Can we say goodbye to required PW events?

bk1234

As I work my way through what seems like endless nodes of the same event we have played under 4 different names, I have to wonder -- why are we still being put through this. 

Inventor's Fair, Breaking Point, Trial of Strength, Hour of Devastation --- same event, same basic premise -- one node locked to a PW that we are forced to buy if we want to do well for either individual or coalition rewards -- and in the case of all of them except for N3 -- with ridiculous objectives that are contrary to everything that makes that PW shine; and then 2 more nodes where we get a bit more freedom, but still just seem endless because this event has always spanned 4 days (Friday-Monday).

I was quite surprised when I saw ToS L3 on the schedule -- and not pleasantly. I have bad memories of this event -- in fact -- I hated playing her with these objectives so much, that I never, ever touched her after it was over -- not a single time. ToS L3 ruined me (a lover of all things black) from L3 forever. After today, she will go back into Planeswalker purgatory, hopefully never to be touched again. 

But I didn't see the more global implications until the event actually started. 

In my alliance we have an amazing development coalition -- from their very first event, this awesome team made almost completely of new players has finished top 50. They are bright and fun -- they have amazing communication -- they do so much with so little and inspire us all -- but as new players they have to be very strategic of how they use their in-game currency. They had to decide whether to buy a PW that really gives them no strategic advantage as newer players -- most of them (wisely) chose not to-- and so all weekend, I've watched them struggle...

This really brought to light to me how unfair required PW events are to new and casual players. Basically really great rewards are dangled in front of us and we are forced to either buy something we may not want -- or take lower rewards. 

It's another example of the game philosophy that allows top players to excel and new and casual players to stall -- it's detrimental to engagement. 

However-- I have hope -- the fact that a required PW event wasn't announced in either of the new sets is curious and notable -- I hope that ToS L3 was plugged in to fill space while Oktagon finalizes BoFT (B4T? -- can we agree on one of these) and that our days of required PW events are over. 

But if I'm wrong -- please reconsider and don't make us do this anymore...

DBJones

I agree that having events with such huge rewards include a node locked to a particular Planeswalker is unpleasant. However, I would like some sort of Planeswalker showdown event, basically the same as Holiday Showdown, but locked to a single Planeswalker. Though the rewards should probably be tweaked a bit, the 30 point pack should come from the set the Planeswalker is from, and the 60 point pack could be a small Mana Jewel (is that what the purples are called?) reward.

Bullvinne

Yep, I am one if those newer players in the development coalition @bken1234 referred to who couldn't buy L3 for this event. Where I normally get in the top 50 of personal ranking, I'm hovering in the 250+ rankings. My only achievable goals for this event is to make progression and to put as many points toward my coalition ranking as possible. 

Speaking of, our coalition since its inception almost 2 months ago has top 50'ed every event we have been apart of. This event, we haven't even broken into the top 50 yet and its almost over.

I second what @bken1234 said, do away with these required PW events. They are not fun.

Mburn7

I don't mind planeswalker-specific events, but I don't like the fact that they 

A ) Only do it with new walkers

B ) Make them Coalition (and thus "mandatory") events

I enjoyed the short-lived Arena event they ran, as it used legacy walkers and (mostly) good objectives.  
I would not be against something like that coming back as a fun legacy event, it would be nice to see Zendikar Gideon, Tezz 1, or even the origins walkers getting some use again

NinjaE

I'm okay with them - I understand they want to market their PWs to make more money - but please have something else running concurrently.

Sarahschmara

I like having an excuse to dust off my old PWs and also miss the old Arena—it was a great idea that wasn’t given the care and attention it deserved. Towards the end it got irritating with the contrary secondaries. 

FindingHeart8

bken1234 said:

As I work my way through what seems like endless nodes of the same event we have played under 4 different names, I have to wonder -- why are we still being put through this. 

Inventor's Fair, Breaking Point, Trial of Strength, Hour of Devastation --- same event, same basic premise -- one node locked to a PW that we are forced to buy if we want to do well for either individual or coalition rewards -- and in the case of all of them except for N3 -- with ridiculous objectives that are contrary to everything that makes that PW shine; and then 2 more nodes where we get a bit more freedom, but still just seem endless because this event has always spanned 4 days (Friday-Monday).

