I'm the current rank 1 Tag Team player on BGA and I thought I'd do a tierlist of the 12 heroes after playing a few hundred games. This is purely subjective, I'd love to hear if you think I got something super wrong below. I'll rank them first and then do a brief explanation of my rank on each in order of how strong I think they are.
S: Mordred
A: Golem, Maman Brijit
B: Milady, Joan, Wild Bunch
C: Shango, Bodvar
D: Ching Shih, Fey Folk
F: Mephisto, Wong Fei-Hung
If you are playing optimally, Mordred should be a first pick in 98% of games. He has a favorable matchup into every hero except milady, and every other hero is severely punished by either riposte (card that blocks with a counterattack) or execution (direct damage KO if hero is 4 health or less). He has high survivability with 5 cards in his deck that block, and a high health pool that lets him survive while he builds up power. My one word of advice is be extremely cautious adding hidden dagger against fighters with attacks (which is almost all of them) since it is very easily countered.
Golem has the worst cards on average in the game, but reanimation (x2 the next card) is so strong it catapults him to A tier since it enables so many strong combos. His other cards being bad also turns out not to be a huge problem, since his high health pool and slowly building attack power (especially if you pick up heals to pick up the hp track bonuses multiple times) more than make up for it. Most games golem is in, your opponents wincon has to be "kill golem" since it will be so hard to kill the hero he protects. Use this to your advantage by taking a hero that can snowball or heal him.
Maman Brijit is like if the Fey Folk were a good hero. She offers disruption without sacrificing survivability or attack power, and often becomes unkillable in the late game when playing against heroes who build up attack power past 5. She is a great counterpick into heroes that dont want you attacking them, such as fey folk and wild bunch and she can tick them down early game and force your opponent on the back foot.
Milady is barely edged out of A tier because of her unpredictability. Her poison schemes are incredibly powerful and can win games by themselves, but if they come out at the wrong time she struggles to do damage. Additionally, her scheme that deals one damage to everyone has a non-negligible chance to trigger at the bottom of her health bar, killing her instantly. Despite this, she is the only hero that mordred can consistently struggle with. Riposte can trigger from her schemes, but its inconsistent and his hidden daggers can easily be countered with her own attacks. since his health pool is high, poison scheme can bring him way down early and within range of an early KO. Getting an early heal card that plants a scheme lets you build up a large reserve and then start triggering multiple per round in the late game.
Joan would be in S tier if Mordred didnt exist- he scales faster than her and since all her damage comes from attacking his ripostes end her extremely quickly in the late game. Mordred aside, her double heal is the best heal in the game and she is the only hero that can both support her teammate and deal damage at an above average level. she is a good pairing with any other hero.
Wild bunch- if you can find the card that gives the sheriff holder 2 power early, wild bunch scales faster than any hero in the game. If your opponent first picks them, it is imperative you pick a hero that can attack consistently to put them on the back foot since they win easily against most heroes when they dont have to waste time drafting heals. Without this card, they struggle to scale quickly and will be slowly chipped away. Despite this, they are a good teammate option when playing against high power heroes and can do sneaky chip damage that is hard to play around. No one is better at finishing off a low health opponent.
Shango- Golems reanimate makes aflame an extreme problem for your opponent, but otherwise you usually won't win with it. What it does do is force your opponent to diversify their deck, giving you an opening to attack a hero who would otherwise be elusive like the fey folk or wild bunch. Keeping the aflame at a fixed spot in your deck while putting threats on the other end forces your opponent to choose whether to address the growing aflame stack or deal with other problems which makes them more likely to misplay
Bodvar just dies too fast most of the time, but he is carried into B tier by golem who both protects him while he scales and doubles his rage gain with reanimate. He is hard countered by maman brijit who can never die to a sufficiently large bear, can chip him down early before he even gets there, and can even redirect a huge attack onto his teammate. I would only play him with golem or joan- otherwise he gets bursted down too easily, even in bear form.
