Will booster crafting kill this game?

fiirst

FindingHeart8 said:

I have a bad feeling that the "rebalancing" will be a detriment to your average player but a boost to the whales.

For example: nerfing cards like Deploy the Gatewatch, while overpowered I agree, however given how the AI prioritizes their hand, it's put to the bottom and rarely actually sees play (at least in my experience, with the thousands of matches I've played, I've faced Deploy the Gatewatch maybe a handful of times tops (almost every time was not unreasonable to handle either), and I've heard similar stories from most of the people in my crew.

Now DtG is a mere mythic, and something that is reasonably reachable (with a bit of luck) by your average player.  I've duped it 2 extra times since I started this game.

Masterpieces have a ~10% pull from the purple packs, and I don't even know if they're obtainable from normal packs (I've never heard of a player drawing one, but if it was possible I'd bet the chances of drawing one are minimal).  So the players that most likely have more than one are either hardcore obsessive grinders or the whales who sink thousands of dollars into this game (aka not your average gamer). 

Now what are the chances of a masterpiece like Omniscience (which I've seen AI's use in 20 minute combos before annihilating me) being rebalanced vs. Deploy (which is a mean and nasty card but at least stops after 15 seconds tops)?

If rebalancing happens, I fear it's going to be on the obtainable cards that help the players, as opposed to the almost unobtainable cards that are just for the whales

 

i get 2 masterpieces from 5card booster.....never pull masterpiece from a dozn of elite packs.....

FindingHeart8

i get 2 masterpieces from 5card booster.....never pull masterpiece from a dozn of elite packs.....

Congrats!  I suspect you might be a lucky exception to the rule though. 

fiirst

tbh, many guys pulled more MP than i did.....

heavysuit

I think new players have a small advantage since they can farm story for yellows to open the newest set of cards, older players have invested a ton of time so no matter how you compare it they will always have an advantage. Even without booster crafting you can make the argument that this game is p2w, at least with crafting you can allow newer players to play catch up and turn useless cards into value.

FindingHeart8

You're not giving me much to go off of here...  I know a significant number of mtgpq players who have sunk hundreds+ hours into this game and are yet to see a masterpiece.  I've also read a lot on the forums of the low MP pull.  I'm sure there's a fair number of lucky players out there with a MP or two, maybe even from tinykittys like you said.  But I'm skeptical to it being more than an anomaly.

Szamsziel

Seems that the answer is yes, but due to amount of bugs

fiirst

Szamsziel said:

Seems that the answer is yes, but due to amount of bugs

totally agreed

babar3355

What an unmitigated cluster-tinykitty

Fiddler

I thoroughly enjoyed the crafting experience. Yes the counter didn't track my orbs but I did. I was able to craft 32 cards, filled all my missing rare and my one missing uncommon. Even collected those mythic that were on my most wanted list.  (Hi Baral! Hi Marionette!). Very satisfying overall.

In the past I have spent $100s just chasing dragon cards, as a counter example. This felt, well, free, though I know it wasn't.  

 

Gilesclone

The current cluster kitty is not what I was talking about, but we should have seen it coming. Sometimes I think they don’t test anything.