more on the way), and more than 30 new cards added, including many for the « new » amii faction , have been added to the game.
 

Hey everyone,
I'm a player from China, and I fell in love with Battle Forge back in 2011. I was amazed by its beautiful graphics and the fresh idea of summoning units with cards. It was so different from StarCraft or WarCraft.
The game was never officially released in mainland China (a big thank you to our Ministry of Culture for that :P), so I had to buy a physical copy from Hong Kong online, which came with the game discs and some BF points.
I had a lot of fun, but I was also very bad at it. To be honest, I've never been good at RTS games. Things like real-time micro, multitasking, and balancing my economy were always a challenge for me. But I still enjoyed it so much because the fantasy story was amazing and the visuals were stunning. My progress was slow, and the early missions weren't too punishing yet.
I remember after I got the Razorleaf card, my PVE progress became much smoother. Its super long attack range saved me from my terrible micro. I could just push my whole army forward slowly, hold position, and activate its root ability to attack from a safe distance. I didn't care that it was slow. I often spent 60 minutes on a map that other players finished in 25. But clearing it still made me just as happy.
My English is the typical "exam-style" English - good for reading and writing, but not fluent enough for real-time conversation. So I had trouble with 2-player or multi-player PVE. I couldn't find friends to play with, and I didn't have the skill or courage to look for people in the chat window. So I tried to play the Crusader campaign by myself. That was a huge setback - I failed again and again. After checking the forums and guides, I realized it wasn't meant to be played solo, so I went back to the regular single-player PVE.
Later on, I tried some PVP. There were a lot of players back then, so I could always find someone at my skill level. I lost more than I won, but I didn't get angry. But one time, I was completely crushed by an opponent's Fire Dancer (the promo version). I looked it up afterwards and realized this card was a classic example of Pay-to-Win. It was a T2 unit with moderate cost and an incredibly long range. For a free player, facing it felt like an automatic loss. I was so mad at the time, thinking "I need to pay money to get stronger too!" But buying BF points was not convenient in mainland China, so I never did it. Looking back, I guess I saved some money, haha.
I played on and off for about two years. My story progress was just so-so, and there were maps I could never beat, but the game still gave me a great experience. And then came the shutdown in 2013. EA's compensation meant nothing to me; I didn't play C&C or Ultima. My feeling at that time was "Capitalism is indeed cruel (lol)". There were so many maps I hadn't played, and for the ones I did, I only beat them on basic and advanced, never expert. My Razorleaf wasn't even fully upgraded.
12 years passed in a flash. I continued my journey of being a bad-but-happy gamer. I got into World of Warcraft and then quit. I basically stopped playing online games and retreated to my Switch and single-player PC games. Sometimes I would remember the joy and regrets of Battle Forge, and I had pretty much accepted that this story from my youth (?) was over.
Then, in October 2025, out of boredom, I asked Gemini to recommend some games. After trying a bunch of AAA titles and indie games, I remembered to ask: "Please recommend games similar to Battle Forge". Gemini recommended three similar games, and then said:
Special Recommendation: 《Skylords Reborn》
If you want to experience the original BattleForge, then 《Skylords Reborn》 is your only choice.
This is not a "similar" game; it is BattleForge itself, revived by the power of its loyal fan community. It is a non-profit project that has completely preserved all the original cards, maps, single-player campaigns, and co-op missions, and continues to receive content updates and balance adjustments. Although it requires an internet connection, its rich PVE content can be fully enjoyed as a single-player experience. For all players who miss BattleForge, this is the best home to return to.
Haha, my childhood game was back from the dead? I downloaded and installed Skylords Reborn to relive my old game. I bought back my Razorleaf and continued my turtle-style pushes across the maps, still making mistakes by not holding my units' position.
And the revived game is even more lovable. There's no pay-to-win. The promotion cards have been rebalanced, and you can't (and don't need to) spend real money. You can only win with patience, skill, and strategy. Then you collect cards and upgrade them.
In my gaming life, I've mostly experienced sudden shutdowns, getting bored after spending money, and good games losing their way after too many sequels. It's rare to find a purely positive experience like Skylords Reborn - a project born from dreams, perseverance, and nostalgia, and one that actually succeeded.
I will continue playing this game. And this time, I will be brave enough to invite fellow players for co-op maps. No more soloing Crusader for me!
 
player: cureall
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By the way, I highly recommend the game Skylords Reborn. Please see   https://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/4210-skylords-reborn-all-you-need-to-know/  and  https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Skylords_Reborn
 
Skylords Reborn is a community-made, non-profit relaunch of BattleForge. BattleForge was an online Real-Time Strategy game with elements of a Trading Card Game, developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. The game servers were shut down on the 31st of October 2013 at midnight (UTC). Learn more about the story behind the shutdown from this interview with TheBlackOne, one of the ex-software engineers who worked on BattleForge. Everything you need to know about Skylords Reborn can be found on this page. To keep up to date with the project's development, check out the regular community updates in the forum.
 

Ingame Name: ThisIsHalloween
Card Name: Life Drain
Tier & Orbs: T2 - Shadow/Neutral
Type of Card: Spell
Power Cost: 100/100/100/90
Spell Effect:
Soul Feast - GodSpell :  Summon a 20m radius aura of dark power. All friendly unit in the aura gain the ability to consume nearby corpses (25m radius) to regenerate 30/35/40/40 life points every second. Last 30 seconds. Reusable every 20 seconds.

Explanation of idea behind the card :

Shadow T2 is very limited in term of strategies compared to other faction, and mainly directed toward PvP. Outside harvester +  lifeweaving, and shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine, there's no alternative. A bunch of cards are never trully played.
The main issue I have found is sustain. While some factions don't have T2 sustain, they compensate by burst, shields, or other alternative.

