The Living Card Guy
In this new segment, Boxed Culture author Kyle Hagan will cover all the cool stuff he does with Living Card Games (LCGs). Since Boxed Culture is more board game-centric, these articles are meant to pull the LCG articles out, so they can live free on their own. What is an LCG you ask? Well he has written an article on that as well! These articles will cover anything from opinions on various LCGs, deck building tech, and card reviews. On with the article!
Coping with Change
From zero to hero with this freaking guy!
This article is about Android: Netrunner and the changes that people are having to cope with in the game. Understand me here, I am not talking about rules changes, restriction lists or card errata. I am speaking of mid-cycle power shifts. I sat in the shop no less than a month ago and everyone was saying Runners were getting a lot of power in the cycle and just the other day we had people talking about broken Corp decks. We see this happen all the time in Netrunner. As the article mentions, we have seen the rise of these power house decks before. Most importantly we have seen them fall as well.
While this article is about Android: Netrunner, it really speaks to all LCGs if not all card games. To think that you will not have to adapt in a competitive environment is a silly idea if you want to play at the premiere level. I would say that some of the mid-cycle shifts results in less interesting plays but we see this in all LCGs (and even CCGs for that matter). Warhammer 40,000: Conquest has similar things. We went from seeing Archon Salaine Morn as a weaker, less effective Packmaster Ktih to a power house of terror with the release of only 4 or so cards. We have seen the same thing in Game of Thrones: The Card Game with the release of Bronn and the Iron Mines in the last pack, Calm Over Westeros. This is the nature of these games, something we competitive players have the pleasure of puzzling out.
Step One: New Dark Eldar Warlord, Step Two: Wait for cycle to end, Step Three: Decimate all that stand before you!
This article is also about how to approach adversity within a community you love. When you see things changing there are a usually two responses (barring the indifference shown by all us nihilists). One is to actively express your distaste for the game, its creators, the people that play it, and the design itself. Actively sowing discontent amongst the community because you are not able to continue to do things the way that you have previously is bad. I don’t care if you stop reading here, that behavior is shitty and you are just being a horrible member of the community. The other more acceptable and awesome response is to try to play the game. I am not talking about continuing losing until the game gives you answers. I am talking about exactly what Benjen says in his Android: Netrunner article. Out-think the strategy, work around your opponent, play the game outside of just the cards themselves and win. Look past the annoying interactions that are hard to deal with and play the real game. The challenging game of matching wits with your opponent on a mental level, not just on a card playing level.
“And when you’re in a slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.” Dr. Seuss
Till next time. Living Card Guy, out.
-Kyle