My game experience so far (new player)

Abogmar

Hello my fellow players.

This is my first ever post in a forum so please excuse the lack of structure in my post.

I am a relatively new player and since I feel like new players are quite underrepresented in this forum I wanted to share my experiences so far. Spoiler alert, this includes a lots of personal opinions.

I started playing 2 ½ months ago because a friend wanted me to join his coalition. It was the time colour Mastery and coalitions were first introduced. Since I have been a fan of paper magic for almost my entire life and I enjoy the sweet sensation of candy crush like cascades I gladly joined.

I started playing story, buying the basic PW and levelling them all to 20 and Nissa to about 50. I thought levelling one PW would be more productive than everyone at once. I scored rank 30 and rank 6 in my first events and quickly entered silver league. In hindsight this was quite the mistake since I than lost a lot of battles and couldn’t really compete anymore. I wasn’t able to get the rewards needed to gain new cards and my coalition wasn’t getting any results (5 members). All in all I bought 3 big boxes and got 3 mythics being q. field, disciple of the ring and firebird. In 3 months I opened 3 rares in the free packs and a couple of rares through other rewards. I will now try to summarize my thoughts on the various aspects of the game, please excuse my bad English.

Events: For me the most fun part of the game. For new players the can be quite frustrating (I guess for experts as well, in a different way) since there are a couple of factors that really hurt new players in particular. When I started, for the first 2 events you could choose your opponent by re-clicking on the nodes. This was quite tiresome but it ensured that my enemy was “only” 10-15 lvl above my walkers. Coincidental when I entered silver the enemy got locked. I think that is overall the better choice but really, my lvl 30 J1 against a lvl 60 pre nerf Kiora? In addition, secondary objectives which again, I enjoy are only fun if you have the capacity to achieve them. I finally opened madness cards for blue and a werewolf for red so I can get some ribbons but before that top 50 was just out of the question (the “win the PW” event felt like somone was making fun of me, cast 8 something was just too much for a low lvl pw…). Same goes for avacyn madness. It is fun but I was unable to complete the last 5 bosses or so because my pw aswell as my library lacked power. I know it should be a challenge but for a new player it just feels like they can’t contribute. I still don’t understand why the matchmaking works the way it does but after studying the forum I guess there are lot’s of problems in this regard.

QB: I tried it a couple of times but since this “event” is about grinding and not playing well (I know that there is more to it but I think it is an adequate summary) I need to invest way more time than I have. I still don’t know how people farm 1200+ ribbons. I never felt like I had any real chance to participate in a meaningful way without losing either my job or my social life. I know that people who invest more time should be rewarded, I totally agree. But making a competition about who can spend more time sounds quite weird to me because I can’t see myself enjoying playing the same tuned up decks for 10h strait in order to gain cards and crystals in order to speed up the process even more. While the matchmaking works well here (weirdly enough), new players can’t really climb the ranks because the ribbons with low lvl pw are not worth enough (I know you get more runes but still…). Spending 7 hours and than getting an uncommon just feels bad 

Progress: This can be achieved to ways. First are new and higher lvl PW. This includes a lot of grindig but having a more powerfull walker feels rewarding and is quite the milestone. The amount of runes to level the PW in context to how many there are just feels weird though. Especially since new players lack the experience to know how to spend runes and how to farm effectively. Me spending all my runes on Nissa to gain lvl 56 was a huge mistake since I never opened any green cards and I lost most my qb with her. New players also don’t know about the huge gap in power between the starter pw and the others. Knowing that I would have skipped Chandra and gotten Koth, but well.

