Do you like Terrors in the Shadows event?

Kthanid

Barrelrolla wrote:

I think you should balance between a strong deck and a deck that meets the criteria.
Try build around spirits for example, but include some buff spells and some removal, so you could still be competitive even if you face a deck that's just strong and not built around optional objectives.
It is hard, but it definitely is fun, because it pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes you think of new kinds of strategies.

Yeah of course, but even so most of those type of cards doesn't fit really on average builds : maybe I got not much luck but spirits, werevolves and especially madness types (recquired for the black deck optionnal) are really weak and the choice much limited. It's fun trying to build something like that while trying to stay competitive while trying to face op decks is killing the fun of the event.

rob443

A single big box of SOI got me enough cards to build a Nissa mana ramp big werewolf, a Gideon spirit / delirium and a Liliana vampire deck. Only thing i could not fulfill was casting black madness cards, which i dont have any of. Only been using commons and uncommons for this and did very well.

HomeRn

rob443 wrote:

A single big box of SOI got me enough cards to build a Nissa mana ramp big werewolf, a Gideon spirit / delirium and a Liliana vampire deck. Only thing i could not fulfill was casting black madness cards, which i dont have any of. Only been using commons and uncommons for this and did very well.

So far I think there's literally only ONE black card with madness... which is quite problematic.

Morphis

HomeRn wrote:

rob443 wrote:

A single big box of SOI got me enough cards to build a Nissa mana ramp big werewolf, a Gideon spirit / delirium and a Liliana vampire deck. Only thing i could not fulfill was casting black madness cards, which i dont have any of. Only been using commons and uncommons for this and did very well.

So far I think there's literally only ONE black card with madness... which is quite problematic.

At the very least 2

From under the floorboards
And the vampire madness(great to get both objectives).

I find more problematic the green transform.

There is only one decent green transform card and is an event reward so for now not even obtainable.
So I focused on the cheapest one and I am using creature fetch to get copies.
This basically mean wasting lots of mana. The rest of the deck is to draw a little, defend a little, ramp a little.

If you build a transform/werewolf deck with green now and face a non objective decent deck you are probably going to lose the match or will be forced to outrun them, meaning probably giving up on one or both secondary objectives(with Garruck wolf one is basically guaranteed though).

Good thing is almost everyone goes for objectives...

Buret0

Kthanid wrote:

Some rules or specifics should be added to balance this kind of event based on building a deck focused on some spec such as casting at least 2 spirits, vampires, werewolves etc. types to validate the quest.
The deck you build, based on this, will be far more weaker, and thus picking an opponent with an optimized deck, you'll definitely lose your encounter, no matter what. 3 times in a row I picked this kind of opponent based on the randomness.

If people (like me) still met this kind of opponent they'll just do the same by rebuilding the most powerful decks, and this will lead other people doing the same by being frustrated after having keep losing against this kind of overpowered decks... This'll just kill the event itself, making another node style one with only 3 choices of color...

Either you get luck on picking an opponent playing the rules as intended, either you got an optimized one and you get assured to lose your round. Maybe spec as having at least 2 spirits / zombies and 2 madness etc. based cards during the deck building would balance this kind of problem?

You can see where your opponent is ranked. If they are in the top 25, you can count on seeing decks customized for the event.

Steeme

I like participating in the event as it gives me a reason to rebuild a new deck from scratch (well, almost from scratch). I really like the idea of using cards I wouldn't normally use, and likewise running into decks with unexpected cards/combos. It really gives a broader experience in the game and I think everyone benefits from it.

My main concern though is about the event Start/End times and how the available matches per planeswalker are banked.

