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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.พ. 2023
- That's right, a new series on card design! Rather than looking at bad designs or exploring important design milestones, "Playing Around" seeks to explore the ups, downs, advantages, and disadvantages of common game design elements.
Resource Cards: Love em or hate em? Deck filler or Draft Compensators? Completely pointless or the very thing the game revolves around? Opinions on their use and different approaches to resources are as old as the genre itself, but is there more than meets the eye to such systems?
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An important resource in Yugioh that rarely gets mentioned is the limited number of Zones. Being restricted to only 3-5 Monster Zones is a huge limiting factor when compared to games like MTG where any infinite loop often translates to infinite card advantage. Many combos in yugioh are hard capped by the number of zones, and some combos are stopped in their tracks if u place a card in the wrong zone.
Infernity in Duel links is limited SO HARD by having only 3 zones
It's also why the Extra Deck Zone is such a dumb idea in the long run, because decks that can vomit their entire decks now have an entire sixth space to extend combos with. It should've been limited to Link Monsters exclusively.
also Hard Once Per turns, that’s another important resource in yugioh. I feel like Kohdok overstated how unrestricted yugioh is
Kashtira has entered the chat, what zones? Lol
@@kaiserinjacky I was going to mention that but it's not really a game mechanic, more of just something that gets put on individual cards. in other games they generally don't need to make cards once per turn because there is some resource that you're paying for the effect already.
you forgot to mention one of the biggest problems with dedicated resource cards, getting flooded (only drawing resource cards) or screwed (drawing no resource cards). these can really create non games and are super frustrating to experience, when game devs try to "solve resource cards" its usually this their trying to solve.
Not to mention that the playability of a card usually comes down to its power relative to its cost and most cards end up being unplayable as a result.
That's honestly what I thought the video was going to be about
Yeah, getting mana-screwed in magic is not fun at all, mana flood at least gives you resources to do something else later.
Basically what was going to be my post. While dedicated resource cards are great, they can lead to non-games where you draw too many or too few. Ive been playing magic for close to 20 years now and I still hate flooding/screwing on lands.
I understand its a necessary evil, but its so frustrating
I mention it in 3:48
The term "Gradestuck" kinda throws a wrench in that analysis, though. You'll have bad hands in practically any game. Lacking combo pieces in Yugioh, getting Gradestuck in old Game-Me-No-Like, or in ACAR games where you need all the cards in your hand but can't play any of them until you plunk one down as a resource.
The yugioh video is inevitable; one day you'll have to dive into the nitty gritty of modern yugioh
I absolutely love this niche you've gotten into... But I can't believe you haven't talked about Gate Ruler yet! I don't really know which category either of it's two resource systems fall into.
Yooo it's JettKuso! Love to see it
I personally really love Digimon’s Memory Gauge system. While it has accidentally created a meta where “Memory Tamers” and “Memory Boost Options” are staples in almost any deck, there are also plenty of ways to gain Memory and/or reduce costs to the point that they aren’t a necessity.
I think digimon is super Duper important since it’s directly shows and proves you can have a good and popular gamer that doesn’t have a resource system, i’ve kind of gotten tired of people pointing to Yu-Gi-Oh and saying “ see this is why your game must always have a resource system don’t be yu-gi-oh”
@@empireyouth5791 but it does have a resource system? That's what the original comment was talking about?
@@OneEyeShadow The memory gage isn’t a resource and more of a penalty, it doesn’t dictate what you can do but rather as a form of punishment for any expensive action
i’ll resource system limits how fast A player can interact with the game until they build it up
The memory gauge simply rewards the opponent more if you’re too greedy,
It functions like a deterrent and not an expanding limiter
@@empireyouth5791 It does limit what you can do, though. If you only have 2 memory, you can't play a 13 cost card since it would put your opponent over 10 memory. Also, memory management and denial are key concepts to playing better and potentially winning.
@@GunbladeKnight yes but seeing as there is no in game mechanics to manipulate memory only Card Effects that do it’s not a resource that is naturally built through the process of the game.
Think of it this way if every card in magic the gathering becomes a vanilla you can still use lands and build them up, same with Buddy fight, flesh and blood, but if you do the same with Digimon you can’t manipulate the memory gauge showing that it isn’t a “game resource” it by itself isn’t intrinsically dynamic like a resource system
To call it a resource system comprehensible to magic land is to say “ The size mechanic in Buddy fight is a resource system since it limits The maximum amount of monsters on the field” or Yu-Gi-Oh “ The amount of cards in your hand as a resource since to interact with the game you sacrifice them to acquire board presents”
A common refrain is that resource cards create non-games, but the fact is card games have variance. Non-games happen in just about any card game. Bricking is universal, and developers manage this reality through rulesets, while players manage this via deck construction. You can brick in yugioh and you can brick in magic and you can brick in digimon and you can brick in hearthstone, all you and the devs can do is minimize it.
so simple yet people dont see it.
One topic I think would be very interesting to cover would actually be the namesake, errata text. How different games handle it and what they tend to change or avoid changing, and even some of the discussion could be about whether to use errata text or to use bannings.
Despite not being a fan of the art, I am a big fan of Elestrals resource system. You have a dedicated resource deck that also serves as your life points.
In Vanguard, every time you take damage, you put a card from the top of your deck into the damage zone face up. Loads of cards require you to flip damage cards face down as part of their cost, thus turning it into a roundabout resource system in a similar way that you mentioned for Elestral
@@MrZer093 except in VG it's more damage = more resources, while in Elestrals it's more damage = less resources?
omg ive been rewatching the series and a new one just dropped! ive actually been working on my own resource system, its a cross between MtG and Pokemon, you can play what are essentially followers, who have their own HP and can tap for resource, can also block, and can also attach themselves to another creature to power up the moves for said creature.
Combination Resource card and Cards as Resource. Creative!
I'm excited to watch every episode you upload of this new series, your Seven Deadly Sins series helped me adjust my own card game. I love your vids keep it up!
One option regarding the whole resource flood / screw issue is to just have resources in a resource-only side deck. This allows for absolute control over how many resources you're going to draw while still maintaining some of the more nuanced mechanics of something like Magic or Pokemon. You just decide if you want to draw a land/energy this turn or a creature/trainer/spell/artefacts/whatever.
Love the content! Helps me with my TCG I’m working on
This was very helpful, I keep forgetting that there are games that fall into the MTG or DM systems. Thank you for the video!
