It took a whole year, but he's back!

Magic:PQ Support Team

We attacked him with all of our forces some months ago. And against all odds, we’ve defeated him! - or so we thought.

Maybe we were fools to think we could truly defeat a god, even a cruel one.

Now, this should be a festive season. But instead, we received news of his return. His army is amassing - and so must we. We shall not bow!

Return of the God-Pharaoh

• Deck Restriction: Legacy
• Opt-In Time: 12/12/2024 00:00
• Start Time: 13/12/2024 00:00
• End Time: 14/12/2024 22:00

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Lu here. OK, let’s discuss a battle plan!

• We can fight Bolas by defeating his armies and allies in specific ways. The points you earn by completing the objectives in each battle are deducted from the boss’ Health Points.
• Some battles offer more than 10 points. Check the objectives before each one!
• In this version of the event, our enemies will count with updated decks. Our spies were able to find the contents of each one. They’ll be listed at the end of this post.
• The event will end once the Bolas’s health is depleted. Make sure to join the efforts as early as possible.

This will mean much more than just a regular Coalition Event. If we manage to overcome Bolas, we’ll be able to enjoy server-wide rewards!

Upon victory, the following items will be offered during Holiversary:

• The next coalition event after this one, Night of the Hunt, will also contain Bonus Rewards;
• The Face the Hydra, Seize the Day, The Colossal Tussle, and Skoti Bloodline events will be occurring with a discounted entry fee;
• 30% Mana Crystal Bonus.

Let's plan - and hope to win: Event Details

Xibvert

Is this an all charges up front event where the event can end early before you even get a chance to play? That sounds like a terrible idea. Or did we get a quality of life downgrade and we're back to charges over time?

Thanks for the deck lists though. That's helpful and appreciated.

Magic:PQ Support Team

@Xibvert All charges up front, yes. There is the risk that it ends before everyone gets a change to play, but... It's a God-Pharaoh, we don't believe it will be an easy battle, do we?

About the decklists,

khurram

What are the server wide rewards? It can't be just the discounted entry fees for other events because that happens during anniversary each year anyway, without being tied to victory in an event. In fact, i see quite a few events missing from that discounted entry fee list.

Janosik

@Magic:PQ Support Team said:
@Xibvert All charges up front, yes. There is the risk that it ends before everyone gets a change to play, but... It's a God-Pharaoh, we don't believe it will be an easy battle, do we?

About the decklists,

Is it about the battle being 'easy'? Or might it be about being unfair to players who don't get the chance to play the event because the whole thing is over in a couple of hours?

I hope you've thought this through. Honestly I can't remember the last time you ran an event for the first time, or, often, the first time after you made some changes to it, and everything worked properly. I am apprehensive.

khurram

I appreciate updated rewards and decks, and the devs trying to tie an event to kick off the Holiversery period. Its just that the discounts and the increased rewards you're tying to it have usually been made available to us every year without any such caveat. Also the event being used for this and the whole "health" aspect of the boss combined with the 'all charges upfront' aspect means that people will feel pressed to do all of their charges as soon as possible, in case the boss ended up dying. For some it will mean playing it in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn. I doubt that's going to invoke very happy feelings.

madwren

Right? One reason we advocated for charges up front for so long was because events disadvantaged people in different time zones.

I don't see why a person across the world from me should be punished because the event ends before they were even awake.

Like, y'all get points for trying something new, and updating decks is great, but this shouldn't be an event tied to coalition scoring.

Janosik

@Magic:PQ Support Team said:

• In this version of the event, our enemies will count with updated decks. Our spies were able to find the contents of each one. They’ll be listed at the end of this post.

Re: the updated decks: I'm looking at the decklists you printed here and I don't see any new cards in the decks? They look the same as they always were to me?

Sarah

@khurram said:
I appreciate updated rewards and decks, and the devs trying to tie an event to kick off the Holiversery period. Its just that the discounts and the increased rewards you're tying to it have usually been made available to us every year without any such caveat. Also the event being used for this and the whole "health" aspect of the boss combined with the 'all charges upfront' aspect means that people will feel pressed to do all of their charges as soon as possible, in case the boss ended up dying. For some it will mean playing it in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn. I doubt that's going to invoke very happy feelings.

I agree with your first point but worry the opposite for you second. I think that the other way around is both more likely and disappointing. There could be too much HP and we’ll all have to sit there and watch while the event ends and now the players are to blame because we won’t get discounted entry fees for (only some of!) the events to celebrate the winter holidays.

Very much a Grinch move.

Janosik

@Sarah said:
There could be too much HP and we’ll all have to sit there and watch while the event ends and now the players are to blame because we won’t get discounted entry fees for (only some of!) the events to celebrate the winter holidays.