The second soruce of progress is through cards. I know that there are lots and lots of threads about this very topic and I am no whiner whatsoever. Having that said (:P), it does feel bad opening a fat pack and just getting one useless mythic and nothing else, and I know I have been luckier than others. For me 600 crystals was hours of grinding in story mode and it didn’t give me anything worthwhile. My decks didn’t get more powerfull and I felt like no progress was made. Getting rares and above, especially the strong ones is sooo damn hard atm (at least for me). I don’t think I ever opened a single rare in one of my event packs which just makes entering the event kinda useless (I know I am painting in white and black here, sorry if it feels like a rant) if you are in a relatively weak coalition. I left the coalition my friend was in (#backstabbed) in order to join a top 100 coalition for the rare per event. This didn’t feel good but 1 rare per week can mean a lot if you only open 1 every 10 packs. The point is that this game feels very snowbally, the top 10 coalitions don’t know what to do with all the mythics (which is great for them, no hard feelings, they make sweet decks and are dedicated) and new players struggle to get anything worthwhile from an event.

The point of what I am rambling here: The game incentivises, me at least, to play it in a very weird way. I know try to avoid mastering any card in order to stay in silver in order boost my library. This restricts me to try different decks and actually have fun with the game. But moving to another tier in order to not be able to compete is bad aswell, kinda loose loose in this regard. Secondly, the PW power difference is so huge that it shocks me. The only reason that I was able to compete in the avacyn event was because I bought and leveled Kiora to 60, before that with the basic PW I felt powerless (since I am lacking most of the good cards). Third, getting the right cards can feel downright impossible. I was lucky to open crush of T. last week and it boosted to power my blue decks immensely. This last event was the first time I did really well and I consider this card to be the main reason for it (and Kiora).

Sorry for the long post by the way. I finally got the respond from the support because the forum activation didn’t work so I had a lot build up. The game is still fun and I enjoy it but some of the things just irritate me a lot because I can’t see the benefit at all. I haven’t even touched the topics of freezes bugs and missing rewards but I think there are plenty of threads like that.

I would love to see some cool changes in the future like deck storage and a rework of the mastery system because it feels almost punishing atm. Also in order to make it feel more like a pvp game I would love to see how many people lost the my deck in the end of an event (and maybe the person with the best ratio gets a player crusher reward). It would be sweet to build decks in order so that the weak AI can pilot them. But I digress, sorry for the long post,I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for enduring this not so new information, glad to be part of the forum now

See ya around.

Steeme

Hi, welcome to the game. I have been playing since June or July (around when Kiora was released). Some comments:

The problem with the drop rates in packs right now is that since they award so many packs and crystals on the leaderboards they have to water down the packs. Otherwise the "top" players will proc all of the cards they need very quickly and lose incentive to play the game. At the same time, this hurts those not on the leaderboards as they: 1) Get very low drop rates on the few free packs / crystals that they earn and 2) Get very low drop rates when purchasing boxes for cash.

I purchased a ton of packs and made some straight pre-purchases in order to fill my library. I had the extra cash due to working overtime every day for 2 years straight. I can't imagine what it would be like to build a library without dropping cash.

QB Grinding: I use it to build runes and play casually. Don't care about the leaderboard. Sometimes if I play for a while I get some crystals.

Story mode: I used this in the beginning since I wasn't interested in PVP. Once I realized that PVP was actually PVE against another player's deck, I lost interest in Story mode as QB is quicker and earns me runes to level up.

Card mastery: I got myself into Gold tier since I have the library to handle it, and I think I'm comfortable where I am. It's fine that it gets you into a different prize pool but matchmaking should not be based on mastery alone since there are players who clearly have the most optimal combination of cards. Matchmaking in the events should be laddered, so that if you're outclassed by the top players, you'll be matched against the weaker players so you can at least get your progression rewards.

Disciple of the Ring, Akoum Firebird, Crush of tentacles: It's cool that you picked these up because I still don't have them despite the countless boxes I've opened. You will find that it is nearly impossible to proc specific cards that you're missing. You eventually just get duplicates to the point where there is no reason to open any more packs (aside from the free ones).

