Is it fun to NOT chase cards in MTGPQ?

Tremayne

I read this post in the ONE vanguard thread - https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/88606/how-are-your-one-vg-pulls-working-out-for-you#latest - and it made me think about the question in the title.
Since this is off-topic (for the thread mentioned) I decided to make a separate thread, to discuss.

@TheHunter said:
Time on my hands to think about this at the moment, and I have two things to say.
1. The odds. Personally, I've been lucky with the ONE Vanguards, got all the Rares in 8 or 9 pulls, but zero Mythics pulled this way. I certainly beat the odds. What are the odds? The chance of a Rare is 90% and there are 5 of them in the pack, so you have an 18% chance on any single pull of getting a specific card - say, that Koth you're after! Another way to express this is that on any one pull you have an 82% chance of NOT getting it, or (1 - p). Two pulls? This becomes (1 - p) squared - sorry don't know how to do superscript on this - and with n pulls, it becomes (1 - p) to the nth. So if you spend 1200 pinks chasing Koth and have 10 goes, you have a 13.7% chance of NOT getting it, or about 1 in 7. Sucks if you're the 1, and with a large user base that's a lot of people feeling unlucky. This becomes about 1 in 20 after 15 attempts, or one person in every coalition - you know who you are!!
2. The whole non-dupe thing. Come on @Oktagon_Support it's time to stop this as it only causes resentment, which I'm 100% sure is not your intention. Gems can only be purchased in small amounts and a high cost in bundles with Crystals, Runes and sometimes cards, so I suspect very few people do this and there's no advantage to the developers in maintaining this system. Personally, I would remove Mythics from the Rare pack, and make them 240 Gems a go, all non-dupe, which would be fairer and bring them in line broadly with the Crystals cost of Fblthp alt art cards. Players will still have to grind to get those hard to find pinkies, but feel that it was time well spent for an acceptable reward.

Assuming @TheHunter got his math right, he astutely describes the problem with non-duplicate vanguards (but the principle seems to be the same for all cards). Simply put - Duplicate cards sucks!
Then @TheHunter goes on to argue that Oktagon should remove the non-duplicate pulls from vanguard packs, which I as a player immediately agreed with, because I gotta have them all (to paraphrase a catchphrase from another game)!

However, I then began to think about the good of the game and wondered if every player having all the cards is a good thing.

So to sum up the situation. We have now had the possibility to gain every card in a new set almost instantly (maybe this only apply to long time VIPs and top players from the top coalitions), for what - 3 years?!?

Therefor, shortly after a new set release the game falls into a rot, where basically the best deck are fixed for a majority of events until the next set drops - yes I know sometimes, new decks are found between releases, but I believe the point is still valid. Partly also because some of the best cards are 5-coloured and therefore available to every PW. So the opponents becomes very predictable, you almost know what to expect from Dakkon, PMAjani, Kaya2 or L7 (or what the latest L is at).

So we lose the thrill of chasing and getting that card which fits into our newly designed deck and it reduces the experimentation, because you have to get first prize or it is not worth my time to play.

So do you think it is fun not having to chase cards?

TheHunter

A thoughtful response, thank you @Tremayne .
I love collecting stuff, had a huge paper collection back in the day (and still weep when I think too hard about their value in the current market ) but there we go. And I was looking forward to another 12 months or thereabouts to finish Legacy. Each non-dupe pack brought new joys. Then TUP came along, and like so many other players I filled my boots and completed Legacy in a weekend!
Has it taken some of the joy from the game? I have to admit yes, a tiny bit. I'm now working on Vanguards as I didn't really start completing these until Dadferi appeared and still have over 100 to pull. So my collecting thrills get satisfied albeit more slowly now.
However, there is no thrill in spending a week's worth of gems in pulling your 5th or 6th copy of a Rare VG. The reward ratio is miles out and it causes resentment every time new VGs come out.

Tremayne

Thank you @TheHunter. I think I understand the collecting perspective, you describe, because I was there for quite a while.

I also filled my coffers with a brief period in VIP and I expected, I would enjoy playing with all my new toys. It was fun for a while, but suddenly I realised a dilemma, would I risk loosing my big prizes and try out new card(s) or should I just play it safe and use the well-known cards. Recently, I have stopped playing it safe because it became stale to use variations of the same deck design. It is not always competitive, but it is fun to chase new combos.

I really wish the devs would encourage this more in their event designs. Instead of only making those over-engineered events, they should sometimes try to make a simple “battle of the five tribes” event, where each colour had an objective along the line of summon 4 dwarves(red), zombies(black) or wizards(blue) and a thematic objective like cast 3 equipments (white), cards in GY(blue or black).

However, the rare vanguards are just not in scope, I’ll try to get a few rare pulls and then be done with it. A lot of them is not worth chasing in my experience. But, you are totally right - duplicates suck!