Starter Up

Wednesday saw the launch of Beta.... kinda.... some things don't work.  In many ways it's a step back from Alpha: tournaments are disabled, some AI games won't launch (or finish), and you don't have a full playset of every card in the game anymore.  While these are a pretty big deal for a game on Beta launch day, Hex fans should be used to patience by this point.  The subreddit forums already have people trying to snag late Kickstarter Rewards packages, and the mothership has been very active about when servers will be down and the features they are focusing on fixing.  Since Alpha saw tournaments and everything functioning normally, we know it's possible, but only a matter of time now.  

However it's not all gloom and doom: the premier Beta Patch actually saw some improvements from the previous patch.  One of which was the polishing of the Wheel of Fate and the Chests that come from Boosters, and the second was the application of Kickstarter rewards.

I'll begin with the Wheels of Fate and the Chests.  First: what the hell are they?  Well every booster you open contains fourteen cards: eleven common, three uncommon, and one rare/legendary.  They also come with a Chest that varies in rarity along the same lines as the cards: common, uncommon, rare, and legendary.  Normally, these chests can be opened (this is not operational yet), but you can also pay Gold, an in-game currency earned currently through playing PvP tournaments, to spin a slot machine like device called the Wheels of Fate.  This allows you to upgrade the chest you are rolling for and/or receive special rewards like alternate art cards, deck sleeves, and PvE equipment.  Now obviously some of this stuff like the PvE equipment you won't be able to use until PvE launches, but the Wheels definitely give you incentive to play the game so you can collect some awesome stuff.  

The alternate art cards are very sexy looking, and will
likely be in high demand among collectors.

The amount of Gold it takes to spin the Wheels varies based on the rarity of the Chest, which also determines what can get leveled up.  Common Chests require 1200 Gold to spin while Legendary Chests require 30,000, so grinding gold can be a daunting task, but also make your rewards that much more special.  I'd mentioned earlier that gold is only earned through PvP tournaments like Draft and Sealed, and since these tournaments require an entry fee, you need cash to grind.  This is true, but it's only a temporary measure by Cryptozoic to supply the players with an outlet to earn Gold and actually test out the Wheels of Fate.  Gold was intended to be earned without any cash investment, through the PvE content.  Since the PvE content is not currently out, and appears to not be implemented for some months yet, attaching Gold to tournaments ensures it will be flowing... once tournaments are working again, that is.  The Gold flow is probably something they should keep a close eye on to make sure the amount given out is where they want it to be.  After all, what's the point of having the Wheels if they are rarely used?  They might also want to attach minuscule gold rewards for Proving Grounds matches, possibly scaling based on game time, with a bonus for the first win(s) of the day.  I've spent more than my fair share of evening just testing out decks in the Proving Grounds, though with over one-hundred unopened boosters, I'm eagerly awaiting my chance to draft for keeps and have no qualms about paying for them either, especially with gold rewards attached.

That brings me to the Kickstarter Rewards that were given out during the beta invites.  I've heard some stories of people getting short-changed on codes or not receiving some items. My personal experience was very smooth by comparison, so I don't have anything outrageous to report.  I entered my King backer code and got a detailed list of my rewards (which you can check out at the link).  The only hiccup was I had to relog to have access to the alternate art cards.  In addition to the Primal Pack I received from the Kickstarter Rewards I received 4 additional Primal Packs with the 155 that came with my reward tier. Primal Packs are like Super Boosters: you randomly have a chance to get them when you purchase a booster, and the packs themselves contain 2 Legendary Cards, 12 Rares, and a guaranteed Legendary Chest.  I opened the Primals after five regular Boosters, and my first rare was..... drumroooooooollllllllll........

Replicator's Gambit!