Isn't 'sitting there and watching the event end' the way that all current events (with all charges up front) work now?

If an event lasts, say, exactly 3 days, and we have a fixed number of charges to play at any time within those 3 days, then there's not a problem. The event might not end for 2 days until after you finished playing, but you were only going to get the chance to play 18 games anyway, you're given plenty of chance to play them, and you know exactly how long you have to play them.

But if we don't know when their event ends, and, indeed, it might end in as little as a few hours, before some people have had the chance to play their 18 games, that's a problem.

Sarah

Yes @Janosik but this time the entry costs are tied to the results.

Machine

I quickly scrolled through the event details and don't see anything new. Same old, except that it's a TERRIBLE idea to run this as a coalition event where people have to play quickly or else face the risk of missing points for their team. Did you consider that there are players that can only play on Sunday?

Magic:PQ Support Team

On Bolas' Health Points and the dilemma of the charges: it is a concern and we'll keep an eye on it. Basically, we've measured Bolas' HP based on data from last months' Coalition events and the last edition of this specific event, so as to keep it a reasonable challenge, but a challenge nonetheless.

On the decklists, yes, formatting cut out most of the changes ^^" They are correct now and show the changes clearly, so you don't have to re-read it all.

On Holiversary, don't worry, there's more to it than the offers tied to this event. Holiversary will be different this year, but this event's result gives extra stuff later in the month.

gozmaster

Nice! I'm always eager for new takes on old classics...

That said, as long as the life totals are adjusted to ensure the big boss has enough backside to take all the early players and enough left over for the casual players...

...it should be fun.

Xibvert

I don't get why the event needs to end when we hit the damage goal. If the concept is for us to all work together to reach the goal and get extra rewards, then why make it so the first thing we get from reaching the goal is shutting down the event early? Couldn't it keep running until the scheduled event end time? I get wanting to tie the health to something to give it significance. That thing used to be only ending the event but now that it's tied to earning rewards that would still make it significant even if the event kept running. At this point the possibility of the event ending early seems unnecessarily inconvenient.

Janosik

@Xibvert said:
I don't get why the event needs to end when we hit the damage goal. If the concept is for us to all work together to reach the goal and get extra rewards, then why make it so the first thing we get from reaching the goal is shutting down the event early? Couldn't it keep running until the scheduled event end time? I get wanting to tie the health to something to give it significance. That thing used to be only ending the event but now that it's tied to earning rewards that would still make it significant even if the event kept running. At this point the possibility of the event ending early seems unnecessarily inconvenient.

I like this idea!

Further to that, why not make the event non-coalition? You could still have all the players around the world pooling their efforts to activate the extra Holiversary rewards.

Ooh, make it a new event and give the boss a Santa hat too ^_^

@Magic:PQ Support Team said:
On Bolas' Health Points and the dilemma of the charges: it is a concern and we'll keep an eye on it.

This is nice to know but it's nothing we can depend on, is it. Basically, if we want to spend time away from the game, say, to get 8 hours sleep, there's no guarantee for us that the event will still be running when we come back, so anyone who wants to play it will have to play it ASAP.

Opperstamper

Ooh, make it a new event and give the boss a Santa hat too ^_^

I fully support the Santa hat.

Sarah

@Magic:PQ Support Team said:
On Bolas' Health Points and the dilemma of the charges: it is a concern and we'll keep an eye on it.

This is not as reassuring as you think it is—probably because by the time we all realize that something is wrong, it’ll be the weekend and we’ll need to wait for you to return on Monday. We are unlikely to get any meaningful resolutions in a timely manner.

gozmaster

or... And hear me out, Maybe it's fine?

I think Webcore is seeing our obvious concerns here, and I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, and wait and see how the event goes.

The risks and concerns are obvious, as pointed out by all the seasoned pros here...

Hopefully, after a year of dealing with us , they have a sense of how important these weekend events are to folks, and have made the necessary adjustments to both... make it NEW and exciting, as well as honor why the top 10 teams play...

To go "perfect' and score better rewards (And the bragging rights, of course)

All we can do is , wait... And see.

And we can either do that in fear or in excited anticipation (or a little of both I suppose) ...

Good Luck WC... Looking forward to killing Bolas.

In the meantime... Bolas says...

https://tenor.com/view/goz-master-nicol-bolas-deal-with-it-deal-with-it-glasses-deal-with-it-meme-gif-25246473

Tremayne

So what is the plan when you have reached progression?
Do we stop playing so other players can reach progression without the event ending to soon?
Or do we play to our maximum score as quickly as possible?

Barnabes

We’re only at 62% so the event is clearly not designed to end that fast.
Personally, I had the game freeze twice on the menagerie node so… might be even harder.