Kergy’s Korner #10: What We Might See In Future Sets

So we’ve had a little peek into the Spidey starter. We’ve had a couple of pre-set cards surface from DC Origins. And now the speculation of what’s in the forthcoming sets is running rampant. So I’ve decided to write a three-part series of articles looking at what may or may not be in upcoming sets. This week’s article is about the type of cards and mechanics we may see. Next week’s will be a look at the Spidey set and what characters and Spidey-related cards we may see. Finally, I’ll look at the DC Origins set – what we know and what has been rumoured. For each article, I’ll also weigh the pros and cons of every possibility I put forth.

Looking forward to the new sets, there are a variety of mechanics and card archetypes that could be added to spice up the game. Some have been called for. Others seem as though they could only unbalance the game. Here are some examples of card types and mechanics to be added into the game:

1) Countertwists

If the scintillating preview of the ‘unofficial’ version of the Bat Computer is any indication, than cards to counter plot twists will come. For those that haven’t seen the flyer or read the posts, the Bat Computer is a 2 cost plot twist that reads ‘As an additional cost to play Bat Computer discard 2 cards from your hand or 1 Gotham Knights character card from your hand. Negate target plot twist effect’. Granted, Omeed has said that the flyer cards are not finalized and may not even make the cut, but I have an itchy feeling that this card – or something like it – will certainly make it. The ability to counter plot twists is one that will certain alter the entire metagame, and I can’t imagine any deck that wouldn’t run at least two even with the heavy cost.

PROS: The obvious is the ability itself – being able to counter something is always a VERY strong ability. We already have a similar effect with Not So Fast, but that only affects plot twists of a very low cost.

CONS: Not much to say. I haven’t played enough competitive VS or witnessed any major tourneys yet, so I can’t tell whether this card is too powerful or not yet. I’m sure the sideboard fans will be wishing they had a sideboard even more if Countertwists are included in the new sets. Still, this card has the potential to completely overhaul the metagame, and I’m not 100% sure that would be a good thing…


2) Direct Attacks

Picture a character with fairly decent stats – say a 5 or 6 ATK character, with Advanced Hardware or Dual Sidearms on him to boot.

Now picture that card having the ability to attack an opponent’s endurance directly. Not a Pyro ability – I’m talking about allowing a character to make an attack on an opponent’s endurance whether or not the opponent had non-stunned characters on the field.

Automatic damage would be brutal in this game, and would make a swarm deck ever more vicious. I attack you for 8 and drop a couple of Savage Beatdowns on the attacker. You take 18 and you still have to get through my character to hurt me.

PROS: Screw the direct damage characters – direct attacks would create all sorts of chaos. And if a direct attack as an ability is too powerful, how about a plot twist or an activated location that allows a character to attack directly? A character with an activated ability to grant another character with direct attacks? Either of those possibilities would tone down the ability enough to make this idea feasible. And this would make swarm decks THE decks to play.

CONS: If you thought weenie decks were irritating BEFORE… This kind of card is also likely to heavily influence the metagame. Is this a bad thing? It is if it means that two turn kills start to become the norm…

3) More direct damage

Did you doubt? Direct damage is almost guaranteed (note the almost – I don’t want to have to eat my words…). In fact, as long as CCGs exist with player life totals, I believe that there will be some form of direct damage in just about every one.

PROS: Direct damage is always a boon, if done creatively. It would be nice to be able to build a viable burn deck and bring back nice memories of my 3rd Degree Burn M:tG deck which won me a few tourneys way back when…

CONS: Direct damage is boring if it’s a repetitive ‘Activate->deal X endurance to target player. A deck full of Pyros would be tedious. This is why I like cards like Surprise Attack and Quicksilver: Pietro Maximoff – they’re not simple burn cards; they need strategy to play successfully and combo nicely with certain cards.

4) Draw/Cycling cards

When I first encountered cycling cards in M:tG I was unimpressed. I asked: why the heck anyone would want to waste cards just to draw? I had been out of Magic for a few years, and the cycling cards I was used to were cards like the various Tutors, Feldon’s Cane and the Soldevi Digger. I thought cycle decks were a frivolous waste of time. Then I got slaughtered by strong cycle decks, and I saw the light and started drafting cycle cards in Limited.