I was quite surprised when I saw ToS L3 on the schedule -- and not pleasantly. I have bad memories of this event -- in fact -- I hated playing her with these objectives so much, that I never, ever touched her after it was over -- not a single time. ToS L3 ruined me (a lover of all things black) from L3 forever. After today, she will go back into Planeswalker purgatory, hopefully never to be touched again. 

But I didn't see the more global implications until the event actually started. 

In my alliance we have an amazing development coalition -- from their very first event, this awesome team made almost completely of new players has finished top 50. They are bright and fun -- they have amazing communication -- they do so much with so little and inspire us all -- but as new players they have to be very strategic of how they use their in-game currency. They had to decide whether to buy a PW that really gives them no strategic advantage as newer players -- most of them (wisely) chose not to-- and so all weekend, I've watched them struggle...

This really brought to light to me how unfair required PW events are to new and casual players. Basically really great rewards are dangled in front of us and we are forced to either buy something we may not want -- or take lower rewards. 

It's another example of the game philosophy that allows top players to excel and new and casual players to stall -- it's detrimental to engagement. 

However-- I have hope -- the fact that a required PW event wasn't announced in either of the new sets is curious and notable -- I hope that ToS L3 was plugged in to fill space while Oktagon finalizes BoFT (B4T? -- can we agree on one of these) and that our days of required PW events are over. 

But if I'm wrong -- please reconsider and don't make us do this anymore...

I enjoyed the 3-day one with Saheeli, where we all got to test her out as a planeswalker before she was available for purchase and could only be won through that event (only top 5 players tho).  That's the most time I've ever devoted to a single event, but I won that Saheeli.

For the sake of my health, I hope we don't do the top-5-get-the-planeswalker award, but it would be cool if the trending planeswalker was available to play for all players in that event only (with a fun pre-made deck to match), and would probably spark more players interest in actually buying the planeswalker if it was also available for purchase at the time of the event.

Bullvinne

FindingHeart8 said:

bken1234 said:

As I work my way through what seems like endless nodes of the same event we have played under 4 different names, I have to wonder -- why are we still being put through this. 

Inventor's Fair, Breaking Point, Trial of Strength, Hour of Devastation --- same event, same basic premise -- one node locked to a PW that we are forced to buy if we want to do well for either individual or coalition rewards -- and in the case of all of them except for N3 -- with ridiculous objectives that are contrary to everything that makes that PW shine; and then 2 more nodes where we get a bit more freedom, but still just seem endless because this event has always spanned 4 days (Friday-Monday).

I was quite surprised when I saw ToS L3 on the schedule -- and not pleasantly. I have bad memories of this event -- in fact -- I hated playing her with these objectives so much, that I never, ever touched her after it was over -- not a single time. ToS L3 ruined me (a lover of all things black) from L3 forever. After today, she will go back into Planeswalker purgatory, hopefully never to be touched again. 

But I didn't see the more global implications until the event actually started. 

In my alliance we have an amazing development coalition -- from their very first event, this awesome team made almost completely of new players has finished top 50. They are bright and fun -- they have amazing communication -- they do so much with so little and inspire us all -- but as new players they have to be very strategic of how they use their in-game currency. They had to decide whether to buy a PW that really gives them no strategic advantage as newer players -- most of them (wisely) chose not to-- and so all weekend, I've watched them struggle...

This really brought to light to me how unfair required PW events are to new and casual players. Basically really great rewards are dangled in front of us and we are forced to either buy something we may not want -- or take lower rewards. 

It's another example of the game philosophy that allows top players to excel and new and casual players to stall -- it's detrimental to engagement. 

However-- I have hope -- the fact that a required PW event wasn't announced in either of the new sets is curious and notable -- I hope that ToS L3 was plugged in to fill space while Oktagon finalizes BoFT (B4T? -- can we agree on one of these) and that our days of required PW events are over. 

But if I'm wrong -- please reconsider and don't make us do this anymore...

I enjoyed the 3-day one with Saheeli, where we all got to test her out as a planeswalker before she was available for purchase and could only be won through that event (only top 5 players tho).  That's the most time I've ever devoted to a single event, but I won that Saheeli.

