How do card game creators keep making such balanced cards?

536 views

For card games like Magic The Gathering, etc., how do the creators make new cards that are balanced (in terms of cost, strength, abilities)? Is there a set formula, or is it a long testing/tweaking process before the card gets released?

In: 22

12 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

I feel like given they are selling cards for a profit, there is going to be an incentive to have some cards blatantly better than others. The most subtle way of doing this is to make the “good” cards proportionally rare-either you’re buying dozens of booster packs looking for it (like we did as kids) or you pay a fortune for getting the rare card directly.

Take the most expensive card in the game-Black Lotus. Not only is it rare but it is incredibly powerful. It costs nothing to summon but can be sacrificed for 3 mana of any color. In that game, getting three mana of *any* color for *free* has massive potential. It’s like if a track and field runner was allowed to start 500m ahead of everyone else.

You are viewing 1 out of 12 answers, click here to view all answers.