I think I’ve got to back up @Maxx here:
Sunbird can help a low-level account battle well outside its weight class with the right support (it doesn’t even have to be firebomb), and the battles are fast
The same is true for a troop like Rowanne (who is still phenomenal in scaling events like high-level delves, and is a lot less hard to get than High King Irongut)
What’s important to note is that this utility is retained in each case until an account no longer needs souls or traitstones because the sheer speed of explore is the best way to gather Arcanes (as farming enough glory to buy the stones you need isn’t as easy and the rotation’s unpredictable). At this point, for a F2P player, that’s probably well over a year’s worth of value.
And it’s value that then gets rolled into making other cards more valuable, through leveling and traiting.
But that’s why we need categories for Top 10s — there are just too many facets to consider for just one XD
Off the top of my head there could be a Top 10 for:
- Strongest
- Best Support
- Fastest
- Most Useful Traits
- Serves a Niche better than any other
- Early-Game MVP
- Mid-Game MVP
- End-Game must-haves (and why)