I wish you a pleasant Wednesday! It won’t be long until the new expansion “The Grand Tournament” for Hearthstone awaits us. What do I have to say about it? A lot. Because Blizzard decides to break one of the sacred laws of card games with some cards – or to use the English technical term: The Grand Tournament is a strong manifestation of power creep.
Same Costs, Better Stats
While it is quite commonplace in MMOs to trivialize existing content, make new content more exciting, and provide better rewards – after all, character levels often increase – this is a golden rule in card games that should not be broken. And that’s exactly what the art of creating good collectible card games is all about! If a minion in Hearthstone costs 4 mana and has stats of 4/5, then 2 things must be ensured:
- There are no other creatures with the exact same combination (other than with additional effects).
- No other creature may be stronger without disadvantage (higher costs, negative effect, random factors).
The reason for this is obvious: The weaker card would lose its right to exist. Exactly this mistake is being made by Blizzard now.
The Two Worst Cards in the Game
Specifically, power creep applies to 2 cards. The newcomer with The Grand Tournament is the Evil Heckler. It offers 5/4 stats for 4 mana and simultaneously taunt. Veterans will be amazed. These are the same stats as those of the Goblin Bodyguard – but 1 mana cheaper.
The same applies to the Ice Rager: For 3 mana it is quite strong with 5/2, but significantly better than the old Magma Rager – which has exactly one less health point for the same cost.
“But they were hardly played…”
It is true that Magma Rager and the Goblin Bodyguard were rather rare occurrences in ranked games, many would even consider them “unplayable”. But can it then be the right step to leave these cards weak and simply introduce new, stronger ones? Why not just balance the game instead of bringing in new cards that completely make the old ones obsolete?
I repeat myself once more: The art in such a card game is to create exciting innovations with limited resources such as mana cost, attack power, health points, and card texts, without completely devaluing the old cards. This is exactly what Blizzard has failed to do this time, and to put it bluntly, it is a sign of lack of ideas. I find it incredibly difficult to understand what they were thinking by introducing these two cards.
What is your opinion on the topic? Do you agree with me or is it not that bad because you hardly ever see the two old cards anyway?
