In this video series I went 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
Whyyy?!?: Why does this card exist? Delete it immediately!
The complete original and updated ratings can be found in this Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gzE-QwRTxsyb8T-B_y-VHu677-_wFnBUcYHz7I1k3cs/edit?usp=sharing
The Rating Base Game Cards playlist can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD4OC6ci6uJ6kc8Kt8Qn8U2zd3JnSqQNt
The Preludes Tier List can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzjlicUA-ls
Follow me on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/marsexpert to catch me live streaming Terraforming Mars regularly.
Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mars_expert?t=dnhgpwAU91mJ34OcRNSXAQ&s=09 to get news, updates and more.
Intro: (0:00)
Whyyy?!?-Tier: (1:32)
F-Tier: (1:54)
D-Tier: (3:24)
C-Tier: (7:45)
B-Tier: (11:28)
A-Tier: (14:03)
S-Tier: (15:23)
What next?: (16:09)
Outro: (16:51)
source
I appreciate the effort it took to add all cards to a video in a video editor!
still think industrial microbes doesn't deserve to be there in F. But glad you moved cloud seeding, i get it in drafts 3rd and 4th spot so often and still end up playing it
Heat trappers is A tier imo, you cant say its the most impactful hate card and then place it lower than sabotage
equally, ice asteroid is absolutely A tier
Great analysis on the card ratings!
Really appreciate seeing Ecological Zone in S tier – it's such an underrated card among my peers.
Keep up the excellent content!
Love this series. It has really helped clarify my thinking on a lot of cards. Thanks so much.
I would say need a S+ tier for AI central then the worst card and the best card can have a tier to themselves. I think AI central is best base game card at least underground detonations is for sure the worst
Oh, no industrial microbes change or even rediscussing it? Really sad. It's not as unplayable as dust seals, security fleet and so on (most of the time).
Thank you for this substantive series. Not with all can I agree but I've got a lot less experience and many times you managed to convince me how good a card is. Also I think your tier system is great and quite practical. Can't wait to see all cards ranked (with some card tiers shifts due to the expansions' impact).
https://www.google.com/search?q=pronounce+ants
Great content, and a precious general benchmark to dive into the game or level up. As you explain the value of the cards varies a lot depending the situation, and that's where experience gives an edge that cannot be closed by just watching tierlists. But even with a lot of experience in the game there is something to catch in your videos. Thanks for your work !
Loved the series. Recommend to everyone I play games with! See you around
I'm going to white knight for Rover Construction here. To me, it's a combination of a lot of things that work out favorably:
-It's a cheap Building tag that in turn gives a rebate on other cards you might pay to get Builder.
-Like all relatively cheap cards, it proportionally benefits more from discounts and rebates like Earth Cat, R. Outpost, Vitor, and so on.
-Many cities come down late, so you can often turn a profit on it even with a relatively late play.
-It synergizes with Pets, Tharsis, Credicor, and Standard Project in what you might call the tagless "city combo"
-It has a VP; we estimate VPs at about 5 MC so even at full price if you get NOTHING out of it it's a net 6 MC loss. That's better than a lot of crappy cards.
It has no pre-requisite; awkward pre-reqs are a common issue for Fand D-tier cards.If you check this dataset of (I believe) games from the Board Game Arena version, RC works out to about 140th out of 200 base-game cards: https://github.com/RuneDK93/terraforming-mars-dataset/blob/main/cards.txt
That's below-average, but it's also essentially tied with several basic engine cards (Power Plant, Mine) and measurably ahead of some cards like Sponsors and Archaebacteria. To me, it's C-Tier.
I kind of agree med lab can go downa tier. I like it as step 6 or 8 on the way to Builder, or late game if Scientist is in play. Other than that though….
And Heat Trappers + Robotic? If you want to make your friends that angry, just play Diplomacy. 😀
Thank you for the whole series, I often used your ratings as a benchmark in the past two years.
I never cared much for Kelp Farming before, but I decided to play it many times, thanks to your high praise. After choosing it in the draft 10+ times, I must say, I still don't understand, why people like it so much 😀
In my games (wether it's base game online, or all the expansions with the physical copy) oceans never seem to go down earlier than the heat up, so I have never been able to play it before I could play trees, or the other, way cheaper plant prod. cards.
Great series. It made me understand the game much better. Appreciated every episode!
Kinda wild just how many cards are D-tier and under. After enough games logged you really start to feel just how irrelevant a large portion of the deck ends up being.
Makes me kinda eager to attempt a redux version with rebalanced cards someday.
I'm a 630ish elo player on BGA, so take this with whatever grain of salt this indicates. All my thoughts are for 1v1.
F Tier thoughts:
Industrial Microbes is meh, to me. I think F tier is fine, I'd probably put it in D tier, though.
D Tier thoughts:
Underground City, to me, is an F-tier card or worse. It isn't really even a steel dump with the power requirement. It's odd to me that you have this in D-tier.
