Unintentional Disadvantages...

bk1234
bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
edited November 2016 in MtGPQ General Discussion
Koth launching Tyrant, WDB, and Castigator in one turn...

G1 with Hixus, Silverstrike, Sigil, Knightly Valor and Murder Investigation -- with Descend for good measure...

Gaea everywhere....

J2 spirit decks with Rattlechains...

Tezz with TSN...

Ob with nothing but throttle and kill cards...

Saheeli casting kill spells, EI, Prism Array, etc

And don't even start on Kiora.

These are cool decks -- and I envy some of them and I'm sure they are tons of fun to play both with and against in NOP and QB (except that G1 -- ugh) -- where we also get to put our best decks forward -- but they just have no place in other events.

This needs to stop.

I'm proud of my **** decks and I normally really like this event, but the joy of being strategic and getting those bonus objectives has been stolen by whatever change was made in the last two updates that causes us to play more non-event decks than event decks.

EC and **** have just become another QB with coalition points as we are forced to change our decks to forego bonus objectives and just make it out alive.

I truly believe that the intention of objectives is to encourage us to think strategically and intelligently about how we will best fulfill these and possibly get us to step out of the box and try new cards; however, somewhere in the message the meaning has been lost and though I can't speak for everyone, I would really like to start playing event optimized decks again -- because it's challenging and they make me think differently and give me cool ideas.

Comments

  • qwweetrtr
    qwweetrtr Posts: 101 Tile Toppler
    For me, the only reason I don't do event decks is because of there not being another deck slot. That's it. The second they give more deck slots will be the second I make event decks simple enough but I'm not going to change my deck for an event just to change it back to normal to do QB or story just to change it back again to Event etc, etc.....


    But until then, that means they aren't doing extra points which means it's at least a little easier to get ahead of them. In theory at least.
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    bken1234 wrote:
    Koth launching Tyrant, WDB, and Castigator in one turn...

    G1 with Hixus, Silverstrike, Sigil, Knightly Valor and Murder Investigation -- with Descend for good measure...

    Gaea everywhere....

    J2 spirit decks with Rattlechains...

    Tezz with TSN...

    Ob with nothing but throttle and kill cards...

    Saheeli casting kill spells, EI, Prism Array, etc

    And don't even start on Kiora.

    These are cool decks -- and I envy some of them and I'm sure they are tons of fun to play both with and against in NOP and QB (except that G1 -- ugh) -- where we also get to put our best decks forward -- but they just have no place in other events.

    This needs to stop.

    I'm proud of my **** decks and I normally really like this event, but the joy of being strategic and getting those bonus objectives has been stolen by whatever change was made in the last two updates that causes us to play more non-event decks than event decks.

    EC and **** have just become another QB with coalition points as we are forced to change our decks to forego bonus objectives and just make it out alive.

    I truly believe that the intention of objectives is to encourage us to think strategically and intelligently about how we will best fulfill these and possibly get us to step out of the box and try new cards; however, somewhere in the message the meaning has been lost and though I can't speak for everyone, I would really like to start playing event optimized decks again -- because it's challenging and they make me think differently and give me cool ideas.

    Actually, don't these non event decks cause you to work/think harder?

    There's a reason the same people are always in the final 10 with perfect scores, and it's not just luck in avoiding non event decks.
  • I completely agree.

    More than that, I think it might be wise for the event to "lock" the decks with which you registered in order to prevent people to change their decks between node downtime to optimized, non-event decks.
  • Alve
    Alve Posts: 167 Tile Toppler
    As far as I'm concerned, above bronze and maybe silver, a deck with no objective cards shouldn't be allowed to participate in the event. I get it, new players might not have the cards to even try hitting the secondaries, but if you're gold/platinum and you can't afford putting a single vamp in your deck... maybe you shouldn't have grinded mastery so fast? Or maybe just skip the events you don't like? Zombie event was a step in the right direction, I mostly encountered other zombie decks and they were fun to play against, but there was always someone with a 'screw it all' Kiora deck. At least we didn't have to deal with qb-optimized Koths.
  • Feagul
    Feagul Posts: 114
    Ohboy wrote:
    Actually, don't these non event decks cause you to work/think harder?

    There's a reason the same people are always in the final 10 with perfect scores, and it's not just luck in avoiding non event decks.
    Playing against fully tuned QB Koth decks doesn't make me work/think harder, no. All I can figure for those in the top-10 is that whatever they're doing behind the scenes to routinely match me against the same Koth/Ultradaved matchups is that it's tied to mastery. If you play Koth enough in an enraged event, you will eventually have to forego bonus objectives or simply lose. I wish I could undo my mastery grinding to see if if the matchups would stop being so soul-crushingly awful each event.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    There is also the situation where people put bugged cards in non-event decks.

    That was out of control with Flameblade Angel for awhile and is still pretty bad with TITI.
  • Saintbenn
    Saintbenn Posts: 24 Just Dropped In
    Feagul wrote:
    Ohboy wrote:
    Actually, don't these non event decks cause you to work/think harder?

