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Ratio of faction to neutral cards

#1

I was working on a deck and looking through the sets. I noticed that RotBB has 36 faction cards and 3 neutral cards. But AB has 30 faction cards and 9 neutral cards. I only play 4 factions, so AB gave me 2 more cards I could actually use than RotBB did (436/6 + 3 = 27, 430/6 + 9 = 29). That seems better for me. But on the other hand, faction cards exist to allow cards that would be broken if they were played with some other card, so in theory, the average faction card is worth more than the average neutral card (I think. Feel free to dispute this.). So what do you all think is the “best” ratio? More importantly, how do we determine the “best” ratio?

#2

To me, neutral cards fall into one of six categories:

  1. Pack fillers. These are pretty self explanatory. Once you run out of ideas but still want need cards, just make garbage neutrals that no one will even give a second glance. Ex: Storm Arata, Swamp Entangler

  2. Universal tools. These cards give all factions access to certain fundamental tools. This way, each faction will be able to either fill out the last few cracks of their deck with neutrals or have access to something that their faction lacks. Ex: Spelljammer, Ephemeral Shroud.

  3. Faction cards in Disguise. These cards are so powerful and synergistic in certain factions that they might as well be classified as faction cards. Ex: Sunsteel defender, Meltdown.

  4. Neutral synergies: These card synergize with other neutrals, this encouraging the player to run more neutrals and build away from faction identity. Ex: Mechs, Arcanysts.

  5. Gauntlet cards: these cards may not fall into any of the listed categories for constructed, but they do a lot of work in gauntlet. Ex: Vale hunter, Dancing Blades.

  6. memes. Ex: Serpenti, Rook, Sol.

As for ratios, I would like to see more universal tools and “faction” neutral cards. I personally do not like neutral tribes like Mech and Arcanyst, since a meta dominated by them gets pretty repetitive. Also more memes. Always more Maymays.

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#3

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