Idea: Any card as resource + charge and draw. BUT, you also have the option of just blindly playing the top card of your deck as a resource, except without drawing (since doing this wouldn't decrease your hand size). So if you have something in hand that you'd like to replace, you can drop it as a land/energy and draw a new card, but if you really like your whole hand, or you're facing decision paralysis, you can just play something off the top and see what happens. The main downside of pulling resources off the top would be that you don't necessarily know what type/element/faction of resource you're getting if you're playing a multi-faction deck, but that seems like a relatively minor issue, especially in the mid-to-late game.
This was very interesting, I've been slowly making my own TCG for nearly five years now.
And never heard resource cards explained in this way before.
What's interesting is a lot of my cards are a mix of sturdy, volatile and somewhere in between.
I never planned for it, I just naturally made them that way.
The Digimon TCG resource system might be my all time favorite. Personally, I'm all for a solid "action" system like the one in Card Wars, just so long as you don't get too cute with zero cost cards...like Card Wars did (dammit)
Yes! This is the kind of analysis I need!
I feel like WOW tcg found the sweet spot on ramping while giving a good reason to consider diluting with quests as well.
I'd like to hear your opinions on the Don deck mechanics one day. You definitely have a source of expertise when it comes to game mechanics so it'd be nice to hear what your thoughts are about it. I haven't played the game too much but i do enjoy the gameplay if only at a casual level.
Dear god, that outro with the spiderman 2 pizza music was nerve racking, I didn't think kohdok was going to finish in time.
Damn, I thought I was being spoiled when I saw the Naruto CCG getting a mention, but Neopets too?! Well, I'm glad SOMEONE still remembers it...because the current site owners sure don't. @_@
The nice thing about Force of Will’s resource system is that you tap your Ruler in order to get a new Magic Stone into play each turn
So it’s harder to be like “did I get a new stone this turn?” when there is a clear indicator for it
The Special Stones in FoW are also bae in my book yee
And late in the game, that same system creates tension - what do I want more this turn, to get another stone to play something bigger, or to attack with my J-Ruler?
a "solution" that that conserves the pace control of a resourse system while giving players more control over it.
Modern YGO isn't bad because of a lack of resource system. It's bad because of poor design and scope creep.
I don't think it's fair to imply that YGOs problems come from sheer incompetence. What you're calling "poor design" is mostly just a result of the design space allowed by its core rules. With no set rotation and no flexible limitation system like resources it's only a matter of time until dominant combos emerge, and how do you keep those in check without constant scope creep providing viable alternatives?
Some systems aren't meant for constant expansion. If Poker got new cards added a few times a year would it be better for it? How about chess? I could see that working for a few sets, but how long before every game is 8 Magical Shadow Princess-Popes and a king that only appears after the opponent speaks your true name thrice?
4:20 This "downside" sounds a lot like an upside honestly. Ccgs are built around players making difficult, skill-testing decisions throughout the game. Having players decide which card they deem their least useful prospect is a great way to add agency and raise the skill ceiling.
...and also raise the amount of time each of your turns take. And the amount of decisions that can overwhelm a new player, which makes them feel like they're navigating a minefield of bad decisions.
Remember, "good for me" does not mean "inherent upside".
while I kinda agree it can add depth on decision, some game that use this method bump into problem of giving their players choice paralyze from the very first turn,
@@StarkMaximum I'll take that over paralysis by drought/flood. Crunchiness is kind of the point to some
@@revimfadli4666 It's incredible how you completely missed the point of what I said that bad.
The point is that it makes it more difficult for other people, and your reaction is literally "it works for me, skill issue it seems. They should just get good, like me".
Think about anyone other than yourself for just a moment.
@@StarkMaximum I mean, any game can overwhelm a new player. And I'm sure deciding what card to give up isn't going to be the worst of their problems if they do find it overwhelming. I definitely believe that having to make that decision is honestly a nice addition for a game that requires a resource, and prefer it over a resource brick
I've always loved the system Fantasy Flight's Call of Cthulhu used, where you have three Domains that you attach any card to as a resource, and can tap those Domains to pay to bring other things into play. The complications came in with how each domain can only pay for one thing when tapped, meaning that you could be wasting resources, and some powerful cards were Dedicated, where the entire cost had to be paid with a single colour of resource. Later sets introduced Sacrificial resources, which generated more when spent, but where then removed from the domain. It meant there was more decision making in where you allocated resources to each turn
Great video!
Nice to see Buddyfight in a video
Ive been watching your channel for a while and while watching ive been making my game. I do take what you say into consideration when making my game and I will say the resource system is by far one of the most annoying things to get down since aside from the win condition it is the second most important thing to all card/board games. And because of that, I have ecpermented with many types of resource systems but I have finally came up with a way make the resource system work. Although I havnt tested it in theroy it should work, and I like it. My game is a skirmish war game built with card game mechanics.
I like how Final Fantasy TCG handles this. There are Backups which can be tapped for 1 mana, but rather than getting one into play per turn, you have to pay for them like any other card and you have a max of 5 out on the field. Aside from them, almost any card in your hand can be sent to the graveyard to pay 2 mana of cost for another card. It kind of has the feeling of "any card as a resource," but since the cards go to the graveyard instead of some isolated resource stack, they can still be interacted with afterwards with various graveyard effects. It still creates a sense of pace for the game since you can't just fire off high cost cards at will, while also naturally creating room for tech cards, where if a card isn't good against a particular matchup, it's still a card you can pitch for cost.
;) and made Discard decks way to strong before they figured that out.
sounds good. questions
1- does the discard to add mana thing enable graveyard strategies? how does the game handle that balance?
2- you can discard a card for mana once per turn or as many times as you like? the latter seems to lead to some crazy starts/decks
3- where are you from and what can you tell us about the state of the final fantasy tcg?
4- my version of the ff game was very diferent from what came to be.
@@goncaloferreira6429
1) you first target the card in your graveyard and THEN discard but that is not tha common
2) you could discard as many as you want so if your starting hand you have a cost 8 card you could discard 4 cards to pay it.
3) search online :)
@@Zanji1234 3) i guesss the game is dead then.
@@goncaloferreira6429 i can't say something from your area but is stilll being played over herein Germany. It has it's 18ths Set coming out, has several boss decks (multiple players against one boss deck player) and several starter decks also announced for this year and several official events.
