With the next set on the horizon I am curious to know what effect power creep has on the lists that dominate major events.

Obviously at previous worlds there was only awakenings, so the set had a 100% power influence.

With Gencon now history, has anyone determined what percentage of cards used in the top 16 decks comprise cards from Awakenings vs SoR?

If we take a version of Poe Maz as an example:

Awakenings cards:

Poe, Falcon, Electroshock, Heavy Blaster, Thermal detonator, Field Medic, Hit and run, Defensive position, Dug in, Emperors Throne Room

SoR cards:

Maz, Maz goggles, Planetary uprising, Rocket launcher, U-Wing, Fast hands, C3PO, Cheat

Assuming 2 of each card, excluding battlefield you get to 19 cards from Awakenings and 15 cards from SoR

That is 56% for Awakenings and 44% for SoR.

I would be interested to do a similar breakdown on the top 16 decks from Gencon to see what the split is.

The next part of the exercise would be to repeat this after the first major event following the full release of EaW.

Do you think the top decks will end up representing roughly 33% of each set (Awakenings, SoR and EaW)?

If we start seeing high percentages from a particular set, it can be an indication of power creep.

I would like to think that each set brings just enough to shake up the meta while not making too many old cards redundant overnight.

The ideal scenario is for the player to have a lot of hard choices, as their are a lot cards at similar levels, each with its own edge.

1 hour ago, Alphastealer said:

Do you think the top decks will end up representing roughly 33% of each set (Awakenings, SoR and EaW)?

Such a perfect split is unlikely.

However, from the cards that have been spoiled so far there is every chance it won't be too far off.

Power creep, at this time is unlikely. Since EaW was probably designed in march, there was no need to "power creep" existing combo or strong deck (Like Poe/Maz). If there is a power creep, it will be in december extension, or not at all if design team is able to create different theme card rather than stronger cards.

Chak

Well I don't know if FFG will go out of their way to make things more powerful, but every new card brings a possibility of a combo that no playtester found and has not been considered.

One could argue that Poe/Maz (for example) shows the excellent balance between SoR and Awakenings, with a character from each and a nice split of upgrades and cards, but what makes the deck powerful is the specific synergy between those two characters - a Yellow partner for Poe who's ability means he can reliably get his special and resolve it without interference.

Maz herself isn't a sign of "power creep", but that interaction clearly wasn't caught (or it's full ramifications were not understood).

Tl;dr - I don't think the issue will be "power creep", i reckon the balance between the 3 available sets will be fairly even, but there will undoubtedly be combinations out there between the three sets which were not foreseen (or which were not fully appreciated) in playtesting.

Oh there will be power creep. I am fairly sure of it. I've played many FFG games and it always happens, heck any game with expansions/waves usually has power creep. It's unfortunate, but it keeps people spending money, which is good biusness. Lukas seems pretty awesome and honest, but I doubt money won't win in the end. It may be a year or two down the road, but it should happen. To be honest though, destiny seems incredibly well balanced currently. I will probably drop less money on EAW then any previous wave. We'll have to see what happens I guess.

Honestly, at this stage I'm worried that EaW is going to be very underwhelming. Thrawn is pretty much the only card that has really gotten me excited; everything else ranges from good but boring to outright terrible. i definitely don' think power creep is going to be a concern, but seeing some 'OP' stuff wouldn't surprise me. (IMO Power creep isn't releasing good cards; it's releasing cards that completely invalidate previously good cards on a wide scale).