Example:
Event starts and your 3 planeswalkers all start with 5 matches banked.
Matches only regenerate when you are currently below the 5 match banked threshold.
Therefore the only chance at maximizing your score is to start playing matches immediately when the tournament starts, and always be below the threshold.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm sure there are many others experiencing a similar scenario. The weekend events usually start right at my bedtime. By the time I wake up, get myself to the gym, drive back to the city, and prepare/pack all of my stuff for the coming work week, it's already been 14 hours since the event started. That means I've lost those 14 hours of regenerating matches and have little chance of making my way up the leaderboard.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a casual player, not "competitive" or a "tryhard" in that sense. However, I do believe that if I take the time to participate in the event then I should be able to compete with others on a level-ground and not have to play "catchup" just because of my work-life schedule and my timezone.

My proposal is that everyone should start with a lesser amount of matches banked at the beginning, say 2 or 3 matches per planeswalker. Then the matches will start regenerating immediate for everyone when the event starts. You can preserve the current maximum of 5 matches per planeswalker (or modify it to taste).

Under the new system, there will be less of a gap between players who can and can't start the event immediately.

Kthanid

HomeRn wrote:

rob443 wrote:

A single big box of SOI got me enough cards to build a Nissa mana ramp big werewolf, a Gideon spirit / delirium and a Liliana vampire deck. Only thing i could not fulfill was casting black madness cards, which i dont have any of. Only been using commons and uncommons for this and did very well.

So far I think there's literally only ONE black card with madness... which is quite problematic.

That's my point : if you want to fulfill objectives you've got to take not single but multiple colors planeswalker type. Then you'll find stronger and have more choices on the cards you're gonna pick for that (especially the black one with problematic madness type). Most of these cards are easy to find yet the deck combo building is really powerless.

This would be more fun with a sealed deck building like (as for Magic TCG) : meaning everyone starts with the same kind of weapon and luck and can't choose any other cards but the one you pick for the event (with only bonus as final rewards at the end). This one is like playing T2 like deck vs T1 open... Of course it's what the free to play system like is seeking for...

Kthanid

And now that you can't pick your opponent anymore? At least everyone is gonna have the same difficulties as intended. But really no fun at all btw... Except the fact that people encountering my decks will have a tough round...

Morphis

Voting has gone far enough that I can vote without worrying about influence or anything...

I had one more time to re-evaluate the event.
Overall I still do not like it.
It has some good things like forcing deckbuilding and helping in the discovery of some card synergy or simply reconsider some card overall usefulness.

The downsides outweighs the upsides for me.
You cannot kill opponent. It's simple as that.
When on QB or NoP event, if something bad happens in first turns you can:
- control given the proper spells(kill, bounce, disable, whatever)
- defend using defenders/reach
- outrush opponent


In this event:
- you can control
- you can use defender only if it dies defending. A single big defender can probably almost kill opponent.
- you cannot outrush opponent until objectives are met

That covers "how can I handle fast opponent starts"

Now for the objectives...
I don't know how many cards you can put of the require type that are not complete garbage in the deck.
Usually I run 2 of each required unless one can cover 2 types, then I run 3(1 of each type and 1 that covers both).

Now the problem is: will I draw it?
so another slot at least should be reserved for card draw.
Some colors have good card draw, others don't or are high rarity.
Even with all this there are still times when you do not draw that card you need for objective.
Until then... You stand there playing nothing....
That's really boring.

It also increases the chances something bad can happen like discards, cascades etc...

So for me the main problem is that:
- winning is most of the time boring. Doing nothing for many turn just to wait for cards required
- losing(or not getting all objectives cause otherwise you would lose so you outrun) is frustrating cause you are using a deck much worse than the one you could AND even with this deck, if you could just not limit your play you would have probably won.

