Too many Koths

Blorbleflorp

Anybody else tired of battling Koth in most of your matches? He is easily 3/4 of the matches I play and it's getting old going against his high aggro builds. I'm not entirely sure what would be the best solution to fix this, but here's some suggestions.

1 Nerf his first ability so it either costs more, or does less. 
2 Nerf his red mana gain down to +7, and buff his green and black to +1 each.
3 Nerf his HP down to around 100 or so. 

These may not be good, but something needs to be done, because the variety is basically removed from the get at this point. 

AngelForge

His first ability is better than most other PWs abilities cost wise.
This has been for quite some time now, so I don't think that the developers see a problem with that.

But instead of a balance action, they could start to open up the training grounds for only a selection of PWs, rotating that daily or weekly.

For example, this could just be equal to the offer in the vault. So you would always have the 5 "starting" PWs and the 2 or 3 offered in the vault.
You would still face Koth when he's in the vault, but I think that would be okay.

As a downside, you couldn't then test your decks for event purposes anymore. Which I find quite nice, since people play none event decks anyway. So you can see how well you do against these.

Another option could be to ban the top 3 played PW for the next training grounds. So you would is run into Koth every second day. ;-)

THEMAGICkMAN

I find it rather funny that people wanted them to fix matchmaking so that event decks were a thing, but all it really did was make things worse. Cracked me up.

Sorin81

I play against Koth decks more than any other and it does get really boring really quickly but I don't think nerfing him is the best option.
I think when matchmaking is being done the last five planeswalkers and players you've played against should be excluded from the next five matches you play.

AngelForge

That is a good idea. 
But since most players play only one PW there anyway, you can exclude the player and just focus on the PW restriction. But 5 may be a bit two much too get a match later on, because the variety of PWs use in trainig grounds is not that huge. In addition you maybe have to lower the level restriction for matchmaking with low level PWs to have a bit more range to pick you opponent.
Or you program an override, that picks normally, when the first consition doesn"t find a match. 

wereotter

When it comes to facing him constantly in Training Grounds, the solution is simple. Don't use an event deck slot and do use the old matchmaking system. Too many people are just powering through their 4 wins with Koth/Kiora/Nahiri and as a result, since that's their saved deck, that's all you face. 

Laeuftbeidir

They actually found a 100% working solution and implemented it thinking outside the box!

AngelForge

@Laeuftbeidir
No, it's a 0% solution. ;-)

@wereotter
Wasn't that changed due to the complaints of facing decks that had nothing to do with the event?

Anyway, I don't think that you can put this problem into users hands. It has to be coded or will go on as experienced.

On a side note:
When you play PWs under level 60 (20 - 40) then this problem isn't really there.

wereotter

Event decks for actual events was a good response to the community complaints.

Training Grounds isn't an event in the same way that something like Fate is Rarely Fair is an event. There are no restrictions on how many times you can play, or what you need to put into your deck. As a result many people are just pounding through it with their most aggressive decks, which the game saves as their event deck for Training Grounds, and thus Koth, Kiora, Nahiri, and sometimes Liliana are all you see. My point is the old system of match making in this instance was better. You'd face a wider variety of opponents and strategies, which made for a more fun and interesting game.

Training Grounds, since it's not really an event, doesn't need to have a saved event deck slot every time you go to play it, so eliminate that, use the old match making system, and problem solved. You don't se Koth three our of four matches in Training Grounds.