It seems that design is interested in making mods a part of their game as they have prove by printing new ones that only target droids. This is somewhat confusing given that they have made some recent design decisions in order to deal with supports. Mods are really cool thematically as they are a big part of the Star Wars Universe but since design clearly had not foreseen the design of Mods in the first set (and probably some later ones) we got a card like Strategic Planning.

It’s almost impossible to a make a game that doesn’t eventually become unbalanced. As a judge once said to me “Gamers are going to game.” Which means they will do whatever exploits the rules in order to win. The experience of playing has value, I extract a lot of joy from having a hard fought match with an equally skilled opponent but at the end of the day…

Sorry for the seemingly unrelated tangent but I feel its important to make this point because design sometimes forgets that even if you are kitchen tabling cards or grinding GQs for points at the end of the day you want to win. And again I do want to admit that not everyone is the same, you might not care about winning but I guarantee that when you open your product you want to open good and interesting cards. if you are in the casual group there is one thing that you care about just as much as anyone who who is a hardcore Destiny player.

What About My Old Cards?

Printing better cards is a double edged sword. On one hand its exciting but on the other you make another card unviable. This is usually fine because the old card wasn’t good. I’m fine with this kind of power creep as its not hurting people that much, I see it more as a love letter to the older card.

In the same vain design will learn lessons from previously “pushed” cards and not make the same mistakes. This usually will make a worse version of another card.

VS

Sith Holocron is a scary card for designers since it makes you have to think about all the blue abilities you print. Jedi Holocron is a much worse card that has seen no play as a result. One card has rotated and is available in an old format so this shouldn’t be an issue. I only lament that Jedi Holocron could have been the fixxed version of SI but landed short of that mark. Perhaps allowing more card draw or a conditional tutor effect (that’s a big restriction but upgrades have become bad and we need something to push them a bit.)

Design will also print correction cards for previous strategies that maybe were thought to be “too powerful.” The big problem with these kinds of cards is that they can occur too late. Design is locked in sooner than most think. The designers need to account for the current and the possible future. By the set with the correction rolls around a strategy might not be top dog but the effect of the printed card will still nerf that strategy. I’m talking about this card is particular:

Desperate Measure isn’t in itself powerful but its effect on a competitive metagame is. This card was probably a reaction to Vader’s Fist and Mods. At least the window for Vader’s fist is small but when DM is used in round one after a fist thats like you disrupted your opponent for 5 resources for the cost of one indirect per resource – still pretty great. This card makes the latter pretty much unplayable.

There are also new mods that they printed as well. Because I don’t have a good pictures here is a link to the DB if you want check their text. These are 6 cards and in general an archetype that becomes pretty close to unplayable. My life will move on but what about that player that invested in such a strategy? Maybe someone on a budget? Sure there were cards before that could disrupt this but that took a somewhat big commitment but now you get a free card that can do what you were trying to do. A casual player might not care unless your casual buddies were thinking that maybe it was time to teach you a lesson for making such a phat Firespray.

Who are they Printing Cards For?

I would think that printing Desperate Measure would be a sign that they thought mods were a bad idea but then they the print mods of Droids. Maybe they are thinking about the casual player who might not care or be living in a hostile support metagame. I guaranteed player likes the idea of putting mods on droids ( I admittedly think its a flavor win but am worried about DM being a common in for the limited format.) Is the casual player REALLY the person buying the most? They might but as a casual player are you really going to care what flavor of Star Wars Destiny you are going to getting just as long as its fun? If you are person getting a complete set I would assume you would care that your previous cards are no longer playable.

I think its time that design make the hardcore collector/player a focal point of their design. I know they have done this with Infinite and the re-balancing of old cards. That’s great but I really think they need to do a better ob of not making cards that completely destroy archetypes, especially when its not an issue.

Thanks for reading and please share your thoughts on social media with us since I’d like to know what kind of collector/gamer you are and how you feel about this topic. I might be overreacting but my feelings on this are genuine and I felt like I need to give my take to get the conversation started. This isn’t so much for me personally but more for the person who likes going to tournaments and just got their deck completely destroyed when it wasn’t a problem at all. I really hope that they make DM only be able to kill non-vehicle supports, that way it at least makes a vehicle mods kind of strategy a viable/a good meta call. That probably won’t happen but just figure I’d throw it out there.

Take care and as always,

May The Rolls Be With You!

-NJCuenca