Amatera Sentry
In terms of design, Sentry is a classic samurai, but the flavor is a bit mismatched: Why would a sentry leave its post to duel enemies? Why does he duel two units? (Because he has two swords? Probably, yeah.)
Expensive units with actives will always be uncertain includes, but Sentry’s ability to remove two enemy units while leaving a 5 ATK body shouldn’t be underestimated. The closest comparison for Sentry is [[Lich]], which can create more value but comes in a turn slower and removes only 1 unit per duel. This makes Sentry the Duelist of choice for midrange decks that want to stymie go-wide aggro decks. It won’t define any decks on its own, but it may be a valuable tool for slower Strength decks against fast builds like 1-ATK Ash. It’s place in the meta will depend on whether a straightforward midrange deck can form around its value.

Dunewalker Scout
Scout is an intelligent, balanced take on flexible tutors in Collective. Consistency is one of the most important factors when building a top tier build, and tutors in collective have always been controversial because of this. [[Baaaked Bun Broker]], [[Purrlock]], and [[Tall Tale Fisherman]] all see play as staples in their respective decks because they unconditionally draw important cards. Scout is less specific than its companions, which makes it more AND less viable as a combo piece. If you build a deck with 1 or 2 important actions, perhaps some variant of N3ON Brew, Scout can fetch them up for you with very little investment outside of deck building.
This type of combo-focused build loses consistency from its tutors by including removal like [[Incendium]] and [[Falling Star]]; then again, a 2 mana unit with the ability “Summon: Draw a Falling Star” would be an auto include in any deck. Scout is a card to watch out for, and I fully expect it to shoot up to top tier once someone figures out how to break it.

Lady Tyche
If you choose to ignore N3ON Brew, Drawgerdy is one of the most dominant decks in the current meta thanks to the recent inclusions of [[Greg]] and [[Nightmare Carnival]]. Tyche’s introduction pushes this deck to new heights, triggering [[Greg]] as well as [[Prince of Corals]] and [[Spike Shooter]]. Even better, Tyche helps decks dig for removal and combo pieces quickly, and turns any Star Chips and Prototypes in hand into card advantage. Just watch out that she doesn’t ruin your own game plan, as she occupies a slightly awkward mana slot and can shuffle away key removal if you don’t use it in the moment. As a defining piece of the Drawgerdy engine and a powerful fish enabler, she’ll continue to see play until these decks are properly challenged.

Moorgan Le Frog
Moorgan is a clever design with the beautiful froggy face we all know and love. While at first her ability may seem confused, it all comes together with the frog gameplay to create a strong roleplayer in the deck. Moorgan is another potential roleplayer for the midrange strength archetype we saw with Sentry. With the ability to basically save any unit from removal or death by dueling, Moorgan’s active is gamewarpingly threatening. She also slides neatly into the beloved Frog deck, Quest or no Quest, and pushes the tribe ever closer towards critical mass. Her only downside is her weak body and awkward mana cost. We’ll see how far she can push her archetype, but the current meta may be too hostile to Frogs.

Moro Gajima
In terms of design, Moro is at first difficult to understand. The token creation coming after his “summon” seems unintuitive, but it actually incentivizes the player to flicker Moro rather than just play him for the summon. Moro does a lot of different things - he can remove units, he’s a big beater, and he creates sort of card advantage - but his dilettante nature causes him to lack a defined role. Sacrificing two cards from hand for removal doesn’t feel right to a control deck that wants to maximize value from cards in hand.
Moro’s best synergy is with [[Fast Ricky]], who turns him into repeatable removal on a 7/7 body, but I’m not sure that’s enough to make the Casino deck function quite yet. Perhaps he will find his place in an up and coming flicker archetype with [[Blinkbug]] and a card from this week. Because he is so expensive, Moro is unlikely to see play at the moment, but could have potential with [[Vanishing Act]] and the like.

Ninja of the Forge
Fast is a mechanic that many in the subreddit and discord alike have been wary of. Finally, the seal is broken, and a fast card enters the game unlike any we have seen before. Be on the lookout for equipment decks like old Buffmaw, centering around buffing a single unit until it is unkillable and takes over the game. There are no cheap ways to give Ward at instant speed yet, so [[Consume]] and hard removal are still strong counters to this strategy, but the damage based removal run in the current fast combo decks will be less effective against Fast speed [[Heirloom Platemail]] and [[Charm Mender]]. The meta is likely a bit too fast for Ninja at the moment, but if it slows down enough, Ninja is poised to become a serious game changer.

Rtokk, High Warlord
Powercreep is inevitable in any card game. Long gone are the days of Lizabo tribal, and its signature card [[Lizabo War Tent]] has fallen by the wayside. Rtokk, however, has not given up, and will build a War Tent bigger than anyone has ever seen… if it doesn’t get [[Consume]]d, of course.
Jokes aside, Rtokk is an interesting value engine for the classic Lizabo tribal deck. In terms of design, Rtokk is an A+ card. The roman centurion theme, the art, the growing war tent, everything about this card makes sense and screams flavor. It doesn’t seem like much, but +2 ATK adds up fast, and a 13+ ATK [[Lizabo Ripper]] is a serious threat to even the durdliest control deck. There’s no real deck shell for Lizabo as of current, but when it happens, Rtokk may be a central card for turning the board presence of Lizabo into a victory. I’m a huge fan of this purple lizard lady.

Spring Sword
Spring Sword is simple, effective, and fun, three pillars of good design. However, the sword just doesn’t do enough to justify a place for itself in the meta. Leap is a weak keyword, with only fringe applications due to the overall lack of fliers in Collective. At best, this card helps a slow deck like Dhat Goodstuff defend against a beefy Cassiel, but its best case scenario is as a clutch draft in a tough matchup. I don’t see this card showing up in too many decks in the near future.

Undying Brute
As a design, Brute is quite elegant. The “Can’t Block” clause makes it a purely aggressive unit, mitigating the chance of board stalls and defensive recursion tricks. It’s a great way to make repeatable graveyard recursion work, AND it works perfectly with graveyard buffs, which Undead have previously had trouble designing around.
Undead never really bounced back as an archetype since [[Cryptcrawler Zakkar]]’s nerf. Perhaps an aggressive swarming tactic could be the way to go, with the previous inclusion of [[Nekomancer]], [[Bloated Shambler]], and now Brute. Brute’s ability to continue attacking from the graveyard makes it the prime candidate for a low-to-the-ground Buluc deck built around cheap zombies like [[Relentless Undead]] and the [[Clattering Return]] package. Buluc loves any way to trigger his passive, and Brute is very very good at attacking with friends, but we’ll see how things shake out going forward.

Vanishing Act
Vanishing Act is a powerful, powerful card. On-initative, it can protect your combo pieces from any kind of removal. Off-initiative, it flickers Ronin for massive damage. And to top it all off, it has Rebound. This card is begging to break the meta, and if the current N3ON Brew decks don’t need it, decks running any sort of unit-based combo will. My personal favorite interaction is to run it alongside [[Fusion Protocol]] for repeatable draw and removal, but it works just fine in Dhat Goodstuff and Heldim Flying to protect the value engines. Vanishing Act is a fun, if not terrifying, card, and I’ll be sliding it in whatever deck I can fit it in.