Abogmar

I agree to everything Steeme and salute you for 2 years of overtime 0.0 sorry for not quoting you but doing that from my phone is a real nightmare >_>

I should have mentioned that so far i haven't spend money. I have nothing against support ing a game i like or that people who spend money should have an advantage, ofcourse they should. I just held of because not opening anything feels bad enough using ingame currency, can't imagine the pain when droping $. And some contend feels quite pricey, spending 30+ for a pw or card to have it nerfed 1 month later...oh and i am cheap and broke but that's a side note

I would really love if everything would feel less grindy and more funn...y !

shteev

Welcome to the forums! Great post, I found this hugely informative, since I've been playing since last year and often wondered what the experience of a new player would be like. I'd offer advice but you seem to have a solid grasp of the basics now.

Ythalacuatha

I really liked your post, and second many of your opinions.

The problem with tiers and PVP:

There is always going to be teenagers. Teenagers go to school for a few hours and then have TONS of free time to play a game. A small percentage of teenagers are rich. Those teenagers can play a lot and buy a lot.

By definition, I cannot compete with a teenager with lots of time and money.
I have some money, but I'm not rich.
I have a little time, but not TONS of time.

It is aggravating that games focus on PVP, as the primary outlet to reward players.
It rewards the "dedicated" players, but it also unfairly focuses rewards on the whales, and leaves casual games with a really lackluster gaming experience.

I am very similar in experience to original poster: Started 2 months ago, don't have ANY lvl 60 PW.
Unlike poster: no other PW except basic. Also I focused on the PW that I got rares and mythics for. I scored a few good blues and whites early, so I leveled those two. When I got an awesome black, I built a zombie deck and focused on black. I still don't have ANY red rares or mystics.

I guess my point is: events are unevenly weighted and don't add much fun to the game until you can compete.
I really don't enjoy being absolutely crushed in ten rounds. Even worse when you put up a mighty struggle and the fight lasts 30 minutes, but you still lose.

Maybe a simple coding change would greatly help new players:

Change the drop rate on based on tiers:
Bronze and Silver have a higher percentage of rare+ cards than gold and platinum.
Seems like that wouldn't be that difficult to code.

Ythalacuatha

tm00

If you can get at the end of the reward ladder and want rares of a certain color, I think you can reach the rare reward in quick battle with an approximately similar number of games, not sure about it however.

bgqtony

I can't really argue with anything you've said. I've been playing for about 2 months now and finally have a decent library and level PWs. I've never really been higher than 50 in either QB or Events. I just don't have the free time to grind that much (or desire). I also don't have near enough mythics to compete quick enough.

Events: I have said before that match making in events is garbage. Forcing new players, or those without all level 60s to go up against 60s is just unfair. It makes it hard for them to compete, sucks the fun away, and makes them want to play less.

QB: I am with the OP. I would never spend all weekend grinding this game. The few times I have played for a few hours strait and gotten a decent ranking, the reward was no way worth the time I put in (usually a dupe of a rare, and I don't even have that many). I usually end up feeling like I would have rather spent the time doing something else.

Story: I still do enjoy the story mode, it's a nice change.

I got lucky in the early stages and managed to get some cards due to freebie crystals from server issues from d3. But I have a friend who just started playing this month and is having a really rough go competing. It's just hard for him to get cards.

I haven't spent any money on this game for two reasons. One, I don't trust the randomness in the packs to justify spending money on crystals. My last few big boxes have dropped dupes or junk. If I paid money for that, I'd be pissed. The duplicate card system is also garbage, but that's a complaint for another post. The other reason I haven't spent money is the pricing for individual stuff in insane. $30 for a bundle? $60+? That's nuts. That's the price of a AAA video game that has an amazing amount of depth. I assume they price things that way for the whales. I believe in supporting developers for their work. I've paid money to other FtP games, but reasonable amounts.

