What has been your least favorite era of this game?

Mainloop25

Theros

Kaladesh pre-Aether Revolt

Problems compound over over time, so the last will be always be the least. To me it started when rewards were nerfed across the board, when we played more for less and the over grind. Standard format in the current era is nice.

Laeuftbeidir

Kaladesh pre-Aether Revolt

Interesting question, I'm not sure how to interpret it :
I chose KLD pre AER for gameplay reasons.

The nerf in the rewards would qualify the AER time (althought I understand the reasons for it, the change was to much), as well as the endless loop of the same events.

The huge amount of bugs, the 4 hours of toz, etc etc might qualify amk as well, but standard is such an improvement that I just can't choose it. Also, the game adaptet to some problems and might develop in a good way.

Fiddler

AKH with standard format (current era)

I only pick the current set because the meta of grinding changed, and I'm a grinder. All the 'rewards' I enjoyed from the old meta have become next to worthless. I have all PW except the latest one at level 60, I have 2.4 million runes with nothing to spend them on, I have over 1,500 points in each color mastery when platinum only needs 250. The hours and money I put into the game do not help me in the current meta. Oh well.

Mainloop25

Interesting results so far. Was expecting more votes in the KLD pre-Aether Revolt category (when reward nerfs first hit) or even SOI with EMN when power creep was at its all time high, which was supposedly the reason all the subsequent changes happened. My guess is that the people who would have voted for those options have long since quit? 

Thuran

AKH with standard format (current era)

Possibly, or standard, as well as more frequent events, out weight all the downsides such as having the power 6 in the game, or baral pre-nerf.

That said, the current era is very shaky as things like the 4 hour timers have made it worse, and the loss of mythic from events and qb are problems that have become increasingly evident as time has gone on, whilst trials of the planes have changed from horrible, to almost must-play for platinum players  

But in my book, standard is the biggest trump the current era has over the others. I can't imagine many people miss the Olivia spam they relive each tg

edit: of course it would help of I could read and notice the title included  "least" XD 

My actual least favorite was KLD/AER, power was off the charts, rewards were nerfed, and Baral was a thing, and on top of that you got spammed by the same few cards over and over endlessly. I only think I got by OK because I was in gold, so not everyone had the power 6 at their disposal

madwren

Kaladesh pre-Aether Revolt

Mainloop25 said:

Interesting results so far. Was expecting more votes in the KLD pre-Aether Revolt category (when reward nerfs first hit) or even SOI with EMN when power creep was at its all time high, which was supposedly the reason all the subsequent changes happened. My guess is that the people who would have voted for those options have long since quit? 

I picked KLD pre-AER for a few reasons:

--the reward nerfs and community dissatisfaction
--SOI/EMN power creep was dominating the environment to an unhealthy degree
--KLD was very underwhelming because the central mechanic (energize) had no effective enablers, and the events to obtain them were buggy

The reason I haven't picked "the current era" is because I like Standard and thought it was necessary to combat the SOI problem (plus, the power level of cards has been adjusted downwards a bit, so that uncommons and rares seem to be viable enough to mitigate the lack of mythics)

That being said, with the ridiculous 4-hour refreshes and the paltry rewards, I'm basically only playing for coalition events and ignoring the game the rest of the time for something more entertaining and rewarding.  Hence my frustration when my ToA run gets ruined because of the game's inability to load a match. It's like, I only play two events a week, and yet I can't get through either of them without something reminding me how buggy and erratic this game is.

Mainloop25

Yeah i like standard too, but I'm totally with you on freezes and ****. Literally I can deal with almost everything else but when a freeze makes me lose a match it frustrates me to the point where I close the app. 

babar3355

Kaladesh with Aether Revolt

KLD + AER was right after they nerfed rewards badly, TotP was unplayably expensive, Baral loops, extreme power creep, lots of instability of servers.

Sorin81

Kaladesh with Aether Revolt

Ditto @babar3355

Even beats Origins era when Story Mode was all we had despite the Events tab being there mocking us.

wickedwitch74

Kaladesh with Aether Revolt

Energize, Vehicles, Devaluation of currency... Kaladesh era was the worst, especially when trying to play for those new, set-specific secondaries and still running into Koth with his full regalia of SOI/EMN nightmare cards.

Standard is a breath of fresh air.

Dodecapod

Kaladesh with Aether Revolt

This is an interesting question, because there are multiple elements pulling in different directions.

On the one hand, I think Kaladesh block was a crucial step in the right direction in terms of adjusting the power level of the game back to reasonable standards, and AER went a long way towards remedying the dearth of viable energy engines available in KLD.

