The current restricted system does not work!
Michael: Hi! Michael here. Today I will be discussing the restricted list and why the current system should probably change. We can all agree that that the game right now is in great shape! Some things can definitely use some changing, including Realmstone Raiders and Hexbane’s Hunters, but you can’t publish an Errata without releasing a FaR list, right? Might as well make the list better in the process!
I want to preface the article by saying I intend 0 spite/hate/negative energies towards anyone in particular when writing this article. I just want to bring attention to some way that I believe this game could be improved in 🙂
With that, let’s get started on some epic philosophical discussions!
WHY THE CURRENT SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK
Let me ask you a question that should answer the section header. Bladecatcher, or Spread Havoc? How about Illusory Fighter or Spread Havoc? What about Mobbed or Delving for Wealth or Claim the Prize? That’s actually a really bad example for my point but you get the idea – most of the times, decks will have an ‘obvious’ restricted card someone will take. If you want more talk about this I heard Spent Glory has a pretty good article on it too!
Exhibit A) Spread Havoc. A card that literally reads ‘get 2 glory in 99% of cases. If you fail, get 1 glory’. Quite powerful! However, this card is also kind of Cataclysm’s claim to fame. Cataclysm is known as the powerful ‘flex’ deck which you can throw onto any pairing and it will stick very nicely. This means you can’t really ban the card otherwise Countdown becomes Blazing Assault: Round 3 Edition (because the power cards are insanely powerful but only in late game 🙂 ).
A similar situation happened to Reckless Fury. It was the ‘charge manipulation’ deck which got absolutely NUKED by 4 bans (now 3). While the bans are not harsh and justified, the deck’s identity completely changed from a manipulation deck to a simple ‘ABC’ (always be charging) deck. In fact, post-ban Reckless Fury was considered one of the ‘weaker’ decks! Crazy to think that it won Worlds again, despite the bans, but that’s a story for another day.
The problem with the current restricted system is most decks have an auto-take card which kind of creates a pseudo ban list. Like Claim the Prize for example – Delving for Wealth is preferred in 95% of cases. Arguably even 98%. So Claim the Prize is basically ‘banned’ even though it’s nowhere near the power level of stuff like Fury of Aqshy.
SOLUTION A) THE 3R SYSTEM
So back in the day, we had this epic format called Championship. It also had a restricted list system which inspired the current one we have with one big difference – you were allowed to take up to THREE restricted cards.
“But how do we implement it? Each deck pairing only has 2 restricted cards to pick from (except PnP)!” Ok so obviously some changes to the restricted list should be made. We can restrict a lot more cards. For example, a card like Low on Options – literally an auto score card, similar to Spread Havoc, but if it’s restricted in the current system it will literally never be picked because it’s so finicky to play with. In a world where you can take 3 R’s, Low on Options can now be rightfully restricted AND still playable!
Another example can be seen in Gloryseeker. Not much need to restrict it now, but hitting it in a 3R world will limit warbands who play BA PnP and stack every Grievous source – they will now have to decide between three grievous or to play actually reliable objectives!
The 3R system also takes the burden off of Spread Havoc. Let’s look at another very strong two glory end phase, Broken Prospects. Restricting the card today will literally snipe PnP CtC, and the similar fate applies to every other two glory end phase – Spread Havoc beats them every single time when you can only take 1 (we will temporarily ignore that that may be due to a card design issue). However, in a 3R system, Broken Prospects can, will, and should be restricted – it’s super powerful for a massive reward in an already strong deck, but you will still be able to play it at the cost of some other things like good power cards (for example)!
The 3R system creates a lot more creativity and player expression opportunities. For example, back in the Championship format I was on about earlier, there were a lot of restricted ping cards. So being myself, I obviously built a deck and put all three of my R Slots into pings (I still have it somewhere!). My entire deck revolved around killing stuff and I was able to play a playstyle that was very personalized! On the other hand we had decks like Danielle’s from Italy where he focused only on holding, so he put his R slots into a completely different department, that being passive glory. Both Danielle’s deck and my own were on a similar power level yet they were also quite personalized to how each of us liked to play (I don’t know if Danielle is still a hold enjoyer but personally I am still a ping fanatic).
some epic last edition 9.5 ping action
If you aren’t sold yet, the 3R avenue also creates more room for skill expression. Right now, when playing against an ES CtC opponent and you see Spread Havoc come out you instantly know you don’t need to prepare for Supremacy. If we had 3R slots, players have the opportunity to be able to conceal their other restricted cards, which allows for some more skill with denial/positioning.