A fitting pull to compliment the two alternate art versions, and one of the cards that made me want to back Hex when I first saw it on Kickstarter.  The rest of the boosters I'm setting aside until the tournaments are up, and they are patiently biding their time until they can be used for Booster Drafts and Sealed Tournaments.  Sealed requires 6 Boosters and Drafts require 3 Boosters, in addition to a 100 Platinum charge for entry.  $1.00 equal 100 Platinum, and with boosters priced at 200 Platinum, Drafts works out to be about $7 and Sealed at $15.  For a few of my friends who are just looking at Hex for the first time, I can say that the Draft format is very good for just the first set, with many different archetypes and a lot of customization and color combinations with the gem system.  You also keep any chests you open from boosters; they have no impact on the tournament, and are just sent to your stash (inventory for all non-card items) where you can open/spin on them later.  The  rare-laden Primal Packs aren't used in Draft or Sealed either, so don't worry about that skewing play at all.  One caveat is that while it is something they want to do in future, Asynchronous Sealed is not an option yet.  Booster Drafts also have a Single Elimination (8-4) and Swiss (Pack per win) tournament structure with complimenting prize payout, including scaling gold rewards.

The last thing I want to talk about is the starter decks.  Everyone who makes a Hex account gets to choose one starter deck completely free to start off their collection.  The starter decks normally cost 1000 platinum if you want multiple copies of one or want to collect multiples, though several of the reward tiers come with additional starters (I received one copy of all four for backing at the King level).  You can find full lists at the link above, but the four decks consist of:

• Orcs, a Blood-Ruby Aggro Deck
• Humans, a Diamond-Sapphire Midrange Deck
• Shin'hare, a Wild-Blood Swarm Deck
• Dwarves, a Sapphire-Ruby Artifact Deck 

If you're like me and waiting to draft but still want to play in the interim, and without the ability to trade cards or get singles through the Auction house, the starter you choose is actually a pretty important decision, since they provide you with a good skeleton of cards to form your deck around.  Even those who got one copy of every starter deck get double the rares and uncommons from the one they choose.  So which one should you choose?

As far as strategy goes, the fastest deck is probably the Orc deck, which features 2 power troops that hit the field on the first turn, and can only become more enraged down the road.  It also features two of the more powerful (and constructed playable) rares that the starters have to offer: Gore Feast of Kog'Tepetl and Te'Talca, Orc Gladiator.  Since I am at heart a Red Deck Wins player (I'm looking to trade for alternate art Ragefires) I chose the Orc deck for my Starter.  Constructed Play for me will probably be limited to Highlander, but I do want to have at least a tier two constructed deck to play, and Orcs seems like a fine choice.  I opened a Zoltog from one of my Primal Packs also, so I'm more than content with some face-smashing Orc goodness.

Don't get mad.... well okay, get mad!

The Shin'hare was a popular choice among a lot of my friends.  I mean, samurai bunnies are pretty kick-ass, right?  The problem is that a lot of the key cards for Shin'hare like Ritualist of the Spring Litter are missing, so the deck seems very clunky.  This means that while your support engine exists with cards like Moon'airu Sensei and Bucktooth Commander, you're missing a healthy cards that can outright win the game on their own, like the single copy of Onslaught that lurks within.  If you end up going the way of the rabbit, your deck will likely look much different after a few drafts, since many of the clunky cards like Gigantisaur will eventually be phased out for a more straightforward bunny army.

Humans were somewhat hindered by the loss of Living Totem from the Alpha version of the Human deck, which is an excellent card in Diamond control decks and would definitely give this deck a nod above the others for providing a competitive quality rare.  As is, the deck does have incredible late game potential if you can assemble an Inspire engine or a gigantic Hero of Adamanth, but too often your guys will be subpar to your opponent's dudes, and a bulk of your engine will be changed as you collect more cards to add to the deck: of the four archetypes, a dedicated Inspire is probably the weakest overall for constructed.  

Dwarves are in a weird place, since the deck certainly has the potential to explode into it's nutty artifact-craziness combo, but like Shin'hare is missing some of the stronger Dwarf cards: no Volcannon causes the deck to lose a lot of reach.  One of the benefits of Dwarves is that the first set is chock full of options for customization: you can craft a very swift Ruby based deck that revolves about War Machinists and speedy War Hulks, or you can play for the long game with Research Librarian to churn out card advantage, and there's a vast array of options in between!  This makes the components in the starter well suited to let you tool around with different builds after a draft or two... and Dwarves are certainly nothing to sneeze at in Booster Draft.

