Power Creep has occurred in card games pretty much since their inception. From a sales standpoint it makes sense as each additional set needs to sell packs and if the newest set only has cards that are the same or worse than the prior sets people just are not going to want to buy them.
Some simple examples from a well know non-SWU game…
Savannah Lions appeared in Magic the Gathering’s “Alpha” set. One cost, 2 power, 1 toughness white creature. This card was one of the best white weenie creatures available back in the mid 90s.
Fast forward a couple decades and there are cards like Recruitment Officer where it has the same resource cost and stats but with a pretty good ability tacked on plus a downshift in rarity as an uncommon.
Another good example is Magic’s Counter Spell getting a power creep treatment into Mana Drain. Same cost, same basic function, but the later now has a tacked on ability that is a major advantage over the former.
There are plenty of other example to pull from in the Magic the Gathering realm mostly due to that game’s longevity. Flying Men to Jace’s Phantasm, Harrier Strix, or Galerider Sliver. The list is plentiful and could go on for quite more than I want to write out or than people would want to read.
How does this related to Star Wars: Unlimited?
Well the game designers have been doing a great job so far of not blatantly creating cards that are strictly better than their previous sets’ counter parts.
Just spoiled today is the card Grenade Strike. Two resource cost Aggression card that does 2 points of damage to a unit and then another point of damage to a different unit in the same arena. This card is extremely similar to the previously printed Daring Raid, a one cost Aggression card that does 2 points of damage to a unit or base.
An aggressive aggro deck would likely still prefer Daring Raid due to the option of throwing the damage straight at an opponent’s base. A control deck would potentially prefer the extra point of damage in order to play a two for one and remove two opposing units from the board. However the control deck could technically prefer the lesser costed choice in some situations. Basically it’s not clear cut that the newer card is strictly better than the old one.
This forces a player to make key decisions during deck building even prior to playing a single game.
Will there be power creep in SWU at some point in the future? Maybe. For now though this is really good game design. Kudos to the developers.
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