For the sake of my health, I hope we don't do the top-5-get-the-planeswalker award, but it would be cool if the trending planeswalker was available to play for all players in that event only (with a fun pre-made deck to match), and would probably spark more players interest in actually buying the planeswalker if it was also available for purchase at the time of the event.

I would get behind having the planeswalker available temporarily for all players in Required PQ events. Atleast we could still contribute the full amount to our Coalition.

And yes, that could be a way to spark interest in buying the PW, but not forcing it. Who knows. I might actually like L3, but I have no idea atm and dont plan on dropping any crystals on her just for the event... If it was a test-before-you-buy event, then I could be dropping crystals on her right now...

bk1234

FindingHeart8 said:

I enjoyed the 3-day one with Saheeli, where we all got to test her out as a planeswalker before she was available for purchase and could only be won through that event (only top 5 players tho).  That's the most time I've ever devoted to a single event, but I won that Saheeli.

For the sake of my health, I hope we don't do the top-5-get-the-planeswalker award, but it would be cool if the trending planeswalker was available to play for all players in that event only (with a fun pre-made deck to match), and would probably spark more players interest in actually buying the planeswalker if it was also available for purchase at the time of the event.

Her deck was terrible though.

I posted in another thread, but it would be cool if they did something like this again -- but those who actually own the PW could change any or all of the cards in the pre-built deck. 

This would be a great incentive to buy a PW and also maybe an opportunity to use cards you don't own. 

FindingHeart8

bken1234 said:

FindingHeart8 said:

I enjoyed the 3-day one with Saheeli, where we all got to test her out as a planeswalker before she was available for purchase and could only be won through that event (only top 5 players tho).  That's the most time I've ever devoted to a single event, but I won that Saheeli.

For the sake of my health, I hope we don't do the top-5-get-the-planeswalker award, but it would be cool if the trending planeswalker was available to play for all players in that event only (with a fun pre-made deck to match), and would probably spark more players interest in actually buying the planeswalker if it was also available for purchase at the time of the event.

Her deck was terrible though.

I posted in another thread, but it would be cool if they did something like this again -- but those who actually own the PW could change any or all of the cards in the pre-built deck. 

This would be a great incentive to buy a PW and also maybe an opportunity to use cards you don't own. 

her deck wasn't that terrible lol.

She had most of the good (non-OP) mythics, with the only creature control available at that time.  Yeah there wasn't a lot of synergy but for its time it was a pretty solid deck.

I like you're added suggestion.  If they made an event like this I would look forward to playing it as much as I do Avacyn's Madness

Mainloop25

Her deck was a bunch of expensive rares and mythics with barely any ramp and no way to deal with a pre-nerf Runaway Carriage. It was ok when you got lucky but very frustrating otherwise. 

madwren

bken1234 said:

as new players they have to be very strategic of how they use their in-game currency. They had to decide whether to buy a PW that really gives them no strategic advantage as newer players -- most of them (wisely) chose not to-- and so all weekend, I've watched them struggle...

This really brought to light to me how unfair required PW events are to new and casual players. Basically really great rewards are dangled in front of us and we are forced to either buy something we may not want -- or take lower rewards. 

Well said. I've always been opposed to the required PW events for this reason, but this one was particularly egregious.  No one enjoyed playing with L3, and at this point in time you'd think that the Powers That Be would see the wisdom in encouraging investment in their current set, not one from months ago.

Kinesia

Letting people who don't have the planeswalker compete with a free version but _still_ have the PW in the vault for sale while the event is on is FAR better for the compnay purpose of selling them.

Let people try them out for free and if they are interested they can buy it and finish off the event with their own decks instead.

Enygma6

If you trial a PW for free, would you have to dump your own Runes into leveling them up?  And if so, would you get them refunded after the event, or automatically applied to a future purchased version of that PW?

Bil

Enygma6 said:

If you trial a PW for free, would you have to dump your own Runes into leveling them up?  And if so, would you get them refunded after the event, or automatically applied to a future purchased version of that PW?

The best would probably be to discover a lvl 60 walker so you can use it with full power and 3rd ability maxed.

arNero

I agree that nodes needing specific PW has to go.

AKH Liliana shows some of the worst possible mishaps that can happen in this scenario, namely, she NEEDS some of the Legacy Zombies to work, without which she's terribly subpar, and worse, her color has ZERO support destruction. So you end up having to play with a subpar deck, against any other possible deck that can utterly destroy her where she can't do anything about.

