Hi All. To begin with, I understand the forums these days aren't particularly used any more, but I feel I wouldn't be able to get any feedback on this topic except from the people currently logged into Pox Discord, who most of the folks there will probably disagree with my following post. Anyways, here goes. To start, this is not so much a rant as it is just a thought. Just wanted to be clear about that. I honestly have no complaints at all about the current game state of PoxNora. I have played Magic the Gathering for a long time, since 1997 to be exact. For years, my friends and I have enjoyed dueling each other in Magic. We bought cards, built decks, won games, lost games, won a few tournaments and overall had a blast playing cards. However, as newer sets came out and the Standard format became harder to compete in because of the constantly rotating set schedule, Magic, for me, became more of a memory rather than something I was actively playing. From ~2000 until ~2013 I basically just played the game seldomly choosing instead to play virtually anything else. That all changed, however, in the later part of 2013. Magic the Gathering announced the rise of a new format, "Commander." I was intrigued. So, I took the cards I had, ordered a "Kaalia of the Vast" pre-con deck, went to my local game shop and found some other Commander players, and have been hooked on the format ever since. This has led to me spending thousands of dollars on the game and today my collection is much larger with many exotic, expensive cards, and well over 15+ constructed Commander decks ready to go. So what changed? Why was Commander such a hook for me? Simple. 1) The cards I bought were good for the format forever (barring a few banned cards which aren't that many). 2) No deck theme was really out of reach. Want to make elves? No problem. Dragons? Cake. Rats, easy cheesy. Freaking scarecrows? Go for it! 3) Power level. There are many freakishly powerful combos in Commander since you are basically pulling from nearly every card in the game's history. This leads to some crazy interactions, hilarious moments, and some very cool games. Don't get me wrong, the blue Urza player that goes infinite on turn four isn't great, but its a side effect of such an open concept that you just learn to deal with. This leads me to the point of this post. I have played Pox Nora since 2009. I have always been a "casual, mid tier player" at best. I certainly have never made a claim of knowing what's best for this game, but I just wanted to relay this one matter to anyone willing to read this; "let the broken crap balance the broken crap out!" In my opinion, the best, most fun days of Pox came when CorpsE ran the show. All of the new runes would be power crept to crazy levels. Some runes were just so busted that they were laughable. However, that was also the height of the game. People buying the busted runes and enjoying a level of play where many runes were "un-balanced" but they were offset by other "un-balanced" runes. Over the last year or more, I have watched the guys who are tending to the game (thanks to ALL of you guys for keeping the game going!) go through several iterations of game balance. Unfortunately, balance is only a concept, not an easily achievable feat. This is evident in other games like League of Legends, the Warhammer universe, Magic the Gathering, and most other video/tabletop games that try to create a different group of things, that do different things, and clash together. In my observations of Pox, it appears that the current balance designers understand where Pox should be but are afraid to leave it there because something appears to be "overpowered." I say, let it remain overpowered. I saw them adjust Coragh nearly back to his original design with brain eater and an overall powerful build. Over the course of a few weeks he was adjusted, changed, re-adjusted and then finally nearly ended up the way he began before they had changed him. This has happened with quiet a few runes out there, including one of my favorite runes, Korona. She was changed nearly back to her original design before going through the same loop as Coragh and nearly the same fate, landing back nearly the way she was before they had adjusted her. As the type of player that I am (not hardcore, not a high end ranked player, enjoying even 2v2 and solo play) these types of moves are frustrating. A tease if you will. A rune is restored to its glory only to have it once again nerfed back to the ground. I really enjoy PoxNora and have for a long time. I have played the game on and off over the years, but my most enjoyable seasons from this game came when runes were nuts. I have no problem with Akakios being super powerful as long as my Korona is too. So my plea to the balance guys is just let game balance itself just as Commander does for Magic. There might be a few times something needs to be brought down a little, that's understandable, however, nerfs should be few and far between and buffs should be way more inclusive. Bring up other runes to the power level of the "broken" ones. There are so many runes that could be played if they were just better. In conclusion, let some runes be awesome. Make other runes awesome. Our collections aren't going anywhere (at least not until the plug is pulled on the game) so let us have some fun. So what if Coragh is nuts? Who cares? Make Grimlic nuts to counter him out. Let's see a dwarf be a truly formidable champ on the battlefield. Who cares? Are we going to lose players over it? Just some thoughts. Thanks for reading.
