Shad0w told us that promo cards serve as beta testing to obtain player feedback.
I explained feedback would be limited without a list of cards for everyone to discuss.
Someone kindly posted this link (with images) below.
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/992092/current-promo-listPower CreepI personally believe that to keep players interested, a slow LCG like MW ideally needs to bring out new mechanics hence new competitive strategies. But there must also be a small amount of power creep to keep established mage builds happy. The trick is to keep this power creep as small as possible to prolong the obsolescence date of the oldest cards whilst giving us a tiny dose of power gaming. I've been pretty happy with AW because their expansions so far have brought in new innovative strategies. Some cards are currently never played competitively but the meta can always change to incorporate them (e.g. more Incorporeal creatures/conjurations appearing in competitive meta for Divine Might to be added to enchantment toolbox like Falcon Precision). In an ideal world, you would want every card to be costed just right but this never happens in practice hence the same (slightly under-costed) cards appear in competitive books. The fact I'm more concerned about wasting future release space with under-powered cards than overpowered cards is a tribute to the patient design team. So well done AW.
I also appreciate that promo cards are some of the "sexiest" cards being tested. It appears only Galador has been released so far and it is a sexy card, addressing flyers, metal armour guards and guards with no intercept. But it is not overpowered.
It is also hard to feedback on cards in isolation without knowing the context of the other cards in the set. Falcon Precision and Iron Golem being in the same set as FM is an obvious example. In the same way, the next set may introduce a solution to Iron Golems and kill zones (e.g. "reveal to teleport 1"). Even if a mistake is made, it can be corrected in the next expansion,
With the above caveats, after analysing the new card images, below is my initial feedback. I am sure players far better than me have far better points to make and I hope they will share them here. So, in order of images in the link...
Healing Wand - alternative to Purify. cheap and versatile but very action-intensive, why release Dispel Wand instead of this?
Sersiryx, Imp Familiar - action-burst abuse with Enchantment Transfusion after safely casting curses on self; suggest "level 1-2 curse enchantments on enemy objects"; checking what was cast was legal is also an issue; otherwise it's cool to see warlock curses get more love, making warlock more control.
Asyran Defender - cost gap in Holy creatures filled, Guardian Angel is so good though so used more as a cheap resilient guard remover, would making him a cleric be too good?
Stumble - love it (user-timed unlike Jinx) but we then need more mobility beyond Teleport and Force Push
Summoning Circle - bluffs a zone trap, ambush in slow creatures, range 2 unlike garrison = 6 teleport cost
Sandstorm - a range 2 fast zonal attack to primarily disrupt position/attacks, great against zonal control
Elfric's Life Ring - overcosted rubbish, please never waste space by printing this
Meditation Amulet - why this over Moonglow? Equipment has to be good competing in this slot. This is the card to make spawn points more competitive. The game values temporary denial of a fast action spell at 3 (Jinx). A 4-cost amulet that trades a full action for 4 mana may be considered in some spawn point builds (and solo FM). It's a full action burst not no-action persistent so needs a greater benefit.
Hurl Rock - fine cost-effect (avoidable unlike Arc / Flameblast) but a bit dull, still it fills an earth attack gap
Akiro's Favour - ridiculously good and under-costed, needs "friendly creature" target if designed as a boon only else too versatile, fine at that cost (without Magebind) as a "may reveal to re-roll and discard" (so as timed bad luck mitigation) to make the game more skillful
Ballista - open to abuse with multiple sequential attacks without reply action, needs Unique (unrealistic, multiples needed for zonal control) or rule change to only allow 1 ready marker use before or after each action (the better solution as this removes HoB errata which then brings ToL back as a competitive option).
Bloodcrag Minotaur - fine for some future Charge-based build (e.g. "soldiers gain Fast and Elusive")
Critical Strike - fine command enchantment that obsoletes Piercing Strike (most existing commands poor)
Gravikor - I finally view it and it's definitely great in some books but does not seem overpowered, just wary of making Iron Golems better in the current meta...
Hurl Meteorite - more Earth love with their Thunderbolt, very good with Wizard's Tower spell-switching utility
Lion Savagery - fine, with Minotaur it hints at a future Charge-based strategy (so Force Wave better etc)
Morning Star - fine but is it too much nerfing of Defence/Block/Reverse Attack with too much unavoidable?
Vorpal Blade - fine vanilla aggro, equal cost to versatile Mage Staff, will be popular but not overpowered
Temple High Guard - wow, very good but may be what Holy needs (so best guards with Guardian Angel), makes slam attacks even more tactical which is good
Altar of Peace - missing control piece (split among 4 schools), mana denial boost, Epic so not overpowered
Mordok's Tome - a cool card, suspect it flatters to deceive but nice flexibility, arcane mage only is in theme
Oscuda - more interesting than Dire Wolf, more armour hate (zonal critical), more Golem love (poison), reminds me that I suspect Screeching Harpy missed zonal and Psychic Immunity to make it competitive
Clear Mind - psychic Purify, niche meta-dependent, a lot of unnecessary FM hate in these promo cards
Spiked Buckler - seems very good but probably not overpowered with Morning Star in the same set
Altar of the Iron Guard - ok, this is poor design, it is far too cheap for a global effect and Legendary so the player going first gets a huge advantage. For that cost, you should delete "which you control, you may" to make it a benefit for both players. Global effect conjurations benefit both players ("just that I have more animals than you"). As a benefit for both players, one players who builds around it (Guardian Angel, Temple High Guard) will still gain more.
Debilitate - why this over Agony? Does not work with Charge. Maybe 1 copy for an enemy aggro mage? Please don't print this. Why not "this creature's attacks lose all keywords"? Now that would be a cool curse.
Holy Strike - why? It's not even a command. Divine Might may be played in an Incorporeal meta but this?
Plagued - a very interesting curse but more Iron Golem synergy, nice soft control to separate creatures
So my first impressions are, based on their current text, a few seem too strong (Altar of the Iron Guard, Akiro's Favour, Ballista, Sersyrix), a few seem too weak (Life Ring, Meditation Amulet, Debilitate, Holy Strike). But most of the promo cards seem fine, even taken out of context of their future card pool.
I think the important thing is for AW to ensure there is a vibrant competitive scene hence promoting the various strategies and mages so they are roughly equal in competitive viability. So if Holy zonal control needs a boost, maybe Temple High Guard is brought out early etc.
The most important thing is balance between mages and strategies. We know the current meta is now more balanced than the game's early aggro dominance (esp. Warlock). But there may be mages (Warlord? Priestess?) that need a bit of a boost to join the others. As well as weaker strategies (mana denial? Get that Altar of Peace released fast!). I've got no issues with standout cards that address imbalance (Beastmaster needed Galador). There will always be good cards and bad cards (varies by strategy and mage access). However, a more even power-level distribution among new cards would be best to widen the choice pool when players strategise.
Overall, having finally seen the promo cards, apart from a few, they are not something I'd worry playing against (half the battle is knowing they exist and anticipating their play). So I feel far less handicapped not having them. Keeping them shrouded in mystery only promotes resentment. My misgivings proved unfounded so well done to AW; they are mostly pitched at a nice level (with a few mis-steps).
Has anyone else spotted any potential abuse / broken uses for these cards with our current pool?
