Just finished another great beta season of The Lost Glitches. As is custom the developers of the game want feedback and I want to provide it, but just doing a post on discord seemed like a real disservice because I have quite a bit to say, so I decided to do this writeup instead. If you have not jumped into The Lost Glitches yet I really do think it is one of the best new digital CCGs I have played and even though the current beta is closed it is worth signing up for the next round.

All the following feedback is based on my experience with the game in the past 2 beta seasons, though card and ability feedback is limited to the last working version of all this stuff. I know there have been a bunch of NFTs minted prior to this and that the game is going to have some hundreds of cards at launch, but all my feedback is purely in the context of what was available to play in the beta.

Current issues

• Second Turn advantage - Right now there is very little reason to ever select to go first. Going second was way over tuned since 0.0 and the only advantage going first has is you get your energy first in subsequent turns, but this is far overweighted by getting the first attack, a bonus energy software card, and an extra card on the draw. My recommendation is to get rid of the extra card at the least, the first attack and bonus energy far outweigh it.
• Very little midrange - Glitches tend to either be very small or brick walls. Around 3 mana most glitches are not very good, or require so much synergy it is hard to bring them online since your opponent can react, and around turn 4 most decks do not want to use all their energy if only to bluff a response on their opponents turn. Would look for something to fill the midrange that is a little stronger than what we have, but not as strong as hivemind was at 3. 4 power/health seems to be the magic number.
• No protection outside of high health - The game has no software right now that boosts health as a counter to damage based removal, nor an equivalent of Hexproof/Shield/etc. It makes glitches very ephemeral which again favors the use of small cards and the only counter software available in Stoppage and Bodyshield, which skews the meta. I would love to see more counterplay that was not purely all or nothing counterspells.
• Being able to trigger multiple commander powers in a turn is too much - I do not know what the thought was to do this but it feels unnecessary. It makes some powers too good like the Eternal discovery, the heal power, and sticks and stones to close out games. I would revert back to 1 per turn, as you can still power on your opponents turn as well.
• Games are dominated by Commander Powers - Having 3 powers, plus the relative low cost of most of them means they are very dominant. Creatures are already not sticky so gut punch makes it very difficult to keep things on board, Sticks and Stones can often close out a game in one turn from like 10 life with an Energy Swap and an Assassin. I would honestly consider going down to 2 powers per deck if not reevaluating costs on many of the powers.
• No counters or interaction to commander powers - Now that bodyshield and Stoppage do not effect commander powers, they can often be used cart blanche. This is especially bad with stuff like eternal discovery which can be used multiple times in a single turn without interaction. There needs to be more interaction with commander powers and not specifically just counterspells. Perhaps cards that cause your opponent to lose skill points?
• Magus Strike decks are pretty toxic - I don’t think they have an outsized winrate but I think the playstyle of these decks is entirely counter to what the game is aiming for. The only glitches they use are to stall and in the current environment it is very hard to build a board against the list as they can generally play out their hand for benefit (+spell count for a few cards) and then use the commander power to redraw providing insurmountable card advantage. Late game glitches are generally not sturdy enough or powerful enough to close the gap or get past the card advantage. They are by far the slowest decks in the game and punish players for playing fair cards and glitches that do not provide instant advantage on the play or death. I think the deck can exist for sure but I would like to see it have to rely more on playing it’s own glitches and not having a 4 cost hero power that generally draws them 3 cards.

Specific card and ability power levels

• Shadowfall assassin - One of the most ubiquitous cards in the game. Being a 1/1 has not been the problem because the intent of the card is to die, but the 2 damage trigger closes out a lot of games without much for players to be able to do. I think I would prefer it as a 2/1 that does 1 damage on death, as it would still even trade with most every 1 drop that is not a wall but have less of a burn effect.
• Seafoam Oracle - Also still so ubiquitous. I do not think I played more than a handful of games where my opponent did not use this card and I could not think of a deck that did not want it. It was nerfed to a 1/1 which was correct, but it is still one of the best cards in the game. I think the problem comes from the low cost to play and cycle it, as it can act as a throw away blocker in the worst case scenario. I think the correct direction for this card instead would have been a 2 mana cost with appropriate power and health, probably a 2/2.
• Legion Novice and Fatal Flash - I do not think the cards are problems power level wise, just that Fatal Flash is a strictly better novice. Even if marginal, you should never take Novice number 1 until you are running 3 flashes. This may change in the future if tribal tags become relevant, but having strictly better cards at the same rarity in the launch set seems like bad form.
• Leafmane Sentinel - Feels like a bad Spirit Shaman after the last nerf. I know there are differences in having 3 health, but a flipped Sentinel is generally not even as good as a shaman now given the same flipping criteria. Some other differentiator is probably needed.
• Crimson Siren - This card is far too good. It very often prevents opponents from playing any creature that costs more than 2 for risk of getting overrun, and the cost in life is not commensurate with the tempo gained. There have been many turns where I have played this card and used 12 life very early on just to clear a board because I knew I would have lethal against a tapped out opponent. In this past you would have to play something like system crasher on 7 energy to achieve this level of alpha strike. It may not be apparent in testing since most players in the top ranks steer away from playing cards vulnerable to this, but it has made a lot of the best decks rather low slung.
• Reap and Sow - The last change killed this card. The nature of the game right now is most decks do not play much over 3 energy and generally decks have a lot of 1 and 2’s, so the card is negative tempo and only really rewards players who are running away with the game. I think in it’s current form it should cost 2, or change the ability again to do random but fixed damage. Instead of punishing high cost decks, it could be used as a tempo card to prevent your opponent from playing on curve early on.
• Eternal Discovery - 4 energy is simply too low for an ability that can often draw you 3 cards, now multiple times a turn. It enables the most toxic deck in the game, the Boku deck that plays minimal to no glitches and just counters all threats. At a minimum I would make this 5.

Things I would like to see

• Some baseline glitches- a 2/2 or 1/3 for 1 would be a good card to add to the game, or just anything that sets a bar for where the baseline for mana cost should be. We have plenty of 1/1s for 1 with upside, and a number of 2/1 and 1/2s with upside as well, but nothing generic. Would be nice to be able to just play a midrange deck with well stated creatures that did not need full deck synergies, and these cards would fit well as options in the current meta.
• Timers on the quests - So I can know how long I have before the reset of any of the quests.
• Better filtering options in the deck builder - Search/filters by keyword abilities, Power, Health, and Mana cost would all be great additions to the builder. In the future as more gets added a set filter also feels very important.

I am sure I have more to say, but I feel like these are the big ticket items right now. Overall I am still very enthusiastic about the game as I think it is doing quite a bit correctly, and I cannot wait for the next beta.