Blog

Patrick Sullivan

War of the Elements hits the streets today, and with that, the Elementals themselves.  In addition, the Bronze and Blue Dragonflights make their World of Warcraft TCG debut.  All three of these groups have something in common with each other, and the two Dragonflights in Worldbreaker—they are totally 100% neutral, generic allies.  We’ve had non-Horde, non-Alliance allies before; in fact Aldor/Scryer and Nerubian/Argent Crusade/Scourge were the primary mechanical themes of their respective blocks.  Still, those allies came with some deck building restrictions, or at least had some mix-and-match restrictions.  The dragons and elementals, which can literally be played in any deck, represent a huge departure from the “X Reputation” or “X Hero required” style allies.

Looking back on it now, I believe the amount of reputations and hero restrictions we did in the past was a mistake.  There is a big difference between “I built a bad deck” and “I built an illegal deck”, and the latter is much more likely to be an exit point for a new player.  This is the same philosophy that led us to remove class professions from heroes and to change the presentation of talents.   The cumulative effect of all of these tags and restrictions proved daunting even to members of R&D (“Hey, is there a Blood Elf Holy Priest with Leatherworking and Jewelcrafting?  I’m trying to test A, B, C, and D together.”), and we think easing the amount of restrictions on deck building dramatically eases the process of putting a deck together.  There’s still a place for the occasional wacky hero with different deckbuilding rules. You may see a card or two per block that require a certain race. However, these should be exceptions, not the mechanical crux for an entire year.

In addition, neutral allies help grease the wheels on Limited play, especially Sealed Pack.  I remember playing sealed in March of the Legion Block where only one or two classes allowed me to build a 30 card deck, much less actually cut cards or make choices.  I’m sure everyone with Booster Draft experience knows the feeling of being “locked in”, in that by a certain point in a draft, switching faction or class is impossible because there’s no chance of getting enough cards.  Neutral cards ensure that our Sealed pools offer enough cross-sectioning of playable cards to allow players to build their deck in a variety of ways, while giving Draft extra flexibility.

Still, these cards also have the greatest potential for trouble.  Because they lack restrictions, they have the potential to show up in an overwhelming percentage of decks.  This can homogenize game play and potentially reduce the number of viable options.  But we also can’t just shoot low on the power level of every single neutral ally; to accomplish the goal of simplifying deck building, they have to be attractive enough to put into decks.   So what’s the answer?  How do we go about making attractive generic cards that don’t scream, “Put me into every deck that you build!”?

The best way, in my opinion, is to make generic allies that care about specific things.  A great example of this is the Dragonflights.  None of them cause you to build an illegal deck, no matter what number or combination you play.  But it’s clear they encourage you to build your deck a certain way, be it by jamming it with quests and Stash cards to power up the Green Dragonflight. Likewise, the Blue Dragonflight loves abilities.  This way, we can get the best of both worlds—people don’t have to wrack their brains trying to make sure the 60 cards they put together actually constitute a legal deck, but the process of building your deck is something deeper than “Put every copy of X you can in your deck, no questions asked.”.  Hopefully they add that same depth to Limited.  Do I play a marginal ability because I have a bunch of Blue Dragonkin?  My deck is short on Protectors; does that mean Ruby Protector should make the cut?  So even though you can play them in every deck doesn’t mean you want to or should. That’s the type of distinction we’re looking for.

WoW TCG has made a lot of effort over the last year to make the game easier to understand and play, and our generic cards play an important role towards that goal.  Still, it’s very important that our generic cards complement our classes and factions, not usurp their position.  By making generic cards that fulfill specific purposes, we believe we can get the best of both worlds—a game that’s easy to play, understand, and build decks for— while maintaining the distinction of our non-generic cards.