"The Armory" from Tales of Tribute is very unbalenced

VoidCommander · April 2022

Pro tip everyone. If "The Armory" is ever up for sale, ESPECIALLY in the first few turns, buy it immediately. That is 5 power, 1 gold, and only costs 5 measly gold to buy. After your deck gets shuffled through 4-6 times in a game, that "The Armory" card will single handedly get you 20-30 prestige (out of the 40 required to win) just because you were the lucky gun to buy it first. The Tales of Tribute card game is very fun and enjoyable, and for the most part seems quite balanced.

But for the love of all that is holy, "The Armory" is in dire need of a nerf.

merpins · April 2022

100%, The Armory is SUPER good. Should be +2 gold, Combo 3 for 5 power.

tsaescishoeshiner · April 2022

The main balance problem IMO is the number of 2-4 cost cards that are very powerful and polarizing. Often, whoever gets the first good low-cost card winds up getting a huge advantage the whole game, and the other person can't buy anything off the board. Like someone buys a 2-cost card that gives 3 gold each time, and then everything left on the board costs 5 or more, or is cheap but not as strong.

I personally hope this isn't just balanced by nerfing card effects, but cost adjustments could help, too.

This could also be balanced with a better selection system for what's in the tavern—maybe the first turn should start with more guaranteed low-cost cards, so each player can each get at least 1.

I'm curious to see how the balance will shift over time.

VoidCommander · April 2022

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The main balance problem IMO is the number of 2-4 cost cards that are very powerful and polarizing. Often, whoever gets the first good low-cost card winds up getting a huge advantage the whole game, and the other person can't buy anything off the board. Like someone buys a 2-cost card that gives 3 gold each time, and then everything left on the board costs 5 or more, or is cheap but not as strong.

I personally hope this isn't just balanced by nerfing card effects, but cost adjustments could help, too.

This could also be balanced with a better selection system for what's in the tavern—maybe the first turn should start with more guaranteed low-cost cards, so each player can each get at least 1.

I'm curious to see how the balance will shift over time.

Those are some good ideas for sure. It is one of the reasons I like to use the Psyjics for my decks, because having one card to consistently remove tavern cards (while also providing 2 gold so it isn't dead weight) is very helpful for me to control who gets what cards. Sure I can buy the not so great card for 6 gold to free up a tavern space, only for the replacement to be super good and out of my budget. Then my opponent buys it? No thanks.

redspecter23 · April 2022

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The main balance problem IMO is the number of 2-4 cost cards that are very powerful and polarizing. Often, whoever gets the first good low-cost card winds up getting a huge advantage the whole game, and the other person can't buy anything off the board. Like someone buys a 2-cost card that gives 3 gold each time, and then everything left on the board costs 5 or more, or is cheap but not as strong.

I personally hope this isn't just balanced by nerfing card effects, but cost adjustments could help, too.

This could also be balanced with a better selection system for what's in the tavern—maybe the first turn should start with more guaranteed low-cost cards, so each player can each get at least 1.

I'm curious to see how the balance will shift over time.

I agree with this completely. Very often the game is decided by turn 1 when the first player takes a solid card and it's replaced by trash or when player 1 takes a meh card and it gets replaced by a top tier card for player 2 to take. Once the tavern is seized up with high cost cards, the player with the advantage just sits there and waits for the opponent to clean up the board, potentially feeding them good cards in the process.

We need a way to filter out the 6+ gold cost cards. There are no real choices for what to take. You're not really building a deck with meaningful choices. You're taking the card you can afford and hope you don't feed something better to your opponent.

VoidCommander · April 2022

redspecter23 wrote: »

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

The main balance problem IMO is the number of 2-4 cost cards that are very powerful and polarizing. Often, whoever gets the first good low-cost card winds up getting a huge advantage the whole game, and the other person can't buy anything off the board. Like someone buys a 2-cost card that gives 3 gold each time, and then everything left on the board costs 5 or more, or is cheap but not as strong.

I personally hope this isn't just balanced by nerfing card effects, but cost adjustments could help, too.

This could also be balanced with a better selection system for what's in the tavern—maybe the first turn should start with more guaranteed low-cost cards, so each player can each get at least 1.

I'm curious to see how the balance will shift over time.

I agree with this completely. Very often the game is decided by turn 1 when the first player takes a solid card and it's replaced by trash or when player 1 takes a meh card and it gets replaced by a top tier card for player 2 to take. Once the tavern is seized up with high cost cards, the player with the advantage just sits there and waits for the opponent to clean up the board, potentially feeding them good cards in the process.

We need a way to filter out the 6+ gold cost cards. There are no real choices for what to take. You're not really building a deck with meaningful choices. You're taking the card you can afford and hope you don't feed something better to your opponent.

They should have a 3 turn lifespan for cards. If they are not purchased within 3 turns, they are discarded and replaced.

MashmalloMan · April 2022

I wouldn't implement an artifical timer to cards staying in the Tavern, there is some strategy to it. Sometimes you burn a card so your oponent can't use it, knowing it could be replaced with something even more useful. Sometimes you waste all your gold on nothing, because drawing a card when you don't have extra gold like "remove 2 cards from the tavern" has a high chance of helping your oponent, instead of your next turn. Sometimes you force your oponent to go for a different style deck then they intended, meaning they need to adapt.

Just cap the cost of the cards that get played until a specific milestone is reached.

For example.

Turns 1-2 = Cap cost 4
Turns 3-4 = Cap cost 6
Turns 5-6 = Unlocked

Then, to further improve upon caps. Increase the chance low cost cards drop in early game and decrease the chance they drop in late game in favour of higher chances for high cost cards.