Monday, July 23, 2007

Rant: On Card Banning & Nerfing

In VtES there is constant chatter about which card to ban, about what clan is waaay to strong, etc. pp. One of most replayed discussion is on "Protect Thine Own" (PTO), a political vote called by Camarilla Inner Circle member or Justicar, which burns a non-Camarilla vampire, if the vote is successful. Every now and then a newsgroup (or forum) discussion pops up with the same arguments over and over again, and usually those chime in, who have done this in past.

Although I can understand that certain cards are definitive strong cards (I have my own black list as well as others), the discussion is somewhat going to far, and much too loud and emotional. In addition, when you start nerfing cards, where do you stop? First it's PTO, then "Memories of Mortality", then "Parity Shift", ... next it's "Govern the Unaligned", ad nauseum. Finally we're all playing "Lucky Blow", "Computer Hacking" with discipline-less 2-cap vampires, then we're all even.

LSJ, designer of VtES in the last years, final judge and Lone Star, has had a good sense in the past when to ban card (and which) and how nerf a card. Good examples for these is the ban of "Succubus Club", "Kindred Restructure" and "Dramatic Upheaval" as well as the nerfing of "Anarch Revolt". The later creating a whole new deck strategy, i.e. your vampires going Anarch, then throwing down "Anarch Revolts" and finally beating up the Anarch-wannabee vampires of opposing players (starting with his prey of course).

So guys, state your point about certain cards (if you really need to), but then keep it down, play it cool, and don't start the same discussions over and over again ... and don't you think LSJ isn't watching quite a number of tournaments, the newsgroup and forums, to see if particular strategy is abusive or broken?

No comments: