anybody else have this problem?

ShawnP1

Does anybody else rarely get cascades, but the computer always does? Or is it just me? I just faced a Garruk deck and he got such a good cascade he put out Ulamog on his FIRST turn!!!! This is so frustrating! Not the fact that the computer gets cascades but does so to an absurd extent.

Plastic

RNGeesus just doesn't favor you.

Upstartes

Having played the game since near the beginning, I've concluded that these feelings are most likely the result of unconscious confirmation bias, combined with the fact that random events are inherently going to have streaks that lean one way or the other from time to time. I have had some insane first turn cascades. I take the devs at their word that the game isn't programmed to favor the AI with cascades.

EDHdad

I've tested this theory by keeping track of the amount of loyalty my planeswalker accumulates through the game vs the amount that the opposing planeswalker accumulates. If the opposing planeswalker is really cascading so much, it should have much more loyalty over the course of a game than I do. When measuring this, however, I actually tend to get more matches / cascades / loyalty than the opposing planeswalker. Often times, I get twice as much or more.

The AI really isn't programmed to optimize its color matches. It's blind to certain match-5's, will match-4 at any time (even though doing so will often screw up a potential cascade, hates on your color gems at the expense of its own, doesn't seem to take into account the amount of mana generated from a certain match, will try to make matches to weaken your supports at the expense of its own mana, ignores most loyalty gem matches, etc.

Some opposing planeswalkers are naturally more prone to matching gems than others. Garruk is often built as a "green gems matter" deck, where there are many cards which will turn gems green. This can create cascades, and result in an unstable board which creates more cascades. However, these decks often have nothing in hand other than more spells / supports to turn more gems green. Great if you have an Ulamog in hand, but sometimes the AI will also cascade, cascade cascade and cast a Fertile Thicket.

Even if the AI does get an Ulamog into play, every color has the ability to kill / disable / bounce Ulamog for far less mana than it cost to put Ulamog out in the first place.