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Using the board as a platform to create cards that ignore it

So there I was thinking, how contradictory it was that not only many effects in this game ignore the board that we use as a mechanic to out manoeuvre your opponent but that half the keywords that are featured are simply ignoring one form of natural board restriction or another.

Many topics of choice around problem cards lead back to this fundamental state of “ghosting” as I like to call it, (like the complete board clear on 9 mana from magmar using meta + plasma which we will definitely see in August with the new common monthly) (or salt over ironcliffe + divine bond lethals from across the map).

Of course there is some creative utilisation to all of these however is it right to give minions “cheat codes” to what restricts the rest of the units on the battlefield? The potential problems these cause is limiting response windows to units that can interact with others while having less of a focus on their place on the board, such as jax truesight teleporting 4 clones into the corner of the map and allowing them to snipe the normally hapless general in the center.

In factions like lyonar, this can be game ending with ironcliffe’s infinite reach no matter your position on the field

Things that ignore the board create a degree of helplessness in the other player unless they employ their own versions of such cards (or the use of concise positioning to “outplay” this ghosting, such as completely walling yourself in minions or allowing a limited range removal minion hit one of these corner threats) because no matter what the measure of control they have over this unit attacking them is not linked to their use of the board (creating a need for rng based draw + replace to deal with the sticky situation)

Although things like this are not just left up to keywords and generic target abilities (see shadow dancer proc range)

Spells are the biggest offender, now this may sound ridiculous but spells force opportunities rather then creating windows for both players to interact with (almost excluding playing around egg morph as the cast range is infinite), if you feel frustrated that an abyssian always seems to have demonic lure to eat your first turn play then you do have a right to it because while you were playing by the “rules” this abyssian just played a spell and ghosted you.

You could have played that unit anywhere and it would have still died.

Moreso it creates this inevitability where a player loses off the virtue of not having enough threats to match the answers being flung at them, this will always happen to this player if his opponent draws right and his spells can ghost. This sort of thing promotes completely interactive gameplay where a songhai sits snugly in the corner with his 4 winds magi and bloodrage throwing draw spells at your face. There were even decks built in November to January to exploit ghosting completely, not interacting with the board at all aside from running away.

While I understand it looks absurd to remove all ghosting effects from the game and dull in concept (I love juxta position personally, especially when I can throw my minion in the corner to swap places with your pandora. But what can my opponent do about that? Unless they employ something similar they effectively lose) It can be done.

Now I don’t design games so I cannot tell you from past experience how this would work (although it would look akin to the lines of cards that have a degree of inter-actability like decimate or repulsor beast being range restricted) or even the outcome of such a change, but its food for thought when considering how this game is supposed to work.

What do you guys think about it?

P.S this is not a rant, it is rather me putting my thinking to paper. I debate like this all the time in my head :wink:

P.P.S apparently its against the rules to just put thought to paper so ryvirath made it a question lmao

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This topic often crosses my mind as well. I usually get frustrated at certain plays but in the end you usually have ways to prevent them from happening and seeing them coming is part of learning the game and knowing your opponent so in the end I just have myself (or the rng of the draw) to blame.
So far the game is in my opinion pretty close to the edge of what’s reasonable within the card game and we’ve seen Counterplay toning down some of the ridiculousness (seriously, the old Songweaver was just plain bs and facing a flying blast sand howler who’s protected against spells every time you play against Vet was infuriating to say the least) but I’m somewhat concerned about the near future.
An example would be the coming rework of shadow creep and the new “Obliterate”, as of now you can still at least somewhat play against the inevitable 2x2 patch of creep that ignores the board and deals damage anywhere you please by spreading out your forces and limiting it’s damage potential, but with Obliterate we might as well go back to just playing cards on the table as this thing now supposedly hits literally everything regardless of where you’re standing. Now I’m not saying it’s OP or that it’s going to ruin the game, I haven’t played the patch yet and they said they’ve made adjustments to the whole mechanic so I’m 100% sure it was tested and so on, I’m just saying it feels like a step towards making the board and positioning as a whole matter less.

Admittedly I don’t know all the cards yet and am not familiar with high-end play. But from what I have seen, I think the balance is pretty good. The existence of the battle grid doesn’t (and shouldn’t) mean that everything must use it, just as the existence of any other game feature doesn’t mean it should always be used. It’s good to have variety.

If I had one complaint it would be the number of unconditional “anywhere” damage/removal spells in the game. For example, a card that lets you kill a minion that is near your general has inherent limits and requires positioning to use correctly. It would also be cool to have more cards with conditions such as “within N spaces” or “in a straight line” (like a queen in chess.)

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To me, the board itself is a balancing force within the game, as with good positioning, you can prevent valuable minions from directly trading or directly going face. However, Keywords such as airdrop, flying ranged, and blast are used to take advantage of the board to deal with other effects and valuable minions. Because not all factions have access to good synergy cards with h the above keyword, spells act as an alternatate way to control the board, and an additional counter to the above keyword ability.

While the aforementioned information may seem like board positioning may not matter, it is crucial for certain minion and general placement to set up for lethal and to play around certain AoE effects (Nova, Immolation, Sun Bloom, Blizzard, etc.). The placement of minions effects your opponents decision, such as setting up walls as Vanar, which can influence your opponent to either A) walk on to your side to a rare but potential blizzard or B) walk on to the middle or their side of the board, where infiltrate minions can reach the general. I agree, stone methods of playing against the board, like Lure, Repulsor, and Ironcliff can be daunting, but their are ways usings the same board-placed cards or removal to deal with such plays. Also, it can also be seen that if your opponent does use a Lure turn one that he/she ‘wasted’ one of their removal methods on a lesser threat. I will agree though: with the new common card, egg morph and possibly metamorphosis will need some kind of Nerf (While Harvester is a thing,it is a 9 mana combo with egg morph and is a 2 turn combo with metamorphosis, giving the opponent time to deal with it)

Sorry if this is rambling, I kind of go on and on some times when discussing ^^’