I hope that by now the developers realize that the card drops and patches of the last two months have been disastrous for the game and will feel inclined to address some of the issues introduced – which include:
Patch 10.5
Hen Gaidth Sword – OK, probably to weak to be usable, but not harmful.
Mysterious Puzzle Box – I think the card is vulnerable to abuse, but I have not seen such abuse yet. Addressing this is not a priority at this time.
Ring of Favor – With the patch 10.5 nerf, this card is no longer badly abused. But it still removes an important balancing tool (suffering a poor round 1 in favor of stronger rounds later.) And in some ways, the nerf worsens this as it is no longer autoinclude – effectively negating itself (so now it’s bad features are often allowed to shine).
Sihil – This card introduces a new level of broken, binary play. It is virtually auto win if it can be established in round 1 and auto lose otherwise. Whether it is established round one is totally dependent upon the opposing deck having sufficient self-damage or boost capability – which has neither been nor become a criterion for sound deck building. This type of card has no place in the game.
Summoning Circle – this card seems not only OK, but it may be helpful in the game by reducing the ability of players to completely ignore tempo.
Tesham Mutna Sword – this card is not disruptive to the game and seems a reasonable neutral tech card even if slightly underpriced.
Mastercrafted Spear – a nice response to power-crept engines. This card improves the game (although I would have preferred not to have the power creep in the first place).
Petri’s Philter – This change is not impactful, but it is a move in a good direction – reducing tools for unitless play while retaining a reasonable tech use.
Thunderbolt – A card usable only in degenerate (unitless) decks has now become unusable. I guess that’s an improvement.
Wyvern Scale Shield – The weakest card in the game is now no longer that. But I fear this ability (two consecutive shields without opponent opportunity for reaction) is very abusable. I haven’t yet seen it as problematic, however.
Arachas Queen – The change seems fine.
Ritual Sacrifice – The new card seems well-designed, but I will miss the old ability.
Hybrid – the change is fine. I don’t think it will make an impact, but the card is now better distinguished from Vran Warrior.
Vran Warrior – the buff seems warranted
Masquerade Ball – scenarios, since their inception, have been too swingy. Power creep has not changed this. I oppose ANY buffs to this awful card design.
Amnesty – Just great: a badly binary card now becomes more appealing.
Amphibious Assault – This card well deserved a nerf. But “fixing” high value, OP cards by a provision increase simply increases bad RNG (win if you draw the cards, lose otherwise).
Travelling Priestess – The nerf does next to nothing. The big issue with Priestesses is that they are amongst several recent cards that provide far too much carry-over value. Too much carry-over reduces the need for playing skill because the concepts of card advantage, tempo, and over-commitment become insignificant. I never considered Priestesses over-powered – I do consider them a blight on the game. This nerf was pointless as it ineffectively addressed the wrong issue.
Siege Master – This is a good nerf.
Brouver Hoog – I like this nerf. While he had never been a part of a broken deck, Brouver was an example of a binary, must-remove type engine. The nerf expands options for dealing with him without changing the essence of the card. And I appreciate the developers being pro-active addressing a problematic card before it becomes part of a problematic deck.
Vanadain – Vanadain is another example of a card that provides too much carryover (although this one at-least hinges upon other cards as well). I’m not sure increasing his immediate value (both points and moving an engine out of removal range) doesn’t worsen, rather than help, with the core problem.
Zoltan’s Company – I think the change was appropriate.
Forgotten Treasures Card Drop:
Runemage – an interesting card which does not appear to introduce problems.
Aerondight – This card has a nice premise – I initially liked the idea of a card that would encourage more consistent tempo and might strengthen point-slam (which seems the weak link in the engine, control, point-slam trio). After two months of seeing the card in action, I have changed my mind. The card is very binary (easily playing for 20+ more points on blue coin than on red coin). Moreover, it has a type of carryover that encourages what should be bad play (overcommitting) without offering any strategic offset for this. A significant nerf might eliminate the abuse of the card, but I think a rework is required to make the card usable without lessening the game.
