It’s been two weeks since Rift mode has been released. While the possibility of playing decks containing cross-faction cards is exciting, the new game mode has gotten off to a bumpy start. I’d like to analyze some of the design flaws present in Rift mode, and discuss some possible solutions. Let’s start with the most fundamental issue:

Starter Deck Quality

Let’s face it, the starter decks are bad. And not just because of the individual cards in them are bad (though let’s face it, some of them are), but because the deck composition falls short of what it could be, even if only drawn from basic cards.

Mana Curve

The first two turns are arguably the most important turns in Duelyst. A bad start can put you irreparably behind your opponent; trying to catch up to them the entire game. In light of this fact, it is odd then that half of the factions only have 3 minions playable on turn 1. The other half fare little better, with 6 minions in the 1- or 2-mana slot. Compare this to the typical constructed deck, which usually runs between 8 and 12 turn-one minions. This glaring shortcoming is counterbalanced by fuller 4- and 5-mana slots, and a curve that extends up to late-game threats like Stormmetal or Dragonbone Golem. This mana distribution and lack of card draw forces all these starter decks to play a midrange style or risk running out of steam.

The shortage of early-game plays is made worse in factions with poor removal options. Vanar and Magmar, with their efficient single-target removal and board-clears respectively, can afford to miss an opening turn now and again. Other factions, like Lyonar and Abyssian, are not so lucky.

Fortunately, the solution to this problem is simple: sacrifice some of the high-mana whoppers for more early-game plays. This will result in more consistent openers that is less dependent on opening-hand randomness.

Consistency

Putting aside concerns over the decks’ mana curve, the starter decks have another questionable distribution of cards, namely, the frequency with which certain cards will be seen. Let’s take the Lyonar deck as an example: When would you ever want three copies of War Surge? That’s right, basically never. How about one copy of Saberspine Tiger, or that one-of Bloodletter? Same answer, for different reasons. The problem here is that a card’s frequency in the deck is somewhat unrelated to its utility.

Now, I understand the rationale here: first, there are three copies of every factions’ basic spells, regardless of quality (because you can’t draft basics). Second, purposefully including useless cards offers easy picks for deck upgrades.

However, the problem remains: I want to see useful cards more often than useless cards, and this is not reflected in the starter deck composition. If Rift mode is going to continue with a slow deck-progression model (more on this later), the starter decks need to be adjusted so that high-utility cards are run in higher quantities, and copies of low-impact spells and expensive minions should be reduced.

Cross-Faction Balance

A final observation is that some starter decks (and Generals) are obviously better than others. The Gauntlet queens, Faie and Reva, again make their appearance at the top due to their Bloodborn Spells. Reva’s constant threat-generation shines in the low-removal format, while Faie has a built-in win condition all on her own. Not to mention Vanar’s basic package sports what might be the two best removal spells in the game! Contrast this with Abyssian, the runt of the litter. Although Abyssian has respectable removal options with Daemonic Lure and Dark Transformation, their threat generation is decidedly lacking. One of the deck’s win-conditions, Soulshatter Pact, is hamstrung by the midrange style forced by the deck’s mana curve. Add to this the fact that Abyssian generals are the most synergy-dependent. Unfortunately for them, the starter deck tries to compromise between both creep and swarm styles, and you know what they say about a good compromise…

Unfortunately the solution here is not easy to come by. A quick-and-dirty answer is to create general-specific starter decks. Imagine a Zir’An deck sporting high-health minions to capitalize on her innate healing ability, contrasted with an Argeon deck running Saberspine Tigers and aggressively-statted minions like Young Flamewing. This is a possible solution, but is made difficult because it is inherently limited by the quality of the basic minions available. This difficulty is compounded by the inherent power of faction-specific cards: card-for-card, Lyonar basics are more powerful than Abyssian ones.

A second solution to this entire problem of starter deck balance and composition is, of course, to make the starter deck matter less. How can this be achieved? Read on!

Progression

Deck progression is the core mechanic of Rift mode: as you play, you can replace the boring basic cards in your deck with new cards that enable fun and wacky cross-faction combos. There’s only one problem: it takes too long for the fun to kick in.

Each time a player levels up, the required experience for the next level increases by 10. This means that although the first few card replacements come quickly, progression slows down just as quickly. In fact, it takes 60 wins to replace half the cards in a deck. For some people that may not be that much of an investment, but for more casual players like myself, that represents more games than a typical ranked season. For half a deck.

Add to that the fact that you’ll be playing quite a few games with essentially a starter deck before you start seeing “fun” cards consistently, and the problem starts to become clear: deck progression is too slow.

Conclusion

I’ve identified two related problems with Rift mode: starter decks suck, and it takes too long to start playing with “fun” cross-faction cards. So how does Rift mode get fixed? There are a few options:

Start off with more free card replacements (like the first Rift deck). Make it easier to level up Rift decks. Improve the balance and power of starter decks.

The ideal solution is probably a combination of these options. By giving players free card replacements from the start, they are given the opportunity to see their drafted cards earlier than the current model. Reducing the play requirements to unlock new cards, especially early on, also lets players start having fun sooner. Both of these options work toward solving the same problem: it’s not very fun playing with starter decks.

The third option is orthogonal to the first two. Making the starter decks more balanced across factions helps alleviate some of the pain of being restricted to basic cards in the low levels, but taken alone does little to solve the fundamental problem of “fun”.

Hopefully we will see improvements to Rift mode in the future when it hits fully-released status!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to thetacticalgmr for creating the starter-deck image.