Changes to Ob: Did they fix something that wasn't broken?

bk1234

So in one of the recent updates, they made a pretty significant change to Ob (of course without notice or explanation) -- he cannot use his first ability if either the player or the AI has a full hand. From a play-against perspective, this is causing AI to use his second and ultimate much more often. 

From a play against perspective, I love this. It's causing me to think more intelligently about my decks and sideboard more often -- however, from a play-with perspective, I'm not loving it. 

I frequently use his first ability to whittle down my life with finish with x or less life objectives -- without warning that this was done, I've lost the objective a couple times on matches because I had his ult out and had carefully calculated my game math to be able to cast this ability with a full hand at 6 or 21 life and kill my opponent on the next turn with his ult. 

If you look at his second, I don't believe this is a bug, it is intended to work this way, however:

1. Should it? Or should we be able to cast the first and second without the draw or creature kill?

and 

2. Why wasn't this fix communicated to us. It greatly affects the way we play Ob and play against him, it warranted a mention in the notes from the update in which it was fixed. 

khurram

It was noticed by sharper eyes the very next day of the update 

Whether it was communicated or not is behind us. I am just happy for the change. People can finally see how bad-**** he can be. And makes me rethink of my decks when I am facing him. Lost 2 points to him during the current HoD event and it's still a welcome change.

bk1234

khurram said:

It was noticed by sharper eyes the very next day of the update 

Whether it was communicated or not is behind us. I am just happy for the change. People can finally see how bad-tinykitty he can be. And makes me rethink of my decks when I am facing him. Lost 2 points to him during the current HoD event and it's still a welcome change.

I know it was noticed earlier, but a lot of people still think he's been re-optimized to use his second and third so I was merely explaining why he is functioning the way he is and pointing out that we also have to rethink the way we use him. 

I also enjoy the new challenge -- I lost a bonus on the left node when he used his 2nd nine times on my creatures -- and won an 81 turn match on right where he cast his ult on turn 44. 

However, it is important to discuss whether or not changes like this are communicated, because they affect the way people play the game. There are several other tweaks that were made in that update that have yet to be communicated -- also without that communication, players either perceive bugs or perceive that Oktagon is somehow making the game harder (like how some people think the AI is coded to have some kind of matching advantage) These types of misconceptions, affect player retention and take away from valuable -game related conversations. 

wereotter

I've seen him use his first ability even recently, however it does have the stipulation that he can not have a full hand and use it. I've still only seen him get up to using his final ability when playing against him with Sphinx of the Final Word in play, basically neutering his entire deck.

Sorin81

1.  I don't think we should be able to cast his first and second without draw or creatures. I feel the same about other planeswalkers, for example I don't think we should be able to use Sorins first ability without creatures. I know the ramifications are different for each but the principal is the same.

2.  The fix should absolutely have been mentioned to the player base. Things of this nature ( changes to planeswalker abilities, changes to card functions, etc) that affect game play should always be communicated. 

Bil

I might be misunderstanding something but, it's still possible to discard a card before using his first skill isn't it?
For the second one, it seems more complicated.. 

Firinmahlazer

I'm glad to see the AI not just spamming his 1st ability when he has a full hand. It always made Ob an easy match (depending on the deck) because unless he got a crazy cascade he'd never used his other abilities. As someone else mentioned they should apply the same logic to Sorin. As from a play-with aspect, I don't really care as it doesn't affect my play style with Ob. 

ElfNeedsFood

Subject is a little misleading. It was broken to allow these abilities to fire without any positive outcome, just the life loss. Now it’s fixed.

The communication should be there even if it’s just a one-liner in the release notes.  That’s the problem here. There are a lot of cards and planeswalkers abilities that could use these tweaks to match what they do with what they should do. 

Mainloop25

Of course it needed to be fixed. Like @ElfNeedsFood said, it was broken, just in the opposite direction. Now, on to fixing Sorin & Sarkhan's first. 

HypnoticSpecter

Just had Ob kill himself with his ability 1 today. Still needs some work.