This card is designed to work with shadow M & S units at T2, mainly shadow mage, chaos knight, and rippers, by allowing those card to be used in PvE context. Rippers are a bit light as a tanking army unless you invest heavily into them. Chaos knight P can't really benefit from its chaos effect in a middle of a battleline, and shadow mage drain make her useless in any form of extended battle. All those issues are partially solved by this new spell, which allows shadow mage to keep shooting, chaos knight P to tank a bit more in the midst of a fight where its ability is activated and all units are fighting randomly, and rippers to act as super tanks when needed (S melee units tends to be useless at anything else than tanking past T1).

The card has been crafted not to be really scalable at T3 and T4, with 1 exception. It is made to work with cultist master. The card is often used for void return, but not much else. With the new spell, shadow players will now have access to a new cultist master spam push strategy, instead of the classical ashbone pyro, which doesn't benefit that much from this spell.
It has also been crafted to not synergize with shadow phoenix and harvester, ensuring the card doesn't reinforce these 2 already strong and well established strategies.

Furthermore, as a 1 Shadow-Neutral card, it is made to work for both bandit, Lost soul, and amii faction, giving those a sustain tool that is often lacking in those decks at T2.

Implementations: The spell is supposed to give ripper/overlord ability to units while they are in the area, with the unit themselves having the classical 25m corpses gathering range. I though it would be easier in term of implementation that creating an aura that gather corpses and regen unit inside.
The effect of multiple life drain should also not stack in this way, avoiding scaling issues, while still allowing for a shorter recast cooldown. It could even be made lower than 20s.
I figured the ideal range of regen is around 35-45 hp/s, so I put 40.

Ingame Name: ThisIsHalloween
Card Name: Lost Railgunners
Tier & Orbs: T3 - Frost/Shadow/Neutral
Type of Card: Unit
Model : cultist rifle
Power Cost: 110/110/105/100
Size: S
Attack-Type: Ranged
Counter-Type: Special

Passive Abilities:

Soul-Piercing Shot - Autocast : Every 2,5 seconds, unit fires necrotic projectile at ennemies that deal 24 / 25 / 27 / 30 damage. Has a long range of 40m.
Ethereal Dissipation - Passive : Hostile units and buildings attacked by Soul-piercing shot will have their armor dissolved and take 30% more damage. Frozen ennemies take 100% more damage instead. Lasts for 10 seconds.

Hard Grip - Passive : unit can't be knocked off walls.

Revenant's Doom - Active : Activate to bestow the unit with a curse that will make it resurrect in case it dies. The resurrected revenant will only be a shadow of its former self but it will be endowed with the same abilities and equal in strength. After 25 seconds the revenant will then die once and for all. May only be triggered once.
Explanation of idea behind the card :

The card is there to fulfill 3 roles : adding a new T3 S ranged unit into the game, bolstering Lost Soul defense at T3 when defending a wall, and giving access to Lost Soul army to a long ranged unit which goal is to combo with your units, as well as a number of spells.

Hard grip makes the unit perfect for holding a wall section at T3.
The long 40m range is there to allow our unit to stay in the back of your army while it is debuffing the ennemy, or to give an impressive 50m range when defending a wall section.

The last interesting part is the debuff. It is of course here to either enhance your defense by making your towers deal more damage, or to help your army deal more when pushing. LS at T3 suffer a bit from focus fire on a single big targets, relying often on frost and shadow card for the job, so this card will help.
The 100% debuff vs frozen targets is what is really interesting. It allows to combo with frost spell, but also lost converter in defense, by "negating" the 50% armor buff of frozen units. BUT since it is a 100% debuff on frozen targets, and NOT an ignore frozen armor buff, it means that you can combo with effects that ignore frozen armor buff to not only negate the armor, but also do +100% damage against the targets.
The idea is to combo the card with lost converter + northern star in defense, and coldsnap + ethereal storm B when pushing.

So there it is : a 40m range, T3 S unit, which can't fall off wall, debuff ennemies, and debuff them even more if they are frozen.
There's no counter on the unit as I considered the +30% debuff and 40m sufficient (PvP balance), but it's true that the unit attack is a bit low for its cost and no counter type.

PS : The card was 1st created by Spirit Alpha on the discord, though it was slightly different. I freaking loved the concept, so I decided to bring the card into the competition so it has a chance to shine. Credit must go to him for both the original concept, and the art (I slightly edited the numbers, but he did 100% of the work); and probably the reward too.
To Spirit Alpha, I loved your idea, and I hope it is selected and made into a card.

 

Ingame Name: ThisIsHalloween
Card Name: Lost Railgunners
Tier & Orbs: T3 - Frost/Shadow/Neutral
Type of Card: Unit
Model : cultist rifle
Power Cost: 110/110/105/100
Size: S
Attack-Type: Ranged
Counter-Type: Special

Passive Abilities:

Soul-Piercing Shot - Autocast : Every 2,5 seconds, unit fires necrotic projectile at ennemies that deal 24 / 25 / 27 / 30 damage. Has a long range of 40m.
Ethereal Dissipation - Passive : Hostile units and buildings attacked by Soul-piercing shot will have their armor dissolved and take 30% more damage. Frozen ennemies take 100% more damage instead. Lasts for 10 seconds.

Hard Grip - Passive : unit can't be knocked off walls.