PROS: Cards that allow you to draw cards or cycle cards are VERY useful. I use Base of Operations in both of my main decks and I can’t tell you how underrated that card is. And cards like Mutant Nation that allow you to draw a card are super-useful as well in addition to the card’s effect itself, you can also play the card merely for the draw and not the effect – which is the point of cycle decks; to have a ton of cards that, if you can’t use their effects, can be used for drawing, and often putting the cycle card on the bottom of your deck. Simply put: draw/cycle cards – ESPECIALLY in a game like VS where you don’t see the majority of your deck – are power cards and should be staples in any deck.

CONS: I can’t really think of any, except through card development. Abusive draw cards can dominate – there’s a reason Braingeyser, in M:tG, was restricted and then banned. However, as long as the cards aren’t open to abuse, then draw cards are just about 100% positive.

5) Search cards

Similar to cycle cards, search cards allow you to get through your deck more quickly. Being able to search your deck for a card – specific or general – adds security to any deck. There are a few search cards, like Boris and Faces of Doom, already in VS. I’d like to see other card-specific search cards; cards that add strategy and depth to theme decks.

PROS: Search cards speed up your deck and allow you to get the cards you need, faster. They allow you to more readily respond to various different deck strategies,

CONS: Search cards can be overly powerful if exploited. For example: having four cards that allow you to cheaply dig through your deck and pull any card you need. There’s a reason they restricted Demonic Tutor.

6) Mill cards

One of my fav CCGs used to be Battletech, where your deck was your life and mill/direct damage decks were BRUTAL if built properly. I still have a wicked little Ghost Bear deck with multiple Thumpers and Long Toms – fast and efficient.

PROS: The look on your opponent’s face when you’ve just milled his Sub-Mariner and his Gamma Bomb and you just dropped a Master of Magnetism will be Mastercard Priceless.

CONS: VS really doesn’t see a lot of cards. With an early turn kill, you might see as few as 12-16 cards. While milling could theoretically take out those cards your opponent REALLY needs, there is also the danger that your milling might hand your opponent a sledgehammer and expose your kneecaps. I’d have to play-test mill cards before really deciding whether they’re better or worse…

7) Resource Speeders

One of the most frequently heard questions is: Is there any way to speed up my resources? The answer is no. And in this game, with the resource curve being what it is, being even one resource ahead of your opponent will likely maim them for life. As it is, New Brotherhood decks use resource control to keep their resources – and yours – down to maximize the damage. And there is a repeated argument for/against Darkoth due to the high pump cost.

PROS: Being ahead on the resource curve will win many a game.

CONS: Being ahead on the resource curve will win many a game.

Honestly, at this point, the sort of unbalance brought on by resource speeders would only hinder the growth of the game. I’d prefer resource destruction to resource speed.

8) Keyword Mechanics

A couple of the folks at UD (specifically Danny Mandel on metagame.com)have let it slip that there will be keyword mechanics in VS starting with DC Origins. One of the aspects that has kept Magic on top of the game (and the gaming industry) is keyword mechanics. The other other great superhero CCG – Wildstorms! – had some really great keyword mechanics. I’m excited to see what kind of effect they’ll come up with and which characters will have a keyword mechanic.

PROS: Adds flavour to the game, and opens up continuity and story within a game, like this, that is based on a form of history.

CONS: Some keyword mechanics over the years have been pretty awful. If the mechanic is an original idea, or a borrowed one that is a really strong and interesting mechanic, then it works. Otherwise…

Next week: I’ll be looking at the Spidey starter and set previews and rumours, and examining what should and shouldn’t be in the set.

Great article! One thing: in 8) Keyword Mechanics - you don't define keyword mechanics! You give an example of games that have it, and the pros and cons, but don't clarify by defining it.

I do like the way you broke out some different classes of cards. Personally, I don't think the game needs more direct damage and direct attacking just yet. I don't like the idea of the game devolving down to turn 2 wins as a norm. We are already facing the turn 4 and 5 wins, and need a few more tools (like the counters) to make control as competitve as beatdown (of course doom is a master controller and strutted his stuff in Knoxville, but Mystical Paralysis played a big part in that - and it is doom-centric)

yeah. great article, always enjoy reading your stuff.

