I've noticed how introducing new original spellbook strategies can sometimes cause the global metagame to dramatically shift in the same way that introducing new cards does. And considering the sheer amount of customization available even in a core set-only metagame, new spellbook strategies have the potential to continue being invented for a particular card pool for many months if not years. Or at least it seems like it probably would be if people remained interested in the game in the stretch of time between expansions.
So hypothetically speaking, could there be an alternate Everett branch where all of the cards in each set are the same, and where the order in which sets were released is the same, and yet where some different spellbook strategies were invented, or where some of the strategies we're already familiar with were invented at different times, causing a butterfly effect that resulted in their current metagame being wildly different from ours?
I suspect the answer is theoretically yes, up to a point. Metagame might sometimes influence the release order of sets, as well as what cards are included in each one.
But as for the question of whether or not there is more than one logically possible path for a Mage Wars Arena metagame to develop given a particular card pool, I suspect the answer is that there is. But I'm not really sure. It's hard to imagine something as complex as an alternate universe Arena metagame.
Thoughts?
(Wasn't sure where to put this.)