    There's a reason the same people are always in the final 10 with perfect scores, and it's not just luck in avoiding non event decks.
    Playing against fully tuned QB Koth decks doesn't make me work/think harder, no. All I can figure for those in the top-10 is that whatever they're doing behind the scenes to routinely match me against the same Koth/Ultradaved matchups is that it's tied to mastery. If you play Koth enough in an enraged event, you will eventually have to forego bonus objectives or simply lose. I wish I could undo my mastery grinding to see if if the matchups would stop being so soul-crushingly awful each event.


    Actually, it doesn't seem to matter. My sons account, which is bronze and only lvl 40 highest PW, gets matched up with fully functional lvl 60 Koth decks consistantly. However, he has bested those decks with a lvl 20 Gideon.
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    Feagul wrote:
    Ohboy wrote:
    Actually, don't these non event decks cause you to work/think harder?

    There's a reason the same people are always in the final 10 with perfect scores, and it's not just luck in avoiding non event decks.
    Playing against fully tuned QB Koth decks doesn't make me work/think harder, no. All I can figure for those in the top-10 is that whatever they're doing behind the scenes to routinely match me against the same Koth/Ultradaved matchups is that it's tied to mastery. If you play Koth enough in an enraged event, you will eventually have to forego bonus objectives or simply lose. I wish I could undo my mastery grinding to see if if the matchups would stop being so soul-crushingly awful each event.


    And your explanation for the same people topping the scoreboard everytime is?

    I'm pretty sure they meet koths too.
  • jackvett
    jackvett Posts: 141 Tile Toppler
    I just don't like that I have to use my flex spots (which can be support hate) to run themed cards, which leads to getting blown out sometimes by a random ob/kiora control combo.

    I wouldn't mind very much because doing the objectives does put a fresh spin on things, but when your only option is manual destruction things like TSN or more probably lili's oath are gonna really hurt.

    For your main point, though: if the AI could feel it would probably need to be in therapy for years for what players have done to it in 99% of games.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Ohboy wrote:
    And your explanation for the same people topping the scoreboard everytime is?

    I'm pretty sure they meet koths too.

    Once again, you're missing the point.

    I don't have a problem beating the non-event decks -- neither do they. It's just not fun and not as strategic as it could be. I'm not playing new and interesting cards because my decks are loaded down with the same wipes and kill spells I always use.

    It's a game, dude, it's supposed to be fun.
  • Plastic
    Plastic Posts: 762 Critical Contributor
    I honestly don't have an issue with decks that aren't tuned to have event specific cards as opponents. Some people just don't care or want to get these secondaries and that's their choice. I look at it as a strategy to help them boost their score by potentially making other people lose out on 5+ points. The only thing with this strat is they have no control over the AI playing for them and they'll just have to hope there's an impact.

    The only problem with matchmaking IMO is facing a PWs with a huge level difference. Nobody should be facing a level 20 PW while all of theirs are 60, or vice versa.
  • Steeme
    Steeme Posts: 784 Critical Contributor
    I find it quite immersion-breaking to run into decks that clearly don't belong in the event. It kills the spirit.

    I get it though. Everyone wants to at least get the progression reward, regardless of whether or not they actually want to participate. Not sure what the solution is.
  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
    Ohboy wrote:
    There's a reason the same people are always in the final 10 with perfect scores

    Pics or it didn't happen.
  • Feagul
    Feagul Posts: 114
    Ohboy wrote:
    Feagul wrote:
    Ohboy wrote:
    Actually, don't these non event decks cause you to work/think harder?

    There's a reason the same people are always in the final 10 with perfect scores, and it's not just luck in avoiding non event decks.
    Playing against fully tuned QB Koth decks doesn't make me work/think harder, no. All I can figure for those in the top-10 is that whatever they're doing behind the scenes to routinely match me against the same Koth/Ultradaved matchups is that it's tied to mastery. If you play Koth enough in an enraged event, you will eventually have to forego bonus objectives or simply lose. I wish I could undo my mastery grinding to see if if the matchups would stop being so soul-crushingly awful each event.


    And your explanation for the same people topping the scoreboard everytime is?

    I'm pretty sure they meet koths too.
    My guess is in what you quoted, if you care to read it.
  • fox1342
    fox1342 Posts: 174 Tile Toppler
    Oath of Gatewatch with only Tyrant in the deck. icon_e_sad.gif not happy. I'd already killed two tyrants and was about to win.
  • Rogan_Josh
    Rogan_Josh Posts: 140 Tile Toppler
    Really we should only be playing against decks that are in the event, as others have said above. The problem is when you get matched, the AI picks a random PW from that players list to play against.

    You can't expect people to switch 14+ decks to something fitting the event. the matchmaking needs to be tighter.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    Rogan Josh wrote:
    Really we should only be playing against decks that are in the event, as others have said above. The problem is when you get matched, the AI picks a random PW from that players list to play against.

    You can't expect people to switch 14+ decks to something fitting the event. the matchmaking needs to be tighter.

    Exactly -- and we would still play non-optimized events, because not everyone plays for bonuses, but they would be in a much lower proportion and we wouldn't be playing Koth and TSN Tezz decks every other turn in a B/W/G event.