Koth of the hammer new red pwalker

Morphis

Anyone got it?
Care to share some details of skills?

loroku

Now that the devs have gone back into hibernation mode (they only come out 1 week every two months) it is up to us to provide info! Then again, unless you know what you're buying, why would someone take the plunge blind?

I will say it makes more sense as to why those first PWs will be available for crystals May 14 (was that it?), since they're probably releasing one or two per week until then. More information on that would also have been nice.

I guess we have 2 colors left and 2 weeks until May 14 so... one more per week? Blue then green maybe?

Morphis

There is still no confirmation they will be available FOR CRYSTALS.
In their topic about it they mentioned "competitive ways to earn them".
Not sure what that means.

Anyways yes, not even knowing the skills makes the purchase, already high cost, even less valuable.
Only thing I can think of is its skills will be gain mana/deal damage base on the number of red gems in play and maybe some summon elementals.
That is if they are gonna translate the abilities of the card version.

Hibernum_JC

loroku wrote:

Now that the devs have gone back into hibernation mode (they only come out 1 week every two months) it is up to us to provide info! Then again, unless you know what you're buying, why would someone take the plunge blind?

I will say it makes more sense as to why those first PWs will be available for crystals May 14 (was that it?), since they're probably releasing one or two per week until then. More information on that would also have been nice.

I guess we have 2 colors left and 2 weeks until May 14 so... one more per week? Blue then green maybe?

Sorry about the lack of information, guys. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we're incredibly busy adding more and more features into the game.

There should be a post a little bit later today that describes Koth so that nobody goes into it fully blind.

Morphis

Hibernum_JC wrote:

loroku wrote:

Now that the devs have gone back into hibernation mode (they only come out 1 week every two months) it is up to us to provide info! Then again, unless you know what you're buying, why would someone take the plunge blind?

I will say it makes more sense as to why those first PWs will be available for crystals May 14 (was that it?), since they're probably releasing one or two per week until then. More information on that would also have been nice.

I guess we have 2 colors left and 2 weeks until May 14 so... one more per week? Blue then green maybe?

Sorry about the lack of information, guys. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we're incredibly busy adding more and more features into the game.

There should be a post a little bit later today that describes Koth so that nobody goes into it fully blind.

Glad to hear.
Anyways any info you can share atm at least on the way we will be able to get pwalkers?
As I pointed out your previous statements would imply that probably they will not simply be bought with crystals....

AngryGerman

LakeStone wrote:

Hello –

...

After this period, these Planeswalkers will not be available to acquire in the game until May 13th. But don’t fret, at that time, players will be able to purchase these Planeswalkers at the Vault via Mana Crystals.

Morphis

AngryGerman wrote:

LakeStone wrote:

Hello –

...

After this period, these Planeswalkers will not be available to acquire in the game until May 13th. But don’t fret, at that time, players will be able to purchase these Planeswalkers at the Vault via Mana Crystals.

Well in the same post:

LakeStone wrote:

Hello –

...
We plan to introduce new Planeswalkers for BFZ in the coming weeks and will have new competitive ways to earn them, so please stay tuned for these future updates from the team.

So... Maybe crystals AND other ways?
I am confused....

Coconut99

It does say THESE Planeswalkers in the Vault with Crystals, and then that they'll introduce new PWs that can be obtained in competitive ways, which aren't necessarily the same ones they made available to purchase...they could be talking about two different sets of PWs (the $$$ ones becoming crystal, then those and/or others being obtainable in other ways--events, finally?).

loroku

Hibernum_JC wrote:

Sorry about the lack of information, guys. I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but we're incredibly busy adding more and more features into the game.

There should be a post a little bit later today that describes Koth so that nobody goes into it fully blind.

I'm guessing you (Hibernum) probably don't control the "meta" or "rewards" side of the game, but I would like to plead with all the powers that be to please stop spending time on features and figure out the meta first. Spend your time evaluating what it is you want people to feel when playing the game, how to keep them, and what is fair when it comes to rewards. Right now this game is a wonderful match-3 with a tremendously unsatisfying reward system. (And yes: drop rates, collection rates, and guaranteed cards are all a huge part of that.)