In the end the choice is up to you.  Look around through the deck lists for a few moments if you don't plan on unloading your last paycheck in the online store though.  I'm super excited about the Closed Beta, even considering how bug-laden the past couple days have been.  As fun as Alpha was and despite the lack of PvE, the game feels more like a TCG and an MMO with a collection-grinding aspect to it.  It's reminiscent of when I first started Magic or Pokémon, and I had to scrounge my deck together card by card, squeezing whatever strategic advantage I could gain from my meager collection.  One of the most enjoyable things I will get from drafting will be watching my actual collection grow card by card, snagging extra copies of cards I need for a deck I want to finish over one that might help my draft deck a little more.  Tinkering with the Wheels of Fate is also intriguing, and I can't wait for screenshots of people showing off the sleeves and loot that get from it, and in general the data compilation of yet-to-be-added game elements like hereto unforeseen equipment and PvE cards.

Last on the agenda: some of my friends have asked me where they can sign up for Beta.  The answer is here. 

Until next time, enjoy the Beta!

Rise of the Shin'hare

The last few patches have been interesting for Hex's flagship race of demonic samurai rabbits.  The inclusion and subsequent cost reduction to Oath of Valor made diamond shards a viable partner for Battle Hopper aspirants.  The bug fix to Bun'jitsu, the Abomination creating champion, has paved a tempting path for Blood drafters to build their own bomb, and the rarity rework to the now common Concubunny makes it even easier for the Shin'hare race to create an ever growing army of fur-ocious warriors.

Patch v829, the most recent patch, nerfed many cards prevalent in the constructed metagame like Eye of Creation and Xentoth's Inquisitor,  while offering sizable buffs to cards that have been underplayed, and perhaps that the developers thought would have a greater impact then they've had.  The Shin'hare in particular got nothing but love, with most changes targeted at strengthening the archetype in limited play, as with the aforementioned Concubunny.  Despite these changes making the troops more appealing, the Shin'hare have some deeper functional problems holding back their ability to really shine, but now seems like as good a time as any to examine the race that constantly toes the line between adorable and deplorable.

Conbunny was reassigned as common in
Patch v829, making the rabbit proliferation
engine easier to craft in limited formats.

The first problem the Shin'hare have is that they have erratic swings with regards to their overall impact on the game.  Battle Hoppers are just prolific chump blockers until a Bucktooth Commander or Command Tower turns them on.  Their numbers become important primarily in the utility they offer other cards until you reach the point in the game where you can flip the switch. Hideous Conversion, another card that got a reduced cost in v829, lets you reach that threshold much earlier if you a relying on an expensive bomb to seal the deal.  Cards like Hop'hiro and Boltpaw Wizard are both enabled by a field of Hoppers, but have a stymied impact on the game without the presence of smaller troops to fuel their abilities.  The mid-range collection has gotten better with the buffs to Eulogist, Sensei of the Golden Petal, and Blood Cauldron Ritualist, but are still quickly outclassed by other troops (though Ritualist can now at least destroy a Turreted Wall).

In draft you really have to craft your deck around these cards, but unlike with Dwarves where most of your picks are isolated to only other Dwarf drafters, many of the cards in Shin'hare are equally good outside of the archetype.  Sensei of the Golden Petal, particularly after its cost reduction, is a fine addition to the curve of any Wild Deck, and Moon'airu Sensei drawing a card is a solid tempo drop.  The Shin'hare are also much more xenophobic than the Dwarves when it comes to what they need to fuel their engine: while cards like Concubunny and Shin'hare Eulogist require it be a fellow Shin'hare to trigger their ability, the Dwarves vary as to whether or not the need artifacts or robots to help generate a particular ability, giving them a much wider pool for deck design.  Dwarves also have access to Volcannon at Uncommon as a legitimate win condition, where Shin'hare traditionally have to deal all 20 points of damage in the red zone.