Ring of Favor – This card remains horribly binary while reducing the meaning of tempo. At the very least, it needs good counters other than itself; ideally it is re-worked.
Golden Nekker – A card which allows uncontrolled use of two cards on a single turn is well known to be a bad idea and led to significant rework of several leader abilities. A card that can potentially play 27 provisions of value in one turn is outrageous. There is not rational justification for this card. I don’t care what the statistics show – this card will always be a potential problem lurking in the shadows of any broken meta in which it is not the problem itself.
Ornate Censer – This card is way too binary. It counters, without effort or thought, cards around which an entire deck is built. It over-emphasizes the value of last-say (and complements the broken Ring of Favor card). And it has zero value against decks that don’t develop tall units or can spam junk units. Heatwave, Yennifer’s Invocation, and Phillipa Eilhart may be necessary evils because the developers could not restrain themselves from including too many, overly greedy cards. But this “answer” is over-the-top punishment for too many decks of types that should be encouraged.
Magic Compass – I enjoy playing Magic Compass. I like the strategy of being able to choose and ideal card for a situation. But, objectively, I agree that the card offers too many, too powerful choices. Moreover, it should never be echo as that only lends itself to abuse. With more than 3 cards in the deck, it is high risk for limited return. With fewer than three cards in the deck, it is badly OP. That it can (through abuse of echo cards) be manipulated for double OP use is not reasonable.
Necromancer’s Tome – from my observations so far, this card seems OK. But I think it needs to be monitored closely. Broken combinations using this card exist, but all of which I am aware are sufficiently inconsistent as to not be problems. But it might not take much to change this.
Prophet – I like this card, even if it doesn’t see much use. The concept is new and interesting and is not subject to abuse that I can see.
Arcane Tome – I am skeptical of high flexibility tutors – especially tutors this cheap. But I have seen no real problems with Tome (an opponent can always choose to cut it off). And, if I am honest, I think Tome opens new deck possibilities by providing reasonable access to special cards around which one might build a deck. It is broken with cards like Golden Nekker, but that is the fault of Golden Nekker, not Arcane Tome.
Prism Pendant – If utterly useless cards are OK, Pendant is OK.
Mutagenerator – Although I have not yet seen this card in a broken deck, I think the underlying principle is not sound. The card absolutely provides too much carryover in a way that I believe is unhealthy.
Conjurer’s Candle – I will withhold judgment here. I have not seen a problem with this card. But I am skeptical of an “uncounterable” spender. And I am skeptical of its potential carry-over. But a design where each additional use costs more coins seems sufficient to keep it in check.
Troll Porter – This is a very good card, opening deck-building options and providing a new consistency tool without creating or worsening an problems.
Giantslayer – This is also a good card – tricky to use well, very unique, But its carry over is nicely moderated, and its potential value is consistent with its provision cost.
Mysterious Puzzle Box – I addressed above.
Shady Vendor – I like the card. It adds viability to a crimes deck without being over-powered.
Highland Warrior – Although my first thought was that this card could be exploited, that impression has proven wrong. The card does not add enough value to enough raid cards to justify the effort needed for abuse. As things currently stand, it is help for an archetype that has been languishing – and is unlikely to cause problems for the game.
Giant Toad – This is another card that I initially feared would be bad but has not proven so. It appears to mostly support the obnoxious Viy deck (and I still haven’t seen any other great use for toad). But It’s not especially great with Viy either since its initial consume then becomes useless. So, I now consider this card innocuous.
Vial of Forbidden Knowledge – a card that is just not good enough to serve its real purpose (encourage open deck-list play). But I guess it is harmless.
Obsidian Mirror – OK. This card is not really ever worth including.
Travelling Priestess – I discussed this card above.