However, we cannot only focus on the good – we also have to acknowledge some negatives.
One of the biggest arguments against the 3R system is bookkeeping. It’s much harder to keep track of 18 restricted cards than the current 7 cards. While it isn’t impossible, it’s much harder for sure. During the championship era it was doable and people could remember and keep track of those three cards which makes it not impossible.
Next, the barrier for entry will become a little larger. Currently, if a new player builds a deck, most of the time you can simply tell them – “Oh, you cannot have both Spread Havoc and Supremacy in that deck.” followed up by a quick explanation. With a 3R system, this ‘quick explanation’ will be longer which could hinder some players from picking Nemesis.
Finally, tournament organizers will have a lot more strain on them during tournaments. At the moment it is SUPER easy to spot if someone is running more than one restricted card. And while cheating has never been a problem in this great community, it is much easier to accidentally slot an illegal deck by putting in four restricted cards in a 3R system. Especially with a lot of TO’s shifting to only submitting deck pairings instead of lists!
With that, I hope I brought a decent argument for the 3 R system. Now let’s look at a HYPOTHETICAL 3R list:
So first glance it seems very scary cause there’s like infinity cards on here… but remember you can only take two decks at a time so in reality you are facing around 5-7R cards per deck pairing. Yes, BA/PnP does have 10 R cards. This list is not perfect.
The general idea is I hit most 2 Glory end phases that are ‘autoscore’, as well as Strip the Realm in order to make it a little easier to predict.
Surges see us also hit autoscores, notably Claim the Prize is OFF the list and was replaced with Share the Load because I felt Share the Load was a little easy.
Ploys see us hit a lot of feels bad cards and ‘gotcha’ stuff like Manipulated Fate and Out of Nowhere. Cards that shut down an activation are also usually restricted. Notably, Confusion is hit, but only the ES version – ideally, the 3R system will differentiate different copies of cards.
In the upgrades, eyes may be raised at Brawler, which is hit because like Bladecatcher can ‘shut down certain warbands’ so can Brawler. Upgrades cards don’t really have a common trend but I tried hitting most problematic cards. Decks that were too aggro but had defense tech had the defense tech hit, and vice versa. Battering Ram and Titan of Combat are both too strong cards that are probably restriction worthy too.
Keep in mind, this is just a concept – but it does seem like a decent starting point!
Ben: As I heard that Michael is writing this article, I also decided to try to make a list for the 3R systems. I also think that this could be a good idea for the same reasons as Michael, but to not repeat everything, let’s look at my version of the 3R list:
If you thought that Michael had a lot of cards in his list, you’re out of luck as I actually included 2 more cards than him. Once again, this looks like more than they actually are, as most decks will only have 7 to choose from while the maximum for any pairing is 9 and the minimum is 4.
I tried to hit 2-4 cards from every deck depending on it’s current power level, except Reckless Fury, where 5 cards are restricted (and you might see why). So a deck like Hunting Grounds only has 2 restricted’s while Pillage and Plunder has 4.
The surges hit are all surges where your opponent can’t do much to prevent them from being scored and are pretty easy to score. You might notice that three PnP surges are on here, which is because I think that PnPs surges are some of the best in the game and a big reason why the deck is as powerful as it is.
The end phases are mostly the most consistant, high scoring card in the deck. Cards like Supremacy, Spread Havoc, Calm Before the Storm and so on are very difficult to deny 2+ glory. The only card in this list that doesn’t qualify for that is Pinned!, which I decided to hit as it can vary a lot by RNG (as you could be 3 hexes from an edge hex and the opponent gets the drivebacks they need), and is a huge swing for such a card … and I wanted a second Hunting Grounds hit and this was the best card left.
