The new proposal to adjust the rewards to be based on the card levels used in combat caused a debate. How could it not? It is a serious change in the system and impacts players differently all through the leagues.
It is suggested, that the RShares should be adjusted based on the cards used in battle. If you use lower level cards, part of the rewards will be taken away. That is were a lot of players stopped reading or at least processing the information, based on the comments that were posted beneath the proposal.
But when will rewards actually be capped?
This table is from the actual post:
| League | Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Silver | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Gold | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Diamond | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Champion | MAX | MAX | MAX | MAX |
It shows the card levels needed for no cut on reward per league.
And actually it contains the maximum cards allowed to be played from the next lower league.
So in bronze, there is actually no change. You needed to get rid of starter cards and get at least an actual level 1 card to earn rewards and look at the table: no cut if you at least use level 1.
If you advance to silver, you need the cards at bronze level to have your rewards not cut. And in gold you need them at silver level. And so on.
For me, that is reasonable. I play in silver with a lot of cards at max level for that league. Now I could play in gold without any rewards being cut.
Let's face it, to stand my ground in gold I would at least get the rare summoners at level 5 and a few other cards one level above the silver max to get the new abilities. Otherwise I will lose a lot of battles because I lack those abilities. Skill alone can not compensate for that all the time. It is the reason why I got the silver league level cards the way they are.
Uraeus and Deepklurker dishing out poison with every second hit makes a huge difference in gold. And the Deeplurker gaining blind ability is a nice bonus to have for a water team. I experienced that a few times at end of season when I make the jump to gold for the last few days.
Most new abilities come at silver-max-level plus one. I do not need max gold level to become more competitive in gold league and while I am at or over max silver level I will earn full rewards in gold.
We do not need silver or bronze level teams fighting in gold, that is not what gold league is for.
Most of my battles in silver league this season were against level 1 bot teams. And while these are easy wins and points for reward chests, it takes the fun out of the game.
I could feel my strategic and tactical senses dull down when I saw the battle history of 5 different level 1 teams presented. Winning with a crappy team does not make me a better player. Losing despite my best effort does teach me more.
A few hours ago 
if all of the CL common cards were combined to level 3, there wouldn't be enough of them even just for the accounts that are playing the game right now
So why is it that there are still so many level 1 copies out there?
The advantage of level 3 common over level 1 is negligible as long as the majority of players is sending level 1 into battle.
All those bots and newer players are sending low level cards into battle in higher leagues because they do not get crushed by higher level cards often enough. Even though most common cards gain a significant ability or stat boost at level 3.
By getting just enough players to level their cards, they will also gain a battle advantage and then others will follow just to keep up.
And as a side bonus: Those few level 1 cards that will be left over might actually generate some rental income for there will still be a need for them in novice and bronze league. The blockchain and the market would be cleaned up, processing time and power would be freed.
As a final thought I want to pick up on another quote from the above mentioned post.
One other thing I wanted to address quickly is the situation where sometimes it is better to play a card at lower levels than at higher levels in certain rulesets. That is something we plan to address with some UI updates to the team creation screen as soon as we can reasonably put dev resources on it. Ideally, players would have the option to choose to play a higher level card at a lower level, so the card would count as the level it actually is for rewards, but in the battle it can have the lower level stats.
That could not be that hard to implement?
There already is the Starter Card flag. And if you own a higher level copy of a card than your current league allows, there is a yellow attention sign on it.
Some coding is already in the game to limit a card to a lower level if the played card is above the max.
Can you not build on that?
Obviously the selection process should not be disturbed. I run out of time often enough when it's a challenging ruleset and mana cap.
Yet, a small icon on top of each card for a "downgrade" selection would allow to send lower level cards into battle.
So in a slow ruleset I could downgrade my Pelacor Bandit to a level 1 card to take away its speed again.
And creeping ooze at higher level with melee attack could be reduced to lower level, taking away the attack capability which would make it an intentional sniper target if I wish so.
The proposed change will be good for the overall economy and the quality of battles within the leagues. That will in turn flex the strategic and tactical muscles of the players again.
So even those claiming to win with skill instead of high level cards will gain something, a more challenging competition.
That is it for today. If you agree, let me know. If you disagree, I like to read it as well but please keep it civil. Thank you for that and for reading.
Thanks to freeztag for the free usage of the dividers.
Pictures based on screenshots from the game.
