We know that blizzard does want to make some keywords specific to their specific expansion, such as inspire, echo, overkill, twinspell recruit etc. and not use those keywords like ever again.
I think that the keywords should be used in the newer expansions as well. For example, Captain Hooktusk should use the keyword recruit, Witch's Brew should use the keyword echo etc.
I think that the keyword discover was meant to be like that too but the mechanic got so many positive feedback that they started to use that keyword like almost every expansion. Moreover, I think the word "discover" is related to the expansion's theme more than the other expansion's keywords are related to them.
I think they should not have removed the keyword enrage. It was used more than the keyword immune. And they can even use the keyword elusive for "can't be targeted by spells or hero powers".
So in conclusion I would vote for such a change that makes the all keywords free to use in every expansion if I had the chance.
I would like to know what the other players think about any point I made.
In game there is a message while waiting in the que... something in the lines of "in standard only the latest sets are in use so you dont have to learn the old cards"
I think they dont want to use the keywords for 2 reasons... keep people from playing wild (they have to learn what echo is), and to not overwhelm new players with muchos keywords... (although the keywords are explained in popups)
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I think Witch's Brew is not an echo, because only one copy is returned by the Frog if I am not mistaken. I would like to see consistency in keywords, but yes it just takes too much time to fix it in different languages, so for them, it is better to focus on the game improvements and fixing other crucial bugs.
Remember, the target audience and testing groups are probably full of 10 year-olds (or 80 year-olds). Of course they get confused about keywords and more than 9 deck slots. They can't even count to ten. Or the UI is that bad that it's not obvious they need to SCROLL!
Regarding the keywords, it's not like they can't READ, right?! Well, at 10 or 80 years of age it may be difficult for some to grasp the meaning of certain phrases. Or, again, the UI is so bad that they can't easily see where they need to read the keywords info - i don't even remember, can you see what a keyword means while playing a game, or can you do it only from your collection?
Because of all of this you get a vicious cycle in which Blizzard will always have a reason to do stupid shit (because of what the testing groups tell them), NOT because people are stupid, but because they don't want to improve the UI (not a single significant bit in 5 years).
And they will always justify their decisions based on the control groups since they have no interest to admit they are lazy morons.
I think Witch's Brew is not an echo, because only one copy is returned by the Frog if I am not mistaken. I would like to see consistency in keywords, but yes it just takes too much time to fix it in different languages, so for them, it is better to focus on the game improvements and fixing other crucial bugs.
Someone else said this in another post and it was said that the frog does give you all copies of witches brew cast same as it does with the repeatable evolution card.
It is better game design, imo, not to overuse keywords. The best keywords remaining evergreen is fine, but asking for every keyword that popped up once to return on every one-off card that uses it is silly and counterproductive.
Mistress of Pain has lifesteal because lifesteal is a evergreen keyword. Echo is not a evergreen keyword, so Witches Brew doesn't have Echo. How hard it is understand ? using keywords just for the sake for it is bad.
Mistress of Pain has lifesteal because lifesteal is a evergreen keyword. Echo is not a evergreen keyword, so Witches Brew doesn't have Echo. How hard it is understand ? using keywords just for the sake for it is bad.
Do you mean it is a matter of consistency between expansions? Ok, then why don't they change EVERY FITTING card text when a new keyword appears, and, when an expansion is no longer in play, change EVERY FITTING card text BACK? That would be 100% consistency! Why? Because it applies to both standard, arena and wild modes.
But nevermind, i'm asking for consistency in a game that doesn't allow me to skip the text bubbles in the single player content and, as well, isn't capable of showing all the rewards or card changes with one click (after starting the game) instead of clicking through all of them like a stupid click simulator. I won't even care to discuss about a feature to discover all cards from a pack with one click... So much forced hype and idiocy.
The keywords are based on their expansion and their "lifespan" in standard play. Witch's Brew does not have the keyword echo because all echo cards rotate during the next rotation, and being the only card with that specific keyword is confusion for new players that play Standard.
