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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8186705" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Can I assume that neither of you have much background in either/or MTG play or MTG culture? I’m asking this because here are the lines of evidence (which I would say are overwhelming) that push back against your positions:1) Besides it being in plain view, WotC devs confirmed that 3e character building was MtG-inspired (or at least their confederates helped them).2) Trap Options leading to Trap Deck Construction or Drafting (due to synergy or incoherency issues or the fact that the card is just a budget card without comparable “oomph” for its cost) is designed into MtG. Deck Construction or Deck Drafting (and the understanding of the strata of cards of varying and equal value and how to recognize synergies and work toward coherency) is a HUGE part of distilling skilled play (system mastery).3) A Trap Option doesn’t mean it’s a “bad card.” It just means it’s use or value or integration with other cards either (a) isn’t readily obvious or (b) it’s prone to misconception without robust skill/experience.4) Hence, when you’re playing against decks with high value cards that are well-synergized, you’re going to be disadvantaged (in the same way that your net contribution to Team PC will be disadvantaged against PCs built like top tier MtG decks...In turn yielding intraparty balance issues and party : obstacle balance issues).That is what happened with 3e. Upon reflection they may have wished they would have muted this effect with more transparent signposting and/or tighter constraints (they did both of these things in 4e). But that doesn’t change the reality that “skilled play distilled by character building” was an emergent property of design (just like in MtG).</blockquote>

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