Guest posts by SriVastra

1

The Arena / Re: Banning Supernova, Quantum Tower, and SoG from Arena (Yet another new poll)

« on: July 07, 2011, 02:51:29 pm »

The only problem I see with Majo's idea is what if it picks three elements that you have few or no cards in?  I don't imagine a lot of players have full sets of everything.  Especially if you're indecisive like me and keep selling all your higher end cards to buy new decks that wind up sucking.

I do like the idea of buying extra colors with points.  I'm a little iffy on letting the oracle choose more than one color for you though.  If you get lucky, it'll choose all the colors you need for your "usual" no-brainer deck and we're right back to the first problem.  I don't want to see 1st place taken up by a bunch of beefed up rainbow lovers who got a lucky spin.

Maybe give the hp penalty for keeping your deck around a boost?  I mean, 2hp after a day is nothing.  It doesn't get noticeable until 5 days in when you lose 32, and even that isn't usually a huge deal since most rainbows run 6 phase shields and several sundials.  That way, you would be hard pressed to keep your deck around for more than a couple of days.  Even if you did get a lucky spin for your colors and pile all your points somewhere else, it wouldn't last long.

2

The Arena / Re: Banning Supernova, Quantum Tower, and SoG from Arena (New Poll added)

« on: July 06, 2011, 03:44:26 pm »

Shards are definitely a problem for me.  I'm not exactly an advocate for banning them, but I saw a decent argument for it at the very least.  It does seem that the platinum league is where players can, in a way, create their own false god decks, and it is very true that false gods do not use shards.  My solution to this has just been not to play the platinum league at all.  To me, this definitely says something is wrong.  The only reason I can think of for playing in platinum (or gold, to a lesser extent) is to get my butt kicked.  On purpose.  Who would want that??

This is also coming from a not-as-new-as-his-forum-status-would-suggest-but-still-nowhere-near-the-scrooge-mcduck-level-of-wealth-that-most-people-on-here-seem-to-have-achieved player *gasp*...   so I'm still trying to amass my fortune and build a "decent" deck.  The issue is I can't think of any way to beat what is essentially a false god with 440hp and a possible (read:probable) 60+ regeneration.  ...ok, maybe a firebolt deck with some HEAVY stall tactics.  But that's it.

As far as banning anything other than shards goes, I don't think there is a problem.  You can ban the more "broken" cards all you want, but there will still always be a "best" deck that people will copy.  Right now I'm seeing nothing but rainbow decks or some version of tiny creature -> immolation/cremation -> phoenix/lava guardian (or 'flaming baby decks', as I call them).  If you ban QT, or nova, or immolation, or any other card (possible exception for shards), someone will just build a new "best" deck out of what cards remain and then people will start wanting the core cards in there banned too.  That being said; holy crap people!  Show some creativity!  I just played 20 games in silver league and at LEAST 10 of them were flaming baby decks that weren't even using the oracle card, with most of the remaining 10 being standard rainbows with the oracle card just thrown in.

Closing topic:  Skill points

When I first started playing the arena, I thought dexterity was just a double draw.  Shortly thereafter, I find out through a first hand thwomping that it is also a double DECK.  As in it takes your 35-60 card deck, and doubles what's in it.  Simple concept.  Simple, but broken.  Allowing 12 copies of every card into a single deck is ridiculously overpowered.  12 earthquakes?  There go all my pillars.  12 deflagrations?  There go all my permanents.  12 of any damage spell?  I'm either about to lose my creatures or most of my face.  12 shards?  You just took the false out of false god.  That advantage is just...yeah.  Bad.  Evil.  Nasty.  Do not want.  I no can has win.  Etc.

My suggestion for the above issue is rather than doubling up the deck, why not just double the deck limit?  One of the best features of dexterity is a huge card pool that makes it nearly impossible to deck out.  Allowing a player to create their own 70-120 card deck while still using the 6 copy rule would radically diminish the problem without banning shards.

