Maybe it just me, but CI seems too strong right now. Trade routes into an early Paladin with shell is almost unbeatable. Any thoughts? Am I just frustrated?

You're just frustrated...

1) The Trade Routes can be disencanted, taken, disabled.
2) The Trade Routes helps the opponent. (That you don't use 2-domain or higher cards is not Trade Routes problem).
3) The Paladin can be killed... not entirely easy, but killable.
4) The Paladin can be controlled (by Orb or Mind Transplant).
5) AMS can be destroyed.
6) AMS' counters can be used up.
7) CI has no way to ramp domain and/or flux without assisting the opponent.
8) CI's biggest creatures give benefits to opponents.
9) CI cards penalize the person using them by: Requiring higher domain levels, giving the opponent flux, giving the opponent domain, giving the opponent glory, generating sleep tokens, preventing beneficial spells/enchantments.

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Looking for: Crumbling Alone (2)
Also looking for: Revenant Bishop, Osin Faith Healer, Pilgrim's Cairn, Avenging Angel (2)

...and that's why you win so often with CI....

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Altren wrote:

I agree with Keyser, and that's what I'm planning to implement actually.

|| The Rise of the DCC | Plasmatium Netherious | Tastes Like Chicken | The Astridian Conspiracy ||

Guild -> | Platypus Rising|

I win so often with CI because it's all I really have... now, if I had enough of the other domains to win with... I'd win with other domains as well...

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Looking for: Crumbling Alone (2)
Also looking for: Revenant Bishop, Osin Faith Healer, Pilgrim's Cairn, Avenging Angel (2)

AMS and Rev Bishop are the CI OP cards imho.

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Altren wrote:

I agree with Keyser, and that's what I'm planning to implement actually.

|| The Rise of the DCC | Plasmatium Netherious | Tastes Like Chicken | The Astridian Conspiracy ||

Guild -> | Platypus Rising|

You're somewhat frustrated. CI is hard to splash ever since Observatory was nerfed, meaning a player will most likely have to run it solo and turbo domain. That's not saying Card's like AMS, Paladin, and similar other cards aren't off the hook though. Although some card try to counterbalance their OPness by giving benefits to the opponent upon destruction/creation, they are in actuallity EXTREMELY hard to destroy thanks to AMS and Course of Destiny, and therefore the downsides are very easy to manage due to so many benefits.

IMHO, here are the hardest things to deal with in CI.
1. Course of Destiny
2. AMS
3. Creatures that give benefits upon destruction/creation, especially with AMS.

Trade Routes isn't that hard to deal with. Ever heard of Restore's Nature's Balance?
Renevant Bishop can be easily turned against an enemy player with good use of Charm or Possesion, and it can get in the way of drawing important cards sometimes.

I'd like to note that CI is somewhat dependent on more skilled/expierienced players due to lack of 1-domain creatures. Newer players might not fare so well, and then it's a cake walk because of all those enemy gaining benefits. And there is always a deck that is stronger than another deck.

So cheer up Key, CI isn't super OP, but it's probably only a few marks behind DL's former Altar of Ix. Needs to be able to be destroyed a bit more easily, but not so much that it becoems UP.

All the domains have undergone nerfs. Why wouldn't CI (and chaos) be the same?

Its extremely unlikely that the balance would be achieved straight away, or after just a few adjustments, when players are continually finding novel ways of playing them.

Sounds like another balancing week already.

Uh... I'm not sure about HoC... but CI did get some nerfs...

1) Course of Destiny now has a cost.
2) CI was robbed of a secondary domain source that didn't benefit opponents in some way.

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Looking for: Crumbling Alone (2)
Also looking for: Revenant Bishop, Osin Faith Healer, Pilgrim's Cairn, Avenging Angel (2)

True, but there are still a lot of powerful CI cards out there. Like I said earlier, it doesn't necessarily mean the entire CI is off the hook with OPness.