Community

Dec 4, 2012 -- 4:49PM, GodOfAtheism wrote:

Me, I'm kind of hoping 2014 has EDH, but if it doesn't, I'd take Archenemy over Planechase please.

I really don't want to see EDH in DotP, at all, and not just because I don't like EDH, but here's a variety of reasons aside from that why I don't want it.

1. EDH has an entirly different set of rules, and I'm not even talking about the deck building rules. I see glitches galore when it comes to implementing the special zone for the commander, the commander dealing damage to your opponent, the mana cost increase every time the commander is destroyed, and problems when the commander is hit with something that returns it to the library. Given DotP's track record, do you really think if a commander was counters with Hinder that it would go to the bottom of the deck, or improperly go back to the commander zone?

2. DotP is geared towards new players. I don't see having a radically different format from the standard being helpful to new players who are just learning the basic game.

3. The decks themselves. There are 2 main options under consideration of how commander decks would be implemented.
a. Have 2 entirly separate sets of decks, 1 set for your standard MtG gameplay/2HG/etc., and then have a set of commander decks, specifically for commander. While this may sound like a good idea at first, this idea will innevitably be flawed because either the regular decks or the commander decks will be too low in number and variety. The regular decks will get neglected in their design, or the commander decks will, or worse yet, both.

b. Give the regular decks enough unlocks so that you can build a 100 card commander deck with them. This is going to take a LOT of unlocks, especially when you factor in that regular decks are going to want some copies of the same card in their decks. 60 unlocks here would probably be the minimum needed. But wait, you'd want to have some deckbuilding variety in the commander decks, so you would need well over 100 distinct cards per deck, and somehow the regular format still needs to be balanced in all of this. Once again, the design focus will innevitably be split between the regular decks and the commander decks, and both are going to come out underwhelming.

I really don't want to see commander in DotP. Combine the above reasons with me just not liking commander in general, and I guarantee that I won't buy 2014 if it has commander in it.

IMO, the best way to implement commander in the DotP franchise is to have a game that exclusively focuses on commander and nothing else. I still wouldn't buy it, but from a design perspective, that seems to be the best choice.

Dec 5, 2012 -- 6:17AM, iHARBiNG3R wrote:

The thing that I want is better balanced decks. Like someone else said; having decks that are packed to the brim with good cards like Sepulcheral Strenght is not cool when other decks get a bunch of crap cards and some cards can't even interact with other cards in the same deck. If a developer or Sean is reading this, this is what I mean: quick overview on SS; cheap removal, sweepers/mass removal, card draw, ramp, life loss, life gain, fatties, hexproof, sacrifice effects, tutor effects, tokens,"pump" cards, mill, discard effects, regenerate effects and several enchanments...come'on, who the heck is balancing this game????? Don't get me wrong, I am not so much complaining about how good SS but at how weak some other decks are by comparison. While I understand why some other decks don't get all of those capabilites it still bothers me that I feel other decks are being "held back" by comparison.

Exactly this.  So many of the powerful decks are still fresh, fun to play, and beatable, but then you have decks with glaring weaknesses or omissions that severely cripple them.  Look at how well OD does overall, despite an inability to remove artifacts or enchantments from the board.  If a deck is to have weaknesses, it should be strong enough in the other areas to compensate (like OD).

So, please, give us more decks along the lines of SS, OD, GG, BoF, CW...heck, even like MtW, RoI, AD, or similar decks from the past Duels games.

Also, if there is a choice between Planechase and Archenemy, Archenemy wins.  That random die roll takes WAY too long over the course of the game.  Hopefully, there will be a third, unique option for the new Duels though. 

Dec 6, 2012 -- 11:45PM, Khronikos wrote:

Seriously, there are just glaring imbalances in this game. The fact people say 2012 was way worse just makes my want to puke. The counter heavy decks are just ridiculously OP in this game on a consistent basis and there is no doubt about it. I don't see a lot of the decks on steam lol or if they do play a weaker or slower one it is pretty rare. Not as many players sure but still. They really need to work on balancing 2014 a little better than this.

I mean, against Crosswinds and other decks I am running out of cards with Ajani on a consistent basis and I have tuned the deck and retuned it a bunch of times. Against others as well. I know the deck can be ace, more so in 2HG, but good lord the deck is garbage for me in FFA too much of the time. Or else it just takes waaaaay too long to win. Even with an artifact or whatever if you run out of cards you just sit and wait and hope that you popped your life up to an amount where you can get a clear card and maybe get some damage done. It rarely works against seasoned opponents.

Just to illustrate real quick:
2013's decks have a sort of "Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock" balance. Where each deck has a number of favourable matchups, Unfavourable matchups, and even matchups. No deck dies to every other deck and with few arguable examples, every deck is capable of beating every other deck even with unfavourable circumstances.

2012's decks had a "Pecking Order" balance. Realm of Illusion was the best deck and was in favour of beating every other deck in the game. Then Blood Hunger, which would roflstomp every deck except RoI (I think Beknighted may have replaced Blood Hunger though). Then another deck which would kill every deck except those two(/three) etc. Until you got down to, I think it was decided Apex Predators was the worst deck in the game, which would die to virtually every other deck.

So yeah, given the choice between "favourable/unfavourable" and a list of 19 decks wherein each deck could slaughter all the decks below it, 2013 is nigh-infinitely better.

Just to give you an idea of why people are so happy with the current iteration of balance between decks.