I hope you enjoy numbers.
Last month, I posted an article about whether certain promo cards should be made legal in the Paragon format. Following that article, twenty-five players responded with feedback on twenty of the promos in a series of four polls on Discord. In this post, I will share the results of those polls.
But before all that, if you are attending Nationals this year, don't forget to sign up for the free Paragon side event!
The Numbers
- A total of 25 different players voted in one or more of the polls.
- Of these, 5 players (20%) consistently voted for no promos to be legalized.
- The remaining 20 players (80%) voted yes for one or more promos.
- Even among these 20 players, no promo card had unanimous approval. Five of the promos were approved by at least two-thirds:
- Surprising to me, the most popular card was Samson, Son of Manoah, with an 80% positive response rate. Players must really want to use him.
- The second was The Darkness with 71%. This was likely so popular due to its ability being basically made for multiplayer.
- The good dominants Son of God [Tomb] and Redemption tied for third with 69% each. Actually, there's no reason to exclude this Son of God anyway, as it has no gameplay difference from any Gospel version of Son of God already legal in the format. Yet the Redemption dominant is just as popular a choice for inclusion.
- At 67% approval, the fifth promo was Jaddua, Son of Jonathan. Jayden may have had something to do with that.
- Nine of the cards had approval from 50% to 60%.
- The remaining six promos were largely rejected, with approvals less than 30% each:
- Both versions of Raider's Camp were unpopular.
- The evil characters Prince of the Air and Judean Mediums were given a firm "no."
- The most consistently rejected promos of all were the dominants Guardian of Your Souls and Glory of the Lord.
Main Takeaways
Although 80% voted for legalizing some promos, the remaining 20% still represent a sizable group, especially considering that most of the voters were established players with the potential bias of owning some promos, unlike the newbies that this format should welcome.
In addition, I was surprised by how few votes certain cards received. Some of the approval rates were lowered by players who only voted for one card in each poll (whether because they didn't realize they could vote for more than one, or because they really wanted one particular card to stand out against the others). But in any case, very few cards seem particularly popular.
Taking these observations into account, it is clear to me that any promos eventually added to the format should be selected with great care.
So What's Legal?
Due to the sizable resistance to most promos, and due to the imminent influx of hundreds of Roots 2 cards to the format, I've decided to wait on making any more promos legal. The only exception is Son of God [Tomb], which arguably should have been already legal anyway.
The Paragon deck-building rules state that the only legal promos are those which are mechanically identical to other cards legal in the format. In other words, the promos must be cosmetic alternatives with no gameplay advantage. Although Son of God [Tomb] technically doesn't share its scripture reference with another legal version, there is no actual mechanical difference from other legal Gospel versions, so there is no gameplay reason to forbid it.
But in the future, likely soon after Nationals, additional Promos will be legalized. At that point, we will have experience from the first National Paragon side event, and Roots 2 will have been added to the card pool. Thus, we will be able to make much more informed decisions about which promos are safe and beneficial to add. So if you love Samson, The Darkness, Redemption, Jaddua, or other fun promos, stay tuned!
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