This is an exciting change, great job!
I love all the new cards and abilities, and I also like they are soulbound (the long term staking explanation is a perfect way to state it).
I also really like the new summoners being able to summon the Gladius cards. I think this will shake things up and give both older AND NEWER players and edge if they play Brawls!
This is a great start for improving the player experience, I look forward even more new changes the designers come up with!
Again I'm super excited to start earning these new cards!!! Thanks :)
You don't think that this change will make old cards worthless.
For Example the Grum Flamblade, IMO you can use him only with Reverse Speed because what help you bloodlust if he don't hit ? Now everybody can take away Bloolust with Dispel and in Reverse Speed he get even worser hit chances every time he hit.
The best example how to make cards worthless is Malric Inferno and Delwyn dragonscale.
In case of Malric you place a new summoner with same +1 melee and addditonal +1 life for only 1 Mana more, I cannot imagine when it is not a good invest of 1 Mana for +1 Life for All friendly monster.
With Delwyn they bring out Archmage who add +1 Melee and +1 Range for only 1 Mana and cause this take not away the complete worth of delwyn they decreas Mana-cost of Archmage from 6 to 5 so that he cost same mana and addd + 1 Melee an + 1 Range "for free".
Why you should invest in a game when it seems that the goal of the team is to spoil your investment after you have spent your money ?
@udow you are probably much smarter than me when it comes to gameplay. So I don't think I can discuss that part well with you. My only comment about your thinking about Grum is that #1 dispel isn't used a ton, and #2 in reverse speed you are correct but that's not the only time Grum is useful.
Regarding Delwyn and Malric, I think those are 2 different situations. On Delwyn I think the big difference is that Delwyn is a common and Archmage is a Legend. So in that case, I don't think its a big deal as legends should be stronger.
On Malric, I do agree that Tarsa essentially replaced Malric and gave it far fewer chances to play in Wild League. And since they are both rares then I think that wasn't the best choice. (NOTE: I don't design the game so I have no idea if that was necessary though for Modern League balance)
And finally to your point about investing in the game, I think you are missing the bigger picture. Right now we are super small in the world, a tiny spec that almost everyone in the world is unaware of. One day that might change. If it does, then there's no way that every player will have every card. This will change the way everyone things about all the cards.
For instance I have a lot of cards that I didn't play that came back and did great once something changed in the new cards. I will use "Nightmare" as an example. He got to be a really good and usable card in certain rulesets once Byz Kitty showed up. There are many other examples of cards that "come back" based on certain new abilities, mana additions, and rulesets added to the game.
Finally that doesn't even count for land use. Which make everything even more tough to find.
So while I understand that you might not be happy regarding Grum, I don't think adding new cards, abilities, and rulesets will harm the game or make the cards worthless on balance. In fact I think its make the gameplay more fun and the collecting aspect even better.
And in case you are wondering I have tons of Malrics and Grums, and a fair amount of gold foil Delwyns. I don't have Archmage and far fewer Tarsa's than Malrics. I'm not worried about my cards and still plan to keep them for a very long time.
I appreciate the conversation and like I said you may be right about the effect on gameplay, but I still think that the big picture is better when we have more cards to choose from.
"Regarding Delwyn and Malric, I think those are 2 different situations. On Delwyn I think the big difference is that Delwyn is a common and Archmage is a Legend. So in that case, I don't think its a big deal as legends should be stronger."
I know that Yabapmatt was selling this in the video to the SEED-Germinator-Campaign as the only summoner except the water summoner who add magic bonus.
Shortly after the released Archmage, you could at this point even not redeem your tokens from SEED-Germinator-Campaign, so IMO it was not correct what yabapmatt told and the thing is not that they bring this card in the game but to spoil the investment after such a campaign even before you can redeem your token is really not okay or what you think ?
I was here for the TRX deal but didn't participate in it directly. So I don't know what he said or not at the time.
I do think that Archmage and Delwyn are 2 entirely different cards. Both are pretty rare cards that I don't see very often. I do play my Delwyn quite a bit and love it, so I don't feel any negativity at all about the Archmage because I would never pay that price for a single card. I'm glad to have Delwyn in my deck when I need it.