1 comment. I really hope we dont see too much counter plot twists. I like the idea of just having responses rather than outright negating a PT. I would hate to see the VS enviroment become nothing more than a counter-war (MTG: Type 1). One thing I do agree with is the high play cost of the counter PT's. If they are printed they will be played at great costs which is great.

i agree with torch...what is keyword mechanics..you know not every one is a M:TG junky..some of us never played it. so a lil more definition would be helpful
other then that..great article...cant wait fer spidey friends

Good article. I like what you say about direct damage/attack and resource accel, but the countertwists thing I think should be talked about. I really, really, really don't want countertwists to be too popular, but they should be like countermagic (almost all being either double-specific resources, or too wimpy to stop anything). Control decks that aren't bats I think should even have to discard more than 2 cards, and maybe even bats should discard 2. I think 3 or 1 bats is more fair, but these could become really, really powerful. At a two-card discard (in open) a doom deck would just go nuts, negating two cards with one plot twist (and a couple cards out of hand gotten back by rama-tut) before turn 8, and after the big doom hit it would become ridiculous. Also, the biggest fear of rush decks is prolly flame trap, and discarding two cards for the counter is just paying the cost your opponent payed to not lose the game. But then again, maybe an eye for an eye costing is appropriate.

yes! bring on the counter to flame trap!

robots need love too.

-OOPS- haha, I didn't think of that.

KEYWORD MECHANICS, for those that don't know, are special game mechanics that are characteristice of multiple characters. These mechanics are usually represented by a word, like 'Regeneration', but could also be represented by a symbol.

For example: Flight and Ranged Combat are keyword mechanics.

This would save game text space on cards like Nightcrawler and Spiral, where you could just write 'Teleportation' rather that "Can attack as though s/he has flight and ranged combat"

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I do like the way you broke out some different classes of cards. Personally, I don't think the game needs more direct damage and direct attacking just yet. I don't like the idea of the game devolving down to turn 2 wins as a norm. We are already facing the turn 4 and 5 wins, and need a few more tools (like the counters) to make control as competitve as beatdown (of course doom is a master controller and strutted his stuff in Knoxville, but Mystical Paralysis played a big part in that - and it is doom-centric)

I'm on the fence for many of these mechanics. I do love direct damage, though, and make no effort to hide that =)

But I do agree with you that a turn 2 or 3 win would not help the game at all - which is why the designers have to carefully tread water with this kind of mechanic.

I have faith, though -they've balanced the game very well so far! =)

Yah, I agree with you here. I would like to see one or two for balance, but always with a cost attached. A flat-out plot twist that blankly counters PTs would be unbalanced.

But dang it, I love that Bat Computer!! =)

I think a 2-card discard is a good cost - someone plays a PT that you don't like and you have to toss 3 cards (the Bat Computer plus the 2 discards) to counter it. This will really make you think twice before wasting it on a PT that doen't REALLY hurt you.

The one deck that would LOVE this card, though, is Sentinel draw decks - if you've just drawn 20+ cards and someone Flame Traps your Sentinels, discarding a cuople of cards wouldn't hurt too much.

Bat Computer might just bring Sentinels over the edge of the metagame, depending on what ELSE we see in DC and Spidey...

Thanks to everyone for the great comments =)

I thought this was a pretty nice article that breaks down what 'types' of cards there are.

I was just wondering if maybe there could be more mass removal?
What about Direct Damage to characters?

those are some other 'types' I was wondering if we would see more, seeing as how, gamma bomb isn't being played nearly as much =/.

ya know about the keyword mechanic thing. since the spidey set is technically coming out after DC origins, but we will get the spidey starter first, might we see some new keyword mechanics in it?

and i totally agree about the bat computer, it is a very steep price, and i doubt we will see counter war's ala magic, but it can certainly help the sentinels, where one card all but makes them obselet with out metagaming.

direct damage to creature might not be that big of a deal, since charachters dont keep track of damage. i mean in magic, lightning bolt was a great card. you could use it to blast a player for 3, or hit a 5/5 guy with it and then use a 2/2 guy to finish it off.

so in VS maybe a card that lowers a charachter's defense by 3 would be the same equivilant.

Direct damage to characters would be cool. I honestly hadn't thought of it - and being a burn fanatic, I SHOULD have! Yah, character burn would be sweet, and I definitely hope to see some.

Mass removal? not sure there's much left to mss remove -lol- Any mass removal would probably just overlap those cards that already exist, and that would, IMHO, ruin the cool factor of those cards (at least as long as these sets are available...). And seeing the high cost of those characters, any new ones won't see much play either.

hrm...well Danny's article said that we'd see them in DC. So it's possible they are in Web of Spidey (which is slated for post-DC) but I don't think they'll be in the starter.

