We are deep in the holiday season, and I have to admit that I get a bit…enthusiastic…about Christmas. To that end, I thought it might be fun to take a shot at a “12 Days of Destiny” series of articles that highlight twelve wonderful (or at least impactful) things that Destiny has brought to us. Finally, I know that the Twelve Days of Christmas actually start on Christmas Day, but I thought it would be more fun to lead up to Christmas instead.
On the Third Day of Christmas, FFG Gave to Me…Three Fateful Fixes
Even the best playtesting can’t possible account for everything, and once a few truly broken combos started to dominate the meta and threatened the health of the game, something had to be done. To that end, there are currently three different strategies in place to help balance the power levels of cards in Destiny and shake up the meta if it begins to become stale – card text errata, the Restricted List, and Balance of the Force point adjustments.
Of these, my least favorite is almost certainly card text errata. It can be incredible important sometimes, as in the case of Theed Royal Palace – Naboo (ATG 159), but generally speaking it’s very undesirable to change the text of a card. It creates problems for both new and old players alike and can be very frustrating. Still, that anyone runs a battlefield other than Theed is in large part due to errata which couldn’t have been fixed with either of the two methods.
Next, we have the Restricted List which prevents a player from including more than one card that appears on the list during deck construction. Now this is a contentious topic as many will argue that having a single restricted list creates several unintentional problems and prevents non-problematic pairings. And while that may be true, the idea of having to keep up with multiple different restricted lists seems challenging to say the least. Sure, it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s efficient and avoids changing card text. As a side note, it’s kind of fun to think what problems in the first few sets of Destiny could have easily been curbed with a restricted list.
Lastly, the most dynamic of the three is probably the Balance of the Force list. This list allows the design team to fine tune character points and help balance out the meta anytime a character (or character pairing) becomes too dominant. It’s always interesting (albeit frustrating maybe) that a character can go from Tier 1 to binder fodder with a single point adjustment, but we’ve certainly seen it happen. What I like about the Balance of the Force list though is that it can also be used to dramatically change the meta in the absence of new content. The wait between sets 8 and 9 can feel brutal at times, but because of the existence of the Balance of the Force and the design team’s willingness to use it, the meta hasn’t grown nearly as stale as it should have.
Love them or hate them, these three elements have become major influencers of the Destiny meta. And I’m sure there are cards that we all wish would see an errata, be added to the Restricted List, or get a Balance of the Force adjustment!
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