I've played in at least one group with card limits and maybe another at some point. Or, maybe, I'm just remembering that the only(?) tournament I ever played as a Gen Con scheduled event had 6cl for certain cards.
The benefits are really a matter of perception, not any improvement in the card pool. Sure, I enjoy playing with them just as without them because doing something different in deck construction interests me. But, the play is warped, with whatever is readily available dominating.
What really fixes the enjoyment of groups isn't messing with the rules, it's a social contract of peer pressuring away strategies, decks, cards they don't like.
If trying to argue for card availability, I've never found it hard to get commons. Sure, I could use a lot more Villeins, but, you know, the TCG model is one where players don't always have everything. If the game goes to POD or you proxy stuff up or whatever, availability is meaningless.
Ignoring e-sets, which I've played against but don't have the same sense of as printed sets, the game plays better than it ever has in my experience. I don't argue for changing the game to make the play of it better but rather different. CCGs thrive on variety. That Malk94 has always been a high functioning deck is sad, not because I don't like it as actually I quite enjoy playing Malk stealth bleed, but because it shows a game that doesn't go through as much innovation as other CCGs. That Eyes of Argus or Bowl of Convergence can just shut down light stealth bleed is not the end of the world because not every deck plays those cards (or No Secrets or ...); metagaming is something CCG players are supposed to do, even if it means putting Mercy for Seth into a deck for ... reasons. Still, as much as removing those cards may not make for better play, it would make for more enjoyable play for me, where removing Into Thin Air, et al, to rebalance stealth/intercept at lower levels would be important as part of this grand plan to make the game more fun ... for me.
There are a few plays that are miserable. I see a number of events decks being posted, whether TWD or someThing else. That's a tedious play experience. But, there will always be tedious play experiences. What burns me out on CCGs more than anything else is when people stop building and playing new decks, not that they build obnoxious decks some of the time.
The issue with a huge card pool is that "good cards squeeze out bad". In Magic, in block constructed play, you will see things you would not in standard, modern, legacy, or vintage. It's why limited play of CCGs is so often an attraction, including for some people with V:TES, where the most common argument for doing a draft is "you see plays you never see in contructed", and I have sympathy for that, though I still don't enjoy V:TES limited even as much as I enjoy Magic limited, and I don't particularly enjoy playing Magic.
Card pool rotation addresses issues that simple card pool expansion doesn't.
But, whatever, if V:TES got reprinted with all published cards, including e-sets, printed, that's much better than the current state. Fixing the game isn't as much about whether Conditioning is OP but about whether you can get new players, which is far more about simplifying the experience. If you handed people Jyhad and had them play, with all of the original card text (well, maybe not all of the original card text), where you get crazy stealth bleed against free Majesty, that's probably a far more marketable game than one with thousands of card choices and a better balance of strategies.
I know I'm rambling, but, as evidence of what I just said, when I play Jyhad demo decks, I'm amazed by how much faster and more active the game is, and remember that playing in that sort of environment is quite fun.
So, while I'll play with CL and build decks with CL for my own enjoyment, I don't find anything remotely compelling about the idea, where the argument for change or rebalance is to me an argument for transitioning the card pool to increase fluidity of environment.
I've done limited set decks (those who read my blog would know which ones) and am well aware of how certain things are missing from supposed core sets, including such things as a skill card for every discipline (Third has a lot of good things in its card pool, but, man, is the set easy to hate for so many reasons, including how it treats Obtenebration). Yet, if you have the time and inclination, try playing a game with only cards printed in Jyhad some time and see if you get an experience akin to what I get.
Is it time to introduce a card limit?
NC Russia
