Satanno's token hoard Season XXXVII

El Satanno

I guess I got "lucky" that Bonus Heroes rolled out just before my seasonal hoard. So I could get some...bonuses. I guess we'll just have to see what that means, eh? The methodology remains the same, and I'll be italicizing to indicate any covers I received as Bonus Heroes. And in case you're really bored, here are the links to all of my prior hoards. Whee.

Season XXXV + XXXVI
Season XXXIII (Power) + XXXIV (Time)
Season XXXII
Season XXXI
Season XXX
Season XXIX
Season XXVIII
Season XXVII
Season XXVI
Season XXV
Season XXIV
Season XXIII
Season XXII
Season XX
Season XIX
Season XVII
Season XVI
Season XV
Season XIV
Season XIII and XII
Season XI(?)

And then the fresh one...

Initial Hoard

• 96 silver tokens
• 84 elite tokens
• 2 Heroic 10-packs
• 94 mixed gold tokens
• 14 legendary tokens
• 390 command points

The pulls:

Silver tokens (96)
Kamala Khan (green)
Rocket & Groot (blue)
Daredevil (purple)
Beast (yellow)
Iron Fist (black)
Beast (green)

• 2* pulls: 10 (10.4%)
• 3* pulls: 3 (3.1%)

Elite tokens (84)
Falcon (purple x2, blue, yellow)
Luke Cage (red x2, black)
Black Widow (red x2, green)
Daredevil (red)
Captain America (blue)
Thanos (purple, black)
Rocket & Groot (green)
Blade (purple x2, black, green)
Black Panther (yellow)
Beast (green)
Loki (green)
Cyclops (yellow)
Rocket & Groot (blue, green)
Thanos (green)

• 3* pulls: 21 (25%)
• Bonus: 5 (23.8%)

Heroic 10-packs (2)
Iron Fist (purple), Blade (black), Daredevil (red)
Cyclops (black), Medusa (yellow), Beast (green)

• 3* pulls: 4 (20%)
• 4* pulls 1 (5%)
• Bonus: 1 (5%)

Heroic gold tokens (67)
Moon Knight (black)
Cyclops (red x2, black)
Squirrel Girl (purple)
Daredevil (purple)
Beast (blue, green)
Patch (yellow)
Kamala Khan (green)
Loki (black)
Carol Danvers (green)
Iron Fist (green)
Captain America (blue x2, red x2)
Black Panther (blue)
Daredevil (blue)

• 3* pulls: 15 (22.3%)
• 4* pulls: 2 (2.9%)
• Bonus: 2 (2.9%)

Deadpool vs. MPQ (3)
Loki (purple)
Beast (yellow)
Black Panther (black)
Thanos (black)

Top Gun (5)
Scarlet Witch (blue)
Thanos (black)
Iron Man (yellow)

Lord of Thunder (5)
Thor (red)

Krakadoom! (5)
Rocket & Groot (green)
Rocket & Groot (blue)
Falcon (blue)

Too Many Sorcerors (2)
Loki (green)

Enemy of the State (10, vault)
Rocket & Groot (yellow)

Venom: Heroic (4, vault)
Spider-Man (blue)
Phil Coulson (blue)

Right Hand Man (5)
Iron Man (red)

Legendary tokens (29) + 526 command points (21 Latest pulls)
Moon Knight (green x2, black, purple)
Wasp (blue, yellow)
Agent Venom (red x3, yellow)
Peggy Carter (yellow x2)
Riri Williams (red x2)
Luke Cage (red x2, black x2)
Blade (black x5, green)
Medusa (yellow, purple x3, red)
Carol Danvers (black x2, yellow)
Peggy Carter (blue x3, yellow, red)
Spider-Woman (red x2, purple, black)
Doctor Strange (purple, yellow)
The No-Futzer (purple x4, black)
Gwenpool (black)
Thanos (green x2)
Medusa (purple)
Carol Danvers (black)

• 5* pulls: 4 (8%)
• Bonus: 4 (8%)

*Special note: I pulled 243 tacos trying to get the good stuff this time around. If I were one of the tinfoil hat wearing folks around here, I'd say something was up...that's two tacos stashes in a row where I had to go upwards of 200 to get there.

Total Iso from cover sales and champion bonuses: 473,800
5* pull rate: 8%
Current overall 5* pull rate: 11.7%
Global Bonus rate: 6% (excluding standard tokens and 10-packs)

Observations and (purely subjective) conclusions (lengthy diatribe edition!):

1. Eight percent truly valuable pulls. Still half of what we are told to expect. And that actually boosted my historical rate. How **** **** is that? And it gets worse! Were it not for the disappearing-at-some-indeterminate-point-in-the-future exchanges, that second Thanos green cover would have gone to scrap. I would really like Demiurge to hear this: EVERYTHING ABOUT THE 5* TIER SUCKS.
2. You know what else sucks? This vaulting. It's actually not all that bad for me at the moment since I've got eight of the Blessed 12 championed already. That number (and attitude) is going to degrade at the exact same rate as those heroes get dumped into The Abyss. Meanwhile, I can sit here and watch those really nice champ rewards for my well-developed 4* go uncollected, possibly forever. I can't credit the exact person, but somewhere in the now 44-page long reaction to spoonful of sugar (Bonus Heroes) scooped on top of this pile of ****, one or more people have made this very simple observation: The entirety of the champion system seems rather clearly designed to encourage us to develop every character we can. (Not even touching Story essentials, mind you.) I, like so many others, have dutifully followed that trail, dumping astounding amounts of Iso into characters that I'd have otherwise ignored. Now, we're effectively being told to forget about them. Thanks. I'm one of those rare people that has never trotted out the tired-**** "greedy devs" line, but you guys sure aren't doing anything to disassociate yourselves from that narrative here.
3. And let's talk about those Bonus Heroes, eh? Can't say I have a lot to complain about, having beaten the curve here by a percentage point. I've chosen Beast and Rocket & Groot since I'm building dupes before either hits 266, and Thanos because he is like butter for trivial nodes/seeds. For 3*, at least, Bonus Heroes are pretty good. They're trifling for 4* and 5*, though. It surely doesn't make up for the loss of high-level champ rewards. Not even close.
4. Oh, and you know what kind of gestalt suck-action we have now that vaulting and Bonus Heroes exist? 6th color is now a **** hydra of aggravation. I got a choice of 12 characters, more or less, so pulling 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th **** purple Medusa covers really twists my ****. I didn't get any Bonus 5* covers, but the moment I get one that I can't apply may very well become the straw that breaks this camel's back.
5. Did you think I was done? Oh, hell no! There's more! See, not only are you continuing to get the high hard one for 6th color, as my hoards have continued to prove out season after season, RNGesus is streaky as ****. So if you pull a 6th color you might consider stopping right there as there are pretty good odds you'll end up like me, with a character built at 3/4/9. And then all too soon they will go plummeting into The Abyss and you're hosed forever. Sounds like great fun to me.

So here as always, my closing statements:

• The 5* tier sucks. So bad. It is so, so broken on every possible level. I'm still a fan of the game, warts and all, but as the well-established pattern of churning out character after character continues without any meaningful relief for issues outstanding since their introduction, it is getting harder and harder. It's a crying shame.
• Barring unforeseen changes to several fundamental principles of the game, vaulting is going to suck for everyone except those who whale out new characters. I'm all for keeping the whales happy; they're playing a different game from the rest of us anyway. However I've also seen numerous clever suggestions here and in LINE chat to demonstrate that the two things need not be mutually exclusive. Again, crying shame no one actually developing/publishing the game seems to think so.