Does WotC Actually Playtest Cards Before Releasing Them?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 29, 2019, 7:56 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
Most cards in this games are relatively balanced (with "relatively" being the operative word), but, on occasion, there are certain cards that are so powerful that I have to wonder if WotC properly playtested those cards before releasing them (with two very prominent examples being Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Oko, Thief of Crowns , both of whom are blue planeswalkers; is that a coincidence, I wonder?).
What does everyone else here say about this? Does WotC playtest cards before releasing them?
According to one of my WoTC staff friends, yes, but not extensively.
December 30, 2019 12:59 a.m.
Tyrant-Thanatos says... #4
They do playtest, but not as much as they should imo.
Planeswalker are, always have been, and always will be, dangerous territory where balance is concerned imo. Couple this with blue being the color that WotC seems to have the most trouble balancing, and no, it's absolutely no coincidence that they're both blue planeswalkers. Nor is it, in my opinion, a coincidence that they were both the poster-children of the game/set at the time either. WotC clearly wanted to push them because they were the face of the game at the time. But they pushed too hard, and had to ban them as a result.
December 30, 2019 3:20 a.m.
At this point, i feel like they play test at a casual table, or just playtest limited formats. No real thought is given to decks with 4x copies of a card. Infact, i feel like they use standard meta as their "playtest" and just let the chips fall where they may. Like Oko; it took him forever to be banned any format, but once he was, then he started getting banned more and more. Green had 3-5 cards that should never have been printed into standard just in Eldraine.
December 30, 2019 10:03 a.m.
Wizards makes horrible sets for 2-3 years, then makes one set far too good. Take the Kaladesh block, no good artifacts had been printed for years, and WoTC got too hyper, and had to ban them out of existence. When your standard cost $500 per paper deck, and can beat modern on a good hand, well, you need to deal with power creep.
December 30, 2019 1:10 p.m.
The other thing, ID like to point out, is that its also impossible to predict every possible outcome of a card or its power level when you're playtesting a card and you have a specific way of it being used in mind.
For example: Oko Ono. Its kinda easy to realize that Oko, Thief of Crowns second ability is meant to be paired with its first, which actually seems a lot less usable then nerfing your opponents best creatures and artifacts. If someones told "hey, this is how its supposed to work" and play tests it that way only, they might not think of how it could be used to turn the battlefield into an elk farm. However, players look for ways to break cards.
December 30, 2019 10:45 p.m.
Ragtagturtle says... #8
Seems to me during and after war of the spark is the worst like they made a effort to force Planeswalkers into standard with cards like oko and small teferi
December 31, 2019 1:29 a.m.
Coward_Token says... #9
I think another thing with Oko is that since the +1 still leaves a creature with relatively high P/T, they figured it wouldn't be super effective as a source of PW self-protection
Last_Laugh says... #2
When Jace came out... not really. After the whole fiasco that was 2017 with ban after ban WotC created a dedicated group for playtesting to regain player trust... which they promptly ignored for Ono lol. It really is the only explanation... that card didn't take long to break.
December 29, 2019 9:21 p.m.