Revenant's Doom - Active : Activate to bestow the unit with a curse that will make it resurrect in case it dies. The resurrected revenant will only be a shadow of its former self but it will be endowed with the same abilities and equal in strength. After 25 seconds the revenant will then die once and for all. May only be triggered once.
Explanation of idea behind the card :

The card is there to fulfill 3 roles : adding a new T3 S ranged unit into the game, bolstering Lost Soul defense at T3 when defending a wall, and giving access to Lost Soul army to a long ranged unit which goal is to combo with your units, as well as a number of spells.

Hard grip makes the unit perfect for holding a wall section at T3.
The long 40m range is there to allow our unit to stay in the back of your army while it is debuffing the ennemy, or to give an impressive 50m range when defending a wall section.

The last interesting part is the debuff. It is of course here to either enhance your defense by making your towers deal more damage, or to help your army deal more when pushing. LS at T3 suffer a bit from focus fire on a single big targets, relying often on frost and shadow card for the job, so this card will help.
The 100% debuff vs frozen targets is what is really interesting. It allows to combo with frost spell, but also lost converter in defense, by "negating" the 50% armor buff of frozen units. BUT since it is a 100% debuff on frozen targets, and NOT an ignore frozen armor buff, it means that you can combo with effects that ignore frozen armor buff to not only negate the armor, but also do +100% damage against the targets.
The idea is to combo the card with lost converter + northern star in defense, and coldsnap + ethereal storm B when pushing.

So there it is : a 40m range, T3 S unit, which can't fall off wall, debuff ennemies, and debuff them even more if they are frozen.
There's no counter on the unit as I considered the +30% debuff and 40m sufficient (PvP balance), but it's true that the unit attack is a bit low for its cost and no counter type.

PS : The card was 1st created by Spirit Alpha on the discord, though it was slightly different. I freaking loved the concept, so I decided to bring the card into the competition so it has a chance to shine. Credit must go to him for both the original concept, and the art (I slightly edited the numbers, but he did 100% of the work); and probably the reward too.
To Spirit Alpha, I loved your idea, and I hope it is selected and made into a card.

 

With the new season, and the upcoming of Natural selection, it is time again to see who has been able to adapt to a changing meta game, and who has fallen prey to the wind of change ...

So I have updated my personal list fore nature cards in PvE, and am now sharing it with you :



Methodology is the same I used for my fire tier list :


 
1) Power level : How strong "in general" is the card in it's own tier, compared to that tier power level in the game. I split it in 3, the ones clearly on top, the one clearly at the bottom, & I group the rest in a middle pack.

2) Flexibility : When or in which conditions I can use a card in a game. It takes a lot of parameters into consideration (fixed tower, what kinds of units it can attack, is it fast or not, condition of activations, ...). Same as above, I split it into 3 categories, the cards that can be played in lots of conditions/configurations, the most situational ones, and the ones that are either a bit situational, or are lacking in a number of fighting configurations (melee units and towers are often considered 1 by default for example). The higher the tier, the harder i tend to note flexibility.

3) Scalability : +1 point. The question is whether my card is consistently played at a higher tier than its own or not, exactly like another card of that tier. For example, lifeweaving or curse of oink are scalable. More tricky, surge of light is while eruption isn't because while the massive healing of surge makes it completely playable in T2 like another T2 spell, eruption does lose significantly in power to cost ratio at T2 compared to other cards. For T4 card I consider the ability to scale through power or with the size of my army.

4) Synergy/Combo : +1 point if the card is an essential part of a combo or the heart of many synergy. Note however that the card must be an integral part of the combo, and not a fuel for the combo, or a replaçable one. For example, rioter's retreat (G) would get +1, but not the commandos themselves, since they merely act as the fuel, and could be replaced (albeit by something a bit less efficient). However, both phoenix & embalmer's shrine are integral part of their combo.
5) Adjustment : Since no rating is perfect, I do give myself a 1pts margin of ajustment, to split affinities, or for example a card's power level & flexibility were both rated 1, but realistically are closer to a 1.5 score. I also use it if a cards see in practive more or less play than the unajusted score would suggest.

Nature T1 : 



Nature T2 :


Nature T3 :



Nature T4 :


  

Big hype! And big thanks for all Majora, and good luck to Rabbitfoot. 

Promo Forest Elder looks amazing !!!

It was also a pleasure to have you as our Community Manager @Majora, you did an incredible job those last 4 years 👏.

I hope this new season will be as good as the previous one 🖖.

Now time to spew my remarks all over Windhunter patch note 😁.

Since there are currently 2 ongoing challenges for this map, hopefully more feedback arrives and changes will happen, because the current format is more frustrating than fun
T1 and T4 phase is very clear, I'm going to focus on the T2 - T3 transition
Whichever direction you choose, you have to attack on one front while defending 2(!) spots. Also getting bombardment shots requires contant repair
Is it really a good macro check or just straight up annoying to do so? 
The current cheese meta is to block bottom wave with Motk, showing 1 attacking direction with 1 defensive task is still enough challenge for this map at T2(!)
The crystals snipes are also popular, simply because your strategy will be the same with T3 instead of T2. Which is a huge jump in power level
I have tried to aid the Ally squad, but they mostly able to clear 1 camp and getting facerolled afterwards.
Also let's say I focus on down direction, if I send the Ally squad up, I expect to at least hold that lane for not needed focus, but they are getting stomped and have to defend there as well
1 leg of the balance chair have to be buffed, because you either have to too much at once or you block 1 leg with MoTk
Someone compared it to Bad Harvest but you do every position at once with no real upside, which I can agree with
I think the best way would be to reduce the spawn rate of enemies to get more breathing room.
I dont want allies to do the heavy lifting either, but they are basicly afk this game after the first two attacks

During the map Ascension a errors message apear but the client didn`t crash. See the message text in attachment
This happen periodically. Coult be every 5 minutes but I didn´t measure it.
The log is to big so i 7zipped it.


