Introduction

The meta-game in LoN, as it stands, is all about stocking your deck with clutch cards that will prove useful against any opponent’s deck. The problem with this is that as more cards are added to the card base, more meta-game cards will rise to the surface, and with more meta-game cards considered to be a necessity to remain competitive, decks will homogenize, and start to all look the same. Magic: the Gathering had to work around this by limiting tournaments to the current arc, just as Oathbound through Oathbreaker is one arc, and Ethernauts begins a new arc. There are numerous cards that players overlook because they would rather have the Flowing Black Silk Sash and Journeyman's Boots in their deck, for example. Below, I list 3 primary cards that I would love to see as meta-game cards to foil other meta-game cards, ultimately leading to a regression to using combos or intricate deck structure as a means to make a deck viable against any other deck. To wit, this would put the thinking back into Legends of Norrath.

Are these proposed cards overpowered? I am not sure, and I encourage discussion, suggestions of alternatives, and/or debate on what I have offered.

The Cards

Wand of Nullification: Item, 3 Mana, Neutral Faction, Primary Slot
Card Text: Whenever one of your abilities or items is about to be destroyed, destroy this item instead.

Reasoning: Almost everyone plays with multiple Sunders and multiple Disables in their deck. Why? Because they’re so useful in taking key elements out of your opponent’s deck. To me, that’s taking the thinking out of the game. That’s not to say it isn’t a wise move, but if every player can have universal cards that can halt certain decks, those decks need to have a means to defend themselves.

3 Mana will slow down a quester who opts to put this out, AND it takes up the valuable Primary slot with no stats to add. This doesn’t stop your opponent from exerting one of your abilities, which would encourage that approach. Obviously, since it is in the Primary slot, the player who uses this Wand would not be able to put out multiples. In my opinion, this would avert the situation where the quester or player who relies on key items gets shafted while the player with Disables or Sunders in his deck goes about his merry way, letting his deck unfold as it should. The best matches I’ve played have been matches where I had to adjust to my opponent’s strategy and attempt to win utilizing my cards in a fashion to work around the focus of my opponent’s deck. Conversely, the worst games I’ve played are against decks that simply try to shut down the opponent completely and do what they are intended to do, whether that’s quest rockets, AvA decks, or horde decks. A deck that does not interact with my deck doesn’t interest me. Anyone can play a Sunder or Disable. It requires no critical thinking, no looking at your hand and determining what order to play things… you simply play the card and destroy one of your opponent’s cards. There are no decisions to make aside from what to destroy.

The Wand of Nullification would even the playing field, protecting the player who relies on some critical abilities or items, and at the same time, slowing them down with the cost to summon and limiting them by consuming their Primary slot. Still, I understand that questers can be nigh unstoppable, and allowing them to shield their abilities would lead to quest decks being less interactive than before. Get your Wand out and start playing abilities as quickly as possible. This leads me to my next card.

Blockade: Tactic, 2 Mana, Neutral Faction
Card Text: (Defense) If you win this combat, the opposing player may not apply an ability to this quest.

Reasoning: It has never made sense to me that when you are questing, you can place your ability at the quest you attempt—win, lose or draw. If you have enough ways to heal yourself, you can largely ignore your opponent and go about the business of placing quests as you see fit. Similar to the above situation of players who use all-purpose cards that don’t fit the thrust of their deck, the quester who ignores his opponent and just drops Abilities as fast as possible turns LoN into a solo game. There is still a degree of competition, but each deck is trying to accomplish their own thing and racing to the finish instead of acting and reacting to their opponent’s deck. Again, the interaction stops. Blockade forces the quester to acknowledge and deal with his or her opponent’s deck, rather than just plow through. A cost of 2 mana is expensive enough that opponents of the questing deck can’t sit back and stop every single quest attempt without their own deck slowing down. Of course, some questers do acknowledge the opponent’s units with cursory "speed bump" units tossed out to stop the advancing legion, which makes as little sense to me as placing an ability at a quest that you failed. That leads me to my next card:

Stampede: Tactic, 2 mana, Neutral Faction
Card Text: (Attack) Any additional damage that remains after all defending units have been destroyed is applied to that avatar.

