Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Just an honest question from someone who hasn't been at a tournament in a very long time - do you feel that the classic category may become obsolete? I would think that players would use essentially the same decks between (the new) regular T1-2P and T1-2P classic with maybe a few tweaks. Either way, cards from older sets won't receive a ton of play. If the plan is to move on from producing older cards altogether that does make sense, though. But in my mind a classic category in which only classic (scroll box) cards can be used would maybe get more play than one where all cards are fair game? I could certainly be wrong.

The only thing keeping classic from being obsolete is the ability to also use new cards. I don't think many people would be interested in a category that just replays the meta from 2012.

@matts3376 If that happened then none of the classic builds would have Reserve access. Additionally, this would surely make classic obsolete since all of the cards would be old, outdated, and simply no longer viable as a stand alone category. CCGs need regular expansions to survive, improve upon the game, and continue to make it fun and challenging. If none of the newer sets would be included with the classic cards then it would cause the death of the classic cards. Newer cards tends to refresh the older cards and attempts to make them playable again and adds an element of new combos and challenges (ie Rahab from CoW makes Scarlet Line CBN, Foreign Exiles seeks out Raider’s Camp and interacts with it, Woman with Child searches for A Child is Born, etc).

Understood! I'm not familiar enough with the newer cards to see those connections being made, but that makes sense.

Have you guys given any thought to restricting access to battle phase only during the turn restrictions? Seems like no reserve access will hurt quite a few of the defensive plays that equip weapons from reserve and such.

So I feel it would be good to flesh this out a little bit as long as we can be kind in the way we approach it, so EVERYONE please be mindful of words chosen in the text.   

I am in complete disagreement that there should be no reserve access no matter how many # of turns.  For one, there have been so many cards made that access the reserve, and I’m sure so many more that will be in GoC, that it is quite counterintuitive to now restrict reserve access.

I would like to have this expanded upon honestly.  While I do agree that having cards that are geared to do one thing, and then not letting them do that one thing feels bad.  But yet we already have a bunch of cards that search deck, draw cards, etc and have a bunch of counters that try to stop us from doing those things both in battle and outside of battle (via TC cards, etc), and are also being told we don't have enough or they aren't strong enough.  So while a game rule certainly "feels" different, how truly different is it than creating "truly effective" counters (which apparently some feel hasn't been done yet)?  So is creating somewhat broken counters to slow down reserve access is preferable, even if they prove ineffective, I guess is the question.

This is why I believe the proposed Reserve access change would significantly benefit the game.  This change has the same vibe as the previous change which I assume is no accident.  Restricting access to a location where players currently (and for good reason) put some of their best cards is another way of reducing the power of going first to a more reasonable level.

These changes force players to ask questions when building their decks.  Can I afford to put this card in my Reserve and not have access to it for at least 1 turn?  Can I risk putting this card in my deck and not have a way to quickly search it out (or be restricted from doing so or punished for doing so?  This is what makes strategy games attractive. 

I like the thoughts here, and somewhat think along the lines of "is making players think about their deck building a bad thing?"  I know when given the thought to consider restricting the reserve at all became a thought process, I honestly hated the idea.  Upon testing no reserve access just a little bit I have noticed honestly that it probably wouldn't be a bad thing, but also being mindful of how much is too much.  I realize I am not a "highly competitive" player or "top tier" deck builder, but I have long thought creating a "losing situation" (by getting enough lost souls in play to lose the game) was kind of silly.  I do also realize that creating the consistency that allowed your deck to "go off" was worth that "risk."  But is trying to change that mentality a bad thing?

Another thing is it is yet something else to have to keep track of (many times players have trouble remembering who ent first, let alone how many turns have passed to now access the reserve).

This is certainly a concern that people have had and something that has been brought up while discussing things.  But, I will say one round isn't really that hard to keep up with.  Whoever goes first has access to their reserve at the same time they get to draw 3 for the first time, so that shouldn't be "too difficult" to keep up with.

I would be more in favor of some kind of intro prep phase, like there currently is in Teams play, than a flat rule that restricts reserve access. 

I have had this option mentioned as well, but I guess the question to that is does it really change the way people currently deck build?  As I said, I'm just trying to think out loud and see how people feel about these things?  Is there really a perfect answer to anything we ask?  If we say everything stays the same but we just rotate, does that fix the "whoever goes first wins" problem we have?  Does having people adjust how they deck build fix that?  Does restricting the reserve for a round change anything?  Does that and coin flip to determine who goes first create new problems that we didn't know existed?  So many questions that really we might not have an answer for, so again just thinking out loud to have a cordial conversation. 

@Crashfach I understand the purpose (sort of) but I just don’t see how, at this point, it will really help anything. 