_log_proxy_latest.7z

Hello world! It feels almost surreal to see BF back again after all these years, and getting updates no less. I still remember the final day days of the shut down, and being mid match when the cord was finally pulled. Well now its time to rebuild my old fire and shadow deck, Hope to see ya peeps out their in the field too!

We did not have the time to implement the Deathglider rework since it was the equivalent of implementing an new fairly complex unit. Deathglider in its existing T2 state is unviable and has nearly no use case. It can work with Twilight Slayers' new Multishot ability, but the FX is not doubling like it should. As such we excluded it, its not viable anyway, while we work on fixing the FX to make it work with Twilight Slayers. So, like in many cases, I recommend withholding judgement until the final product is released. 

Promo Forest Elder looks amazing !!!

It was also a pleasure to have you as our Community Manager @Majora, you did an incredible job those last 4 years 👏.

I hope this new season will be as good as the previous one 🖖.

Now time to spew my remarks all over Windhunter patch note 😁.

Promo Forest Elder looks amazing !!!

It was also a pleasure to have you as our Community Manager @Majora, you did an incredible job those last 4 years 👏.

I hope this new season will be as good as the previous one 🖖.

Now time to spew my remarks all over Windhunter patch note 😁.

Promo Forest Elder looks amazing !!!

It was also a pleasure to have you as our Community Manager @Majora, you did an incredible job those last 4 years 👏.

I hope this new season will be as good as the previous one 🖖.

Now time to spew my remarks all over Windhunter patch note 😁.

I know it’s been years, but since the change hasn’t been implemented yet :
- passive building healing is more a nature thing than frost, which is more about repair. Furthermore, regen isn’t exactly what is needed for wall at T3+.
 
Since there’s no way of competing actively with glaciation, that wall efficiency decreases a lot after T3, and that passive regen isn’t frost identity, I propose something else for Permafrost :
- Permafrost : Increase by 1000 the maximum life points of friendly wall segments within 30m of armored tower.
That way the tower will allow walls to passively increase in efficiency through tier, increasing wall segment health to 3500. The passive allows you to make many segments more durable. Doesn’t compete with glaciation, but the wide area should compensate in some situations (UV big wall at the center of the map for example, or covering 2 side on heart of trouble, and also a use for some future maps 🤫).
It will also give additional reasons for other factions to splash a frost orb in their deck (something we’re trying to do with other cards like sleet storm), and haven’t started with frost at T1, so they may not have glaciation in the deck.

I know it’s been years, but since the change hasn’t been implemented yet :
- passive building healing is more a nature thing than frost, which is more about repair. Furthermore, regen isn’t exactly what is needed for wall at T3+.
 
Since there’s no way of competing actively with glaciation, that wall efficiency decreases a lot after T3, and that passive regen isn’t frost identity, I propose something else for Permafrost :
- Permafrost : Increase by 1000 the maximum life points of friendly wall segments within 30m of armored tower.
That way the tower will allow walls to passively increase in efficiency through tier, increasing wall segment health to 3500. The passive allows you to make many segments more durable. Doesn’t compete with glaciation, but the wide area should compensate in some situations (UV big wall at the center of the map for example, or covering 2 side on heart of trouble, and also a use for some future maps 🤫).
It will also give additional reasons for other factions to splash a frost orb in their deck (something we’re trying to do with other cards like sleet storm), and haven’t started with frost at T1, so they may not have glaciation in the deck.

Hmmm, in the last year is a bit exaggerated :

1) New RPvE exp level is great for average players tired of adv++ but still not up for the old lv10.
2) Map of the day is great for them too, as is the rebirth booster.
3) For the new maps, Into the Jungle is great and fun overall for any kind of player. Heart of trouble main problem is the need for a crystal snipe strategy + T2 def strategy. After that the map is good. Only Unexpected visitors was not created with casuals in mind.
4) Change of Amii monument was needed for the long term health of the game.

The new infections is made with more veteran players in mind, true, but I feel the reward you get is still good & not too hard to get if you go for an RPvE adv++ with infection.
It gives a bit of a challenge to casual, like playing RPvE expert, without being too hard.

Only the season is not great for casuals.
 

Welcome to this guide on how to make and play a hero deck. This guide will go over all the ins and outs of the deck, how to play & pilot it, as well as more advanced tips on this deck.

But 1st :

What is a "Hero" deck ?
A hero deck is a special kind of deck based on playing legendary units instead of normal ones. It revolves around 2 main synergies :

1) Giant shelter : Jorne allows all your other legendary units to take -50% damage while being around him. It is a really powerful ability, halving damage taken and making your sustain 'twice' as effective (1 damage healed require 2 taken to be negated) but is even more powerful with :

2) Promise of Life B + nasty surprise / dreadcharger.
 + 

This combo allows you to kill your legendary units under the effect of promise of life. But what for, and why the "weaker" B affinity you might ask ?

Because this combo allows you to suicide your heroes under the effect, and because there's a delay of 10s before resurrection, you can in the meantime summon a new copy of your hero units, bypassing the 1 unit limit on legendary creatures.

Furthermore, the resurrected units still send 90% of its power back to the void. This is what we call in BF "unbinding" a unit, which is an extremely powerful effect. Since the power dedicated to the unit is freed & sent back to the void, it is the equivalent of having a unit & gaining power equivalent to 90% of its value.
 
We now have our basic synergies, an army of doubled legendary units, half unbinded, and under the permanent effect of Jorne's Giant shelter. Note that because you have 2 Jorne, each will benefit from the buff of the other one, while normally Jorne cannot benefit from its effect.

Now time to make a deck :  is the best orb order for our deck.

