TL/DR: Blizzard has switched gears to end power creep and normalize the power levels which will lead to a much better standard.
There's been a complaint by a lot of players over the past two expansions about the power level of the cards. There had been steady power creep since launch, and notably Lich King and K&C had a dramatic jump in power. When these sets launched it was exciting because of the huge meta impact on every launch, but it's not a sustainable model. You must keep increasing the card's impact to make them desirable to new players.
This also lead to problems with old cards being made useless. My best example of this was C'thun decks. When Whispers launched, there were plenty of viable tier 1 and 2 C'thun decks. By the time the set rotated out, those cards that used to be powerful were a joke. I had tried to make a WotLK C'thun deck work but it just could not compete with the newer decks. Instead of adding new decks and playstyles, they simply replaced them with better decks.
Ideally, you don't want your old decks to become bad. You would like to be able to tweak them with the new cards but keep playing them. Then you want new cards to create new and different decks that can be added to the meta. I believe this is what Blizzard is doing.
In the next few weeks I think we're going to see the relative power level is going to remain low for this new expansion. People will complain and bitch about how few cards are effecting the meta, but wait 4 more months. When the next standard year rotates in, we can look forward to all these decks that just couldn't compete suddenly leaping in power. Pogohopper might be a tier 2 deck, mechs can find their way into tier 1. You are going to see a whole new standard and if managed correctly the deck diversity can be huge. The former idea of creeping power as the HS year goes on has proven just bad. Blizzard has adopted steady power level across all expansions and I think we're going to see the best meta ever.
I really appreciate your viewpoint. Its nice to hear a positive opinion about the game we all love. I too hope they tone down the power level so players are encouraged to be creative in their deck building. Its good for the game when someone can have an idea for a deck, put it together and compete with others fairly.
Lets hope the new blood at Blizzard brings some new ideas and freshness to the game.
That's my hope as well. From what I hear of it, MTG had solved a power creep issue in the same way: keep the power levels low until rotation kicked out the high power cards then everything went golden. The key is just how strong RR will be.
There is ONE power level trick they CAN do though to try to add more 'omph' while keeping the goal in mind: The Reno/Kazakas move. A card that synergizes well with cards from last year's set. The result is a higher power level that drops to trash level once rotation hits. Thus RR can make cards that work well with quests or the death knights or the weapons of K&C which will create new decks that only last a few months.
For now we haven't seen too much, but Paladin's team is spell based, which syncs well with their quest and their legendaries from K&C. So the hope is alive.
Why would they allow older sets to be stronger than current ones when they know that it would encourage older players to buy less packs from newest expansions?
A lot of people have said that the last expansion of the year is always the most powerful. But this is based on really small sample size - we've not been doing 3 proper expansions a year for very long. From the cards we've seen so far I'm not seeing anything that looks that different from the last 2 expansions. If it continues like this then I agree, come the next rotation we'll see a huge shake-up. It'll also be totally different from the last rotation which barely changed the meta.
Lol feel some pity though for any new players trying to get into wild if the power levels are being kept at a lower level :)
i have been thinking the same thing, but with less hope for the best meta ever.
i think this will also help the new player experience as there will be less demand for the best decks. basically, with general lower power level cards from expansions then the classic and basic set will be better in comparison.
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Rejoice, for even in death, you have become children of Thanos.
Except that they created a new problem with such design that isn't fault of KaC cards.
Polarization.
The design of new cards create a world where your in game decisions not matter.
I hope this will be tackled in future expansions. More and more complex keywords are added to the game recent example is "Overkill". However game still lack the engagement. Waiting for your opponent to finish a turn is just ridiculous, so cards that can be played for credit (mana of next turn) should be implemented. That would definitely spice up the game. Just imagine a card that would catch Ragnaro's hit: 2 mana 2/2 that catches all random effects (arcane missiles, etc.!!!!)
Why would they allow older sets to be stronger than current ones when they know that it would encourage older players to buy less packs from newest expansions?
Because if those players ignore buying those packs they end up going to buy A LOT of them come rotation.
For example, once the next rotation hits the only sets we'll have available are Witchwood, Boomsday, Rumble, and the Spring expansion. If you decided to bail out of buying Witch/Boom/RR because all of those older cards worked so well you'd be screwed once Rotation hit and suddenly the only decks available are from those sets.
Meanwhile keeping the power level down means a much easier time designing cards as you don't have to focus on making each set stronger than the last. You also get less customer backlash that comes from the power spikes decimating your game balance. Besides, making RR a higher power level NOW means you've ruined any hope of Witchwood/Boomsday being a viable expansion which guarantees that customers will be less likely to buy from a set that seems underpowered due to past experience.
So it's not a risk at all to your income and helps keep both your income-producing design team and your paying customers happy and working.
This isn't exactly uncharted territory here. This design is what helped make MTG the juggernaut it is today with oceans of money to boot.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
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TL/DR: Blizzard has switched gears to end power creep and normalize the power levels which will lead to a much better standard.
