It maybe is true that we almost absolutely lack enough playtesting data.

For the past 2 months, I released "updates" far more than we (actually) playtested the game. This is a major weakness for this card game project at the moment. We're blind.

However, I still believe that "quality" still beats "quantity". I had a playtest with another game designer for this project and also another one which is among our most active playtester currently.

You can watch that playtest here: 

Anyway, that playtest on that video isn't actually what encouraged me to "cull" a ton of cards to the Core Set.

Previous playtests (both on Table Top Simulator and in real life with my coworkers and other print and play playtesters) made me realized that some cards just waste precious "card slots" by being detrimental and lacking any intrinsic value at all to the core gameplay experience.

Removed Cards

Here are these cards which are now temporarily removed from the Core Set of the game:

SCP-870, The Maybe There Monsters

Start: If Uncontained, each site with 2+ civilians must Discard a civilian.

We decided to remove SCP-870 to the game basically because it's just a very inferior version of A Key. Not only that SCP-870 limiting itself, but even the Aging Staircase is also a much better card at damaging all players.

SCP-711, Paradoxical Insurance Policy

Active: While Uncontained, you may Neutralize this instead of another anomaly on your site.

This is actually a very good card on its own, but at the moment, it falls short than the others on the Core Set. Now that I think about this, I could've reworked this instead into "when an anomaly is to be neutralized on your site, you may Sacrifice 2 civilians instead" or something along with that concept.

SCP-2361, Recurring Board Position

Start: If Uncontained, Discard a civilian, and choose a player that must Move a civilian from their site to another site of your choice.

Not only that this card is very poorly worded, but SCP-2361 also falls short of being a straight-up civilian mover, which isn't particularly impactful since a player can draw 2 civilians per turn on average if they want to. Other than that, this would suit the advanced civilian mechanics better, which was introduced on the former Flesh Expansion beta release.

SCP-1312, Site-41

Start: If Uncontained, you may Attach or Detach a character in play on your site to this (only 1). If Contained, Discard Attached character.

To be honest, SCP-1312 in itself is just very hard to make into a card in the first place. The concept is both big and limiting, and I've already tried a lot of ideas to make this card thematic and interesting. But sadly, I don't have time to generate ideas for this card so this has to go for now.

SCP-1084, Damaged Mausoleum

End: If Uncontained, Attach a character in play on your site to this (only 1). While Attached, that character is Exhausted.

I tried to rework SCP-1084 shortly before this, but it just doesn't work. We just don't have enough Active Characters on the game to make this card impactful.

SCP-1089, The IC-UC

Active: While Uncontained, your Hand limit is increased by 1.

SCP-1089 is one of my most nostalgic cards. Why? It's because it's among the very first cards that immediately became shit during playtesting. In its current state, it's far from even good, which is why I decided to finally let this well-written SCP go. It was originally good,as you can see here, but there are just far better Anomaly cards.

SCP-1839, Reproductive Methods of Bony Fish

Active: While Uncontained, civilians in your Civilian zone now thinks they're fish. (You can't Sacrifice them anymore.)

Omg this is probably the most controversial card on the Core Set. Immediately after I introduced it, I got a ton of "complains" and feedback about its nature, limitations, etc, since it's apparently almost breaking the game and making everyone confused. And even after everybody understood better what this anomaly is actually for, and it's supposed role in making the game interesting, everyone else (except me) found it to make the game super slow, far slower than the Leviathan and The Hanged King combined. I'm good, though, since its niche was immediately filled with Allison Eckhart.

SCP-822, Landmine Cacti

Breach: If Uncontained, Neutralize a creature or human anomaly on your site.

Another card with no intrinsic value, SCP-822 is just thematically confusing to work with even up to know. It could actually work as a good way to Neutralize the Leviathan, but other than that, there's no more used to it.

SCP-1746, Anomalous Weather Pattern

End: If Uncontained, each site with 1+ characters in play must Discard 2 civilians.

Other than wording issues, SCP-1746 makes the D-class cards confusing to most players. I kind know where are they coming from though. I mean, would D-Class really count as characters in play? Technically, yes. But intentionally, no.

SCP-2552, A Delusion's Desperation

End: If Uncontained, you may Sacrifice a child. If you do, Draw the last Neutralized creature anomaly and add it to your Uncontained zone.

SCP-2552; another card that is meant to make the game slower.

SCP-1606, Memory Loss

Active: While Uncontained, your Civilian limit is reduced by 2. Discard all excess civilians.

Conceptually, SCP-1606 is a good card. But on the larger picture, it's not. Most players don't really reach their Civilian limit. Once they have enough civilians to Contain a Keter, they immediately contain anomalies. And considering most anomalies is actually better to not be contained immediately, it just has no intrinsic value. Plus, almost everyone forgets that they even have this card, making its "harmful" effect even more useless.

SCP-1541, The Drunken God

Breach: If Uncontained, Discard all women on your site.

SCP-1541 is one of the "concept" cards that I posted on Reddit. But ever since the first print and play release, I barely changed this card at all. I just found it to be difficult to make it thematically work, so I decided to let it go for now as well.

SCP-1057, Absence of Shark

Start: If Uncontained, Discard a civilian. If Contained, you may Uncontain this to choose a player that must Discard a civilian.

Its effect is actually my last-ditch attempt to make this card interesting, which I still, unfortunately, failed to do so. It's actually obvious at I'm making this a civilian launcher. Sorry shark, you have to go for now. Maybe you'll return on a Shark Punching Center update...

Safe Containment Specialist

Play: Choose one; Search the Draw pile for a Safe anomaly as Uncontained or; Contain a Safe anomaly on your site.

To be honest, this card only exists because we have a Euclid and Keter specialist. Do I even have to explain why we don't need this card for now?

Intelligence Agent

Play: Steal an Uncontained anomaly from any site and add it to your Uncontained zone.

This card isn't actually totally useless, but it isn't entirely useful too, so I figured we could use its card slot for now, since it's technically just an inferior logistics card.

Containment Engineer

Active: During the Action Phase, you may Attach or Detach an anomaly on your site to this (up to 2) as an action. Attached anomalies are Suspended, while Detached ones are Uncontained.

And lastly, the Containment Engineer. I've reworked this card for almost 5 times since it was conceptualized. I just couldn't find a better effect that would thematically work for its name. Sadly, this has to go too.

Conclusion

Now that I've explained the cards that were removed, now begs the question:

Why removing cards on your card game necessary?

It's because you need to maximize what little card slots you have on the card game. And not only does card slot affects the length of the game, but it also makes the game slower by having cards that do next to nothing. We need to make it so every turn has to be meaningful as much as possible to all players.

Moreover, removing cards also allow you to add more cards in the future that would do better.

In the end, this is just a normal game development journey. Game content comes and goes.

But remember, they don't have to disappear forever, and I see them making an excellent comeback in the near future...