Shin'hare also suffer from a crippling lack of evasion.  Wild generally relies on crush to power through damage, and while Onslaught does include this, it's both a temporary effect and rare, so you can't guarantee you'll see it in drafts, and even if you get it, you won't be guaranteed to draw it every game.  There will be times when your army just has to watch as a Thunderbird or a Spearcliff Cloud Knight mercilessly assaults your life total from on high.  Wild's typical answer to troublesome fliers is to just make something bigger to assault back with, but the Shin'hare really require the assembly of an engine to amass itself, and this engine is almost entirely reliant on other troops.  This makes our furry friends more vulnerable than most to mass removal, and their size makes it difficult for them to recover after they've been ousted once.  Extinction is bad for everyone, but Heat Wave thrives on eliminating a modest army.  Still, these are rares, so solace can be taken that you won't always run into them.  However one card that is particularly devastating to the Shin'hare is Sorrow, which can reduce your entire army to shreds on its own.  In fact, this may have been the impetus behind raising the toughness of Eulogist and Cottontail Ronin to two, so that some troops can remain from this occasional one-sided wrath.  These are two of the more aggressive Shin'hare, and now running a Sorrow into the Eulogist can be particularly deadly as he absorbs the power of his fallen friends.

So how does the rabbit army get around their shortcomings, and when and how should you draft them?  Certain rares can push you in the right direction.  Hop'hiro is a pretty strong early drop on his own, but with an army to fuel him he can be downright deadly when he reaches his final form, and is certainly worthy of a first pick since you can draft around him.  Diamond in particular has trouble with him since neither Repel and Inner Conflict fail to stop the ability.  Ritualist of the Spring Litter is also a fine first pick, and now that Concubunny is common, you can snag them up in multiples to grow the litter early and often.  Uzume is fantastic also, but doesn't necessarily restrict you to draft Shin'hare, since she's independently strong from her subjects.

If your opponent can't answer Eulogist
he will eventually grow to gigantic proportions

Shin'hare decks are generally best build Wild-Blood to take advantage of every Shin'hare, but Wild has the main Battle Hopper proliferation engine, and the deck can survive without Blood shards.  An alternate strategy is getting a Battle Hoppers engine with some utility and a decent mass pump action: I've seen a couple Sapphire-Wild Shin'hare decks that just clog the ground and beat with flying troops, or use Monkey of the Nine Tales to transform an errant hopper into a more menacing mammal.  If you're on the hunt for mass pump actions, Evolve is probably the most sub-par of the bunch, since it only affects troops currently in play and will rarely create enough pressure to end the game on its own.  Command Tower has more staying power, but doesn't give the boost to toughness to survive the common snipers like Bombsmith and Sorrow.  Bucktooth Commander is great since he has a body himself, but is also a huge target for removal.  Oath of Valor is solid if you can generate a lot of Hoppers, but forces you to go Diamond, so you generally need to establish this strategy in pack one.  Gore Feast is equally nice, and Ruby can offer a decent complement of removal and reach with burn actions to punch through that last bit of damage.  If you are the only Shin'hare drafter, you may be able to snag Burn and Mortar Strike early and scoop the straggling bunnies when they table.  Onslaught is probably the best finisher for you since it usually wins the game outright if your army is sizable enough, but it should be noted that this all-in strategy with Gore Feast and Onslaught can be countered by cards like Blinding Light, though with Gore Feast your hoppers will keep their rage.  Even though the ones mentioned earlier aren't nearly as powerful, you generally want to have a few of these pump actions since an ill-timed Inquisition, or just a poor randomization could leave you high and dry, and with a bunch of near-useless zero-power troops.

What about Champions?  It's difficult to predict every shard combination Shin'hare can go, since Wild-Anything is truly viable.  The three Shin'hare champions are Kishimoto, Bun'jitsu, and Monika'shin.  Kishimoto is pretty bad in draft since the utility of pump effects generally comes from their ability to be played as combat tricks.  A temporary boost of +2/+2 at basic action speed is only sub-par, and works best on troops that have some sort of evasion, like flying.  Maybe once in a handful of games the pump will actually be relevant, but since it can't be used re-actively it loses a lot of utility.  She would probably be a relevant option if instead or the clunky +2/+2 she created a copy of Wild Growth and put it into your hand, allowing you to play it when it is most advantageous, though the information could give your opponent room to play around it.

