what is up with Greg now!?!?

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Wolfteeth
Wolfteeth Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
in MtGPQ General Discussion
So, why did this game just become 10x harder?  It takes me 5-7 turns to draw my first creature by turn 3 my opponent has 5 cards cast and manacascading every turn.  This game is becoming a chore and I’m beyond frustrated.  Every time I think things are heading in a good direction, the game takes 2 steps backwards.  You have a whole forum of players telling you why this game has been getting worse and really great ideas on how to improve it but no one is listening.   Why do you not take feedback from this forum?  I plausible and smart ideas all the time and the issues people are having are clear as day yet you guys come up with pointless options like alternative artwork on those Vanguards was seriously the lamest thing ever or keep creating these ridiculous 3 day events with bull **** rewards.

It seems like it’s simple fixes and you guys are just phoning it in.  
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  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
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    The not drawing creatures thing is just plain old RNG, nothing malicious from the devs.  I go through streaks where I either get no creatures for half the game or my first 12 draws are all creatures.  It happens to everyone.

    I will admit cascades do seem to be happening to everyone more frequently (I seem to be getting more than usual too, although not nearly as often as the AI), but unless something changed in the code we weren't told about (possible) its just random luck and selection bias.

    Look, there are definitely a lot of things wrong with this game.  But I really don't think **** draws and weird cascades are an intentional one that can be changed.
  • Rasalghul
    Rasalghul Posts: 158 Tile Toppler
    edited December 2019
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    About the « randomness » of cascade, they can happen but it is suspicious that they happen a lot of times when Greg is about to die, and instead, after the rainfall of gems of the same color (I saw a series of 7 gems of the same color, once !), you end up on the bad side. Sometimes, it looks like the ending of a bad action movie.

    They should be some kind of condition in he code to avoid drawing the same kind of card x times in a row. 

    Moreover, Greg also prevents you to draw the card you need for objectives even if 40% of your deck has a target characteristic.
  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Rasalghul said:
    About the « randomness » of cascade, they can happen but it is suspicious that they happen a lot of times when Greg is about to die, and instead, after the rainfall of gems of the same color (I saw a series of 7 gems of the same color, once !), you end up on the bad side. Sometimes, it looks like the ending of a bad action movie.

    They should be some kind of condition in he code to avoid drawing the same kind of card x times in a row. 

    Moreover, Greg also prevents you to draw the card you need for objectives even if 40% of your deck has a target characteristic.
    I have personally noticed those things too (its a running joke that whenever I say "I win unless X happens" X will happen immediately.  I've started planning my matches around those 11th hour cascades.  And I run extra objective cards because I never draw them either.

    But I'm reasonably sure (and I'm sure @Volrak has some data on this) that that's just bad luck on our part and not any sort of malicious coding from the devs.  Anything is possible, though, since we can't trust them to communicate or program anything properly.
  • mrixl2520
    mrixl2520 Posts: 240 Tile Toppler
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    I also notice that difficulty seems to spike around the time cards switch out of standard. We have to rework our fine-tuned decks with whatever we can get our hands on. We lose a lot of really good mana converters as well.

    I am also in the mindset that Greg's luck is off the charts all of a sudden. The quality of cascades it gets are unbelievable! 
  • Boogeyman
    Boogeyman Posts: 223 Tile Toppler
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    Rasalghul said:
    About the « randomness » of cascade, they can happen but it is suspicious that they happen a lot of times when Greg is about to die, and instead, after the rainfall of gems of the same color (I saw a series of 7 gems of the same color, once !), you end up on the bad side. Sometimes, it looks like the ending of a bad action movie.

    They should be some kind of condition in he code to avoid drawing the same kind of card x times in a row. 

    Moreover, Greg also prevents you to draw the card you need for objectives even if 40% of your deck has a target characteristic.
    I agree with you here.  I notice when I am making progress and about to win, there is a desperation cascade and greg usually fills his hand, pretty consistently.  

