Hour Of Devastation/TG Brutality

RhysMarkov

Has there been a difficulty spike over the weekend for anybody else, or do I just suck and need to rethink my life choices?

TG yesterday, for instance, saw me lose my first 3 games, all of them in the first 3 turns or so, This morning, trying to get my last few ribbons for HoD, I won one game out of 4. One of the losses was to a one turn dual cast of Gaea's Revenge, may it rot.

Now, I know I'm not one of the best players in this game. I haven't gone out of my way to be competitive since I saw how much effort it took to break the top 10 in Quick Battle back in the day. But for TG and HoD, I've consistently been able to complete the events in a timely fashion with probably an 80% or better win rate, which I'm alright with.

I guess I just wanted to check and see if anyone else had a particularly rough time of it this weekend, or perhaps this was just my statistical curve heading back in the other direction. 

Ohboy

Everyone has bad days.

I too have experienced a string of losses in TG before. 

UweTellkampf

I too believe it is just bad luck. I lost three of my TG games today too. I tried some new ideas and got stomped. It's ok though. The losses are so few nowadays, I'm kind of glad to get hit from time to time. Keeps that bit of suspense alive that is barely holding up since they nerfed the AI

RhysMarkov

Thanks for the commiseration guys :-) guess the game was just trying to keep me from getting complacent lol

Rasalghul

@RhysMarkov I do notice something in HoD : when your opponent has a particularly low number of points, be careful as these opponents will be harder to fight against. I've noticed that their deck have key cards to counter my deck.
I'm in the 200 points range now, and I still encounter those "beings".

The AI want to throw you a grenade. It might be good to change your deck then.

hawkyh1

I find the starting gem board can be quite extreme. I've faced a
bolas and the starting gem board had red/blue/black gems on
all but ~10. that's ~80% gem board favouring my opponent.
(after a couple match 5's from me the board ended up with few
decent matches for my opponent  ) good scores in hod
feels more reliant on luck. opponents on the later event battles
seem harder and between mana denial, multiple copy card
draw drags the battles out to last longer. I'm still seeing lots of
forced gem boards.

HH

Rasalghul

I completely agree with your observation HH.

Rhasget

I had a bad string today loosing mu four first TG games. All with Omnisience/Whir of invention as base and then just assorted draw/creatures. Three was ragequit when the loop just went on without no seeming end and one was staring down first turn doublecast Gaea and Samut.

Got four stupidly easy decks after that instead where I almost got nothing but manachangers cast against me.

babar3355

I know someone who has gone perfect in all 3 HoD's since they returned... and probably before (cant remember).  You just have to be a great player, be willing to cycle, and have a few important cards.  Of course a little luck helps avoid a turn 1 inferno jet.

RhysMarkov

Is that a strategy now, to wait until the last minute to join an event and then wreck everyone That's been playing in it? I know people used to do that in QB , but I though stuff had been changed to address that? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding. 

As far as the open gem spread being (seemingly) weighted to the opponent PW color(s), I noticed that as well. It seems like the majority of matches that I lost all had that in common. 

Matthew

The strategy doesn't involve "wrecking everyone who's been playing in it." Rather, it's designed to get you into the last possible bracket, which generally means far fewer competitors vying for the same prize pool as you.

RhysMarkov

My experience in HoD has been inconsistent. Sometimes I can blaze thru it with no real issue, others it's an up hill both ways struggle. As far as waiting for the crowd to thin out to join an event goes, I get it. Less competition for rewards is an ideal situation. It's just a pain to hit a wall just shy of getting accomplished what you joined the event to accomplish.

Abenjes

RhysMarkov said:

Is that a strategy now, to wait until the last minute to join an event and then wreck everyone That's been playing in it? I know people used to do that in QB , but I though stuff had been changed to address that? Maybe I'm just misunderstanding. 

As far as the open gem spread being (seemingly) weighted to the opponent PW color(s), I noticed that as well. It seems like the majority of matches that I lost all had that in common. 

Possibly, somebody cast a solemnity against me, there's only one reason to use that card and that's to screw with cycling, it's a deliberate play "wreck" a cycling deck.

RhysMarkov

On the one hand, if you know you're gonna run into cycling, countering it is just good strategy. On the other, trolls abound in every gaming format, so there's that angle as well.

hawkyh1

players never run in to cycling opponents?

HH

RhysMarkov

Considering that the AI can't cycle, I can see why someone would think that lol

wickedwitch74

The game has become more challenging over the last few weeks, and I think this is a good thing. The reasons, as I see it, are...

1. Fewer players are using cycling decks. Yes, they are still out there, but I think there has been some burnout and players are looking for more enjoyable decks to play. This leads to fewer auto-wins for me.
2. There has been an influx of more powerful cards (at least in platinum matches). I'm seeing scary things, like Omniscience, Baral, etc... on a more frequent basis. This may be due to an increase in quality of Masterpiece Packs.
3. The matchmaking exploit has been removed. I can no longer count on having a huge level mismatch in more than half of my games.
4. Broken cards are reducing the AI's inefficiency. It's still dumb, but some of these cards don't need piloting.

Sirchombli

My experience has been very inconsistent. This most recent run was the worst score I've put up at -5. Rng wasn't on my side, as I was struggling to generate many while Greg was cascading out multiple threats per turn. I also caught 2 turn 1 inferno jets. So I wouldn't say it got harder, per se. The force was just strong with good ol Greg. For me, luck seems to run in extended waves. I'll have a couple weeks where I feel bullet proof, then I'll have a couple where turn 1 inferno jet is just going to happen. 

RhysMarkov

Just playing in HoR today I've seen so much "initial AI superiority" that it's kinda laughable. 2nd turn dual cast boomships during an event with enrage?

and yes, before anyone asks, i had removal in hand. that's besides the point. 

Ohboy

Have you never cast something from a similar cascade? 

Everyone benefits from the odd cascade here and there, even the ai. 

RhysMarkov

I'll admit that it could be one of those statistical outliers. I'm sure i've generated 40+ mana off a random cascade before. Still though, the frequency of ai cascades vs. player cascades seems off to me. <shrug> i suppose i shouldn't complain too much. my u/g legacy nissa actually generated enough mana the other day to (numerically, if not actually) pay for something bounced to hand by a reflector mage. ;-)