Powercreep that I despise the most

I’ve been struggling for a while to really put to words what exactly I want to convey when I tell others about the most annoying subtle powercreep that exists in this game. However, I think, with a recent spoiler of a card for Idolm@ster Million Live, this card fully visualizes what I mean by “subtle powercreep.”

Until the official translation is shown, the card’s effect reads as the following:
This card cannot be played if you have one or less Music (音楽) characters on stage. When it is played, check up to the top five cards of your deck and add a Music character to hand, sending the rest to waiting room.

I want to remind players that a card doesn’t have to “break” the game or be a meta menace to be a powercreeped design. Powercreep doesn’t always equate to a card being “good” but rather to how the card is strengthened in efficacy, costs, or a wide range of factors in comparison to previous mirrored effects and cards.

Weiss Schwarz, like many other card games, has several cloned effects that appear in many series. These effects are often very minimally modified with the main change being the trait to reflect the main trait of that specific series or a colour shift. If you take a look here, you can see how an effect like Chihaya’s camera on the left has essentially been reprinted all throughout time. Aside from the variations mentioned, these cards function exactly the same.

I think the first wave of powercreep stemmed from the addition of a singular gameplay mechanic, granting these events a counter timing. Now, I want to add another detail to powercreep as a whole. Powercreep isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In terms of gameplay perspective here, the powercreep actually added additional playability to the cards; that is to say that the powercreep here gave more opportunities to use said cards in a different capacity (in this case, timing). Furthermore, with this particular card type, it was very often difficult to get these cards into hand as these cards are events. With bonders that grabbed these events as well, the powercreep changes granted additional possibilities where you could more consistently get a hold of and have different plays using these cards.

So wherein lies the issue with the newest card mentioned? Is this card not the next wave of “improvements” to previous designs? The problem lies with two distinct parts of the card: conditions and payoff. The effects of cards are largely gated by their conditions. If a card meets a heavier condition, the effect of said card will likely be more powerful. The problem with Weiss’ designs in the past few years: conditions are essentially meaningless.

If we were to take a look at Kaori’s event, you can see that the requirements are that you have at least two Music (音楽) characters on your board to be able to use the event. Now, this is hardly a step-up from the previous conditions of the modified event with backup usage. Most of those events require a single card that meets the trait or name requirements to be deployed. If you’ve played the game long enough, you’ll quickly deduce what conditions are actually difficult to achieve and which ones are essentially shoehorned on a card to make it appear that there are restrictions. As a reward for meeting Kaori’s arbitrary condition, you get to check one more card compared to the typical profile of checking four. This is just bad powercreep. The rationale is because you are assigning an arbitrary condition and granting a meaningful reward. The conditional text may as well not exist. This is my biggest gripe with Bushiroad’s subtle powercreep. It’s nonsensical and uses poor excuses to justify said changes.

And that’s not to say that Bushiroad is incapable of linking requirements to rewards either. Take the case of these other check five events. Miku’s event requires a soft requirement of having a Miku [三
玖] character on your stage, but the payoff is that you can only add a character with Miku in its name off the event’s check. Similarly, the Revue Starlight event on the right featuring Maya and Claudine performs a five-card check but adds a card with soul icons (including climaxes) and giving you a scry. As a cost for such a powerful ability, you need to rest two characters on stage as an additional cost. That is to say, these cards have limitations and payoffs that are relatively fair with their requirements to play.

That being said, Bushiroad can also be inconsistent on this as well. Take the card above. This card performs a similar check five as does Kaori’s event. The condition is pretty much the same if not even easier than Kaori’s. You need six or less stock or you cannot play the event. That is a boggling amount of advantage akin to the amount of stock readily available in the late game to deny your use of the event. There is no excuse here for why such an arbitrary restriction exists, and a common defence of “it’s from an obscure series like World Trigger” does not justify the lack of fair balancing here.

So, aside from complaining, what can be done to alleviate or fix this powercreep. I will once again reiterate that powercreep is inevitable. Games need to advance and add onto previous designs. I specifically chose the word “add” here as “improving” is much more complicated. Designs don’t always flow in a “better” direction either.

One way that Bushiroad has already been adding onto previous designs is by creating newer designs that supplement older cards or grant additional effects/remove conditions of said cards. Take the Hololive pairing above. Korone on the left quite literally gives a backup ability to the 1/0 event on the right through her own effect. It isn’t intrusive either as that ability rewards you as well for performing the action.

Another option that can be done is to give more meaningful abilities onto the card with higher restrictive requirements. Raise the risk; raise the reward. Conditions need to be meaningful and are often a driver that gives direction to a player when deck-building. Cards should be designed suggesting that players build within a certain direction and be rewarded for doing so. If you want a powerful ability, you should have to lean into that design space. It can also be quite subtle. The above event is obviously overloaded with a bunch of text, but, at its core, it really is just another check four event. What is good about the design above is it gives more of an extra reward if you build to its additional ability.

Take, for instance, we reword Kaori’s event. Instead of the arbitrary requirement of two or more Music characters in play, why don’t we change that to having Kaori [歌織] on the board instead to give you that additional check. It can be worded in a way where you will get to check four like all the other clones; however, if you do have a Kaori in play, you get to check one more. I think this is good in terms of design. Players should, once again, be rewarded for actively meeting conditions rather than having to just have the requirements through basic deck-building. I don’t want to word this like powercreep should be a punishment. I think a reward based system is far more effective and fun to play with. The point is, rather than simple straight powercrept designs, we should be looking for alternative directions that both add to gameplay while also improving and adding meaningful complexity to the game.