What I want to see in Set 2

     So, the first set is about to be released and as a good ‘Bravosi’ I’m already looking to the horizon at what is on it. Set 2 is I believe already done and now in the process of being printed, so it’s probably too late for me to influence it, but this article is my wish list for the expansion and things around the game. I’m going to go into 10 things that I want to see and 5 things that I don’t want to see. I’m not including great art and great stories from Yoshi as I’m going to take that for granted as we head past the gates. So, let’s start with the things I want to see.

1. New Mechanics

I think that this one is a no brainer in that all TCG expansions tend to have new mechanics, so I’m going to clarify myself here. I’d like to see new mechanics that are not too complex and do not add to much extra bloat to the game. A game like magic with all its expansions has so much in it no that it’s so bloated. So, I’d like Equinox to take things easy and not introduce to much complex additional mechanics. It’s still early for the game and I don’t want new players confused by complex mechanics or interactions. There are quick win things like draw and reordering back on top of the deck (scry in MtG) that are standard TCG concepts that could play well.

2. More Altered IP Characters

The first set had a lot of real world, fictional Eidelon characters in the cards, but very few actually unique (named) IP characters. I’d like to see more of the latter in the next set to firm out the IP and the story more. I want to see characters in stories by the superb Yoshi that we come to know and love and these people to be represented more in the cards themselves.

3. Increased Unique Rate

Now I know that it might not seem like good business for Equinox to up the Unique rate but hear me out. The booster boxes currently give you 4 or 5 (an average of 4.5) Unique cards per box. The supply of Unique cards is predicated on people buying booster boxes and with such a low drop rate I think this may cause supply and demand issues. I think upping the rate to 1 in 7 boosters rather than 1 in 8 would mean that the EV of a booster box is better and indeed having the golden boosters still be a thing would generate excitement going forward in opening boosters.

4. Gamegenic Folder Changes

The quality on the Gamegenic products is outstanding, but I do have one massive complaint. The 9 pocket folders that they produce look great but are just sized incorrectly. To be able to put all the core set in these folders (including spaces for Unique cards) you would need three such folders. Assuming that the set size was 18 commons + 2 heroes in set 2, you would need two such folders. I’d really, really like them to resize the product to have a large set fit into 2 folders and a small set fit into one. Then they would get sales from me, but not at the current sizes.

5. New and Existing Heroes

I’d like to see both new and existing heroes in the next set, maybe one of each. This would give the existing hero a new spin on their playstyle and a new hero maybe a new playstyle based around the new mechanics. I feel like they’ll want to continue the stories of the current heroes, but maybe introduce a new one or two.

6. A new type of Permanent

It was hinted at when they changed Permanent on the original demo cards to Permanent – Landmark that they were developing more types of Permanent. Maybe they will have equipment that characters can use, or maybe they will have various vehicles that we’ve seen in all the key art. I guess we’ll see.

7. Alternate Reserve or Landmark levels

They may not do it in set 2, but they will definitely do it at some point (which is why there’s a marker on the heroes). This will give some varied gameplay to the heroes that they chose to do it on.

8. More Creature Type Matters

Currently only really Soldiers, Plants and Robots matter in any meaningful way. But what if scouts mattered and gained some benefit from having a couple out (maybe perform a scry on your deck). Or perhaps having a number of wizards gives you an effect. I think this vein of design is too rich to ignore and having more token creatures which help things out for getting numbers of creatures in such a mechanic.

9. Art with the Confluence in

Most of the art so far has shown the heroes, the world in the safe human zones and the Eidolon’s. I’d like to see some art of the wild regions and the dangers out beyond the gates. I want to see the hideous things that the Confluence has spawned and our heroes must face.

10. Cards that Fill out the Weaker Heroes

At present it is clear that there are a few heroes that are just lacking a little something to make them competitive. I'd like to see some cards that help boost those strategies a bit, whilst not seeing cards that boost the strategies that are already a bit strong. Specifically there are cards that I think Atsadi, Gulrang, Lindiwe and Auraq could use to just bring them up a bit into the meta a bit.

There are also a bunch of things that I’m not keen to see.

1. Not Doing ‘Bad Feel’ Mechanics

There are some mechanics that Altered has chosen not to explore that were in Magic that I’m really pleased weren’t much in the first set and I really don’t want Altered to use. I think the first of these is search your deck for a card. This would make powerful Unique cards so much more powerful, and I really don’t think I’d want this in the game. That is – get powerful Unique and then search it up every game.

The second of these is hand discard. Yes, we had Baku in the core set, but I don’t want to see too much of it and have it become a strategy. Sabotage is fine as you have either used your card first or chosen to put it directly into reserve as a cost, so that is not an issue, but hand discard doesn’t even get you a chance to play your cards once.

Finally, I don’t want to see mana orb destruction as a strategy in the game. In MtG land destruction is another feel bad strategy and I think Altered was right to steer away from it.

2. More Powerful Unique Cards

The power of the Unique cards is just about right I feel to ensure that there is a chase for the good ones and the things for your strategy without them being overpowered (with one or two exceptions – Double Robin I’m looking at you). I think the bottom end is a little low on Unique cards, but the top end is about right.

3. A new Expedition Track

I know that there are some people itching for there to be a new expedition track in the new expansion, but I feel that Equinox should take things slower and maybe not bring a new track in for a year or two. Having to bring several different tracks to events will get tedious after a while and whilst I’m not adverse to it if there will be defined seasons over time, I really hope that this won’t be every set. Set 2 I feel is too early to introduce a new one.

4. Too Many Vanilla cards

I don’t feel that the Vanilla cards (with just stats and no abilities) were that strong and they just were not strong enough (even as Unique cards) to be real contenders to be in decks. My worst rated cards are two Vanillas (Lyra Navigator and Mowgli) and I don’t think that these have proven as interesting as Equinox had hoped. If they’d been a bit stronger in terms of biome stats then maybe, but the delta in biome strength just wasn’t enough.

5. Stopping Infinite Loops

The dev team already know I hate these, and I really hope they plug the rules on these before they release the rules. So, this might not be applicable by the time set 2 comes out, but with Uniques I think it’s impossible not to accidently cause this, so I kind of want this to be plugged by set 2.