Last time, we talked about the philosophy of balancing, and looked over some problems with the Fire type. This time, we will go over a lot more cards, albeit superficially, to finally get the game balanced. The really interesting stuff goes on once the balance changes have been made, and new strategies and new problems emerge. So let's get this going!
We have already looked at the problematic Fire-type cards, but there are two types that are even stronger. We should therefore start by nerfing some select Grass- and Water-type cards.
Nerfing Water
Let's start with water, the more straightforward type. The water strategy is mostly tempo-oriented, so the cards nerfed are the ones which create too big of a swing with too little downside:
I believe nerfing each and every of the top five cards should be sufficient. If Water was not in such a strong position, I would also buff some of the weaker cards.
Swampert costs five specifically because 7 mana used to be the highest possible mana cost, and then 5 mana was the roof of a card that could be played together with an Idol Power. Now with the new maximum of 8 mana, Swampert can be nerfed to a 6-mana 5/5. Nerfing Marshtomp to a 2/2 will make the whole family consistent in its attack/health ratio.
High Tide used to be underpowered because it was bugged, but now it soars into overuse. I will let it fall back down by increasing its cost by one - a big change, but such a volatile card deserves it. Hydro Pump will also be made more expensive, but only because the opposite - making it cheaper and weaker - does not fit the name. It will at least deal eight damage instead. Eight is a nicer number than seven, anyway.
Swanna will be fixed by changing its generated card. This had to be done anyway, since it was designed around 7 mana as maximum. This change is very subtle, but maybe that's alright. 53% winrate is not terribly overpowered. Now Water Vortex is an 8-mana power that reads: "Summon a random pkmn that costs 3. Gain 8 mana."
Now that I look over the problematic Water-type cards, they seem to all be win-more cards, that is, cards that are good when you already are ahead. Even Hydro Pump, designed as a control card, can be used as burn or become stronger when you have pokémon ready to attack to capitalise on the random damage.
Nerfing Grass
The Grass type is a bit more complicated than Water since it mostly deals in combos and, well, win-more cards.
Skiploom has become such a thorn in my side, the strongest card in the game, that I think I will change the ruleset within its ability, so that it only gives health to other friendly pokémon. This will also apply to its evolution, Meganium, Mawile and Bisharp. The two latter will receive a buff to offset this nerf - the rest deserve to be nerfed.
Breloom and Grotle are the kinds of high-health pokémon from which I find it easy to just dock 1 health.
Tangela is... interesting. It suddenly became a central part of the Grass-type gameplan after I made some internal changes to the game. Its big buff is necessary - that's what makes it an interesting pokémon! I can see two avenues of change. One is to double down on it, changing it to a 2/2 that gives +3/+3. The other is to just change its stats - no, no, I think Tangela will be more interesting as the prior.
But wait! Even Tangela has a 55% winrate, that is, even higher than all but the very best Water-type card. There are more cards to nerf.
Following after Tangela, let's nerf Simisage by 1 health, Serperior by 1 attack, Torterra by 1 health, Cacnea by 1 health, and Sunflora by both 1 mana and 1 health. Sunflora is hit the hardest since its effect is more important than its stats.
Perhaps this will finally dethrone the Grass type. I kind of doubt it though. It has been causing problems ever since the Kanto meta, and of those cards, only Tangela has been changed.
Positivity
I could continue on, nerfing cards from the middling Psychic and Ground types, but instead, I think I will turn my head to instead nerfing some of the cards that are bringing down the underutilised types. If you look back up at the meta wheel, you will count seventeen slices of pie. Seventeen? Where did the eighteenth go?
Buffing Dark
Dark offers us a sad, sad sight. Even the very best dark type cards only have slightly above a 50% winrate. Really, we should not be looking at those cards at all. They are decent enough. Instead, we should look at only the worst cards and see if there's any way to save them.
Buffing cards is more difficult than nerfing them, especially since just giving the cards extra stats will not make them more interesting - their new stats might overshadow their effects. For instance, instead of just buffing the three dragon/hydra things, I will redesign their effects entirely. They are too complex at the present moment anyway.
I'll keep the discard effect, but replace their choice for being able to damage all enemies at once. This ability is underused, only being used for two cards in Kanto and never since. This effect is much more memorable and unique, and fits hydras much better (though a bit weird with Deino only having one head). I have no idea, however, if this is even a buff. Let's see.
Swiftness lack of power is due to a bug. It actually works as intended, but the AI does not understand that its effect is positive. I will change this immediately - it might also help Honchkrow.
