a rant.

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest MtGPQ General Discussion
1

Not a native english speaker, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes.

First of all, I would like to congratulate D3 to making a wonderful game, that has provided me with many fun hours of gameplay. I’ve actively been playing since summer 2016, been part of Tormented (aka D3bacle, top 10 coalition) for some time now, played alongside and against some great folks.

I have never played a mobile game as much as this one, and even looking at non-mobile platforms this is certainly among my most played games. I may have not spent a lot of money (only 30$ for that Chandra & two big boxes offer from christmas), so I’m probably not the customer that D3 is very concerned with, but I wanted to get this off my chest.

The thing is, making a great game is only half of it. It needs to be maintained. And this is where things seem to have gone downhill in the past months.
I continued playing after coalition rewards were cut the same week I joined a top 10 coalition, though I was not happy about it.
I continued playing after big boxes were replaced by “premium” packs, though I was not happy about it.
I continued playing after pre-fix baral was running rampant for way longer than he should have, though I was not happy about it.
I continued playing after unobtanium was introduced and crystals devalued, though I was not happy about it.
I continued playing after I got my FOURTH thing in the ice and eighth release the gremlins, but I was not happy about it.
I continued playing whilst veteran coalition members left the game, because I still had hope that things would turn for the better.

But today, I have decided to not continue playing. I left tormented, didn’t finish or continue in any of the events I had joined.

You decided to make it increasingly difficult to obtain cards without paying money D3, and I understand that to some extent. You want to make money, that’s the whole point.
I was never part of the elite that racked up massive amounts of mythics by playing in top 10 coalitions. Most of my decks contain one, rarely two mythics. Because of this, I had to brew a LOT for RatC in order to be able to beat tezz somewhat regularly. But even if I wasn’t able to build decks like my coalition mates stacked with mythics, I managed.

So why did I quit? Today I started playing trial of zeal. Started up 3.1, lose hopelessly repeatedly.
I know he’s beatable. That’s not the problem. The problem is that you whilst our deckbuilding options were restricted (Standard, which I would be fine with on it’s own), but the power level of the events wasn’t adjusted accordingly.

I feel powerless, I feel like I don’t have a chance. And that with node 3.1. I don’t think this should be the case, as I never felt like this in for example RatC. And it’s because once again, like with the side objective of 3.1 RatC, it seems we need to rely on specific cards - at least that’s from the decks I’ve seen that tormented players used to beat 3.1 and onwards.

I will not continue playing now that I feel like I need to own specific cards rather than play smart to even clear progression. If your players feel like they need to sink money into origins premium packs until they pull hixus (to name an example), then something has gone awfully wrong.

You’re digging your own grave, D3.

2

I made the mistake of mastering cards like crazy when I first started this game, not realizing it would screw me later. I was in platinum with only a couple of mythics when I played my first event. I lost a lot but I always felt like I was gaining ground. With each update these last couple of months that feeling has gotten less and less. This update has pretty much killed my desire to play. I think habit is the only reason I’m still playing today.

3

Event has been running 32 hours already?

Boss health = 89%

You are not alone.

Easy part about this event is I don’t care anymore. I eventually beat 3.1, but that doesn’t matter because 3.2 is even worse. When the AI gets two extra swaps on turn 1, it now has 3 creatures on board and there is absolutely no way to recover. Before, we had low cost control cards or major ramps like Behold the Beyond which we could rely on to recover from the ridiculous lopsided AI advantage. That is no longer the case.

AI cascade = instant loss. Come back in 8 hours for another charge.

I also think you’re making a very good decision to not buy any new packs to chase those AKH cards you need. Now that these events are Standard, those cards will eventually become worthless. They have destroyed our libraries and basically made all our prior purchases null and void. Seriously, who would buy pre-purchase mythics to only use in non-coalition PVE events (ie. story mode)?

4

I hear you about needing specific cards. Though personally, I got lucky and opened Hixus early on and grew up winning all my matches with it, so PvE events have always felt like “play and protect Hixus” events to me. It was actually only once I got a lot of KLD and AER cards that I realized I could possibly beat the higher nodes of RatC without Hixus :slight_smile:

PS @Spiritwalker your English is excellent, far better than the English in MtGPQ.

5

I think a lot of us are hanging around with a sunk cost fallacy, after dumping so much cash into this game.

What irks me the most is seeing shamelessly expensive “special offers” for £80 in the vault while we’re all struggling with a broken buggy release. We’ve got cards not working properly, art not appearing, text missing and code placeholders leaking through to the UI. Standards have obviously slipped and priorities have obviously changed. It’s a soul-crushing grind and I wouldn’t mind spending a little money to support the game now and then, honestly some joy can be found but no sane sensible person can regularly dump £20-£30+ on a mobile game!

Honestly the best thing any of us can do is uninstall the game and cut our losses.

6

I was in a bit of a rush finishing my original post, so one more thing I’d like to add is that I’m very frustrated about how it seems that these days very few - if even more than one - strategies are even relevant anymore in PvE.

I’ve heard someone say that they beat temmet only using a bunch of uncommons from the new set, mainly relying on cast out. Others run hixus - both ways aim to lock down your opponents.

So where do we stand?

