High-Tier Scrappy: Halikarnassos Night gets some flak for being too good, as it's a very high-performing wonder.
Scrappy Mechanic: The Babel tiles from the Babel expansion were so poorly received that the designer acknowledged it. The idea is that players may play Babel tiles that change the game rules for all players. Unfortunately, many players found this cumbersome to keep track of, and experienced players hated it for making the game too random and devaluing the planning they liked in the original. Tellingly, while the rest of the expansions got proper second editions, Babel's titular module was excised and a reworked version of its other module was released as a stand-alone in Edifice.
7 Wonders Duel:
Complacent Gaming Syndrome: The Extra Turn Wonders are usually drafted first because they are so useful for getting access to cards you need, and for denying your opponent the cards they need. If there are few extra-turn Wonders in play, don't be surprised if the players start racing for the Theology token to gain the extra turn ability for their unbuilt Wonders. Among the extra-turn wonders, the Temple of Artemis and Piraeus are usually preferred thanks to the former's large coin bonus and the latter's ability to produce rare resources. If the Agora expansion is used, Curia Julia takes over as the most popular first pick because it lets you start the game with a Conspiracy, allows you to trigger a Conspiracy (not necessarily the one it granted you) without spending a turn preparing it first, and gives you a few coins on top of that.
Even Better Sequel: The original game is well respected, ranked in the top 90 on BoardGameGeek, having an average rating of 7.7, and winning many awards. 7 Wonders Duel is in the top 20 with an average rating of 8.1.
Law, Strategy and Theology are by far the best Progress Tokens. Law and Strategy help you a lot with Instant-Win Conditions, which can put a lot of pressure on your opponent. Even if you don't pull off the instant win, they can still give you a significant advantage because your opponent has to focus on blocking them. Theology, meanwhile, gives you Extra Turns, which are great for securing access to cards you want and denying your opponent the cards they want. This is particularly useful when dealing with alternative win conditions. Tellingly, while the Expansion Packs have introduced some Power Creep to the Wonders, none of their new Progress Tokens are as good as these three.
Ra lets you steal one of your opponent's unbuilt wonders, which is backbreaking, especially considering the importance of Extra Turns. Your opponent can't do anything about an incoming Ra except for rushing out their best wonders or going out of their way to take it for themselves — the former is liable to put them in an awkward spot later, and the latter causes a tempo loss. In this analysis, the player who got Ra had a 86.7% win rate when only the Pantheon expansion was in use, and a still-respectable 68% with both expansions. Many Pantheon games devolve into a race for Ra.
The Temple of Artemis gets some flack for being too good, as it has the powerful Extra Turn ability and instantly gives you 12 coins when you build it. The Pantheon expansion made it better, as it pairs very well with Anubis's ability. Interestingly, Pantheon also introduced The Sanctuary, which is effectively a nerfed version of it.
The Curia Julia lets you Conspire when you draft it and play an unprepared Conspiracy when you build it. This means you can use a Conspiracy without the usual need to commit two turns to it, which is particularly powerful if you draw a good one (Espionage for an early Strategy or Corruption is nasty, Extortion has the same effect as Game-Breaker Ra, and so on). On top of that, the Wonder provides an Extra Turn and 6 coins. There's a reason this thing is almost always drafted first if the Agora expansion is used and it shows up.
The Knossos allows you to place a cube in the Senate when you draft it, which lets you start with an active decree. If it's strong, this can quickly spiral out of control. If you're exceptionally lucky, you can even win before your opponent gets a turn.
Improved Second Attempt: The original edition of 7 Wonders came with a two-player variation that involved a dummy player and was poorly received due to its clunkiness. This was a factor in the creation of 7 Wonders Duel, a dedicated two-player version that revamps the Drafting Mechanic and introduces new twists like instant-win conditions. Duel was even better reviewed than its parent game as a whole, and the original two-player variation was dropped from the second edition of 7 Wonders.
The Wonder "The Pyramids" is disliked for being an attempt at Boring, but Practical gone wrong. All it does is give you 9 Victory Points at the end of a game, which has no immediate impact on the game and does nothing to help you towards reaching or stopping an Instant-Win Condition (which will come up a lot). The mere 9 points it provides is not enough to make up for this large disadvantage. The expansions made it even worse — it has no synergy with Anubis, and it is a very tempting Sabotage target.
The Progress Token "Masonry" makes blue buildings easier to build, which is almost useless because you'll probably have a good resource base anyway if you're trying to win on points.
, the player who got Ra had a 86.7% win rate when only the Pantheon expansion was in use, and a still-respectable 68% with both expansions. Many Pantheon games devolve into a race for Ra.