    I think IT IS an attempt by the devs to make the game more exciting.  I really think it is programmed into the bot.  Def. not random.  

    I also notice that if I am trying to cast 3 creatures that cost > than 10, that I will not draw the third creature I need.  I would believe it is random IF it did not happen consistently.  

    The answer?  Build your decks so that the computer has no choice to give you what you need.  This has a negative effect on gameplay though, because now I can only use certain combinations of cards to win.  There is no variety, so gameplay gets stale.  I notice if I try to change it up, I get smoked by the computer.  


  • jtwood
    jtwood Posts: 1,285 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I bet they didn't change anything of note, but if they did, I welcome a harder game
  • Aeroplane
    Aeroplane Posts: 314 Mover and Shaker
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    A lot of great mana driven cards have left standard creating a longer "exposed" battle with Greg. Recovery is harder as with mana gain. I've totally switched to mono PWs from tri-color PWs as gem converter cards favor monos dramatically. Elspeth , Lil4, Nissa(Worldwalker)...etc. Greg does have a suspicious cascade at times , but also can be pretty lame , too.
  • Narcoticsagent
    Narcoticsagent Posts: 203 Tile Toppler
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    I have noticed that any time I get a match against some one who's name I recognize from the forums Greg never casts anything. The entire match will end without me getting to see more than 1 or 2 cards from my opponents deck. 

    Should I consider this malicious intent from the devs? Are they actively seeking to deny me meaningful matches against opponents I recognize? 
  • Smokincookz
    Smokincookz Posts: 251 Mover and Shaker
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    starfall said:
    Narcoticsagent said:
    I have noticed that any time I get a match against some one who's name I recognize from the forums Greg never casts anything. The entire match will end without me getting to see more than 1 or 2 cards from my opponents deck. 

    Should I consider this malicious intent from the devs? Are they actively seeking to deny me meaningful matches against opponents I recognize? 
    This happens a lot to me in TOTP if I'm playing against an Omnipotence deck.

    Oktagon don't want us to lose games against OP decks like that as it can be infuriating, so instead of balancing the OP cards, or even just selecting a different opponent for us to play against, they make Greg sit there and cast none/almost none of his cards.

    We all want to grind through the dailies as quickly as possible so generally we don't care.
    I’ve had this happen, rarely. Far more often than not Greg is able to get “lucky” and Omni loop me. This is true with players I recognize from here or top coalitions, or those I don’t know of.

    I try my best to deny Greg mana, but it often seems he is just one cascade away from dropping Omni or Deploy loops. He is decent at making matches for cascades, and I’m pretty good at leaving him with little.

    Granted, I’ve changed my strategy recently to prevent him casting much at all, and haven’t lost a TOTP overall in a while. Usually losing from 0-2 matches. Before that, if I let him cast even 1-2 cards, there is a high chance of death within 1-3 turns.

     I’m not seeing enough hard evidence that there is some code stopping Greg from casting cards or making my grind shorter. I’ve seen this thru Greg not getting much mana, or having a clogged hand of cards he can’t cast without targets. Even then, if I don’t finish him off quickly, he’ll eventually loop into something nasty more often than not. 

    I’m no conspiracy theorist. If what you say is true, however, it makes me wonder why I don’t see that Greg more than once in a blue moon. More often, I get the quite idiotic Greg that we all know, but quite often empowered by luck to an extreme. 

    So, is this some ploy to try and frustrate certain players into spending more $? 
    I get frustrated, but it doesn’t make me want to spend more. A ploy to inflate the hours spent using the app? Hmm...

    It is curious indeed that when I am matched against a top ten coalition member, Greg doesn’t hold back against me. I just wish that outcomes were more strategy based and not so much luck. 

    If an AI beats me in chess, for instance, it’s not frustrating because there is no chance element. Therefore I view it as learning from blunders, etc. Getting better thru losses over time. 

