Wow this is golden. I was here when this awesome new ability called seism was introduced, watched as relic after relic was handicapped to be instantly killed by the ability, and then the designers say... oh well we want it nerfed so the nerfed crap will remain trashier than we made them, cause who like retraction? It was this that made my type that made me and my type of player pack up.
Update: I have decided to leave Seism for the time being. Relic HP pass has happened though, as stated before, that was not dependent on Seism changing.
I like the idea of it doing less damage as then it takes some kind of strategy to effectively kill a relic with it rather than just being a no brain required counter to every relic. The cost increase would definitely have been too much though. What I really don't like is it being the general meta response to relics like Shatter is to equips, before long it will be one of those abilities that people want every theme to have access to.