I'm sorry, I'm a bit late with this one, aren't I
I really, really wanted to let you know how awful it was.
The huge, glaring problem with it is the enormous disparity in power levels been the top tier of Legacy cards (e.g. Prism Array, Rishkar's Expertise, Blue Sun's Zenith) and all of the KHM mechanic cards we were forced to play for the objectives (Foretell, Snow, Boast).
This often means that the random matchups provided by the event are completely one sided:
All of the games I played in the event matched my deck consisting mostly of Legacy power cards against decks that seemed to be full of KHM cards. None of my games were a challenge, or even slightly interesting to play. A monkey could have played my games and scored maximum points
Meanwhile, a tiny number of matchups given to completely random players are often against a Greg with a full power Legacy deck; sometimes these Legacy decks don't even feature the requisite KHM mechanic cards to complete the objectives. Perhaps the player here is also playing with mostly Legacy power cards, so maybe they can outplay Greg; or maybe they just don't own the cards and get blown out, or maybe even if they DO own the cards, Greg gets a big cascade on turn 1 and wins anyway.
Players get a game loss, and get bumped an enormous number of places down the event leaderboard, simply through a quirk of the matchmaking system.
It's easy to see one quick way to mitigate this problem: limit the number of sets playable in the DC event. Keep the same sets legal in the event that were legal at the time the event was in Standard. If the event is going to force players to play with many low power cards, then the top tier power level of cards allowed in the event should not absolutely dwarf them.
We did mention this before you ran the event.
What do other players think about Legacy DC?
I also feel that old events should be more restricted. Basically, every Legacy event turns into trying to figure out how to loop a single card to meet, circumvent, or exploit the objectives in as broken a way possible.
I'd be fine limiting Legacy events. Maybe to the sets released at the time, plus current Standard? That way new players can still participate when they don't have those cards, while still helping curb the effects of pre-Ixalan cards.
Though honestly, with the way the new sets look, maybe we'll need those cards to keep up with Legacy. =p
Must every event be playable by every single player?
Why can’t some events be restricted to a limited subset of all the released sets? If the answer is then player group (some arbitrary subset of players) can’t do anything today. I ask, can’t we find a way to keep those players engaged?
Yes, coalition events should be playable by every single player.
@Theophilus said: Yes, coalition events should be playable by every single player.
100% agree with this, and the way this event has been added into the weekend rotation is part of a wider problem. Spoiler: there isn't an easy solution! The trouble with block restricted events - e.g. Seize the Day - is it can have a negative impact on newer players who simply won't have the cards to compete. Playing Legacy events with all cards available at least makes all of Standard available to play and levels that playing field a little - there are Ghalta decks every bit as bothersome as some Omni decks. The negative impact of playing Legacy events in the current Standard is, as pointed out above, that players without the cards to achieve certain objectives (Snow, anyone?) simply play to win. This can be challenging if you're playing a sub-optimal deck because you're attempting to drop Snow cards (or Boast, or Adventure, or Food tokens, or etc...) However, personally I've been bored with all the vanilla events the previous devs kept churning out, like Family Business or TKR (Cast X supports, Draw X cards, Yawn X times...) which offered zero deck building challenge. I much prefer events which require new mechanics to be used to meet objectives, get me to use a wider range of cards, and keep the game interesting. When those events rotate into Legacy, however, they should be quietly buried, or offered as mid-week block-restricted events, but never rolled out as a weekend coalition event. The solution? Devs keep creating new events to go alongside new sets please! There are currently 11 sets (ignoring the permanently Standard ones) in Standard. Do we have 11 unique events from those sets on rotation? WtK? and SoFT 1&2 show great promise from Webcore, we just need a rethink on the PvP Legacy events please.
Fair enough, but that answer only covers a subset of my question. Since this is about doomskar claimants. I suppose my question is outside this scope of this thread. I still thinks that it is a relevant question.
I've always liked the block-restricted events. DC could have become one as well, but the devs opted it to be a legacy event, which I dislike. Yes, block-restricted events are less accessible for newer players, which in turn almost implies that it shouldn't be run as a team event. It makes no sense to play a sub-optimal deck aiming for objectives if you get looped to death on turn 1 or 2. These type of events would be great to see during mid-week as a non team event, but as a block-restricted event. If the devs want to run them as a weekend coalition event, it will need some rework.
With every set rotation, the card base for legacy grows. Besides crafting, there is very limited support for filling your legacy card collection. It will take about 2 years to craft all common, uncommon, and rare cards from legacy (my experience). After reaching this goal, only 638 mythics for 3000 orbs and 235 masterpieces for 6000 orbs are left to fill your legacy collection. Vip gives you 12 legacy cards a month. It will take a lifetime... New players completely have to rely on standard cards to compete creating a very high disadvantage. In addition legacy events with objectives based on certain abilities only available in certain sets worsen the situation. On top of that they missed the opportunity to sell the related boosters for gold while the DC event was running. This game is heavily related to new standard sets with almost no focus at all on legacy cards, besides some legacy cards showing up in the vault for money. Conclusion: legacy coalition events are imbalanced and may create bad experiences to new players or even hinder them from (full) participation.