[Sir Dendrik]

I think Heroscape was always meant to be a drafting game. There's an inherent rock/paper/scissors match up system that has been here since the old days of Rise of the Valkyrie. Drafting lets Heroscape shine.

Half the time when you play a 1v1 competitive double blind match you know which army is going to win based on army composition alone. I don't have a ton of tournament experience, playing way more free for all Heroscape with 4 players, but generally speaking there are bad match ups that pervade double blind games (not to mention just bad units and army composition). Having a good back and forth, uncertain game half the time in double blind 1v1 is still a decent amount, so I'm not saying it's a terrible thing. I have less experience with pure drafting 1v1 with something like the 16 card format, but I suspect it makes for closer games. Closer games are more fun, in my opinion, and the fact that Heroscape is often a close game is part of the reason it's my favorite game.

This is kind of off topic but free for all games generally come down to the wire more often than competitive 1v1 (or 2v2) games. You can make alliances and hang back if your army is getting toasted early on. You can gang up on the player with 5x 4th Mass and make it so they don't win every game, even if you're not running A rank armies. Free for alls with 4 or 5 players naturally balance the game. Not to mention a new/less skilled player can win the game by properly navigating alliances.

I suspect that limited draft pools with prevalent counters will make for closer games, as well. Not to mention you can play units like Erevan Sunshadow and not get toasted. And if someone drafts Zombies after I draft Venocs I can at least pivot to counter the Zombies instead of watching a horrible match up play out.

Heroscape is not a naturally balanced game. Delta and Reverse the Whip being so prevalent is evidence of that. I don't think many competitive 2 player games with the amount of creativity Heroscape has are naturally balanced, either. But I've been playing this game for this long because of the inherent balance which drafting and free for all give the game.

I know a lot of people play 1v1 double blind and I have, too. It's fun, but it's a different game. Drafting and 4 player free for all play to Heroscape's strengths, and I will always keep coming back to this game because of that format.