About the Hearthstone mana system being used physically, I was going to mention you could just have a mana deck and you draw a card of each each turn, but apparently there is a card game that does this?
(Also I really love how Legends of Runeterra lets you save mana in order to cast spells later, but it's probably not feasible at all on paper.)
yeah, Lor never getting mention in these videos is big nono.
It's feasible with a miniboard and a tracker token, like with some boardgames
the memory gauge from Digimon / Chrono Clash system or the way WoW TCG did it (basically every card can be played face down as resource and special cards are put face up for special effects)
Mistake though: Dinosaur King has some kind of "scaling Resource" since the level of the Dino you are "summoning" is based on the turn your in (turn 3 = up to level 3 dinos)
Sweet discussion
I think resource system should be thought after the main mechanics have been stablished, thus making the resources feel natural and in theme. Maybe your resource system is needed for all cards played like MTG, or maybe just for a few yet powerfull actions like in Vanguard or WiXoss.
Resource systems should be though up as part of the game as a whole, so it can be integrated mechanically/thematically with the rest of the game.
Naruto’s turn marker system worked fine even with the chakra system which was also a resource system.
a solid and thematic system.
To offer some lighthearted thoughts on the format of this one, while this was a pretty good video (as always) I feel like it didn't actually end up showing much of the ups and DOWNS as much as it could have. This felt a lot more like a glowing review of resource card systems with a much more trepidatious approach to criticizing their faults. Obviously I'm a Yugioh guy, so I'm going to have a bias in some regard here, but I would have liked more of a Devil's Advocate perspective as well. For a lot of us dedicated, longtime Yugioh players, that crazy ceiling of what you can do on a turn can often be part of the fun (not ALWAYS, of course, but it is part of the game's design and it wouldn't still be so popular if it was flat out wrong in this approach), and I was disappointed that perspective wasn't really acknowledged or addressed at all.
Still a really good video, but those are my thoughts. Looking forward to more.
honest question: would yugioh be a better game as a player vs game? the computer doesnt complain about long turns and games that end on turn 2.
@@goncaloferreira6429 definitely not, people will complain about everything and anything regardless, that seems to be consistent of any game. People talk like Yugioh is special in that regard when it really isnt. Love it or hate it is IS a card game and it was always made as one. Hell, in it's original chapters it was basically a super loose MTG clone which is probably why the two share so many minor gameplay terms (like Lifepoints and Graveyard, ect ect), and was always intended to be a player vs player game right down to Takahashi's comments on the matter. Yugioh's game design may not be for everybody, but it works, and people who play it like it for what it does differently. Card games would probably be a very stagnant genre if not for Yugioh being such a massive outlier in ideas.
@@TheSliferSlacker you missed the point of my question.
you are clearly a big defender of the game. hope you can clearly see its problems as well.
@@goncaloferreira6429 I don't feel I missed it at all. You asked me if I thought it would be better as a non-pvp game and I explained that I felt it wouldnt and expanded on my thoughts on the game in relation to my original comment. I don't know what kind of answer you were expecting but mine is still a definite: "no, I don't." Every game has problems, nobody is more aware of Yugioh's problems than people who like playing it lol.
@@TheSliferSlacker so what are those problems in your opinion?
The new 5r broke my heart. I actually wanted to love it, drove from Washington to gencon for the drop and even went to the first major tournament at Fantasy Flight a couple months later. I tried so hard to ignore its flaws until I couldn't anymore.
Thank you for this 👍
7:39 the cycling lands are by no means "a gamechanger." they see zero competitive play. all cycling lands that do see play are played because they have another bonus on top of cycling.
The last part was a little bit fast (where you mentioned different ressource systems), so I have a question: What games do exist where the cards itself generate a ressource (like tokens, coins or dice on the card) on every of your turns they stay on the field that can be used to play special effects of the cards itself or have to be paid for specific cards like evolutions?
I guess some modern boardgames do that, such as Through The Ages
Wow. This is a cool new series. It can give a lot of nuances. I look forward to more episodes. Resource cards are a good example. Land cards are very traditional and reliable for MTG. However it is also one of the most criticized part of the game. So it is worthy of discussion. I am glad Kohdok made a whole video about this. I didn't know there were two factors, dedicated and sturdy. I wonder if going in between can help. I played around with resources in my own game design. So I have my ideas.
There is dedicated vs any. I know how frustrating it can be to have a third of a MTG deck be taken up by land. It puts limits on deck building. Oh well. At least the sideboard helps. Developing any card as resource can help. However in the video, I learn that there is a downside. It is difficult to pick which card to use as resource. I did figure out one way to have a middle ground. There are definitely specialized cards used for resource. However they provide some kind of other benefit. I was experimenting with it. There are different kinds resources for different attributes, and they have different colors. They not only provide energy but they also provide passive strengths that the attribute has. It can be things like increasing or decreasing damage under certain circumstances. The video got to special resource cards. That does remind me of what I was doing. So my aim was to make all resource cards work like special resource cards. Now I think there may be a better way to do this. Just have every resource card have two options. The main option is to tap them as normal resources. They can tap later during the opponent's turn. This is good for instants like counter spells and battle tricks. Alternatively the resource card can be tapped to have a small but beneficial effect on its own. It is like the special hero abilities in Hearthstone. They are good for dumping excess mana crystals during a turn. The resource cards can take the place of low level spells that would cost one mana anyway. Oh my gosh! I just figured out how this would work in MTG. It is brilliant! Here is how it goes. Tapping a forest gives a +1/+1 boost to any creature. Tapping a mountain deals 2 damage to any target. Tapping a swamp gives a -1/-1 weakening to any creature. Tapping an island makes the user scry. Tapping a plains heals the user by 2. This would free up the deck from low level spells. Save the early game for the cheap and weak creatures. I wonder if there can be a rule that taping two islands lets the player draw a card. I hope that is fair.
