The Enel Problem
I'm so tired of Enel.
In every competitive environment there is always something that gets released that is overtly powerful that draws people into the game. I get it, I understand that it bankrolls the company. Power creep will always exist.
But this is just ridiculous. Rather than allowing a deck to be powerful within the confines of the game's rules, Enel breaks them and introduces a completely new concept that the vast majority of other decks can't keep up with. Because of this, the experience is more similar to playing Yu-Gi-Oh than One Piece. Bandai clearly didn't think about all of the interactions with other cards like Reiju or Gamma knife because if they did and thought that it was acceptable after play testing, then they are absolutely uninterested in the longevity of the game.
The deck isn't even that hard to pilot, and yes I know I'm gonna get a lot of backlash on that, but it's fundamentally too powerful even in the hands of new players. Don't get me wrong it's an extremely hard deck to master and there's a big difference between the two. A deck being so powerful that it feels easy to win on yet has an enormous skill ceiling is poor game design at best.
After playing 10 plus years of League of Legends, I can definitively tell you that I'm used to bullshit being overpowered and completely ruining the experience for everyone. The problem with Enel specifically is that, yes, they require a high level of skill to pilot them in pro play but because of the power level that the deck innately has anyone can pick it up and succeed with relative ease. It's Imu all over again but it just looks harder than it actually is.
You don't need to be good at the deck in order to utilize its base power in a way that completely shuts out the vast majority of other decks. You just exist in a space of "do I get the combo I need to freeze? Or do I get the combo to remove?" He has access to EVERYTHING. Early aggro, Unremovable 6c 10k bodies, Power Reduction, Trash Recycling, Freeze, Rest, Baby Gum Gum Giant, Cycle, Rush, Double Attack, Hand Rip, Blockers, Search ANYTHING...etc.
No deck should be able to utilize all color attributes, let alone have almost every card cost zero due to leader effect. Not to mention the majority of cards replace themselves in hand. So now, instead of other purple decks being able to utilize any of these overpowered events, they are effectively leader locked to the most impactful leader in the game. Using them at the moment they are most effective puts other purple decks off curve, while Enel stays exactly where he wants to be.
Now mind you, I really like the concept behind Enel as a leader. I love when companies experiment with never before seen
Methods for players to interact with the game. But it's not feasible to play anything outside of decks that have very specific interactions that are powerful enough to deal with him. He's the gate keeper for new and interesting deck designs that the game desperately needs. The same thing happened with Imu and before that it was UP Luffy. These decks feel bad to play against because they are "non-interactable".
What I mean is that at a certain point when playing against Enel you lose your agency as a player. This is because Enel's deck is specifically designed to remove your ability to make decisions.
Here's an example: You played a 5 cost card that has KO negation. You played this card with the specific intent to protect your board. That is the decision that you made based off of the cards provided to you by Bandai. Enel doesn't care. He will just gamma knife it into mamaragan and kill it anyways.
Let's look at it from the opposite direction. You play cards that give you advantage when they are K.O.'d. So you think maybe this will put him in a position to not try to interact with your board. Well he has an answer for that as well, by freezing them with lightning dragon or just removing them outright regardless. Most Enels just don't care.
Enel at his core is a control deck disguised as an aggro package. He removes the ability for you to make decisions in the game in a way that is far more toxic than Lucci was at his peak. It's like playing Rock Paper Scissors with somebody who has a gun.
So how do we fix this?
If Enel is this overpowering God level deck that can only be beaten with certain types of gimmicks how do we make the game playable again?
**Pair ban Gamma Knife**
Out of everything that is broken with the deck the most insane interactions all take place when he is able to reduce your characters by 5000. With the way his leader effect works every DON negative effect simply doesn't impact him. This makes Gamma knife the single most oppressive card in the entire deck, and it has absolutely zero downsides. Most purple decks can't run this card because they can't make up for the reramp needed on the turn that it is most valuable. But Enel can use this card every turn after his third, and it fundamentally breaks the games.
It turns 5-7c cards into 1-3k power range which is perfect for his Vassals to swing into, and almost everything else into mamaragan, lightning, removal...etc. range.
By removing this card it makes almost ALL of his cards less powerful and in turn gives you the agency to choose how you want to approach the matchup... at least by a little. I think there's arguments to be made for other nerfs like 4c Reiju or even banning Mamaragan outright, but in my opinion this is the most fair and simple way to put Enel in a much more balanced position.