Blood Restoration is a strange card. Its effect is unique, sure, but it does not feel very fair. Now seeing it here, apparently underpowered... I think I will actually increase its cost, making sure it is used later in the game, but then also letting it draw a card.
Mandibuzz will be made a full mana cheaper. I do not dare change it apart from that, since Vullaby, its pre-evo, is one of the best Dark-type cards, and evolves often.
Malevolent Burst is a tricky card. It never works out, either being too good or too bad. I'll make it deal one less damage for the time being, hoping that's enough to make a difference. Even better, now you gain one mana for each damage taken.
Exactness shows a general problem with Idol Power upgraders where the upgrade is not effective enough. I think I actually will change the upgrade rather than the card itself. Right now, upgrading your Idol Power is just a worse version of Swiftness. Changing it, Dark Light changes from:
Deal 2 damage to your own Idol. Gain 1 mana this turn
into
Deal 3 damage to your own Idol. Gain 3 mana this turn
Meaning that you can gain two additional mana when using the Idol Power, but at a slightly higher health cost.
Buffing Electric
While there is a Electric-type deck in the top decks, it still seems that the type is pretty underpowered - even considering that Electric-Water decks have access to water type cards too. Looking at the best Electric type deck, it has 14 Electric type cards and 11 Water type cards. Meanwhile the best Water-type deck only has 5 Electric type cards, all of them at 5+ cost. Nerfing Water might do something. The rest will come from buffing some currently useless Electric type cards into hopefully strong candidate cards:
As we can see, there are some good Electric type cards, though most are at the higher end of the curve.
Pichu has a very low win-rate considering its effect. This is probably related to the current AI being very optimistic when it comes to random effects. I will not change it.
Shinx and Luxio are both weak and inelegant. I will move the effect of Paralyzing Spark onto the cards themselves. The idea was that the effect could be triggered at will later on, but in hindsight, this mechanic was never that interesting. The whole evolutionary line will be changed thusly.
Raichu and Electabuzz will both be buffed by increasing the amount of random damage by one.
Overcharge is a strange card. The idea is to have cheap draw with the drawback that your deck will run out of cards. But thinking about this, there is a much easier solution: A 2-cost, draw three, burn three cards.
At risk of making Paralyzing Bolt overpowered, its effect will be increased to 4 damage. I like the design enough to see it as a staple Electric type card.
Bolt of Life can be changed to heal a friend fully and draw a card, costing 1.
It is interesting to see Magneton and Magnetone, such similar cards, with so different winrates. Magneton is too expensive considering its very slow effect. I will make it more agile by reducing its cost and health, but not attack.
Buffing Steel
Steel has some really strong cards and is a pretty versatile jack of all trades, but is kept back by an uncertain identity. Let us see what we can do.
Actually, it seems that what's keeping Steel back is its terrible powers.
There is no reason for Mass Produce to be free. To make sure the AI does not waste the card, it will have a tiny nerf to 1 mana. But this really doesn't change anything.
Effectivise might become incredibly overpowered with this little change, but I will make it draw a card. Same with Innovate. Improve and Pact of Solidity will give +5 health to your Idol instead.
Okay, let's see if the next five worst cards are powers, too...
Well, then. I guess Limit and Metal Sound, however good, are not good enough. This is quite disconcerting. I won't change them for now, though.
Beldum can be buffed a bit (after having been nerfed with the AI in mind). Klink and Klang will have their Cog card buffed.
That's that
There are still more cards to buff and to nerf, but really, the idea is not to control every single aspect of the game. The interesting part is that the AI and evolution will create a metagame that is truly a thing on its own. Or at least that is the hypothesis. With these changes, I will let the same 20,000 games play out, and will return with results - perhaps some of the types that were not directly changed will take a different position nonetheless.
And exactly what I suspected did indeed end up happening. After running a new simulation of 20,000 decks, taking five hours to run, the meta changed as follows:
The strange thing is that the ranked percentages are mostly the same - top four making up 50% - but only Psychic, a type not directly changed, is in the top four both now and before. Chances are that even with completely non-biased cards, the chaotic nature of inmeta competition will produce these results.
Big changes are also seen in Dragon and Normal, neither of which was changed. Normal might have been buffed by the changes to Dark (since Normal and Dark are linked), but the same cannot be said of Dragon, which is linked with Ice.
Some things remain the same. Electric is almost outside of the meta, just like before, and Dark still has no decks in the top 180 - despite both being buffed. Maybe my changes to Steel were objectively bigger, though I doubt that. Rather, the impact of changes is fundamentally unpredictable because of the many interacting parts.