There is sturdy vs. volatile resource cards. I didn't know such a difference existed. I understand it once this video explains it. I played both MTG and Pokemon, so I am good with either one. Yet I thought of something even cooler. Maybe this can have a good middle ground. Here is how it goes. The game generally works like study resources. The reasource cards can even take up a dedicated area in the playing field. However some kinds of decks are good at removing the resource cards of the opponent. It is so interesting and give a good variety. I think is is cool that green is the MTG color that is good at gaining resource cards. That is its thing. So I would like there to be a color that is good at taking away resource cards from the opponent. That would be cool. That would give interesting variety. MTG sort of has this with land destruction spells. However they are rare. I would like to see this expanded more. There can be even more tricks that hinder the resource cards of the opponent. One can do the opposite of whatever green does. There can be certain spells. The user looks at the opponent's hand and picks a land card. Then the opponent shuffles the land card back in the deck. There can even be special creatures. They can battle just like all creatures. However they are mainly used to mess up resource cards. The creatures can be tapped during the opponent's turn. This causes the opponent's land to tap. So the opponent can't use the land until their next turn when all lands untap. One weird thing about land destruction spells is that they are usually in red. I don't know why. I think there are better options. The enemy colors of green are blue and black. These are my two favorite colors. So I think they are the best candidates of going against resource gain.
Black has its own way of being the opposite. It just uses alternative resources. The beginning of the video referred to this. It may seem weird for the life points and discard pile to be a resource. However that is exactly what black does. As someone who has played plenty of black decks, I can be all snooty and go "Well actually". There is something the video that is left out. Creatures are a resource too. That is another thing black does, sacrifice creatures to get beneficial effects. Black has a flavor of being the spooky and individualist color. So it can do things that the other colors would be too squeamish about. This is things like giving blood, ritual sacrifice and especially necromancy. The mechanics of black reflect this. Now that I think of it, creatures as a resource is something that happens in all of the big three TCGs. In the other two games this resource is used to get more powerful creatures. If you want the big guys, you will have to give up the little guys. Little guys are free. Medium guys need one little guy. The biggest guys need two little guys. In Yu-Gi-Oh higher level creatures need to use up low level creatures in order to come to the battlefield. This is called tribute summoning. I think it is like a ritual sacrifice. Pokemon has something similar. However it is referred to as evolution. It is framed as a small creature growing bigger. Still once a creature card evolves, it can't be used anymore. Only the higher stage card on top gets used. So it is sort of like a creature as resource. Pokemon as a franchise tries so hard to be family friendly. So evolution was a good move. Pokemon already has a PR problem with the concept of animals fighting for sport. It was also a victim of Satanic Panic. So having Pokemon get sacrificed would be so much worse. This is especially true when low stage Pokemon are so adorable. That won't go over well.
I think the best color to use resource reduction is blue. It opposes green. It does resource reduction instead of resource alternatives. I think this fits really well. It fits the mechanics. Blue is specialized in a control role. It is good at defense and good at playing the long game. Green tends to be a fast color, due to its ability to ramp up and bring in the big creatures early. Blue is good at slowing the game down by stalling. It is the opposite in a way. Blue already has plenty of tricks up its sleave to stall the game. There are counter spells, bounce spells, creature tapping etc. It is just fitting for blue to do impair the opponent's land via land destruction and other means. Then it will slow things down even further. This even fits in terms of flavor. Blue is associated with water creatures and air creatures. Those are the kind of creatures that would be most at odds with the earth creatures of green. There is land vs. sea and earth vs. sky. Blue is also the intellectual color. It is associated with technology and progress. There is more artificial stuff like industry. One major downside of technology is that it harms the natural environment. Maybe such harm prevents land being used for magic. The resource card impairment mechanics can reflect the harm to nature.
There are other things to consider for resource cards. A big think is luck. The video touches on it, but it is worthy of further discussion. I did find one of the uppermost comments in the comments section address this issue. Lets see... Okay, Hillel Eisenberg, great point! In order to use land card most effectively in MTG, there has to be a delicate balance made. One can't have too many or too few lands. When the deck is randomly shuffled, the game relies on luck in order to get cards. All cards are effected. However it affect land cards the most. How well the random lands can strike that balance can make or break the game. There is some controversy. Defenders claim that that this makes the game less daunting. A weak player can go up against a strong player knowing that they still have the chance to win. Critics claim that this makes the game more frustrating. If a player gets unlucky with land flood or land screw, they get a impairment out of their control. Personally I am on the critics side. Drawing a land at the wrong time is not just boring, it actually makes a player miss out on some spell or creature that would have helped them gain advantage. Some games are luck based, like bingo. Some games are more strategy based, like chess. TCGs are something in between. Whether luck or strategy is better depends on the preferences of the player. I am hard core on the strategy side. I would rather be a chess master than a master gambler any day. I have experience frustration over land screw and land flood many a time when playing MTG. I do recall having the same issue while playing the Pokemon TCG as a kid. I am not alone as the luck of MTG has been ripped to shreds by the critics. This stands out at the biggest problem in the land system of MTG. It is worth a whole discussion. There are even attempts to fix the problem in other TCGs. This video talked a lot about any card as resource. I think the main reason why those systems were developed in the first place is to reduce the dependence on luck. Decks are more consistent and less frustrating. The video also briefly mentions having resource cards in a separate stack. This gives players the choice of going for resource cards or other cards. It helps with the luck issue. I come up with my own solution. That is to turn the card game into an extreme strategy game. The deck doesn't get shuffled at all. Instead the player always searches the deck and picks a card instead of drawing from the top. This even happens automatically at the beginning of a player's turn. I think it would be good to go for people like me that prefer strategy. It would eliminate the issue of luck with resource cards entirely.
