Colors of magic

ArielSira

Tried to bounce a reinforced non token guy on top node; soft lock. Loop timer ran once without giving a prompt and after that nothing.

Sigh.

Horadrim

I liked the way how the daily charges were implemented (similar to Colossal Tussle). I somewhat liked the new "puzzle" of only be able to cast via mana cost reduction. Minus the bottom node blue match bug that prevents you from reducing mana cost via the permasupport gem (but still allows you mana reduction if put as last card via a green match if your G bonus is a +), and other bugs such as the bouncing freeze, AND the 20 mana crystals entrance fee, I'd say it is just an okay new event.
Kudos to the dev team for how they implemented the charges though. I do hope that most (if not all) of the newer events in the future will follow this way....and please just get rid of the 20 mana crystals entrance fee (or at least make the rewards commensurate with the entrance fee).

tipsydragon

Also getting cards not reducing in both nodes. I'm curious if it has to do with cards or PW abilities attempting to add mana or reduce the card cost.

jtwood

tipsydragon said:

Also getting cards not reducing in both nodes. I'm curious if it has to do with cards or PW abilities attempting to add mana or reduce the card cost.

Ouch. That would mean effects like Teferi's ultimate would render every card in your hand as uncastable.

Barnabes

I had no issues with the top node but I had no card that cost more than 10 in my deck, to take advantage of Lurrus. 

From what I could see in the bottom node, when the opponent makes a blue match that raises the cost of your first card, you can no longer reduce its cost to 0 which effectively renders it unplayable. The only “solution” if found was just to strand a card there and limit myself to casting one card per turn (also if the card in question is Murderous Rider you can flip it to the 10 mana side and cast it in a pinch). I could wade through with Bolas2 thanks to his abilities but it was not very fun. 

Hope they fix this before try run the event again, the bottom node is pretty hard to accomplish to start with due to the two-turn clock. Otherwise, I found the event at least new and challenging. There are A LOT of ways to build this, although some will naturally be better than others. 

8/10, will try again. 

ArielSira

The main positives for me were the charge system (like TCT) and 500 brackets FINALLY! At least losing a match or objective doesn't nuke all your chances this way.

corvosaurus

Don't know if it helps you guys figure out the bugs, but I played Sarkhan and his third ability, to fetch 3 big creatures and give them full Mana didn't work either. Fetched 3, gave them Mana, then took it all away again. 

jtwood

corvosaurus said:

Don't know if it helps you guys figure out the bugs, but I played Sarkhan and his third ability, to fetch 3 big creatures and give them full Mana didn't work either. Fetched 3, gave them Mana, then took it all away again. 

That's by design. The event specifically says that there is no way to gain mana; only lower casting costs.

whiskeycokes

In the middle of a match again & game has frozen after node ability killed a Thopter. Can access pause menu options & passive animations are still working but nothing is happening. Possibly the buggiest event I've ever experienced, truly astonishing lol

boopers

The event actually isn't bugged at all... although I do agree that testing should have revealed that the game mechanics don't support the "no mana" rule set.

If you look at how Omni behaves when there is a card on the board that globally increases costs of your cards (such as Quarantine Field or Overwhelming Splendor)... you see that Omni will reduce the cost to 0, and then the effect of those cards is applied to raise the cost.  From that we can conclude that the "reduce cost" mechanic can only reduce a card's cost by it's base mana cost (it can't go negative).  

It makes sense until you can't gain mana at all.

A simple fix would be to add an event rule that says: "Cards in your hand cannot have their costs raised" and tweak the bottom blue match effect to be something else.

I'm sure they will fix it though... it's an interesting event, and forces you to play a little different... build a little different.  I like the variety it adds.  Much better than Role Reversal which is just painful.

The main issue I have with the event is the "Peasant" objective. It's already the most problematic objective since players can use mythics if they want to. But I completely respect the concept of the objective... to level the playing field for those with smaller collections.

Why not just make it an event rule that Mythics and MP aren't legal cards?  Why make it possible for someone legitimately playing the event for top score to get steamrolled by someone that isn't?  That seems to make a whole lot more sense in this case.  

But the general issue should be addressed as well.

