Several birds, one stone. Event overhaul idea

wereotter

So this is still being worked out, so if there's any error in my opinions here are welcome to feedback and suggestions, but....

Comparing the ranking and match making to the system used at actual MTG events (I've only been to prerelease events but I assume this is close to if not the same system used in all of them) it seems there are a few things we can do in order to break up tie breakers, match making, non event decks, time zone issues for node refreshed, etc that all can be fixed with a few changes to the event systems.

Let's take Emergency Ordinances as the example for this explanation:

Everyone starts just like now with 0 points and a selection for a white, black, and blue planeswalker for a node on an 8 hour refresh. As far as the first refresh on the node goes, very little will change. You'll be paired against a random opponent, but as far as ranking is concerned, you'll either receive 0 points for losing, or 2 points for winning. Optional objectives will be addressed further down. When the nodes refresh after 8 hours, this is where matchmaking will be adjusted. If you won your first matches, you have a score of 6. You will ONLY be matched against people who also have a score of 6. Fours will fight fours, twos will fight twos, and zeros will fight zeros. Adjustments can be made so zeros battle twos if there aren't enough opponents, but otherwise you will be paired entirely against people at your same tier.

This will solve a few potential issues, decks that do well will be paired against other decks that are also doing well, which will help break ties more than the current secondary objectives will. Additionally, after the first refresh the system will no longer look at planeswalker level when determining an opponent, it will ONLY care about score within your mastery tier. So if you've used a level 20 planeswalker in platinum to try to coast to an easy victory, that will no longer work. You very easily could be paired against a level 60 planeswalker on your second refresh. This will also mean that you'll be paired against decks entered into the event, since it will be looking for someone with your same score to pair you against.

In order for this to work, however, the trade off will be that if your node is not completed within the 8-hour refresh window, you will not have the opportunity to complete the first match and will get a 0 score for all incomplete nodes. This is the only way I can think of to fairly score everyone and make sure someone doesn't just wait until the last refresh to complete all matches against opponents who have mostly lost their matches.

As far as secondary objectives, these will be use entirely for progression rewards, and will be worth more toward progression than winning the match, and full progression would not be possible to reach by only winning the matches. For example it could be:
White Node:
2 points - Win the match
4 points - Energize 5 or more gems during a single fight
1 point - Cast no supports during a single fight

In this case your secondary points would be awarded even upon a loss to encourage players to use energy or complete alternative objectives. Additionally the rewards would need to be adjusted and balanced between progression and ranking. Possibly adding a rare from the current set as a high progression reward, and eliminating mythics from ranking, and having that award entirely crystals and maybe packs of cards, but no guarantee of a rare or mythic rare card.

LoVe1AnGe

The only problem about the change prioriy about sidequests is u have many chances (very very high) to fall against a deck using a QB deck and not an event deck. So how be competitive against a hard quick kill deck when u have to play the timer and 2x damages 5 turns after ? ^^

Otherwise i'm totally agree about u'r idea for matchmaking on how many pts u earn during the event. It will absolutely permit all of us to stop met always the top players that screw up us easily when u can play for sure this time balancing duels.

I would add that the blue node should only met blue pw (Jace, Tezzeret, Dovin, Kiora) Not met Nahiri or Chandra 1 when u have to be care not taking 10 damages or more xD

wereotter

LoVe1AnGe wrote:

The only problem about the change prioriy about sidequests is u have many chances (very very high) to fall against a deck using a QB deck and not an event deck. So how be competitive against a hard quick kill deck when u have to play the timer and 2x damages 5 turns after ? ^^

Otherwise i'm totally agree about u'r idea for matchmaking on how many pts u earn during the event. It will absolutely permit all of us to stop met always the top players that screw up us easily when u can play for sure this time balancing duels.

I would add that the blue node should only met blue pw (Jace, Tezzeret, Dovin, Kiora) Not met Nahiri or Chandra 1 when u have to be care not taking 10 damages or more xD

That's why I would say you would get the points if you completed the secondary objective regardless of if you won the round or not, but that those points would only apply toward progression rewards, basically you'd receive two scores per match. Ranking, 0 or 2 based on a win or loss, and progression, 2 points if you won, 4 if you did the main optional objective, and 1 if you did the second.

