Yeah The Armory in round 1 or 2 is very close to an 'I win' button.

Needs a nerf.

Casdha wrote: »

I think the number of coins in the starting hands needs to be lowered (Maybe by converting a couple of Treasure cards to a power of 1). If no one could get more than 4 coins and 1 or 2 power cards on the first round it might even things out the way they are. Everyone would be forced to at least convert one card before they could afford a 5 coin card (convert said treasure power / coin cards).

Replacing gold coins by power coins wouldn’t work. They would have to make it so we only have access to 3 gold coins maximum. It would mean that 7 of our cards would be power cards. It would also mean that you could play first and start with 5 power and zero gold or play second and have 4 gold and one power. Because the process of buying cards and using the treasury would be slowed, it would also mean that 10+ power would be generated from the basic power cards before any significant deck building happen. It wouldn’t be fun either because the early game would be extended with less choices.

dmnqwk wrote: »

The Armory is strong, but not an I Win button.

Because it requires no synergy, everybody goes nuts over the Armory but then neglects to think about:

Pyrandonean War Fleet (Cost 3, up to 5 power)
Siege Weapon Volley (Cost 4, 4 power AND up to 2 coins)
Midnight Raid (Cost 4, up to 6 power)
Conquest (Cost 4, up to 5 power - Could also be used as 2 power/4 coins with tavern grab)
Murder of Crows (Cost 4, Up to 3 coins 4 power)

Being unable to generate 5 coins would have no effect on the above cards, each capable of producing 4-6 power, and thus would simply swing people away from demanding The Armory needs a nerf to Siege Weapon Volley needs a nerf.

I did mention and agree there are others that could use a cost increase. In general, it shouldn't be possible to generate much power from a single card in the early rounds, because the synergy needed to defeat such strategies are not yet available. The armory is just the first to come to mind because it's as powerful as some synergies without requiring any synergy. And it is a card that can come early.

dmnqwk wrote: »

The Armory is strong, but not an I Win button.

Because it requires no synergy, everybody goes nuts over the Armory but then neglects to think about:

Pyrandonean War Fleet (Cost 3, up to 5 power)
Siege Weapon Volley (Cost 4, 4 power AND up to 2 coins)
Midnight Raid (Cost 4, up to 6 power)
Conquest (Cost 4, up to 5 power - Could also be used as 2 power/4 coins with tavern grab)
Murder of Crows (Cost 4, Up to 3 coins 4 power)

Being unable to generate 5 coins would have no effect on the above cards, each capable of producing 4-6 power, and thus would simply swing people away from demanding The Armory needs a nerf to Siege Weapon Volley needs a nerf.

Sure, later in your gaming career.

Starting out, Pelin's an extremely blunt instrument deck that can dominate with specific cards. Base 4 decks without upgrades will struggle to do anything against one or even two Armory draws.

Uhm .. isn't that just "more obvious luck"? I mean in casual, I have seen opponents draw round 1 armory, leaving me with "nothing" because I could not afford anything. Though I really wanted that 7 gold pelin card that gives you 6 power and on combo 2 another card drawn. Now round 2 was nothing for the both of us, round 3 neither, round 4 opponents get the desired card. Of course, the game is very likely over at this point.

However, there is games where I did go from 20 prestige to 75 in a single turn, busting my opponent that seemed sure of his win with above 40 prestige with a crazy lucky crow chain. Of course not the aforementioned one, If I remember right I did not even reach 10 prestige before my opponent got his 40+.

Anyway, the real issue here is the following: when you are obviously unlucky in a way that the game does seem decided already at a very early stage, it just lost all of it's appeal for the entire match. No one has fun putting effort into any lost case.

However, if we talk about the games need be fun and if we now look at the proposed changes, likely hurting the progression speed of the early game ... I do not think that would be a fun change either. If we would limit starting gold to something like 3, there would only be a few mathematically best turns and luck would still not be removed.

Thus I would suppose fixing some utterly useless cards (liar for example has a 6 gold 1 life agent card that does nothing on use and removes 1 prestige on combo 2 .. uuhhh!) so there could still be hope for a player that has had an unlucky early streak. Don't slow the game, don't nerf cards unless they really break the game and give the players some more time to dive deeper into the game. Due to its nature of randomness, there is still some time needed for players to really master it.