So Tactics has been out a while, several tournaments ran (and devoured by myself and various playgroups), and changes came in on Pick/Ban but I think, and it's how we play around here and now that the game has been out a year people should be familiar enough, that MOBA tournament style picking/banning would go a LONG way to shake things up more. It works similar to present except there is an additional ban phase after each team has picked their first two characters meaning it behooves people to understand how the different characters work together and not be one trick ponies. Around here we go even further by using the full MOBA Tournament form of banning and picking which plays out as such:
First ban bans a character
Second Ban bans a character
First ban bans another character
Second ban bans another character
(this of course leave 11 characters to pick from)
First Pick picks their first character
Second pick picks their first character
Second pick picks their second character
First pick picks their second character
(leaves 7 characters and hopefully each team should have an idea what the others is going for)
First Ban bans a character
Second Ban bans a character
(leaving 5 characters)
First pick picks their final character
Second pick picks their final character
Anyways this is just how we play around here. Really forces people to try new combos as there is a very good chance the opposing team will jack with their initial plans (especially if they understand the Meta), so all of the groups must have a good knowledge of what their options are, and what the enemy can do. Course we have also began playing around here with 1 minute player turns, so you are doing a full round every roughly 6 minutes (minus dice rolling) and it forces people to be able to think fast and on their own rather than sitting there talking over every single option, and only getting a full round in every 15-20 minutes.
While I realize the turn time limit is unreasonable, personally I far prefer the Ban/Pick system we use as then which ones you pick and ban is almost a large part of the game itself rather than simply knowing "ok if we can't use Citizen Dawn or Baron Blade then simply use character Y". So give it a try yourselves in your private games, you may find you like it as well :).