Nice event!

Ohboy

While all decks are vulnerable to the red node 15 dmg, it's obvious some decks are less vulnerable than others.

Everyone fights on equal footing.

This is like how people say poker depends on luck. But it's no coincidence that final tables are always littered with familiar faces.

If you're afraid of ob as dovin, that just tells me you're not as well prepared for the node as someone who is running it creatureless or with only hexproof creatures.

wereotter

Ohboy wrote:

While all decks are vulnerable to the red node 15 dmg, it's obvious some decks are less vulnerable than others.

Everyone fights on equal footing.

This is like how people say poker depends on luck. But it's no coincidence that final tables are always littered with familiar faces.

If you're afraid of ob as dovin, that just tells me you're not as well prepared for the node as someone who is running it creatureless or with only hexproof creatures.

With the current hexproof bug, I'm absolutely not running it. I have a solid deck and most matches I lost maybe one creature. I don't have the cards for him to win creatureless, so I work with what I have. But when I get Kiora, who actually did this, imprison in the moon my first creature summoned, imprison the moon token it made, then turn that to frog all in one turn, I lost three creatures without anything I could do about it. So, yeah. It's luck as much as skill.

madwren

wereotter wrote:

Ohboy wrote:

While all decks are vulnerable to the red node 15 dmg, it's obvious some decks are less vulnerable than others.

Everyone fights on equal footing.

This is like how people say poker depends on luck. But it's no coincidence that final tables are always littered with familiar faces.

If you're afraid of ob as dovin, that just tells me you're not as well prepared for the node as someone who is running it creatureless or with only hexproof creatures.

With the current hexproof bug, I'm absolutely not running it. I have a solid deck and most matches I lost maybe one creature. I don't have the cards for him to win creatureless, so I work with what I have. But when I get Kiora, who actually did this, imprison in the moon my first creature summoned, imprison the moon token it made, then turn that to frog all in one turn, I lost three creatures without anything I could do about it. So, yeah. It's luck as much as skill.

With all due respect, saying that you won't use hexproof, which is the way to avoid getting your creatures killed in exactly the scenario that you describe, seems a bit shortsighted.

I ran Sphinx in Dovin and only lost a single SA the entire event, because I wasn't paying attention and he got berserker'd.

There is a lot of luck in this game, and the red node is particularly egregious, but there are ways to mitigate luck, and finding those ways is paramount to succeed with these objectives.

span_argoman

Ok, consider me a clueless fellow but playing "Hexproof" refers to using either Rattlechains or Sphinx of the Final Word, both of which happen to be mythics. What do you people suggest for those who do not have these two cards?

Playing creatureless would seem to refer to Fevered Visions, repeated Brutal Expulsions maybe, and I guess Thopter Pie Network. Of course now Dynavolt Tower also.

So unless you had at least one of the first two cards, your means of playing around losing 2 creatures or less involved slowly pinging your enemy for 4 damage a turn from Fevered Visions (if you have that), and 1 damage a turn from Thopter Spy Network. What am I missing?

wereotter

madwren wrote:

wereotter wrote:

Ohboy wrote:

While all decks are vulnerable to the red node 15 dmg, it's obvious some decks are less vulnerable than others.

Everyone fights on equal footing.

This is like how people say poker depends on luck. But it's no coincidence that final tables are always littered with familiar faces.

If you're afraid of ob as dovin, that just tells me you're not as well prepared for the node as someone who is running it creatureless or with only hexproof creatures.

With the current hexproof bug, I'm absolutely not running it. I have a solid deck and most matches I lost maybe one creature. I don't have the cards for him to win creatureless, so I work with what I have. But when I get Kiora, who actually did this, imprison in the moon my first creature summoned, imprison the moon token it made, then turn that to frog all in one turn, I lost three creatures without anything I could do about it. So, yeah. It's luck as much as skill.

With all due respect, saying that you won't use hexproof, which is the way to avoid getting your creatures killed in exactly the scenario that you describe, seems a bit shortsighted.

I ran Sphinx in Dovin and only lost a single SA the entire event, because I wasn't paying attention and he got berserker'd.

There is a lot of luck in this game, and the red node is particularly egregious, but there are ways to mitigate luck, and finding those ways is paramount to succeed with these objectives.

I have, and used to love to use, Sphinx of the Final Word. But now that I can't replace creatures that are hexproof, running it has become a liability. That's my point regarding the bug.

Ohboy

span_argoman wrote:

Ok, consider me a clueless fellow but playing "Hexproof" refers to using either Rattlechains or Sphinx of the Final Word, both of which happen to be mythics. What do you people suggest for those who do not have these two cards?

Playing creatureless would seem to refer to Fevered Visions, repeated Brutal Expulsions maybe, and I guess Thopter Pie Network. Of course now Dynavolt Tower also.

So unless you had at least one of the first two cards, your means of playing around losing 2 creatures or less involved slowly pinging your enemy for 4 damage a turn from Fevered Visions (if you have that), and 1 damage a turn from Thopter Spy Network. What am I missing?

