The 5 Game Pieces Most Severely In Need of Reevaluation

Personofsecrets

My perspective for these game pieces is that they lead to play patterns that are neither that skill testing nor that fun. If they were changed, then the games that they are part of could be more skill testing and more fun.

#5 - Ansei Frandar Hunding Patron Button -

This game piece creates a number of early game unbalanced situations. Because of the nature of the Frandar Hunding Starter Card, Way of the Sword, players can go into the start of the game with around 22% chance to be able to flip the patron when Red Eagle or Saint Pelin are also giving availability to their starter cards War Drum or Fortify.

Grand Oratory provides enough power to flip the Patron and can lead to a functional zero cost devastating opener when a player also passed the 50% chance check of having Way of the Sword in their starting hand. The combo 2 effect gives back 2 of the gold cost and the Patron will give back that 3rd. With 5 gold still available for the turn and potentially looking at 6 gold availability on the second turn, further abuse of this early game state can and does happen.

It also should go without saying that, eventually, Tavern contracts which grant power will run out and the last person to find one is often at a Patron advantage for some time. Again, not really that skillful nor fun to just buy contracts back to back until the Patron can no longer be flipped. This type of back and forth happens and it's toxic.

The strength of early power generators like Conquest becomes further exaggerated because in Frandar Hunding games, they gain the particularism of being able to help flip the Patron. There become situations where one player inevitably get's to keep the flipped patron the entire game because trying to fight over the Patron with contracts is not only useless do to an opponents early power generating pickup, but ultimately ends up costing Writ of Coin economic progress in the process. The power generating player is then entitled to make their own Writs of Coin and keep the Patron pointed toward them complimentarily merely because of their power generator that they have representing what they could do in the future.

The strength of Agents, especially Forest Wraith (seriously, Wraith is a major problem card) and Stonelore Rockseer/it's morph, is exaggerated. Agent stacking is already an all too viable strategy for shutting players out in ways that are far less than interactive and fun. Often requiring power to be removed causes generated power to be sunk into them rather than be available for control of the Hunding Frandar Patron button. Add on top of this all, the refresh cards such as Hel Shira Herald, drastically increase the frequency of the same Agents coming into play again and again thus putting an opponent into a deep dark forest which they can't escape.

Some may find this Patron ability to be skill testing and, of course, it does have a skill testing component to some degree. Despite that, this Patron is, more often than not, just the rich getting richer. Overall, it causes too many game defining lines in the opening and it should be changed. Maybe something like "gain 1 Power" or "gain 1 Prestige" would be preferable over gaining a gold.

#4 - Orgnum Cards

Orgnum is evidenced to be the most disliked Patron and comes with a contrived faux-gameplay style thanks to the Patrons ability to compound upon power generators and therefore provide quick paths to inevitability.

Ghostscale Sea Serpent, Sea Serpent Colossus, Maormer Cutter, Sea Raiders Glory, and to some extent King Orgnum's Command all create fast cut throat "gameplay" that leaves more careful planning back in the mud.

The fact that multiple contract cards which cost 2 can provide the same amount of game winning points as Imprisonment, a card that costs 5, all the while providing combo pieces for enabling the other Orgnum cards to spit out a few more power and still letting the Orgnum player, who often chooses to not develop their economy, have enough gold left over to press their favorite Patron's button one more time shows just how over-tuned Orgnum lines of player can be.

Not only that, but Orgnum has 2 strong Agent options that are available for purchase by the first player, thus compounding the advantage that they get for going first which is already high. When looking at a net power gain/loss perspective they are valuable to keep an opponent who wants to remove them behind in Prestige. And if they are not removed, then they certainly will provide enough combined value through their abilities and combo potential as to win the game. They are some of the most lose-lose Agents around because of how the Orgnum patron works.

It should also be mentioned that the designers encourage this type of "gameplay" because they buffed both of the Agents. This is an unfortunate occurrence that the designers aren't more critical of this Patron. As someone who has done design consultation, I can understand why some game makers want fast options for their players, but I can also confidently say that not only is Orgnum the wrong way to go about giving players faster options, it's also the case that TOT is a far more compelling game when a player isn't being stomped by Prestige generation and longer game combos are able to reveal themselves from more complex decks. A good step to take moving forward could be to make it so that that Orgnum disfavored turn back cost is free of gold. Such change in cost could go a long way to making uncompelling power rush strategies less viable. The Orgnum Patron button would then serve better as a utility for Agent removal which would be a highly welcomed change. On top of that change, almost all of the 2 cost Orgnum cards should have their costs increased to 3 and the agent with 3 health should have it's health reduced to two. This would all help ensure that even if an Orgnum playstyle draft presenets itslef to a player, that there are higher chances for a real back and forth with more impactful decision making able to occur.