Foznertep

I am also fairly new to the game and don't have too much time to spend on it. What I would really appreciate would be more PvE content. I liked Story Mode because the optional objectives make deck building more of a puzzle. So once it was through, or at least I hit the mark where my library just wasn't godly enough to win, events and QB just started feeling too repetitive without providing a sense of actual accomplishment or progress. I'm not in a top coalition or able to snag top ranks on my own, so I feel that I kind of already hit the ceiling which is somewhat disheartening.

Abogmar

shteev wrote:

Welcome to the forums! Great post, I found this hugely informative, since I've been playing since last year and often wondered what the experience of a new player would be like. I'd offer advice but you seem to have a solid grasp of the basics now.

Thank you. I would still value or advice though

Foznertep wrote:

I am also fairly new to the game and don't have too much time to spend on it. What I would really appreciate would be more PvE content. I liked Story Mode because the optional objectives make deck building more of a puzzle. So once it was through, or at least I hit the mark where my library just wasn't godly enough to win, events and QB just started feeling too repetitive without providing a sense of actual accomplishment or progress. I'm not in a top coalition or able to snag top ranks on my own, so I feel that I kind of already hit the ceiling which is somewhat disheartening.

You summarized what i wanted to illustrade. I feel like in this game you are either on the top, getting really nice rewards via events and coalition, or you are on the bottom getting virtualy nothing. It either feels like a cakewalk or hardship. But I have to admit that I have no great solution either. People who play a lot and play well should be rewarded aswell as people who drop money.

Last event I was able to make the top five for the first time and it felt quite rewarding. I would like to see a system where everybody could get that sense of acomplishment without having to adjust 2 days in order to play this game. And it sucks that in the next event I won't be able to make it because I lack eldrazi and werewolf cards

Oh and I am really glad for all the positive and constructive feedback, I was afraid that I was the only one feeling stuck for a while!Thanks guys!

Corn_Noodles

I wonder if color mastery is flawed. Perhaps instead of requiring people to master cards to move up tiers, it should just account for whatever cards you have in your inventory and place you in a tier based on that. One problem newer people face is stiff competition from platinum-level players who hang out in the lower mastery tiers.

Ohboy

Corn Noodles wrote:

I wonder if color mastery is flawed. Perhaps instead of requiring people to master cards to move up tiers, it should just account for whatever cards you have in your inventory and place you in a tier based on that. One problem newer people face is stiff competition from platinum-level players who hang out in the lower mastery tiers.

Actually a more direct solution is to base it on your event winrate.

And make it possible to drop in tier if your winrate goes down too much.

shteev

Mastery, I suspect, has been designed specifically so that the players themselves have absolute control of it, and factors even partly beyond their control like win rate have been excluded from it.

shteev

Abogmar wrote:

shteev wrote:

Welcome to the forums! Great post, I found this hugely informative, since I've been playing since last year and often wondered what the experience of a new player would be like. I'd offer advice but you seem to have a solid grasp of the basics now.

Thank you. I would still value or advice though

I'd be happy to but it's hard for me to know what advice to give. If you've got specific questions that would help!

I think you hit a real milestone buying and levelling Kiora. For many months I'd have rated Kiora as the top PW in the game, rivalled only by Ob Nixilis... I think she still (unarguably?) has a seat at that top table, albeit with more company now. The differing nature of people's collections makes it hard to compare PW, you really have buy them yourself. However, it would be difficult for me to advise a brand new player to immediately buy and level up Kiora to 60 before doing anything else... I really don't know how hard that is. In the early days of the game, QB was pretty easy, as it was full of unaltered starter Nissa decks.. I suspect QB is a bit more of a baptism of fire now, full as it is of Koths and Chandras.

I could give you advice like 'Ajani is my main man, and to this day I still have no idea why Nahiri isn't better than he is' or 'Sorin is a useless waste of space whose only saving grace is his ability to master large numbers of cards' but these are mere opinions and I suspect they would be hotly contested!

