It's not perfect, but I really like the current state of game

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest MtGPQ General Discussion
1

I know that we usually write in the forums for criticisms and complaints. So, I’d like to take a moment to write about the good things that happened lately.

The events have been much more enjoyable lately, now that we’re actually facing event decks. (Event decks also mean standard event decks, and not vintage super decks.)

The events’ secondary objectives are much more reasonable too, and more in line with the set mechanics. Let’s take for instance Trial of Ambition’s black node: summon 3 or more zombies, lose 4 or more creatures. Black decks tend to have Zombies, a really popular tribe appearing in every set, and you have ways to sacrifice or kill them for profit. Summoning 3 creatures is also feasible in the course of a normal game. (Please no more summon 5 or more Vehicles, Vampire or Dragons.) That’s some examples of well-designed objectives. (Oh also, please no more enraged.)

I think, besides the former bad rewards, most players would agree that Trial of the Planes is one of the best events. You can play with all your cards, you try to make the strongest decks possible. No secondary objectives forcing us to restraint ourselves. You have one goal: win. It’s an interesting and better design to give bonuses to the opponents rather than give limitations to the players.

The boss’s HP idea is still a bad idea, but at least, now his HP seems to be at the right amount. If you managed you win all your games and get nearly all your secondary objectives, you had enough to get the last progression reward. So at least you get something for playing rather than earn double or triple the amount of pts of the maximum progression before the boss is dead for nothing. So this should encourage every to play rather than for most players to stop at progression. (you can leave the exclusive rares at 450 pts, to give a good chance for everyone to earn it)

I also like the deck slots, it was such quality-of-life improvement. We need more of them, though. And as pointed out, the theme decks are useless, if you’ve gathered enough cards to complete them, you’re also a good enough player to know that they are not optimized decks.

Standard was needed, I’ve discovered and reevaluated so many cards thanks the card restriction. Deck building should be at the core of this collectible game. But you know, you don’t have to make it the only relevant format. Why not make Vintage events with Vintage cards as prize, like for individual events like Emergency Ordinances or Terrors in the Shadows?

You did a great job for cycling. Some may say that it’s a bit too good, but I’ll take that any days over useless and unplayable mechanics like converge or devoid. It’s really fun, power and synergistic, you also don’t need to only play with cycling cards to make them good, and they’ll stay relevant even after Amonkhet, unlike energize.

You also did a great job at putting powerful and useful cards at common and uncommon, rather than put everything good at mythic. The 3 cheap support destroyers were much needed to help combat the growing power of the best type of cards in the game: support.

All in all, yes you did some really bad moves, as pointed out in other threads, but I feel like you guys are doing a good job putting the game back on track.

If I could give you one advice, it would be to increase your rewards. All the good points I’ve enumerated will fall on deaf ears if there’s no incentive to play, if there’s no sense of progression, if there’s no fun.

2

Cycling is a travesty. It’s tedious, RSI inducing, and guarantees wins.

I’ve uninstalled the game for a while.

3

I think an overwhelming number of players that aren’t in Top 25 coalitions would seriously disagree with this. It smacks of the toxic elitist that turns a lot of people off. The top got theirs, so everyone else doesn’t matter, eh?

4

The way I see it is that there was an expansion in the progression reward structure, instead of stopping at 450, now you get more stuff, until 850. Also, 1 booster pack as the final progression reward is symbolic at best. If those non top 25 coalitions players was only managing to get 450 pts before, what’s the difference for them now compared to before?

Also, can we stop always making it a conflict of classes, always the top vs the other players, etc., please?

Now, you can still go at your own rate, but if you manage to overcome all the challenges until the end, there will be something for you also, which is a plus. We don’t absolutely to be able to all reach the last progression rewards. Like we don’t need to all finish first, etc.

I’ve also always been in the defense of the top players, some people need to defend them too. While everyone seems to be the defender of the new players.

5

Ok, now o lot of the bugs are fixed.

They still need to stop enraged events, reduce number of charges in the 48hs pvp events ( this could be done by reducing the number of nodes or reducing the initial charges to 1).

Improving a little bit the rewards would be nice also and stop giving AER rares (make it KLD at least).

They also need to tweak a bit 3rd node of ToZ.

They are on the right path, hope there still have players to play this game when they get there…

6

If the prizes had been identical to RatC plus additional progression had been added, then this should not have been a problem. Mid tier players would still get the same (or more) prizes and toxic elitists would have incentive to continue grinding. However, in classic D3 fashion they actually nerfed the prize pool and made it practically impossible for the vast majority of players to even get the same rewards as they had before. I think its ok to have prizes that not everyone gets, but it feels like more austerity when the community as a whole gets less.

7

I am OK with the game as is except for balancing. Just wish the cards were better balanced. Some mythics are staple while others useless.

8

To be honest. I like the new setup, but there is a lack of reason to play the events. I am not trying to get into the top tiers. As long as I get my dupe rare then I am good. If I have charges left over then I suppose it is something to do when not playing Plants vs. Zombies (I get something for my grind).

TLDR. Quality of life is better, game has become meh

9

As stated, I don’t mind them having longer progression, as long as there are actual prizes worth progressing towards, and as long as lower-level players are actually able to obtain additional resources/assets by participating in the event. The “basic booster reward in platinum” nonsense needs to stop.

10

In addition, the minute you see your opponent play Drake Haven, you’ve already won the match.

Cycling was an interesting concept, except that the AI doesn’t cycle.

If you build a deck based on cycling, then you’re basically building a terrible deck for the AI to pilot.

I was thinking about creating a PSA thread notifying players to stop bringing cycle-dependent decks to PvP, but then I thought about how easy they were as an opponent, and decided to relax and cruise through the set.

11

I agree with most of the OP’s points. Especially that I have much more fun playing “Standard” events.

I completely disagree about cycling, though. I agree with @shteev; it’s tedious and overpowered and makes the game less fun.

12

Its ok removing most of the cards we have if the game is still varied and fun. I think it isn’t, I don’t enjoy being forced to play these very specific ways. I have tried to create interesting decks but it just isn’t possible now. I have only kept playing to score points for my coalition but this is my last event as I really had to push myself to even play this one.

Might be back later but I am following @shteev 's example and quitting for now.

13

Hey, Dusky, I heard you are enjoying yourself too much during events, so D3 figured they’d throw in some 4-hour recharges to temper your enthusiasm. Hope you didn’t have any plans this weekend!

14

On the cycling front, we would all be HOWLING for a nerf to cycling if the AI actually used it in an effective manner. Not only would it take forever it would be really difficult to play against (remember old Baral?) No one would have cared that Baral was so broken if they AI never cast him. And cycling is flight more complicated than Baral loops, but not any less tedious.

15

My coalition is normally around 20-25 in events so I can say it’s a smaller percentage than even that when none of us made it to full progression this last time. This would imply that probably less than 150 players of the hundreds of thousands in the game managed to make it to 850 ribbons.

You have to look at the HP bar just like the timer in other events. Trial of Ambition I made full progression WELL before the last node refreshes, but you don’t hear people complain that the event is too long because some people already made it to full. Some people will finish quickly, and other people will finish more slowly due to bad pulls or Temmet doing some ridiculous cascade that destroys your 3x reinforced Hixus in one swap and swings in for lethal on one turn…

Basic progression rewards should be accessible to the vast majority of players, even if that means that many other players will meet that threshold and still have a lot of event left over to play. The HP bar, at least this last time around, failed on that front.