Do you mean it is a matter of consistency between expansions? Ok, then why don't they change EVERY FITTING card text when a new keyword appears, and, when an expansion is no longer in play, change EVERY FITTING card text BACK? That would be 100% consistency! Why? Because it applies to both standard, arena and wild modes.
That is the most stupid, arbitrary way of choosing something to be 'consistent' I've ever seen. This argument comes up all the time, and I don't think anyone has ever come up with a worse suggestion than this.
It is entirely consistent to say - 'This Keyword is only used in this expansion. If the same or similar effect appears briefly in another expansion, we do not need to use the Keyword.' - and to pretend that isn't 'consistent' is silly. Just because you personally don't like this policy doesn't mean it's inconsistent.
Do you mean it is a matter of consistency between expansions? Ok, then why don't they change EVERY FITTING card text when a new keyword appears, and, when an expansion is no longer in play, change EVERY FITTING card text BACK? That would be 100% consistency! Why? Because it applies to both standard, arena and wild modes.
That is the most stupid, arbitrary way of choosing something to be 'consistent' I've ever seen. This argument comes up all the time, and I don't think anyone has ever come up with a worse suggestion than this.
It is entirely consistent to say - 'This Keyword is only used in this expansion. If the same or similar effect appears briefly in another expansion, we do not need to use the Keyword.' - and to pretend that isn't 'consistent' is silly. Just because you personally don't like this policy doesn't mean it's inconsistent.
Do you mean it is a matter of consistency between expansions? Ok, then why don't they change EVERY FITTING card text when a new keyword appears, and, when an expansion is no longer in play, change EVERY FITTING card text BACK? That would be 100% consistency! Why? Because it applies to both standard, arena and wild modes.
That is the most stupid, arbitrary way of choosing something to be 'consistent' I've ever seen. This argument comes up all the time, and I don't think anyone has ever come up with a worse suggestion than this.
It is entirely consistent to say - 'This Keyword is only used in this expansion. If the same or similar effect appears briefly in another expansion, we do not need to use the Keyword.' - and to pretend that isn't 'consistent' is silly. Just because you personally don't like this policy doesn't mean it's inconsistent.
I can say the same about your line of reasoning tbh. 'Consistent' in this case means fixing 'the issue' in all formats, all the time.
Keywords are mainly a shortcut for longer text, can we agree on that? They also help create cards around them (e.g. 'your next Battlecry triggers twice').
So, why the heck do they even create non-evergreen keywords to begin with if either they create no cards that act on the effect of the keyword - like the battlecry example from above, either they are going to print future cards without the keyword?
Why even bother to create a 'temporary' keyword? The example from now will probably be 'twin-spell'. I don't know of any card that plays around it, e.g. 'cards with twin-spell cost 2 less' or whatever. So it's likely the keyword will be dropped soon just like Echo was.
So why even bother to create them in the first place? Is it too much to ask for consistency in design?! From your childish, raging and extreme answer it's clear you don't care about that. Well, guess what, I do and I have a different opinion than you (if you don't like it, go vent to a psychologist please).
Why do I care about consistency? Because what they are doing makes no sense, even from a time/resource perspective, i.e. they could spend that small amount of time to do something else, like improving some basic things in the UI and so on.
I can say the same about your line of reasoning tbh. 'Consistent' in this case means fixing 'the issue' in all formats, all the time.
Keywords are mainly a shortcut for longer text, can we agree on that? They also help create cards around them (e.g. 'your next Battlecry triggers twice').
So, why the heck do they even create non-evergreen keywords to begin with if either they create no cards that act on the effect of the keyword - like the battlecry example from above, either they are going to print future cards without the keyword?
Why even bother to create a 'temporary' keyword? The example from now will probably be 'twin-spell'. I don't know of any card that plays around it, e.g. 'cards with twin-spell cost 2 less' or whatever. So it's likely the keyword will be dropped soon just like Echo was.
So why even bother to create them in the first place? Is it too much to ask for consistency in design?! From your childish, raging and extreme answer it's clear you don't care about that. Well, guess what, I do and I have a different opinion than you (if you don't like it, go vent to a psychologist please).
