I think Illusionist has a decent synergy with minotaur and samurai. I need more experimentation to know for sure, though. The cost is really good, I currently treat it as an odd version of Gemini/GeminiTwin due to its morale effect.
Assuming @zlefin is truthful of having 10k blood, he probably just played daily challenges for about 2 years without changing his deck for PvP. I mean, not even considering lootboxes and other rewards, the free daily challenges would give 10k blood in two years.
@Username_taken12 you're certainly right poison mage and wizard are bad, but they're also one of the easiest pieces to learn/use when starting out, especially against the AI (which is the main opponent until you get past 1800ish rating.
First: I rate this game 10/10 for PERFECT game balance. I think wizard, poisonmage, dryad, and necromancer are slightly undervalued/OP, but only by a half-point (and they all have obvious weaknesses anyways).
Game tip summary for starters:
Easy pieces to use against AI are: bomber,snake, spearman,axeman,pawn,sylph,militia,princess, poisonmage,rook,dryad,paladin,necromancer, airElemental,queen,bishop. AI is especially bad against poison,bombers, sylph/airElemental,princess. Unlock Daily Challenges ASAP because it's main way to get coins/gems. As a general rule, higher tier pieces are better for their value by half-point. Poisonmage4 is especially good, and a month of arcane chests easily unlocks it. AI is REALLY bad against bombers as of 2020nov11 so use it as anti-AI insurance policy in your deck if you hate the AI.Play at around 2am EST to avoid other players and fight botAI more. I farm bot AI for pts. at that time.
If I ever need a VM or emulator, it will be specifically to play this game and Epic Battle Fantasy 5. Just these 2 flash games. They have been, and will always be, my only favorite games.