  • Prison: Seems to be what people use to beat him
  • Aggro: I tried koth, whom I used against 3.1 and 3.2 (RatC) at times with consistent success. Against temmet? No chance, you can’t outrace him dumping his hand onto the battlefield whilst pumping his board seemingly every turn. Oh you removed my biggest threat? Well that’s cute. Here’s the same threat from last turn, embalmed. Removal is basically useless.
  • Bounce: I used to run a kiora thing in the ice deck that worked even against tezz. Not only is it lacking key cards after standard, (even THE key card in my case) making it weaker, the fights didn’t get any easier. Oh you summoned that 32/32 kraken? Gets exiled immediately by the removal sitting on temmets hand for multiple turns whilst you tried to control his board.
  • Lifelink: Even if you manage to get some of the lifelinkers we still have on the board, and activate sorin’s second ability, does it even matter when he pumps his entire board every turn? Oh you gained 20 life that time? Let me just match a few gems and summon this 8/8 with ease due to my ridiculous mana gains. Oh, and the one you disintegrated last turn just came back because I matched a gem with a ring around it. Oh right, let me also pump my board by 12 power every turn from now on. Good luck.

I could go on, and I know that someone out there managed to beat him with different strategies. In the end it can’t be denied that locking down his board using supports is the only truly viable strategy. And the fact that you can do it only using uncommons from the new set is not an excuse for this.

And where I feel like I could have used at the very least 6 planeswalkers representing every color at least once to beat 3.1 in RatC, I now feel like I even have one that could beat temmet. And with the key cards, it seems that any planeswalker without white color identity is not gonna get the job done.

Great diversity.

7

When ratc came out, people were complaining about being shoehorned into a single style of play even after several weeks of the event.

Also, I’ve successfully managed to go the lifegain route on 3.1 and 3.2 without the use of mythics. I’ve failed to do it on 3.3 so far, but I can tell it’s not impossible. I just can’t experiment anymore this event because I’m now in danger of missing progression rewards.

Sorin Decklist:
Vizier of deferment
Rhet-crop spearmaster
Renewed faith
Solemn recruit
Trial of ambition
Cartouche of solidarity
Cartouche of ambition
War oracle
Winged shepherd
Consulate crackdown

8

Uninstalled. Feels great.

9

Alright, there’s a strategy that isn’t lockdown. Leaves us at two archetypes.

So what would you recommend to poor Timmy who only owns garruk, koth, and and Liliana 2 with a very reasonable collection of cards?

'I’m sorry Timmy, your planeswalkers won’t be able to beat these bosses! Oh so you managed to perform fine in RatC for the most part with these? Well tough luck. That metalworks colossus you were so happy to pull sure was a great card for koth, to bad temmet literally does not care about big creatures. You better save up crystals until you can buy dovin! And whilst you’re at it, better hope you pull cast out in the meantime!

And when you have those, all you need to do is cycle until you played cast out three times! Isn’t that just great?’

10

@Spiritwalker
Timmy isn’t supposed to win this fight, as it is designed for the platinum - overkill part of the players. I wasn’t able to get progression in the gatewatch events either before I got a decent collection. That’s why there are two more nodes: one Timmy will most probably be competitive against, and one that he might be able to beat. Later, he will be able to beat the middle node on a regular basis.
That is not the problem I see - the problem I see is that the progression rewards should reflect that, giving way more prices at a low level of progression.

11

I’ve gotten lucky with these battles and beat tem and tum first try. What i had to do was, buy Jace 2, spend all of my hoarded runes leveling him up, stall with bounce spells then abuse my only good mythic (one of TWO that i have) Days Undoing with a defender and a lifelinker. I’m stoked I beat them but it left me not wanting to play the event anymore as you need WAY to many points to get the meeger prize at the end. I play games to de-stress and this game, most of the time nowadays, does nothing but stress me out. So I barely play and always think about quitting. Only time now as things just get worse and can’t pull new/good cards.. Not one mythic in a month… and I try, ask my (so glad she still is) wife.

12

The event is 3 days old, give the community time and we’ll come up with more solutions like we always do.

When ogw first came out, I assure you it was harder than it is now. People have just grown used to beating down any challenge that comes their way with brute force alone.

13

Yeah, I just quit as well, but for different reasons.

I don’t have much time to spare, so I feel like I’m fighting to keep up with all the events, especially since they’re now 4 nodes. What used to be fun is now stressful. (I’m probably alone in this complaint.) I got a good year out of the game and didn’t spend a penny on it, so I came out on top.

I’m also really bored with Fate is Rarely Fair. With the introduction of standard, I’m able to actually get 5 vehicles cast without fear ot the Decimator or Olivia. But now I’m fielding 4 decks all with the same creatures. Zzzzzzzz.

Not helping matters is the super buggy update. I can’t stand that the best card I got, Drake Haven, causes crashes.

14

Well, looks like you’re another motivation for me to quit as well. 3 nodes per event was quite stressful already sometimes, especially when there are multiple events per day. 4 is just too much.

Reminds me why I stopped playing Mabinogi Duel; They started having too, too many daily events that I just say, uh, no, screw it. To be frank I may not necessarily stopped playing MtGPQ completely, but maybe I should just wean myself.