My humble opinion on Nexon's path.

3 S cards give 3 attack, 3 magic attack, 700 hp, 700 mp, and 3% boss damage. That's not that bad, actually, considering you just said Kanna's, 3% boss damage was good enough.

3att/matt is relatively trivial. 3% boss isn't going to make or break your character either.

Hayato is 6% critical damage so on a class with high critical it's almost pure % damage. Then, there's Kanna, Demon avenger, Xenon, the 40 stat trio (Luminous, Kaiser, and Angelic buster), and Mercedes and Mechanic help with cooldown skills.

Sure Hayato is good too for some classes, you're up to a grand total of 3 good cards. Coincidentally, the number of slots given to new accounts. Demon Avenger and Xenon aren't out yet. I already told you I wasn't going to respond to unreleased content. The +40stat from the tempest classes don't work with potential so the bonus isn't that great. Besides, only one of those slots is needed depending on your main character. But sure, it's something new players don't get without paying for it. %bd and %cdr aren't important for the vast majority of classes and contribute relatively little damage to anything except DBs.

[quote[
I just named 9 that could be ideal to boost damage. 7 of them working well when you need it, maybe down to 6. And you have nice efficiency ones, like Evan's, that class that needed NX, with an amazing source of MP. On my NL, I don't even need MP potions at all thanks to that. Warriors could benefit aswell with Aran's, the same but with HP.[/quote]
You're really going to bring saving MP pots into this? Potions are dirt cheap in this game. Most classes won't even need to buy any until lvl110 regardless of character cards. Clearly you've never had a an Aran card because it does diddly in terms of hp regen.

But mix that with link skills. You have 2 to pick if you have 3 slots. A card alone is nothing, but refusing all of a sudden 9%boss damage, 6 attack, 1400 hp and mp, several stats, 10% boss damage, 10% critical, 10% ignore defense, 15% hp increase, stance for half the time, and even more to come, yes, it IS a huge gap. And you can't deny that. I'm not even including everything. And these are only lv 1 link skills. At lv 2 this gets even better. And also remember the maplestory live thing is giving stats to the characters in your account too.

To rebut point by point:

card decks
First of all, you're only missing 1 card set since there's only 2 out at the moment and you still have enough slots for 1 deck. That's 3att/matt, 3% boss, 700hp/mp. NBD.

10% boss damage
A) Most new players won't be doing any serious bossing
B) This only applies to bosses

10% crit
This one is good. No Argument there.

10% PDR[i]
A) Many classes already reach 100% PDR without Lumi link skill
B) Even if they don't, there are more than enough ways to get PDR if you don't have a slot for Lumi

[i]15% hp
A) Again most classes don't need it
B) Plenty of other ways to get extra hp (Czak, chtp, evo rings, hyper body, hp boost potions, etc.)

stance
A) Again most classes have 90/100% stance
B) Most classes without stance have high avoid so they aren't getting kbed anyway
C) Stance is hardly essential to this game. Even on my BM, arguably one of the best classes to use Knight's Watch on, I usually don't bother with it because I have to interrupt hurricane and usually don't get hit often enough to waste time with the rather long animation.

yes, it IS a huge gap. And you can't deny that.

I can't deny there isn't a gap. I can and do argue that it isn't a huge gap. We agree that:
1. Kanna, Hayato, MM, and a +40 stat character cards are substantially useful for damage output.
2. Phantom, Kanna, Hayato (unless you're a mage), and maybe DS are the only truly irreplaceable link skills.

That gives us a grand total of 6 characters and I'd say you could easily do without DS or MM. So does 8%boss, 3att/matt, 3% crit, and +40 non scaling main stat seem like a game breaking advantage? You're blowing things out of proportion because you're obsessed with having every possible advantage. Don't get me wrong, I do the exact same thing. I look at link skills and think "Free damage!". But for new players just starting out (that's what we're talking about right?), the idea of leveling 4-6 classes to level 70/120 probably isn't appealing anyway. For those that do, paying $5.5-17 isn't that bad of a price.

Again, you asked for old players to be rewarded. Here is a reward. You got free character slots. New players don't. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Creating a new account just doesn't cut it, most people play for their main. I know I do at least.

I play for my main. I have every possible link skill, still working on Kanna, and the best theoretical character cards. They are a very nice source of free damage for those that got free slots. But they are not the game breaking be all and end all that you make the out to be. New players can still enjoy the game and do reasonable damage with a mere 3 slots.

Again, I'm not saying there is no advantage. Only that it's not nearly as substantial as your overreaction indicates.

PS I have no idea what "maplestory live thing" is.