For the rest of the skills, I am of the opinion that they should all cost more.  My reasoning for this is, again, the buggery I receive every time I try to play platinum.  Every single deck has their skills maxed out.  Everyone is the same.  No strengths or weaknesses, just maxed out in all regards.  If you raise skill costs, you create more room for personality in the decks that will be made.  Not only will it make bronze and silver a little easier (which, by definition, they should be) but it will cause gold and platinum decks to differ in skill.  Some will have high health pools, but not a ton of upgrades.  Some will have huge decks and a more powerful mark but not quite so much hp.  This, to me, is a much better option than just having every deck be the same kind of kick-your-face-in powerful.

Now allow me to be the first to say...  tl;dr 

3

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: Top50 never finding an opponent.

« on: July 02, 2011, 03:59:57 am »

It would appear that T50 has been eliminated and replaced with the much more awesomer arena.

Problem "solved", it would seem.

4

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: Top50 never finding an opponent.

« on: June 26, 2011, 10:26:16 pm »

Broken again.

As before, I changed absolutely nothing on my computer.

I really hope this is fixed soon.  If I could keep playing over and over without refreshing, my $/hr would skyrocket from what it is with just AI3.

5

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: Top50 never finding an opponent.

« on: June 25, 2011, 09:43:19 pm »

I'm fixed!!  er...  that came out wrong. 

Anyway. 

T50 is working for me now.  I didn't change anything at my end.  I'll update if it stops working again.

6

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: Top50 never finding an opponent.

« on: June 24, 2011, 01:28:23 am »

Still no fix, huh?

I'm using Chrome, incidentally.

Someone -is- looking into this, right?  >_>

7

Duo-Decks / Re: Completely Unupped AI5 grinder, The Sanctuary in the Desert

« on: June 21, 2011, 03:20:08 am »

For this, you may want to add several Sundials to stall, or perhaps even some miracles (see considerations)

Ah.  Right.  Sundials.  I knew that.  I'll give that a shot.   

[edit] - I added three sundials and a miracle and managed to win one out of ten games.  The other nine didn't even come close.  Guess this deck just isn't for me.

8

Duo-Decks / Re: Completely Unupped AI5 grinder, The Sanctuary in the Desert

« on: June 18, 2011, 02:17:31 am »

Well, you only need the scorpions to hit once, and you shouldn't play it unless you can play blessing at the same time

Yeah, I got that much.  I never played the scorpions without at least one blessing and a guaranteed chance to hit.  The problem was I would get my face bashed in long before the poison did its job.

9

Archived Decks / Re: Grabbix

« on: June 18, 2011, 02:09:05 am »

I absolutely love this deck.  I have a win rate of around 80% against PVP1, AI3 and T50.  Only major threats are large amounts of CC (especially reverse time), early shields and black holes.  God, how I hate black holes!!

10

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: Top50 never finding an opponent.

« on: June 18, 2011, 01:37:15 am »

No change for me.  Still have to refresh and re-log each time.

It's annoying as hell, but I'm sure it'll get fixed sooner or later.  It's not like it's an isolated incident.

Side note:  I've tried on several different computers in several different locations over the past few days and each time it's the same problem.  This leads me to believe it's not specific to any single system.  Perhaps it's city based. 

11

Duo-Decks / Re: Completely Unupped AI5 grinder, The Sanctuary in the Desert

« on: June 17, 2011, 04:41:30 pm »

I've been playing this deck all morning and I haven't won once.  If they don't smash my scorpions the instant they're played, they just plow through and out damage my sanctuaries, shield or no.  And that's all before I even draw a single Eternity.  Am I missing something?

12

In-game Troubleshooting / Re: Top50 never finding an opponent.

« on: June 15, 2011, 09:41:42 pm »

Just adding my name to the pool here.

I can only get T50 to work if I go straight there right after logging in.  And even then, it only works once.  I have to refresh and log in again each time.