I guess I don’t get it, then.
It seems like under your system, D6 has 5-6 options of spec in their first choice, but then can immediately choose their second and third choice from among the 14 remaining specs. At worst, they can play mono-color based on their starter and have guaranteed synergy among all three colors. (If their starter is Neutral, they can snag, say, the remaining two red specs away from whoever chose the red starter.) That seems really advantageous.
D1, by contrast, has to choose their second spec from only 6 remaining. It’s going to be much harder to find good synergy, even if they’re comfortable with their starter. And they only have 2 choices for their third spec, which isn’t really a choice at all.
Whereas, in a snake:
D6 gets to choose second spec out of 14 (guaranteed to find something that matches well), but third spec out of only 3.
D5 gets to choose second spec out of 13, but third out of 4.
D4 gets to choose second out of 12, and has 5 choices for third.
D3 gets to choose second out of 11, and has 6 choices for third.
D2 gets to choose second out of 10, and has 7 choices for third.
D1 gets to choose second out of 9 (still a significantly better chance of finding something that matches well), and immediately choose another out of 8 (best chance of getting a third wheel that’s not totally random).
I guess I’m arguing that the possibility of good synergy is much more important than starter choice (but maybe that’s just because I like trying out different things, so I’m happy to be stuck with any color to start with, and I like heroes from every color). And snake guarantees everyone can find some decent synergy, but might get something weird for their third wheel that they wouldn’t have considered otherwise.
What am I missing? Is starting character really that important?
Now that I type it out, I guess with Vandy and Rook, it’s almost fair to give them two random specs. But in a snake, say D1 picks Vandy, D6 through D2 have 5 chances to take away Vandy’s best friends or pick heroes (like Prynn) that are particularly strong against Vandy.
In your system, whoever picked Vandy first could be really limited in their strategy (Metmorphosis or nothing) if the other two specs are really weak matches. And that kind of limitation might feel even more limiting in multi. Thought I guess the bad cards aren’t as bad in multi, either. I dunno. I’d like to hear what other folks think.