The problem in question is, of course, Coins.
Coins, by their very design, are a questionable mechanic - they are points your opponent can't reach until you decide to spend them (and if you turn them into damage, they can't be interacted with at all).
But that's not my main gripe with them, even though regular carryover tools are definitely less flexible and convenient, but you know what, fine, ST got handuff, SK got raw points, whatever. It's not a game-breaking issue per se.
Now, the ability to expend any amounts of said points in just one turn without any limitations is a super questionable mechanic, that allows SY (especially the Bounty variety) to achieve in a single turn what other factions need to spend 2 or 3 turns on, the most egregious cases being Tunnel Drill and 25 points Jackals last-say, which fundamentally doesn't work within Gwent's framework.
CDPR went to great lenghts to enforce the 1 turn = 1 major play rule
, but spenders (especially the damage variety) violate this rule hard by enabling super-swingy plays without any kind of disruptable setup. A regular control deck just can't suddenly stop being a control deck if pitted against some unitless nonsense or a swarm, it always results in a bit of a pickle for the control player...but SY can always direct their points elsewhere (or just wipe swarm if they feel like it, too). Safe, convenient, flexible. Back when coin generation was sometimes hard, spenders didn't feel so broken...most of the time. But as of now, coins are super easy to generate.
I'd also like to remind you how Vissegerd, the only non-SY card akin to spenders in principle, required a whole round of setup and CDPR still took away his Zeal because he was oppressive as hell.
Proposed solutions:
1) Either keep coins "inside" units until spent (so there's an element of risk involved, through keeping your spender or your coin holders exposed for at least a turn). Maybe also make the stored coins act like shield so that they aren't too easy to take away;
2) Hard-limit the amount of coins you can spend in a single turn to 9 (Don't really like this solution myself, but it kinda makes sense);
3) Introduce the limit on how many times a particular spender can be used in a single turn. Igor has this limitation, and it makes sense. It would make even more sense on damage-dealing spenders.
So...that's it. Feel free to comment, opinions are welcome.
Coins, by their very design, are a questionable mechanic - they are points your opponent can't reach until you decide to spend them (and if you turn them into damage, they can't be interacted with at all).
But that's not my main gripe with them, even though regular carryover tools are definitely less flexible and convenient, but you know what, fine, ST got handuff, SK got raw points, whatever. It's not a game-breaking issue per se.
Now, the ability to expend any amounts of said points in just one turn without any limitations is a super questionable mechanic, that allows SY (especially the Bounty variety) to achieve in a single turn what other factions need to spend 2 or 3 turns on, the most egregious cases being Tunnel Drill and 25 points Jackals last-say, which fundamentally doesn't work within Gwent's framework.
CDPR went to great lenghts to enforce the 1 turn = 1 major play rule
it's a pity Double Cross is exempt from this btw
I'd also like to remind you how Vissegerd, the only non-SY card akin to spenders in principle, required a whole round of setup and CDPR still took away his Zeal because he was oppressive as hell.
Proposed solutions:
1) Either keep coins "inside" units until spent (so there's an element of risk involved, through keeping your spender or your coin holders exposed for at least a turn). Maybe also make the stored coins act like shield so that they aren't too easy to take away;
2) Hard-limit the amount of coins you can spend in a single turn to 9 (Don't really like this solution myself, but it kinda makes sense);
3) Introduce the limit on how many times a particular spender can be used in a single turn. Igor has this limitation, and it makes sense. It would make even more sense on damage-dealing spenders.
So...that's it. Feel free to comment, opinions are welcome.
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