Are you enjoying this vanilla game?

killwind

  I have looked at the game again with all of the recent changes, 2.0 then 2.0.1 and with the new sets about to be released I thought I would give it another try. 

  I played in the recent Trials (black) and had zero issues I earned all points and all rewards, normally I cant win them all as Mersicide or someone with a similar play style pops as an opponent. The current opponents while evenly distributed does not seem particularly tough. I played the first few rounds of EP, and FIRF (needed the crystals to buy AJ2) and while it was nice to not see the same players over and over it was very easy to meet and beat the objectives and earn all the points. Normally I dont do well in those events.

  With that being said are you guys okay playing a game that has neutered the player queues. What I mean by that is I have played against several sub par players and sub par decks even some level 20ish PW's and find that there isnt much of a challenge to this anymore.  

    One of the other things that I have seen that I dont like is the crying out for nerfs. Is that really the right approach for creating game balance by asking for a card to be so limited that it wont be played anymore, take Baral for instance. He has now become vanilla.

  QB has been replaced with some bastardized version of itself and that is vanilla. Where is the challenge in that game mode? What I dont understand is why they couldnt they have added that new deck testing proving ground mode into the game leaving the QB intact. Just me I guess... More vanilla.

  I do like the the deck slot options . I like the PW selection UI, I like the naming of decks. I like the live edit screens for decks. no complaints there 

  Decks built for events only, this is one of the things I knew was going to happen. They built these events so that only registered decks will be part of the opponent queue. Well how many of you have run into troll decks that doesnt energize or have vehicles. I know that I personally saw several Koth decks that didnt energize or have vehicles and since there isnt a QB anymore it looks like the players are seeding the events with troll decks...  I am okay with troll decks, but I told you so!

  How are players going to differentiate themselves from everyone else. Waiting for true pvp to hit the game... So if you like vanilla I guess this game is for you!

The game has become so very vanilla. How are all of the skilled players handling these changes are you enjoying the ease with which you are winning or are you becoming bored?

majincob

I'd be enjoying it more if there were prizes worth getting.

killwind

Good point I forgot to add that point. 

Sorin81

Maybe I'm just a sub par player myself but I've noticed the lack of challenge as well. Just today I breezed through training ground without being scratched (only played the first four matches as after that it's not worth it).

As I've said before regarding QB being replaced. I don't understand why we can't have both. It's as though the devs can't give us anything new without taking something away.

Yeah the game seems vanilla right now but for me it's still fun, though I don't play anywhere near as much as I used to. Hopefully with Amonkhet release a little flavor will be added back into the game.

Matthew

killwind said:

  With that being said are you guys okay playing a game that has neutered the player queues. What I mean by that is I have played against several sub par players and sub par decks even some level 20ish PW's and find that there isnt much of a challenge to this anymore.  

I think I might find your commentary on this point a bit more meaningful if you were drowning in Mythics. It must be nice, to have all the goodies at your disposal. I'm sure that must contribute to how easy and 'vanilla' you are finding the matchmaking to be.

killwind said:

    One of the other things that I have seen that I dont like is the crying out for nerfs. Is that really the right approach for creating game balance by asking for a card to be so limited that it wont be played anymore, take Baral for instance. He has now become vanilla.

Baral is anything but 'vanilla'. He's neopolitan. Or maybe moose tracks, or rocky road. The card is much more versatile now, and requires a much more nuanced and thoughtful approach when designing a deck around him. Any n00b could slap together a deck for pre-nerf Baral. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if you bought Baral and didn't expect a change, you are ignorant, naive, or selfish. The card warped the entire game. To say that he was not broke as **** is to put yourself into one of the three categories I mentioned above.

Phase

I had the most fun with this recent FirF because I was actually slamming vehicles alongside my opponents. I didn't run into imprisonloop.dec trying to stick 5 vehicles, which just used to make me salty. Just other Harvesters and Demolition stompers and the occasional troll deck (sorry Dovin QF player but you cannot deny Koth his mana! RAWR). Breaking points and Emergency Ordinances are pretty cool too now with opponents having decks which work towards energize requirements. It feels like a more organic, fresh experience for PvP. There is still room to get creative within the framework of completing objectives.

So I guess I would say, hopefully you enjoy the PvP decks a little more in the actual events with objectives and such. It's not a perfect system since you can still game it to put troll decks in before your last node but you really have to go out of your way to do that and I've only seen the one troll deck today since the 2.0 update. 

