Why Tech and Razorback should be nerfed

Recently, I wrote a guide on how to beat Tech by which I believe most Tech players can be beat relatively comfortably. And in my beginner deck guide, I strongly recommended non-Tech decks.

Yet, today I'm going to make the case on nerfing Tech, and also on nerfing the newest Rivals unit, the Razorback.

Why Tech should be nerfed

My key arguments to nerf Tech are:

1. Tech is too widespread in lower leagues, reducing the diversity of play there massively. The reason is that Tech is actually hard to beat with non-Tech if you are not already a pretty experienced player.  If all you do is play Tech vs Tech, you won't even discover a huge part of Rivals as a new player. This is bad for the new player experience, and bad for the experience of 90% of Rivals players who are in lower leagues. Some data to corroborate my claim: I had a look into C&C TV and counted how many decks contain Tech units:
• Tiberium League: 24 of 60 decks
• Master League: 44 of 60 decks 
• Diamond League: 56 of 60 decks
• Platinum League: 56 of 60 decks
• Gold League: 59 of 60 decks
2. The argument that "you can easily beat tech" is flawed. Good players can beat many Tech players because they are better than the opponent and make fewer mistakes. But good Tech players like NaturalSky are hard to beat. And even tournaments see more Tech play nowadays, as you know the map in advance and can chose Tech decks for fitting maps. As you can see below in the video, the best players in the world chose Mammoth, Avatar and Artillery decks High Tiberium league the only part of Rivals that is mostly tech-free because Tech is bad on some maps, so not ideal for mixed map pools on ladder. That's why many top players, playing in High Tiberium league, might underestimate the problem that Tech is for the vast majority of players.
3. Playing against Tech isn't much fun. It too polarized. Your first job is to prevent the opponent from delaying the game. Your second job is to prepare for the first tech unit to come out. If you don't do your job well, you have often lost the game.
4. Tech play isn't "just another playstyle", it's a worse playstyle. Real-time strategy games live from the interaction between players (micro and decision making under pressure) and good real-time strategy games have the option of counterplay at any stage of the game. Tech often takes this away, as esp units like Mammoth allow little counterplay. In "aggro vs aggro" games, there's nearly always a way to fight yourself back from a disadvantage. Against many Tech decks, there isn't. This is not a good experience for players.

Tech. Tech everywhere!

How to nerf tech? Two options that are often suggested are:

1. Roll back the Tech buff from the July balance patch that made the Tech Lab / Temple of Nod cheaper.
2. Nerf the strongest Tech units that allow the least counterplay. This would be especially Mammoth Tank, Artillery, and to a lesser degree Zone Troopers, Sandstorm and Avatar. 

The issue is that both even might not be nearly enough to tackle the amount of tech that is played in lower leagues. That's why I'm for one of the three following, more radical options:

1. Nerf more Tech units beyond the ones that are also very strong in tournament play. Yes, this makes them even less viable for tournaments or the top of the ladder, but I would prioritize the needs of the lower leagues here. Tech is not needed in high Tiberium.
2. Major rework of Tech, where the Tech Lab / Temple of Nod are possibly even cheaper (e.g. 60-70 cost), but all the Tech units are "scaled down" significantly, e.g. with -40% hitpoint / damage reductions and -25% cost reductions (numbers possibly should be very different, these are just illustrative).
3. My secret favorite: Rework the Tiberium economy. Currently, the Tiberium income significantly accelerates throughout the game. This could e.g. be capped, so that there is no further acceleration after 90 seconds. This leaves the ability untouched to bring out your first tech unit, but makes it harder to "spam" tech units afterwards.

For as long as Tech isn't nerfed, we all have to deal with it.

Why Razorback should be nerfed

The Razorback is a stronger version of the Chem Buggy in that it's more survivable, more maneuvarable and is better at holding/capturing decks. It dominated the recent Smackdown Tournament. The winner, srpss, certainly is one of the best players in the game. But if you watch the games, you see the Razorback's strength. For this, Omeleet did a great video where he combined and commented the Razorback videos from this tournament:

Omeleet's video on the Razorback in the Smackdown tournament

Razorback is often compared to the Chem Buggy, as both are 60-cost anti-infantry specialists with the raider ability (i.e. moving while shooting). Why is the Razorback much stronger than the Chem Buggy?

• Razorback about the same hitpoints, surviving two full bike volleys. Yet, air hitpoints are much more valuable compared to vehicle hitpoints, as ground units can be engaged by a wider range of units (and if just for chip damage), and ground units can be blocked easier
• Chem Buggy can move through your own units with Raider, but Razorback can do that also with opponent units. Thus, it's much more manveuverable at engaging and escaping. This makes it e.g. much better against snipers, as can be seen in the third game in Omeleet's video.
• Being air also, it allows the Razorback to better capture/contest pads, as can be seen in the first game in Omeleet's video.
• Factory anti-air units usually carry a lighter punch compared to factory anti-factory. As Nod, you e.g. need Bikes, and they are weaker against Razorback than Scorpion Tank is against Chem Buggy.
• Speaking about Scorpion Tank: Knowing that your opponent plays Chem Buggy gives you the option to deliberately put in Scorpions and/or Laser Drones as effective counters. The Razorback does not have such an effective counter. Phantom doesn't even one-shot it, and has trouble engaging the Razorback often, as the latter is sorrounded by other units (e.g. Missile Squads) that damage the Phantom and prevent it from finding a free hex quick enough to fire it's volley on the Razorback
• Lastly, it's synergy with GDI commanders is higher than Chem Buggy's synergy with Nod commanders. Jackson is better than Oxanna, as the latter makes the already vulnerable Chem Buggy even more squishy. Liang is very good with Razorback, as Razorback being fast air can often escape with low hitpoints and heal back up behind the lines
• Razorback works better with Mammoth as a superunit, by flipping out Droneswarm in the classic "Air Mammoth" deck. Mammoth already is stronger than Avatar, and Avatar / Factory play doesn't have a comparable synergy to the Air Mammoth deck (as it's better to combine air with a ground-based super unit). You can see this Razorback-Mammoth deck being shown in the above video at timestamp 11:30.

How to nerf Razorback? I think the issue is that it's beefy, fast, air and high damage at the same time. I'm not sure what the best nerf would be, but I would start with either a damage nerf, or a hitpoint nerf. Rather small nerfs in the order of magnitude of -10% on either hitpoints or infantry damage. In addition, a vehicle damage nerf seems a good way to at least reduce it's versatility a bit.

What's your view? Discuss on Reddit.