- loss of deck variety caused by highly powered neutral cards
- loss of player agency in determining the outcome of matched caused by too much point swing (exacerbating dependence upon good draws) and too many binary cards (cards that play very well or very poorly dependent upon coin-flip, matchup, or ability of opponents to draw counters)
- reduction of need for playing skill by the introduction of cards that benefit from what would previously been poor play decisions without introducing compensating new levels of strategy.
Patch 10.5
Hen Gaidth Sword – OK, probably to weak to be usable, but not harmful.
Mysterious Puzzle Box – I think the card is vulnerable to abuse, but I have not seen such abuse yet. Addressing this is not a priority at this time.
Ring of Favor – With the patch 10.5 nerf, this card is no longer badly abused. But it still removes an important balancing tool (suffering a poor round 1 in favor of stronger rounds later.) And in some ways, the nerf worsens this as it is no longer autoinclude – effectively negating itself (so now it’s bad features are often allowed to shine).
Sihil – This card introduces a new level of broken, binary play. It is virtually auto win if it can be established in round 1 and auto lose otherwise. Whether it is established round one is totally dependent upon the opposing deck having sufficient self-damage or boost capability – which has neither been nor become a criterion for sound deck building. This type of card has no place in the game.
Summoning Circle – this card seems not only OK, but it may be helpful in the game by reducing the ability of players to completely ignore tempo.
Tesham Mutna Sword – this card is not disruptive to the game and seems a reasonable neutral tech card even if slightly underpriced.
Mastercrafted Spear – a nice response to power-crept engines. This card improves the game (although I would have preferred not to have the power creep in the first place).
Petri’s Philter – This change is not impactful, but it is a move in a good direction – reducing tools for unitless play while retaining a reasonable tech use.
Thunderbolt – A card usable only in degenerate (unitless) decks has now become unusable. I guess that’s an improvement.
Wyvern Scale Shield – The weakest card in the game is now no longer that. But I fear this ability (two consecutive shields without opponent opportunity for reaction) is very abusable. I haven’t yet seen it as problematic, however.
Arachas Queen – The change seems fine.
Ritual Sacrifice – The new card seems well-designed, but I will miss the old ability.
Hybrid – the change is fine. I don’t think it will make an impact, but the card is now better distinguished from Vran Warrior.
Vran Warrior – the buff seems warranted
Masquerade Ball – scenarios, since their inception, have been too swingy. Power creep has not changed this. I oppose ANY buffs to this awful card design.
Amnesty – Just great: a badly binary card now becomes more appealing.
Amphibious Assault – This card well deserved a nerf. But “fixing” high value, OP cards by a provision increase simply increases bad RNG (win if you draw the cards, lose otherwise).
Travelling Priestess – The nerf does next to nothing. The big issue with Priestesses is that they are amongst several recent cards that provide far too much carry-over value. Too much carry-over reduces the need for playing skill because the concepts of card advantage, tempo, and over-commitment become insignificant. I never considered Priestesses over-powered – I do consider them a blight on the game. This nerf was pointless as it ineffectively addressed the wrong issue.
Siege Master – This is a good nerf.
Brouver Hoog – I like this nerf. While he had never been a part of a broken deck, Brouver was an example of a binary, must-remove type engine. The nerf expands options for dealing with him without changing the essence of the card. And I appreciate the developers being pro-active addressing a problematic card before it becomes part of a problematic deck.
Vanadain – Vanadain is another example of a card that provides too much carryover (although this one at-least hinges upon other cards as well). I’m not sure increasing his immediate value (both points and moving an engine out of removal range) doesn’t worsen, rather than help, with the core problem.
Zoltan’s Company – I think the change was appropriate.
Forgotten Treasures Card Drop:
Runemage – an interesting card which does not appear to introduce problems.
Aerondight – This card has a nice premise – I initially liked the idea of a card that would encourage more consistent tempo and might strengthen point-slam (which seems the weak link in the engine, control, point-slam trio). After two months of seeing the card in action, I have changed my mind. The card is very binary (easily playing for 20+ more points on blue coin than on red coin). Moreover, it has a type of carryover that encourages what should be bad play (overcommitting) without offering any strategic offset for this. A significant nerf might eliminate the abuse of the card, but I think a rework is required to make the card usable without lessening the game.
