The Synergy Value Bonus

     My article from yesterday discussed the base power ratings (BPR) for trying to assess cards, but what it didn’t take into account was the synergy that a card gets from interacting with a particular hero. Some cards are just way better when used with a particular hero, so I think we need to add the synergy bonus (or penalty) to a cards power to assess it when used with a particular hero. This synergy bonus / penalty I propose will be a number between -0.5 and +0.5. To keep it simple, I’m going to restrict it to seven intervals.

     To use an example or three I’m going to use Ordis as a starting point and use three cards to assess their BPR and then apply their synergy value to give us an Adjusted Power Rating for each Ordis hero.

     The first example I’m going to use is the Ordis Trooper. The Ordis Trooper is a 1/1/1 for 1 and the same from hand as a common. This makes it easy to work out its BPR, which is 1. Its rare form is a 1/2/2 for 1 from both the hand and the reserve, making it 1.666 BPR. We then can look at its interactions with Sigismar, Gulrang and Waru.

     Sigismar has some mild synergy with the Ordis Trooper. The very low cost of the card means you can build more of a board with it for additional pumps from charge and monolith bastion. I think this is quite a mild synergy (as any lost cost card will do this) so I’d give it a 0.1 with Sigismar, making the common have an APR of 1.1 and the rare an APR of 1.76.

     Gulrang gives a boost to token creatures when they come into play. So, the Ordis Trooper won’t be getting this bonus. My estimation is that there is no real synergy with Gulrang and so the Ordis Trooper will have a synergy value of 0 and an APR the same as the BPR for the card.

     Waru again gains benefits from having a bureaucrat in play. Since the trooper isn’t a bureaucrat, there’s nothing particularly special about the trooper and again I would award 0 synergy value to this hero.

     A second example in Ordis is Robin Hood. Now this is a strong card by itself (in my view) and I think there is a particular synergy with one of the heroes. The 3/2/2 stats give us 2 and 1/3 mana. The common ability I believe is worth around 1 and 2/3 mana (as on average people will play 2 cards a turn, but some will be spells and permanents). This gives us the value of 4 mana and a BPR of 1. However, it is far more common to want to play 2 characters or later in the game 3 characters so this card can feel a lot stronger than that. The rare encompassing all card types gives us a BPR of 1.333 (assuming a 2-mana boost for the ability). Note I might be underestimating the ability slightly in my ratings and I’m almost tempted to boost it up by 1/3 mana on both common and rare.

     Now neither Sigismar nor Gulrang have a particular affinity for Robin Hood as he isn’t a token or make any tokens, so they rate a 0-synergy value. Robin is however a bureaucrat, and he synergizes really well with Waru, and I rate him having a synergy value of 0.5, so his values would be an APR of 1.5 and 1.833.

     The final example I’m going to use is the Ordis Gatekeeper. The common gatekeeper gives you 1 and 2/3 mana in stats and 1 mana for the token, making it worth 2 and 2/3 mana and a BPR of 0.8888. The rare makes two 1/1/1 recruits and itself is a 1/1/1 for 3 mana. This is exactly a BPR or 1 for the rare. However, creating the tokens does really synergise with both Sigismar and Gulrang. I think that the common Ordis Gatekeeper particularly well synergises with Gulrang as you can play him to win one side and use the token (as boosted) to gum up the other side. So I would award a synergy value of +0.5 for the common to Gulrang (making her 1.388 APR) and +0.3 to the rare as it will sometimes gum up both sides with the two tokens (making the rare 1.3 APR) for Gulrang. This is a weird case where I think the common is better for a hero than the rare.

     Conversely with Sigismar I think these values are reversed and he synergizes much better with the rare (more bodies on the board) so I would give the common +0.3 (for an APR or 1.1888) and the rare +0.5 (for an APR of 1.5).

     Now all I need to do is cost up all the cards we have!