Volrak said: Gunmix25 said: Cycling appears by definition of those complaining to confuse the grouping surrounding ranking because of its relatively easy access to playability includes a player base that normally shouldn't be able to reach these spots. It's too powerful a mechanic because while it doesn't affect against a player vs AI. It does affect when another player reaches the same rank as you and the 100+ others as well vying for the reward spots. My observation, at least among the top alliances I'm familiar with, is that they feel there's plenty of room for anyone who wants to put the effort in. Apart from being a friendly bunch, they're also clear-eyed that it's not a zero-sum game: there are may be more non-ranked rewards for the taking which cycling can help newer players reach, than ranked ones.That observation also matches the posts in this thread: if you check, you won't find a single top player who nominated cycling's effect on rankings as their concern. You appear to be inferring a desire on their part to "keep those uppity lowbies in their place", but if people with such a desire exist, this thread has eluded their comments thus far. On the contrary, you will multiple posters (including OP) who, despite acknowledging problems with cycling, explicitly say they don't mind its effect on rankings, or even say its accessibility for newer players is a benefit, to be weighed alongside its problems.
Gunmix25 said: Cycling appears by definition of those complaining to confuse the grouping surrounding ranking because of its relatively easy access to playability includes a player base that normally shouldn't be able to reach these spots. It's too powerful a mechanic because while it doesn't affect against a player vs AI. It does affect when another player reaches the same rank as you and the 100+ others as well vying for the reward spots.
Gunmix25 said: My stance is due to the fact that there really is no other cause and effect to the cycling mechanic that creates such an out cry. Best guess is that the pool of rankings is flooded with cycle decks of all levels, which It is as another post in here concedes that. And it created a saturated positioning system. If that is not the case, where is the evidence that players are negatively affected? How does cycling affect them as a player? I am aware that players are not happy (as am I) with the ToZ event as node 3 pretty much requires cycling to get through it, and primarily cycling in either blue or white. (Even more so requiring the necessary use of select cards to do so on to p of that) It is arduous and time consuming to pass. But that event is a creation of the Devs.... not a result of cycling and more the required application thereof. Monotony is not a condition of complaint. It is a design. I know plenty of decks that with clever design and control and are without cycling can take forever to play out. Don't play cycling if it annoys the play style one is accustomed to. Last guess is players don't like facing a cycle deck because there is not a challenge there. I get that too, but not an argument for OP mechanic. While I do agree that cycling is a powerful mechanic from the players perspective, it just isn't unless we are given access to have live PvP then.... oh tinykitty... It certainly is op
Again, I think you are missing the point. The point from my perspective is that there are no new cards that I can attain that will make my decks more effective. I don't need angel of sanctions so I didn't buy it. I don't need any of the mythics or masterpeices in any of the recent elite packs. The only card that might improve my life from the set is Sandwurm Convergence. (I only have 6 mythics in the set.. The 5 gods and glorious end)
So what do I do? The optimal scenario from a competitive standpoint is to hoard my jewels (at 1300 and counting) horde my crystals (at 3000 and counting) and not spend any real money on this game until cycling no longer provides me with an easy button in every event and with every objective.
So why is this bad? As you stated, it gets really boring and is really tedious. It incentivizes me to go into cruise control. This state will lead me to look for other sources of entertainment outside of the game. Perhaps I will stay for another year for cycling to rotate out, but there are a lot like me who probably won't.
This is what is driving the outcry against cycling. It is bad for the playership, it is bad for D3, it is simply bad for the game.
Regardless, I just don't see the argument against modifying cycling costs by a small amount. Just increasing each cards cycling cost by +2 would fix most of the issues and still keep cycling as a very strong and effective mechanic.
Thuran said: Not to mention that cycling breaks the balance of the game, meaning that events and objectives and future cards have to be balanced around cycling, creating a vicious, well, cycle, where you need cycle to compete.Just look at current pve events, cycling breaks them in half, but is also one of the few reliable ways to beat them. Previous pve events did encourage a variety of viable decks to beat them, but if cycling had been around, we would all just have been doing that instead.Imagine kld coming out after akh. Would you be excited for the new cards? Or just conclude that cycling is better and ignore them? That is the real issue, cycling is so powerful an option that it pretty much breaks the entire game surrounding it. It may not be as obvious right now, but just wait for October. Oh, and if new cards aren't good, why should players spend a dime on ixalan or future exclusives? At that point cycling also directly causes the economy of the game to suffer, a lot!That is why new perspectives has to go before it has a chance to cause more impactful damage to the game.
Ohboy said: To be clear, true infinite cycling requires 3 things:1) additional card draw via cycling(to compensate for cycled in cards that aren't cycle cards 2) mana gain derived from cycling that exceeds cycling costs3) critical mass of cycling cards in deckShefet is a path to a huge cycle combo, but will eventually break because it does not guarantee (2). This is similar to the idea behind harness the storm decks. It's not true infinite, but the player banks on the fact that the balance of probabilities lean towards the combo killing the opponent before it fizzles. That's what @Dodecapod is trying to say I think. Taking away the path to true infinite doesn't remove the pseudo infinite which is also as strong in most real games. 2 things can be done to soft nerf cycling decks without removing drake Haven(cycle is Op even without drake Haven) . You can either attack (1) by changing curator and switching cycle mechanic from draw to fetch, or you can increase the cost of cycle cards to sane levels(2). It's always been weird to me that the rare level cycling cards seem to have their costs properly balanced, while the common/uncommon ones are ridiculous. Just fix this and everything falls in place. If cycling cards cost about 3-4 average, even new perspectives won't look super Op.
UweTellkampf said: There were around 30 people with perfect scores in ToS in my bracket. For the first time, I have played two decks relying heavily on cycling, and one fool proof Ob Nixilis deck. I have not dropped one single point and did not have one match even being close to this happening. There are three crucial cards that enable god mode in cycling, and many players already have them resulting in winning easily in a double manner: You can control your opponent due to endless draw and – since many are playing cycling decks and AI doesn't cycle – the opponents are easily to be controlled due to AI's inefficiency in playing cyclung decks. The new PW encourages cycling making it even more powerful. I have N3 on lvl 36 and won every single match against lvl60 without really caring for the cards the AI played, knowing that as soon as I drop the 3. ability - it's game over. I have the feeling that next to all the other fun-killing developments in the recent update, this one weighs in the most when it comes to the future of the game. Cycling as a method is not to disappear any time soon. Fun will though, if the winning stays this easy. I have just won 300 unobtanium with 0 effort except if the somewhat longer time to win counts. And if the app doesnt crash I will repeat this in any future events quite easily. As a matter of fact, I'm perfect in EO too as of now (3 games left). My vote is clear: Do something about this. Make cycling something really special:a) New Perspectives and Drake Haven (15+ Mana will still see them being played)b) Amount of mana needed for cycling a card (5-9 would make you think twice before you cycle)c) The way how AI deals with cycling (Let it do it in any way codeable)