Those rounds where you’re screwed

Wolfteeth

So what is the point of the rounds where you draw 4 of the same card, your prime colors are never available to match and your opponent mana cascades and gets multiple turns and then you have zero chance of winning??? It’s so obnoxious and unbalanced- I don’t mind losing As long as it’s a fair fight- this happens all too often so please don’t tell me it’s “chance”

Mburn7

This is usually the kind of match that ruins my perfect score in events.

It really is just bad luck though, otherwise nobody would ever get perfects (it never ceases to amaze me how many people just don't experience this when it counts when it happens to me every time)

Gunmix25

Wolfteeth said:

So what is the point of the rounds where you draw 4 of the same card, your prime colors are never available to match and your opponent mana cascades and gets multiple turns and then you have zero chance of winning??? It’s so obnoxious and unbalanced- I don’t mind losing As long as it’s a fair fight- this happens all too often so please don’t tell me it’s “chance”

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but yes it is chance. RNGesus is a mean mistress. You can easily encounter this in paper magic (I have, more times than I care to count) but as far as MTGPQ goes it happens far more often due to a smaller pool of cards. I have encountered many times when I'm drawing the same four cards in row... yes it is irritating and frustrating. What's worse for me is not getting that one key card you need and they don't show up until after you pulled 36 cards.

Firinmahlazer

Yup. It happens. Just had a CotC match where I couldn't get an on color match almost the entire fight and Sphinx's Tutelage was undoing what little mana I getting. I cast about 3 cards and did 0 damage. Next round went off without a hitch and I nearly won before I hit the objectives. 

Try building decks with extra draw and ramp to help turn around those bad boards and hands. 

Gunmix25

Firinmahlazer said:

Yup. It happens. Just had a CotC match where I couldn't get an on color match almost the entire fight and Sphinx's Tutelage was undoing what little mana I getting. I cast about 3 cards and did 0 damage. Next round went off without a hitch and I nearly won before I hit the objectives. 

Try building decks with extra draw and ramp to help turn around those bad boards and hands. 

Ouch I have had many a match like that as well. It happens, one can only hope that RNGesus doesn't hose you in an event. 

jtwood

First loss to Avacyn today in I don’t know how long... Couldn’t get an on-color match for Bolas to save my life. Combo’d off a turn too late. 

But I just consider this part of the game - a risk to minimize (for example, I had no gem changers in this deck, which means I accepted the risk). Not something I’m going to throw down over. 

FindingHeart8

That's why I hate those "win on turn X," or "take X or less damage," or "destroy X or more creatures," objectives.

1) lack of gem matches available could make a quick win impossible.

2) multiple cascades from Greg + a strong creature with haste could make you lose the Damage objective on round 1 (I've had it happen to me multiple times).

3) Creatureless decks forces you to destroy your own creatures, and (if that even counts towards the objective) many kill spells only work on your opponent's creatures.

LoboX01

At least you can do something about those "Kill X creature" objectives. "Take X or less damage", or "win on turn X", it is up in the air.

My other favorite is when you build a sub-optimal deck to meet objectives, and you meet a deck with the strongest cards in, obviously just imported from "Favorite deck" slot that you play every day in TG, without giving any tinykitty to objectives, and you got hammered and there goes your max score. Even worse in recent many events, just one loss means you are out of top 250, or top 500, and you lose all motivation to play another match, cause top 1-5 rewards are good, top 250 is like nothing. If it is a coalition event, you keep playing for your mates, but that's all.

madwren

My other favorite is when you build a sub-optimal deck to meet objectives, 

I promise no snark is intended here: I find the trick is to build decks that meet objectives without being suboptimal.  For example, for competitive events I develop deck "shells" into which I can slot 1-2 replaceable cards that don't noticeably alter strategy or win condition.  

The exception to this is pauper decks, as that's an objective whose entire purpose is forcing you to build something suboptimal. Not surprisingly, I find those the most challenging and/or frustrating.

Anyway, to address the OP's larger point, we've all suffered the games where Greg just casts cards at will, but many (definitely not all) of those games can be salvaged. Examine where your deck went wrong. Were your cards too expensive? Were they too narrow in scope? Creatures too ineffectual? Too many of X and not enough Y?

It's easy and understandable to be frustrated, but it's also an opportunity to hone deckbuilding skills by identifying weaknesses.   

jtwood

I always assume I’m going to run into some MP-laden powerhouse - even in pauper - that doesn’t care about objectives and start from there. It helps keep me focused on including answers in addition to meeting the objectives. 

LoboX01

madwren said:

My other favorite is when you build a sub-optimal deck to meet objectives, 

I promise no snark is intended here: I find the trick is to build decks that meet objectives without being suboptimal.  For example, for competitive events I develop deck "shells" into which I can slot 1-2 replaceable cards that don't noticeably alter strategy or win condition.   

When I said suboptimal, I meant those 1-2 cards could be the difference

But overall you are right, I lost more matches lately to the God of Frozen Game, than to OP decks. But it gets frustrating, when by any chance you don't get a freeze, and of course this is the time when you meet an OP deck, and that deck even get the cascades, and all of a sudden you are facing Brokhan's 3 GR in turn 3/4 in Titano.