There is an option of not having any energy at all. I am not as much into Yu-Gi-Oh as much as the other two main TCGs. The visuals are not my style. I also find things about the gameplay too weird. One weird part is the lack of resource cards. Now in this video, I learned that Yu-Gi-Oh has a fast pace due to this. That may be a big flaw right there. The TV show is okay. It is not great from a story standpoint. However the battles are good at being exciting and suspenseful. This is the one place where a faster place of gameplay would be an advantage. We got to keep the kiddos entertained. They are easily bored and distracted. Now that I think of it, the Pokemon TV show does the same thing. Pokemon battles are exciting enough. The tougher ones are pretty suspenseful. I have watched the whole original Kanto season as a kid. As I recall, the show never mentioned energy cards. They don't even mention power points, which is the resource that the video games had. The show ignores that entirely. It is probably too dull for the kiddos. The closest is that Pokemon occasionally get tired, even if they didn't get hurt very badly. I did try out Hearthstone a while back. The video starts out mentioning it as a case of a card game without resource cards. Then I wonder. Does Hearthstone have resource cards? I would say yes and no. I do like the mana crystal system. It is a way to temper the progression of the game without having to rely on luck at all. The video does explain this in greater detail later. There is a downside I didn't realize. This would be hard to remember unless it was a digital game. I wonder if that can be fixed. Maybe it is a matter of practicing this to the point of being a habit. Maybe the mana crystals and the deck can be placed together on the playing field to make it easier to remember. I tried out Hearthstone around the same time as MTG. I prefer MTG due to an entirely different issue. My favorite video in the Seven Deadly Sins video is unmixable attributes. It really encourages variety in deck building. It is awesome. Hearthstone really suffers from this sin. The colorless cards of Hearthstone soften the blow, but I don't think that is enough. I do like the idea of attributes being based on classes. I do like attribute mixing in MTG. I have even figured out how each pair could fit with a lass in Dungeons and Dragons. Fighters, rogues and artificers get colorless. Barbarians get Gruul. Rangers get Golgari. Sorcerers get Rakdos. Bards get Izzet. Warlocks get Dimir. Clerics get Orizhov. Monks get Azorious. Wizards get Simic. Druids get Selesnya. Paladins get Boros. I think Hearthstone would benefit from having a similar system. I wonder if Yu-Gi-Oh could benefit from using mana crystals. There can be two changes. One is that mana crystals are replaced with star chips. That would fit with Yu-Gi-Oh better. Another is that a creature card costs the amount of star chips equal to their level. I don't know what to do with spell cards. Maybe they can be free like the Pokemon Trainer cards. I recently watched the video of Drink from Another Well. That got me excited to stick with my guns and use a battle system I had before getting into MTG. I had special energy counters as a resource, and there was no tempering of progression. So the battles were faster. This would have been a downside in a regular TCG. However I have an idea that mixes a TCG and RPG. So there is an adventure with multiple battles. The overall adventure would take time to do. It would make up with individual battles being quick. This is a work in progress. I know that using resource cards or using resource counters are both options. I can pick one or the other. I can even go in between. I have experimented with a whole big card game simulating an entire dungeon. Maybe I will figure it out.
The last thing I would like to address is visuals. Resource cards are the dullest cards in terms of mechanics. However they don't need to be dull in the aesthetic department. I find that resource cards can be just as pretty and cool looking as other cards. Pokemon uses colorful balls with black symbols on them I think that is cool. MTG uses pretty landscapes with a large colorful symbol. That also looks cool. When I was a kid, I did o to a game store to buy Pokemon cards. I sometimes saw people playing MTG. I remember how cool the land cards look. I had no idea of how to play MTG at the time. I didn't even know what land cards were used for despite Pokemon having an obvious parallel. Still the land cards had a certain mystique that intrigued me. Either game gets great visuals. I guess one noticeable difference is color saturation. It is noticable in the red resource cards in the video. The fire energy cards of Pokemon are a bright and intense red. It is almost as if it glows off the cardboard. By contrast, the mountain land cards have a red that is a few notches duller. Either way looks amazing. It is just a matter of what is appropriate for the overall style. Pokemon is more cutesy and cartoony. So brighter colors would fit it better. Don't skimp on visuals. As another Kohdok video said "Learn to art". I am not a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh in the visual department. I like anime overall, but this is too overdesigned for my taste. Now I realized something.
Yu-Gi-Oh actually has attributes based on elements. Oh the cards would look so much cooler if they were color coded by attributes like the other two games. The color coding tends to be based on card type instead. I think that is pretty lame. MTG has a lot of color coding within the pictures on the cards. Pokemon has a lot of color coding in its creature design. I think that is so cool. My favorite trope is elemental powers. One of the benefits is that it lends itself to colorful and pretty visuals. Move over Avatar. Pokemon is a master of this trope too.
remembered duel masters when you mentioned it various times with it's resource and life systems, and i thought of making a cube with some friends. have you thought on covering cube drafts in a video?
I kinda dig the way Force of Will and One Piece use their resources, though I’d be down with seeing new distinct but still simple Don cards. Would love to see a video of the One Piece card game as well!
I think OP's Don are the best resource. It's automatic every turn, you can do about four or five different things with it, so it's not like it just pays for cards, and you can't flood or get screwed. I don't really want special Don, because I don't want one that I hate seeing on the opposite side of the board from me, like happened often in FoW, or Bandai to be incentivized to make cards like Split Heaven and Earth.
missing videos on a lot of new games. not to mention legends of runeterra...
I was looking for a way to temper creature summoning in a card game I'm plotting and I'd like more focus on the non-resource card methods, whether or not they're those you cited towards the end of the video.
I just noticed Timeless river in the background 😂
Serious question, but what are your true feelings on YuGiOh? Im new to your channel and was binging your videos (which im loving BTW) but every time YGO comes up it seems to be in a negative connotation.
I totally understand why youd not like it from a design perspective. but im wondering what your honest opinion on the game as a whole is?
It really just seems like a black sheep for card games. I got the vibe that he personally enjoys it, albeit from a casual perspective.
guessing you play yugioh? what is your opinion on the game? and what other games do you have experience with?
"Dump all their power cards all at once.." I'm looking at you Red Alert from Deciphers Star Trek
this channel is very cool
Please do another episode of this, I know this episode got some flack but don't let that discourage you.
Lack of resource cards is basically the only thing keeping Yu-Gi-Oh atop my list of favourite card games.
You open no hand traps.
If I wanted to be playing Magic then I'd have been playing Magic instead of grousing about how Yu-Gi-Oh needs to do more of what Magic does (at least until modern Hasbro-Wizards became a thing years ago and I decided to just not give them money at all anymore after all they have done.). If all the games on the market are doing very similar things and have little to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack then the optimal choice comes down solely to picking the one with the most robust base to guarantee there are other players of the same game readily available.
@@TenebraeXVII Ah, my aplogies. I thought it was the usual "I don't wanna have cards i need to draw." When yugioh is...pretty heavy on those nowadays.
I also don't think it can be called a game without resource cards nowadays, since main deck monsters basically are resource cards, they just all have rules text about their play limit to so you can discard them and play your actual card.
@@TenebraeXVII There are a whole host of issues keeping me from wanting to try Yugioh, but it isn't because it isn't more like MTG, it's more the fact that it feels very clunky and at times held together by duct tape.
It's partially due to the fact that the card game wasn't the main product originally, but the manga/anime was. So the rules weren't well ironed out, there was little future proofing, as well as the whole Archetype system is very awkward.