Why do I care about consistency? Because what they are doing makes no sense, even from a time/resource perspective, i.e. they could spend that small amount of time to do something else, like improving some basic things in the UI and so on.
Keywords add flavour to an expansion - an expansion having a lot of cards that pull minions from your deck is... whatever, but when you flavour it as 'Recruiting' them to your adventuring party, suddenly it feels like it makes a lot more sense. Same with Inspire, or Adapt, or Twin-Spell - they're all about adding flavour to an expansion (Cheering on your minions in the tournament, adapting and evolving to your surroundings, being so good at spells you can cast them twice). Of course, sometimes a Keyword effect would also be pretty lengthy to write out - Discover, for example - so that's a small bonus. Not always applicable, though.
It's also a marketing decision. Whenever a new expansion comes out, it's an easy thing they can point to and go 'hey, here's what makes this expansion different'. Does that matter at all from a game design perspective? Not really, but it's something.
The reason I brought up your silly reasoning for 'consistency' is that you seemed adamant that your way was the correct way. It isn't - it's a way they could do it, yes, but that doesn't make it inherently better or 'more consistent' than what they do now. If they chose to do it your way, yes, that would be a consistent design decision - just as the way they're doing it now is also a consistent design decision.
There is no issue that needs fixing, in my eyes, because they're already making the correct design decisions. Limiting the number of keywords in any Standard environment is better for new player retention, and does no harm to existing players. It's all upside.
I also implore you, if you ever want to be taken seriously in a discussion, don't suggest that the people responsible for coming up with new Keywords are the same people who would be improving the game's UI. It makes your whole argument look like it's coming from a place of ignorance. I answered you seriously because you seem passionate about it, but that last paragraph really undermines your credibility.
Why do I care about consistency? Because what they are doing makes no sense, even from a time/resource perspective, i.e. they could spend that small amount of time to do something else, like improving some basic things in the UI and so on.
First of all, it's not inconsistent, you may not like it but that doesn't make it inconsistent.
Secondly, even if it is inconsistent it affects nobody in the game, Witches Brew doesn't became a better card if it had Echo than "repeatable this turn", neither does Y'shaarj with recruit. Focus you rage filled rant on inconsistencies that actually affect the gameplay like Hagatha's Horror being inconsistent with other spell casting minions like Yogg Saron or how Twilight's Call can summon non-deathrattle minions.
Regardless of 'consistency' issues or not, let's at least confirm something.
How do you determine what makes a good 'evergreen' keyword, if that is the argument against using a keyword for everything?
Why is Lifesteal a good candidate, but not Echo?
But what if cards qualify for a evergreen keyword, but the game doesn't apply the usage evenly?
I prefer keywording everything because it does offer consistency. I prefer that over 'theme'. But that's me and my preference. I like the idea of a keyword showing up in 2 expansions, and using old cards for something new.
For example, if Echo belongs to Witchwood, that's fine, for theme. But going back through older cards and being able to use them in new ways is exciting to me. There is only 1 card right now that cares about cards you play with the keyword 'Echo'. But what if in later sets they expand that? A card that says 'draw a card for every Echo card in your hand', as an example.
It seems it's a battle between theme and consistency. Flavor versus Logic. Maybe it can be both?
Regardless of 'consistency' issues or not, let's at least confirm something.
How do you determine what makes a good 'evergreen' keyword, if that is the argument against using a keyword for everything?
Why is Lifesteal a good candidate, but not Echo?
But what if cards qualify for a evergreen keyword, but the game doesn't apply the usage evenly?
I prefer keywording everything because it does offer consistency. I prefer that over 'theme'. But that's me and my preference. I like the idea of a keyword showing up in 2 expansions, and using old cards for something new.
For example, if Echo belongs to Witchwood, that's fine, for theme. But going back through older cards and being able to use them in new ways is exciting to me. There is only 1 card right now that cares about cards you play with the keyword 'Echo'. But what if in later sets they expand that? A card that says 'draw a card for every Echo card in your hand', as an example.
It seems it's a battle between theme and consistency. Flavor versus Logic. Maybe it can be both?
