Vanguard Supports - Thoughts and Speculation?

ElfNeedsFood
ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
edited June 2019 in MtGPQ General Discussion
So we have our first preview of how PQ is going to handle the onslaught of Planeswalkers from the War of the Spark from Brigby's post about re-leveling.  What are your thoughts and speculation on how this will work?


PS: Please keep conversations about re-leveling in Brigby's post...
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Comments

  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    My thoughts on this as it lays is that you cast the walker as a support.  Then you gain 1 "loyalty" (if they are going to call it that still) on the walker each time you match the trigger (in this case, match 3 or more green gems), then when it hits 8 loyalty, some other trigger (that we can't see because you need to click on it like Saga chapters) will occur...  I think it's an interesting dynamic and makes the Vangaurd walkers available to "assist" your main walker.  Not quite like TDW, but still a similar concept.
  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    My thoughts on this as it lays is that you cast the walker as a support.  Then you gain 1 "loyalty" (if they are going to call it that still) on the walker each time you match the trigger (in this case, match 3 or more green gems), then when it hits 8 loyalty, some other trigger (that we can't see because you need to click on it like Saga chapters) will occur...  I think it's an interesting dynamic and makes the Vangaurd walkers available to "assist" your main walker.  Not quite like TDW, but still a similar concept.
    That would make sense to me.  I would assume the support would self-destruct after activating its (ultimate).

    I wonder how the uncommon walkers will work then, unless they are going to just be regular supports and the vanguards are only for the rares.
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    FindingHeart8 said:
    I think it's going to glitch like crazy, not working as intended and possibly stopping games from being won due to freezes/etc.  Eventually It'll get fixed, if it's bad no one will use it, if it's good expect several nerf threads to pop up about it sooner or later.
    Yes, I suppose predicting bugs are a safe bet. Like all new card types, we see a few powerful cards get use and many that do not. I'm looking at you, sagas!
  • Avahad
    Avahad Posts: 296 Mover and Shaker
    Are they going to take 1 of our 10 card spaces? If so the effects are gonna need to be really good to justify their inclusion.....
  • Zzyzzx
    Zzyzzx Posts: 251 Mover and Shaker
    I don't know how Vanguard Supports work in paper MTG, but I could see the MTGPQ incarnation as part of <Daily set-specific event successor to Rising Tensions>.
    It could exist as an indestructible support, of which we are all familiar, with added effects tied to "X reinforcements", similar to the support created by Vraska II's 3rd ability.  This would allow Oktagon to leverage an existing mechanic and expand upon it to "do other cool things".

    This also frees up that spot in your hand.

    Alternatively it could also exist in the same form as a support card that you'd have to cast, only it would be inserted into yours and the opponent's decks in the same fashion as they do in the Dominaria PVE events in A Journey Through History.

    I think I'd prefer the latter, but that's just me.
  • Tilwin90
    Tilwin90 Posts: 662 Critical Contributor
    I expect vanguards will have activated gems associated with loyalty abilities. For each ability you probably have different gem(s) but they activate only when the vanguard has enough shields/loyalty.

    Or it's a permanent activation gem (like for aftermath cards for instance) but matching gems for abilities with not enough loyalty will lead to them having no effect (I would prefer the activation appearing only if there is enough loyalty but I could see the second implementation easier to implement) 
  • wereotter
    wereotter Posts: 2,070 Chairperson of the Boards
    The most interresting implementation, from my view, is to use banked loyalty from the planeswalker you're playing to either tick up or down on your loyalty for an effect. If that's actually how it's done, however, is anyone's guess.

    I also don't think it will be a card in the deck, but maybe something you equip to your planeswalker since it's supposed to be an indestructible support? It would be harder to justify a slot in your deck if there's no risk of ever losing the support.
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    @Zzyzzx in paper, these cards are just rare level planeswalkers. The new set has so many planeswalkers that the traditional puzzlequest translation starts to fall apart. 
  • Azerack
    Azerack Posts: 501 Critical Contributor
    Marvel PQ has "equipment " you can equip to your hero, so you might not be far off if they took a page from their book...
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    Azerack said:
    Marvel PQ has "equipment " you can equip to your hero, so you might not be far off if they took a page from their book...
    That is an interesting approach, chose a Vanguard to assist in this battle...

    That said, they certainly didn't model VIP after Marvel, I sort of wish that they had...
  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    ElfNeedsFood said:
    Azerack said:
    Marvel PQ has "equipment " you can equip to your hero, so you might not be far off if they took a page from their book...
    That is an interesting approach, chose a Vanguard to assist in this battle...

    That said, they certainly didn't model VIP after Marvel, I sort of wish that they had...
    I'm pretty sure Marvel PQ and MTG PQ have completely different dev teams.  I don't know how much influence D3 has in design decisions, but it's possible that there is little to no communication between the teams.  So its possible that Oktagon copies some things from Marvel PQ, but I don't think its likely.
  • Azerack
    Azerack Posts: 501 Critical Contributor
    No, but it doesn't stop people from copying their ideas...  ;)
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    It seems these might be like planeswalker abilities that drain shields based on the release notes. I'm still uncertain if they are cards you cast like traditional supports or not. You apparently don't obtain them in traditional packs though. 
  • Azerack
    Azerack Posts: 501 Critical Contributor
    Also makes me wonder how VIP's might get Vanguard card packs.. Will they/we get a bonus pack at some point?.. 
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    They do indeed have real casting costs, so I'm assuming they work like traditional supports with area effects with the added ability to trigger their second or third effects.

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