Brakkis said: To what end does this discussion serve? Will it alter the immensely poor course the 3.3 patch is taking with the turn timer? We're calling it a loop timer but really, it'll apply to every turn and so it's a turn timer. Is this thread an attempt at a distraction to the issues that have come up in recent weeks? It's not going to work if that's the case.To the question at hand, the current measure of skill in this game is twofold. The first is knowing what Planeswalker and deck combination would work best to achieve not only a victory, but the secondary and tertiary objectives along with it, in the quickest and/or easiest fashion. To that end, you need a solid understanding of a Planeswalkers abilities, mana gains, and deck capabilities to determine which one fulfills what role the "best". The second is, as has already been mentioned, deck building. Knowing which cards can combo best with other cards and putting together a solid 10 card deck that can achieve objectives and answer threats in the easiest manner. That includes understanding them enough to help other players with a smaller collection overcome harder obstacles with barely a combo to throw together. I joined FtA's slack early on and got some amazing advice on how best to utilize origins Gideon and the cards I had to succeed in numerous events and story chapters that were utterly devastating me. Because others could see the functionality and combo potential of the cards I had at the time that I simply could not. Now, nearly 2 years later, and being one of those players at over 2500 mastery in all colors, I try to pay it forward and help other new players do the same thing.Some level of skill can still be applied to how you match gems, aiming for the best match and the most gains. But Greg's a derpy buffoon and you can't account for his random choices or a sudden cascade that dumps his whole hand at you without even some BSZ loopy goodness involved.
Mburn7 said: Game Management Skill is mostly what we seem to be talking about here, and is how well you play your deck and match gems. Sometimes you need to make lesser matches in order to prevent your opponent from making a good match (think focusing on Red gems against a Koth) or to activate certain strategies you have or to aim for good cascades. Its knowing when to cast that kill spell or wait one more turn just in case that creature gets reinforced. Its knowing when to use an ability now or save up for another one, or just wait to use it until next turn. Its knowing when to have a charged spell in your hand or when to focus on getting creatures out or your combo set up. Its guessing what your opponent might do and planning your moves to possibly counter it.On one level Game Management is very easy to grasp, since most people have some experience with match-3 games and card games, and combining the two isn't incredibly difficult to figure out. And if your deck is good enough, poor Game Management Skills won't stop you from winning 80% of the time. But for the other 20% it is absolutely the difference between winning and losing a close match. I have lost a ton of games because I cast a spell too early or charged the wrong card, and I have also won a ton of close matches because I was able to read my opponent's strategy and stop their key card while I waited to draw a better answer.
Volrak said: I haven't quantified the difficulty or compared the importance of the various skills, but have instead tried to classify the most relevant skills. So I'm listing skills even if mastering them may seem subjectively easy, or if they can have only a minor influence on outcomes.I've put skills into three categories, from the lowest level of the game to the highest level. One area nobody's brought up yet is the highest level category, which is long term resource management.1. In-game strategy 1.a Hand management * Choosing card order * When to cast vs hold vs discard cards * When to spend vs hold loyalty * When to stick to objectives vs giving them up to reduce risk of losing * Bug avoidance * Predicting the opponent's deck and the bot's play choices, as an input to all of the above 1.b Gem matching * Which strategy to choose (or, how to weight competing objectives). E.g. - Maximising expected gains - Maximising worst-case gains - Minimising expected opponent gains - Maximising loyalty vs mana - Whether to prioritise special gems, and which ones (activations, supports, etc) * Picking the optimal match given the chosen strategy and a board state * (Gem matching skills are highly probabilistic, i.e. any single choice may or may not pan out well, but in the long run, these skills improve game outcomes)2. Event/match preparation 2.a Choice of planeswalker 2.b Choice of deck * (Much has been said about this already, I won't repeat it)3. Long term resource management 3.a Managing basic in-game resources * What to spend jewels, crystals, runes, and orbs on, and what to avoid * When to spend resources immediately to boost your short-term options (in Event/match preparation), and when to save resources to get more efficient use out of them 3.b Other long-term in-game choices * Whether/when to master cards * Whether/when to level PWs * Whether/when to hoard packs * For the above and others, being able to apply the devs' stated future intent to the choice 3.c Managing time * For players not playing 100% of events, which events to play competitively vs play casually vs skip * When to use a speed deck vs a safer but slower deck 3.d Managing money * For paying players, which packages to spend money on
Mburn7 said: Volrak said: I haven't quantified the difficulty or compared the importance of the various skills, but have instead tried to classify the most relevant skills. So I'm listing skills even if mastering them may seem subjectively easy, or if they can have only a minor influence on outcomes.I've put skills into three categories, from the lowest level of the game to the highest level. One area nobody's brought up yet is the highest level category, which is long term resource management.1. In-game strategy 1.a Hand management * Choosing card order * When to cast vs hold vs discard cards * When to spend vs hold loyalty * When to stick to objectives vs giving them up to reduce risk of losing * Bug avoidance * Predicting the opponent's deck and the bot's play choices, as an input to all of the above 1.b Gem matching * Which strategy to choose (or, how to weight competing objectives). E.g. - Maximising expected gains - Maximising worst-case gains - Minimising expected opponent gains - Maximising loyalty vs mana - Whether to prioritise special gems, and which ones (activations, supports, etc) * Picking the optimal match given the chosen strategy and a board state * (Gem matching skills are highly probabilistic, i.e. any single choice may or may not pan out well, but in the long run, these skills improve game outcomes)2. Event/match preparation 2.a Choice of planeswalker 2.b Choice of deck * (Much has been said about this already, I won't repeat it)3. Long term resource management 3.a Managing basic in-game resources * What to spend jewels, crystals, runes, and orbs on, and what to avoid * When to spend resources immediately to boost your short-term options (in Event/match preparation), and when to save resources to get more efficient use out of them 3.b Other long-term in-game choices * Whether/when to master cards * Whether/when to level PWs * Whether/when to hoard packs * For the above and others, being able to apply the devs' stated future intent to the choice 3.c Managing time * For players not playing 100% of events, which events to play competitively vs play casually vs skip * When to use a speed deck vs a safer but slower deck 3.d Managing money * For paying players, which packages to spend money on This is much less rambly than my post, but covers pretty much the same ideas. Thanks for summarizing!