Mechanics review : What is symmetry ?

There are a lot of new and interesting conditions brought to the game recently. Let's look at them and see how they do. Starting with Symmetry.

Symmetry and Asymmetry are two mechanics that came together. I wanted at first to release one article to cover both, but I finally decided against it : the two mechanics work extremly differently.

Note : "the symmetrical card" will mean "the opponent's card in front of your card with Symmetry". And "the assymetrical cards" for "the opponent's cards not in front of your card with Symmetry".

Symmetry is given to a card with the base stats you would expect of a card a level above.  At first the ability was good/average (see Evlyn maycry), but it is changing : X-panse 3 has been recently added to EFC with level 4 base stats and a broken ability.

The Symmetry ability is ment to never be activated : See the Symmetry skill as cherrry on top rather than the essence of the card.

Isn't having an ability that never activates pointless ? Not at all : this ability will restrict how the opponent plays.

Symmetry going first vs going second
you are going first, you open with a card other than the one with Symmetry. If your opponent wants to make sure he doesn't activate the Symmetry he has two choices : play the symmetrical card in front of the Symmetry on turn one, or during the last two turns in the turn, in the turn the Symmetry card is not played.
Your Symmetry ability basically cut your opponent from opening the symmetrical card during turn two, force it early, or lets YOU decide in which order he will have to play his card turn 3 and 4.

- if you go second, the Symmetry becomes so much more powerful as you fully control round 3 and 4. With Asymmetry, your opponent now have to play the symetrical card the second turn. That is HUGE !

As we can see, the Symmetry skill becomes even more valuable when going second.

 

Opening Symmetry, and Symmetry vs Symmetrical
You can open with the Symmetry card. What this does is either fully cancel the opposite card in front (in case of a SOB or SOA or it dares the opponent to play the card in front (ie X-panse).

Keep in mind your opponent is not mandated to deactivate your Symmetry. He can choose to intentionally play into it if he thinks it is the most judicious : for instance he can pillz a Robb cr against your Xpanse to make sure she does not go through.

Using Symmetry as a counter ?
There is a time where Symmetry will shine very bright : against cards with conditions :
Symmetry eats Courage alive.
Reprisal, Confidence, Revenche : your opponent will most likely have only two chance to play the card with it's skill on, and you remove one of those chances. If you have another card that counter this skill (for instance an SOA), you now stopped your opponent from using it's skill.
If you dont open, Symmetry becomes a pain for Growth cards or late game cards (like C-Ortez' backclash) : they dont want to be played at turn 2.
With it's high stats, Symmetry are fine into SOAs.

Of course the Symmetry card has to land in front of them, and keep in mind playing cards to counter something specifique is not that valuable in this game (outside of Dominion or if your deck struggle to a particular bonus).


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Conclusion
The experience I have with X-panse 3 is that Symmetry card will almost never trigger it's in game effect. But it will have a very big out of game effect by forcing the opponent to play around it. Judging how valuable that out of game effect is is impossible to do. 

The issue those Symmetry cards have is that the competition is rought : How would you rate Xpanse's ability to force the opponent to play a certain way compare to Predatr's stop opponent ability that will activate every game ? How would you rate Ibanez compared to Eebiza3 ? It is impossible to do the math for that.
For that reason, Symmetry cards may never see play, or one day will see a lot of play after a top player uses them.

And you ? What is your experience with Symmetry. If you try them you can always dm me your thoughts. And make sure to go to https://climatefresk.org/