Ching Shih is bad because her mechanic is inherently flawed- gaining ships means you arent pressuring your opponent, and if you are pressuring your opponent you are wide open to counterattacks from heroes that scale faster than you. Her good cards are only good in specific ship ranges, which can be fleeting. Her 20 ship payoff is too obvious and counterable to be a large concern, and she has too many cards in her deck that dont do anything (gaining 2 ships should never be played ever, you neither deal nor prevent damage which can be so easily exploited). The only reason she isnt bottom tier is her starter card is an attack, so she can apply early pressure which is very good against certain fighters.
I think fey folk are the biggest trap in the game. They are so tempting with their cancels and flashy flip cards, but any competent opponent will burst them down fast. Consider that their starter card is worse than useless (it literally does nothing but kill them) and their block cards only work once and then you will find yourself with a card that doesnt prevent damage lined up against an attack. They are weak to almost every hero, because almost every hero can stack attacks in the area near their starter card and when they do you are powerless to stop them.
Mephisto is really bad for many reasons, but mainly because he cant save himself or his teammate from anything. Drag me to hell has to come at the perfect time, and in over 200 games I have only seen it work once. His only good card does 4 damage to the starter card, but as the decks thin it becomes harder to put that in the right spot. He scales too slow with serpents to outpace other power heroes, and the flip icon on his health track can completely screw up your rotations and leave you powerless to stop the beatdown coming your way.
Do not play wong if you want to win the game consistently. his starter card is half an attack at best (worse than useless against low attack heroes with good block cards), he cant heal himself despite his low health, and his dream of transferring power to his teammate and then restoring it with a well timed block fails to materialize in most games, and can be easily countered. his cards that delete opponents cards only work after the other card takes effect, so for every game you get a lucky read on an opponent and take out their important starter card there are 5 games where your opponent just hits you with a huge attack for free and keeps scaling up while you added a card to your deck that didnt do anything. Best best case scenario, you take out mordreds starter card on turn 2 (the odds of this happening are the odds of drawing it times the 50% chance you place it correctly, a very unreliable figure) and then you have a 2 attack mordred that just stacks blocks while his teammate slows chips away at you, and youre never able to do more than 2 damage to him with your starter card.
S: Mordred
A: Golem, Maman Brijit
B: Milady, Joan, Wild Bunch
C: Shango, Bodvar
D: Ching Shih, Fey Folk
F: Mephisto, Wong Fei-Hung
If you are playing optimally, Mordred should be a first pick in 98% of games. He has a favorable matchup into every hero except milady, and every other hero is severely punished by either riposte (card that blocks with a counterattack) or execution (direct damage KO if hero is 4 health or less). He has high survivability with 5 cards in his deck that block, and a high health pool that lets him survive while he builds up power. My one word of advice is be extremely cautious adding hidden dagger against fighters with attacks (which is almost all of them) since it is very easily countered.
Golem has the worst cards on average in the game, but reanimation (x2 the next card) is so strong it catapults him to A tier since it enables so many strong combos. His other cards being bad also turns out not to be a huge problem, since his high health pool and slowly building attack power (especially if you pick up heals to pick up the hp track bonuses multiple times) more than make up for it. Most games golem is in, your opponents wincon has to be "kill golem" since it will be so hard to kill the hero he protects. Use this to your advantage by taking a hero that can snowball or heal him.
Maman Brijit is like if the Fey Folk were a good hero. She offers disruption without sacrificing survivability or attack power, and often becomes unkillable in the late game when playing against heroes who build up attack power past 5. She is a great counterpick into heroes that dont want you attacking them, such as fey folk and wild bunch and she can tick them down early game and force your opponent on the back foot.
Milady is barely edged out of A tier because of her unpredictability. Her poison schemes are incredibly powerful and can win games by themselves, but if they come out at the wrong time she struggles to do damage. Additionally, her scheme that deals one damage to everyone has a non-negligible chance to trigger at the bottom of her health bar, killing her instantly. Despite this, she is the only hero that mordred can consistently struggle with. Riposte can trigger from her schemes, but its inconsistent and his hidden daggers can easily be countered with her own attacks. since his health pool is high, poison scheme can bring him way down early and within range of an early KO. Getting an early heal card that plants a scheme lets you build up a large reserve and then start triggering multiple per round in the late game.