Lifesteal is a better Evergreen keyword than Echo would be because it's easier to balance. It's why Charge has mostly been phased out in favour of the easier to balance Rush. The implication behind a keyword being Evergreen is that it should show up fairly frequently - this is one of the reasons given for Enrage being phased out, because it was absent for at one point five expansions in a row (from TOG to WW, when it was removed). I don't think they'll ever remove Charge as a keyword, since it has cards that interact with it, but again, it hasn't had a card in the last five expansions, as Rush has essentially replaced it, so they wouldn't be unjustified. Maybe along with a Warsong Commander change to the old effect but with Rush instead? Fingers crossed.
Now, there are some keywords that aren't Evergreen that have similar ease of balance - I'd say Adapt or Overkill would be good candidates. Adapt is very intrinsically tied into the lore of Un'goro, so I can understand not wanting to sprinkle it in in future sets. Overkill has some good Rastakhan flavour, but would be much easier to continue its usage if they wanted to.
The point is that you don't want to oversaturate your game with Evergreen keywords, otherwise you just come up against the problem you were trying to avoid by making some keywords not Evergreen. Clearly they don't see the need for a mechanic like Overkill to show up frequently, so they didn't make it Evergreen.
Now, on another topic, I do think that they should re-visit keywords in future expansions, as part of that expansion's theme. I'd be pretty disappointed if our next Mech-focused expansion didn't have at least a few Magnetic cards (since they'll probably want to focus more on their newer mechanic, so we can't expect too many). I'd also like to see them try and tackle Inspire again, since I think it could have been great - or at least somewhat playable in Constructed without being bonkers in Arena.
A keyword not being Evergreen doesn't mean it has to be gone forever. We've just not had the game exist long enough for them to dip back into their past works so heavily for mechanical inspiration, only thematic stuff with Rise of Shadows (and a slight mechanical bend, though no keywords obviously).
Regardless of 'consistency' issues or not, let's at least confirm something.
How do you determine what makes a good 'evergreen' keyword, if that is the argument against using a keyword for everything?
Why is Lifesteal a good candidate, but not Echo?
But what if cards qualify for a evergreen keyword, but the game doesn't apply the usage evenly?
I prefer keywording everything because it does offer consistency. I prefer that over 'theme'. But that's me and my preference. I like the idea of a keyword showing up in 2 expansions, and using old cards for something new.
For example, if Echo belongs to Witchwood, that's fine, for theme. But going back through older cards and being able to use them in new ways is exciting to me. There is only 1 card right now that cares about cards you play with the keyword 'Echo'. But what if in later sets they expand that? A card that says 'draw a card for every Echo card in your hand', as an example.
It seems it's a battle between theme and consistency. Flavor versus Logic. Maybe it can be both?
Lifesteal is a better Evergreen keyword than Echo would be because it's easier to balance. It's why Charge has mostly been phased out in favour of the easier to balance Rush. The implication behind a keyword being Evergreen is that it should show up fairly frequently - this is one of the reasons given for Enrage being phased out, because it was absent for at one point five expansions in a row (from TOG to WW, when it was removed). I don't think they'll ever remove Charge as a keyword, since it has cards that interact with it, but again, it hasn't had a card in the last five expansions, as Rush has essentially replaced it, so they wouldn't be unjustified. Maybe along with a Warsong Commander change to the old effect but with Rush instead? Fingers crossed.
Now, there are some keywords that aren't Evergreen that have similar ease of balance - I'd say Adapt or Overkill would be good candidates. Adapt is very intrinsically tied into the lore of Un'goro, so I can understand not wanting to sprinkle it in in future sets. Overkill has some good Rastakhan flavour, but would be much easier to continue its usage if they wanted to.
The point is that you don't want to oversaturate your game with Evergreen keywords, otherwise you just come up against the problem you were trying to avoid by making some keywords not Evergreen. Clearly they don't see the need for a mechanic like Overkill to show up frequently, so they didn't make it Evergreen.
