Thoughts on the Current Game [10/03/2023]

We decided to talk with the previous North American English Weiss national champion, Ryan Wibberley, about our thoughts on the current game. Ryan is an established individual who’s been playing the game since 2013. He loves low quality anime and visual novels. He is also a fan of card games in general. Recently, he’s ventured into the Shadowverse TCG and is looking to compete against other champions in Japan.

Shoyu: So Ryan, what do you think about the current format of the game in both languages?

Ryan: I think the power level for the Japanese format is quite fair. After the most recent ban list, the game seems to be in a better spot than before. The previous format was filled with blatantly overpowered sets/decks such as that of Alice and Gura. I think the only outlier currently still standing in the format is that of PaD (Puzzle and Dragon).

As for English, I think the game is in a rancid state. I absolutely hate this format. As the English format is essentially a replica of the previous Japanese format, the meta state gives a select few decks blatant raw power over the rest of the playing field. The finishing power within these decks is far too overwhelming; thus, creating a feedback loop where games have now devolved into a finisher turn where you either win on the spot or lose on the following swing back. As such, games have become four turns, twenty minute coinflips with decks like Azki and Gura running around. It’s neither fun to play on either a casual or competitive level.

Shoyu: How do you feel about the game in general?

Ryan: I think the game has been far too pushed in overall power level. Bushiroad seems to be keen on pushing the bar higher with more powerful effects, stacking multiple utility abilities on single cards, etc. The problem with this type of design is that the pushed cards make it feel as if you are losing agency as a player as the cards themselves feel as if they’re pushing you to victory over your own choices and decisions. Also, these high powered cards are accelerating the speed of the game, reducing the amount of turns any player has overall. As such, this type of design has made the game no longer as fun for me compared to before.

Shoyu: What do you think is the root cause of this problem? Why do you think the designs have shifted in this type of direction?

Ryan: I feel the design shift came about sometime in mid to late 2021. At this point, Bushiroad sought to increase overall card efficiency, which, in a game like Weiss, has many implications. Firstly, efficiency causes decks to become faster and more consistent. Players are more able to readily grab their pieces and stack up resources with less cost. As such, games go buy faster since players don’t need as many turns to acquire the pieces they need. Decks can become far more aggressive as the worry of losing resources becomes a minimal risk.

The printing of extra soul triggers on costless cards in specific is only adding to the overall problem. Sets that have this kind of design can more rapidly swing out to push for higher damage output, shortening the length of the game.

Weiss is a game of high variance. Furthermore, the first deck in Weiss is completely random, meaning that any extra damage is much more impactful in the early game. If a player ends up being unlucky, they may find themselves at level three before their opponent even hits level two before refreshing into their second deck. Given how much damage is in the game now, this is becoming far more common than people might think. This also reduces the skill ceiling as the game truly feels as if it’s boiled down to hard luck.

Shoyu: Are there any problematic cards or particular card profiles you feel have contributed to your current feelings toward the game?

Ryan: I don’t think the problem is exactly card profiles themselves. Cards overall have just become far too powerful and efficient. Finishers have heavily reduced costs in the late game. Decks can filter at little to no cost. Cards are carrying extra power on themselves for absolutely no reason.

Profiles like “Riko” reflect the modern shift in baseline utility as this has become the expected norm for a set regarding its utility pieces. Sets like Avatar and Lycoris Recoil are considered weak for the absence of such profiles since their utility does not carry similar profiles.

Shoyu: I think another concern to mention among utilities is cards that carry double ignition abilities such as that of Hololive’s 0/0 Mio. These cards can perform a utility ability twice and at two different timings, making them extremely effective, especially given how Weiss’ key timings on abilities work.

Ryan: Cards like Mio are definitely pushing the envelope. It’s fine for now, but the worry is how it can get easily abused just down the line. I will say that cards like 1/1 Eris and 2/2 Ghislaine from Mushoku Tensei were problematic cards that I’d say were key contributors to the current power creep problem.

Ryan: These cards don’t really matter much for the current format anymore due to power creep, but they are part of the beginning of the chain of power creep nonsense. Eris was a combo that sat around at 8500 cross-turn thanks to spawning out Ghislaine with her standby combo. Furthermore, she was on a combo that would go plus on hand, granting additional advantage in hand on top of field advantage from the standby climax she would combo with. Eris and Ghislaine locked out many decks during its prime, forcing Bushiroad to respond by increasing card power level which creates a cyclic return. Essentially, standby would then have to overpower those cards, creating an infinite back and forth that goes nowhere as cards would keep being designed with nonsensical power amounts. And to top it off, to make sure that cards could still get around locks like such, sets like Quints and Nijigasaki popped up with powercrept finishers that would get around this too in a very unpleasant way.

Shoyu: Do you think there’s a way to rework the format or change the game in a better direction? Alternatively, what would you like to see from Bushiroad in the future regarding the game’s balance and designs going forward?

Ryan: Personally, I would wish to see a full downgrade in power level to forcibly increase game turn count. Printing underpowered sets doesn’t fix the problems in an eternal format game like Weiss. We would need a format reset to force a lower power level. All sets in new releases would have to be powered down in an equal fashion to reach that power level.

I understand that some people enjoy higher level card games and these kinds of formats. I know that there are people who love Weiss for how it is right now, so I don’t want this to come across as me trying to say this is the only way for Weiss to be saved or anything like that. It’s fine to still have fun with Weiss even if I don’t. This is just my take as someone who started the game back in 2013 because Nanoha was in a card game and wants to regain the love that they felt for over eight years playing this game.

Feel free to follow Ryan on his Twitter here.