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In this video series I go through all the base-game cards and rate them based on their strength and combo potential. Do you agree with my ratings? If not, let me know in the comments!
Rating Scheme:
S: gamebreakingly strong in most situations or never pass
A: gamebreakingly strong in some situations, very strong otherwise or cannot be passed sometimes
B: very strong in some situations, strong otherwise or avoid passing
C: strong in some situations, mediocre otherwise or avoid passing in some situations
D: mediocre in some situations, weak otherwise
F: complete garbage
All ratings so far can be found in this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gzE-QwRTxsyb8T-B_y-VHu677-_wFnBUcYHz7I1k3cs/edit?usp=sharing
Intro: (0:00)
Small Animals – B: (0:16)
Soil Factory – F: (1:20)
Solar Power – D: (2:29)
Solar Wind Power – B: (3:03)
Soletta – B: (3:56)
Outro: (5:26)
source
Soletta is REALLY difficult to evaluate. While it does represent a crazy points conversion rate if played early, the relative production cost compared to other cards really blunts that efficiency. Plus, if you don't get to 8 HProd or get hit by Trappers, you've really kicked yourself in the shins.
Furthermore, it's not that unsafe to pass to opponents, as it makes them vulnerable to similar counterplay.
Moreover, you can counter Soletta by prioritizing powerful cards that have mid-high temp reqs and punish your opponent by either forcing them to lose out on TR production value by holding their heat or by dropping a powerful plant card like trees on them.
Furthermore, the heat rush strategy is also countered by playing cards that take away potential temp bumps like DD, Huge Asteroid, GSA, Volc, etc and those are all already very good cards you are likely to take and play as well – base game has only one heat outlet and Caretaker Contract is very mediocre.
In short, it's a card that looks good but is countered by so many things that I think putting all your eggs in a G1 Soletta basket is just asking to be punished for it.
Thanks, looking forward to more rating!
While I understand the value over time it represents, I think Soletta is not a great card, unless you are Helion or have quite alot of expendable titanium. Look at it compared to another card that you (I think correctly) rate fairly low: immigration shuttles. If each is played turn 1, then immigration shuttles will, on the average in a 9 gen game, yield 5 * 8 = 40 income and 3 points. Soletta starts yielding on gen 4, and cascades income 1+2+3+4+5+6 = 21 , and 6 pts. As you've discussed yourself, gold is better early, and points are better later, so in this sense, Soletta somewhat goes against that premise by having very delayed income generation.
In terms of development, this is overall worse that shuttles, I think, and it costs more than the aforementioned shuttles as well. And if you actually want to collect the few free points of heat and the water bonus, which is often gone by the time you reach it on the heat anyway, then you can't even use the heat you generate with soletta consistently as you get it, unless the other players are cooperating. Yes, it does give you some ability to determine the end of the game, but if other players are using their money on something else and doing so efficiently, they will always be ahead of you, and you'll be contributing to their win. The range of card variance in the game might mean that some amount of games you'll still win while playing Soletta, but I think overall this is a hole in your otherwise very sound card evaluations (in my opinion).
So in conclusion, I think this is actually a C or D card, that people just overestimate. But again, this is just my opinion, and I have tried my best to lay out some understanding of why I believe it. I actually wonder if there are some hard statistics to evaluate various scenarios and how often Soletta wins in those scenarios. I'd love to see it. Especially wins who used Soletta, and what they did and prioritized otherwise.
Thanks so much for your tier list contributions – I really enjoy your videos.