-grin- I won't bet on it, though =)

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direct damage to creature might not be that big of a deal, since charachters dont keep track of damage. i mean in magic, lightning bolt was a great card. you could use it to blast a player for 3, or hit a 5/5 guy with it and then use a 2/2 guy to finish it off.

Think of it this way: My Dazzler attacks your Logan and I exhaust a character to add 3 'damage' to it. Like a character version of Flying Kick.

Alternately, I exhaust my character to deal x damage to your character, stunning your character - even outside of combat.

The only questions:

1) Would they be able to define 'damage' so that it wouldn't simply be an ATK boost?

2) Will we ever see a blanket direct damage card (ie: can deal damage to characters AND players)

3) If this type of mechanic comes into existence, will it be stackable?

Finally, a Kergy's Korner that looks to the future instead of dwelling in the mucky present.

What should and shouldn't be in the Spidey Starter? Should - Lots of great Sinister Syndacite guys. Shouldn't - More X-men. Ever.

There's a lot of possible ideas for future sets, one that will definitely show up is dual-affiliation characters. Simply look at UDE's errata for the card Betrayal. They changed the text from: "Target an opponent who controls two or more characters with different team affiliations. That opponent stuns a non-stunned character he controls." to "Target player stuns a non-stunned character he controls, unless all characters he controls that have team affiliations share a single team affiliation." This was so that in future sets with characters with multiple team affiliations, the card wouldn't be super powerful.
I think that the keyword mechanic is key to keeping this game going for a while. I was a little disappointed that there were no keyword mechanics besides range and flight in Marvel Origins, as the characters who have it would seem to have an advantage over those who don't (IMO). I imagine that the future keywords would be actual keywords on the card, too, instead of icons.

Actually, the errata of Betrayal was meant to show that characters that are on the same team via cards like Marvel Team-Up et al, are not affected. Although it's always possible, I doubt we'll see characters with multiple affiliations on the same card.

I also would think that we'll eventually see words on the cards and not just icons. And I wonder why they didn't just name certain powers (like the 'teleport' power of Nightcrawler: KW and Spiral...)

I think a resourse boost card would be interesting. Though it would have to come with some stiff penalties to counter it's bonuses.

Maybe a card like such

Midnight Raid (PT)

Cost 3

Play only at the start of build phase. As addition cost to playing Midnight Raid discard 2 cards from your hand and top 2 cards of your deck into KO pile.

(Ongoing) This card generetes 2 resource points while in your resource row instead of the ussually 1. At the end of build phase KO this card.



This way you get a short boost for a single turn but then end up behind the resource curve. Also you have to discard from your hand and two possibly good cards from your deck. So like on turn 3 if you play it you have 4 and they have 3. But then on turn 4 your only at 3 while their at 4 and so on. Who knows that might not be balanced enough. I can think of like 20 other ways to do it. Even maybe something like discard 1 card for each resource in your resource row. So it's handy early game but trying to play it on turn 6 might be hard if you don't have 6 cards in hand heh. After all the gap in str from early mobs isn't that much but later it really jumps.

Like Xavior's dream if you make the effect cool but the difficultly of getting it hard then it won't unbalance it ;). Though I do think Xavior's dream is a bit insain heh I mean 3 turns where no guys are stunned both yours and theirs. That's down right crazy.

1) I quite like the fact that this game doesn't have 'damage' as such. To bring it in would necessarily be a move in a different direction, and not one that I think would be good for the game.

However, the idea of direct damage is certainly possible in all regards. Under the current mechanics, they would simply have to be separated out: Direct damage against players; Direct damage against characters outside of combat; Combat boosts.

Direct damage against players we already have (BTW, I agree entirely that future direct damage cards of this type should aim towards variety and tactical use, rather than just a repetition of 'Activate/opponent loses X endurance').

Direct damage against characters outside of combat could be handled in a number of ways. One possibility is "Stun target character with DEF X or less". Or if you want to link it to the user's attack capability, "Stun target character with DEF equal to or less than [named character]'s ATK." Such exchanges could be modified by some Plot Twists, but not those that target attackers or defenders. Could make for some interesting changes to Plot Twist choices in decks.

I don't see any easy way to combine that with an attack though. All I can think of for that is something like "Target attacker/defender gains +X ATK" or "has -X DEF".

Your points 2) and 3) are of course entirely dependent on the mechanic used, but I don't think we'll see a blanket card for the reasons given above (unless the ability offers the player options when using it).
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