Drownyard bohemoth and Runaway carriage are also hexproof.

Creatureless, there's indeed fevered visions, expulsion and the new aetherflux reservoir.

Ohboy

wereotter wrote:

madwren wrote:

wereotter wrote:

Ohboy wrote:

While all decks are vulnerable to the red node 15 dmg, it's obvious some decks are less vulnerable than others.

Everyone fights on equal footing.

This is like how people say poker depends on luck. But it's no coincidence that final tables are always littered with familiar faces.

If you're afraid of ob as dovin, that just tells me you're not as well prepared for the node as someone who is running it creatureless or with only hexproof creatures.

With the current hexproof bug, I'm absolutely not running it. I have a solid deck and most matches I lost maybe one creature. I don't have the cards for him to win creatureless, so I work with what I have. But when I get Kiora, who actually did this, imprison in the moon my first creature summoned, imprison the moon token it made, then turn that to frog all in one turn, I lost three creatures without anything I could do about it. So, yeah. It's luck as much as skill.

With all due respect, saying that you won't use hexproof, which is the way to avoid getting your creatures killed in exactly the scenario that you describe, seems a bit shortsighted.

I ran Sphinx in Dovin and only lost a single SA the entire event, because I wasn't paying attention and he got berserker'd.

There is a lot of luck in this game, and the red node is particularly egregious, but there are ways to mitigate luck, and finding those ways is paramount to succeed with these objectives.

I have, and used to love to use, Sphinx of the Final Word. But now that I can't replace creatures that are hexproof, running it has become a liability. That's my point regarding the bug.

How is it worse than leaving the same creatures exposed to the removals everyone is sure to have?

And in an objective where you want to lose less than 3 creatures, it's extremely unwise to put out 3 creatures, even hexproof ones that can get wiped with aoe. Your best bet is to keep reinforcing the same creature because it's death counts as only 1. Replacing creatures never even entered my mind as a problem for this objective.

wereotter

Fumigate is the only AOE I would think I'd need to worry about, and that's not in the game yet.

That said say I have the sphinx and two creatures out. Maybe electrostatic pummler and a threat I stole with exert influence. Now I have empyreal voyager ready to play, and want it out since Dovin is able to use his third ability, but I can't because I can't replace any creature.

Same problem in Jace 2.0 where I run mockery of nature for support removal, but later on, I'd rather have Emrakul and void winnower on the field.

Ohboy

wereotter wrote:

Fumigate is the only AOE I would think I'd need to worry about, and that's not in the game yet.

That said say I have the sphinx and two creatures out. Maybe electrostatic pummler and a threat I stole with exert influence. Now I have empyreal voyager ready to play, and want it out since Dovin is able to use his third ability, but I can't because I can't replace any creature.

Same problem in Jace 2.0 where I run mockery of nature for support removal, but later on, I'd rather have Emrakul and void winnower on the field.

You're not worried about crush of tentacles, displacement wave or descend unto the sinful? And that's just from dovin. Green brings the great aurora. Red has any number of aoe. Black has pariah and languish.

Also, you can't insist on playing the way you want to play and getting bonus objectives. The entire point of those objectives is to make you play outside your comfort zone.

I can't emphasize enough how bad an idea it is to put 3 creatures out with the intention to hit an objective to lose less than 3 creatures. You're basically banking on luck to carry you through.

If you're unwilling to make an event deck... I don't see how you can complain you're not hitting all objectives in an event.

buscemi

It kinda sucks the the people who won Dynavolt Tower this time around will have such a big advantage playing creatureless Energize based decks the next time they run the event...

wereotter

Ohboy wrote:

wereotter wrote:

Fumigate is the only AOE I would think I'd need to worry about, and that's not in the game yet.

That said say I have the sphinx and two creatures out. Maybe electrostatic pummler and a threat I stole with exert influence. Now I have empyreal voyager ready to play, and want it out since Dovin is able to use his third ability, but I can't because I can't replace any creature.

Same problem in Jace 2.0 where I run mockery of nature for support removal, but later on, I'd rather have Emrakul and void winnower on the field.

You're not worried about crush of tentacles, displacement wave or descend unto the sinful? And that's just from dovin. Green brings the great aurora. Red has any number of aoe. Black has pariah and languish.

Also, you can't insist on playing the way you want to play and getting bonus objectives. The entire point of those objectives is to make you play outside your comfort zone.

I can't emphasize enough how bad an idea it is to put 3 creatures out with the intention to hit an objective to lose less than 3 creatures. You're basically banking on luck to carry you through.

If you're unwilling to make an event deck... I don't see how you can complain you're not hitting all objectives in an event.

I lost the objective twice total. Once to a deck that was all targeted removal, so your point is valid there, and once to a situation where I described that I play my first creature, then Kiora imprisions in the moon twice then turned to frog of a massive cascade. Nothing I could do there unless my very first creature was hexproof. There's lots of cheap abundant spot removal, and while I have the sphinx, not everyone has rattle chains and sphinx if the final word. And not everyone who does wants to play with broken cards, since I can't use Saheeli's Artistry with the Sphinx out.

