It works well, though it can be hard to predict what happens with gem removers (they’re a lot harder to conceptualize than gem converters) so sometimes you will hand the board over with skulls to Maw if you’re not careful.
I think perhaps a combination of Spirit Fox and Dust Devil would defang Maw / Mercy with a high degree of effectiveness (though the rest of the fight would be a boring slog).
Spirit Fox is super-effective at stopping Maw/Mercy getting a flying start on you… But you need a fast or control (or both) build to capitalise on that chance and kill Maw quickly… Spirit Fox doesn’t do much damage, and denying yellows also messes up many of your own key combo troops… Playing defensively against Maw/Mercy isn’t great as (1) it’s tedious and slow and (2) the longer the game the more chance that rng will screw you over…
That’s the case with every match to some degree. Win fast or the RNG will make an inferior team beat you.
Probably true… Though in my case I only ever lose to rng-inspired maw shenanigans…
Genuinely - can only remember one match I lost in 2.0 that wasn’t a maw… That was a valk/mab team that looped on me (and I’d stupidly clicked too quickly and taken my Rowanne team into battle).
The AI must differ across versions or you guys (PC) have a functional Combo Breaker on PvP.
On Console the AI will jump you with a cascade, fill it’s Troops and get 3+ Skull drop matches on their first turn about 1 in 12 battles.
This reminds me of a point I’ve made before that counters only work on offense and even then often means serious trade-offs, which is why the “counters-not-nerfs” philosophy is of limited efficacy.
Nerfing means admitting mistakes were made. The average human has only so much humility. Sometimes you just gotta toss darts at the idea board and hope for the best.
Often it’s very difficult to anticipate all of the possible implications and combinations that come in with a new troop or mechanic, and combos or issues emerge later that won’t show up in initial thinking and testing… so nerfing or buffing is a necessary adaptive step…
Also our devs have generally been pretty open and good with the mea culpa on admitting mistakes…
That said, there are a few that were obviously too much from the start… like the cause of this thread…
Nerfing is tricky when people have spent real money directly on the nerf target. Legendaries in particular can be bought outright for $50. It’s much easier for them to indirectly nerf things by introducing counters.
Right, but it’s just business risk… for each spending person you alienate by nerfing what they spent $50 on, you might keep a dozen people playing the game and spending greater amounts, because you stopped the game being dull and broken and annoying to play…
…that kind of data would be pretty hard to deal with and analyse, I think… that ‘nerf or don’t nerf’ risk comes down to educated guesswork at best… Personally I think the devs should do their best to keep the game varied, balanced and fun, and keep the quality level high and the irritation level low, and the financials will take care of themselves…
It’s definitely not my area of expertise, but I think that especially in a litigious society like the USA, you have to be extremely careful not to be accused of bait-and-switch.
Again I’m coming across as too harsh (big surprise, amirite? 
).
I’m not attacking the development team, but the nature of their job. They are perpetually “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”. They kinda HAVE to try new things and concepts and not everything works out.
I absolutely agree. It’s a very hard balance to strike. They do a good job with the resources at their disposal.
Just an FYI, trying to litigate over something like a nerf in a game is an almost-textbook example of frivolous.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. And, tbh, the devs are among the best at this. I’m still playing this bc I haven’t found anyone better at it, and I’ve played basically every F2P mobile game anyone’s heard of.
Same here. I’ve had some F2P capture my attention for 2-3 weeks at a time but nothing has ever come close to hooking me the way this game has.
BTW, still running my Divine team and still not really having any trouble against Maw/Mercy, unless they get me with a BD skull-splosion.
By the way, you can exploit the AI to avoid getting devoured by Maw and/or Black Manacles by just leaving a match-3 skulls on the board. The AI could have beaten me just now by using Black Manacles and entirely shifting momentum of the match but instead chose to match 3 skulls, allowing me to get a chain started and wipe him out.
You’re kidding, right?
Leaving skulls when dealing with a fully traited Maw is a great way to get devoured. 
Yeah, it’ll work against Manacles, but not against a traited Maw. It’s possible @htismaqe is still at a point where Maws don’t come regularly-Mythic-and-traited.
That said, if enemy Maw gets to the point where Sandstorm is up, you bet I’ll give him skulls to munch on, to buy a bit of time before the guaranteed Devour.