RE: Enter: Nidhoggr
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Appreciate the thoughtful response here. Even if we land differently on this one, the conversation is important. For me, the core issue isn’t about undermining ownership — it’s about preserving a healthy, competitive TCG. Comparing Nidhoggr to stock, core-set cards like Sheng Xiao or Akane misses the mark — those were standard releases, not airdrops specifically designed as presale rewards and purchased as such. A card as central as Nidhoggr — the premier Dragon airdrop, the #1 presale prize, the YGG-designed summoner — simply wasn’t meeting the expectations or gameplay role it was intended to fill. Leaving it weak “because that’s how it launched” would have done more long-term damage to presale confidence, gameplay quality and Dragon’s identity than a careful adjustment ever could.
It’s also important to clarify: this was not the community dictating a change. The community expressed discontent, yes — but the team evaluated that feedback (hey, nidhoggr is a dogshit card), looked at the usage data (proved it's a dogshit card) and independently agreed that the most expensive, most celebrated presale card from Rebellion deserved better. This wasn’t governance overreach or DAO meddling – it was the team correcting a clear design miss. And regarding the podcast mention — the podcast that was called out was The People’s Guild and I can say with absolute certainty there was no alpha or inside hint about this rework coming. I was there and, while I have always hoped it would eventually come, I had no idea.
I understand concerns about precedent and post-mint adjustments, but to me, this change actually strengthens trust. It shows the team is willing to fix problems, protect the meta and support long-term game health rather than hide behind immutability.
Could communication around these kinds of changes improve? Absolutely.
Should there be clearer windows and transparency? Yes.
But the alternative — locking the game into imbalance because we’re afraid to touch a minted card — is worse for both gameplay and the economy. I’d rather see Splinterlands iterate toward a healthy meta than leave Dragon’s flagship summoner in the dumpster forever.
We could discuss the health of the game regarding alterations of cards, if we were talking about a nerf. Although, I would also be very against it. The balance can be achieved by printing other cards that fight it.
Even if you consider it special because it is designed by whoever spent the most on the pre sale, it's still just a card like any other from the core set. Sure, the name and maybe a few other things (I don't know exactly what because I never participated in the process) get designed by the person/group but it's still a card from the core set that you can open on packs, just not right as the set launches.
A bad card doesn't hurt a TCG, even if it's supposed to be special. Sure, people might be annoyed but not to the same degree a very OP card affects the meta. That's the biggest thing about this. Resources were spent for something that, at best, was totally unnecessary.
I didn't listen to the podcast so I don't know what was said but in Tavern some people said that it had been hinted at in the podcast. Regardless, the most important thing about the ethical aspect is that as soon as the team starts working on a buff, anyone with that knowledge can take advantage of this information and it is impossible to stop abuse.
And there's obviously the economic and gameplay aspects. Anyone who owned the card got benefitted, anyone who didn't and buys it now or faces it is losing out. Anyone with other dragon summoners loses out. And I already noticed that the meta is worse now because any big mana game where dragon is available, Nidhoggr is the best choice. Before, people had to choose between Akane and getting access to the big dragon monsters or Tofu/Lorkus and get better abilities but not use those strong monsters. Now they just pick the best abilities and have the big monsters.