All that said there are elements of YGO I like the ideas of. Like the mechanics around multiple summoning methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each. The extra deck, and how that helps prevent more bricking. And I complained about the Archetypes being awkward, but I still also like the idea of a group of themed cards synergizing with eachother.
I have considered trying YGO Rush if it ever gets an English release since it seems like a more refined version of base YGO with a lot of the confusing rulings cut out.
@@ShadowEclipex What's weird about the archetype system?
Two interesting resource systems to look at are WWE Raw Deal and Star Wars CCG (Decipher) if you do an amendment on this topic
How about a 12-sided die as your "mana pool?" Every turn you add 1 mana, up to a max of (obviously) 12. Then certain cards either require you to have at least x amount of mana and the more powerful ones make you spend it. If you don't want gamers carrying dice around then you could even have two special cards that you pick out of your deck at the beginning of the game: one card with lines numbered 1 through 12 one it and another card with a bunch of arrows that you place on top of the first one and slide it around.
Two things:
Firstly, the first episode of this being about resource cards almost made me think about having a dedicated "Life Deck" on the side to be your LP (Kind of like an Anti-Vanguard in a way), but then I realized that your Life-Decking video kind of handled that already.
Secondly, I'm working on trying to make a Card Game, and (to be honest) I really didn't like the idea of having Resource Cards in my game. My work around to this was having an MP Gauge that stays the same through the entire game. Players have 5 MP at the start of every turn (monitered through a D6 as a Spin-Down Tracker), and that number does not change throughout the entire match. This seemed fine in my head as it's a sizeable number that allows some flexibility, but doesn't allow card combos to get too crazy. I'm unsure whether or not this will kill balance allowing combos too quickly or forcing the game to a crawl, but I need to make more progress before I can come to a conclusion on that.
One thing about resource cards nor mentioned is their inbuilt ability to balance Attributes. MTG can allow no attribute limits on what's in your deck because of the need to build hp resources.
A year later and the debate rages on!
I've been thinking of an idea for a resource mechanic. It's a volatile resource, that you can acquire by taking damage, or by directly paying life. In playtest I find it keeps the game moving at a fast clip since every action puts either you or your opponent closer to losing, but I'm not sure how other players would feel about it. I;m worried it would make people hesitant to actually play their cards.
Have you played Vampire: the eternal struggle?
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 no but the current system im using is a mix of battle spirits and magi nation.
I think you never gave Vanguard a dedicated video about why you don't like it. It really strikes me, cause for so many years I've loved it, specially when it was first conceived and was less cluttered with new mechanics. You mention a good thing or a bad thing every once in a while, but never gave it a full analysis.
He did make a video and then deleted it.
Essentially, is a very automatic game with little interaction and is promoted by commercials disguised as cartoon shows.
I think the idea of Yugioh as having no resources beyond the normal summon lacks something. Because every monster on the field is a resource to summon another monster. Like I understand that to someone who doesn’t build Yugioh decks it probably looks like spew and then kill them as soon as you have a combat step, but there are many restrictions and interactions to manage.
To compre to magic;
Yugioh operates on the axis that a good normal summon sets up a dark ritual, and the goal of your combo is to stick enough mana dorks and draw enough cards that you end with force of wills live and lethal threatened. Even back in goat this idea started to be developed with Megarock Dragon OTK and sister deck Ratbox
Thank you for your efforts on this video. Just wondering if there is any card game where land type cards can be destroyed?
magic the gathering (stone rain exists)
@@elitemagikarp4822 I think he means be destroyed as a form of payment while also tapping them as a form of payment ~~ with sacrificing them probably being worth more than simply tapping~~
I don’t know if magic has this type of interactions I only know they have land destruction for enemy lands
@@empireyouth5791 Magic has plenty of "Sacrifice a land" costs for bigger effects.
2:06 Looking at you Yu-Gi-Oh matches that take 1-2 turns to win
I've been looking forward to this series. I appreciate the philosophy of there being no bad mechanic as long as it serves the goal of the game (granted the goal contains a positive experience). I think it's a good point that while designated resource cards offer some potential downsides, they are also an avenue of design space which is lost when they're done away with. It's a decision for the game designer to make based on what they'd like to accomplish.
This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but i actually like being able to just dump your whole hand into plays in yugioh. Yugioh as a game is a different beast from most TCGs anyways, so it's kind of difficult to just say whether it's bad/good, but being able to just keep extending into multiple summons and bringing out big stupid special monsters just triggers the pleasure centers in my brain. I can definitely understand the criticism of it being to fast though (or rather too fast and too slow, because turns take long and games are decided quickly depending on the deck)
It has advantages and disadvantages just like anything else but regardless it reminds me of the reason why life decking isn't generally a good idea. People want to actually play their cards and the Yu-Gi-Oh way is to let you play your cards and if your opponent wants you to stop they have to play their own cards and turn the tables.
Yeah Yu-Gi-Oh is a game that cuts out the flock and gets into its actions and call mechanic straight away rather than try to stall for extra time
in reality the only real resource in the games are the cards themselves and Your zone limit
@@empireyouth5791 and funny enough the match timer recently.
@@TenebraeXVII yeah definitely. Tbf, a lot of problems with Yugioh actually stem from the fact that Konami is just bad and great at game design simultaniously.
A lot of archetypes have great themes, cool art, varied effects and gameplay styles and most of them are quite low in terms of power. And then they somehow manage to print the most brutally overpowered effects known to cardboard every once in a while (Recent Banlist slaughter of Tearshizu and now the damn Kashtira being evidence of this). I understand that they want to sell cards and not having rotation makes it hard, but in recent years it doesn't even feel like it's on purpose, but like an intern accidentally releasing custom cards.
Definitely not an unpopular opinion. Yugioh is the top grossing card game in the world and it wouldn't be so if the design was inherently wrong. You have wonderful archetypes that are able to really have their own style of play and decks that are able to utilize many engines. Yugioh has a lot of issues but a lack of a resource system is certainly not one of them.
Ngl I do love the resource mechanic the World of Warcraft TCG implemented.
wow tcg. never forget.
What games use Charge and Draw ?
