In 11 days from today, the Legions SRL list will be seeing a scheduled update to shake up the meta, and push down some over performing decks. But what decks will be hit, how, and why?

For anyone unfamiliar, the SRL list stands for Suspended, Restricted, and Limited. Limited cards are limited to 2 copies in a deck, Restricted cards are restricted to 1 copy in a deck, and Suspended cards are outright banned from play.

Cards will only be put on the SRL list however, if they have been put onto the Watchlist first. The watchlist helps to show the community what cards are popping up as potential problems and to ensure that nothing is hit out of the blue.

What cards on the watchlist now are set to find their way onto the SRL list in the upcoming changes though?

It seems like the scorch realm can't catch a break when it comes to SRL updates with both Onoskelis and Adramelech seeing archetype pieces being placed on the SRL list. At the moment however, Onoskelis has continued to place incredibly well in tournament events, especially Siege Series tournaments. Whilst the deck is one with a high skill ceiling which rewards skilled players, it does seem likely that the archetype continues to see adjustments to a few cards to tune down it's explosive consistency. 

Volac's Documents Of The Damned and Advance Of The Fallen Armies are two potential pieces that may see adjustments in the upcoming update as both pieces enable a ton of consistency that the Fallen archetype enjoys. Volac's Documents is currently already Restricted to just a single copy, but being able to tutor any Demon Unified or Fortified card certainly makes it a dangerous card that can help to consistently find some of the most powerful pieces in Onoskelis's toolkit such as Treasury Of The Fallen Priestess, Rapture On Mount Bane, and Advance Of The Fallen Armies.

Advance Of The Fallen Armies itself is a powerful consistency piece for Onoskelis, tutoring out two Fallen Warriors and two Fallen Unified cards. The card has a cost of discarding two cards as well, but with Onoskelis' various discard effects letting you redraw a card, Advance can easily leave you with 4 more cards in hand than you started with. The best performing current lists for Onoskelis are however only running two copies of Advance at the moment so it's likely that the card being Limited would do little to actively tune down the archetype. A Restriction to a single copy would however be a more notable hit against the archetype, and potentially a touch too heavy handed for a single SRL update.

The final Fallen archetype card on the Watchlist right now is Paymon's Ceremony Of The Fallen, a DCM recover tool, discard outlet, and warrior steal, which also sits around 1-2 copies in the top Demons Decks. Again, a Limitation would do very little to affect the power level of Onoskelis, and a Restriction feels like a potentially unnecessarily heavy hit against the card.

It ultimately feels possible that Volac's Documents Of The Damned might join Fallen Inferno on the Suspended list, but it's difficult to say for sure what if anything should be hit to tone down the ever present power of Onoskelis. As always, it is important to note that Onoskelis's consistent placement, whilst certainly reflective of the decks power, is also likely pushed by individual skilled pilots with the list pushing it's winrate.

The other S-Tier deck in the metagame, and frequent flier for SRL updates, Sharn may also be seeing some list updates on the 23rd, but I would personally argue for a touch more patience to see how Sharn performs competitively in the current environment.

Whilst Sharn has seen consistent placements, and some degree of a rise in popularity, the deck is now facing a brand new hate piece: Shackle The Summoner. Shackle locks down tokens for two turns, threatening to shut off two kill turns on it's own. The release of Alburdunn's Mayoral Announcement has also sparked some interest once again in Viviana, The Festival Royalty, and the Alburdunn support package. Whilst Sharn can easily threaten to kill through Welcome To Alburdunn, thanks to the Rampage ability counting as effect damage, the combination of Mayoral Announcement and Welcome turns off damage for a turn entirely, whilst also recovering 15 DCM, helping to shore up life in potential midrange games.

These new pieces may potentially help enough to knock Sharn down a peg, but it is certainly still possible that some Orc piece may end up on the SRL list.

Outer Rim Exclusion Zone was recently brought back from Restricted to Limited, allowing two copies in a deck. It still remains on the SRL list and is certainly an incredibly powerful piece in the Boars Archetype, but it's a card that I personally think is fine in the format. It allows for and rewards a more midrange strategy for Sharn, allowing the deck to be dangerous and proactive in games where it isn't fully comboing into an OTK. 

Pride Of The Orcbane and For The Love Of Carnage are however two pieces that heavily power up Sharn's aggressive gameplan. Pride Of The Orcbane's play ability isn't used particularly frequently, but the discard ability is a powerful draw tool in combination with Sildud's Call Of The Orcbane, tutoring three Orcbane cards and discarding two. This combo is one of the powerful lines available to Sharn in churning through a deck for early kills. The in-discard ability is also strong in letting Sharn tutor for an array of Warriors, frequently generating even more value and helping to fill the discard pile with Warriors.

For The Love of Carnage is another card already very familiar with the SRL list, currently being Restricted. Carnage's discard ability is a powerful disruption tool for Sharn that can help to clear the way for lethal, which has earned it's current legality. Ultimately though, it doesn't quite look like the final nail needs to be placed in it's coffin yet, but we will have to see how Sharn holds up in a metagame with a higher density of hate pieces and control tools.