Now, on another topic, I do think that they should re-visit keywords in future expansions, as part of that expansion's theme. I'd be pretty disappointed if our next Mech-focused expansion didn't have at least a few Magnetic cards (since they'll probably want to focus more on their newer mechanic, so we can't expect too many). I'd also like to see them try and tackle Inspire again, since I think it could have been great - or at least somewhat playable in Constructed without being bonkers in Arena.
A keyword not being Evergreen doesn't mean it has to be gone forever. We've just not had the game exist long enough for them to dip back into their past works so heavily for mechanical inspiration, only thematic stuff with Rise of Shadows (and a slight mechanical bend, though no keywords obviously).
Inspire was played in constructed, in fact worlds was won with a deck with an inspire card in it. The monkey that inpired gave all your other minions +1+1
I just think failing to use established keywords is VERY confusing, which runs counter to their design philosophy.
People spent way too much time wondering how Witch's Brew would work differently from an Echo card, when it's actually the same.
I'm not raging or anything, but there is one thing that pisses me off. The Blizzard comment that "people don't read tooltips." If new players can't be bothered to read a tooltip, that's on the player. You shouldn't center your card design around such unreasonable laziness. If you are already expecting newbies to learn how cards interact, you can sure as hell expect them to put forth the minimal effort required to read a tooltip.
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We know that blizzard does want to make some keywords specific to their specific expansion, such as inspire, echo, overkill, twinspell recruit etc. and not use those keywords like ever again.
I think that the keywords should be used in the newer expansions as well. For example, Captain Hooktusk should use the keyword recruit, Witch's Brew should use the keyword echo etc.
After the keyword lifesteal is introduced, some cards from the past started to use that keyword as well, such as Mistress of Pain and Wickerflame Burnbristle. They could do the same thing for the Unstable Evolution.
I think that the keyword discover was meant to be like that too but the mechanic got so many positive feedback that they started to use that keyword like almost every expansion. Moreover, I think the word "discover" is related to the expansion's theme more than the other expansion's keywords are related to them.
I think they should not have removed the keyword enrage. It was used more than the keyword immune. And they can even use the keyword elusive for "can't be targeted by spells or hero powers".
So in conclusion I would vote for such a change that makes the all keywords free to use in every expansion if I had the chance.
I would like to know what the other players think about any point I made.
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Imagine quartz elemental have enrage, “im so angry i cant attack”. Not every minion need this weird enrage keyword.
I like elementals and totems.
In game there is a message while waiting in the que... something in the lines of "in standard only the latest sets are in use so you dont have to learn the old cards"
I think they dont want to use the keywords for 2 reasons... keep people from playing wild (they have to learn what echo is), and to not overwhelm new players with muchos keywords... (although the keywords are explained in popups)
To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffer!
I think Witch's Brew is not an echo, because only one copy is returned by the Frog if I am not mistaken. I would like to see consistency in keywords, but yes it just takes too much time to fix it in different languages, so for them, it is better to focus on the game improvements and fixing other crucial bugs.
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Remember, the target audience and testing groups are probably full of 10 year-olds (or 80 year-olds). Of course they get confused about keywords and more than 9 deck slots. They can't even count to ten. Or the UI is that bad that it's not obvious they need to SCROLL!
Regarding the keywords, it's not like they can't READ, right?! Well, at 10 or 80 years of age it may be difficult for some to grasp the meaning of certain phrases. Or, again, the UI is so bad that they can't easily see where they need to read the keywords info - i don't even remember, can you see what a keyword means while playing a game, or can you do it only from your collection?
Because of all of this you get a vicious cycle in which Blizzard will always have a reason to do stupid shit (because of what the testing groups tell them), NOT because people are stupid, but because they don't want to improve the UI (not a single significant bit in 5 years).
And they will always justify their decisions based on the control groups since they have no interest to admit they are lazy morons.
Someone else said this in another post and it was said that the frog does give you all copies of witches brew cast same as it does with the repeatable evolution card.
It is better game design, imo, not to overuse keywords. The best keywords remaining evergreen is fine, but asking for every keyword that popped up once to return on every one-off card that uses it is silly and counterproductive.