For much more on this, see the next post on Balancing PokeHearth, where we will try to learn from chaos.
Nerfing Water
Let's start with water, the more straightforward type. The water strategy is mostly tempo-oriented, so the cards nerfed are the ones which create too big of a swing with too little downside:
I believe nerfing each and every of the top five cards should be sufficient. If Water was not in such a strong position, I would also buff some of the weaker cards.
Swampert costs five specifically because 7 mana used to be the highest possible mana cost, and then 5 mana was the roof of a card that could be played together with an Idol Power. Now with the new maximum of 8 mana, Swampert can be nerfed to a 6-mana 5/5. Nerfing Marshtomp to a 2/2 will make the whole family consistent in its attack/health ratio.
High Tide used to be underpowered because it was bugged, but now it soars into overuse. I will let it fall back down by increasing its cost by one - a big change, but such a volatile card deserves it. Hydro Pump will also be made more expensive, but only because the opposite - making it cheaper and weaker - does not fit the name. It will at least deal eight damage instead. Eight is a nicer number than seven, anyway.
Swanna will be fixed by changing its generated card. This had to be done anyway, since it was designed around 7 mana as maximum. This change is very subtle, but maybe that's alright. 53% winrate is not terribly overpowered. Now Water Vortex is an 8-mana power that reads: "Summon a random pkmn that costs 3. Gain 8 mana."
Now that I look over the problematic Water-type cards, they seem to all be win-more cards, that is, cards that are good when you already are ahead. Even Hydro Pump, designed as a control card, can be used as burn or become stronger when you have pokémon ready to attack to capitalise on the random damage.
Nerfing Grass
The Grass type is a bit more complicated than Water since it mostly deals in combos and, well, win-more cards.
Skiploom has become such a thorn in my side, the strongest card in the game, that I think I will change the ruleset within its ability, so that it only gives health to other friendly pokémon. This will also apply to its evolution, Meganium, Mawile and Bisharp. The two latter will receive a buff to offset this nerf - the rest deserve to be nerfed.
Breloom and Grotle are the kinds of high-health pokémon from which I find it easy to just dock 1 health.
Tangela is... interesting. It suddenly became a central part of the Grass-type gameplan after I made some internal changes to the game. Its big buff is necessary - that's what makes it an interesting pokémon! I can see two avenues of change. One is to double down on it, changing it to a 2/2 that gives +3/+3. The other is to just change its stats - no, no, I think Tangela will be more interesting as the prior.
But wait! Even Tangela has a 55% winrate, that is, even higher than all but the very best Water-type card. There are more cards to nerf.
Following after Tangela, let's nerf Simisage by 1 health, Serperior by 1 attack, Torterra by 1 health, Cacnea by 1 health, and Sunflora by both 1 mana and 1 health. Sunflora is hit the hardest since its effect is more important than its stats.
Perhaps this will finally dethrone the Grass type. I kind of doubt it though. It has been causing problems ever since the Kanto meta, and of those cards, only Tangela has been changed.
Positivity
I could continue on, nerfing cards from the middling Psychic and Ground types, but instead, I think I will turn my head to instead nerfing some of the cards that are bringing down the underutilised types. If you look back up at the meta wheel, you will count seventeen slices of pie. Seventeen? Where did the eighteenth go?
Buffing Dark
Dark offers us a sad, sad sight. Even the very best dark type cards only have slightly above a 50% winrate. Really, we should not be looking at those cards at all. They are decent enough. Instead, we should look at only the worst cards and see if there's any way to save them.
Buffing cards is more difficult than nerfing them, especially since just giving the cards extra stats will not make them more interesting - their new stats might overshadow their effects. For instance, instead of just buffing the three dragon/hydra things, I will redesign their effects entirely. They are too complex at the present moment anyway.
I'll keep the discard effect, but replace their choice for being able to damage all enemies at once. This ability is underused, only being used for two cards in Kanto and never since. This effect is much more memorable and unique, and fits hydras much better (though a bit weird with Deino only having one head). I have no idea, however, if this is even a buff. Let's see.
Swiftness lack of power is due to a bug. It actually works as intended, but the AI does not understand that its effect is positive. I will change this immediately - it might also help Honchkrow.
Blood Restoration is a strange card. Its effect is unique, sure, but it does not feel very fair. Now seeing it here, apparently underpowered... I think I will actually increase its cost, making sure it is used later in the game, but then also letting it draw a card.