The ploys are mostly the “staples” of the deck, cards that currently you would need a very good reason not to just immediately include. Confusion in Emberstone Sentinels, Illusory Fighter in Blazing Assault and Manipulated Fate in Realmstone Raiders are a couple of cards that fall into this category. Also cards that “burn” an activation (majorly decentivise your opponent from using their activation optimally), such as Reckless Attitudes, are also on this list. The two outliers of these two categories are 1) Raider’s Premonition, which is one of the stronger Emberstone ploys and the only Emberstone card to be hit, and 2) Get it Done, which would actually make Reckless Fury a “charge manipulation” deck again and I think is able to come off the forsaken list if it is restricted, but I am be ready to be proven wrong.
For Upgrades I hit “problematic” cards in every deck, although some that might raise confusion are explained below:
- All of the three damage upgrades are hit, as they could be an accuracy and a damage buff for a lot of warbands.
- Duelist in Emberstone Sentinels is hit, as being able to push after an attack is very powerful to get on tokens
- Headlong Charge is hit, as getting +2 move for 0 glory is a bit to powerful to give to Sepsimus
That is my list. Once again, keep in mind that this is just theoretical, and I am sure my list could be improved.
SOLUTION B) THE POINTS SYSTEM
Michael: Before any 40K or AoS players experience shudders, I want to warn you that the name has nothing to do with those systems. Ok, maybe not ‘nothing’ but quite little.
George Orwell once said, “All restricted cards are equal. But some are more equal than others.” I might be misremembering the quote a little but you get the idea – Spread Havoc and Bladecatcher are NOWHERE near each other on power level, yet both of them cost one R slot. How can we solve this? Enter, RP system – or Restricted Points system.
So the idea is that not every restricted card is on par with each other, as I already said Spread Havoc is infinitely more preferred than Bladecatcher. Therefore, we allow each deck to take up to 5 ‘points’ worth of restricted cards, and then assign each restricted card a value between 1 and 5. I do think that it could have a better name such as ‘restriction power’ or something like that but you get the idea. For this article I will use ‘points’.
An obviously pro for this system is that we can REALLY fine tune the balance. Some cards are just a tad too strong, like Great Strength. It’s a staple card but you don’t want to put it on a list even in a 3R system. In an RP system, you can assign it a points value. For example in BA, it can be worth 1 RP. In ES (where imo it does NOT belong) it could be worth 2 RP. And so on!
Another huge upside of this system is that such as the 3R system, the RP system also allows for huge deck personalisation. Let’s say I am a huge ping fanatic. For this paragraph I will be playing a CtC WnR deck. WnR will probably have a couple good objectives restricted as well as the durability stuff, while CtC probably will take a hit in the usual objectives as well as some pings. I will 100% throw all 5 of my points into pings, even if it means I can’t play Spread Havoc! On the other hand, a much more careful player playing the exact same combo will put their points into a more consistent deck, taking useless cards like Fireproof and Desperate Defence. They might also take Spread Havoc.
A point that can’t be missed is that deck power balance will dramatically be determined by the amount of Restricted Points. For example, Pillage has 11 REALLY good objectives right now and odds are lots of them will get at least one RP assigned to them. On the other hand, we stuff like Raging Slayers, which has a grand total of 5 consistent glory from objectives. It will obviously receive much less RP. Changing to an RP system will dramatically alter game balance, and might bring out combos that are somehow more oppressive than we have now, as they won’t be contestable by a similarly strong deck. While dramatic meta shifts aren’t inherently bad, we might have to live with a questionable meta for a couple weeks or months.
Likewise to the 3R system, counting an opponent’s RP will be really fun for some people, but others will hate it with every ounce of their mortal fiber. Personally, I am the side of ‘I love counting stuff’. The RP system will introduce even more potential to ‘guess’ your opponent’s deck as every R card revealed will unlock a bit more of the puzzle. For example, if you see an opponent play a 2 Point card, you know for sure that they aren’t running an OP 4 Point card. Or if you see them play a 1 Point card, you have to be wary of everything still. This creates a fun sort of minigame which can be both good and bad, depending on what kind of player you are.
As before, I will take a look at the negatives of this system.
If you thought 3R bookkeeping was tough, you haven’t seen ANYTHING. “Was Supremacy 2 or 3 points?” “Was Illusory Fighter 1 or 2 points?” These will become common questions, and new players looking to enter nemesis might get put off. Heck, I know some folks who might shift to rivals just because they dislike the amount of bookkeeping and memory that has to be done!