One last comment regarding the Patron is that it reveals how problematic the strategy it provides is because it allows players of lesser skill to punch too high above their weight class. When someone can mostly win because they are able to abuse a rush strategy which cares less about mistakes, then such victory shows a hallmark sign of poor balance and the balance issue should be addressed. This logic applies to any game where players are trying to abuse tempo or reach the win condition as fast as possible. Players of lower skill don't suddenly become good by implementing such rush strategy. It's the nature of such strategy that allows them to not realize the fruit of their bad tendencies because games are ending prior to that point of such revelations. Game designers have a duty to see better players not encumbered by the trivialities of rush. An appeal to any other type of gameplay just isn't that serious. When someone is utilizing a rush strategy, both players may as well be playing a game like Apple to Apples or Munchkin which are not so strategically compelling, but unlike Orgnum, can at least be fun.

#3 - Early game cards that provide 3 or more gold.

The major gold gaining cards for the early game are currently Luxury Exports, Warrior Wave, Presience/Prophesy, and Pounce and Profit/Grand Larceny. They guarantee the ability to have certain lines of play open on subsequent turns.

An example line of play that some good players are performing when they get a 3+ gold generator on their first turn is continuing on by pressing the Rajhin Patron ability on their subsequent turns, thus limiting their opponents chances to break out of an early game economy while still keeping options open for themselves to buy most cards that could show up in the tavern such as costly agents, Currency Exchange, or even House Marketplace/House Embassy. Note, even without the Rajhin button in the mix, these cards create inevitability toward getting power cards at a too early stage in the game.

Breaking escape velocity, that is doing multiple things a turn, such as buying multiple powerful cards, is extremely important for winning games of TOT. These gold generators also facilitate turns such as buying a power card such as Dreaming Cave while still retaining enough gold to create a Writ of coin. It should be easy to see how the advantage of having extra gold for the making of a Writ of Coin will put someone at a huge advantage in the medium and late game over someone who had more slow economic development and only had the resources available for either buying a tavern card or making a writ of coin. These big gold generators enable breaking escape velocity way too early in the game and too easily assist in creating games that are one-sided due to their merits alone rather than the skills of the players behind the cards. Even worse is that some of these cards, especially Luxury exports, can be purchased and still allow for a Writ to be made by the treasury on the same turn. Such extreme economic advantage that can happen as early as the 1st or 2nd turn of some games is simply not fair and very abusable in many instances

Ultimately, most of these cards could produce only 2 gold and still keep their identity. Important economic thresholds such as 7 and 8 gold which allow for either the purchasing of power cards or the purchasing of very strong cards as well as the creation of a Writ of Coin on the same turn should be further gated so that both players are able to potentially see and buy more options for their deck before the game starts to transition towards players being able to use more powerful cards.

There are other cards that can give just as much gold such as Scratch/Murder of Crows, Toll of Flesh/Toll of Silver, and Wispcaller Totem/Wispheart Totem. We should evaluate these combo cards for how they can potentially create unfair game situations, but it's more clear how the cards that give large economic increase without requiring combo are larger problems.

#2 - Agents

Agent cards sit in a unique position within Tales of Tribute due to being game pieces that remain in play after they are used and the turn ends. Their ability to then provide an additional advantage for their owner on a following turn adds an all too abusable dimension of card advantage to the game.

As an example of the problems that they can create can be seen by taking Oathman for instance. When used, Oathman creates two gold so there isn't really a deckbuilding downside to purchasing Oathman in the early game. And the upside of Oathman, being able to threaten an opponent with turn after turn of free gold generation, is a tremendous advantage. This is yet to even mention that Oathman and a number of other Agents also have relevant powerful effects when they are used. The combination of the free generic ability as well as their unique effect, or even sometimes just the unique effect alone, causes Oathman and many agents to be must remove threats for an opponent lest the advantage that they provide spirals out of control into a game winning advantage.

It's certainly true that there is a skill testing component to agent use and agent removal, but it is all too easy to create scenarios where one get's to use the strength of their agent to buy strong cards including simply buying more agents as the opponent is stuck in a perpetual slump due to needing to use their limited resources for keeping the agent user from getting too far ahead too quickly.

Agents too come with the inevitibility of a slow death for an opponent because eventually it becomes a certainty that multiple Agents are able to be played on the same turn. Sometimes this happens because of clever use of mechanics or sometimes such event happens due to Contract Agents being revealed in the tavern. Regardless of the reason, multiple agents are usually much harder to deal with on the same turn than just a single Agent. Some players confront such situations without hard agent removal or power generators having been offered in the game and although there are some Tavern cards that they can look for such as Ambush to get them temporarily out of this bind, without a reusable answer, a loss is imminent.

I can't overstate how strong agent cards are in TOT. I've not even mentioned how they slow down counterplay due to soaking up power via their health pools. And really, that is just a small bonus compared to their effects. Agents purchased in the early game absolutely should have less than 3 health as to facilitate their removal and prevent them from so easily being able to run away with games. Agents with strong effects should likely only have a single health and the power of their ability should be limited. Even a card like Haruspex can create out-of-hand scenarios, so the designers need to create Agents with balance being the utmost idea on their mind.