On the other hand, AER is when v1.10.2 hit; the changes to the in-game economy might have been understandable to a degree, but this patch went way too far in one sudden leap instead of gradual steps with feedback and adjustment in between, the pre-patch notes were ambiguous at best and misleading at worst, the communication and engagement following the reaction in various channels (including but not limited to these forums) was abysmal, and we're now at 4 months and counting waiting for a crafting system that will hopefully (but probably won't) remediate the failure of Elite packs to serve one of their express purposes, namely to allow players to effectively target specific cards of the highest rarities in a reasonable time frame.

Whatever improvements might have occurred during AER and whatever pros and cons might have accompanied other periods, my least favorite era has to coincide with v1.10.2, not just because of the jarring and unexpected impact, but also because of the utter failure of anyone but Brigby (who hasn't the power to revamp the core experience even if he wanted to) to engage the community in the wake of an uproar and attempt to respond to their concerns with substance and, if and when appropriate, compromises.

Watching a lot of goodwill and the apparent size of the global player base gradually diminish ever since has been disappointing, though not surprising given the situation; watching this happen in a game with MtG IP associated with it, with no successful attempt to reclaim lost loyalty, has been disillusioning to say the least.  I'm still hopeful that change for the better will eventually occur, but no longer expect it to happen quickly or significantly enough even if it does; this game has been a gem overall and has had a longer, more robust golden age than some other mobile titles I've played, but it's beginning to look as though we may have jumped the shark and entered the slow, dwindling twilight period of having the critical mass of players needed to form an interesting, dynamic metagame and an engaging community.

Steeme

Kaladesh pre-Aether Revolt

Kaladesh - a whole brand new set of cards... that you were punished for using.  Thank the heavens for standard.

If we had a Standard format back then, Kaladesh would likely have been a glorious era.

speakupaskanswer

Kaladesh with Aether Revolt

This is easy. KLD plus AER was tedious and boring and repetitive. The events were some of the worst (and still are), there were no new cards for months and with the lack of rewards there was not much to gain either. It's been the only time I have considerably played less.

Contrary to popular opinion, I still think now is the best time for the game. Standard is a great idea, there have been new cards again and again to keep it fresh, Trial of Ambition is a really good event (except for the Zombie node) and we get at least a certain variance in different events.

Rogan_Josh

Kaladesh with Aether Revolt

i've never really disliked any particular era of the game. It's always been just a bit of a time waster for me. Changes happen and people complain about it, cycle continues. All in all the game has improved over time. 

The only time i've ever thought of putting it down was the pricing change, making it even harder to try for the cards you want. It wasn't the fact that the company was trying to charge more for the service that annoyed me, it was the fact they tried to hide it behind some nonsense about "improving the odds for players". Just be honest and tell us you need to make more money. 

shteev

AKH with standard format (current era)

Given that I've been playing from the beginning, and only just stopped, clearly I'm going to say now. No prizes and no challenge makes Jack a dull boy. Honestly, I don't begrudge anyone who likes the current state of the game their experience... if this is the first time they've had unbeatable decks and they're enjoying them, or if they're capable of setting the goalposts themselves, balancing how likely they are to win against how bored they are playing, more power to 'em. I'm not here for a sandbox experience, I'm here to play a game which is driven by it's win states, and those have collapsed. Without meaningful win states a game is merely a toy. If I'm in the minority, then I'll just take my lizard DNA and become extinct. Not from the forums, mind, I've been playing this damn thing for ages, and I love all y'all guys. Even Brigby. Especially Brigby x

MADAFAKA said:

Problems compound over over time, so the last will be always be the least.

This attitude makes me sad. A lot of games expand, but crucially manage to fix their problems as fast as they create them. Think of games like [REDACTED],  [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and paper MTG. Wait, am I allowed to advertise paper MTG in the forums?

Cycling, to me, indicates that after nearly 2 years of designing cards for the game, JC still does not have any kind of idea what makes a balanced game... or, alternatively, that he's deliberately making an unbalanced one because that's what drives sales forward.

[Deleted User]

Kaladesh pre-Aether Revolt

My least favorite era is every time I stupidly reinstall to give the game another chance- only to get my optimism served back to my by unbeatable Koth decks full of mythics and days of hard grinding yielding the same few duplicate cards with startling reliability.

andrewvanmarle

AKH with standard format (current era)

I hate the nerfed rewards and don't'like the inflexible way standard has been implemented