A great addition to an already strong engine,
Monika'shin can... wait... that poor shroomkin!!!

Between the other two it's kind of a toss-up. Monika'shin is a great addition if you already have a strong engine.  You will probably get a least two extra Battle Hoppers throughout the course of the game from her, and more if you snag Spring Litter.  If you have expensive bombs in your deck, those Hoppers are essential to helping you stall the game until you can play them, however unlike Bertram's Worker Bots assembling Construction Plans and threatening one-toughness groundlings with those cold, metallic eyes, your Battle Hoppers aren't exactly prodigious workers.  But what they lack in work ethic the Shin'hare make up for in heart, and there's another champion who can put those hearts, and any other left over organs, to good use. 

I haven't really looked at Bun'jitsu before his bug fix, but he's a very solid champion even outside of Shin'hare decks.  The ability causes you to sacrifice two troops and merge their combined power and toughness with a base 3/3 Abomination (so sacrificing two 1/2 Shin'hare Militia would make a 5/7 Abomination).  The Abomination itself suffers from the same frustrating lack of evasion and weakness to spot removal like Murder and Inner Conflict, but this giant monster can swing games in your favor on its own, especially if paired with Blood Aura, giving it another +1/+1 power boost and Lifedrain.  I had a painful experience in the last round of a draft with someone who did this in the finals with a Darkspire Priestess and Enforcer, making an 8/6 Abomination that grew to a 9/7 Lifedraining monstrosity the following turn!  You can also trigger the Abomination ability in the second main phase to make pump actions twice as effective, giving one of your Battle Hoppers a Wild Growth or another pump effect during the combat phase, and then transferring that bonus permanently onto the Abomination.  It's not exactly great card advantage in theory, but sometimes a gigantic troop will just win you the game.

That about wraps up my thoughts on the Shin'hare.  My friends are eager to play with them in PvE, and between their backstory and relation to the shroomkin (seriously, what is Monika'shin doing to that poor little guy) I'm also eager to see what sort of PvE content is themed around them.  Until then hopefully the long-ears will serve you well in your next booster draft or sealed deck.  Depending on whether we see Patch v830 this week, I might try to assemble that Tetzot deck for Highlander again.  Otherwise I might just pick another race and to a draft strategy around them.  If you have a preference, let me know.

Until then: Eat a rabbit. Save a shroomkin.

Edited: This article mistakenly noted that Bun'jitsu sacrificed troops instead of exiling them, triggering effects like Darkspire Priestess.

Redefining Development

Before I begin I want to say that this article started out with me just wanting to give some context about the Patch v829 changes, but slowly became a meta-theory article about patch changes with regards to card design and development.  I didn't want to just scrap the whole thing, and I think it's an important conversation.  Hex is trying to bridge two mediums (MMO & TCG) that have never been crossed, and when those two mediums clash in their approach to solving a problem, I think it's worth it as players to take a deeper look into the dynamic between the two.  As such, this article is less zany highlander fun and more of my personal thoughts on power re-adjustment and the scope of development.  

One of the advantages to digital games is the ability to change an element of the game after it is released.  Games like League of Legends release patches that constantly buff or nerf champions or items to address balance issues and keep the game fresh, but also for the development team to exercise a level of control over the metagame.  This is something that printed games have problems doing.  Even a highly rated board game like Agricola contains Occupations and Minor Improvements that one of my friends refuses to play with, since he feels it creates too much imbalance to the game.  For casual games with friends around a coffee table (or for Hex, I guess a LAN), there is generally some agreement about what should and shouldn't be allowed in your games.  For competitive play however, there are two ways for them to deal with problem cards: Errata, or Banning/Restricting their use outright.

