I agree that beauty should be toned down. It’s not even just that high-ranked players use it so much, more like the other way around - i think some players rank high because they happen to own a high-level beauty. It can go on every terrain, has high hp, poison doesn’t counter it 'cause it can be healed and positioning to avoid the beam can be a nightmare. Like, at least don’t let these shots go through cover. Nothing else does. (I guess it’s fine when blast-o-matic does it 'cause that unit can’t move around so much to find the perfect spot to shoot from.)
Stabby could well be nerfed too. It’s pretty rare that it doesn’t end up trading for more (sometimes much more) than its 3 key cost what with all the small wounds it spreads around which are inefficient to heal yet can make phobies much easier to gang up on. That’s on top of its own attack and death rattle damage, which are anything but insignificant. Voodo damage down to 25% and slightly less hp would be my suggestion. BoMangles comes to mind as well, but counterplay is more readily available there and without retaliation damage the lack of mobility / reach is definitely a bigger downside overall.
Lastly, Alastor always overperforms against me, though i’m not sure if that’s just a leveling issue. Esp. on small maps with healing pools though it can utterly dominate the endgame if its user knows what he’s doing (i.e. always poking, never allowing it to be killed in 1 turn).
As for buffs, i’ve recently pulled hi-five and it always ends up sitting in my roster, looking a me. It’s 8 keys for what basically plays like and has stats in line with Sheeping Gas (double hp for double key cost, same attack value, no poison, but life leech). Could its movement go to 3 while its attack value is lowered a bit? That would make it actually threatening.
Sushi, misanthrope and thunder rocks are all pretty bad 3-cost units imo. Maybe sushi wouldn’t be if paddles wasn’t so expensive. Paddles should cost 3 keys btw. Would also help Cerberus and Hydra, which I never found all that dangerous even with these massive stats (though they are not so bad they need a buff i think).
Thunder Rocks is a very lopsided unit and fairly easy to position away from since it’s melee. So all that electrical damage pretty much never even connects. Would be better if the ratio of regular : electrical wasn’t so extreme that non-mechanical phobies can almost ignore it (currently it’s 2:5 with a base damage lower than any 1-key, except Henrietta).
Misantrophe doesn’t hit hard enough. It’s just a bigger cowbell, without the cheapness that makes cowbell occasionally useful.
I’ve had games where rusty was useful, but it could still easily cost 1 key imo.