T1 :
As of writing this guide, Nature start is superior to shadow start in rPvE.
The heart of any good nature start in rPvE is composed of this combo of cards :
+++
 
Windweavers are the main damage dealers of nature at T1. Though their kill speed of spawners is a bit low for their cost, they more than make it with their multishot ability when comes the time to clear the remaining enemies NPC.
1 Dryad B + surge of light gives your group of windweavers the tankiness they require to do their job.
You will notice there's no shaman at T1. For less experienced players, you must know that shaman are only good in long T1 phases where their continued healing over times make up for their high binding cost. But in rPvE they are a liability. Each shaman is 1 less winweaver to kill stuff, and more importantly to kill spawners which can respawn infinite number of units unless dealt with.
Last, the outburst of surge of light is, in this scenario, far superior to the long drawn out benefit of shaman.

The core idea of nature start in rPvE exp & exp+ is 1 dryad and a pack of 6-7 windweavers.

Which now bring us to ensnaring roots. Roots is ideal to give time to your pack of windweavers to "rush" and take down the spawner, by rooting enemies in the meantime. Though you can still get shot by ennemies, a number of dangerous melee units can be kept at bay while you focus on the spawner. This card also has applications in different scenario (delaying waves at T2-T3, giving you an escape root at T1, ...).

I advise ensnaring root over hurricane : hurricane is only useful against S units. In rPvE, the faction against it is the most useful are bandit, twilight, and bandit+stonekin. The thing is, these 3 factions are the easiest to deal with at T1. When facing fire, nature or lost souls, root is better, and since those factions are harder to take down at T1, it means root > hurricane.

In general I save 6 slots for nature at T1.

I always save 1 for mana wing :     
The card is important for 1 reason only : Lost soul. As the hardest enemies, you need to be able to deal with them. And unfortunately LS npc units have access to a bunch of S knockback effects, making your windweavers completely useless, even more when you are trying to focus a spawner.
Against, them, the "best solution" is a big pack of mana wings supported by 1 or 2 surge of light. You rush the spawners & focus it, then try to leave. Let's be clear, with treefiend and Lost vigil being M counter ranged units, your pack will melt in instant, but it is the "least bad option" we have in nature against such a foe.
It is also not bad to deal with lost dancers & the explosive ground beetles, as well as the manabeast, during the inevitable counter attack, since those can't reach your air units.

That leaves us with 1 more slot. This slot is a bit of a flex, you don't have to take it for a T1 card and can try to save it for another tier, but I find it more important there as a good support in many situations.

For me, the 2 best choices are :

1) Primal defender. The card offers you an answer to air units, for both the T1 & T2 phase. It is also good to save time when expecting a counter attack after sniping a spawner, and is overall a good T1 tower. It is my favoured option.
2) Fountain of rebirth. Now that one is far more team dependent. The idea is this : if you have fire allies which play packs of strikers at T1, and are willing to support you with their spells, it is worth it to build fountain to support them, particularly in 4 players set up. Having 3 fire players with their strikers supported by your fountain can help them a lot, and in return, once they have dealt with their camps, you can expect all 3 players to support you with their spells, speeding up the overall clearing process. So in this configuration, it is worth it.

Players often take mumbo jumbo R in their deck at that slot. I'm not found of it in this deck. We got ways to deal with boss, so the spell is less useful in later tiers.
At T1, it is worth 300 damage on a spawner, but it can't be stacked, and it is useless against Lost soul since mana wing doesn't grant you ground presence.

Lastly,  or  must be added to the deck for later. I prefer nasty surprise over dreadcharger, but both work.

T2 :

Best option as of now is the good old shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine combo :
 

The shrine basically "reduce" the corpse requirement of the phoenix resurrection ability from 2000 down to 625 (technically it is corpses are worth +220%, but the result is the same).
You need to construct the shrine ASAP at T2. Then summon a pack of 5+ phoenix (depends how tough the camps are), wait until the shrine ability is up, charge the camps, use the ability, and banzaï !!!
You can probably wreck the whole camp with little support, and even take down the second one (in that case build 2 shrine for permanent effect).
Nothing more to say really.

The deck does have this card however :

 
Power shrine is a strong void return card quite useleful for later, and you can start building it at T2. The alternative (and worst) option is shrine of memory. It isn't as good as power shrine in our deck, but it is a viable replacement.
If possible, try to build power shrine at T2, so it is up when you need it later.
T3 :

Best option as of now is the good old shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine combo :
 

But Wait ! You already wrote that for T2, we're T3 now no ?
Well, turns out the combo is so strong that you can abuse it in T3 also. And if there's another camp next to your T4, you can also use it there too !

But yes, we also have some T3 cards.


With access to power shrine, enlightenment allows you to instantly spawn a T4 unit.
Though I will review them below, the best unit of your roster to summon is Umbabwe in 99% of the time. The shaman of blight is insanely powerful, and as long as your ally provide some frontline, he can take down a camp by himself. His fire tornado will make quick works of XL units and named boss at your T4 orb.

We also start to add some healing in our deck for later, but it can still be useful at T3, and  is a great card for our deck. Of course,  must also be added for our combo.
T4 :
That's where the magic begins. We rely on 4 T4 heroes :



Now you should have 1 umbabwe at T4. If not start with him.

Combo is this one : summon your T4 unit, activate power shrine, cast promise of life B, cast nasty surprise, wait ~4 seconds, summon the same T4 unit again. All 3 cast will benefit from power shrine, allowing you to consume your void pool instead of your power pool. And since you refill this void pool with the power of your own sacrified units, you can imagine how beneficial this is.