I still think things like adding foils and other cosmetics would allow you to have a game that actually feels rewarding but still encourage collecting and put the "top end" out of reach for most while still allowing people to actually enjoy the game. Right now the rewards are nerfed so badly there's no point in pursuing them. I haven't used any crystals in forever because why would I? I enjoy playing in QBs but at this point both runes and crystals are meaningless because the drop rates are so poor I don't feel like I can get any new cards - which means I don't feel any sense of progression. (I wonder how many people have really integrated the BfZ cards into their decks: I haven't seen many. I think it's too hard to obtain them right now.)

I also still think a way to create cards from runes would solve a lot of problems (I've said how several times so I won't repeat myself).

And frankly, you guys - or someone in one of the companies somewhere - could still stand to do more when it comes to communication. I agree that the week before BfZ dropped was both spectacular and we don't expect that every day, but something between that and the silence we mostly get now would still be better.

I keep harping on the same issues and I'm sorry about that. I hope you guys have heard.

EDHdad

I don't understand why the ad trying to get you to buy a Koth / Ob Nixilis / Gideon Ally of Zendikar / Ulamog for $15 to $30 doesn't explain what any of those things actually do.

For a physical game, the analogy is the front of the package, back of the package. The front of the package says "Koth of the Hammer $14.99" or "Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger $29.99". I'm interested. But then I turn the back of the package over and there's nothing there.

If you're going to try to get people to make expensive impulse purchases, at least give them enough info right then and there while you've got their attention.

EDHdad

From a larger perspective, the introduction of a Koth planeswalker is huge, because Koth doesn't appear in any current set. The paper card was published in Scars of Mirrodin, which came out in 2010 and also has nothing to do with Zendikar.

This means they could literally come up with a Magic Puzzle Quest version of any of the 13,000 + Magic cards that have ever been printed in the past 22 years.

I don't think I'm interested in playing him since he's so dependent upon specifically red mana, and I don't have the creatures necessary to exploit an all-in red creature strategy (Zada Hedron Grinder, for example), and I'm definitely not interested in paying $15 for him, but it's really interesting that he just sort of randomly appeared as an in-app purchase.

Plastic

EDHdad wrote:

... I don't have the creatures necessary to exploit an all-in red creature strategy (Zada Hedron Grinder, for example), and I'm definitely not interested in paying $15 for him, but it's really interesting that he just sort of randomly appeared as an in-app purchase.

FYI - I got the Koth bundle and it came with a BFZ 5 card pack that said something along the lines of it being designed for Koth/red (it was an all red pack) with Zada included. I'm not certain if it's a standard set of 5 cards for everyone or 5 random reds. Something to ask others to verify perhaps?

Cwest79

The cards were definitely random
None of the the cards procured were beneficial in any way at all.
Also since using Koth I barely have red gems on my board and can not seem to get any decent cascades although the cpu bangs them out non stop every turn and it may be just me but there are barely any red gems on the board
Literally like 4 to 5.
I try to enhance with supports that change gems to red and am still constantly hosed game after game after game
C'mon
This is actually starting to get very infuriating and it makes me want to throw my f*cking phone.
Enough is Enough.
That is all

Plastic

Cwest79 wrote:

The cards were definitely random
None of the the cards procured were beneficial in any way at all.
Also since using Koth I barely have red gems on my board and can not seem to get any decent cascades although the cpu bangs them out non stop every turn and it may be just me but there are barely any red gems on the board
Literally like 4 to 5.
I try to enhance with supports that change gems to red and am still constantly hosed game after game after game
C'mon
This is actually starting to get very infuriating and it makes me want to throw my f*cking phone.
Enough is Enough.
That is all

Honestly it feels like there's some new kind of algorithm to produce more cascades since the patch. Personally, I believe since they introduced landfall there might be some truth to it in order to make the mechanic relevant. /tinfoilhat

madwren

A significant problem is that to make more red gems, you need supports, but right now supports generally get destroyed in 1-3 turns. Chandra's rise in the metagame and the seeming increase in cascades has crippled support dependencies.

rulerhumankind

madwren wrote:

A significant problem is that to make more red gems, you need supports, but right now supports generally get destroyed in 1-3 turns. Chandra's rise in the metagame and the seeming increase in cascades has crippled support dependencies.

