REALITY, I really appreciate the time and energy you put into your analysis of the thieving fairies. I would quibble with some of your points:
1) I have based my strategy around and won with the cards: Tree of Light or Mirror of the Seasons. I especially use them with a transmutation-based strategy along with energy generators and purse of io. Denial of these cards is deadly if I'm trying to use a transmute strategy. Specifically, they allow me to transmute much more energy without having to save those energies to get out particular cards.
2) Thieving fairies in combo with arcano leach forces you to have crystals to play cards so that is a quibble that I have with your counter strategy.
3) A consequence of your counter-strategy #2 in a 3 or 4 player game is that other players keeping their crystal gauge at or near zero indirectly nullifies other crystal-stealing or -destroying cards like titus, kairn, and the avaricious. So the effects of thieving fairies are actually much more pernicious.
3) I much prefer seasons in a 3 or 4 player game because it is more Eurogamey and less cutthroat. In a 4 player game, especially, Thieving fairies in the first round is almost an automatic win. Unless two different players have them and then it becomes a fight just between those two. The chances that one of the four players will be forced to do an activation strategy by whats available to him or her in the draft is almost guaranteed in a four player game. Theiving fairies is less powerful in a 2 player game because of opportunity cost in the draft: The 2nd strongest card that you passed up for the theiving fairies now belongs to the other player. That card is often an energy generator so the theiving fairies player is often at an energy loss in a 2 player game. This is much less of an issue in a four player game because the draft is not zero sum and you may end up with two theiving fairies which is unarguably overpowered.
4) Regardless of whether it is overpowered, it, like Kairn, is a game-changer. You are forced to play differently if someone has them out. That alone makes it a very strong card. I feel it should have a zero card value, at the very least. Certainly, it is a stronger card than other zero value cards and its cost is miniscule. You cannot argue that it is a weak card. It is a very strong card. Whether it is overpowered, is really an argument about whether it is so strong that it unbalances the game.
Overall, I do think it is slightly overpowered. It is certainly the very first thing that I grab in a draft and the second thing I play in the first round (so it doesn't get eaten by the doggie).
Sincerely,
Toby
1) I have based my strategy around and won with the cards: Tree of Light or Mirror of the Seasons. I especially use them with a transmutation-based strategy along with energy generators and purse of io. Denial of these cards is deadly if I'm trying to use a transmute strategy. Specifically, they allow me to transmute much more energy without having to save those energies to get out particular cards.
2) Thieving fairies in combo with arcano leach forces you to have crystals to play cards so that is a quibble that I have with your counter strategy.
3) A consequence of your counter-strategy #2 in a 3 or 4 player game is that other players keeping their crystal gauge at or near zero indirectly nullifies other crystal-stealing or -destroying cards like titus, kairn, and the avaricious. So the effects of thieving fairies are actually much more pernicious.
3) I much prefer seasons in a 3 or 4 player game because it is more Eurogamey and less cutthroat. In a 4 player game, especially, Thieving fairies in the first round is almost an automatic win. Unless two different players have them and then it becomes a fight just between those two. The chances that one of the four players will be forced to do an activation strategy by whats available to him or her in the draft is almost guaranteed in a four player game. Theiving fairies is less powerful in a 2 player game because of opportunity cost in the draft: The 2nd strongest card that you passed up for the theiving fairies now belongs to the other player. That card is often an energy generator so the theiving fairies player is often at an energy loss in a 2 player game. This is much less of an issue in a four player game because the draft is not zero sum and you may end up with two theiving fairies which is unarguably overpowered.
4) Regardless of whether it is overpowered, it, like Kairn, is a game-changer. You are forced to play differently if someone has them out. That alone makes it a very strong card. I feel it should have a zero card value, at the very least. Certainly, it is a stronger card than other zero value cards and its cost is miniscule. You cannot argue that it is a weak card. It is a very strong card. Whether it is overpowered, is really an argument about whether it is so strong that it unbalances the game.
Overall, I do think it is slightly overpowered. It is certainly the very first thing that I grab in a draft and the second thing I play in the first round (so it doesn't get eaten by the doggie).
Sincerely,
Toby