I am not in a top 500 coalition and yet I find it too easy with very little challenge. The only challenge is waiting for the 2ndary objectives and the HP of higher nodes, thus delaying the win and making it a bit of challenge (and still I can finish Bolas in 2-3 min especially if I already have 3 vanguards in hand). The bugs get you frustrated. Add the very mediocre rewards for a coalition event.
I have a love and hate relationship with this event. I dislike it because the AI is so so so lucky at strategic moments, especially after you’ve spend 30 turns and about to close the deal. I am almost at peace with these « moments » now, but this hurts my team. So love it for the deck building challenge but hate it for the unfair losses.
Did anyone else feel like they were perpetually fighting for tiny amounts of mana? I swear every game after my first swap I struggled to get any mana. Compound that with often not even drawing a creature and I lost a lot of games in very unfun ways. Frustrating, and kind of suspicious...
I appreciate the level of challenge in this event: its nice not to just steamroll a 100hp opponent. However, a couple events felt unbalanced. I really struggled with node 2.2? (The one with art of Nahiri fighting Sorin). Greg’s 2nd ability “steal a dude, hit you with it, then kill it” is infuriating, especially when you’ve been choked for mana for several turns and you don’t even get to swing with your creature.
Another event that was frustrating was Vitu-Gazi and the unbreakable support that destroys everything once there are 20 or more token critters.
I really dislike how pushed Vanguards are for this event. Greg usually had some means of disposing of them fairly quickly, especially in events that had them for objectives. I would spend a bunch of turns casting something that doesn’t make an impact when it hits the board and then its gone. Vanguards are so slow, underpowered, over costed, and too difficult to obtain. But that’s a rant for another topic I supposed.
It depends on what level you are playing. For veterans, they have so many goods cards that balance the mana gain in your favor, despite the computer trying to starve you. Yes, I did have a game where it was obvious, but still managed to win due to my overpowered cards.
Yeah, I couldn't even get out my mana accelerating cards. If I did manage to get one it, it seemed like it barely made a difference or got destroyed almost immediately. Usually I was so far behind I was just putting all my effort into removal and damage control.
This happens to me a lot. The lack of matches, mana starving, and AI cascades
Its the result of people saying the game isnt challenging enough, greg is stupid, and also nerf requests (leads to super underpowered cards like.. proliferate)
Despite somehow not having a freeze in any event or fight for months this Elderspark event I have had
3 random freezes after casting normal spells that just worked (literally cast 2 Assassins trophies back to back, the second one caused that spinny light thingy freeze. Same happened with a Deathsprout cast by my opponent the turn after I cast one with no problem) 2 SWW after hitting "fight" (which immediately kills a charge) 1 "why do I still play this horribly buggy mess of a game" moment
I remember my first time playing Avacyn’s Madness as a new kid. Our leader gave us a big speech about how this was a very difficult event, to ask for help where needed, included tips and tricks for certain nodes, and explained that it was all worth it because the rewards upon succeeding were phenomenal.
We rallied, we schemed, we celebrated each other’s victories. It was exciting and engaging and memorable. Opening that fat pack was the sweetest feeling. Getting a new legacy mythic for my troubles felt incredibly rewarding.
That’s what we could have here.
Instead we get 17 pinks.
I love a good challenge. But we need a carrot on that stick. Otherwise, it’s just a stick that half of the most competitive players I know refuse to even touch.
I remember my first time playing Avacyn’s Madness as a new kid. Our leader gave us a big speech about how this was a very difficult event, to ask for help where needed, included tips and tricks for certain nodes, and explained that it was all worth it because the rewards upon succeeding were phenomenal.
I remember Avacyn's Madness. The 4 hour respawns were crippling, and I remember spending most of the weekend hunched over my computer screen, but I also have memories of my team pulling together to figure out the event.
Remember how we didn't even know how nodes worked the first time those early events were run?!
Ah, those were the good ol' days. Sneaking off to the bathroom every few hours to clear the next round.
Then again, considering how much faster all the loading was back then I think it took less time to clear nodes every 4 hours than it does to do it now at 8. Took me 45 min this morning to play 4 matches of the Court Challenge because its now up to 2 full minutes of loading between every match (plus vanguard lag if my opponent played one of those).
What bothers me, is (1) the much overpowered mana gain of the 'higher' encounters. Even with a complete WAR collection you can't really compete, just because the mana income of e.g. NB, dragon god is just ridiculous (2) the 'gambling' part, which also happened more than once during the last TE, like for instance running my deck of choice against dragon god, won more or less easily, cleared both secondaries as well, no big deal. Second match with exactly the same PW and deck got my **** kicked real hard, greg cascades tons of mana with always the right cards in hand, so I lost the match pretty quick with almost no chance... (3) bugs/freezes, but I'm not sure if the event in general could be blamed or rather the release of the new set, which usually brings plenty of those with it..
Comments
Its the result of people saying the game isnt challenging enough, greg is stupid, and also nerf requests (leads to super underpowered cards like.. proliferate)
Thanks for making my games grindy and unfun.
3 random freezes after casting normal spells that just worked (literally cast 2 Assassins trophies back to back, the second one caused that spinny light thingy freeze. Same happened with a Deathsprout cast by my opponent the turn after I cast one with no problem)
2 SWW after hitting "fight" (which immediately kills a charge)
1 "why do I still play this horribly buggy mess of a game" moment
Merry Christmas y'all
We rallied, we schemed, we celebrated each other’s victories. It was exciting and engaging and memorable. Opening that fat pack was the sweetest feeling. Getting a new legacy mythic for my troubles felt incredibly rewarding.
That’s what we could have here.
I love a good challenge. But we need a carrot on that stick. Otherwise, it’s just a stick that half of the most competitive players I know refuse to even touch.
Then again, considering how much faster all the loading was back then I think it took less time to clear nodes every 4 hours than it does to do it now at 8. Took me 45 min this morning to play 4 matches of the Court Challenge because its now up to 2 full minutes of loading between every match (plus vanguard lag if my opponent played one of those).
(1) the much overpowered mana gain of the 'higher' encounters. Even with a complete WAR collection you can't really compete, just because the mana income of e.g. NB, dragon god is just ridiculous
(2) the 'gambling' part, which also happened more than once during the last TE, like for instance running my deck of choice against dragon god, won more or less easily, cleared both secondaries as well, no big deal. Second match with exactly the same PW and deck got my **** kicked real hard, greg cascades tons of mana with always the right cards in hand, so I lost the match pretty quick with almost no chance...
(3) bugs/freezes, but I'm not sure if the event in general could be blamed or rather the release of the new set, which usually brings plenty of those with it..