This is not talked about enough.
This Duels treasure is incredibly broken and makes me want to not plays Duels at all. Can not even be compared to other treasures, but for the sake of argument, I will try.
Most other treasures work by enhancing your resources which you still have to spend in order to benefit from them , in other words, at least you need to play some cards (often with specific effects or types) to see the effects of those treasures.
I know that there is a mantra of “some treasures are more powerful than others”, but the super powerful ones are also either niche in terms of the effect, rare to come by, or both. There is a separated pool of ultra rare treasures with powerful effects, like Double Time or Stargazing, and evidently this deus ex machina of a treasure is not in there. It’s also ridiculous because I’d rather have Party Replacement instead of any of those rarer treasures.
This treasure appears more regularly, and if you’re not lucky to have it this run, well good luck. I see it offered to me every 3-4 runs on avg., as well as face people with it at LEAST once or twice per run, and it is super common to see such people in 7+ wins, since you can bet that anyone with this treasure dwells in those higher win queues.
So let’s compare this treasure with some others in its treasure pool and rarity - which do not require any of your resources to work. There is a small amount of them:
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Book of Wonders: At the start of the game, shuffle 10 ‘Scrolls of Wonder’ into your deck. — Not only do you have to draw until you draw these scrolls, but the effects they can produce are so varied and inconsistent, that you’d rather not even take this treasure if anything more consistent is offered to you. In fact, this one can actively harm you.
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Caltrops: After your opponent plays a minion, deal 1 damage to it. — A constant and decent effect, to be sure, but ultimately ends up not mattering much except maybe versus some rogue and paladin decks. A lot of time, you end up activating frenzy and enrage effects with it for your opponent, and not being able to even reap this 1 damage consistently since a ton of available effects summon minions onto the board, instead of having the enemy play them directly (see: Party Replacement).
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From The Swamp: After the first enemy dies each turn, raise a 1/3 Bloated Zombie. — Technically a constant effect that requires none of your resources to work, since the enemy could kill their own minions too, but generally, you’re gonna need to commit to removal and trade in order to get this to work, thus still use resource. And you get a 1/3 zombie without any effect. Decent in the early game if you can trigger it a couple times, and for popping divine shields or acting as targets for buffs, but that requires a deck crafted around swarming.
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Legendary Loot: At the start of the game, equip a Legendary weapon. — Swingy card, for sure, but it’s also very inconsistent and guarantees a limited amount of worth, sometimes just 2 hits, before it goes out of durability and you’re done with it.
And that’s it, those are the only treasures adjacent to Party Replacement in rarity and pool tier, that generate value out of nothing. All other effects require you to use your own cards to reap their benefits, and many of them have further restrictions.
Would you like any of those effects above, or a 2/2 body with an extra effect, free of cost, EVERY turn?
I thought so.
Not to mention it also combos extremely well with other treasures such as: Meek Mastery, Captured Flag, Recycling, Cannibalism, From The Swamp, Spreading Saplings, etc.
This card needs to be either made extremely extremely rare, which would just reduce the amount of encounters against it but not do anything about its balance, or given some extra condition to work. Or they could design ‘Noobie’ adventurers which have 1/1 instead of 2/2 and the same effects. Even then, it would be oppressive, but not as much as the 2/2 versions are.
As it is right now, I’ve lost interest in playing Heroic Duels at all.
You can meme that duels is made to be imbalanced and this fits the theme and shouldn’t be changed - but even among the large repertoire of ‘broken’ and wonky effects that Duels treasures let you do, Party Replacements shines way above all else as being a 0 effort and thought win booster, as it quite simply doesn’t require you to do ANYTHING or spend ANY resources or cards to gain massive value except pick it, and start a game. And it fits into literally every deck.
They removed treasures from Duels in the past, this would be no exception if they did it. Even if you look at Lunar Band, Robes of Gaudiness and Sandy Surprise - I’d rather have Party Replacement than those ones too…
If you don’t want to completely remove it, at least do something about the effect, it shouldn’t stay in its current form.
Duels is a niche game mode as it is, and this thing is making no one happy.
Even when I do get it, I take it, and farm up a bunch of free rewards because otherwise I’d feel stupid if I didn’t - but I also feel like I didn’t deserve any of those rewards or wins that I got due to it, and I’m quite bummed out. It’s just an unsatisfying card to play with or against.