Joan would be in S tier if Mordred didnt exist- he scales faster than her and since all her damage comes from attacking his ripostes end her extremely quickly in the late game. Mordred aside, her double heal is the best heal in the game and she is the only hero that can both support her teammate and deal damage at an above average level. she is a good pairing with any other hero.
Wild bunch- if you can find the card that gives the sheriff holder 2 power early, wild bunch scales faster than any hero in the game. If your opponent first picks them, it is imperative you pick a hero that can attack consistently to put them on the back foot since they win easily against most heroes when they dont have to waste time drafting heals. Without this card, they struggle to scale quickly and will be slowly chipped away. Despite this, they are a good teammate option when playing against high power heroes and can do sneaky chip damage that is hard to play around. No one is better at finishing off a low health opponent.
Shango- Golems reanimate makes aflame an extreme problem for your opponent, but otherwise you usually won't win with it. What it does do is force your opponent to diversify their deck, giving you an opening to attack a hero who would otherwise be elusive like the fey folk or wild bunch. Keeping the aflame at a fixed spot in your deck while putting threats on the other end forces your opponent to choose whether to address the growing aflame stack or deal with other problems which makes them more likely to misplay
Bodvar just dies too fast most of the time, but he is carried into B tier by golem who both protects him while he scales and doubles his rage gain with reanimate. He is hard countered by maman brijit who can never die to a sufficiently large bear, can chip him down early before he even gets there, and can even redirect a huge attack onto his teammate. I would only play him with golem or joan- otherwise he gets bursted down too easily, even in bear form.
Ching Shih is bad because her mechanic is inherently flawed- gaining ships means you arent pressuring your opponent, and if you are pressuring your opponent you are wide open to counterattacks from heroes that scale faster than you. Her good cards are only good in specific ship ranges, which can be fleeting. Her 20 ship payoff is too obvious and counterable to be a large concern, and she has too many cards in her deck that dont do anything (gaining 2 ships should never be played ever, you neither deal nor prevent damage which can be so easily exploited). The only reason she isnt bottom tier is her starter card is an attack, so she can apply early pressure which is very good against certain fighters.
I think fey folk are the biggest trap in the game. They are so tempting with their cancels and flashy flip cards, but any competent opponent will burst them down fast. Consider that their starter card is worse than useless (it literally does nothing but kill them) and their block cards only work once and then you will find yourself with a card that doesnt prevent damage lined up against an attack. They are weak to almost every hero, because almost every hero can stack attacks in the area near their starter card and when they do you are powerless to stop them.
Mephisto is really bad for many reasons, but mainly because he cant save himself or his teammate from anything. Drag me to hell has to come at the perfect time, and in over 200 games I have only seen it work once. His only good card does 4 damage to the starter card, but as the decks thin it becomes harder to put that in the right spot. He scales too slow with serpents to outpace other power heroes, and the flip icon on his health track can completely screw up your rotations and leave you powerless to stop the beatdown coming your way.
Do not play wong if you want to win the game consistently. his starter card is half an attack at best (worse than useless against low attack heroes with good block cards), he cant heal himself despite his low health, and his dream of transferring power to his teammate and then restoring it with a well timed block fails to materialize in most games, and can be easily countered. his cards that delete opponents cards only work after the other card takes effect, so for every game you get a lucky read on an opponent and take out their important starter card there are 5 games where your opponent just hits you with a huge attack for free and keeps scaling up while you added a card to your deck that didnt do anything. Best best case scenario, you take out mordreds starter card on turn 2 (the odds of this happening are the odds of drawing it times the 50% chance you place it correctly, a very unreliable figure) and then you have a 2 attack mordred that just stacks blocks while his teammate slows chips away at you, and youre never able to do more than 2 damage to him with your starter card.
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