There's been a complaint by a lot of players over the past two expansions about the power level of the cards. There had been steady power creep since launch, and notably Lich King and K&C had a dramatic jump in power. When these sets launched it was exciting because of the huge meta impact on every launch, but it's not a sustainable model. You must keep increasing the card's impact to make them desirable to new players.
This also lead to problems with old cards being made useless. My best example of this was C'thun decks. When Whispers launched, there were plenty of viable tier 1 and 2 C'thun decks. By the time the set rotated out, those cards that used to be powerful were a joke. I had tried to make a WotLK C'thun deck work but it just could not compete with the newer decks. Instead of adding new decks and playstyles, they simply replaced them with better decks.
Ideally, you don't want your old decks to become bad. You would like to be able to tweak them with the new cards but keep playing them. Then you want new cards to create new and different decks that can be added to the meta. I believe this is what Blizzard is doing.
In the next few weeks I think we're going to see the relative power level is going to remain low for this new expansion. People will complain and bitch about how few cards are effecting the meta, but wait 4 more months. When the next standard year rotates in, we can look forward to all these decks that just couldn't compete suddenly leaping in power. Pogohopper might be a tier 2 deck, mechs can find their way into tier 1. You are going to see a whole new standard and if managed correctly the deck diversity can be huge. The former idea of creeping power as the HS year goes on has proven just bad. Blizzard has adopted steady power level across all expansions and I think we're going to see the best meta ever.
I really appreciate your viewpoint. Its nice to hear a positive opinion about the game we all love. I too hope they tone down the power level so players are encouraged to be creative in their deck building. Its good for the game when someone can have an idea for a deck, put it together and compete with others fairly.
Lets hope the new blood at Blizzard brings some new ideas and freshness to the game.
That's my hope as well. From what I hear of it, MTG had solved a power creep issue in the same way: keep the power levels low until rotation kicked out the high power cards then everything went golden. The key is just how strong RR will be.
There is ONE power level trick they CAN do though to try to add more 'omph' while keeping the goal in mind: The Reno/Kazakas move. A card that synergizes well with cards from last year's set. The result is a higher power level that drops to trash level once rotation hits. Thus RR can make cards that work well with quests or the death knights or the weapons of K&C which will create new decks that only last a few months.
For now we haven't seen too much, but Paladin's team is spell based, which syncs well with their quest and their legendaries from K&C. So the hope is alive.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
Why would they allow older sets to be stronger than current ones when they know that it would encourage older players to buy less packs from newest expansions?
Except that they created a new problem with such design that isn't fault of KaC cards.
Polarization.
The design of new cards create a world where your in game decisions not matter.
A lot of people have said that the last expansion of the year is always the most powerful. But this is based on really small sample size - we've not been doing 3 proper expansions a year for very long. From the cards we've seen so far I'm not seeing anything that looks that different from the last 2 expansions. If it continues like this then I agree, come the next rotation we'll see a huge shake-up. It'll also be totally different from the last rotation which barely changed the meta.
Lol feel some pity though for any new players trying to get into wild if the power levels are being kept at a lower level :)
I quite agree. And i think it is a virtuous direction.
If only Wild could undergo the same process...
i have been thinking the same thing, but with less hope for the best meta ever.
i think this will also help the new player experience as there will be less demand for the best decks. basically, with general lower power level cards from expansions then the classic and basic set will be better in comparison.
Rejoice, for even in death, you have become children of Thanos.
I hope this will be tackled in future expansions. More and more complex keywords are added to the game recent example is "Overkill". However game still lack the engagement. Waiting for your opponent to finish a turn is just ridiculous, so cards that can be played for credit (mana of next turn) should be implemented. That would definitely spice up the game. Just imagine a card that would catch Ragnaro's hit: 2 mana 2/2 that catches all random effects (arcane missiles, etc.!!!!)
The goal of all life is death.
Because if those players ignore buying those packs they end up going to buy A LOT of them come rotation.
For example, once the next rotation hits the only sets we'll have available are Witchwood, Boomsday, Rumble, and the Spring expansion. If you decided to bail out of buying Witch/Boom/RR because all of those older cards worked so well you'd be screwed once Rotation hit and suddenly the only decks available are from those sets.
Meanwhile keeping the power level down means a much easier time designing cards as you don't have to focus on making each set stronger than the last. You also get less customer backlash that comes from the power spikes decimating your game balance. Besides, making RR a higher power level NOW means you've ruined any hope of Witchwood/Boomsday being a viable expansion which guarantees that customers will be less likely to buy from a set that seems underpowered due to past experience.
So it's not a risk at all to your income and helps keep both your income-producing design team and your paying customers happy and working.
This isn't exactly uncharted territory here. This design is what helped make MTG the juggernaut it is today with oceans of money to boot.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.