regardless whether you use surflapod or under the sea, i have found that the orb is a big factor in how a mirror match goes. It tends to give off one or two spells that give just enough of a nudge to tip the match in your favour. There is only so much you can do in a round with your mana and the orb lets you overcome that limit for several rounds.
(edit: i don’t have one in my collection, but every time i face someone who played it i lost that match because i could not keep up equal pressure)
By not having surflapod or under the sea you can try other strategies instead.
I tried running an elemental package in one deck and excavate in another. Both of those versions had pros and cons. Your targetting specific classes to do better against them in a match so it mainly comes down to what you happen to be facing in your zone.
I’m pretty sure i lost every time i faced a pirate demon hunter, but i did better in the longer matches against other classes. I could have picked my cards to target demon hunter, but than my deck would have run out of steam very fast and have a lower overall win rate.
Most cards have stars that are coupled with others. Surfalopod looks strong in BSM because of the specific spells he is casting. If you give it worse options, it drops off harshly. It’s also coupled with hidden losses from good cards you can’t run to maintain its win rate.
BTW on the last paragraph you didn’t include in the quote I didn’t mean the other META netdecks may change. The deck itself can make the opponents behave differently if it has changes so the individual card stats have an extra reason to be “contaminated” (to change in unpredictable ways if you change other cards in the deck).
E.g. let’s say the opponents can give YOU cards because that’s how their cards work (very common); now you may add or remove a card that affects how that mechanic works on their side; so you didn’t just change your base deck in unpredictable ways but also the “temporary decks” you get while playing live.
I’m guessing you saw the new Warrior Bomb deck that has been making the rounds? I played a couples games of it and i was surprised how many bombs i could shuffle into a deck even with Reno looming.
I plan to do so for all of them again in the collection, FFVI is the best of the 2D era.
While not my personal favorite it still ranks 4th for me behind FVII, FFX and FFIX.
