My suggestion is Node of fate.
I would be less subtle and call it This Event Sucks.
I prefer the original Emrakul’s Corruption to this luck based aberation that Nodes of Power has become.
I especially love the Blue node “Take 10 damage or less” objective. A single Olivia coming out does 11 damage to you. Objective failed.
Isnt it kinda the idea that its hard to meet the bonus objectives? Personally, i usually make the max 10 damage with my kill and control deck. My own issues are with the ‘win with very few hit points’ objective that i rarely meet.
Yeah, we all have our own personal bugaboo in this event. I find the hp one the easiest with Ob, but the red node is irritating for its inconsistency.
I don’t mind hard. I do tend to mind the “one card gets played and you fail the objective” ones, though. Especially with the matchmaking in these events.
My suggestion for the event name, btw, is Nodes of Mersicide.
Don’t even get me started on how bad Terror in the Shadows is from an abbreviation/sexism standpoint for a name.
There is a difference between hard, which can be remedied with skill, and completely out of your hands, which cannot even be remedied with prostration, incense, abstinence, alms-giving, mantra chanting, self-flagellation and adoration of RNGeesus. (Trust me, I’ve tried and have a bloodied back to prove it.)
The <5 turns objective isn’t completely random. Those people who have paid to win can certainly gain an advantage.
Which purchase helps them? While the red node is significantly luck dependent, I meant more about the blue node where, like someone said, there’s often times where no matter how hard you prepare, one creature can just ruin it for you. I actually faced one of the biggest grief decks in that node which seemed specifically made for that node: C1 with nothing but burn and kill. I barely got out with one objective lost!
I actually enjoyed playing his decks because they are actually challenging and can be played well by the AI.
His Kiora has the SP/AA/uHydra/UC recurring combo. one mistake and the game ends fast.
I can only assume he’s talking about ulrich for red werewolf rushdown. Nothing else comes to mind. Mirrorpool? I don’t think it was ever up for purchase. I’m quite interested to know which cards shteev and bken1234 have in their red nop decks that were up for purchase.
Actually I think the people who play this with an advantage are those in top 10 coalitions who almost certainly got both Decimator and deploy right from the start.
Seriously? I’ll give you a hint: it’s a vampire. Think you can figure it out now?
Not really. What’s your perfect hand to win in 5 rounds with Olivia?
Oh this is gold. Or rather Red/Black…
If you can’t figure it out now…
Never mind! He got it!!! Yay!
Also my suggestion is to simply do away with the whole “nodes of mana” idea and start fresh, it’s IMO a kinda bland and unflavourful name for it. I don’t know what I would replace it with though, I couldn’t be bothered to think hard enough XD
Nahiri, ult, uncaged fury. Koth, any other fatty. Ajani, tokens. Arlinn, ulrich. Saheeli, ^^. C1&2. Use koth.
I want to take you seriously and assume you’re not trolling me… So what’s your average success rate with the various walkers and Olivia?
I am not trolling. These are the simplest and best ways to win quick with Olivia, I thought you’d know, I’ve seen you at the top of the leader board alot for QB. I forgot to mention deploy as well. Those are the best ways to utilize Olivia to win fast – Olivia + any of those will win quick most of the time. Success rate = very high. Very very high.
Is there a perfect deck to win in 5 rounds? If I ever figure one out, chances are, I won’t tell you. But seriously, we can discuss what deck is the best, but if you can argue that Decimator can win in 5 turns, I can definitely argue that Olivia can do it better. Would you like to know why?
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With bacon, to gain a full advantage of its haste/buff, you need to cast him directly after a creature. So you can keep him in your hand until you fill another creature (then you risk wasting a turn or two worth of face damage), cast them together and be sure that the other creature doesn’t suffer from summoning sickness or cast other creatures first, in which case you’ll get the buff, but no haste. Olivia, provided that you keep her alive for a few turns, will buff anything coming after her. So you can cast her for some face damage and then whatever you cast next gets a buff and immediately proceeds to hits the face with the haste.
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Decimator gives Berserker, which means that any damage you’d like to deal to the face will be reduced by hp of any creature the AI might cast in the meantime. Not a huge difference if we’re talking about plain survival, but we want to win in under 5 turns. Olivia gives creatures flying, which allows them to bypass many defenses and without Berserker they just go straight to the face. They will also last longer if the opponent keeps casting creatures - casting bacon can cause your first creature to die in one/two turns (and if you’re unlucky you can lose more than just the first creature), then you have to cast another and remember, it won’t benefit from the pig being on the battlefield already.
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I’d argue that her lifelink is more important to keeping you alive than Berserker. When you go for <5 turns, you often give up control cards and just focus on ramping and dealing damage. Berserker can help you clear the board for a turn or two if you find yourself struggling, but the cost will be reduced damage and creatures eventually dying, while Olivia’s triple lifelink will help you heal over the damage when you rush for the kill without reducing the damage or wearing off your creatures. I’d say that decks with Olivia are more stable. A standard argument of ‘dies to removal’ can be used for either creature.
I personally feel that while the pig is a powerful card that I sometimes use, Olivia was an absolute game-changer for every red or black deck I have. Of course you can disagree with my view, maybe you feel that bacon is more OP than Olivia. It’s your right. But I don’t think that treating her like she doesn’t exist or is completely irrelevant for speedy decks just to claim that being in top 10 and having bacon solves every problem you might have on that node is reasonable. A lot of people use Liv for the red node. A lot of people are successful doing that. She’s definitely helpful, to say the least.
For the record, I know that some people prefer to rely on mid-range hasted creatures/decks like red zoo for battles requiring speed. But we can probably all agree that if paying 20 for Olivia slows you down too much, a 21-mana pig won’t fit into your deck either. Those decks will use a variety of midsize rares/uc/c and maybe a mythic like Mirrorpool that happens to be unrelated to coalition rankings.
Maybe it’s time to realize that someone will always hold the advantage. This game offers several ways to gain an advantage - starting in the early days of the game and playing consistently for dedicated players, joining a good coalition for team players, grinding QB for solo players and buying stuff for well-off players. You can’t argue that just being in a top 10 coalition is enough to set you up for a win. I’ve personally known several skilled free-to-play players who, despite being in top 10 coalitions, quit the game, because they felt they couldn’t compete with decks that included some premium cards, including Olivia. They might have overreacted, I won’t judge that, but it didn’t come from absolutely nowhere.
And yes, a deck with Deploy, Olivia and Decimator is most likely more powerful than any of those alone. Throw in a Mirrorpool, Hixus and a few other cards while you’re at it. Unfortunately it just proves that a combination of money, skill and time/patience/dedication is usually better than just having one of those 
Please, let’s not argue about coalitions again. You have a point, but that doesn’t render every other argument invalid.