Re: The balance between Plants & Zombies
I think that what really determines if a card is "balanced" or not relies on 2 main factors: Its own efficiency (Stats by cost) and the "value" the user can get from it.
Let's talk about the efficiency first.
A common card on this game usually gives you 2 "points" for 1 resource. These "points" is what you use to give a plant/zombie strenght, health or abilities.
Most one cost cards use this points in order to create a "body" (1 "point" in attack and 1 in health, creating a 1/1). Skunk Punk, Small-Nut, basic Peashooter, etc are some examples of this.
Sunflower is another good example. It spends 1 "point" in health and the other one on an ability (create 1 more sun at the start of the turn).
If a "body" is not going to be created (on this case a trick) you can use this points as an effect. (Bungee Plumber is a good example. Its 2 "points" are focused on direct damage, rather than creating a 1/1 zombie).
However, just from this example we can see that there are cards that surpass this rule (Like Sting Bean that has 1 attack, 2 health and 2 abilities (Amphibious and Bullseye), making it 5 "points" for the same 1 resource). Paparazzi Zombie, Mini-Ninja and Wall-Nut are other examples of "overstated" cards (BTW I am only talking about 1 cost common cards)
An uncommon card gives you (usually) 4-5 "points" for the same 1 resource. (Dog Walker has 4 points on stats and 1 on an ability, Loose Cannon has 2 points on stats and 2 on an ability, etc).
But then things get out of control. Headstone Carver has 5 points on stats (1 attack/3 health) and 1 on its ability. Its ability may never trigger, on which you would have paid 1 resource for only 4 points. However, this is where the second part enters, the "value" a player can get from the card.
If the effect of Headstone Carver triggers, even if only once, you give another zombie 2 extra "points" that are technically free.
If it triggers twice, then you get a 1 cost zombie with 9 points worth of stats. (1 attack, 3 health, 1 ability, and 2 extra attack and 2 extra health to other zombies).
This is what determines if a card is "balanced" or not to a player.
Cards whose effects can be used again and again are more "broken" than those who are not, because you can get more "free value" from it (like Captain Cucumber).