Dropping 2 points already sucks in the reward system, but a full loss, well, all you got is pretty much a tap on your shoulder saying "thanks for the effort"

madwren

LoboX01 said:

madwren said:

My other favorite is when you build a sub-optimal deck to meet objectives, 

I promise no snark is intended here: I find the trick is to build decks that meet objectives without being suboptimal.  For example, for competitive events I develop deck "shells" into which I can slot 1-2 replaceable cards that don't noticeably alter strategy or win condition.   

When I said suboptimal, I meant those 1-2 cards could be the difference

But overall you are right, I lost more matches lately to the God of Frozen Game, than to OP decks. But it gets frustrating, when by any chance you don't get a freeze, and of course this is the time when you meet an OP deck, and that deck even get the cascades, and all of a sudden you are facing Brokhan's 3 GR in turn 3/4 in Titano.

Dropping 2 points already sucks in the reward system, but a full loss, well, all you got is pretty much a tap on your shoulder saying "thanks for the effort"

Aye, full agreement here. My feelings on the rank system have been made abudantly clear elsewhere, of course.  I think it's downright crippling for players trying to build their collection to rewards cut so drastically.  It's arguably more of an accomplishment for some players to score -3 than for me to score perfect. 

madwren

critman said:

FindingHeart8 said:

many kill spells only work on your opponent's creatures.

This is an aspect of card design that Oktagon seem pretty fond of at the moment, and it tends to mean you reject many creature kill spells out of hand because you can't kill your own creatures either specifically for an objective or to slow yourself down for objectives generally.

It creates a bottleneck in deck building and I dislike those. It's not as bad as the one around Demolish but it's still pretty bad (Honestly if I see another card with "Destroy a subset of a subset of a subset of supports" written on it I will puke blood).

The "you can only kill opposing creature" black spells are as irritating as the "you can only damage creatures" red spells.  But at least the black spells can actually kill something. 

Gunmix25

jtwood said:

I always assume I’m going to run into some MP-laden powerhouse - even in pauper - that doesn’t care about objectives and start from there. It helps keep me focused on including answers in addition to meeting the objectives. 

I Should've kept that in mind when I faced your Ashiok build. Nicely done and meaner than a rabid cat tied to an electric fence that cycles charges every 5 seconds.  

jtwood

Gunmix25 said:

jtwood said:

I always assume I’m going to run into some MP-laden powerhouse - even in pauper - that doesn’t care about objectives and start from there. It helps keep me focused on including answers in addition to meeting the objectives. 

I Should've kept that in mind when I faced your Ashiok build. Nicely done and meaner than a rabid cat tied to an electric fence that cycles charges every 5 seconds.  

I do believe this is the first time I’ve heard of one of my builds winning a match. 

jtwood

For a while, I was glad they were printing cards that only targeted opposing creatures, because the AI wasn’t able to stop killing itself. And I prefer to try building decks the AI at least has a chance to play. 

But with their recent fix for that issue, I guess they could start loosening that up. I had sort of forgot about the origin of that clause and why I liked it. 

ArielSira

Had an opponent on Seize the Day just now on the bottom left node; Ashiok with Grafdiggers Cage, Leyline of the Void etc. No way for that deck to win with either objective but specifically built to mess the scores of other people.

I've complained about people using mythics on pauper nodes but this one is a new low to me. -3, off to rank 150 for me.

LoboX01

Seize the Day just now: bottom left node, facing Angrath, first round opp got so many cascade to clean his hand, second turn another round of cascades, enough to bring out his ultimate, so hitting me with 24 for nothing, meanwhile my Kalemne's first ability DID NOT fetch any creature, as my last resort, to gain some time.

Thanks to the awesome rewarding system, now no interest whatsoever to finish the event at all.

And yes, it is funny how many people out there don't experience the wrath of the random generator, and run perfect score.

And yes, next match I got back the cascades... in a totally meaningful match, when I am winning anyways

P.S. And now a game freeze, on the tinykitty turn when I am going to win. Not before, EXACTLY the same turn... Just to make sure that I don't ever wanna play this tinykitty event again.

jtwood

ArielSira said:

Had an opponent on Seize the Day just now on the bottom left node; Ashiok with Grafdiggers Cage, Leyline of the Void etc. No way for that deck to win with either objective but specifically built to mess the scores of other people.

I've complained about people using mythics on pauper nodes but this one is a new low to me. -3, off to rank 150 for me.

That deck could win by simply not playing those cards when controlled by a human.

I guess you didn't draw your support destruction?

jtwood

LoboX01 said:

Seize the Day just now: bottom left node, facing Angrath, first round opp got so many cascade to clean his hand, second turn another round of cascades, enough to bring out his ultimate, so hitting me with 24 for nothing

Man, I love Angrath on that node. Just. So. OP.

ArielSira

@jtwood I did have Demolish but there were too many of these supports. The Cage empties your graveyard right away so destroying it doesn't help either.

Even "simply" not playing those cards as a human still **** his own deck; he would never win the speed objective.