Do something about berry decks

[Player_0s4ojahr]

Berry decks are really ruining the game for me.  Not really because they're overpowered, though they are a bit, but because they are far too common.  Mostly they are common because they're overpowered.  But it's far worse that somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the battles I fight are against berry decks.  I play almost strictly zombie, and it's fairly annoying and boring to go up against the same decks almost every time.  There are a couple other really common ones, but berries definitely are the most common.  When I do play as plants, I play against a different type of zombie deck almost every single time.  I also have about 20 different themed zombie decks which I rotate through regularly, because they're all fun and mostly effective.

There are definitely other plant decks that can win, but obviously there's a reason why people stick with a few of them.  Berries are just way too consistent against most decks, even decks built around anti-berry cards.  Yes, they're beatable, but drop most of my decks that usually win ~75% of the time to ~40-50%.  And it's not good for the game to feel like you need to play one particular type of deck to counter the berries, because then the plant players have to deal with the same boring deck over and over.  Making other types of plant themes more interesting would be best, but berries could really use a little nerf, if only to push players into some of the other pretty powerful plant combos.  It also might help fix the discrepancy between how many plant players and how many zombie players there are (unless the 30 second wait vs. 3 second wait is about something else).

[UniVoidz]

I play entirely zombie, and while berry decks are common, they aren't as common for me as you describe. This is only my personal experience, so you could very well be truthful in your claim. I can't really give any advice, as people will play what they want to play, but I would recommend finding a deck that makes the experience enjoyable despite what your opponent is playing. I use a control RNG conjure Rustbolt deck where I have no way of predicting what cards I will be using. It works fine against berry decks as well, providing you have the right removal and some heals. 

[Player_0s4ojahr]

Well, that's part of the problem.  I enjoy playing a great variety of decks, most of which are plenty good against a variety of plant decks.  But berry decks are good enough against so many types of decks that they need a pretty specific strategy to beat them.  If you don't have pretty heavy removal or graves, then most decks won't succeed as berry decks have excellent removal of almost every zombie, even whole boards of gargantuans, early in the game (don't want to go through the process of getting the screenshot here right now, but I have a great one of a massive army getting trounced with just a few sun while most of their guys remained... what's the point of the Cuke when you can do that?).  They really do just cover too many angles far too well compared to most themed decks.

But, as I said, the biggest annoyance for me is really how it limits decks and is just too common (admittedly, at least in my case).  Most well-built decks will be pretty successful against most types of decks.  Partially because most cards were made with built-in weaknesses, but berries seem to have been built with the opposite in mind.  While a couple of them have weaknesses, there are few good options to take care of the Strawberrian or the Sergeant without very specific cards.

[UniVoidz]

I guess every deck will just need to include 4x Squirrel Herder

[puntwothree]

I think Srgt. Strongberry/Srgt. Strongberry is the reason why berry decks are as popular as they are, however popular that may be. It seems like it would be pretty easy to eliminate the feedback loop by wording Strongberry such that it cannot refer to damage dealt by itself (or another Strongberry).

On the other hand, I’m used to Magic where infinite feedback loops are rampant... and I also have a RNG Control deck that finds Berries ultimately way less scary that Cyclecap, as well as a Z-Mech aggro-control deck that eats berries for breakfast but fails to Rose 90% of the time (I’m guessing... I don’t keep stats). So I’m not too bothered by this meta.