I think the reason why you don't meet Delwyn is very easy.
With cost of 5 Mana he is a too expensive card for low Mana-Matches, when Water is available it is better to use one of the Water Summoner who add also Magic Buff but cost 2 Mana less or add +1 Speed and + 1 Life to the same Mana cost, this is IMO more important than the possibility to be able to use dragons (in low Mana-Battles).
In high Mana-Battles you will just use Byzantine Kitty who is IMO (in high Mana-Battles) nearly always better than Delwyn, even in ruleset without healing what take a lot away from Byzantine Kitty I think that true Strike and +2 Speed is much more worth than + 1 Magic.
So yes Delwyn is the card for the player who are looking for a cheap dragon summoner, f.e. for the price of one Byzantine kitty max-level in the market you can buy arround 5 Delwyn or in other words you pay for a Delwyn max-level only 20% of the price from a Byzantine Kitty. Yes Archmage is much more expansive than Byzantine Kitty but this is IMO a question of rarity as it exist 1255 Byzantine Kitty but only 87 Archmage Arius (regular foil)
"On Malric, I do agree that Tarsa essentially replaced Malric and gave it far fewer chances to play in Wild League. And since they are both rares then I think that wasn't the best choice. (NOTE: I don't design the game so I have no idea if that was necessary though for Modern League balance)"
He took away all chances to play for Malric IMO cause their is no format for beta-cards at all.
I mean they could design something else like +1 melee and +1 shield, so f.e. in the unprotected-ruleset Malric would be still better.
But obvisiouly they don't think about this point, it is no problem for them to make a card useless they have sold for me.
IMO they think that they have the money already why they should think about the people who spent it anymore.
If you see Sabre Shark an Palicor Bandit it is the same, the bring a new Sabre Shark with the same state and additional flying ability - what they thought when they done this ?
I don't think they took away "all" the chances for Malric, I still play Malric at times. But I do think Tarsa is better and I use her way more than I do him.
As for Sabre Shark and Pelecor Bandit, I did think this at first. Then I realized they can be used together (and quite often are). I play both of them a lot as I like sneek.
I think even with 12 Mana the +1 live for all friendly monsters are more worth than the +1 Mana you can use for your monsters. In every case with a medium mana cap Malric is worse than Tarsa in all rulesets.
Ok with the Pelecor Bandit and Sabre Shark you have a point, you can play them both in one team, especially in low-mana-battles they can be really strong together.
"For instance I have a lot of cards that I didn't play that came back and did great once something changed in the new cards. I will use "Nightmare" as an example. He got to be a really good and usable card in certain rulesets once Byz Kitty showed up. There are many other examples of cards that "come back" based on certain new abilities, mana additions, and rulesets added to the game."
Nightmare is no bad card but what use you have f.e. for the Rusty Android ? When you used him last time ?
I don't think I've ever played Rusty. Even when he was new I didn't like him, and I've not seen him played in a very long time. Same goes for other cards too like Gremlin Blaster and Silvershield Archers. But that's ok, I still own quite a few of both and plan to keep them as souvenirs one day :)
I told a long time ago that they can add a ruleset "Rise of the Common" and I also addressed this at the splinterlands-team but they obvisiouly don't want it.
I mean really a "Rise of the Common" where you cannot use rare monsters, this ruleset had add a lot of cards even like the Rusty Android a sense, cause if you look in the Beta-Edition (+ Rewards-Cards to this time) than the most better monster (than the Rusty) are rare-monsters like Haunted Spirid, Silvershield Paladin, Cerberus and so on - to take them out of the play (in this suggested ruleset) would help a lot of common cards and add them a usecase.
I think that is a great idea and should be considered. More rulesets = more skill needed and more fun imo!
"And finally to your point about investing in the game, I think you are missing the bigger picture. Right now we are super small in the world, a tiny spec that almost everyone in the world is unaware of. One day that might change. If it does, then there's no way that every player will have every card. This will change the way everyone things about all the cards."
This would be cool, we will see if it happens.
But the generell question is:
We have in the moment 477 cards in the game, isn't it enough for the moment ?
We really need more cards ?
We need to burn every day Chaos Legion-Packs instead of just relax a bit and sell them a little bit longer ?