    As much as I’d love to get thru dailies quickly, it feels like each match is purposefully dragging on to keep me grinding longer than necessary. Greg often gets JUST the right card at the perfect time to delay my victory. 

    I suppose since I don’t have Omni yet I’m not going to be able to pull off the fastest winning combos in legacy. Or maybe it’s me being level 85? Maybe the grind will disappear after level 100 😂
  • jtwood
    jtwood Posts: 1,285 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited December 2019
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    starfall said:
    Narcoticsagent said:
    I have noticed that any time I get a match against some one who's name I recognize from the forums Greg never casts anything. The entire match will end without me getting to see more than 1 or 2 cards from my opponents deck. 

    Should I consider this malicious intent from the devs? Are they actively seeking to deny me meaningful matches against opponents I recognize? 
    This happens a lot to me in TOTP if I'm playing against an Omnipotence deck.

    Oktagon don't want us to lose games against OP decks like that as it can be infuriating, so instead of balancing the OP cards, or even just selecting a different opponent for us to play against, they make Greg sit there and cast none/almost none of his cards.

    We all want to grind through the dailies as quickly as possible so generally we don't care.
    I've often wondered why I play some matches where Greg just holds a hand of cards with full mana...
    ... but I have never once even remotely considered that Greg was programmatically altered to do that on purpose to fix [thing]. That's just crazy talk.
  • Smokincookz
    Smokincookz Posts: 251 Mover and Shaker
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    All of my own joking aside, I just facepalmed for not noticing that I have long had access to a sort of poor man’s Omniscience. Bring to Light, BSZ, TYS, TotT, Electrodominance, Beacon Bolt, Drowned Secrets, etc...

    So insanely broken. I don’t think I’ll ever complain about the long grind for legacy dailies again.
  • Smokincookz
    Smokincookz Posts: 251 Mover and Shaker
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    starfall said: Levels mean less than nothing. You'll certainly never catch up to my level, because I levelled before the last XP update, and that was a total snafu. It's physically impossible for you to reach my level now.

    They'll be implemented into a bad new matchmaking system soon, which will be bad, but I expect people will defend the new bad system as 'a step in the right direction'.
    I was certainly joking about the level system. A joke in and of itself. I started playing around GRN release, & it doesn’t take a veteran to see the flaws.

    Combustible Gearhulk is one of my favorites. 

    As far as Greg holding back with Omni, I’ll admit I’ve not experienced this enough to really weigh in on the matter. The times I remember it happening, I was often running creature-less, so just assumed it was full of things he couldn’t cast. 

    It is very odd, now that I think about it, why no Rishkar’s Expertise or any other of the other usual insane converters would come out. Those are usually first, and an excessive amount per turn. 
  • Firstofhisname419
    Firstofhisname419 Posts: 129 Tile Toppler
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    starfall said:
    Oktagon don't want us to lose games against OP decks like that as it can be infuriating, so instead of balancing the OP cards, or even just selecting a different opponent for us to play against, they make Greg sit there and cast none/almost none of his cards.
    I just lost to an Omni deck on turn 1, so I guess they fixed that bug. 
  • jtwood
    jtwood Posts: 1,285 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Firstofhisname419 said:
    starfall said:
    Oktagon don't want us to lose games against OP decks like that as it can be infuriating, so instead of balancing the OP cards, or even just selecting a different opponent for us to play against, they make Greg sit there and cast none/almost none of his cards.
    I just lost to an Omni deck on turn 1, so I guess they fixed that bug. 

    No no... Greg holds cards so that we enjoy the game
  • Rasalghul
    Rasalghul Posts: 158 Tile Toppler
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    Greg is such a baby !
  • morgue427
    morgue427 Posts: 783 Critical Contributor
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    hmm i have just seen it intentionally miss 5 matches for lesser ones off color even but him using brokehans 3rd ability if it had the room to use it that is a dangerous step i think, if they teach it to discard unusable cards we will be having a skynet moment lol

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