Really think Flesh and Blood kind of nails resources... Just using cards as the resources in some varying amount
There are kind of “problems” (Although what I really mean is in compatibility issues).
the way it’s designed it requires hand refilling since the system forces you to go negative every time you play a card
and in a game with hand refilling resource management A very fun concept and interaction in other games kind of just dies
hearthstone source system doesn't work only in digital, it's basically equal to don system in one piece
I am making a card game with my brother, and we have the hearthstone resource system. I was worried after watching this that people wouldn't like that. I just hate drawing lands
R.I.P buddyfight 2:57
can you expand on using separate resource decks? it feels like a good strategy
They're dedicated resource cards that don't get shuffled into the deck, instead making their own stack. Generally they are brought into play either by a turn action or a card effect.
Dedicated resource cards are the thing I hate the most about MtG outside of the company that makes it.
Duel Masters had what I think is the best idea. My own TCG design I'm trying to make mechanics for mixes that with one of my favourite mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh, that being Pendulums, to create cards with 2 viable sides (the resource side gets its own abilities), and still lets the game hit the ground running because I don't like games that last too long.
Surprised this doesn't have any mention of how Digimon has both Permanents and Temporary resource cards in the Tamers and Memory Boost/Training/Scramble cards.
I don't think that Yugioh's problem in its game flow was the lack of resource cards, for most of the game's life span it was one where the card flow was pretty stable which was how things were kept reasonable. Cards like Pot of Duality which was just one excavate of the top 3 cards were staples, and the illustrious +1 is so powerful in that game that people are willing to banish a quarter of their deck for it even today. Or people who are so allured by the +1 of a card like Ra Sphere Mode they might choose to main deck it even if a Kaiju is more consistent. The game had decks that could be described as "glass cannons" where they could smack an absurd board on turn 1 but if they got hit by a powerful card like Lightning Storm they'd pretty much need to scoop because they simply didn't have the resources. It was one where the resource in question was just that most cards don't have any form of inherent protection so if you committed too much to a board, you could get punished for overextension.
As mentioned in the video, the cards in hand were themselves a resource system that was used, the PROBLEM was that over the years there came too many cards that refresh the hand, field, or GY. It's like if a card game that used a resource system had monsters that said when they enter play you can gain a resource and when they leave play you can also gain a resource such that playing the card it first pays for itself and also if your opponent gets rid of it then it isn't even a loss because it also replaces itself.
good post. some thoughts:
1- due to the influence of the anime, the yugioh tcg always had a spirit of high stakes and drama.
2- one of the problems i have with the game is how diferent it is from what it was in the beginning. compared to the other of the big 3.
3- cards in hand is a resource system. sure. but not a design choice it is just part of any game. so it doesnt count as a plus or minus for the game.
4- at the same time it matters and the way you explained the evolution of card economy in yugioh was great. that evolution ( a sort of powercreep) semms important. is that what led to longer turns and faster games?
@@goncaloferreira6429 The overall point about card advantage being more like a "soft" resource system in Yugioh was that historically it's been very easy to remove your opponent's stuff and also hard to refresh your cards in hand. A card like Raigeki that just wipes your opponent's board for no cost in Magic would be unthinkable, and a card like Pokemon's "draw 7" in Yugioh would also be unthinkable, so card advantage is a resource in every game but it's notably more of a resource in Yugioh. Most of the "x players rate Yugioh cards" videos where they see a card like Pot of Desires they often say "the cost isn't worth it, this is a bad card" while general consensus in Yugioh was that it was busted.
And yeah, the cards paying for themselves in spades is what led to faster games as a whole. Most main deck cards will search, summon, or send something to GY directly from the deck, and Extra Deck monsters that do the same are extremely common. A strong combo in the 5D's era would be Quickdraw Synchron discarding Dandylion, getting two tokens which lets you spend 2 cards to make one Level 6 Synchro and a Token (card neutral) or one Level 7 Synchro (-1). Nowadays the starting play of the Synchron deck is summoning Junk Speeder which can summon up to FIVE monsters directly from the deck, which each have their own effects that usually will extend your combo even further. Look at an average HERO combo off of Faris and you see that each step of the combo directly leads into the next one rather than what you usually expect of combos in that you're steadily LOSING resources to keep the combo going.
@@Zetact_ resourses: the point is too easy to get more cards and do more things from any zero point.
on draw 7 being to op. how often do we see a card allowing players to see and play several cards? you may not be drawing cards per se but you are getting acess to and playing them, often with insane levels of tutoring from decks or graves.
@@goncaloferreira6429 That's the point I'm making. The power creep that placed Yugioh in its current state was done through either intentionally or more likely unintentionally adopting a game design that made decks that were more powerful and consistent but removed the risk that was historically used as a balancing factor rather than a strict resource system.
The card economy was relatively slow, with searches and plusses being rather uncommon, with most card advantage being gained by breaking the opponent's board rather than building your own so there was the aspect of strategy where a good player would know not to overextend. Cards on board in Yugioh seem to be more "fragile" for lack of a better term than they are in other games where you could put stuff onto the field without fear that your opponent might destroy everything with a single card, so the balancing act was always that emptying your hand carried more risk.
It wasn't until the cards started being designed with being able to pay for themselves immediately and let you continue plays that the power curve started really kicking up to absurd levels.
@@Zetact_ i guess it is a similar philosophy to what the new japanese games have, where playing a card or digivolving a digimon pretty much always cantrips.
Kohdok can you made a video about tcg packaging
I dont like forced seperate resource cards. They just feel gross. Its fine when any card can turn into a resource. I just dont like that land and energy crap.
breaking news, man was struck with chair after sharing hyperfixation
BUDDYFIGHT MENTIONED!!!!!
Kohdok, Magi Nations engerize system - has any other card game done that? Okay you blinked it on screen lol. :D Vampire ... something. Oh what catagory would Star Trek card game go in? Its long gone now... but what system was that?! you just put things into play... Hmmm.
Vampire: the Eternal Struggle! Great game but very different from most CCGs since it needs a table of 4-5 players to play. In VtES you have a pool of influence which acts as your life total, but you spend that influence to put your minions into play (or to play permanent cards like equipment and locations). More powerful minions take more of your influence pool to bring out. Influence you spend on a minion becomes Blood, which is a temporary resource that minion can spend to power up certain actions or play powerful one-off cards, and they also lose Blood when they take damage. But they can regain Blood much more easily than you can regain influence, either by stealing it from another minion or taking an action to hunt. What it ends up being is a risk-reward tug-of-war between using your resources to get out more and stronger minions vs holding some back so you aren't eliminated from the game too early, and the way the game ramps up power is that you can only take 1 action each turn yourself (the rest of your actions need to be taken by minions), and you can only allocate 4 influence per turn (with most minions costing 3-9 to bring out, and therefore needing you to spend your influence over several turns, during which you gain no benefit and are more vulnerable, before you get to use them).
