WARNING: long rant


Okay, my friend and I discussed this yesterday after the pre-release about the new set, and basically the last few sets in general. In a game that really NEEDS Yu-Gi-Oh converts to survive (god forbid, but it's true), WHY do they insist on making the game more difficult with every set? We've been getting at least two keywords a set, yes? Okay, back in the day, many of them were card staples that were simply needed for the game to grow, like Loyalty, Boost, Evasion, Concealed. Those all affect the game significantly, and have a place in the game. Can you really say the same for the things we've gotten from Avengers on? Aside from Reservist, EVERYTHING has been a one-time, set-specific mechanic that in general, doesn't add a whole lot to the game. Leader, Ally, Mutant (to a lesser extent) and the new ones, Backup and Vengence, do exactly nothing. All they do is say: "Hey, you know this text we put on the cards, you know the stuff we've had since Marvel Origins? Well it's SPECIAL now, we promise!" None of these mechanics really add anything new to the game, except allow R&D to make more PTs and set-specific characters that reference them. And we get more and more big bold text on characters that tend to frighten people who haven't followed the game that well. I hate having to tell someone that Backup, or Leader, means zilch, and just read the card text. They see big bold letters and think they have to memorize another ability, like Evasion or Cosmic.

*breathes* so, why bother? It's making the game more difficult for the SAKE of making the game more difficult. I think Backup and Venegence are the biggest culprits thus far, since we've HAD these powers since the beginning (activated powers restricted to a certain phase go all the way back to MOR, and so have triggered stun effects). Keywords should do one thing, IMO: compress important game text. They don't DO that anymore! So why have them, except to make 20 PTs that reference the specific keyword?

Okay, that's enough. I was going to rant on Removed from Continuity as well (WE DIDN'T NEED ANOTHER OUT-OF-PLAY ZONE OKAY) but I'm out of steam :)

I actually had the exact same complaint not long ago.

What was the point, I thought!

But I recently realized something; it's still a good thing to have, even if it's just a keyword for reference purposes.

In Magic, creatures have types (take my favorite, Slivers). Usually these types are all of the same color (elves are green, goblins are red), but by having the creature type on the card, players can easily make an Elf Deck, and Wizards can print cards that reference elves specifically.

If UDE starts to branch in that direction, I could make a Vengence deck, or a Backup deck. And that would/could/should be a valid alternative to a team deck.

Learning Vs keywords is not difficult at all.

Why? Because of what you said.
Avengers Assemble! wouldn't be the same if it had to discard an Avengers card. It dscards a leader so that it has the flavor of a leader calling the character to battle out of the deck, ready to go.

Backup does seem to be pointless, but Vengeance makes sense. After the chacrter becomes stunned, they want vengeance and have a final say.

On the discussion of backup and vengence and free. Yes, we have had these effects for a while, but you could never reference them before. I understand that making a few blues to reference them seems dumb but imagine later when they can remove the reminder text from vengence and backup.

Imagine in the next DC set vengence is still a mechanic but it no longer says "whenever card becomes stunned blah blah" but instead says "Vengence: target player loses 3 life" Do you see how they wasted less room while also making that ability referenceable? The same applies for backup.

The way I think is that they made these keywords for us to use but once they become mainstream they are going to make the text smaller. Free no longer will say "use this only once per turn" because everyone will know that free effects are once per turn always.

that might be applicable if they didn't simply abandon the keywords after the sets are out. Leader has been used sparingly in DJL, but barely at all since then. Willpower was GL-specific (it was splashed a bit in JLA, but not majorly, and has even less in DCR) Ally is non-existant outside of DJL (JSA has a couple Ally abilities, but not much). Mutant, by its nature, will never be big outside of X-Men. And I don't see Backup being used almost anywhere else as well. Vengence is the only one I see possibly being used again, as a catch-all since it's fairly generic.

the problem is, they've done the exact opposite! Many cards with Evasion, Concealed, etc. now have their game text written on various cards, to remind people what they do. It's only going to get worse with more keywords. And to use more recent examples, Leader and Ally still use the entire game text in the cards just released.

I agree with everything you just said. I just keep hoping that they will look at them again in later sets. I think they are doing it just to make it easier to play within a set. There are alot of people out there who like only one specific team and alot of people who dont have access to singles. It'd a pain to need to buy a box of the new set just to put some willpower card in your GL deck to make it playable again. Just a thought.

They should be using these keywords more, but your complaints only apply to the most recent sets.

Willpower was designed specifically for Green Lantern.

Ally, Leader, and Reservist have been repeated, and will be repeated more in the future. Mutant may not be seen again, but UDE has said it may reappear in another way (the traits aren't gone yet).

Backup is just "Use during the build phase," so that'll certainly be back.

as I said, it's only become a problem in recent sets, because the older keywords were more generic and things that all teams could use, like Reservist and Loyalty. And you made my point about backup :)

My main concern is this: It's getting harder and harder to get a casual gamer to play the game, because things are getting more complex, without need. If a GL fan comes in and wants to play, I need to show him things I don't have to show to an X-Men fan (but they have their own big set of differing rules to learn).

It's trivial to those of us who have followed the game from the start, but to a person who just got the starters and wants to expand his game, having to figure out what Mutant-Physcial, Concealed-Optional, Leader means on his favorite character may turn him off (and I've seen it do so).

Personally, I thought Free, Backup, and Vengeance were totally unnecessary, because you could just say 'use this only during the build phase' or 'pay 0 endurance.'

Keywords aren't that hard to learn. Kairos is right about having specific keywords for reference purposes, but it would be nice if R&D went into further depth with existing keywords. It's almost as if they're spewing out 3 new ones every new set just for the sake of making more.

Quick note on leader---it's absent from DCR, but it's pretty crazy to say that it was only used in MAV. DJL used leader even more than the initial Avengers run did, frankly; there are more leader cards in the mechanic's second set than there are in its first. Not only that, but DJL gave us the leader-loving Secret Society, with a fully working curve of leaders fetched by Mysterious Benefactor.

MXM, meanwhile, had only one fewer leader characters than MAV, and also gave some support for the mechanic in Leadership Challenge.

I'll concede the usefulness of Leader, but again, as a keyword it does nothing except make it easy for some PTs to mention specific characters. Characters have always given their teammates bonuses, Leader just restricted it to adjacent characters and made it a big thing.

Exactly. That's what the point of these new keywords are. They can be referenced by plot twists, locations, other characters, and equipment.

UDE is not getting fully mileage out of them, but that is what they are there for.

When Marvel Knights was about to be previewed, I had an enitre idea about the set, with all kinds of references for version, which UDE is just now getting around to using.

These keywords make the game better; and they are certainly not making the game more difficult to pick up.

Personally I don't see how people are complaning that these tag keyword are making the game harder to learn. There is NO rules behind them whatsover. You do not need to know anything other than you can refer to a card as a <keyword> character/character card.

How is that complicated?

With Loyalty, you have to know the rules behind it, same as reservist, concealed, etc. Tag keywords are easy and have the simplist learning curve.

Chad, it's what people do. No matter how good the game gets. No matter what it is they are talking about. It's what people do... unless they learn to appreciate and celebrate instead of trying to prove their "keen sense of judgement".

Until then, they will complain.

No matter what.

Sometimes keywords are added to save space. Free or Backup instead of Pay 0 Endurance or use only during the build phase allows for a little text space for the ability.