Thoughts on Battle from the Ages

Asylamb

First of all, let's remember the main fears before we got to play the event:

• the entry fee is too steep (What? 100 crystals?? No ma'am)
• a very limited pool of event-exclusive rewards (What? 4 cards only?? No ma'am)
• PvE Boss encounters (What? I'll have to fight Nicol Bolas for 6000 stones?? No ma'am)
• Basic Standard Booster as reward (What? I pay 100 crystals for 50 orbs?? No ma'am)
• [insert complaint]

My thoughts
As for the entry fee of 100 crystals, let's compare the rewards with two other paid-entry events.

1) Since one of the event rewards is an exclusive MR card, it would make sense to compare it with Rising Tensions of ye olden days.
Rising Tensions had 10 variations with 20 crystals entry fee each. A full cycle of the event has the same overall entry fee as two runs of Battle from the Ages.
Also, the full cycle of Rising Tensions would give 10 MRs (or 5000 orbs), not counting the reward booster orbs (at least 500 more), = at least 5500 orbs.
Battle from the Ages times 2 would give 2 MRs + 2 Rs (or 1200 orbs), not counting the reward booster orbs (at least 100 more), = at least 1300 orbs.
As for jewels, it makes 200 jewels for the full cycle of RT and 110 jewels for a double run of BftA.
BftA loses by all counts BUT it doesn't mean it's a bad event, it just means RT were too good.
If we compare with Zendikar Expeditions, occupying the same place that Rising Tensions used to, and compare that one with BftA...

2) Another reward worthy of attention is the mana jewels. At the moment the best way to farm jewels is Trial of the Planes. Let's compare how much jewels you get for the same amount of crystals spent.
TotP has a fee of 60 crystals with 30 crystals you could win back and gives a total of 20 jewels, which gives us 20 jewels for 30 crystals spent.
As already mentioned above, one run of BftA gives 55 jewels, but also 45 crystals back as well, which gives us 55 jewels for 55 crystals spent.
Which shows that BftA's jewels:crystals exchange rate is 150% better (2:3 vs 2:2).

3) BftA is also much easier than TotP, because you can always check the Boss's decks on the wiki.
I would say tho, that I wouldn't be opposed for each of the random PvE decks to retain their original secondary objectives. It would make the event harder, but also more fun. Otherwise you can just play every single match with the same OP Legacy deck.

Overall opinion: I think it's a great event for "converting extra crystals" (if you have any) into other resources (orbs/jewels), a sort of "crystal market". But with the crystals drain that is PMA collections, I don't think I'll be entering the event any time soon again (since I already have the 4 reward cards). I wish that we had a similar "stone market" event.

Stormcrow

Yeah, it seems like a clever bit of monetization - you can pay crystals for orbs and jewels at a pretty good rate - and the fact that you also get to do a bunch of boss battles may be a plus for some spenders and a minus for others depending on how much free time they have. But for F2Pers, I think this event is gonna be pretty strictly "do 4 times and then never again", which is a little disappointing.

I liked that the boss battles didn't have objectives - honestly it's kind of nice to let loose with some OP nonsense against an opponent with 300+ health every now and again - but some of them definitely need the "event rules" support that they would normally appear with. One of my opponents was Zhalfirin Void, which can be tricky in AWR if your deck isn't prepared for it, but was completely harmless in this event since it didn't have the indestructible support that deals you damage whenever your cards get exiled.

Tezzeret

I was waiting for this post! Mainly because I was too lazy to create one! Lol..
Thank you Asylamb!!!
I absolutely  agree with all your points!

And I would like to give Octy credit where credit is due. We have been asking for a good way to convert Crystal's to pinks for awhile now. This is it (sort of) but most importantly  (and someone can correct  me if I'm wrong)  this is the only event that let's you keep buying into it over and over!! I am all about the innovation!

That being said.. I have to agree with asylamb. I don't think I'll be entering this event ever again. I got my 4 exclusives, which is great... and the conversion is sweet... but the elephant in the room is PMAs only being obtained by Crystal's! I think most players will end up skipping this event in the future..

However..... (this is octys que to truly impress the player base)

You turn that non dupe legacy rare pack into a full non dupe legacy pack!!! I would spam this event ALL DAY! I'd probably even buy extra gold to keep playing it!

ambrosio191

PMA is such a huge crystal sink that even investment into the next set is going to suffer.  I thoroughly enjoyed this event, but I cant justify playing it again until I have most of PMA, which at this rate will be next year.

I loved playing these PVE fights completely unrestricted, no coalition to worry about, no secondaries.

I loved being able to enter it multiple times.  It reminded me somewhat of the Duel Decks events, or at least some version of them, where it seemed like I could play none stop with how short the refresh timer was. 

Now if only there could be a version of this that took runes to play instead of crystals, with rewards adjusted appropriately.

BongoTheGrey

I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone at Oktagon that involved in creating this event, I think it was a huge success and the players loved it.

Having a consistent way of converting crystals to jewels is huge but I think that having a consistent way of obtaining non duplicate Legacy rares is even better for a large portion of the player base. Obtaining Legacy cards is probably the most tricky thing to do for newer players (even for veterans) and being able to get non dupe rares really helps a lot!

The final rewards were 4 mythic exclusive cards and I know that a lot players (including myself) played the event only aiming for those cards. I would love to see more exclusive content added as the final rewards for this event. Maybe some of the holiday rewards from past years that some players don't have because they started playing years after those rewards were handed for free to the active players. Maybe Eye of Ugin since we all know that the Eldrazi side will never win again the Duel Decks event against Nissa. But mainly I hope to see more exclusive cards coming in future sets that are only obtainable by playing Battle From the Ages. Enduring Angel, Necroduality, Avabruck Caretaker and Moonveil Regent were the first ones but hopefully not the last ones.