Reasoning: This is similar to Magic: the Gathering’s Trample ability. It just doesn’t make sense that a lowly Oathbound Herald would be able to stop a force composed of Lord Nagafen, Lady Vox, Lanys T'Vyl, and Dain Frostreaver by itself, possibly up to 3 turns. If a player is able to bring substantial forces to the battlefield, having one lone defender doesn’t make sense to stop all the units bearing down on it, unless that defender is exceptionally powerful. All too often, a player drops a defender at a quest and halts a formidable army. Forcing players to respect a massive army makes more sense. As a tactic, this wouldn’t be overpowering. If further limitations are required, this could always be made into an Ability or an Item, so that the defender KNOWS that they need to stop the incoming horde.

In my opinion, these 3 cards would alleviate a lot of situations where a player’s deck is designed to move forward regardless of the opponent’s actions. They will force players to interact and to use the cards they have chosen for the theme of their deck to deal with the other player, rather than use universal cards or strategies, regardless of the other player’s cards and actions. In other words, this will inject more thinking into the game, and that’s what I love about LoN most.

Additional Fun Cards

Here are some other cards that I would like to see, but I do not imagine them having a big impact on gameplay.

Abscond: Scout Ability, Stealth, 3 Mana, 1 Defense, 1 Level, Neutral Faction
Card Text: When you play this ability at a quest, take control of one of your opponent’s items. At the end of your turn, return that item to your opponent’s control.

How fun and amusing would this be? Not only do you have a way to temporarily cripple your opponent’s theme, if they rely heavily on one item (e.g. Boots of the Storm), but you can use it against them. Since it is only for one turn, it is not permanent and game-breaking, and since it is an Ability, it is not an unfair blind-siding. Your opponent will see it coming, so he might have to tap that Bloodwine Cask early.

Night and Day: Tactic, 1 Mana, Neutral Faction
Card Text: (Attack/Defense) Until the end of the turn, all shadow creatures and avatars become light, and all light creatures and avatars become shadow.

It’s high time we had some more love for the Neutral deck. I can’t think of too many scenarios where this would be unbalancing (no pun intended), but there aren’t many penalties for the player who opts for Light or Shadow. It would be interesting to see how this would play out.

Bipolar: Mage Tactic, 0 Mana, Neutral Faction
Card Text: (Attack/Defense) Until end of turn, remove Guardian from target unit and swap the values of target unit’s defense and attack.

Somewhat similar to Night and Day above, this card would have numerous interesting applications. This card requires some thought on how to best use it, since it can alter your own units, or your opponent’s. As evidenced by my 3 cards at the top, I am an advocate of developing scenarios that require thought. But there’s something to be said for taking out your opponent with a Guardian unit.

Metamorphosis: Generic Ability, 1 Mana, 2 Level, 2 Defense
Card Text: When you play this ability, choose an opposing unit. That unit is destroyed, and the player who controls that unit selects a unit from his deck and plays it to the same quest for no cost. Destroy this Ability when there are no opposing units in play.

A card loaded with pros and cons. Destroy a creature for 1 mana AND get a Level 2 Ability on the playfield? That’s strong. But you know that the creature you destroyed is almost assuredly going to be replaced by something bigger and tougher. The self-destruct aspect of the Ability assures that players don’t play it for a super-cheap Level 2 Ability with nothing else on the board.

Infiltrate the Thieves’ Guild: Level 5 Quest, Shadow Faction
Card Text: All Tactics and Hidden Abilities, and Hidden Items cost 1 less mana to play.

There are some interesting tactics and hidden cards that no one plays because it’s so difficult to hold back 2 or 3 mana at the end of each turn. This would encourage those expensive cards to show their face.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the ideas I’ve had since I started playing LoN. They’re not perfect or especially viable, but they’re also not game-breaking. At least, not by themselves, it’s always possible someone could come up with a card combo that could make one of these cards into some sort of beast. But I display them here mainly to generate thought and discussion. LoN is showing the promise of an exceptional CCG, and there are so many avenues to explore, just within the mechanics they have laid out already. As the developers introduce new concepts, keywords, and cards, the possibilities expand exponentionally, and I don’t want to see the meta-game narrow as the options expand. I hope my ideas here have at least amused you, or given you food for thought. Feel free to discuss the suggestions seen here.