Ohboy

What's going to suck most is the red node. It's going to be impossible to get that objective if faced against the tower.

wereotter

Agreed. It was already incredibly difficult. Probably going to need to use Sarkhan for all the black kill spells and red support removal and hope for the best since you can't use his first ability.

buscemi

Did anyone catch how many of the usual gang of opponents we all face were in the top 25?

Sarahschmara

buscemi wrote:

Did anyone catch how many of the usual gang of opponents we all face were in the top 25?

Follow up question: does anyone know how many pods there were for each tier?

I know there were at least 2 for gold because teammates had different leaderboards. I wonder if they are capped at 3k players like QBs are?

Just curious

madwren

span_argoman wrote:

Ok, consider me a clueless fellow but playing "Hexproof" refers to using either Rattlechains or Sphinx of the Final Word, both of which happen to be mythics. What do you people suggest for those who do not have these two cards?

Playing creatureless would seem to refer to Fevered Visions, repeated Brutal Expulsions maybe, and I guess Thopter Pie Network. Of course now Dynavolt Tower also.

So unless you had at least one of the first two cards, your means of playing around losing 2 creatures or less involved slowly pinging your enemy for 4 damage a turn from Fevered Visions (if you have that), and 1 damage a turn from Thopter Spy Network. What am I missing?

Sphinx was an event reward, if I'm not mistaken, so many people who've been playing awhile should have it, which is why a lot of us assume people do.

Beyond that, there's Drownyard Behemoth and Runaway Carriage, both of which are relatively accessible uncommons that can be run with power-boosting supports to make them into viable threats.

For playing around the 2-creature loss, I tend to play either extremely aggressive decks that overrun the opponent, or Deploy, which is a mythic that lets you drop a huge amount of offense on the board quickly.

madwren

wereotter wrote:

madwren wrote:

wereotter wrote:

Ohboy wrote:

While all decks are vulnerable to the red node 15 dmg, it's obvious some decks are less vulnerable than others.

Everyone fights on equal footing.

This is like how people say poker depends on luck. But it's no coincidence that final tables are always littered with familiar faces.

If you're afraid of ob as dovin, that just tells me you're not as well prepared for the node as someone who is running it creatureless or with only hexproof creatures.

With the current hexproof bug, I'm absolutely not running it. I have a solid deck and most matches I lost maybe one creature. I don't have the cards for him to win creatureless, so I work with what I have. But when I get Kiora, who actually did this, imprison in the moon my first creature summoned, imprison the moon token it made, then turn that to frog all in one turn, I lost three creatures without anything I could do about it. So, yeah. It's luck as much as skill.

With all due respect, saying that you won't use hexproof, which is the way to avoid getting your creatures killed in exactly the scenario that you describe, seems a bit shortsighted.

I ran Sphinx in Dovin and only lost a single SA the entire event, because I wasn't paying attention and he got berserker'd.

There is a lot of luck in this game, and the red node is particularly egregious, but there are ways to mitigate luck, and finding those ways is paramount to succeed with these objectives.

I have, and used to love to use, Sphinx of the Final Word. But now that I can't replace creatures that are hexproof, running it has become a liability. That's my point regarding the bug.

Sorry, I should have clarified. I used Sphinx in a 3-creature build with Sphinx, Startled Awake, and Gisela. That makes replacing creatures unnecessary, as well as allowing you to utilize hexproof for the objective.

Sure, there are things you cannot control--Descend, Crush, Unmaking, etc.--but there are also things you *can* control. If you have the ability to make your creatures immune to targeted removal, then that's what you should do in order to narrow the AI's window for screwing over your objective.

Ohboy

Sarahschmara wrote:

buscemi wrote:

Did anyone catch how many of the usual gang of opponents we all face were in the top 25?

Follow up question: does anyone know how many pods there were for each tier?

I know there were at least 2 for gold because teammates had different leaderboards. I wonder if they are capped at 3k players like QBs are?

Just curious

I joined platinum as late as I could without losing a charge, and it's still the first bracket I think.

THEMAGICkMAN

Ohboy wrote:

Sarahschmara wrote:

buscemi wrote:

Did anyone catch how many of the usual gang of opponents we all face were in the top 25?

Follow up question: does anyone know how many pods there were for each tier?

I know there were at least 2 for gold because teammates had different leaderboards. I wonder if they are capped at 3k players like QBs are?

Just curious

I joined platinum as late as I could without losing a charge, and it's still the first bracket I think.

There were at least 2 for silver, probably more.

span_argoman

@madwren @Ohboy
I stand corrected on the Hexproof options. Having two non-Rare/Mythic creatures at least gives most people some options to work with.

Also madwren, Sphinx was the event reward for the very first Oath of the Gatewatch event which was in June last year. While many of us who started playing before that have
access to the card, I think many more do not. At least there is still the Hexproof option.