Various Feedback and Suggestions

zarrick13

I've been playing the game for a couple months now, noticing trends and the various improvements and "improvements". Thoughts so far:

Gameplay: Very well done. Many times it does feel like a Magic game, complete with mana glut/defecit situations. Ten cards feels very odd, though I understand that it kind of represents 'four copies' of enough cards to generally fill a 60-card deck plus lands. It does still feel somewhat limiting for those that tend to play decks with more options to them. Even so, some of the best strategy comes from keeping tactical slots to a minimum.

Cards: This has proven to be very hit and miss. I can appreciate the effort it takes to translate a card game into a puzzle quest game. On the other hand, where in Magic you can normally build a pretty effective deck out of commons and uncommons, their gem-powered alternatives here are inferior in ways that make playing a common-card planeswalker against a rare-powered planeswalker very very difficult. A lot of this seems to stem from that same 10-card limit as that condenses the usual 60-card duel in a way that makes each rare count for so much more than each common can hope to cope with. Not to say that common cards can't win, but it's definitely a struggle given current balance.

Card Packs: The biggest issue here is the cost value. Magic was practically the pioneer of the whole 'gatcha' system through boosters and all. The randomness isn't the issue so much as the price per pack, and the rare/mythic drop rate therein. You know when you buy a Magic booster pack you're getting something rare. And since you could have up to 4 copies of something, a rare was almost never useless. Here you only need one copy of something. As a result, rares are very much rare despite making up half of the cards and good, viable tactics out there, and are never guaranteed without spending a decent chunk of change. Seriously, the cost of the crystals needed to afford a Big Box that you might (if you're lucky) get five or six rares out of should not be costing so much more than the price of physical cards, or even the Magic Duels FTP game. Not to mention the feeling players get when they pay for cards and get no rares at all. Yes, the counter argument is 'free currency/rewards!', but when you pay for something, get nothing, and then get something better for free, how likely are you to want to spend money again? One of two things would help this a lot. Either lower the prices so it doesn't sting so badly when you **** out on a bad draw, or increase the odds so you are assured to get enough nice things to compensate for the physical dollars flung at the game. $30 for one guaranteed rare doesn't cut it.

Planeswalkers: it's pretty neat to have a sort of Commander be a Planeswalker, but I somehow think something is missing here. Maybe it's looking at Story mode, or the recent PvE events, and realizing that there could have been a way to do more of an actual Commander system instead of having the PW's be the lifebar. As-is the Planeswalker system is pretty fine, the ability setup is neat, and I am eagerly awaiting a few more dual-colors for better (and very popular) deck options. (Red/Green? Blue/Black? White/Black?) Can't wait to see what happens here, though I will note again that the prices for these guys can be pretty insane to think about.

Story Mode: Very well done. There are adequate rewards, they hone your skills, it's good progression, no complaints here. Can't wait to see more of it with Innistrad.

Quick Battle: This mode is pretty broken. By that I mean it is really not very quick at all. It's a slog for 2-3 days at a time, tossing hundreds of dollars at the people who already spent hundreds of dollars and minutes slaving away for a top spot. Nobody else gets the king reward, regardless of time or effort. I don't expect to be showered in gifts if I don't get first, but I also want something more than a handful of runes if I'm going to blow three days of time focus-firing endless matches. They need to be a lot shorter. More focused. Mini-tournaments? 8-hour rounds? Smaller pools? Right now it feels like a grand waste of time to step foot in this arena if I'm not prepared to spend every waking moment playing the game for the top spot, and that's not a habit I want to be getting into. Nor should it be expected, encouraged, or rewarded in quite this manner. One person out of every 5,000 players gets to feel freaking awesome. The rest sigh and wait for the next PvP or PvE event to get their good feels in.

Events: These have been done well so far! PvE felt as good as Story Mode, though having the same bunch of fights every weekend three times in a row felt a little grindy. PvP events feel like what Quick Battle should have been to start with. Progression rewards leading to a high score reward. Definitely a high point.

Color Mastery: Remember when I talked about the disparity between Common and Rare cards? Yeah... Now we're being forced to use the bad cards against rare-quality decks in order to grind up enough points to qualify for higher rewards in events. I see what you were trying to do here. I don't think this was the best way to do it. Color usage IS a very good thing to note, but tying it specifically to the cards just encourages a grindfest in story mode lest someone get their nose (and W/L ratio) bloodied trying to use bad cards in PvP. I appreciate the effort, I would love to have more reason to use cards other than the few rares I've drawn, but they have to be /worth using/ and not just for a few color XP before I shove them back into the dark abyss. It's a good idea to find granular ways to better match people together, but this just feels bad to slog through.

Final Thoughts: A good game! It has much potential! As it stands you have to /really/ love the game to want to throw money at it given the current price structures. Otherwise it's a matter of grinding and waiting for fun cards to play with and that can truly be a real grind... Once you have those fun cards though, it's a total blast.