Cryptozoic seems to have enough faith in their design and development team that they do not plan to retroactively change cards once they are printed, and that in the off-chance of an overly problematic card creating imbalance in the format, they'll stick to the traditional CCG roots and simply ban it for the abused format(s).  This is an admirable goal, and the impetus behind it seems to be about creating faith that the product will function exactly the same every time you play it.  Many times in League, a few weeks after a new champion is out it is deemed to overpowered and subsequent nerfs will impact its play in game.  This isn't too egregious when you're only spending a few bucks on a champion, but if the central card of an entire archetype gets nerfed to the ground, you may have to invest not just in another card of comparable value, but its support system, the rest of the deck.  A company of more dubious intent could purposefully rotate the viable archetypes through these bans and nerfs to the point where a single player would eventually have to own four copies of every card in the set to remain competitive at every shift in the metagame.  This isn't saying that Cryptozoic doesn't want control over the metagame, but that this control will be enacted speculatively and through development and design.

However there are a few potential snags with this that I don't feel have been addressed much in the community.  One has to deal with potential rules changes and errata.  As the game becomes more complex, older rules may need to be reworded out of necessity.  In MTG's long life span this has been done several times in varying degrees.  What's interesting is that these rules changes can ban or nerf a card without actively changing the text on it.  One example was the elimination of mana burn in MTG (a mechanic not present in Hex).  In Mirrodin Block constructed one of the cards that saw play in the Big Red decks was called Pulse of the Forge.  Pulse dealt 4 damage to a player, and returned to your hand if they still had more life than you.  Savvy players would intentionally burn themselves down to low life totals against decks that didn't have direct damage, generate a lot of mana through Seething Songs and use Pulse of the Forge to finish their opponent off.  Using the rules in this way was a viable strategy.  When Mana Burn was eliminated, it also eliminated a very narrow window of utility that made Pulse of the Forge powerful.  While the card was never game breaking in any format, least of all one crawling with egregiously broken cards like Skullclamp and Arcbound Ravager, I think this example illustrates how even by not changing individual cards they can still be the subject of very targeted bans and nerfs through rules changes.

All right bunny army, into the swirly vortex thingy!

I think this example is also present with how MTG has become a grounding for how people evaluate cards.  Crush not going through a Bird O Plenty or Flock of Seagulls was always how the rule was intended to work for Hex according to the developers, but it was perceived as a change from MTG rulings, albeit minor, that did have an impact on people evaluate these two cards.  If Cryptozoic implemented priority for certain effects into the game, it would also be a buff to those cards as well, without ever changing their wording.  As of right now I run a deck with Prime Ruby Gem of Intensity (the discard hand, then draw 3) and Cerulean Mirror Knight.  If one of my troops that was inspired by the Knight dies during the same combat as the Eldritch Dreamer deals damage, who is socketed with the Prime Ruby Gem, I will draw the card from the fallen troop, but immediately have to discard it from the Gem trigger.  If priority rules were changed so that Quick Actions could be played before the Ruby Gem resolved, or that you could stack the abilities in such a way that you discard your hand before you draw the extra card from the slain troop, this would be a utility buff to the both the Gem and the Knight, but importantly it would be a buff that doesn't change the wording of the card of the intent of its design, but nevertheless impacts the functionality of the card.

Now what the hell does "intent of design" mean?  Intent means the implied function of the card as it was designed, that occasionally becomes obfuscated through other internal factors.  Take Cosmic Transmorgifier, which I discussed a bit about last week.  Now the intent of design around this card is that it transforms your troops into something completely random, but what happens through the coding currently is that instead of being truly random it tends to gravitate towards the card's resource cost when determining what it transforms into: my 7-cost Echoes of Lodegan have a much better chance of becoming Malice Demons than your Battle Hoppers.  Now imagine this problem wasn't addressed until some time down the road after it is officially released (it's not exactly pressing, all things considered).  If they change the way the randomization works for this card so it's truly random, that the above scenario of favoring my Echoes is no longer applicable.  It seems that despite not changing how the card reads, they've nonetheless changed how it functions in game.  How is this then not a buff to your Sapphire-Wild Shin'hare Transmorgifier deck?  Truthfully it is a straight buff to the deck, but this is a situation where Cryptozoic can say that the specific change wasn't made from a balance standpoint, from from an "intent of design" standpoint, where a cursory reading of Cosmic Transmorgifier in no way implies favoritism to one or the other; it was always the intent of the card to transform everything into something completely random (or as random as the coding allows).

