Recently, someone posted a thread about wanting a nerf to patches (to 2 mana), which I think most of us agree that would be the wrong way to nerf him (regardless of if you think he deserves a nerf or not, I personally don't, but that's not what this thread is about), since cards that win or lose you the game depending on where you draw them in your deck are generally not the most fun cards to play. However, this got me thinking a bit, is blizzard applying some incorrect design philosophies with tech cards and big swing cards, and if you were in charge of the game, would you change the way they work?
The way Blizzard creates tech cards is that they want slightly underpowered minions to be really good in certain situations, and they use these cards to prevent strategies from being overpowerd. Hungry crab, gollaka crawler, eater of secrets, big game hunter, and skulking geist are barely playable to downright understatted cards for their mana cost, but can pretty much instantly win you the game if they get played in the right situation. This is because they usually have two effects, the first effect messes with your opponent and shuts down what they're doing, the second effect makes them overstatted minions in that situation. They basically win you the game if you play them in the right situations, and I don't know if that's all that fun to play.
Would the game be more interesting if instead of having two different positive effects in the situation you want to play them in, they had negative effects? Like, gollaka crawler, 2 mana 2/3, destroy a pirate, if you do, lose 1 health? Hungry crab, 1 mana 1/2, destroy a murloc, if you do, lose 1 health? Eater of secrets, 4 mana 4/5, destroy all enemy secrets, for each enemy secret you destroy, lose 1/1?
I'm just curious why blizzard decided to go in the direction they did, and create tech cards that swing the game so much that make matchups all the more polarizing. Do you think blizzard is right to go in the direction they did, or would you rather tech cards be more consistent while having less of a swing but still performing their purpose? I'm interested in hearing all of your thoughts on this.
I think there are (at least) four ways to go about nerfs:
Nerf but not a nerf: This would be for cards that can potentially get out of hand but aren't currently broken or abused. For instance, the more weak Priest deathrattles that are introduced, the weaker a card like Museum Curator gets. I say potentially out of hand because if this card only discovered strong deathrattles, it would be pretty OP.
Indirect soft nerf: Cards like Skulking Geist are a soft nerf to Jade Idol. You do something like this when a card is problematic but on its own not a game breaking mechanic or card.
Indirect harder nerf: Cards that specifically target other cards. Golakka Crawler is a good 'nerf' to Pirates. You do this when a card or group of cards allows for one sided games or early snowballs.
Direct nerf: Obvious enough. The card is too strong for whatever reason and you change its stats or effects.
For this reason I think Patches is fine. We have tech cards for it. Though I worry that the standard for Turn 1 stats is out of hand. It almost feels like T1 1/1 in stats is too slow to be in a deck, no matter what the effect.
Instead of a detriment to yourself, it could also benefit the opponent in some way, much like Naturalize.
I've never thought of it this way, but you have a point. The tech cards tend to turn certain matchups completely on end, while they are completely worthless in other matchups. That ultimately will always be the nature of the beast, since there are 9 classes and multiple archetypes within each, but they do seem to design tech cards to completely polarize a game/matchup. I mean, I've had plenty of PW's concede straight up to an early Golakka. An alternative would be to "fairly" stat the minion, and have its tech modification not be quite so powerful. Not sure how that would play out though, just thinking out loud so to speak. I think it would be interesting to have more effects like Naturalize, or Destroy minion and restore health to your opponent type of stuff.
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As a follow up, I think the wrong way to do nerfs is to apply one of the 4 I listed to a situation where it's not warranted (such as nerfing Raza simply because the community doesn't like it, or making Jade Idol have a different effect/stats), or to make sure the card sees zero play because a strictly better card is released.
Recently, someone posted a thread about wanting a nerf to patches (to 2 mana), which I think most of us agree that would be the wrong way to nerf him (regardless of if you think he deserves a nerf or not, I personally don't, but that's not what this thread is about), since cards that win or lose you the game depending on where you draw them in your deck are generally not the most fun cards to play. However, this got me thinking a bit, is blizzard applying some incorrect design philosophies with tech cards and big swing cards, and if you were in charge of the game, would you change the way they work?
The way Blizzard creates tech cards is that they want slightly underpowered minions to be really good in certain situations, and they use these cards to prevent strategies from being overpowerd. Hungry crab, gollaka crawler, eater of secrets, big game hunter, and skulking geist are barely playable to downright understatted cards for their mana cost, but can pretty much instantly win you the game if they get played in the right situation. This is because they usually have two effects, the first effect messes with your opponent and shuts down what they're doing, the second effect makes them overstatted minions in that situation. They basically win you the game if you play them in the right situations, and I don't know if that's all that fun to play.
Would the game be more interesting if instead of having two different positive effects in the situation you want to play them in, they had negative effects? Like, gollaka crawler, 2 mana 2/3, destroy a pirate, if you do, lose 1 health? Hungry crab, 1 mana 1/2, destroy a murloc, if you do, lose 1 health? Eater of secrets, 4 mana 4/5, destroy all enemy secrets, for each enemy secret you destroy, lose 1/1?
I'm just curious why blizzard decided to go in the direction they did, and create tech cards that swing the game so much that make matchups all the more polarizing. Do you think blizzard is right to go in the direction they did, or would you rather tech cards be more consistent while having less of a swing but still performing their purpose? I'm interested in hearing all of your thoughts on this.
I think there are (at least) four ways to go about nerfs:
For this reason I think Patches is fine. We have tech cards for it. Though I worry that the standard for Turn 1 stats is out of hand. It almost feels like T1 1/1 in stats is too slow to be in a deck, no matter what the effect.
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Instead of a detriment to yourself, it could also benefit the opponent in some way, much like Naturalize.
I've never thought of it this way, but you have a point. The tech cards tend to turn certain matchups completely on end, while they are completely worthless in other matchups. That ultimately will always be the nature of the beast, since there are 9 classes and multiple archetypes within each, but they do seem to design tech cards to completely polarize a game/matchup. I mean, I've had plenty of PW's concede straight up to an early Golakka. An alternative would be to "fairly" stat the minion, and have its tech modification not be quite so powerful. Not sure how that would play out though, just thinking out loud so to speak. I think it would be interesting to have more effects like Naturalize, or Destroy minion and restore health to your opponent type of stuff.
Nature is the Day.
Man is the Sun.
Woman is the Moon.
The Stone is the Sky.
The Art is the Way.
As a follow up, I think the wrong way to do nerfs is to apply one of the 4 I listed to a situation where it's not warranted (such as nerfing Raza simply because the community doesn't like it, or making Jade Idol have a different effect/stats), or to make sure the card sees zero play because a strictly better card is released.
Kaladin's RoS Set Review
Join me at Out of Cards!