Get yourself in a coalition if you haven't already, and perhaps check out this facebook page moderated by a rather spiffing chap who calls himself 'shteev'

https://m.facebook.com/groups/897507373677820

andypk

Corn Noodles wrote:

I wonder if color mastery is flawed. Perhaps instead of requiring people to master cards to move up tiers, it should just account for whatever cards you have in your inventory and place you in a tier based on that. One problem newer people face is stiff competition from platinum-level players who hang out in the lower mastery tiers.

Really all they need to do is take the top 5 (winners of a mystic and add 10 to each color mastery). Call it a reward. Either way, it will get the whales out of silver. I've been playing about a month. And just substituting the rares in to my decks pushed me to silver.

Ohboy

shteev wrote:

Abogmar wrote:

shteev wrote:

Welcome to the forums! Great post, I found this hugely informative, since I've been playing since last year and often wondered what the experience of a new player would be like. I'd offer advice but you seem to have a solid grasp of the basics now.

Thank you. I would still value or advice though

I'd be happy to but it's hard for me to know what advice to give. If you've got specific questions that would help!

I think you hit a real milestone buying and levelling Kiora. For many months I'd have rated Kiora as the top PW in the game, rivalled only by Ob Nixilis... I think she still (unarguably?) has a seat at that top table, albeit with more company now. The differing nature of people's collections makes it hard to compare PW, you really have buy them yourself. However, it would be difficult for me to advise a brand new player to immediately buy and level up Kiora to 60 before doing anything else... I really don't know how hard that is. In the early days of the game, QB was pretty easy, as it was full of unaltered starter Nissa decks.. I suspect QB is a bit more of a baptism of fire now, full as it is of Koths and Chandras.

I could give you advice like 'Ajani is my main man, and to this day I still have no idea why Nahiri isn't better than he is' or 'Sorin is a useless waste of space whose only saving grace is his ability to master large numbers of cards' but these are mere opinions and I suspect they would be hotly contested!

Get yourself in a coalition if you haven't already, and perhaps check out this facebook page moderated by a rather spiffing chap who calls himself 'shteev'

https://m.facebook.com/groups/897507373677820

Sorin is my new favourite Walker for what it's worth. He's fun to play, with a hp bar that can go up and down like a yoyo.

Do you really think ajani is better than nahiri? I haven't played ajani a lot.

Abogmar

shteev wrote:

Get yourself in a coalition if you haven't already, and perhaps check out this facebook page moderated by a rather spiffing chap who calls himself 'shteev'

https://m.facebook.com/groups/897507373677820

I see what you did there:P

Well funny you mention it, which pw to buy and lvl next is something that i can't figure out.

I thought about buying koth and j2 next but i am unsure...any ideas?

The thread is kinda mutating, bit i can't turn down free advice

Ciotog

It really comes down to which rares/mythics you have as to what PW you can make work for you. For what it is worth:
-I have Koth and he is a blast when it comes to being able to play big creatures or more expensive cards. He can get mana thirsty if you get unlucky though
-I got Jace V2 when he hit the vault recently and I thoroughly enjoy playing him. His mana gains are great and with the right cards his 3rd ability can end a game in a turn.

What kind of play style do you like? Which PW/color fits that best? These questions would help pick your next PW.

span_argoman

Ohboy wrote:

shteev wrote:

I think you hit a real milestone buying and levelling Kiora. For many months I'd have rated Kiora as the top PW in the game, rivalled only by Ob Nixilis... I think she still (unarguably?) has a seat at that top table, albeit with more company now. The differing nature of people's collections makes it hard to compare PW, you really have buy them yourself. However, it would be difficult for me to advise a brand new player to immediately buy and level up Kiora to 60 before doing anything else... I really don't know how hard that is. In the early days of the game, QB was pretty easy, as it was full of unaltered starter Nissa decks.. I suspect QB is a bit more of a baptism of fire now, full as it is of Koths and Chandras.