To be fair had in this event Liliana (or those mandatory walkers) only fight their own (mirror planeswalker match, e.g. Lili vs Lili), it probably is doable, but imagine running up against Starfield Lock or other decks with extremely powerful Supports (personal example: Sandwurm Convergence), and she's dead, no contest.

This also reminds me to the Saheeli event back then, where we played Saheeli with a preset deck, which so happens to be unable to deal with Runaway Carriage + Gideon 1 back then (for those who forgot, before its nerf Runaway Carriage has permanent Prevent Damage as long as it is not blocked, meaning it can block EVERYTHING wit impunity, and its Hexproof means you can't even kill it with some of the -X/-X effects the game had back then, in which case Saheeli's preset deck doesn't have).

I digress. Essentially, forcing a player to play with a severely limited deck when they can very realistically run into opponents said planeswalker just CANNOT deal with is awful, so yeah, stop this mandatory PW event.

Brakkis

I feel that any event where a given Planeswalker is mandatory, that Planeswalker should be available to use -during the event- for everyone.

If you don't have that given Planeswalker, you get to use it with a preset deck throughout the duration of the event. Get a feel for it's abilities and mana gains, etc. After the event you can decide to purchase that Planeswalker if you enjoyed the feel of it for use in other events as you wish.
 -- Addendum to this - No, you should not be able to run a custom deck with the same Planeswalker if you already own it during this given event. Why? Because the preset decks are always janky **** and it'd be wholly imbalanced towards the players who don't own the Planeswalker.

None of this semi-forced necessity to purchase the Planeswalker for the sole purpose of competing properly in an event.

I don't mind the events, aside from how long they run. I mind having to buy Planeswalkers specifically for a locked node in that event so I can compete.\


Side Note - The entire Hour of Devastation event should be re-made to better fit the story of Hour of Devastation. Hour of Revelation should have been what they made Hour of Devastation with Samut being required.

If actually writing a post about how the event should have been made would get the event re-made to match the story, I'd post it. Alas, that wouldn't happen and it'd be a waste of time and effort.

810Bourne

I said this exact thing. Planeswalker required events are just stupid  
Why do we have to be forced to buy a Walker we do not want, or cards that we so want? 

Add that to the fact that this event had that awful summon 3 embalm secondary  

Just stop. It's not fun  at all  

boblpobl

I'm admittedly in the minority, but I enjoy PW events. However, I think they should be individual events instead of coalition so no one feels forced to buy a PW to support the team - and they should have objectives that highlight what makes the PW work. Make rewards PW themed as well-like if it's a Lili3 event, all reward packs are black boosters, and the top reward is a zombie pack or something.

I'd actually love to see an Origins PW event, where all five nodes are assigned to the 5 Origins PWs. It would be fun to dust them off knowing you won't have to face any of the new walkers. 

FindingHeart8

Mainloop25 said:

Her deck was a bunch of expensive rares and mythics with barely any ramp and no way to deal with a pre-nerf Runaway Carriage. It was ok when you got lucky but very frustrating otherwise. 

meh, red and blue didn't have a great deal of ramp aside from gem destruction.  Her mana bonuses compensated for the high mana costs and her thopters could easily fly over any Runaway Carriage blockade (that wasn't from Gideon1, of which there were very few answers even outside of Saheeli to deal with).  Not saying it wasn't a little clunky and there wasn't room for improvement, but as a player who didn't have any of those cards at the time, I thought it was pretty fun.

Mainloop25

FindingHeart8 said:

Mainloop25 said:

Her deck was a bunch of expensive rares and mythics with barely any ramp and no way to deal with a pre-nerf Runaway Carriage. It was ok when you got lucky but very frustrating otherwise. 

meh, red and blue didn't have a great deal of ramp aside from gem destruction.  Her mana bonuses compensated for the high mana costs and her thopters could easily fly over any Runaway Carriage blockade (that wasn't from Gideon1, of which there were very few answers even outside of Saheeli to deal with).  Not saying it wasn't a little clunky and there wasn't room for improvement, but as a player who didn't have any of those cards at the time, I thought it was pretty fun.

Ask around how many people lost a chance at owning Saheeli because they ran into Gideon 1. That alone is enough for people to hate that deck.