We got 3 remaining deck slot :
1) Regrowth is our main sustain option at T4.
2) Unholy hero. It is there to combo with 1 of your Umbabwe fire tornado. Both umbabwe fire tornado can do up to 10k dmg. With unholy hero, you are looking at 20k, ideal to deal with a boss. And against building, a fire tornado with Unholy hero will deal 4800 dmg to it. There's a more advanced combo with raven archwalker ability, unholy hero, and 1 of our spell like regrowth or enlightenment, allowing you to deal around 20k damages in a huge area, since unholy hero does increase the damage of our archwalker ability.

3) This slot is a flex one. I have added creeping paralysis as a crowd control in our deck, notably against units like twiligh evil eyes or Lost dragon. Other cards which can be added include : Incredible Mo, Mind control, green peace, healing garden, revenge, thunderstorm, transcendance, ...

In term of strategy, you must summon 2 umbabwe & 2 jorne, they are the anchor & damage dealers of the deck. After that, you can start pushing and clearing.
Ravenheart & raven archwalker can be added later, and will benefit from the fleet support mechanic to move at normal speed (2 raven archwalker, or 2 ravenheart can benefit from each other).
I personally prefer to add the archwalker 1st, but it is a preference at this point.

Use your 2 main heals, regrowth and equilibrium, to keep your units alive. It shouldn't be too hard with Jorne passive.
Umbabwe is your main damage dealer, and can provide needed cc if the situation requires it.
Jorne ability gives you an easy way to deal with buildings.
Late boss can be killed quickly : 2 fire tornado + unholy hero + 2 harpoon shots, and you are over 25k in single target damages.

After all that, let's answer a few remaining questions you might still have :

Do I need promo card for this deck ? What about promo jorne & promo ravenheart ?

No you do not need promo cards for the deck. 1st, we don't really have the slot for that. We would have to cut the combo, but the combo is what is interesting because of the unbinding process.
We also want 2 jorne, for the passive, and 2 umbabwe for his insane dmg. Promo jorne brings nothing to the table there, 2 jorne is enough.
Ravenheart "could" be interesting because 1 ravenheart limits you to 3 summoned ships. Since the promo is a different card, we could have up to 6 ships.
2 problems however : 2 jorne + 2 umbabwe + 2 archwalker + 2 ravenheart and 3 ships is already 96 population. We would be limited to 2 additional ships anyway, not 3. Furthermore, ravenheart is often the last unit summoned, by the point you get to summon ravenheart + promo ravenheart, you won't have the time to use the ability twice before the map is over, limiting you to 4 ships.
Is it worth it to sacrifice part of our combo for +1 raven ship which stats aren't amazing anyway ? By experience, I can tell you no, it isn't.

So original + promo is out of the question in the deck, for practical reasons (now if you prefer the look of the promo over the original, it's something else).

Why only these 4 heroes ? Why not Mo or Lord Cyrian ?
We are limited to 4 charges on promise of life B, and in term of deck slot. The 4 heroes chosen are the strongest we have access to. Jorne & umbabwe are essentials, 2 ravenheart + 3 ships is better than 2 Mo or 2 Cyrian, and raven archwalker range attack is insane, both to snipe buildings with unholy hero, and to use its ability.
Furthermore, since we have access to power shrine and enlightenment, there's no need for a weaker hero at T3.

Is this deck any good in expert ? It looks like a sympathetic off-meta deck, but nothing more.
When I started the deck, it was. But power shrine, umbabwe and the change to the support fleet mechanic in Patch #400050 have made the deck a viable option for expert and expert+.
I would estimate the power of the deck to be around pure nature forest elder G + primeval watcher with promise of life G combo on the 1st elder.
The deck is no S tier, but it can hold it's own.
Power shrine helps your teammates, and getting 2 jorne and 2 umbabwe is slower than single units deck, but as fast as getting 2 batariel with 1 under fire force B + some spare energy for a dying breed and unity cast, or getting your forest elder killed and summoning a bunch of primeval watcher just after.
 
So starting speed at T4 is good enough, and clearing speed is too. The deck does show some limits when faced with a post T4 camp with a strong boss early on, as well as against some of the strongest late game camps, or when 2 strong post T4 camps are merged. But outside of the hardest configurations, the deck is good. It isn't too slow to push, and clear at a reasonable speed.

I hope this guide will have helped you discover and appreciate this hidden gem that I call :

"The Hero Deck"
 

Welcome to this guide on how to make and play a hero deck. This guide will go over all the ins and outs of the deck, how to play & pilot it, as well as more advanced tips on this deck.

But 1st :

What is a "Hero" deck ?
A hero deck is a special kind of deck based on playing legendary units instead of normal ones. It revolves around 2 main synergies :

1) Giant shelter : Jorne allows all your other legendary units to take -50% damage while being around him. It is a really powerful ability, halving damage taken and making your sustain 'twice' as effective (1 damage healed require 2 taken to be negated) but is even more powerful with :

2) Promise of Life B + nasty surprise / dreadcharger.
 + 

This combo allows you to kill your legendary units under the effect of promise of life. But what for, and why the "weaker" B affinity you might ask ?

Because this combo allows you to suicide your heroes under the effect, and because there's a delay of 10s before resurrection, you can in the meantime summon a new copy of your hero units, bypassing the 1 unit limit on legendary creatures.

Furthermore, the resurrected units still send 90% of its power back to the void. This is what we call in BF "unbinding" a unit, which is an extremely powerful effect. Since the power dedicated to the unit is freed & sent back to the void, it is the equivalent of having a unit & gaining power equivalent to 90% of its value.
 
We now have our basic synergies, an army of doubled legendary units, half unbinded, and under the permanent effect of Jorne's Giant shelter. Note that because you have 2 Jorne, each will benefit from the buff of the other one, while normally Jorne cannot benefit from its effect.