For example, what is the point of creating a reserve if not to be used how ever effectively it can be?  What is the point of creating a ton of cards from RoJ to GoC that access the reserve, and several cards from PoC to GoC that have star abilities that access the reserve and are virtually limited to the opening draw 8 and subsequent draw 3 when many of those will be dead cards in the opening hand?  What will happen to stars that simply want to get things set up for your future turns, like topdecking a hero from Reserve and drawing it on your first draw, or hurting an opponent, such as discard a good card from a reserve?  All of these would be dead in the opening hand. That simply doesn’t make sense to me. To me, adding an additional game rule about when something can or can’t be accessed is more cumbersome than just allowing the reserve to be tapped in opening hand but not allowing a rescue/BC that turn, which is truly the biggest issue when it comes to the speed of this game.  The game would be more intuitive and flow so much better with access to the reserve at any time (as it is now), but adding an intro prep phase that helps get things, such as future rescuers, future blockers, counters to your opponents, etc. set up makes more sense to me and will help serve to accomplish the speed issue.

Imagine teaching the game to someone and they want to use star abilities in the opening hand that access reserves and you have to tell them something like “Oh those don’t work in the opening hand. I’m sorry you can’t use them now. It’s too bad you couldn’t have used them in your next few turns, which probably won’t matter by then anyway.”  What do you think their reaction will be? 

I know the thread kind of got jumped on after my initial post and I didn’t intend for that to happen.

Having been on the inside for a number of conversations in the past, I can honestly say some of my opinions where stated to strongly and not with the humility I wish I would have walked with. I am aiming not to fall into that trap here and I don’t want others to fall into that place either.

I know Gabe and the leadership team mean it when they say “We want what is best for the game.”

With all due respect, I am still left wanting to understand what the reasons are for considering a reserve restriction and some information on how restricting reserve access is meeting that goal?

There may be some excellent reasons I am missing and this may be a great move for the game. Im just looking for some real clarification.

I have taken on a more limited role with playtesting this past year so I have not been involved with all of the Reserve discussions, but from my understanding, it has mostly to do with what Master Q mentioned -- the consistency with which decks could have explosive first turns. I don't know how much you guys followed the tournament scene this past season, but there was a deck archetype that could essentially win* on turn 1 if the opponent didn't have any "pre-game" disruption (i.e. * abilities or LS abilities) or the correct dominant in hand (usually Woes, DoN or CotK was needed and sometimes having just 1 wasn't enough).

A very large part of the consistency the deck enjoyed was having combo pieces or combo tutors in the Reserve that enabled the player to combo off on turn 1.

There's no doubt the Reserve has drifted from its original goal (to give players access to "sideboard" cards to help them in specific bad match-ups), and there's really no turning back from that at this point. However, I believe the idea behind a 1 turn restriction is to lessen the probability of games being essentially decided on turn 1. Granted that will still happen sometimes, but I do believe a restriction will deepen the strategy behind what is put in Reserve and what players want in the main deck.

*They were not actual turn 1 wins, but the combo simply put the opponent so far behind, there was probably a less than 2% chance of them winning.

 Wow.

I haven't played in over a decade, but I decided to poke around my old stomping grounds, and come to find out all my thousands and thousands of cards are now worthless. Feels bad man.

I haven't played in over a decade, but I decided to poke around my old stomping grounds, and come to find out all my thousands and thousands of cards are now worthless. Feels bad man.

What do you mean worthless?

Classic cards are still legal for most tournaments.

I was under the impression that the old cards (pre new card design) were no longer going to be legal at all, outside of some new "classic" format that probably very few people will play. Is that not correct?

I would be surprised if most newer or younger playgroups didn't run more classic than rotation because most "long term players" like me can practically give kids with no money these classic cards for little to nothing, so it wouldn't make sense to run "rotation" when they don't have that.  So I believe you are underestimating young and new players that have access to these cards.

Seeing as how even old versions of reprinted cards will not be legal, I can't use my old good cards even if they get reprinted. I can't even sell them, because nobody will want illegal cards. That stings.

Again, not illegal unless you try to go to a "rotation" tournament, so just don't do that.  Plus reprinted old cards doesn't do anything to the ones you have except make a different version.  New versions replacing older ones is something some games do, not this one.

I understand the impossibility of balancing every single card for 25 years. Long term it's a good call. It just really hoses people like me who played the game from 1997 to 2010. I just can't help but feel a bit sad.

It certainly stings at first, but when you take into consideration the first two parts it isn't that bad, and as you admitted it is good for the game long term.  So find some people close to you who wants to play some classic with the cards you have, enjoy yourself, and even have some tournaments.  If/when you are ready to start collecting "rotation" cards there are plenty of people willing to help.