What is power creep?

A couple of weeks ago, Sam Stoddard over at MagicTheGathering.com published an article titled, "Dealing With Power Creep." He had this to say:

If we need to increase the power of the new cards we are putting in packs to keep the game exciting, then we will quickly outmode cards in the past and create a further requirement to push things in the future.

I'm going to say this right off the bat: The designers for MTG have done an outstanding job over the past 20 years (!) of balancing the game and not giving in to power creep. This post isn't about bashing anyone.

So, what is power creep?

Sam defines it as, "over time the cards become more powerful." Indeed. As a player, I don't really want that to happen. But there are instances where it makes sense and the designers do push the power level around. You can see that in Theros. Let's take a look at how this works.



Here's a simple concept from Magic: Cast this spell, draw some cards. This spell existed in the very first set. It was called Ancestral Recall. And it was broken. I talked in an earlier post about what "broken" means, but basically it means that the card "breaks" the format where it is played. It's "too good." In fact, it's banned in every format except Vintage where it is restricted. It's a whisper of a rumor of ancient power at this point.

So, the designers needed to figure out the "correct" power level for drawing cards with a blue spell. There are only a few levers to pull to make this work:

• Casting cost
• Spell type (instant vs. sorcery)
• Number of cards drawn
• Who draws the cards (choices)
• Additional effects or delays

That's it. That's what you have to work with if you are designing a card-drawing spell.

To make this simple, let's look at drawing two cards at a time. That's what the designers have generally come up with for a baseline card-drawing spell, one that replaces itself and gives you one additional card. You can see a search of all blue instants or sorceries that draw two cards at magiccards.info by clicking here. The least complicated example is Divination.



Divination costs a total of 3 mana, one of which is blue mana. It is a sorcery. And only you draw the cards. You don't get to force your opponent to draw cards with this spell. As a side note, Divination is a "functional equivalent" to an older card called Counsel of the Soratami. This was likely done for "flavor" reasons, not wanting the Soratami to appear in the M10 base set. As a player, I don't mind functional reprints at the common level. Commons tend to be relatively inexpensive, so reprinting a common with a different name doesn't ruin my day. But, it does allow a player to use up to 8 copies of a particular card in a given deck which is an important consideration for the designers.

To actually have power creep, you have to have context. Context is all of the other cards that exist in the game or in the format you play. So, even though I'm going to be comparing newer cards to older cards, all of the existing cards fit together like a puzzle to create context. For example, check out the spell Catalog from the Urza's Saga set:



This spell looks a lot like Divination, but at instant speed. So that it is not strictly better than Divination, the designers gave it an additional clause. You still get to draw two cards, but with Catalog you have to discard a card too. Even though this spell was actually printed before Divination, the designers are wise to consider that it exists when creating new cards to avoid power creep (or at least to be aware of it).

In other words, if the designers had printed Divination at instant speed it would have been strictly better than Catalog. This is the very definition of power creep.



Now, you can see the pattern by looking at a few other spells and what they can do. Perilous Research costs a total of one less mana than Divination and it still draws two cards, but it's at instant speed. How do we balance that out? Well, you have to sacrifice a permanent when you cast it. Ouch. Pulse of the Grid, on the other hand, costs the same amount of mana as Divination except there is a higher commitment to blue mana (1UU vs. 2U). What do I get for this commitment? Instant speed and the possibility of getting the spell back to use again. Of course, I still need to discard a card. How about if I spend even more mana, now what do I get? For one additional colorless mana, Inspiration allows me to choose another player to draw the cards instead of me.

With only so many levers to pull when designing a card, there's always going to be the possibility of power creep. Imagine if I designed a card that was just like Divination except it cost 1U instead of 2U. That would be better, right? But that's almost never what players want. That kind of "race to the bottom" mentality would have ruined the game eons ago.

With Theros coming out as the 62nd (!) expansion to Magic, there's bound to be some power creep. It's been 20 years, after all. Some older cards, like Ancestral Recall, are not likely to ever see reprinting in a current set. They are simply too good. And, the designers are going to have to push the power levels around from time-to-time to balance things out. It's a good thing, if it's done right. I want to thank the designers for keeping a close eye on the game we play. Thank you for coming up with new ways to revisit the same themes and concepts. Thank you for keeping it interesting.