Now time to make a deck :  is the best orb order for our deck.

T1 :
As of writing this guide, Nature start is superior to shadow start in rPvE.
The heart of any good nature start in rPvE is composed of this combo of cards :
+++
 
Windweavers are the main damage dealers of nature at T1. Though their kill speed of spawners is a bit low for their cost, they more than make it with their multishot ability when comes the time to clear the remaining enemies NPC.
1 Dryad B + surge of light gives your group of windweavers the tankiness they require to do their job.
You will notice there's no shaman at T1. For less experienced players, you must know that shaman are only good in long T1 phases where their continued healing over times make up for their high binding cost. But in rPvE they are a liability. Each shaman is 1 less winweaver to kill stuff, and more importantly to kill spawners which can respawn infinite number of units unless dealt with.
Last, the outburst of surge of light is, in this scenario, far superior to the long drawn out benefit of shaman.

The core idea of nature start in rPvE exp & exp+ is 1 dryad and a pack of 6-7 windweavers.

Which now bring us to ensnaring roots. Roots is ideal to give time to your pack of windweavers to "rush" and take down the spawner, by rooting enemies in the meantime. Though you can still get shot by ennemies, a number of dangerous melee units can be kept at bay while you focus on the spawner. This card also has applications in different scenario (delaying waves at T2-T3, giving you an escape root at T1, ...).

I advise ensnaring root over hurricane : hurricane is only useful against S units. In rPvE, the faction against it is the most useful are bandit, twilight, and bandit+stonekin. The thing is, these 3 factions are the easiest to deal with at T1. When facing fire, nature or lost souls, root is better, and since those factions are harder to take down at T1, it means root > hurricane.

In general I save 6 slots for nature at T1.

I always save 1 for mana wing :     
The card is important for 1 reason only : Lost soul. As the hardest enemies, you need to be able to deal with them. And unfortunately LS npc units have access to a bunch of S knockback effects, making your windweavers completely useless, even more when you are trying to focus a spawner.
Against, them, the "best solution" is a big pack of mana wings supported by 1 or 2 surge of light. You rush the spawners & focus it, then try to leave. Let's be clear, with treefiend and Lost vigil being M counter ranged units, your pack will melt in instant, but it is the "least bad option" we have in nature against such a foe.
It is also not bad to deal with lost dancers & the explosive ground beetles, as well as the manabeast, during the inevitable counter attack, since those can't reach your air units.

That leaves us with 1 more slot. This slot is a bit of a flex, you don't have to take it for a T1 card and can try to save it for another tier, but I find it more important there as a good support in many situations.

For me, the 2 best choices are :

1) Primal defender. The card offers you an answer to air units, for both the T1 & T2 phase. It is also good to save time when expecting a counter attack after sniping a spawner, and is overall a good T1 tower. It is my favoured option.
2) Fountain of rebirth. Now that one is far more team dependent. The idea is this : if you have fire allies which play packs of strikers at T1, and are willing to support you with their spells, it is worth it to build fountain to support them, particularly in 4 players set up. Having 3 fire players with their strikers supported by your fountain can help them a lot, and in return, once they have dealt with their camps, you can expect all 3 players to support you with their spells, speeding up the overall clearing process. So in this configuration, it is worth it.

Players often take mumbo jumbo R in their deck at that slot. I'm not found of it in this deck. We got ways to deal with boss, so the spell is less useful in later tiers.
At T1, it is worth 300 damage on a spawner, but it can't be stacked, and it is useless against Lost soul since mana wing doesn't grant you ground presence.

Lastly,  or  must be added to the deck for later. I prefer nasty surprise over dreadcharger, but both work.

T2 :

Best option as of now is the good old shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine combo :
 

The shrine basically "reduce" the corpse requirement of the phoenix resurrection ability from 2000 down to 625 (technically it is corpses are worth +220%, but the result is the same).
You need to construct the shrine ASAP at T2. Then summon a pack of 5+ phoenix (depends how tough the camps are), wait until the shrine ability is up, charge the camps, use the ability, and banzaï !!!
You can probably wreck the whole camp with little support, and even take down the second one (in that case build 2 shrine for permanent effect).
Nothing more to say really.

The deck does have this card however :

 
Power shrine is a strong void return card quite useleful for later, and you can start building it at T2. The alternative (and worst) option is shrine of memory. It isn't as good as power shrine in our deck, but it is a viable replacement.
If possible, try to build power shrine at T2, so it is up when you need it later.
T3 :

Best option as of now is the good old shadow phoenix + embalmer's shrine combo :
 

But Wait ! You already wrote that for T2, we're T3 now no ?
Well, turns out the combo is so strong that you can abuse it in T3 also. And if there's another camp next to your T4, you can also use it there too !

But yes, we also have some T3 cards.


With access to power shrine, enlightenment allows you to instantly spawn a T4 unit.
Though I will review them below, the best unit of your roster to summon is Umbabwe in 99% of the time. The shaman of blight is insanely powerful, and as long as your ally provide some frontline, he can take down a camp by himself. His fire tornado will make quick works of XL units and named boss at your T4 orb.

We also start to add some healing in our deck for later, but it can still be useful at T3, and  is a great card for our deck. Of course,  must also be added for our combo.
T4 :
That's where the magic begins. We rely on 4 T4 heroes :



Now you should have 1 umbabwe at T4. If not start with him.

Combo is this one : summon your T4 unit, activate power shrine, cast promise of life B, cast nasty surprise, wait ~4 seconds, summon the same T4 unit again. All 3 cast will benefit from power shrine, allowing you to consume your void pool instead of your power pool. And since you refill this void pool with the power of your own sacrified units, you can imagine how beneficial this is.