IMO the experience show that they will be sold without burning them, ok it will take a bit longer but where is the problem ?
We need now 43 new reward cards and we can even not let reach the old cards their print limit ?
477 is not enough - It must now be 520 an soon probably 600 ?
What human player should be able to manage such a ton of cards ?
and the last question: Why their was no proposal for this new reward cards ? When they tell that the community can decide about important changes why they could not decide if it will be changed in this way ?
I think you believe you have to own every card, whereas I believe you don't have to own every card. That is the difference I think in many of these things.
I explained below that I envision many many more cards in the future, and that I like it. But I also don't think I need them all.
I don't have the new promo card Arkemis, I don't have any Riftwatchers yet, I don't have a ton of Dice or even Orbs. And I never got in the TRON deal or participated in the daily potions to give people Archmage.
I still like the game and still do well overall. If I think I miss something, then I will buy it, but I don't have to have every card. In fact I also don't have: Scarred Llama in my big deck, or Kron, or many other big untamed cards. My Yodin is at level 3 also. But I adapt my game style to fit what I own.
The truth is especially with this legendary Summoners that in some rulesets you have no chance if you don't have them.
I personally don't like to fight when I have no chance,
I don't think that you would enjoy doing a 100 meter run against Usain Bolt or you would like it ?
but it is the same like to run with Usain bolt if you play without the legendary summoner at least in some rulesets.
Just remember you are simply seeing ONE format of gameplay. One day you might be pleasantly surprised if they introduce more formats and ways to select teams. I'm confident this will be the natural evolution one day.
It exist even today in the novice or bronze tournaments, their you cannot use legendary summoner or legendary cards at all.
If you see the prices than you can fight in the League of Champions for a first price of 2420 SPS and in this "small" tournaments for 10 or 20 SPS as first price.
"#2 in reverse speed you are correct but that's not the only time Grum is useful."
I can tell you that I really used this card a lot and so often I loose cause Grum miss and miss, with speed 1 he has really no good chance of hitting, the only way to play him is with byzantine kitty and take advantage from true strike but not with the fire summoners.
I believe you, I just think the meta will change and could be a big plus for Grum. But maybe not too, maybe he will only be good in the all melee rulesets.
I understand the point about making the speed +1 with Bloodlust and the effect this change will have to slow cards. I don't know what is in Yaba's mind, but I don't think he is doing anything to hurt someone, I think he is doing this because he feels it will give the game more balance.
Many times I've felt he has made dumb decisions, only to learn over time that many choices he's made have been brilliant. That doesn't mean he doesn't make mistakes, it just means I trust that he is trying to do what he thinks is best and not trying to hurt any card or any player that holds them.
yes I don't think that he intentionally do it, you I can agree with you but IMO he just don't take care like with the tron-promotion.
"I appreciate the conversation and like I said you may be right about the effect on gameplay, but I still think that the big picture is better when we have more cards to choose from."
You really think that 477 cards it not enough ?
The game started with 59 cards in the Alpha-Edition and now we have more than 8-times so much cards available and it still is not enough, we need even more cards ?
How many cards we need in your oppinion ?
They will always make new cards, that's part of it. Remember you don't need every single card to play and in fact most will NOT have all the cards.
I personally love this aspect because it gives us so many choices and keep the game from getting stale.
Yes I understand, but before they created new cards after the old cards was out of print and now they burn the old cars or take them just out of print even if they are fare away from the print limit just to create new cards.
Why not sell the chaos legion packs till the end an print the reward cards till their print limit
I think they felt that they wanted to new set to come out so that the old cards don't get boring and/or they can sell packs since that's how they make money to pay for all the development and operational cost. I'm happy they are giving us guidelines for how they will do things if they overestimate demand. But I like more cards, I think it makes it fun :D
I haven't told that they shouldn't sell pack, but they told that the new cards don't come befor July 2023, so why to burn all remaining chaos legion packs in march, when it will take at least four month more till new packs come out.
You saw that with the end-of-year-promotion they get a lot of interest and in May 2023 splinterlands will have his 5th birthday, why not make a very good promotion with chaos legion packs for this ?
If they also think to the smaller accounts and offer also smaller package who are attractive I think they would have good success.