@Baron:
About play-tests.
Any rooky player cannot be relevant to determine if Balance Mode is indeed balanced.
Rookies are kind of like the “five year old child” test, so they’re not completely useless for playtesting, but that wasn’t who I was suggesting to use. There are some very skilled and experienced players online - possibly some of the most experienced, given how easy it is to play lots and lots of games in that format.
You could play two games of G40 a day online if you wanted to, and against a wide variety of opponents, so to be good online one can’t merely optimize against a particular opponent, but has to be ready to deal with all sorts of opponent approaches and strategies. There’s no way that could be achieved face-to-face. Overall level of game experience has to favor online players, and the best of the best are probably found in their number.