TWDA Analysis

I think here is a place to remind community, that idea to ban Dreams, not because of power level or some annoying effect, but to open 2-3 slots for other masters in like half of archetypes, exists.

I've updated the files - some corrections were made (Ghouled > Ghouled Street Thug, Conceal > Concealed Weapon, etc). You can download them from the links earlier in the thread.

I also kept tinkering and built a more complete data model, so now I can get results such as Cards used by Set:

VTES	100%	100%
Camarilla Edition	93%	53%
Jyhad	92%	74%
Third Edition	92%	72%
Bloodlines	90%	53%
Sabbat War	90%	56%
Tenth Anniversary	90%	80%
Gehenna	88%	64%
Nights of Reckoning	85%	58%
Black Hand	84%	50%
Lords of the Night	80%	64%
Sabbat	79%	57%
Kindred Most Wanted	78%	55%
Anarchs	77%	45%
Keepers of Tradition	77%	60%
Legacy of Blood	76%	48%
Heirs to the Blood	75%	55%
Danse Macabre	75%	75%
Ancient Hearts	74%	37%
Final Nights	74%	41%
Promo	73%	46%
Sword of Caine	73%	48%
Twilight Rebellion	73%	45%
Ebony Kingdom	70%	45%
Dark Sovereigns	66%	54%
The Unaligned	64%	64%
Anthology	50%	50%
Anarchs Unbound	44%	44%
Lost Kindred	22%	22%

This table shows the percentage of Library cards (I'll do Crypt cards eventually) introduced in a certain set that have been used in tournament decks. The first column is for the whole TWDA, the second is for the past 5 years - so you could say the first number is the overall impact of the expansion on tournament decks, and the second it's 'staying power'.

I think the fact that the Jyhad base set remains usable reflects that there's been little power creep over the years - you would expect these cards to be replaced by better versions over the years otherwise. All 5 of the VTES cards also remain relevant (mainly Archon Investigation though).
On the opposite side, the initial expansions: Dark Sovereigns, Ancient Hearts, and Final Nights have quite poor ratios by either count.
The VEKN expansions have fairly poor usage ratios, but I hesitate to read too much into it given the circunstances.

I still have some cleanup to do on the file, I'll share it again once I'm done.

Dark Sovereigns, Ancient Hearts and Final Nights are all really really bad. Like made by a monkey throwing darts kind of bad. Makes sense to me they'd be under-represented.

How do reprints factor into this? I feel like they should be excluded.

Mewcat wrote:

How do reprints factor into this? I feel like they should be excluded.

For each card I only count the first set it was printed on - so reprints count towards the original set.

DJHedgehog wrote:

Dark Sovereigns, Ancient Hearts and Final Nights are all really really bad. Like made by a monkey throwing darts kind of bad. Makes sense to me they'd be under-represented.

DS and AH were pretty badly designed - AH gave us the original Tomb of Rameses III, Return to Innocence, Protect Thine Own, but also Mummify - and then FN was mostly the result of balancing against the previous cards.
At the time there was a general belief that the independents were underpowered just because they had too few cards to choose from, so the new cards were designed to the same power level (despite some protests from playtesters...)

Anyway, this only applies to Library cards - crypt-wise DS is actually the best expansion ever:

Set	AllTime	5 yrs
Sabbat War	100%	72%
Dark Sovereigns	98%	82%
Sabbat	97%	80%
Legacies of Blood	96%	81%
Final Nights	95%	58%
Bloodlines	95%	55%
Nights of Reckoning	95%	75%
Jyhad	94%	64%
Ancient Hearts	91%	64%
Black Hand	91%	70%
Camarilla Edition	90%	66%
Third Edition	89%	76%
Gehenna	86%	50%
Sword of Caine	84%	68%
Kindred Most Wanted	84%	54%
Lords of the Night	83%	63%
Keepers of Tradition	83%	64%
Anarchs	80%	61%
Twilight Rebellion	80%	50%
Ebony Kingdom	75%	65%
Heirs to the Blood	74%	45%
Danse Macabre	68%	68%
Promo	67%	60%
The Unaligned	47%	47%
Anthology	20%	20%
Anarchs Unbound	13%	13%
Lost Kindred	9%	9%

...and it has Arika in it!

(SW is higher at 100%, but it has fewer new crypt cards and a lower ratio over the past 5 years, DS is better overall)


[EDIT] I was curious on what were those missing 2% from DS - turns out it's Darius Styx, the only DS vampire not to feature on the TWDA. Maybe Hugh should have a crack at it?