So what does any of this mean?  In short, it means that even though Cryptozoic will maintain the integrity of what is printed on a card with regards to its wording, there can still be functional changes applied to any of the cards via changes to the overall rules.  Now I should point out that this is not a criticism of Cryptozoic, but rather an explanation of how power fluctuates in CCGs on a grander scheme: they obviously know that any rules changes will have a snowball effect on multiple cards in the game, and in turn the metagame, and in turn the secondary market.  When people think about straight buffs and nerfs, or power re-adjustments, they typically think along the lines of the Patch v829 Development Highlights which were released last Friday.  As I understand it, once a card is available for purchase, changes like "Xentoth's Inquisitor's cost is increased from 3 to 4," and "Dream Dance's cost is reduced from 3 to 2" will not be avenues they take for balancing.  Rather, balancing will take place entirely within design and development for future sets.  If there is a problematic archetype, an answer will be added into the next set: the MTG example of this might be Kataki or Obstinate Baloth, or any sort of hate cards in general that is introduced into a format to specifically counter an existing strategy, usually gaining a dedicated slot in Reserves lists.

But this raises an interesting question: if there are avenues (and there must be) for Cryptozoic to work within design and development to exert control on the metagame, then they are still capable through design and development of out-and-out adjusting the secondary market value of card via this control (if they wanted to, and I doubt they would).  If anything, the potential value of your cards shouldn't factor into your feelings about whether or not you would want Cryptozoic to apply straight buffs or nerfs to cards.  Most of the resistance to this seems to be the idea that there will be degenerate formats available, where the craziest, most degenerate decks can be played, and where a card that is out-and-out banned in every other format could still be used to sow frustration against the unsuspecting.  This may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black (or the Cosmic Transmorgifier calling the Tinker degenerate), but I feel this is an equally a poor excuse, since the digital medium also 

C'mon, he just has that Bard feel man.

Personally, I think Cryptozoic should reserve the right to make some sort of changes to a card after it is released, specifically when it is done from a design standpoint.  If Cryptozoic decided a few years down the road they want Bard to be a class (and I would love them for eternity if they did), someone might look at Puck Dream Bringer and determine that he really feels more like a Bard from a design standpoint.  Now this may hurt Puck if being a Cleric was actually important for a couple cards, but it's the sort of change I think is defensible, specifically because these sorts of changes are usually instigated by the need for more design space: perhaps a class-themed set where readjusting the classes of existing troops allows them to create a metagame beyond what solely what is in the set.  So in order to make the "Bard Deck" viable beyond just the new set, they change some older cards that already seem to fit the bill to give the player more options. 

This approach is vastly different than retroactively balancing the game through changes though, but even in this stance I feel they could allow themselves more leeway.  One of the constrictions of a paper CCG is that you have to wait for a new set to correct problems with the metagame.  While stagnant metagames are forgiving of this approach, volatile metagames can actually drive players away from a game: many people I know quit MTG (some temporary, others permanently) during Mirrodin's reign in Standard from the sheer degeneracy of Affinity, which is what initially drove them to ban a multitude of cards late in the Standard format in early 2005.  I use this example because I feel it conveys a danger inherent to CCGs, where banning the cards necessary to correct the format had nasty side-effects on more innocent archetypes, where players were no longer able to pitch lands to Thirst for Knowledge, or Shrapnel Blast a Great Furnace in a Big Red deck.  Now this isn't to say that I think Cryptozoic's R&D team is going to botch as big as Affinity did, but this is a case study in how volatile banning cards can be.  If the format could have been solved by slight buffs or nerfs to cards as opposed to banning eight of them, I think that would have been a better option.

In the end I feel the faith that Cryptozoic wants to cultivate will show itself outside of absolute statements about whether to break out the nerf bat once every blue moon (certainly not to the extent we've seen in Alpha).  I also don't want to come across as if I think banning or restricting cards is a bad option, since it will likely be the most effective tool for solving a volatile metagame problem, but rather that by keeping the option open they have more options open to them in extraordinary circumstances.