We got 3 remaining deck slot :
1) Regrowth is our main sustain option at T4.
2) Unholy hero. It is there to combo with 1 of your Umbabwe fire tornado. Both umbabwe fire tornado can do up to 10k dmg. With unholy hero, you are looking at 20k, ideal to deal with a boss. And against building, a fire tornado with Unholy hero will deal 4800 dmg to it. There's a more advanced combo with raven archwalker ability, unholy hero, and 1 of our spell like regrowth or enlightenment, allowing you to deal around 20k damages in a huge area, since unholy hero does increase the damage of our archwalker ability.

3) This slot is a flex one. I have added creeping paralysis as a crowd control in our deck, notably against units like twiligh evil eyes or Lost dragon. Other cards which can be added include : Incredible Mo, Mind control, green peace, healing garden, revenge, thunderstorm, transcendance, ...

In term of strategy, you must summon 2 umbabwe & 2 jorne, they are the anchor & damage dealers of the deck. After that, you can start pushing and clearing.
Ravenheart & raven archwalker can be added later, and will benefit from the fleet support mechanic to move at normal speed (2 raven archwalker, or 2 ravenheart can benefit from each other).
I personally prefer to add the archwalker 1st, but it is a preference at this point.

Use your 2 main heals, regrowth and equilibrium, to keep your units alive. It shouldn't be too hard with Jorne passive.
Umbabwe is your main damage dealer, and can provide needed cc if the situation requires it.
Jorne ability gives you an easy way to deal with buildings.
Late boss can be killed quickly : 2 fire tornado + unholy hero + 2 harpoon shots, and you are over 25k in single target damages.

After all that, let's answer a few remaining questions you might still have :

Do I need promo card for this deck ? What about promo jorne & promo ravenheart ?

No you do not need promo cards for the deck. 1st, we don't really have the slot for that. We would have to cut the combo, but the combo is what is interesting because of the unbinding process.
We also want 2 jorne, for the passive, and 2 umbabwe for his insane dmg. Promo jorne brings nothing to the table there, 2 jorne is enough.
Ravenheart "could" be interesting because 1 ravenheart limits you to 3 summoned ships. Since the promo is a different card, we could have up to 6 ships.
2 problems however : 2 jorne + 2 umbabwe + 2 archwalker + 2 ravenheart and 3 ships is already 96 population. We would be limited to 2 additional ships anyway, not 3. Furthermore, ravenheart is often the last unit summoned, by the point you get to summon ravenheart + promo ravenheart, you won't have the time to use the ability twice before the map is over, limiting you to 4 ships.
Is it worth it to sacrifice part of our combo for +1 raven ship which stats aren't amazing anyway ? By experience, I can tell you no, it isn't.

So original + promo is out of the question in the deck, for practical reasons (now if you prefer the look of the promo over the original, it's something else).

Why only these 4 heroes ? Why not Mo or Lord Cyrian ?
We are limited to 4 charges on promise of life B, and in term of deck slot. The 4 heroes chosen are the strongest we have access to. Jorne & umbabwe are essentials, 2 ravenheart + 3 ships is better than 2 Mo or 2 Cyrian, and raven archwalker range attack is insane, both to snipe buildings with unholy hero, and to use its ability.
Furthermore, since we have access to power shrine and enlightenment, there's no need for a weaker hero at T3.

Is this deck any good in expert ? It looks like a sympathetic off-meta deck, but nothing more.
When I started the deck, it was. But power shrine, umbabwe and the change to the support fleet mechanic in Patch #400050 have made the deck a viable option for expert and expert+.
I would estimate the power of the deck to be around pure nature forest elder G + primeval watcher with promise of life G combo on the 1st elder.
The deck is no S tier, but it can hold it's own.
Power shrine helps your teammates, and getting 2 jorne and 2 umbabwe is slower than single units deck, but as fast as getting 2 batariel with 1 under fire force B + some spare energy for a dying breed and unity cast, or getting your forest elder killed and summoning a bunch of primeval watcher just after.
 
So starting speed at T4 is good enough, and clearing speed is too. The deck does show some limits when faced with a post T4 camp with a strong boss early on, as well as against some of the strongest late game camps, or when 2 strong post T4 camps are merged. But outside of the hardest configurations, the deck is good. It isn't too slow to push, and clear at a reasonable speed.

I hope this guide will have helped you discover and appreciate this hidden gem that I call :

"The Hero Deck"
 

Don’t worry, Slayers are likely getting a buff. They talked about it in the Balance discord and in the Q&A if I remember well.
The only question is if they have had the time to implement it, with all the new content to create for the new season and the impact of the delay from fire Wormlings desync issue.

Designers was pretty clear about it being a no go.
Reasons: (in no particular order)
It would be a nightmare to balance. It is not technically feasible to define cards color using the hybrid tokens, so if we would create such card, it would have neutral/gray color. Playing a card without having an orb changes (all) starting orbs to a color of that card. Not having any of color defining tokens would mean white orb, which can not be used to play a card with only a hybrid token on it. My (personal) reasoning against the implementation details in last suggestion:
We could "easily" make such restriction, by creating hybrid color orbs, but those orbs would cause balancing nightmares, because it would stick with you until T4 and allow you to play both colors, or neither of them. And both those options seem bad. We have full control about restriction, if card with given tokens can be played, when player have given orbs. But neither adding dual color orbs, nor weakening those restrictions seems like a good idea. If deck would be restricted to only single color, or only dual color T1, then no one would play the dual color one, because there would simple not be enough cards, and you would be missing the existing T1 from one, or both colors.