Clashing Philosophies
"Rad Penny's Two Cents" Opinion Piece for Issue #96
UPDATE 12/2 5:00PM ET: Dead-Sync here! This article was published approximately 6 hours before Ghost Galaxy posted a new update detailing a change to Crucible Clash’s tournament legality, which is a primary point of discussion I used for the below opinion piece. I think this is a very positive change for Crucible Clash from Ghost Galaxy! The original article is available to read below for posterity:
Any set reveal is met with a flurry of analysis, questions, theories, and opinions. I’m guilty of it myself, of course! Ghost Galaxy’s announcement of Crucible Clash is framed around creating a set designed with hobby game retailers in mind, specifically for sealed play.
I think these are two wonderful and worthwhile aims. I’d even like to believe that these goals are by and large supported by the broader KeyForge community. I’d suspect players welcome efforts to further bolster LGSes supporting KeyForge, and Sealed is a beloved way to play the game with its return to premiere events being largely praised.
However, there is one spiky thorn in Clash: tournament legality. It's a non-legal set for official tournaments in the Archon and Alliance formats. It is a legal choice for Sealed tournaments if an organizer chooses to use the set. To be clear, nothing is stopping these decks from being used for casual play. This is not without merit, but it also hasn’t seemed to be a compelling enough argument for buying decks either when looking at Unchained and Menagerie, which are in similar boats. Unchained decks specifically have been listed at a discounted price of $8.99 USD in both the previous and current Gamefound campaigns.
In outlining Ghost Galaxy’s rationale for introducing Alliance, Ghost Galaxy CEO Christian Peterson previously speculated that existing KeyForge players previously left the game because as a player’s deck collection grew, it did not grow in value, and instead “each new deck simply relegates another to never again being played.”
Crucible Clash doesn’t only fail to address this, it actively goes against it by discouraging further play beyond its use in the tournament which it was opened. Personally, this bothered me a bit less for Unchained and Menagerie because those offered distinct casual KeyForge experiences, made a bit wacky due to algorithm changes and substantially larger card pools. Clash on the other hand more closely aligns with a competitive Sealed experience, with characteristics typically representative of legal sets: Seven houses, new cards, and a new mechanic. To me, Clash has all of the properties of a legal special set, which doesn’t do enough to incentivize casual play with it afterwards.
To Ghost Galaxy’s credit, it's not only very possible — I’d say it’s likely — that Sealed Crucible Clash will be highly enjoyable. However, it’s unclear if Clash would be any better than Sealed with any other current or future standard set. Prophetic Visions, Draconian Measures, and sets that follow will compete for people’s time, attention, and money. They will be the “new hotness” people want to buy from their LGS. As a testament to Ghost Galaxy’s work, they most likely will provide enjoyable sealed experiences too, and players would have the benefit of using those decks for future Archon or Alliance tournament play.
I think reduced legality should be avoided when possible and only considered if meaningful casual replay value exists, making the product a desirable purchase at game stores. In discussing this, a player at our LGS made a fantastic point that resonated with me strongly. He wondered, “What if Crucible Clash was a set intentionally designed for Vault Assault?” In an instant, new cards with interesting multiplayer effects sprung to mind, and even the thought of rewriting existing cards to be more easily interpreted for Vault Assault. It would of course be non-legal outside of Vault Assault, but I felt a dedicated SKU for the variant offered better long term value for casual play, one that people would continue to buy from their local retailer even as new standard sets release.
I’ll refrain from saying Ghost Galaxy should go back to the drawing board on Crucible Clash. I love playing Sealed, and I’m confident Ghost Galaxy can create a fun Sealed set. I look forward to that! My one suggestion to Ghost Galaxy though would be to have them print decks from that set with uniform card backs (with the exception of the identity cards). In doing so, these cards can — at the singles level — find new life in any number of community or causal variants without the need for sleeving, a potential barrier for some casual players. Testing Alliance brews, building Keymander decks, drafts, cubes, and any other experimental variants the community wants to engage with becomes more accessible.
At least, it would serve as a way to generate longer term value for Clash decks. Besides, what’s the harm? This set doesn’t follow the traditional model of learning a deck over time, so the uniqueness of the Archon isn’t really as pertinent. If the Ghosts can provide value to a player's growing collection of Clash decks, then I think they may be able to have their cake and eat it too. A fun Sealed experience, and expanded casual post-sealed play, namely, the ones you might find players playing with at their local game store.
We want to hear your two cents! Leave a comment below!