Lastly, a heuristic that may assist in further understanding the power of agents is to think about most card games that you've played. An unattended Agent is giving an extra card of value to it's owner every turn that it sticks around. What do you think your chances of winning are in other games that you've enjoyed if your opponent got to draw an extra card more than you every turn?

#1 - Power Generating Starter Cards

Power generating starter cards continue to be problematic from the perspective of limiting the options that players have on their first and second turns. Furthermore, players can try to include these cards into the game as a way to abuse the luck aspect fundamental to them.

The metagame has come to revolve around Red Eagle which causes a power generating starter card, War Drum, to be included into both players decks. To their credit, It seems like players do understand the gravity of their Patron choice and how it impacts the game. Although we are talking about what may amount to meaningful draft choices, it also means that players are hoping to rely on an opponent inopportunely drawing War Drum in the early game while they are able to capitalize on such poor opponent draws with their own good fortune.

In this way, the important 1st and 2nd turns become coin flips with respect to the purchasing of important cards such as Pounce and Profit/Grand Larceny, Clan-Witch/Elder Witch, Briarheart Ritual, Hierling/Oathman, and Stonelore Rockseer/Envoy of the Draoife. A large number of other plays involving purchasing a Tavern card and still having the remaining gold to use the Treasury are also put up to a coin flip.

It's irresponsible to potentially gate deck progression on the first and second turns based on a 50% chance. The worst offender of this starter card imbalance is, as you could have predicted, Pounce and Profit/Grand Larceny. There are a number of players that will pick Red Eagle and Rajhin when they are the second player specifically for the chances of getting an easy win in the case that the opponent misses out on getting 5 gold on their first turn when Pounce and Profit/Grand Larceny is in the tavern. Although this toxic line of gameplay is partly due to the power of Pounce and Profit/Grand Larceny, there are plenty of other plays that the power generating starter cards can deny thus crippling a players early game.

For example, when the second player is able to buy a Hierling/Oathman or Clan-Witch/Elder Witch on their first turn thanks to the extra gold that they receive, then they have made a very strong play. They have certainly gotten compensation for going second. On the other side of things, when the second player instead can't utilize that extra gold because they drew a power generating starter card which relegated them to a lesser play or even just making a writ of coin, then the advantage of going second is totally lost and that second player gets zero compensation for their opponent having started the game in the superior choice making position.

And although my approach to balance is elitist, it's also plainly obvious that players of lesser skill are held back by the power generating starter cards. Someone not thinking too much about their economy can do something like buying a The Lesson of Ayem or Deepwoods Ritual on a starting turn, not make their power generating starter card into a Writ of Coin and then suffer for several future turns as they are constrained by their economy. Sometimes, in such games, I will see the opponents opening card purchase choice and then opt to give them a Bewilderment as to further hamper their ability to play the game. Then frustrated opponents have been observed to transform their early pickups such as Mother's Mercy (I intentionally don't upgrade that card) into Writs of Coin because they eventually realize that they haven't sufficiently been able to buy tavern cards. Additionally, due to Saint Pelin being a starter Patron that offers a power generating starter card, playing with an economic handicap becomes normalized for a number of players, especially new players, and offers them the worst kind of gameplay that Tales of Tribute offers rather than something more elevated.

The solution to this issue is obvious. All Patron starter cards should give one gold. The Almalexia starter cards is a perfect example of how such starter cards can do something generic such as giving a gold, but still have an identity by the combo 3 ability. War Drum and Fortify could very easily give one gold, but have a combo 3 ability that is flavorful for their factions. To touch again on Way of the Sword, the card could be changed for it's choice ability to exist only for combo 3 as to mitigate early game shenanigans with the Frandar Hunding Button. The rest of the starter cards which only give one gold should also have some unique combo 3 ability.

- Bonus Notes -

Sages Counsel, Augur's Counsel, and Harvest Season are too easily abused in the early game by being able to setup 2nd or 3rd turns to have a guaranteed outcome of either 6/7 gold or a combo effect creating such gold.

It's too easy to create a Writ of Coin and then use one of these cards to guarantee the next turns draw. Perhaps Harvest Season could cost 3 gold and that could do some good, but it isn't clear the best way to tackle the inevitibility that these cards can create.

Due to a change for these cards not being entirely obvious, these cards stay relegated to this bonus section.

- Other Notes -

I've been working on this passage for about 1 to 2 months. Although I already had the 5 issue game pieces picked out on day 1, it took some time to come up with succinct explanations for my beliefs. Some of these explanations could possibly be better. New balance changes have been revealed as well as a new Patron, Hermaeus Mora. The writing here was not influenced by these recently announced updates.

Thank you for reading.