The culprits.
- Mage : Witch + Place Of Power : Dragon's Lair
- Mage : Witch + Place Of Power : Catacombs Of The Dead
Both of these Places Of Power can be bought and activated from Round 1, regardless of deck and starting hand. And with the Witch, they can then be activated twice per turn (sometimes a third time, with Reanimation for a typical example).
We've all seen these games :
- Witch + Dragon's Lair.
> Start with a potion to start with 6 essences.
> Discard the 3 cards from the starting hand.
> Buy Lair (round 1, turn 4).
> Profit.
- Witch + Catacombs.
> Start with Transmutation. Pick Death with Witch.
> Turn 3 non-Death resourcces into 3 Death.
> Discard 2 cards from the starting hand for 4 Death.
> Buy Catacombs (round 1, turn 4).
> Profit.
The issue.
- Witch + Dragon's Lair :
As this strategy buys monuments slowly, there is a decent chance to hit a resource-generating one and thus still build an engine despite sacrificing the starting hand. Even without these monuments, it's still super strong.
- Witch + Catacombs :
This strategy keeps one card in hand + 1 Gold, so there's sometimes a chance to play a Death-generating card on top of the core combo, to make things a bit more interesting. But even without this, it's still super strong.
My problem is not so much that these combos are super strong and very likely to win from the get go. My problem is that, overall, both strategies miss the most interesting "> ???" step which should come before "> Profit".
The mere presence of these combinations on the starting table warps the direction of a game so much. Whether playing with them or against them, it makes the game not very interesting.
- If playing with, the question is : do I want to do the brainless strategy and be most likely to win, or do I want to try something a bit different ?
- If playing against, the question is : do we want to try to prevent the Witch player from executing these strategies (not always possible), or do we play for second place or the fun of doing something interesting ?
The suggestion.
Add a BGA option (keyword : option) to set up a table with the following variant rule.
- In the setup phase, draw the Places Of Power as per usual.
- If either Dragon's Lair or Catacombs is present, remove Witch from the pool of Mages.
- Then, deal 2 Mages to each player, as per usual.
This ensures that the starting combos Witch + Lair and Witch + Catacombs won't be in the game.
Additional comments.
In Wingspan, there are 4 "super bird" cards (namely, Chihuahuan Raven, Common Raven, Franklin’s Gull and Killdeer). BGA has an option to remove them from the deck.
In Scythe, players are dealt an asymmetric Faction Board and an asymmetric Player Board at the beginning of the game. There are two banned combination (namely, Rusviet+Industrial and Crimea+Patriotic), because they're just too good together.
So, hopefully, it's not entirely an inconceivable thing to consider banning some starting combos in game.
- Mage : Witch + Place Of Power : Dragon's Lair
- Mage : Witch + Place Of Power : Catacombs Of The Dead
Both of these Places Of Power can be bought and activated from Round 1, regardless of deck and starting hand. And with the Witch, they can then be activated twice per turn (sometimes a third time, with Reanimation for a typical example).
We've all seen these games :
- Witch + Dragon's Lair.
> Start with a potion to start with 6 essences.
> Discard the 3 cards from the starting hand.
> Buy Lair (round 1, turn 4).
> Profit.
- Witch + Catacombs.
> Start with Transmutation. Pick Death with Witch.
> Turn 3 non-Death resourcces into 3 Death.
> Discard 2 cards from the starting hand for 4 Death.
> Buy Catacombs (round 1, turn 4).
> Profit.
The issue.
- Witch + Dragon's Lair :
As this strategy buys monuments slowly, there is a decent chance to hit a resource-generating one and thus still build an engine despite sacrificing the starting hand. Even without these monuments, it's still super strong.
- Witch + Catacombs :
This strategy keeps one card in hand + 1 Gold, so there's sometimes a chance to play a Death-generating card on top of the core combo, to make things a bit more interesting. But even without this, it's still super strong.
My problem is not so much that these combos are super strong and very likely to win from the get go. My problem is that, overall, both strategies miss the most interesting "> ???" step which should come before "> Profit".
The mere presence of these combinations on the starting table warps the direction of a game so much. Whether playing with them or against them, it makes the game not very interesting.
- If playing with, the question is : do I want to do the brainless strategy and be most likely to win, or do I want to try something a bit different ?
- If playing against, the question is : do we want to try to prevent the Witch player from executing these strategies (not always possible), or do we play for second place or the fun of doing something interesting ?
The suggestion.
Add a BGA option (keyword : option) to set up a table with the following variant rule.
- In the setup phase, draw the Places Of Power as per usual.
- If either Dragon's Lair or Catacombs is present, remove Witch from the pool of Mages.
- Then, deal 2 Mages to each player, as per usual.
This ensures that the starting combos Witch + Lair and Witch + Catacombs won't be in the game.
Additional comments.
In Wingspan, there are 4 "super bird" cards (namely, Chihuahuan Raven, Common Raven, Franklin’s Gull and Killdeer). BGA has an option to remove them from the deck.
In Scythe, players are dealt an asymmetric Faction Board and an asymmetric Player Board at the beginning of the game. There are two banned combination (namely, Rusviet+Industrial and Crimea+Patriotic), because they're just too good together.
So, hopefully, it's not entirely an inconceivable thing to consider banning some starting combos in game.