Get rid of peasant and pauper objectives, and create a node specific ruleset about card rarity (just like permitted colors for a node).  It could just be a little additional graphic on the right side that denotes the highest card rarity permitted on that node.
 

jtwood

boopers said:

The main issue I have with the event is the "Peasant" objective. It's already the most problematic objective since players can use mythics if they want to. But I completely respect the concept of the objective... to level the playing field for those with smaller collections.

Why not just make it an event rule that Mythics and MP aren't legal cards?  Why make it possible for someone legitimately playing the event for top score to get steamrolled by someone that isn't?  That seems to make a whole lot more sense in this case.  

But the general issue should be addressed as well.

Get rid of peasant and pauper objectives, and create a node specific ruleset about card rarity (just like permitted colors for a node).  It could just be a little additional graphic on the right side that denotes the highest card rarity permitted on that node.
 

I have a feeling there are no features in the system to deck check before a match starts. What meager checks exist only seem to live at the deck builder level, which appears to be outside of any particular event.

Personally, I would be in favor of rarity-restricted objectives disappearing altogether until it can be enforced. That objective is the greatest new-player trap offered by the game.

Agree that the idea of a unique event is to be commended. Wish it had been better tested. 

NickBKK

I may be in a minority, but I find this event quite fun to play. It’s different and requiring new strategies. I don’t mind it at all.

Mainloop25

NickBKK said:

I may be in a minority, but I find this event quite fun to play. It’s different and requiring new strategies. I don’t mind it at all.

It took me a while to figure it out, but I don't mind it either. I have found that monocolor walkers with high mana gains in one color tend to do best.

Bil

I like the concept too, it's Been a while since players ask for diferent aproaches of the match-3 and it's the first time we have something like this.

I think the event has an interesting design, but things should be balanced in order to give more importance to the match effects and less importance to the raw power/control of the deck itself. 

However, the bug afecting the "increase the cost" is a terrible flaw, not only because it is really annoying, but Also because the bug Can happen without any goofy interaction with cards. The event already has a bug condition and a bug trigger on it's own.

Tremayne

Bil said:

...

I think the event has an interesting design, but things should be balanced in order to give more importance to the match effects and less importance to the raw power/control of the deck itself.

...

What do you mean by that? Is it the effects of the node or the objectives or the players deck building skills that has to much importance?

I for one think that the deck building skills should always have a significant effect on the top ranked players.

In MTGPQ it has long been possible to throw together a deck of cards that adhere to a simple algorithm. Which will win every time unless you meet a super cascade or a really well designed deck.

RedHerring

I've quite enjoyed the new concept in this event. Good creativity from the Dev team. 
Aside from disappointment with anthology packs (no PMA cards), I didn't mind it at all. Yes bugs were there, but expected given its a first run of event. 
Regarding bug with cards never getting filled if cost was increased, I found getting rid of them from hand helped.. (won't work obviously if happens every turn)

Bil

@Tremayne

I think the node effects and the objectives could change more deeply the basis of the gameplay on this specific event.

In this event the basic mechanic of the game -gem matching- no longer provides us mana, but create specific effects. 
In the current version, you Can still ignore the gem match effect and rely exclusively on the cards you'll play.

Maybe, if this specific event was even more restrictive on the use of cards or if the Weight of creatures was reduced, the player would have no choice but building around those gem match effects...and it would create a completely different kind of gameplay.

Tremayne

@bil - interesting perspective. I thought this event gave a very different experience. 

My choice of PW was very dependent upon the effects of the permanent node, but the selected cards was mainly based upon the objectives.

I don’t see a longevity to this approach since many cards are not usable in this format, which I think is a huge problem with the event. However, once in a while could be fun, maybe.

Narcoticsagent

I thought this event was ok I guess? I played koth in the top node and just matched red gems til my opponent died. Kind of disappointing that the 7 cards in the deck that didn't convert gems to red didn't actually matter to the game.

Bottom node i didn't bother with objectives at all cause they didn't seem fun. Played my Karn sanctum of all deck because its fun and not usable anywhere else. 

I dont see why this event needs an entry fee.

I probably won't play again.

I applaud the devs for trying new things but I would applaud twice as hard if they would playtest new things.  

Rant_Ent

I like the event too, something different, i agree that the time required to play (thank God, just 1 refreshing) was not compensate of an adequate prize.

I adjust my deck to not incurr in token stack softlock. so maybe is not that the event is bugged, actually it's the game itself. (Maybe)