Skyspear Avians I think Skyspear Avians are the strongest contender to Polar Dwarves in the current meta, which can be a sigh of relief for many players who feel that the power vacuum that is PD has become unanswered. It's not difficult to spot how SA can have an advantage over PD in this matchup - flight. Flight is critical in addressing many of the typical PD issues but two advantages stick out to me: 1) Flight gives units the ability to fly over structures - this is incredible in most games, but absolutely necessary in dealing with PD's moving fortress. PD likes to play defensively to start, then switch to counter-offensive once the Ice Ram/Glacial Shift combo has been drawn. Many factions will struggle to break through their initial defense as not many abilities in the game are tuned to deal with structures effectively. SA can easily overcome this with proper positioning - allowing their units to simply fly over any obstacles and threaten units from the flanks. In addition to this, Ava comes with 2 additional gates in her deck. PD tends to suffer from other structures as Ice Ram does not affect structures and Svara cannot move opposing structures. SA can capitalize on this by flying over the PD fortress and dropping gates to really hinder PD formation. 2) Flight gives units the ability to move 3 spaces - mobility is king in this matchup, and Svara is at a disadvantage here. Anyone who has experience with PD know the pain points of Ice Golems and having 10 structures in the deck. While Svara's ability can help keep things moving, it's not enough to keep up with mobility tempo and deal with threats popping up on the other side/flank of the board. Because of this, SA has a key advantage here - and that's their ability to shift between the west and east side of the board. Players will want to keep an eye out for turns where Svara has committed multiple structures to one side of the board - this provides a great opportunity for SA to fly over to the other side and essentially render those structures useless unless Svara wants to use 1 of 2 glacial shifts to readjust. PD has always struggled to protect their flanks because of their lack of mobility - SA has all the tools necessary to exploit this and should do so in every game. Asides from flight, another strategy that can be implemented (in isolation or tandem with the above) is to simply wage a ranged war with PD. Frost mages are absolute machines and a nightmare to deal with when positioned properly, but require a decent turn or two to properly set up. SA's answer to this is Stewards, supported by Ava and a Sage. In it's most optimal (yet practical) situation, a frost mage would sit next to 3 structures - turning it into a 4/4. Whereas a Steward would sit next to a sage and summoner - turning it into a 5/3 with the ability to 'crit' and do 4-6 damage. I've found that at 3 ranged dice, Stewards reliably hit 3-4 and has a slightly better AV at 3 ranged dice than Frost Mages at 4 ranged dice. Given the extra health that Stewards have, SA should find it very much possible to win a ranged war here. To make things even more optimal for SA, their set-up doesn't require much except 3 units to be together, which should be easy enough with 3 moves and flight, and even easier when they're already in position or turtled. Frost Mages, on the other hand, will struggle to find 3 structures all the time and will need the assistance of Svara for 1-2 turns before they can reach 'optimal' potential. Exploiting this difference using SA's mobility and ranged warfare is key to gaining value as SA and ultimately winning this matchup. Polar Dwarves Svara has likely met her greatest threat here and will need to re-think PD's traditional paths to victory. Ice-ram/Glacial shift will be even more crucial here - and the timing of this combo will make or break PD games against SA. Because of their lack of mobility, PD tends to have two modes (defensive and offensive) and lack the ability to really switch between the two. Because of this, I'll evaluate their potential advantages/disadvantages during each phase in isolation: Defensive - This is likely the natural playstyle many players will begin their PD games with. Typically, Svara would move closer to mid-field and try to retain control of the center of the board. PD players understand that mobility is their weakness and will try to situate themselves in the center to alleviate that issue. However, SA units will come with flight and the ability to easily traverse any walls Svara puts up - so PD players will need to re-evaluate if an early push to center is an optimal play. In this matchup, I feel that PD should try to play defensively in their back 3 rows and even retreat to draw the birds out onto their side of the board. The idea here is to draw SA units to your side of the board and hope that they try to capitalize on flight and overextend. Ideally, PD would play defensively until they draw the Ice Ram combo and punish SA when they overextend. However, even if the combo isn't drawn, an overextension can still really punish Ava as Svara has incredible summon versatility in the form of Ice Golems being able to be placed anywhere in the back 3 rows or next to her. With only 10 health on Ava, any damage is critical in crippling the SA flight engine and disabling their primary advantage over PD. Offensive - This isn't Svara's natural element, but tends to be her typical warpath after an Ice Ram combo pushes all of her structures/units into the enemy board. PD will need to play a tight game after pushing into SA as any empty spots within 3 range of a unit with flight is now a potential threat. Svara should seek to push behind Parapets and Gates instead of Ice Golems and units given that Sky Assault can be waiting around the corner at any given moment. Depending on the game state and how many cards are left in deck, players should consider discarding heavily for Jarmund and the draw power needed to get the second Ice Ram combo to seal the game. Until that happens, PD will find themselves struggling to outvalue the formation adjacency bonuses that SA will put out while pushing into their territory. Conclusion I think this is a fun matchup because Svara finally has a response to her typical fortress oppression. Ice Ram/Glacial Shift is still devastating, but at least SA players have the ability to quickly re-group and get back in the game afterwards. Despite many advantages SA brings to the table, Ava's low health makes Ice Ram turns extremely deadly and both players will need to plan around that. Either way, this matchup will definitely test both player's knowledge of the game as well as their ability to position and plan properly.