I have always been impressed by just how elegantly well balanced
Jyhad is.

I am an avid chess player. Chess has remained much the same game for hundreds 
if not thousands of years. Although it has stayed the same, chess has infinite 
variety and there have always been players that came out of nowhere to floor 
the chess community with new and effective strategies. And yet, at its core, 
it is a simple game. I can teach a new player to play basic chess in a lot 
less time than it takes me to teach someone basic Jyhad.

I see the so-called 'broken' Jyhad strategies as similar to things that have
happened with chess. When the 'Sicilian' defense started to become popular,
it seemed to many chess enthusiasts that it was almost unbeatable. Time has
of course proven otherwise. It is an effective defense but there are ways to
beat it, often pushing the envelope of strategy even further.

The things that some players often seem to complain about are things that I
actually really enjoy about Jyhad. I love the fact that occasionally someone
beats me with an original, never-before-seen deck. I love the fact that even
though there is a bleed/vote/combat core, the game is never the same twice. 
I love that with Jyhad I can still be surprised by an effective combination of
cards. I love the fact that Jyhad requires an IQ in the triple digits. I
love the fact that there are about a thousand cards to choose from and more
on their way. I love the fact that we can always change some rules if we
don't like them.

Just as it is possible to find effective never before seen strategies,
however, I think it is also quite possible to find never before seen
problems with cards that may throw off the balance of the game. When I first
started playing with the original release of Jyhad, Malk Sneak and Bleed
decks were so common as to make the game boring. This was not 'broken'. This
was because it was an effective strategy to use and smart players picked up
on this. With the release of newer cards and newer clans, that strategy was 
no longer AS effective as it was considered before although it never became 
a bad strategy. It became the 'Sicilian Defense' so to speak. Players sometimes 
played it... other players learned to deal with it. If it were 'broken', this 
would not be the case I think.

If Jyhad is an unbalanced game or broken in any significant way, the members
of the newsgroup and Jyhad-playing community would notice it and I would think 
more people would be complaining about it. By all means, there may well develop 
strategies or cards that are broken just as there are plenty of cards that are 
not that great, but so far I have not seen this to be the case.

Ultimately though, as much as I am enjoying talking/writing about Jyhad... I
really would rather just shut up and play a game. Know what I mean?

Cheers,
Andrew 'WES' Weston