As before, TO-ing an event will become a little harder. While we did have even harder decklist checking in the past, with the current shift towards ease-of-play things may become a little harder to keep track of. Not necessarily a huge issue, but it could potentially become one.
A very important factor that I already slightly touched on is if done improperly, this could slightly screw Nemesis format. Which would be bad. Underworlds is not known as the ‘most timely FAR and FAQ releases’ game, which means that if a deck suddenly becomes LITERALLY unplayable cause it has 18 RP worth of cards in it, we might not see the deck till next April or May. Which isn’t good! However, if implemented properly, this caveat can be ignored.
Now the moment you have all been waiting for – HOW WILL AN RP LIST LOOK LIKE?
Blazing Assault has 10 points hit. This is because it’s mainly played for it’s power cards which tend to replace any other deck’s power section, making players forced to choose.
Emberstone has 8 points hit. Great Strength being worth 2 here is because ES is a hold deck – it shouldn’t have Great Strength! Supremacy is worth 2 cause it’s very strong and on the current list as well. Before you complain that ‘hold got another nerf’, the amount of ‘push enemy’ or distraction effects on this list is pretty huge, so you can argue it’s a trade.
11 Points come from PnP, which is a lot but most of them are in the objectives to force you to either play good objectives or good power. Gloryseeker is worth 2 for the same reason the ES Great Strength is. Broken Prospects and Delving for Wealth are free, so they are also worth 2. Strip the Realm being worth 1 is to make it easier to predict and counterplay.
CtC has 8 points, Spread Havoc is 2 as it is on the current list and Utter Conviction is 2 because it can get pretty diabolical.
RF has a whopping 15 points but before you complain, 8 of those points come from UTTER IGNORANCE and GET IT DONE being worth 4 points each – those cards are literally banned now! You can play them but it will cost you! Some easy objectives are hit and Bloody Momentum is 2 because it’s hard to deny.
WnR has only 3 points, being the ‘no R’ deck. Two easy surges are hit and Fireproof for the shutdown potential.
EotK has 5 points – Calm Before the Storm is worth 2 because it doesn’t fit the ‘temper’ theme but is also very strong. Aggressive Defender too, but it’s only worth 1.
RR has some hits, being worth 2 Points. Realmstone Raid is a little easy so I want to make sure people don’t play RR just for that one card, and Manipulated Fate is super strong so it gets a hit.
HG also has 3 points, Pinned! is here because it makes it easier to predict and counterplay, just like Strip. Mind Your Step is a double enemy push, but a little situational, so it’s only worth 1. Finally, Paths Unknown is OP but in a bad deck.
Finally, DS is the new kid on the block and has 9 points. Only Outmuscle is worth 2 points being the least counterplayable. The power cards are all very strong but there is just so many of them, therefore all of them are worth 1 – a similar position to Blazing Assault.
I tried building a couple decks with this system, and it is pretty difficult to build for BA/PnP and PnP/CtC which are the strongest decks right now. In general, what we expect from most decks will change but the decks will still be pretty strong. The list can for sure use some tuning, but as a proof of concept this system can work!
However, both strong and weak warbands here have access to the same cards… can we change that?
SOLUTION C) THE FACTION SYSTEM
This solution is a mix of the previous two – it will use the 3R system as a basis, but with a little twist: each faction can use DIFFERENT amount of restricted cards.
This solves the problem today’s system has in several ways – for starters, ‘strong’ factions like the Wurmspat, Mollog, and Soulraid will not be able to play as effective decks as weaker factions like Xandire’s Truthseekers, giving them a equalizer in power without touching the warscroll identities. For example, if Wurmpsat were only allowed to take 2R cards but Xandire could take 4, Xandire’s decks would make up a lot for the warscroll!
2 very balanced warscrolls
Additionally, if you really like a certain playstyle, the Faction System allows you to play that style even if you get every single card hit! I know a certain writer of this blog really enjoys pings, so even if Sunder the Realm, Improvised Attack, Damned if you Do, and Volcanic Eruption all get hit I am still able to pick a weaker warband and play with the cards I like to compensate! While this change really favors underdog players, meta warbands will still be strong.
Branching on, a difference of 2-3 cards per deck isn’t really enough to make a bad warband like Xandire ‘oppressive’ over Wurmspat for instance. Like, even though Xandire running 4 or 5 restricted cards is pretty strong, Wurmspat can still compete with them based on the sheer power of their warscroll.