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Mistress of Pain has lifesteal because lifesteal is a evergreen keyword. Echo is not a evergreen keyword, so Witches Brew doesn't have Echo. How hard it is understand ? using keywords just for the sake for it is bad.
Do you mean it is a matter of consistency between expansions? Ok, then why don't they change EVERY FITTING card text when a new keyword appears, and, when an expansion is no longer in play, change EVERY FITTING card text BACK? That would be 100% consistency! Why? Because it applies to both standard, arena and wild modes.
But nevermind, i'm asking for consistency in a game that doesn't allow me to skip the text bubbles in the single player content and, as well, isn't capable of showing all the rewards or card changes with one click (after starting the game) instead of clicking through all of them like a stupid click simulator. I won't even care to discuss about a feature to discover all cards from a pack with one click... So much forced hype and idiocy.
The keywords are based on their expansion and their "lifespan" in standard play. Witch's Brew does not have the keyword echo because all echo cards rotate during the next rotation, and being the only card with that specific keyword is confusion for new players that play Standard.
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That is the most stupid, arbitrary way of choosing something to be 'consistent' I've ever seen. This argument comes up all the time, and I don't think anyone has ever come up with a worse suggestion than this.
It is entirely consistent to say - 'This Keyword is only used in this expansion. If the same or similar effect appears briefly in another expansion, we do not need to use the Keyword.' - and to pretend that isn't 'consistent' is silly. Just because you personally don't like this policy doesn't mean it's inconsistent.
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
I can say the same about your line of reasoning tbh. 'Consistent' in this case means fixing 'the issue' in all formats, all the time.
Keywords are mainly a shortcut for longer text, can we agree on that? They also help create cards around them (e.g. 'your next Battlecry triggers twice').
So, why the heck do they even create non-evergreen keywords to begin with if either they create no cards that act on the effect of the keyword - like the battlecry example from above, either they are going to print future cards without the keyword?
Why even bother to create a 'temporary' keyword? The example from now will probably be 'twin-spell'. I don't know of any card that plays around it, e.g. 'cards with twin-spell cost 2 less' or whatever. So it's likely the keyword will be dropped soon just like Echo was.
So why even bother to create them in the first place? Is it too much to ask for consistency in design?! From your childish, raging and extreme answer it's clear you don't care about that. Well, guess what, I do and I have a different opinion than you (if you don't like it, go vent to a psychologist please).
Why do I care about consistency? Because what they are doing makes no sense, even from a time/resource perspective, i.e. they could spend that small amount of time to do something else, like improving some basic things in the UI and so on.
Keywords add flavour to an expansion - an expansion having a lot of cards that pull minions from your deck is... whatever, but when you flavour it as 'Recruiting' them to your adventuring party, suddenly it feels like it makes a lot more sense. Same with Inspire, or Adapt, or Twin-Spell - they're all about adding flavour to an expansion (Cheering on your minions in the tournament, adapting and evolving to your surroundings, being so good at spells you can cast them twice). Of course, sometimes a Keyword effect would also be pretty lengthy to write out - Discover, for example - so that's a small bonus. Not always applicable, though.
It's also a marketing decision. Whenever a new expansion comes out, it's an easy thing they can point to and go 'hey, here's what makes this expansion different'. Does that matter at all from a game design perspective? Not really, but it's something.
The reason I brought up your silly reasoning for 'consistency' is that you seemed adamant that your way was the correct way. It isn't - it's a way they could do it, yes, but that doesn't make it inherently better or 'more consistent' than what they do now. If they chose to do it your way, yes, that would be a consistent design decision - just as the way they're doing it now is also a consistent design decision.
There is no issue that needs fixing, in my eyes, because they're already making the correct design decisions. Limiting the number of keywords in any Standard environment is better for new player retention, and does no harm to existing players. It's all upside.
I also implore you, if you ever want to be taken seriously in a discussion, don't suggest that the people responsible for coming up with new Keywords are the same people who would be improving the game's UI. It makes your whole argument look like it's coming from a place of ignorance. I answered you seriously because you seem passionate about it, but that last paragraph really undermines your credibility.