Barrelrolla

I partially agree, but only partially.
In your case you have a super strong deck that can win you any game, but because you need objectives done, you take 3 cards out and put 3 cards for the objectives and then wait for them. It's the same as what I did at first and I was also bored and didn't like it and voted "No".
Later, I changed my vote to "Yes", because I decided to change my whole deck.
Spirits with delirium? No problem, 4 creatures, all spirits, 1 has delirium. 2 supports with delirium and fill with removal spells.
Yes, the deck is a lot worse than what I can make with all cards I've got, but I'm not waiting for anytning, becauase almost all the cards in the deck count towards one of the two objectives.
It's fun, because it actually pushes you out of your comfort zone, makes you build a new deck and it actually works better than you think. I had one loss last week and missed out 8 points total from the rest of the games (2 times I was 1 card short of the second objective and 1 time I accidentally buffed my werewolf so much, it killed my opponent before I could cast another) in Gold and so far I've lost 3 games (2 to super cascading Koth) and missed a total of 3 points from the other games in Platinum.
I suppose I could win 2 out of 3 of these games, the last was complete b******t with crazy cascades on both turn 1 and 2 and I was dead before Enrage, if I did the same as you. I could definitely win one if I used my standard Kiora deck, or if there wasn't Enrage. But the colors this week are awful for the cards I've got and that's the best I came up with, so your way is probably better.
But, my way also works, I'm having fun and in the end, that's what matters, right?

Morphis

@Barrelrolla: yes fun is what matters. Thats why I almost completely abandoned QB.
If I could build a decent deck(not in terms of power but synergy) then I would play it.

With the new red mythic werewolf, if I will get it, a nice werewolf red can be built. So, even if my normal Koth would be at least 3 times stronger i would play it.
Same goes for kiora. Horror I already play the thing in ice.
The reward horror synergises with the thin and allow additional card drAw. Also this week it is paired with madness so the "discard your hand" gets madness synergy. I liked that.

The problem is mainly that most of the decks are too hard to make viable/fun based on the objectives goal.
So you have to choose between:
- play incredibly subpar cards all over your deck. You can lose simply cause of card quality and on the active side you feel not rewarded for the mana spent.
- put just a couple cards in your standard deck. You can lose cause it takes too many turn to meet objectives and on the active side you basically not play half the match.
Probably with time and some more cards added valid for these objectives this will no longer be a problem.
For me it is at the moment, hence my vote.

Kthanid

I'd like to repost here a suggestion I made in another part that would maybe solve this :

Best thing would be having a sealed deck for a given event.

If changing constantly to fit conditions required for a given event or being more competitive for classical pvp means encountering OP decks during an event while trying to validate optional objectives, this doesn't worth it.

My point is : having multiple decks builds option is great (so much time saved...). But when choosing to participate to a given event you've got to make one build (or choose one among the current ones). The game will then pick the chosen build as being the only deck viable during the encounters for the given event, not the others current ones. This would really re-balance the pvp event system when given optional objectives (that makes a great and interesting challenge by itself btw).

Barrelrolla

Morphis wrote:

- play incredibly subpar cards all over your deck. You can lose simply cause of card quality and on the active side you feel not rewarded for the mana spent.

That's exactly the reason for 2 of the 3 losses I've got. My Kiora deck is super bad because all Horror and Madness cards I've got for blue are bad. I have crush of tentacles and a few bounce spells as the cards that are not for objectives and most of the time it is enough, but obviously, not always. At least werewolves on Koth work great.

EldrosKandar

The thing with Kiora, is that you can allow yourself to use less, because in the usual ramp/draw deck you build for her, you cycle through cards quite quickly. If you got the Horror rewarded by 150 ribbons, it makes also a good madness enabler. Then you use Just the Wind for bounce and Nagging Thought for getting the card you want. This is quite the good engine which could complement your strategy.

But for the other two decks, you should try to build for synergy. Red Werewolf is obvious, and there is quite a few good one at uncommon. Otherwise I made a Black Zombie Ob Nixilis and I begin with the delirium mana producers and a lot of zombie token producers, as well as Prized Amalgam.

My point is, you may not have exactly the cards I mentioned, but if you were able to build a few competitive decks for QB and NoP, there are decent to good cards for every of the objectives, the trick is to find which one they are and use it in your deck strategy and not simply put them in a pre-existing deck as an after-thought.

I had more fun with this Event as with NoP, especially because of the deck building restriction, which forces you to use a bit of creativity. And I'm looking forward to Sai's Event, which now that we know what the objectives are, has brought me to build two kind of decks I never played before.