Theros

I personally find training ground opponents to be more difficult and challenging than in old QB. Trail of the plane is the most difficult but costly 

babar3355

I noticed that the black ToTP was a total joke.  I assume it was because the dev's screwed up and it was a free to play event.  Typically, only pretty strong players enter those events.  It is some of the most fun I have had in a while.  Decently high stakes for just a few games, solid competition, and the computer is complete cheat mode with legendary after just 3 rounds.

But yeah, I think they could do with a bit of an AI upgrade...

Sarahschmara

There are things I like and things I don't... but I'm hopeful for the future. 

Most of us want the game to succeed.

I think it's OK to not like every aspect of something and still like it as a whole. 

Whammaster

You find the game boring and vanilla because you can build w/e overpowered whale deck you can get your hands on. Yeah of course almost every match is going to feel boring, some of us don't feel like spending thousands of dollars in a mobile game, or have that luxury.

Baral nerf was needed because it warped meta. The new baral actually requires a brain to use instead of throwing cards into a deck =O heaven forbid you have to think.

killwind

  I was not ever a whale I purchased a total of 4 cards starting with Olivia and ending with Baral. I Won my Mythics in QB or in Coalition events. But I appreciate the response. 

  Baral getting nerfed was ridiculous. Yes I had a bunch of Baral loop decks of every imaginable flavor if the deck was blue I had a Baral loop deck. The point is I didnt win every game and he was easy to beat. Now the cards behind Baral that allowed him to go infinite, thats the bigger issue. But never mind that, my Kiora Baral deck still goes infinite. 

  I have the collection I have because of Quick Battle not because I have deep pockets. So Yes, I do have over 100 Mythics (still dont have fricking BtB) and yes I have a card pool of over 1000 cards that was not what made the game fun for me. It was playing against other very good players and their very good decks. Now I dont recognize anyone I have played against and none of those decks are very challenging.

  With the new format no new player will ever able to match what the old school players have unless they are wealthy. Its just not possible. There is no way anyone can earn the same amount of mythics that we did in the next 2 years that we earned before they started messing with event prizes.

MrMoustache

Why is vanilla bad? I like vanilla! It's a tasty flavour.

Whammaster

So about $200 and the luxury to spend tons of hours to reach top of the leaderboard in Qb regularly as well as find time to do events for a top coalition, earning way more then a common player who spends about maybe 2-3 hours per day on this game. Sure not a whale in the way of not spending loads of money, but the time you spent more them makes up for it.

Sorin81

Wow. Just wow. 

Why so much hostility towards killwind?
Do you lose to him that often? Do you blame him because you get matched up against his decks?
Is it card envy?

I just don't understand it. 

Spending time playing a game you enjoy does not make you a whale. If that were the case then up till a couple of months ago I could have been considered a whale. Ha! Me a whale! With my puny collection of cards. That's a joke.

Whammaster

Hardly, I'm just proving a point that views from this game is different from where you stand in this game.Somethimg that seems to escape the minds of people on these threads.

I spent 241days on runescape, 378 hrs on skyrim, 340hrs on fallout3. It's not impossible to spend tons of hours on a game, but don't be oblivious to the benfits.

killwind

Well to answer your question I fly a lot and have lot of time on my hands when sitting on flights of 8-12 hours. Plus my job is also a waiting game. So I have a lot of time to kill! Now I find I have to replace MtGPQ with reading to pass the time.

Whammaster

That's fine 

Sarahschmara

Wow! Over 100 mythics and 1000 cards?!? That's a lot!

I think it's very fair to say you experience the game differently than the bulk of the players @killwind. 

Not that you don't deserve those cards; you're obviously a highly skilled player who has committed a lot of effort to this game (whether it's time or money is irrelevant).

Part of the perceived negative reaction may be that it seems a bit tone deaf to complain about the game being too easy/boring when it's still very challenging for people with much fewer cards. 

Laeuftbeidir

So, it's too easy for killwind (and others) while it's too hard for a lot more people. That's fair for no-one.. Sounds like we could need a new matchmaking system

killwind

Totally different prespectives I get it, But will we all be in the same boat with the new release and with the new card restrictions? Or do the old school payers have an advantage because of the use of the older sets?

Laeuftbeidir

We are already in the same boat I'd say.
Your question.. Depends. A huge collection of mythics that won't be restricted is a plus for sure, but  : Deckbuilding skills will become more important than before, evening the field a bit.