Biomass Combustors, to me, is a C or even B tier card. It's cheap power with hate attached.
In my opinion, production cards are all C-tier cards, with that in view I have two thoughts on building industries and fuel factory. One thought is they help towards builder and, if you have excess power, are fine production cards. The other thought is the power requirement makes them pretty bad. With that in mind I think D tier is fine because, to me, they vary between F tier and C tier with an average being F tier most often.
Vesta, I think is a C-tier card. I'd play it early, as production, even without the Jovian bonus. It'll pay off in 6 gens, which is going to be longer than a typical game of TM, even with preludes, and titanium is more valuable than steel. It also gives some viability to Jovians.
Finally, for D tier, I'd move immigration shuttles down to "why" tier. Pays off in nearly 7 gens, but, even then, the opportunity cost of playing this could be massive. It's an awful production card with no real hidden benefit.
C tier thoughts:
I agree with your re-assessment of Breathing Filters.
IMO BfaTA is F tier for me. This card is useable in a rush strat but is difficult to play early because of that Jovian requirement. It's basically unplayable in a Jovian strat because it's too expensive for the points value. Not sure why this is in C tier, it's almost never played or playable.
Capital is also F tier for me. Too expensive.
Colonizer, Commercial District, Domed Crater, Electric Cat, ECF, the three bumpers, Pets, Strip Mine, Satellites, Symbi Fungus, and Miranda Resort are all D tier for me as well. They're all extremely expensive for what they do, or too situational. The bumpers are really good in a rush strategy but rarely work out. Pets in a 1v1 game are usually not good, vs good players. Strip mine is too expensive unless you have cheap power. Colonizer doesn't really sync up with a Jovian strat, no titanium usage and an early game point card that is prohibitively expensive.
Physics Complex is F tier for me too. This is a bait card; I'd rather let my energy roll-over and use it for heat than use this. There are rare few games where this is any sort-of useful for me and every time it's played against me the opponent would have been better served using their energy for heat bumps.
Heat trappers, to me, goes to A tier, maybe even S tier. That card is ridiculous, and you're right, occasionally a game winning card. What is A and S tier but game changing/winning cards.
I'd also move Energy trapping up to B tier. I think it's the second-best production hate card in the game. Devastating when an opponent needs that energy.
The only other card I'd move up is Industrial center. I'd make this B tier because it can be a nice, cheap, teleport and helps with landlord.
B tier thoughts:
Artificial lake, agree, maybe even lower than C tier.
Convoy from Europa, also agree, maybe even lower than C tier.
Medlab is probably C tier. Could even be D tier. It is a nice payoff going for builder, though.
Completely disagree with Soletta. This card, to me, is D tier, close to the bottom. If this gave 8 heat that'd be different but if we look at Soletta vs. cards like GHG factory and Mohole, you see the big difference. Too much heat production is a thing. This card is prohibitively expensive without preludes that help or a corp that helps. It's not enough for a heat bump alone, which is a big deal early, and if another corp is eating that heat track it's going to hurt.
I'd also move Livestock and Immigrant city down to tier C. I'm not big on cities but this is a really cheap city, so bonus to that. Livestock is usually not playable since it is usually just a few points but does have some nice payoffs.
I'd also move Hired Raiders down to C tier, I think on average this card is just that, average.
Finally, I'd move Business Contacts down to C. I think this card is bait, usually it's very expensive for a lot less impact than you'd be hoping for.
Thoughts on A tier:
I think GC, IO, and WIFE should all be C tier. Yes, they are incredible when they work, but they need a lot of pieces to work and are, on average, usually F tier cards.
Artic Algae, AGT, and Mass Converter should all be S tier cards, in my opinion. AGT is the only one that I think A tier would be appropriate, the other two are almost always incredible.
Finally, I strongly disagree with AMC being tier A, I'd have this as tier C. Very good if it works out early but incredibly expensive and falls off fast if it isn't usable early. Isn't game breaking like Heat Trappers either.
S Tier thoughts:
I think the only card I'd argue with here is TG. I'd move this to A tier. The best of the Jovian Multipliers due to the extra points.
100% agree with you for Eco-zone. This card is usually insane.
Just my thoughts, I'm just ok at the game so take this with a huge grain of salt.
But even Underground Detonations can be useful when stealing Builder or Thermalist…as you can see, at least it deserves a letter (G) 😀 Jokes aside, it should read ACTION: Remove this card from the game
Lake Mariners is ONLY A tier in 2 player games. In 3 player games all the oceans are usually placed before heat reaches 0 degrees, and then you're just paying 18+3 credits for 2 points. I consider it a low C in my 3 player games and pretty useless in even higher player counts.
Tardigrades is better than you think, I know it's slow and opportunity cost is high, but you gain precious stall action, and 2 points for 7mc.