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
First of all, it's not inconsistent, you may not like it but that doesn't make it inconsistent.
Secondly, even if it is inconsistent it affects nobody in the game, Witches Brew doesn't became a better card if it had Echo than "repeatable this turn", neither does Y'shaarj with recruit. Focus you rage filled rant on inconsistencies that actually affect the gameplay like Hagatha's Horror being inconsistent with other spell casting minions like Yogg Saron or how Twilight's Call can summon non-deathrattle minions.
i agree but i also can understand limiting the expansion theme keywords like recruit and echo to that expansion only
the better solution is to just change them when they leave standard format
Regardless of 'consistency' issues or not, let's at least confirm something.
How do you determine what makes a good 'evergreen' keyword, if that is the argument against using a keyword for everything?
Why is Lifesteal a good candidate, but not Echo?
But what if cards qualify for a evergreen keyword, but the game doesn't apply the usage evenly?
I prefer keywording everything because it does offer consistency. I prefer that over 'theme'. But that's me and my preference. I like the idea of a keyword showing up in 2 expansions, and using old cards for something new.
For example, if Echo belongs to Witchwood, that's fine, for theme. But going back through older cards and being able to use them in new ways is exciting to me. There is only 1 card right now that cares about cards you play with the keyword 'Echo'. But what if in later sets they expand that? A card that says 'draw a card for every Echo card in your hand', as an example.
It seems it's a battle between theme and consistency. Flavor versus Logic. Maybe it can be both?
Lifesteal is a better Evergreen keyword than Echo would be because it's easier to balance. It's why Charge has mostly been phased out in favour of the easier to balance Rush. The implication behind a keyword being Evergreen is that it should show up fairly frequently - this is one of the reasons given for Enrage being phased out, because it was absent for at one point five expansions in a row (from TOG to WW, when it was removed). I don't think they'll ever remove Charge as a keyword, since it has cards that interact with it, but again, it hasn't had a card in the last five expansions, as Rush has essentially replaced it, so they wouldn't be unjustified. Maybe along with a Warsong Commander change to the old effect but with Rush instead? Fingers crossed.
Now, there are some keywords that aren't Evergreen that have similar ease of balance - I'd say Adapt or Overkill would be good candidates. Adapt is very intrinsically tied into the lore of Un'goro, so I can understand not wanting to sprinkle it in in future sets. Overkill has some good Rastakhan flavour, but would be much easier to continue its usage if they wanted to.
The point is that you don't want to oversaturate your game with Evergreen keywords, otherwise you just come up against the problem you were trying to avoid by making some keywords not Evergreen. Clearly they don't see the need for a mechanic like Overkill to show up frequently, so they didn't make it Evergreen.
Now, on another topic, I do think that they should re-visit keywords in future expansions, as part of that expansion's theme. I'd be pretty disappointed if our next Mech-focused expansion didn't have at least a few Magnetic cards (since they'll probably want to focus more on their newer mechanic, so we can't expect too many). I'd also like to see them try and tackle Inspire again, since I think it could have been great - or at least somewhat playable in Constructed without being bonkers in Arena.
A keyword not being Evergreen doesn't mean it has to be gone forever. We've just not had the game exist long enough for them to dip back into their past works so heavily for mechanical inspiration, only thematic stuff with Rise of Shadows (and a slight mechanical bend, though no keywords obviously).
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
Inspire was played in constructed, in fact worlds was won with a deck with an inspire card in it. The monkey that inpired gave all your other minions +1+1
I just think failing to use established keywords is VERY confusing, which runs counter to their design philosophy.
People spent way too much time wondering how Witch's Brew would work differently from an Echo card, when it's actually the same.
I'm not raging or anything, but there is one thing that pisses me off. The Blizzard comment that "people don't read tooltips." If new players can't be bothered to read a tooltip, that's on the player. You shouldn't center your card design around such unreasonable laziness. If you are already expecting newbies to learn how cards interact, you can sure as hell expect them to put forth the minimal effort required to read a tooltip.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland