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Designer Insights with Ben Brode: Basic Cards

by - 8 years ago

One of my favorite things about Hearthstone is the openness of Team 5 in explaining some of their more controversial decisions, or even just topics the community is buzzing about.  One of the prime examples of this feedback is the Designer Insights videos that Ben Brode has been producing.  Recently, Ben released a video on the topic of basic cards and power creep:

In the video, Ben stresses the importance of the basic set to new players, and how learning to discern which cards are good and which are trash is a critical part of becoming a better collectible card game (CCG) player.  Ben feels that basic cards should indeed be basic – this certainly played a role in the nerf they chose for Warsong Commander, discussed in a previous video.  Not every card in the basic set is as horrible as Magma Rager – indeed, many of the class cards from the basic set remain staples in the most competitive meta decks.  I found it interesting that new players perform better with the randomly generated decks the AI builds than their own.  I naturally gravitated to Hearthstone because of my love for CCG’s, and this video makes me wonder how much of a minority I am versus players who had no previous CCG experience before starting Hearthstone.

The issue that some of the playerbase had in relation to basic cards is the release of new (expansion) cards that are strictly better than the previous basic cards, which is pretty much the definition of power creep.  Dr. Boom seemed acceptable at first, since he was a legendary and only one copy can be played in a deck, but Evil Heckler and Ice Rager (two cards released in The Grand Tournament expansion) are both common cards that are just strictly better than their basic counterparts.  Ben offers a legitimate defense that I completely agree with: power creep is not power creep if the original cards that were “crept on” were not seeing play in the meta.  War Golem, Booty Bay Bodyguard, and Magma Rager were all nonexistent, and Ice Rager and Evil Heckler still don’t see play.  Because these cards haven’t altered the meta (sans Dr. 7), they do not represent power creep.

The only issue I wish Ben would have elaborated on was what Blizzard’s plans are for the future of the basic set.  Ben seemed to hint that the basic collection was fine as is, when he says “there’s lots of basic cards that we give you” and “we do give new players incredible cards”.  This leads me to believe that there won’t be any Classic or Curse of Naxxramas cards added to the basic set anytime soon.  Adding Naxx cards to the basic set was definitely an option I thought was possible, as there are quite a few mandatory staple cards in that set (Mad Scientist, Haunted Creeper, Sludge Belcher, to name a few), yet none that have the raw power of Emperor Thaurissan or Reno Jackson.  Also, from what I hear from other Blizzard game connoisseurs, Blizzard has a habit of eventually making old content more available after a certain amount of time.

Overall, I definitely enjoy the Designer Insights videos, and hope Ben continues to make more.  For what it’s worth, I would like to hear what the developers have to say about the balancing of combo decks (since both  Miracle Rogue and Patron Warrior had to be nerfed into the ground), or what Team 5 thinks about the current state of card draw in Hearthstone.  What topic would you be interested in hearing a Designer Insights video about?


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


0 responses to “Designer Insights with Ben Brode: Basic Cards”

  1. Dobablo says:

    I agree that the adventures are effectively Basic sets 2,3 and 4 but I do not think they will ever be given away free. I am only surprised we have not yet seen a Battlechest containing all the old adventures (currently only Naxx and BRM) plus one of each of pack for the price of 4 wings. It would be a great catchup mechanic and ensure more people have the pseudo-Basic cards.