Ring of Favor – This card remains horribly binary while reducing the meaning of tempo. At the very least, it needs good counters other than itself; ideally it is re-worked.
Golden Nekker – A card which allows uncontrolled use of two cards on a single turn is well known to be a bad idea and led to significant rework of several leader abilities. A card that can potentially play 27 provisions of value in one turn is outrageous. There is not rational justification for this card. I don’t care what the statistics show – this card will always be a potential problem lurking in the shadows of any broken meta in which it is not the problem itself.
Ornate Censer – This card is way too binary. It counters, without effort or thought, cards around which an entire deck is built. It over-emphasizes the value of last-say (and complements the broken Ring of Favor card). And it has zero value against decks that don’t develop tall units or can spam junk units. Heatwave, Yennifer’s Invocation, and Phillipa Eilhart may be necessary evils because the developers could not restrain themselves from including too many, overly greedy cards. But this “answer” is over-the-top punishment for too many decks of types that should be encouraged.
Magic Compass – I enjoy playing Magic Compass. I like the strategy of being able to choose and ideal card for a situation. But, objectively, I agree that the card offers too many, too powerful choices. Moreover, it should never be echo as that only lends itself to abuse. With more than 3 cards in the deck, it is high risk for limited return. With fewer than three cards in the deck, it is badly OP. That it can (through abuse of echo cards) be manipulated for double OP use is not reasonable.
Necromancer’s Tome – from my observations so far, this card seems OK. But I think it needs to be monitored closely. Broken combinations using this card exist, but all of which I am aware are sufficiently inconsistent as to not be problems. But it might not take much to change this.
Prophet – I like this card, even if it doesn’t see much use. The concept is new and interesting and is not subject to abuse that I can see.
Arcane Tome – I am skeptical of high flexibility tutors – especially tutors this cheap. But I have seen no real problems with Tome (an opponent can always choose to cut it off). And, if I am honest, I think Tome opens new deck possibilities by providing reasonable access to special cards around which one might build a deck. It is broken with cards like Golden Nekker, but that is the fault of Golden Nekker, not Arcane Tome.
Prism Pendant – If utterly useless cards are OK, Pendant is OK.
Mutagenerator – Although I have not yet seen this card in a broken deck, I think the underlying principle is not sound. The card absolutely provides too much carryover in a way that I believe is unhealthy.
Conjurer’s Candle – I will withhold judgment here. I have not seen a problem with this card. But I am skeptical of an “uncounterable” spender. And I am skeptical of its potential carry-over. But a design where each additional use costs more coins seems sufficient to keep it in check.
Troll Porter – This is a very good card, opening deck-building options and providing a new consistency tool without creating or worsening an problems.
Giantslayer – This is also a good card – tricky to use well, very unique, But its carry over is nicely moderated, and its potential value is consistent with its provision cost.
Mysterious Puzzle Box – I addressed above.
Shady Vendor – I like the card. It adds viability to a crimes deck without being over-powered.
Highland Warrior – Although my first thought was that this card could be exploited, that impression has proven wrong. The card does not add enough value to enough raid cards to justify the effort needed for abuse. As things currently stand, it is help for an archetype that has been languishing – and is unlikely to cause problems for the game.
Giant Toad – This is another card that I initially feared would be bad but has not proven so. It appears to mostly support the obnoxious Viy deck (and I still haven’t seen any other great use for toad). But It’s not especially great with Viy either since its initial consume then becomes useless. So, I now consider this card innocuous.
Vial of Forbidden Knowledge – a card that is just not good enough to serve its real purpose (encourage open deck-list play). But I guess it is harmless.
Obsidian Mirror – OK. This card is not really ever worth including.
Travelling Priestess – I discussed this card above.