So true, Chandra gains board clear, good chances at random matches, and an even spread of gems because she can reset a large portion of the board on a turn. Red also has cheap support destruction, with additional cascade chances. You get everything, with the only drawback of destroying your own supports. If you dont run that many, you are doing great.

liminal_lad

Plastic wrote:

Honestly it feels like there's some new kind of algorithm to produce more cascades since the patch. Personally, I believe since they introduced landfall there might be some truth to it in order to make the mechanic relevant. /tinfoilhat

It's felt this way to me too. But then I remember that whenever this came up in MPQ world, everyone jumped on you and told you you that you were paranoid for doubting the RNG.

EDUSAN

to me, to add a MONORED PW when just a few weeks ago a mechanic that converts your pw gems to "nothing" was released seems very weird.

the most expensive ingest card can be very devastating to a Pw like this

Cards like:



can completely lockdown this pw

i dont get the idea of releasing a mechanic and then a PW that gets PWned by the mechanic

Meto5000

liminal_lad wrote:

Plastic wrote:

Honestly it feels like there's some new kind of algorithm to produce more cascades since the patch. Personally, I believe since they introduced landfall there might be some truth to it in order to make the mechanic relevant. /tinfoilhat

It's felt this way to me too. But then I remember that whenever this came up in MPQ world, everyone jumped on you and told you you that you were paranoid for doubting the RNG.

I'm pretty sure the reason you are seeing more cascades is because you're seeing more Chandra's. She has multiple abilities and creatures that cause board shakeups which leads to a lot of cascades. There are also a few more cards out there that manipulate gems on the board, such as Fertile Thicket, which also leads to more cascades.

Hibernum_JC

I can say a few things here.

1- We haven't changed anything in the way we generate gems. In fact, it's completely random, and I can say with 100% certainty that the AI does not know what gems will drop, and does not play to generate cascades. As others have stated, the big difference here is due to the fact that Chandra has board destruction on some of her abilities and that essentially can generate extra cascades and matches every turn. This is something we might address in the future.

2- The Ingest mechanic, in itself, is made partly for mana denial. It goes without saying that against Koth, it's incredibly powerful as you can deny a lot of his red matches. You can counter that in a few ways, one of which is to include more Devoid cards, which will actually benefit him (Devoid matches will give 3 mana instead of his regular 2 on off-colors at max level) or include more Processors into your decks so you can turn the Ingest into an advantage. Regardless of all this, Ingest is already regarded by the community as a relatively useless ability, so we'll see how this pans out, but I'm not too worried as if massive Ingest decks start to pop out there's already built-in ways to deal with it.

BassMuffinFIve

Hibernum_JC wrote:

I can say a few things here.

1- We haven't changed anything in the way we generate gems. In fact, it's completely random, and I can say with 100% certainty that the AI does not know what gems will drop, and does not play to generate cascades. As others have stated, the big difference here is due to the fact that Chandra has board destruction on some of her abilities and that essentially can generate extra cascades and matches every turn. This is something we might address in the future.

2- The Ingest mechanic, in itself, is made partly for mana denial. It goes without saying that against Koth, it's incredibly powerful as you can deny a lot of his red matches. You can counter that in a few ways, one of which is to include more Devoid cards, which will actually benefit him (Devoid matches will give 3 mana instead of his regular 2 on off-colors at max level) or include more Processors into your decks so you can turn the Ingest into an advantage. Regardless of all this, Ingest is already regarded by the community as a relatively useless ability, so we'll see how this pans out, but I'm not too worried as if massive Ingest decks start to pop out there's already built-in ways to deal with it.

Ingest is mostly a useless ability, yes. That's not the issue though. The issue is that you made anything that ingests cost 2-3-4x the cost that it should. You value this mechanic waaaaay too highly. It is about 1000x worse than drawing a card, and drawing a card is something that comes for free on a 8 mana 3/5 body or a 9 mana 3/5 body. You made 15 mana 1/1s with the ingest mechanic. I mean, c'mon...

And there is a ZERO percent chance people will "sideboard" in devoid cards if ingest becomes a thing. People will just not play Koth.