 The last realm currently taking up a significant portion of the watchlist, the Undead realm has seen a spike in popularity recently, prompted by the release of Invitation To The Masquerade in the Wintertide Wonders Bundle. Whilst Quartzheart also saw a shot in popularity with the same product release, it seems that Quartzheart's popularity may have been more of a flash in the pan, whilst Mortis has seen more staying power and player interest.

One of the strongest innovations from Empires On The Rise is Spores From The Suffering Cyprus. Spores has given the Undead realm an incredibly strong win-condition, which can especially threaten an immense amount of early damage, and even First Turn Kills, although these kills haven't proven consistent enough to be of concern. Altogether however, Spores has proven to be potentially too powerful and easy to use, and is my pick for a likely addition to the SRL list.

With Spores being tuned down, Grimm archetypes would likely fall back towards Slow But Grimm Decay, the classic win condition for Grimm which is anything but slow. Grimm Decay turns a durdling engine of Warriors into a quick and brutal kill. As such, a restriction on Spores would likely help to tune down the number of uninteractive games that Undead produces, whilst not unnecessarily taking away Mortis's ability to win the game.

Speaking of uninteractive games, Welcome To The Grimm Graveyard is another piece on the watchlist that may be seeing a restriction. Ripping three cards out of both players hands for one in exchange makes Grimm Graveyard a brutal card to see across the table when going second against Grimm. In addition, Welcome also triggers on-mill effects for Grimm, many of which includes cards that retrieve themselves to hand. Two Grimm Graveyards turns a six card hand into a two card hand, making facing down a brutal Undead start even more frustrating.

With a few cards from the archetype potentially facing down the SRL list, it is also possible that some of the Undead cards currently on the list could be removed to avoid completely shutting down the Grimm archetype. This would tune down the first turn disruption and damage that Undead can churn out, whilst also letting the deck more consistently navigate midrange games.

 At the moment, the only two Bounty cards on the SRL list are Welcome To Alburdunn and Mists From The Fata Morgana. As two of the three strongest Mist effects in the game, both Welcome and Mists are some of the most universal and powerful staples in the game. It's hard to know for sure if either card will move from Limited to Restricted, but it's always a possibility that one of these cards may be adjusted to shake up the metagame.

There aren't any other cards on the watchlist now that I would consider to be at risk of SRL list action, as neither Mythic Beasts or Angels have had high tier performance yet, but all four decks are at the top of the metagame, and if I had to pick one, Mystic Fire Dragon Clash might take a hit. As both an easily tutorable Unified retrieve, and a board clearing machine, Mystic Fire Dragon Clash is one of the strongest cards in both Mythic Beasts decks and could potentially receive a proactive Limitation.

 In addition to the cards that may end up being added to the SRL list or being moved to a more restrictive tier, there is the possibility of some cards being upgraded or removed entirely from the SRL list. Some Titan or Dragon cards could make a return, but I'm not holding my breath. Prometheus is still an incredibly powerful Warlord even with a lack of tournament placements  (Underrated you could say). Dragons are in a similar place where the archetype hasn't found significant tournament placements, but is a strong archetype with plenty of potential. If Spores or Grimm Graveyard are hit heavily on the SRL list then there is the possibility of some Undead cards being brought back in some degree, but that remains an uncertainty. 

Ultimately I believe that Volac's Document Of The Damned is the most reasonable possible hit from the Demons lineup at the moment, but both Advance Of The Fallen Armies and Paymon's Ceremony Of The Fallen could be knocked down as well. Both cards would need to be restricted to one copy to have an impact on most current decklists, but a restriction to either card alongside a suspension of Volac's Document would certainly be a (potentially unnecessarily) brutal hit to Onoskelis.

Pride Of The Orcbane and For The Love Of Carnage might be on the chopping block in some number, but with the plethora of options against Orcs for the time being, I'm not sure if an SRL list hit would be necessary, or should be expected. Still, being a top deck means it's still a possibility that Sharn has some more tools taken away to create more room in the metagame by reducing either her card advantage or removal tools.

Mortis is the last deck that I believe is very likely to receive a hit, and personally I would be surprised to see Spores From The Suffering Cyprus survive untouched. Spores as a card has become an abundant and frustrating win condition to play against, and can certainly lead to non-games when Mortis ends up on the play. A Limitation to two copies would likely help quite a bit with how much damage the card can pump out in multiples, whilst a Restriction would help push Mortis away from full combo/burn style archetypes and back into more interactive game plans.

I personally would be interested in seeing both Spores From The Suffering Cyprus and Welcome To The Grimm Graveyard Restricted to a single copy each, limiting early damage and the number of non-games that can occur with Mortis on the play. Whilst this restriction would be incredibly heavy handed, it certainly could include SRL list upgrades for any of the undead cards currently on the list, such as Haunted Labyrinth allowing Mortis to have more consistency and interaction, and less overwhelmingly explosive potential.

There aren't any other SRL list additions that I'm expecting to see, but Mystic Fire Dragon Clash and both Mist effects are certainly possibilities for a list inclusion.