The above argument also brings on the point that skill expression yet again becomes more tailored to the player. What I mean is if you are more of a ‘deckbuilder’, your skill expression will now revolve in being able to build super strong decks but having forced to pilot them with a weak warband – deckbuilders are now able to prove that they really are the master of deckbuilding! Same with more warscroll/positional oriented players – they don’t really enjoy deckbuilding, so they can play stronger warbands with insane skill ceiling warscrolls like Soulraid to be able to demonstrate their tactical prowess! Thus each member of the community is able to create their own thing they are the master of.
A huge advantage of this system is what happens if it gets messed up – the other two systems being implemented incorrectly can have huge drawbacks, and while it is the same here if the R list if done wrong, assigning a wrong number to a warband isn’t too punishing as the other two systems!
The Faction System has several downsides that must be addressed. The Gorehulk in the room, for instance – HOW BIG OF A CHANGE TO WARSCROLLS IS THIS? Where is all this going to be published? There’s over 50 playable warbands in the game and if each of them got a certain restricted card value assigned to them the document that will be published to show these values will be gigantic!
Additionally, it will be hyper difficult to track these stuff even more experienced players. While still being infinitely easier than having to keep track of a 32 card faction deck like back in the day, it is still pretty hard to keep track of how many restricted cards each and every warband can run. A solution is obviously that players can ask each other how many restricted cards their warband can run.
The creation of this system also inherently sorts warbands into a tier list system – it will be clear which warband is strong enough to have only 2R cards versus a weaker one which is permitted to take 4 or 5. While not necessarily a huge downside, it can create a sort of bias against some warbands, which may lead to less people playing them.
Now, here is a hypothetical list, along with restricted cards per warband:
First of all, here is a list of how many R cards each warband can take. 2-Card warbands are the strongest of the bunch, I was debating putting Ylthari’s on the list as well but we have to see how it turns out. Jaws and GSP can maybe move up from here, but the others are pretty justified in my opinion.
3-Card warbands are mid-strong tier. It has the most warbands, with many of them being movable – Headsmen can maybe move up to 4, Emberwatch can maybe move down to 2, and Thorns can maybe move down to 2. Other than that, these are all the ‘balanced’ warbands.
4-Card warbands are those that have some power issues. Notably I feel Hrothgorn can maybe move down to 3-Card – but I need someone to prove me right 🙂
Finally, only one warband has 5-Card status and that is Hexbane. I was even thinking of making them a 6 Card warband in order to mimic the old faction deck feel of having 18 OP cards and 10 strong cards, but thought about it and 5-Cards should do the trick too.
Now here is the list. You will notice it is quite similair to the 3R list with minor changes:
Pretty much every deck (except WnR, EotK, HG, and RR) got one new restricted card compared to the 3R system. This is to make sure that new system actually works – if every warband can take the same as the 3R system, but some can take more, the amount of cards on the list has not changed making it less effective.
Blazing Assault had Branching Fate hit in order to make players take other surges – the deck’s identity is in it’s good power cards, so play them!
Agile was hit for Emberstone Sentinels cause it has a lot of Save tech and Sharp Reflexes getting hit will hurt the wrong warbands.
Countdown had Violent Blast hit as ‘distraction’ tech is very strong. However, with the new boards having only one stagger hex on one side, this could be changed.
Pillage had Canny Sapper hit cause Illusory Fighter is on the list.
Reckless had Headlong Charge hit to make it harder to pick for Elites.
Deadly Synergy had Coordinated Deathblow hit cause the attack is slightly busted, and it forces players to commit to the ‘unity’ style more.
While not the most elegant solution, it does work to bring more warbands to light.
CLOSING STATEMENTS
With that, I have provided you 3 Solutions! Which solution do you prefer?
A) The 3R System, hard to mess up but is most likely to lead us to a ‘card deadlock’ as we are in now?
B) The Points System, which is easy to mess up but opens up more creativity for deck building?
C) The Faction System, which makes more factions viable, which can have the most significant impacts on the meta?
Let me know what you think! As usual, I am always active on Discord (especially the Staggerers server!) and you can find me there!
Now let’s hope we get a new balance update soon – and with that, I hope to see you again soon! 🙂
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