I could give you advice like 'Ajani is my main man, and to this day I still have no idea why Nahiri isn't better than he is' or 'Sorin is a useless waste of space whose only saving grace is his ability to master large numbers of cards' but these are mere opinions and I suspect they would be hotly contested!

Sorin is my new favourite Walker for what it's worth. He's fun to play, with a hp bar that can go up and down like a yoyo.

Do you really think ajani is better than nahiri? I haven't played ajani a lot.

Nahiri's abilities make her a speed Planeswalker (boost creatures, draw, temporary massive boost) whereas Ajani's abilities make him more of a control planeswalker (disable chain into removal, damage to creature, thwack enemy supports and hopefully some nice cascades). The trend of power creep makes control much more important nowadays. So Ajani is better suited for the current meta. If this was BFZ meta, Ajani would likely be seen as the 'stronger' planeswalker.

The other issue is Nahiri's mana gain is more uneven among the colours than Ajani. It matters less that you matched for 1 more mana on-colour when the game is going well than when you are scraping mana together through a series of off-colour matches in a bad game.

Sorin's main problem is that none of his abilities help him gain back board control if he's already behind. His abilities probably predispose him towards speed decks which are out of favour in this meta.

shteev

Abogmar wrote:

I thought about buying koth and j2 next but i am unsure...any ideas?

Once again you demonstrate your very strong grasp of the game's systems with this conundrum

They're both extraordinarily powerful. Personally I'd say J2 edges ahead on power level, and I'd add that Koth is a little too inconsistent for my personal tastes, so I rarely play him. However! Koth is the undisputed king of speed, and if you intend to do get into the top ranks of QB he's probably essential.

Abogmar

shteev wrote:

Once again you demonstrate your very strong grasp of the game's systems with this conundrum

They're both extraordinarily powerful. Personally I'd say J2 edges ahead on power level, and I'd add that Koth is a little too inconsistent for my personal tastes, so I rarely play him. However! Koth is the undisputed king of speed, and if you intend to do get into the top ranks of QB he's probably essential.

Damn now this threads looks like all I'm doing is fishing for compliments

Kiora is great but the 950 cost plus 150000 runes is just too high for me atm, I think I will go for a mono walker next or 2. So basicly Ob nix, J2, Koth and Ally Gidion are in the running. I really want a strong PW for each colour so I can perfom well in events. Since Kiora can cover red or green I thought about Koth first (also he is the only mono red walker I know), but atm only Ob is in the vault. Is he that strong?Sorry for all those questions and thanks for everybodys time.

shteev

Abogmar wrote:

shteev wrote:

Once again you demonstrate your very strong grasp of the game's systems with this conundrum

They're both extraordinarily powerful. Personally I'd say J2 edges ahead on power level, and I'd add that Koth is a little too inconsistent for my personal tastes, so I rarely play him. However! Koth is the undisputed king of speed, and if you intend to do get into the top ranks of QB he's probably essential.

Damn now this threads looks like all I'm doing is fishing for compliments

Kiora is great but the 950 cost plus 150000 runes is just too high for me atm, I think I will go for a mono walker next or 2. So basicly Ob nix, J2, Koth and Ally Gidion are in the running.

Ob Nixilis is in the running for most powerful PW in the game.. his basic game plan of controlling the game absolutely, and winning with his ultimate ability is a solid one. However! I remember when I bought Ob Nixilis I didn't have enough card power for him to be one of my premier PWs. It took a little while to build up my collection first. (It's worth bearing in mind that my earlier reviews of Koth and J2 may also be biased by my experience of high level play!)

G2 I would advise against, simply because his powers are Ally based... chances are we won't get new Allies in future sets for ages, and in order to get Allies yourself you'll have to buy BFZ cards... I think BFZ is a pretty poor set, especially compared to SoI. Besides, G1 can also field Ally decks well... and Nahiri for that matter. I bought G2 and I consider that decision to have been a waste of 250 crystals... at least while I don't own Veteran Warleader.