Something I have noticed with more recent archetypes, that I did not see a lot of in the past, is cards that have a conditional buff based on whether or not you have done a specific thing. Some examples of this would be; Chip, Shaped Stone, Shadow Apprentice, Khahiri the Student, The Time has Come and Reputation as a whole. Previously, conditional buffs were primarily only seen in conjunction with the Behold, Mageseeker (worth noting that these were changed from scaling to conditional in their rework) or ally death mechanics, and basically all other cards that "combo-ed" off of a particular archetype by buffing themselves, were scaling (their buffs would increase each time the thing they were looking for happened). Some examples of the scaler buffs would be; Flower Child, Greenglade Caretaker, Fae Bladetwirler, Assembly Bot, Iron Harbinger, Crowd Favourite, Legion General, Scarmother Vrynna (and other scar cards), They Who Endure and Plaza Guardian.

I feel like some of these conditional buffs are well implemented, and some of the cards that use them can start to feel like mini champions that have a "level up" if their condition is met. Others though, I feel really fall flat, where their condition is too easy or their bonus is lacklustre, failing to really encourage building into the archetype they are supposed to synergize with. The two that I think fail the most at building into their archetype are Shaped Stone and Khahiri the Student.

Shaped Stone is a good card. Burst speed stat buffs provide lots of versatility so even without it's conditional bonus, it may be worth including in some decks. On top of that, its condition of Summoning a Landmark, is hardly an investment for Shurima decks anyways, as almost all Shurima decks include some sort of cheap summoning, whether it be Ancient Preparations, Rock Hopper or Ancient Hourglass. So Shaped Stone in most cases is just an auto-include that does not create any interesting decisions around its condition.

Khahiri falls flat as his bonus just isn't exciting. A 4|4 for 3 is good, but that's it. Getting a 4|4 usually doesn't play into a deck's game plan, its just good value. In most cases you would rather include a card that directly plays into the strategy you are building towards than just a "good card".

Its worth noting that both the Landmark and predict Archetypes have performed below average. The cards mentioned above, although it appears they should help those archetypes, end up either being so flexible that they help everything or underwhelming that they do nothing. I feel like these archetypes could benefit from more scaling effects, encouraging players to really lean into the archetype for a big pay off. Below are an example of how the above two cards could scale (balance is likely off, just giving an idea):

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https://preview.redd.it/mrlk2l5mpsc71.png?width=510&format=png&auto=webp&s=15299384e5ea9fcd0d15ef47ac48923db2095d6c

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https://preview.redd.it/6yes9qzxqsc71.png?width=510&format=png&auto=webp&s=b9768137bb8b35f64f156b1ee3a307846822266c

What do others think about conditional vs scaling effects?

Why do you think we have been seeing more conditional and less scaling cards recently?

Do you think that conditional effects may just be part of Shurima's identity? Or do you think recent cards are an indication of a more widespread design direction?