Episode 32: JRB Podcast - Format Rotation, Bans, Errata, Digital Card Games

Jeff, Ryan, and Bohdan discuss the different balancing methods used by card games; including Pokemon, Magic, and Hearthstone, how they differ from Yu-Gi-Oh, and the pros and cons of each.

[@WhatsUrName0o7]

In one of the rare times Konami reached out to the community to communicate. Farfa back in 2019 did an interview with Matthew Bell (Rest in peace) and he asked him about rotation. Matthew Bell’s answer was something to the effect of “It’s a market advantage that we don’t do rotation since everyone does it” which tells me that they will never do rotation in this game.

[@A11sopp]

Magic Arena sort of did the "Master Duel 2" thing that Jeff was suggesting.

[@lucidmarauder4388]

There should be a look at the current game and list when a new core set is about to drop. After all the regionals have passed for the previous set

[@geek593]

Shadowverse is interesting. They've learned their lessons really well with the release of Evolve by adapting the game to a physical non-rotating format while making absolutely sure to avoid printing cards that caused problems in the digital game without a makeover. The couple of times there has been a deck that's imbalanced they also learned from how the Japanese meta turned out and gave us a pre-release balance change before sets released that caused issues in Japan. Dragoncraft and Umacraft were too powerful in the early era after the first collab set came out and turned the game into a two-deck meta over there until they corrected Dragon on a limited list. They imported that limit to their problem card and a couple of Uma hits to the Western release effective on the day the set that broke them released making the same format timeline for us way different with more decks taking the spotlight. So it seems like Cygames' whole deal is learning and implementing corrective actions to make sure their stuff is better with every iteration. Now if only Bushiroad would get off their asses and advertise. Barely anyone even knows the game exists.

[@geek593]

On the adding cards from outside the game into hand, SVE does this by having an EX area that serves as a five card public knowledge hand. The spawned in cards are usually tokens which come one per pack to prevent weighing packs for the thick leader tokens. Really good system.

[@xXBNubzXx]

I also think balancing works differently for pokemon because the game is so different. I don’t play it but I just watched a few games in the EUIC and they have a pigeot that searches ANY card in your deck. It’s also a pokemon so it stays on your field, meaning you can use it every turn. I assume it’s similar for magic because there isn’t a lot of player interaction on your opponents turn

[@helixier6629]

27:04 omg ojama lime cameo

[@DEEP-WEB]

Secret Paladin = R-ACE