@@decoboco222 hmm magi's mecanic seems to be the most unique of card games I am aware of. What catagory do you think the startrek card game (decipher made it) would fit in?
I disagree with the idea that Magic and Pokemon would have been dethroned if resource cards were a hinderance. Players who are invested will tolerate anything and everything to keep playing
Personally the special energies are one of my pet peaves with pokemon, and part of the reason I left(along with trying to get into the game right around a point of sudden power creep.) Is that I saw a few decks that could forgo basic energy, when the deck I wanted to run was not only built around them but pretty much required basic energies to function.
But if the game wasn't good, people wouldn't have invested it to begin with. Pokemon is one thing, for having a big brand name, but Magic.. not so much, I think. Doesn't help that for those who compete (the ones most invested in the game), these two are the easiest to fall off from, since sets will stop being in the competitive rotation and be almost entirely unusable eventually
@Kryzeth These were also the games that Popularized the card game Genre, so they did start off with less competition.
As a yugioh player... I can confirm :(
YUGI WHAT THE HELL ITS A PENDULUM CARD💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
You should do a video about why hearthstone (a game you named), and all digital-only games are NOT TCGs, aka a real card game 😆
Kohdok, would you believe that the Playing Around logo uses my favorite shape and my two favorite colors? I just thought that was weird.
Ok, i feel a little attacked. What do i need to do to get my game playtested
12:14 ah yes, like my italian grandma used to say all the time,
Trust me.
It's staggering to see the amount of new game designers trying to "solve" the resource card problem as their first game.
It's even more staggering how unknown existing innovations in or improvements to resource systems are(in the US), that solving the issues of the old ones seems like a "removing it completely vs cloning lands" dichotomy. So maybe that's why new designers want to make such improvements, because there seems to be none around?
Maybe because it's even more staggering to see the lack of improvement to resource cards in the Western TCG scene?
Redakai, despite its many flaws, had its incrementing resource system copied by Hearthstone. I always thought that was kinda funny.
8:15 what game is that?
caster chronicles
@@tylersmith4629 thanks it looks cute!
"... or else Magic and Pokémon would have been kicked off their high horse years ago.." That made me laugh. Magic had the advantage of being the only TCG for years, by the time other TCGs entered the playing field it was already too big to fail. It didn't have to be great, it just had to be good enough to gain a following. Pokémon was already a popular IP, albeit grew very quickly, which combined with the very low number of TCGs at the time are the factors that cemented it to be successful. Both Magic and Pokémon as TCGs came during times were you just had to be good enough to be fun for the time. Due to slim competition, popularity snow balled, because nothing was better. In this day and age, you could have a superior game to the big three, but the truth is that they are just too big to fail.
I have been brainstorming a card game that has a sort of hybrid mana and resource card system, where you would effectively have a base pool of mana that can be increased as the game goes up using special cards.
(Edited for added clarity)
That's literally just lands from MTG. That's what lands do. They're special cards that increase your mana capacity.
@@GeneralNickles I should of elaborated more the concept is a hybrid between a mana system like Hearthson and "cards as resources", but I feel like it should of been obvious based on the context of the video.
Also I am sure everyone watching this video already knows how MTG Lands work, so you feeling the need to point it out (especially in such a demeaning tone) makes you look like a know it all.
Ayo bro, I'm making a card game and I started development almost a year ago. I'd love to show you what I have so far, there a place to pm?
The absolute disscontempt in his voice when he said yugioh😭
Just tossing this out there. I both LOVE your content and your insights. But also? Your titles make it confusing to find. So far seven deadly sins of tcgs is... more than 7? Errata text is more of but different?
I don't mean that as a slight. Content is hard and like I said, I love your stuff. Just giving you a data point is all. (And I could be an outlier; my data point isn't inherently more or less valid than anyone else).
Anyway. Appreciate you.
if your making resource cards, make a seperate deck like the one piece tcg
So true about yugioh. If it weren't for control decks and stun decks every game would be over by turn 2 or 3.and even then yugioh games tend to be shorter then other card games. Still my game of choice because gren maju decks are so fun and online free simulators are plentiful which help for a player like me in a region with few players.
Did you watch any high level duels last format? Most games went to time.
@@AlphaSquadZero true about high level duels. I forgot about that. Was thinking of duels I've played in.
… is Kohdok a fellow Jimquisition fan?
1:13 HOW DARE YOU! You are showing all five lands out of WUBRG order! HOW DARE YOU!!
The single Snow-Covered land isn't AS triggering but still wrong!
2:27 ARUGH!
11:48 Man, I miss V:TES. I managed to get TWO games in real life for it and used to play on-line a bunch but both dried up. Though technically the on-line games didn't "dry up" instead it was more that lots of people stopped playing and the ones who stayed only ever ran the same decks.. ..
Thanks for the video Kohdok, other than the grave sin of showing all five Basic Lands out of WUBRG order. TWICE!
I think you forgot of a few reviews of games. (Then again if you do card game reviews then I can hear the humor.)
Most Bushiroad cards use hand cards as resources. I guess you dont know them well?
😅😂
Poor fftcg, it never gets mentioned in your videos.
I think the alternating actions like Gwent are unexplored. Granted, it limits the design possibilities somewhat, but does it matter? I think it could be explored with a different approach to hand size, where instead of being so skill intensive, it can have smaller hand size and draw full hands after each round.
Honestly, resource cards have been overdone, the linear progression of Mana even has been overdone, I think once per turn effects and more frequently alternating priority systems are underappreciated and underexplored
I'm currently working on my own TCG, and at the moment I have three resources. Blood, which you have a static 3 of but you can also use to health of your own units for blood costs, bone which is by using cards from the graveyard once a card there is used it goes to the afterlife and it can be used as soul before it is out of the game for good.
That's a really good design, I already love it
What game is 10:26¿
Looks like a parody version of Hearthstone. Unless 'GRRR' is a legit Hearthstone card.
@@AxelWedstar411 that's what I was thinking ...could be a Murlock
Duel masters is genius because it’s resource system wouldn’t work without the shield mechanic literally separating the board.
Everyone always bitching about resource cards when the literal point of randomization is to balance out the bell curve of skill v luck.