Tremayne

@BongoTheGrey - I agree with most of what you wrote, this event was great, though replayability is reduce when you have gotten all the exclusive. But as you wrote perhaps new mythics could find their way into this or other similar events.

There are a few points that I would like to have clarified.

1. Which cards have we gotten for free, besides the promo cards? 
For the old timers like me, I see these cards as trophies (since this app has not implemented other mechanisms for honorific titles). So it shows my dedication to this game, and therefore I would like to have a stronger argument for releasing these cards in the manner you suggest.

2. Eye of ugin is also a badge of honour for us few who participated in the coordinated win, (besides the first win). That card was a huge struggle to get, so though the card is rubbish it is still a honorific like item 1.

3. The only way I could see Oktagon release the cards you mention, would be in support of some worthy cause, like cancer or clean water in needing countries to give a few examples. But then the cards should be sold at a high prize and the funds should 100% go to the worthy cause (including Apple’s take).

just my two cents.

TomB

Sorry guys, I need my crystals too much right now to be buying pinkies with them. I played the event once (and found the mythic unimpressive), did the math, and decided I'd rather spend my crystals on the basic set add-ons (PMA) that will NEVER rotate out of Standard.

Between the PMA sets and Fibbles I'm having trouble keeping up...

BongoTheGrey

Tremayne said:

@BongoTheGrey - I agree with most of what you wrote, this event was great, though replayability is reduce when you have gotten all the exclusive. But as you wrote perhaps new mythics could find their way into this or other similar events.

There are a few points that I would like to have clarified.

1. Which cards have we gotten for free, besides the promo cards? 
For the old timers like me, I see these cards as trophies (since this app has not implemented other mechanisms for honorific titles). So it shows my dedication to this game, and therefore I would like to have a stronger argument for releasing these cards in the manner you suggest.

2. Eye of ugin is also a badge of honour for us few who participated in the coordinated win, (besides the first win). That cards was a huge struggle to get, so though the card is rubbish it is still a honorific like item 1.

3. The only way I could see Oktagon release the cards you mention, would be in support of some worthy cause, like cancer or clean water in needing countries to give a few examples. But then the cards should be sold at a high prize and the funds should 100% go to the worthy cause (including Apple’s take).

just my two cents.

I mentioned those cards because the holiday promo cards were handed for free and the only thing you needed to qualify to get them was having an account at the time they were giving the cards away. Some people didn't know about the game by then and I thought that this could be a way of getting them. Same with Eye of Ugin, I'm sure that a lot of players would have pushed on that coordinated effort to get it if they had an account by the time it happened.

I was just throwing some suggestion in the air but I see what you mean by those cards being trophies.

Another suggestion that I know would make a lot of players grind the event and spend a lot of time on the app (which would be really good for Oktagon) is adding vanguards as possible rewards. There are a ton of vanguards on this game, probably more than 100. If you add a non dupe vanguard pack where you can get any vanguard from the game, that's a lot of time invested in the game to either try to obtain all vanguards or just fishing for the one you really want.

Tremayne

@BongoTheGrey - fair enough that it was suggestions. 

But I must say, that I really like the idea of vanguards as prizes, particularly the non-dupe rare vanguard  would be a splendid way to eliminate one of the annoying things about this app.

TomB

Tremayne said:

@BongoTheGrey - fair enough that it was suggestions. 

But I must say, that I really like the idea of vanguards as prizes, particularly the non-dupe rare vanguard  would be a splendid way to eliminate one of the annoying things about this app.

Now you're dreamin...

BongoTheGrey

Oh yes, I definitely am. But I see potential on this event. I have been dreaming about a different way of obtaining vanguards since WAR came out and I have suggested lots of different things. Maybe one day my dream will come true   

Barnabes

Is the Exclusive card selection still the same as last event?

Tremayne

@Barnabes - a coalition mate has just reported that he got a dupe, so I’d say yes it is the same mythics.

Barnabes

Disappointing, but still good value for those who didn’t get them before. 

Olivia, Hallowed Haunting, Henrika and Volatile Arsonist are all marked as exclusives while not being alternate art or Vanguards - implying a different set of four. 

I wonder if they will change those once per new set. Hopefully they will announce when it happens. 

khurram

Barnabes said:

Disappointing, but still good value for those who didn’t get them before. 

Olivia, Hallowed Haunting, Henrika and Volatile Arsonist are all marked as exclusives while not being alternate art or Vanguards - implying a different set of four. 

I wonder if they will change those once per new set. Hopefully they will announce when it happens. 

Those are exclusives because they were offered for money

Asylamb

And they will stop being exclusive once NEO is live.

Asylamb

@Oktagon_Support why doesn't this event count as PvE event for the quest "Defeat X opponents in PvE events"?

I have the quest and because there is no other PvE events currently available and the journal is about to refresh, I decided to do 1 run of BftA even tho I didn't initially plan to.
Yet, the quest progression doesn't change when winning in BftA.

Jagman

@Asylamb @Oktagon_Support

I had the same thing happen. I think the problem might be because the icon in the event screen shows it as PVP instead of PVE.

Magic:PQ Support Team

Hi @Asylamb and @Jagman,

Thanks for letting me know about this issue. I have already sent this to the team and they are working on a fix 😊  

Rebeca