Mandibuzz will be made a full mana cheaper. I do not dare change it apart from that, since Vullaby, its pre-evo, is one of the best Dark-type cards, and evolves often.
Malevolent Burst is a tricky card. It never works out, either being too good or too bad. I'll make it deal one less damage for the time being, hoping that's enough to make a difference. Even better, now you gain one mana for each damage taken.
Exactness shows a general problem with Idol Power upgraders where the upgrade is not effective enough. I think I actually will change the upgrade rather than the card itself. Right now, upgrading your Idol Power is just a worse version of Swiftness. Changing it, Dark Light changes from:
Deal 2 damage to your own Idol. Gain 1 mana this turn
into
Deal 3 damage to your own Idol. Gain 3 mana this turn
Meaning that you can gain two additional mana when using the Idol Power, but at a slightly higher health cost.
Buffing Electric
While there is a Electric-type deck in the top decks, it still seems that the type is pretty underpowered - even considering that Electric-Water decks have access to water type cards too. Looking at the best Electric type deck, it has 14 Electric type cards and 11 Water type cards. Meanwhile the best Water-type deck only has 5 Electric type cards, all of them at 5+ cost. Nerfing Water might do something. The rest will come from buffing some currently useless Electric type cards into hopefully strong candidate cards:
As we can see, there are some good Electric type cards, though most are at the higher end of the curve.
Pichu has a very low win-rate considering its effect. This is probably related to the current AI being very optimistic when it comes to random effects. I will not change it.
Shinx and Luxio are both weak and inelegant. I will move the effect of Paralyzing Spark onto the cards themselves. The idea was that the effect could be triggered at will later on, but in hindsight, this mechanic was never that interesting. The whole evolutionary line will be changed thusly.
Raichu and Electabuzz will both be buffed by increasing the amount of random damage by one.
Overcharge is a strange card. The idea is to have cheap draw with the drawback that your deck will run out of cards. But thinking about this, there is a much easier solution: A 2-cost, draw three, burn three cards.
At risk of making Paralyzing Bolt overpowered, its effect will be increased to 4 damage. I like the design enough to see it as a staple Electric type card.
Bolt of Life can be changed to heal a friend fully and draw a card, costing 1.
It is interesting to see Magneton and Magnetone, such similar cards, with so different winrates. Magneton is too expensive considering its very slow effect. I will make it more agile by reducing its cost and health, but not attack.
Buffing Steel
Steel has some really strong cards and is a pretty versatile jack of all trades, but is kept back by an uncertain identity. Let us see what we can do.
Actually, it seems that what's keeping Steel back is its terrible powers.
There is no reason for Mass Produce to be free. To make sure the AI does not waste the card, it will have a tiny nerf to 1 mana. But this really doesn't change anything.
Effectivise might become incredibly overpowered with this little change, but I will make it draw a card. Same with Innovate. Improve and Pact of Solidity will give +5 health to your Idol instead.
Okay, let's see if the next five worst cards are powers, too...
Well, then. I guess Limit and Metal Sound, however good, are not good enough. This is quite disconcerting. I won't change them for now, though.
Beldum can be buffed a bit (after having been nerfed with the AI in mind). Klink and Klang will have their Cog card buffed.
That's that
There are still more cards to buff and to nerf, but really, the idea is not to control every single aspect of the game. The interesting part is that the AI and evolution will create a metagame that is truly a thing on its own. Or at least that is the hypothesis. With these changes, I will let the same 20,000 games play out, and will return with results - perhaps some of the types that were not directly changed will take a different position nonetheless.
And exactly what I suspected did indeed end up happening. After running a new simulation of 20,000 decks, taking five hours to run, the meta changed as follows:
The strange thing is that the ranked percentages are mostly the same - top four making up 50% - but only Psychic, a type not directly changed, is in the top four both now and before. Chances are that even with completely non-biased cards, the chaotic nature of inmeta competition will produce these results.
Big changes are also seen in Dragon and Normal, neither of which was changed. Normal might have been buffed by the changes to Dark (since Normal and Dark are linked), but the same cannot be said of Dragon, which is linked with Ice.
Some things remain the same. Electric is almost outside of the meta, just like before, and Dark still has no decks in the top 180 - despite both being buffed. Maybe my changes to Steel were objectively bigger, though I doubt that. Rather, the impact of changes is fundamentally unpredictable because of the many interacting parts.
For much more on this, see the next post on Balancing PokeHearth, where we will try to learn from chaos.
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