When mana jewels first came out many people were angry about them. I was not one of those people. I was certainly upset about a lot of things at the time (massive prize nerfs, increase to pack costs, etc) but I actually thought mana jewels would be a good thing. Not only did it allow players who weren't at the top of the contest to get a piece of a mythic but it allowed targeting of specific mythics. This seemed like a huge positive for players across the spectrum.
But after many months of collecting and spending jewels I have to say, it is WAY less fun than the old way.
It used to be that if you were in a top 10 coalition or were a top 5 players in an event when you loaded the game up you would get a random mythic. It got my adrenaline going to know that I might crack open a Startled Awake or a Metalworks Collosus and there was fear over seeing yet another duplicate, or worse Yaheeni or Mind's Dilation.
After events, slack and discord channels would erupt with all of the new cards that people attained. Congratulations and condolences were thrown around and deck ideas started popping up and adding livelihood to the community.
Now what? We log into to see our 5th or 6th copy of the same rare card. Maybe 1 person opens a mythic from their pack and get a few congrats from the crowd. There is nothing exciting or engaging about 25 mana jewels or even 60/80 mana jewels. Honestly, even 300 mana jewels isn't that exciting.
Not only did the community fun aspect get butchered, but even using your mana jewels isn't particularly fun. I sit and wait for weeks and weeks, grinding ceaselessly while passing on packs full of worthless cards that I would never use. Finally, a pack comes up with some good cards in it and in the span of 1-2 days I spend most of my collected jewels, get a few new cards and/or some pack rerolls, and go back to the endless grind.
I guess ultimately, it feels like I am spending my hard earned cash rather than winning a prize. Winning feels awesome and is a highly addictive behavior. But for the vast majority of people, spending money gives a negative reaction.
I am not saying there is an easy fix to this... but even if players in top 10 coalitions got 400 jewels each contest, it would still be much less fun than the good ole days.
Perhaps this problem is less a problem with the mana jewels and more a problem with the elite packs. I have no idea why they don't create more options for spending this currency. How about a random mythic from a standard set for 300 jewels and legacy set for 200? Or from a specific color?
If they don't want to do that then why not rotate the sets more quickly? Or have a KLD block and AHK block going at the same time? Why not BFZ, ORI, and SOI too?
Then again, maybe I wouldn't be complaining if the mythics and masterpeices in HOU weren't such utter garbage for the most part.
Us toxic elitists don't like bad cards any more than anyone else
The rerolls are the only thing that makes the system even remotely bearable. At least if I spend my months worth of jewels I wont get the only card in the pack that I already opened.
ElfNeedsFood said: We haven’t had a new card added to the game in a month. Of course things are getting stale.
Emanon2000 said: Be happy you have 4!I've been playing AND Paying for a year and a half and haven't seen a Masterpiece YET! (I know MP's haven't been around that long... Just sayin')
Done @shteev!
Step 1: Make it possible to collect the entire set (at least all of the mythics and below) with enough time, money, and skill.
Step 2: Change event brackets to pair players together based on skill rather than color mastery. This will allow newer players and/or noobs to battle each other and eliminate the need for the mass austerity to prizes.
Step 3: Return prizes to their former glory so that end game players actually enjoy playing the game.
There are plenty of other changes I would like to see, but these are the things that would rejuvenate the player base.