And yeah..... being paired against any red deck on that blue node is a pain unless you strategically pulled Insidious Will to stop their burn spells. Though honestly just the fact that Chandra 1 exists makes the "Take 10 or less damage" objective pretty stupid.

buscemi

wereotter wrote:

Everyone starts just like now with 0 points and a selection for a white, black, and blue planeswalker for a node on an 8 hour refresh. As far as the first refresh on the node goes, very little will change. You'll be paired against a random opponent, but as far as ranking is concerned, you'll either receive 0 points for losing, or 2 points for winning. Optional objectives will be addressed further down. When the nodes refresh after 8 hours, this is where matchmaking will be adjusted. If you won your first matches, you have a score of 6. You will ONLY be matched against people who also have a score of 6. Fours will fight fours, twos will fight twos, and zeros will fight zeros. Adjustments can be made so zeros battle twos if there aren't enough opponents, but otherwise you will be paired entirely against people at your same tier.

You're talking about Paper MTG Swiss Tournament rules.

https://www.wizards.com/dci/downloads/S ... irings.pdf

This was first suggested here on the forums months ago. It's a great idea.

Mainloop25

How funny that back then people were scared of running into Chandra. I see nothing has changed with Koth. And almost no one plays Conclave Naturalists anymore.

Volrak

I like the idea of Swiss in general. But I don't like forcing everyone to play in every 8 hour window. I think that would discourage whole swathes of casual players, as well as screwing the portion of competitive players who can't do that due to work or other commitments.

buscemi

Well, players don't necessarily need to be matched with other players who have equalled their performance in only the current event; previous events could also be considered.

AngelForge

Volrak wrote:

I like the idea of Swiss in general. But I don't like forcing everyone to play in every 8 hour window. I think that would discourage whole swathes of casual players, as well as screwing the portion of competitive players who can't do that due to work or other commitments.

But if you don't do that,the not so casual players will exploit that.

So, how about you get internally 2 * (plays on nodes left) when the node refreshes, that get -2 every time you play a node and loose?
Of course, you have to make sure, that this number does not exceed the realistic limit.

As an example, you have 3 charges on every node. The eight hours pass and an additional charge is added. Internally this players now gets 2 * (3 + 3 + 3) points. The system treats the player now as if he has won all games. When he actually plays he catches up to that internal number or it is lowered when he loses.

This would still punish some casual players, but since progression reward is given regardless of win or lose, it wouldn't be that hard for them.

Or maybe someone has a better idea but you have to make sure no one can exploit this. Otherwise they will.

Regards!

Volrak

Another format idea would be a short time-frame event for which the players can choose which event timeslot to join.

As an example, a single Swiss event might run over a 2-hour timeslot, with node refreshes every 15 minutes, and there could be 8 such events run over the course of a day. This kind of event may work best with event tickets that must be earned or bought (e.g. with crystals or runes), rather than free entry like all current events. Granting each player one free event ticket per week would be equivalent in some sense to running the event with free entry once a week, with the difference being that players can choose a timeslot that suits them.

Ohboy

Draft events please. I don't even mind paying a few crystals if it's available all the time.

Astralwind

I really like the suggestion of having a rank score and a progression score. Back then, I was thinking about an event where we can submit our decks and let the AI play our deck against another player's. And through a series of tournament elimination, the top deck that emerges gets the top prizes and so on.

bk1234

wereotter wrote:

LoVe1AnGe wrote:

I would add that the blue node should only met blue pw (Jace, Tezzeret, Dovin, Kiora) Not met Nahiri or Chandra 1 when u have to be care not taking 10 damages or more xD

And yeah..... being paired against any red deck on that blue node is a pain unless you strategically pulled Insidious Will to stop their burn spells. Though honestly just the fact that Chandra 1 exists makes the "Take 10 or less damage" objective pretty stupid.

The bigger problem with red decks is haste creatures -- which can be dealt with in a number of ways -- at least for Platinum. I almost never play C1 in Platinum -- but I play a lot of Koth decks with huge haste creatures. Dovin helps a lot.

wereotter

bken1234 wrote:

wereotter wrote:

LoVe1AnGe wrote:

I would add that the blue node should only met blue pw (Jace, Tezzeret, Dovin, Kiora) Not met Nahiri or Chandra 1 when u have to be care not taking 10 damages or more xD

And yeah..... being paired against any red deck on that blue node is a pain unless you strategically pulled Insidious Will to stop their burn spells. Though honestly just the fact that Chandra 1 exists makes the "Take 10 or less damage" objective pretty stupid.

The bigger problem with red decks is haste creatures -- which can be dealt with in a number of ways -- at least for Platinum. I almost never play C1 in Platinum -- but I play a lot of Koth decks with huge haste creatures. Dovin helps a lot.

Haste on that node I can deal with fairly easily by using Kiora and green creatures with reach, but there's no way to combat Chandra's first skill especially since the AI will use it as soon as it comes up apart from kill her before she can use it 3 times and hope she doesn't have any burn spells (which she will) or creatures that get past your defenses.