I imagine there’s a thread like this and I just haven’t noticed. I stopped playing / buying around the time of the release of the campaign expansion. I read about the core 2.0 release but in general was frustrated by the state of meta. Namely it seemed like the designers were routinely releasing cards that were broken the moment they were released (Sifr for example which they almost immediately MWLd) and seemed out of touch with the game. I was also frustrated that while there were dozens of identity and thousand of cards, only a tiny fraction were ever viable. It got to the point where I was buying packs and not even opening them and it seemed like the draft format was the only entertaining option.
Anyways fast forward to now, I’m wondering how people feel the game has evolved and is it worth reinvesting time to catch up and start playing again?
I love the game right now. There’s tons of interesting decks, and the ban/restricted list has made more of a difference than the old MWL ever did. I still wish they updated it more frequently, but we live in an imperfect world =)
But yeah, I’d say things are good right now. Get this: Adam is basically a tier 1 deck right now. You can’t not love that!
I think it’s a great time to jump back in. I think the competitive meta is healthier than it has been in years.
The banned and restricted list is forcing players to make more interesting and difficult decisions during deckbuilding and can even make for a fun mini-game within the game if you don’t know your opponent’s deck (i.e. the runner installs Magnum Opus so now you know that they can’t have Film Critic).
Rotation/Revised Core removed a lot of cards that had always warped the format including: Jackson, Caprice, Desperado, Medium, Parasite, Account Siphon, RDI, Andromeda, Kate, Whizzard etc. – resulting in a more open playing field. Generally speaking there is a lot more experimentation going on right now with ID’s and strategies that were ignored pre-rotation because they were overshadowed by stronger cards.
Another voice coming out and saying that the game feels like it’s in the best place it’s been in a couple of years. Most of the dumb solitaire combo decks are rotated/banned out of the game. Power levels this cycle have been much more subdued. The MWL update after worlds came in reasonable time and seems to be a solid hit-job on over-the-curve decks. On appearances, Boggs seems to be in tune with community and is saying encouraging things.
I can’t help but notice the vast majority of your example format-warping cards were runner cards :). The Corp had far worse (many in NBN…so I include Jackson here) than Caprice from a meta-warping sense.
As others have said, I think the meta is pretty healthy, but I wanted to respond to this. The first few packs of Kitara have felt really great with this regard—there seem to be more playable cards than usual in each one. To some extent, there will always be “duds” that just don’t have the support they need and those still exist (Wari comes to mind). But looking at the last pack, Down the White Nile, I’ve witnessed at least half the cards in tournament play and all the neutral cards are playable. I’m not sure that pace that can stay up but I thought it was worth mentioning.
The scenes that managed to weather the downtime are doing okay. It has died in quite a few places unfortunately. South Ontario is pretty dead outside of Toronto for example.
The meta was my least favorite ever for the first 4 months after core 2, but the last couple packs and the new MWL help a lot. Some of the least fun to play against Shaper and CI decks were hurt by the new MWL, and the new packs have made minifactions and non-CTM NBN viable. Even Weyland is getting some good cards! The last thing they really need to crack is making Crim playable again…