The issue isn't pushed non-talented cards. It's the fact that talented heroes' abilities haven't required enough reliance on talented cards. Now, that may be less true for MST heroes, but it was absolutely the case for heroes from ELE. (Oldhim is the arguable exception to this.) Top-tier Lexi and Briar decks weren't interested in doing elemental things; instead, they did non-talented Ranger and Runeblade things, but better. Lexi abused arrow on-hits with her access to go again via Voltaire, and Briar exploited Channel Mount Heroic by playing a deck full of zero-cost, generic attacks. Even Iyslander was oftentimes better off playing vanilla cards like Wounded Bull and Fyendal's Fighting Spirit than leaning into Elemental Wizard spells. Lowering the power level of non-talented and generic cards can't be the answer, though. Otherwise, you end up catching non-talented heroes in the crossfire (e.g., Katsu post Bonds, or Azalea post Bracers). The better approach is to tie talented heroes' abilities to their respective talent card pools. Imagine Voltaire, but with go again requiring lightning fusion. Or imagine Embodiment of Earth, but with defense amplification for Earth cards rather than non-attack actions. I think LSS has done a better job at this recently, with Fai being a particularly good example. He cares about draconic chain links and playing wide attack chains, both hallmarks of the draconic talent.
The borders aren't related to the talents. They're based on where the hero is at in Rathe. If you look at Uzuri (young), she has the Mistveil border. Meanwhile, adult Azuri, has the Pits border (like all Arakni). Then if you look at Boltyn and Dori, both from Solana, have the same border. Brevant has the same border too. At least I'm pretty sure about this.
On the topic of talenting old heroes. Always thought it would be cool if talents were modal and in deck building could be chosen. You take some handicap but gain the talent. Like Shadow Bravo, shadow means i start the game with x less health but I can have n shadow cards in my deck now. Cards obviously are not designed for this but would of been a cool deck cooking thing that people dont really get too much in FaB compared to other TCGs.
I think that the pool of nontalented heroes in CC should soley be there for the class to have a fall back buy for when the other heroes LL. If you view zen as just being the talented katsu and we have katsu as not a meta player, but a fall back for ninjas for that inbetween time another talented ninja comes out then the power level and flavor of the "classic heroes" make sense. New nontalented heroes should be made for when they want to take the class in a slightly different direction. victor fails for me from a design point of view because he doesnt shift the concept of what a guardian does, but kassai does work because you have a classic warrior (dori) and a new base hero (kassai) that gives a new core way to play warrior (dual wield).
One design choice I see as a problem is keeping with a class identity. For instance, it seems to me all of the ninjas designed so far have had the same identity, go wide rushdown. I was actually hoping MST would introduce a katana wielding ronin kind of identity perhaps designed to be more like Uzuri to fight dirty and without honor.
I don't think the dichotomy between talented and non-talented heroes is actually a problem or a design constraint. Easy design choices that could avoid issues is lock pushed cards behind specializations. Or force talented heroes into their talent, like Boltyn.
Untalented heroes end up being bad, or getting enough specs that they might as well be 'talented' since they've got a huge pool of cards exclusive to them. I really agree that LSS should just look to printing way more talented heroes than untalented. The only classes that aren't overshadowed by a talent is Warrior/Brute because Levia/Boltyn (and the class as a whole) were terrible for ages, and Mech because... it doesn't have a talent (Mechlovossen doesn't count.)
Plague talent would have been perfect
The issue isn't pushed non-talented cards. It's the fact that talented heroes' abilities haven't required enough reliance on talented cards. Now, that may be less true for MST heroes, but it was absolutely the case for heroes from ELE. (Oldhim is the arguable exception to this.) Top-tier Lexi and Briar decks weren't interested in doing elemental things; instead, they did non-talented Ranger and Runeblade things, but better. Lexi abused arrow on-hits with her access to go again via Voltaire, and Briar exploited Channel Mount Heroic by playing a deck full of zero-cost, generic attacks. Even Iyslander was oftentimes better off playing vanilla cards like Wounded Bull and Fyendal's Fighting Spirit than leaning into Elemental Wizard spells.
Lowering the power level of non-talented and generic cards can't be the answer, though. Otherwise, you end up catching non-talented heroes in the crossfire (e.g., Katsu post Bonds, or Azalea post Bracers). The better approach is to tie talented heroes' abilities to their respective talent card pools. Imagine Voltaire, but with go again requiring lightning fusion. Or imagine Embodiment of Earth, but with defense amplification for Earth cards rather than non-attack actions. I think LSS has done a better job at this recently, with Fai being a particularly good example. He cares about draconic chain links and playing wide attack chains, both hallmarks of the draconic talent.
Micheal becoming zen
AH bald michael jumpscare
The borders aren't related to the talents. They're based on where the hero is at in Rathe. If you look at Uzuri (young), she has the Mistveil border. Meanwhile, adult Azuri, has the Pits border (like all Arakni). Then if you look at Boltyn and Dori, both from Solana, have the same border. Brevant has the same border too.
At least I'm pretty sure about this.
On the topic of talenting old heroes. Always thought it would be cool if talents were modal and in deck building could be chosen. You take some handicap but gain the talent. Like Shadow Bravo, shadow means i start the game with x less health but I can have n shadow cards in my deck now. Cards obviously are not designed for this but would of been a cool deck cooking thing that people dont really get too much in FaB compared to other TCGs.
I think that the pool of nontalented heroes in CC should soley be there for the class to have a fall back buy for when the other heroes LL. If you view zen as just being the talented katsu and we have katsu as not a meta player, but a fall back for ninjas for that inbetween time another talented ninja comes out then the power level and flavor of the "classic heroes" make sense.
New nontalented heroes should be made for when they want to take the class in a slightly different direction.
victor fails for me from a design point of view because he doesnt shift the concept of what a guardian does, but kassai does work because you have a classic warrior (dori) and a new base hero (kassai) that gives a new core way to play warrior (dual wield).
One design choice I see as a problem is keeping with a class identity. For instance, it seems to me all of the ninjas designed so far have had the same identity, go wide rushdown. I was actually hoping MST would introduce a katana wielding ronin kind of identity perhaps designed to be more like Uzuri to fight dirty and without honor.
I dont understand why they dont just ban cards for specific heros.
Would solve so many problems.
I don't think the dichotomy between talented and non-talented heroes is actually a problem or a design constraint. Easy design choices that could avoid issues is lock pushed cards behind specializations. Or force talented heroes into their talent, like Boltyn.
Sonata Arcanix and Sow tomorrow both seem really good in Florian... I mean, both auto-banish themselves.
Untalented heroes end up being bad, or getting enough specs that they might as well be 'talented' since they've got a huge pool of cards exclusive to them. I really agree that LSS should just look to printing way more talented heroes than untalented. The only classes that aren't overshadowed by a talent is Warrior/Brute because Levia/Boltyn (and the class as a whole) were terrible for ages, and Mech because... it doesn't have a talent (Mechlovossen doesn't count.)
If they wanted, they could just print equipment specializations for untalented heroes saying "If this is equipped, your hero has talent X." Et voila.
Should Spirit of Erina be an arena talented card