New mechanics that would end the dominant combos forever: Cursed Card

[Guerreroymago]

The mechanics would be that when creating your deck, regardless of what is always done, you can choose a card for each faction (this card can be neutral as well). This card is the Cursed Card,

When you play against an opponent of a faction and include the cursed card in his deck, it becomes a token card (for example an artifact without skills).

With this, if a combo becomes dominant in a faction, people will choose as a cursed card the card that makes it possible. In this way, players will try to make their strong decks without using the powerful unbalanced cards that anyone would choose. Or at least others not so popular and there would be more variety.

 

[4RM3D]

Sorry, but that's a terrible idea. No single deck prevails in the meta. Even at its worst, there are still one or two other popular decks. Thus, this will only increase the variance even more. Furthermore, similar tactics are already used by including cards in your deck that counter popular decks. More importantly, if a deck dominates the meta, it should be naturally countered, not artificially like your suggestion.

Besides, there is also a mental component to your suggestion that creates an unnatural fear to play certain cards, which is something you do not want in a competitive game.

 

[Guerreroymago]

Sorry, but that's a terrible idea.

Ok, is your terrible opinion. (No problem whit that, I just think the expression is funny)

All that you say sounds good in theory, but the reality is that a lot of people says in this forum that do not like watch the same decks during a moth in all the matches. A lot of people says that this is boring. And I agree.

I think mi suggestion solves that.
Also, I think that the unnatural fear to play certain cards exists now. Nothing changes.

 

[Iuliandrei]

I like the idea of having cards that work better against the meta crap and what comes to mind is a card from Hearthstone called "Curious Glimmerroot".
What this card does is present you 3 cards and asks you to guess which one started in opponent's deck. So if you guess correctly you gain that card, if not then nothing happens.

I think something like that could work in Gwent aswell, something about it makes me think it's what Gaunter O'dimm would do.

 

[Pacifixer]

If i understand it correctly - in a good matchup, you just auto win by removing opponent's win condition, and in a bad match up you just auto loose by loosing your win condition.
This would result in a braidead point slam meta - no synergy = no counter.

I'm not a big fan of this idea.

 

[Evangium]

Interesting idea, but it does have the potential to become a meta deck in its own right. I mean if there's a card that potentially shuts down every meta deck in the current season, then everybody will start running it. A scenario like this doesn't seem to be the spirit in which this card is intended.

If I were to suggest a change, it would be that this idea works better as a doomed, ordered card that prevents an opponent's next played card from triggering. This would allow it to expand its usefulness so the card is not too binary and avoids the situation where entire decks are built around replaying it. It would likely be easier to code than a card that has to account for the many variations of cards players hate season to season. Gwent does have precendent, as ST has had similar ambush/trap cards in the past.

 

[Guerreroymago]

If i understand it correctly - in a good matchup, you just auto win by removing opponent's win condition, and in a bad match up you just auto loose by loosing your win condition.
This would result in a braidead point slam meta - no synergy = no counter.

I'm not a big fan of this idea.

The idea is that since no player wants one of their cards to be the cursed card, they are creative and varied when creating their decks, and thus neither player has eliminated any card.

Post automatically merged: Jan 23, 2020

Interesting idea, but it does have the potential to become a meta deck in its own right. I mean if there's a card that potentially shuts down every meta deck in the current season, then everybody will start running it. A scenario like this doesn't seem to be the spirit in which this card is intended.

If I were to suggest a change, it would be that this idea works better as a doomed, ordered card that prevents an opponent's next played card from triggering. This would allow it to expand its usefulness so the card is not too binary and avoids the situation where entire decks are built around replaying it. It would likely be easier to code than a card that has to account for the many variations of cards players hate season to season. Gwent does have precendent, as ST has had similar ambush/trap cards in the past.

It's fine, but how would it be done? If it is a card that by playing it prevents the use of the following opponent card, the opponent will know and will not play the key card.

 

[FG15-ISH7EG]

Another problem that I see is that this mechanic would favour certain cards and archetypes which would be a lot less affected.
Basically the more base power a card has the less the "curse" would matter. For example old speartip wouldn't even be affected and Yghern would be buffed.
This would mean a large monster deck wouldn't loose any of its big monsters and if build well would loose a consume engine in the worst case, while being able to "curse" Gerald Yrden to avoid the massive reset.

And as mentioned above, the mechanic would be extremly binary. And while it would improve the meta, at the point we would have a varied meta with lots of different decks, "curse" would become just complete RNG, having good or bad luck if the enemy has the "cursed" card.


I'd rather have an artifact which is spawned at the end of the last round, which adds 1 point to the board for every card the enemy has of a preselected pool of 10 cards. This way it would still offer an advantage, but wouldn't be a complete binary option.

 

[Evangium]

It's fine, but how would it be done? If it is a card that by playing it prevents the use of the following opponent card, the opponent will know and will not play the key card.

It depends on when in the match the card is played. For the most part, many decks stil rely heavily on having last say in R3. Thus playing around such a card would mean playing the combo early in R3, given that the order effectively negates the impact of going first in R3. This may in turn result in suboptimal play of the combo, either by wasting removal on that card, or bluffing by playing part of the combo (if it is that type of combo) in the hope the opponent triggers the order ability and has it wasted on a non-critical card. Obviously the flaw in this design is that it's not a silver bullet against all possible wincons or tempo plays.

 

[Guerreroymago]

And as mentioned above, the mechanic would be extremly binary. And while it would improve the meta, at the point we would have a varied meta with lots of different decks, "curse" would become just complete RNG, having good or bad luck if the enemy has the "cursed" card.

Sorry, what is RNG? (it is difficult for me to translate the abbreviations).

You also have to think that the cursed card would be one of about three hundred cards. And whit new expansions, more cards.
It shouldn't be too easy to activate Cursed Card, if is not the most obvious cards.

And we must also think that a powerful card does not destroy a balanced deck. It's like when you don't get the card you want from the deck.

 

[Evangium]

RNG = Random Number Generator. Typically refers to the method used in games to achieve random effects.