With gratitude to all of those who have offered feedback, I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to a solidified construction.....
I've been playing this on Cockatrice with a friend of mine quite a bit lately (or at least, several of the RB Rack variations here, but mostly yours). A few thoughts:
1. It is very rare for me to see Master of Cruelties and be able to cast him, and if I can cast him, for him to do something worthwhile. What matchups do you see him being strongest in?
2. My friend has lately taken a liking to playing Assault Loam / DredgeVine style decks. How would you sideboard against that type of deck in game 2? What sorts of cards do you want to see in your opening hand?
I still can't believe the amount of memory leaks in this program after 2(?) years of development. I recently tried to give it another go, and I can't play for more than an hour without having to restart the client again.
Hello,
I really think this app is great. You've put a lot of work in on it, and it shows.
I was wondering about a couple things:
1. There seems to be an intermittent bug when you sideboard after a game, that causes it to crash. Is that a known issues, and if so, what's the ETA on a fix for that?
2. There seems to be some sort of rendering issues with some of the cards. Occasionally cards will appear face-down in my hand instead of face-up, or appear as gray boxes (no art rendered). What's the status on that? Is there a way to fix it?
I had one game where I managed a huge comeback after getting knocked down to 1 life, came back to win it by the skin of my teeth. Said "Good Game.", and got told I was being arrogant. It wasn't at all the sort of "I just beat the crap out of your terrible deck - Good Game!" type of thing, it was the best, most fun sort of game of Magic, where both people keep top-decking threats and answers, and one person just barely happens to draw that one threat that can't be answered and wins on turn 22 type of game.
And then another game where I thought I had my opponent locked up, and so I tapped out, and on the next turn he came out with a combo that killed me with a 44/4 flying dragon. We'd had some initial conversation going in the start of the game, so after complimenting him on his combo and saying how I didn't see it coming, and telling him 'gg', he said absolutely nothing.
I don't know.. maybe Hearthstone has it figured out with its limited set of available things to say in chat (and making those things very prominent on the game board). I didn't like the gameplay of Hearthstone (found it too shallow), but never came away from a game frustrated with the communication skills or lack of sportsmanship.
Brittle Effigy has been my go-to solution for this. Colorless removal that can kill Emrakul and those pesky Gods, and if I'm playing blue I can fetch it with Trinket Mage or Fabricate
Turn 1 Duress - player quits
Turn 1 Thoughtseize - player quits
Turn 3 opponent casts bribery targeting me: gets Terastodon and targets my 3 lands. I float 3 mana and let it destryy them. I then cast sunder. On my turn, I play homeward path - instant concede.
All of these are understandable to me if they're playing some sort of combo that is about to be totally ruined by your discard. If I'm playing the Seismic Assault / Treasure Hunt deck, and you make me discard my only non-land card, there's not really any point in continuing the game. Same goes for the Terastodon game - are you really surprised that they conceded when you were about to get 3 3/3 tokens and a 9/9?
The other cases of dropping f-bombs because of certain cards or plays and then going afk is pretty poor sportsmanship though.
Edit: lots of people quit at the sight of money cards (as in FoW, mana drain, Karn, etc).
I don't think I have more than one or two decks that can handle a resolved Karn Liberated, and I don't like playing against decks that can get him out on turn 3. I don't think that's unreasonable. I don't make a fuss about it or curse about it, I just say "sorry that card's too strong for my deck to handle" and move on. But I can see if someone has to go up against several big money cards game after game, and they're new and only have a beginner deck, how that would make them upset.
More than 75% of the games I have been, there is not a single hello/welcome or gg (The last comments of nights playing an hour each night, I have received roughly 2-3 out of 10+ games).
This bothers me too. Some of the best games have been ones where I can have a good discussion going with my opponent that turns into a buddy I can play with frequently. People who close the chat entirely are generally the least sportsmanlike in my opinion.
I will often test potential decks that may seem like a budget tournament decks in that room and if I am just testing the MD I might just want to whack out a few single games to test mana-base or something.
And if someone said "hey, don't you think that deck's a bit overpowered for the JFF room?" you'd be justified in calling him a jerk?
Me: You know, if you're going to play a budget version of tourney deck in the Just for Fun room, it'd be nice if you'd make it a Match instead of a single game so I had a half a chance of winning after sideboarding.
The room description is something like "whatever is fun for you", which is about as all inclusive as you can get, so if a person finds certain strategies not fun then they should list them when they make a new game. Perhaps some kind of fan-driven code system of Casualness could be started, where you could list in the game notes Casual 5 meaning no LD, d/c, counters, 10+ tix cards, or Zubera.
I guess I wasn't clear enough - I wish that WotC provided automated matchmaking, or barring that, more granulated sets of rooms so that if I want to play my kitchen table combo deck, or my deck that just rotated out of standard that I'm able to do so at a level that's competitive and fun for my opponent and myself, and not have to go up against a just barely budget version of Living End. The JFF room simply has far too broad of a range of decks in it for it to be fun sometimes, and I think the primary fault here lies with the way WotC has designed the room.
In lieu of that guidance, some people have established this notion of house rules, where certain types of decks are frowned upon, but my second point is that it just doesn't seem like that notion is widely held by people who play there.
I know, but this is how it usually goes in the "Just for Fun": No LD, light on discard, light on counters and light on money mythics. People quit for whatever reasons. They may even already quit when they see a t1 island.
I wish there was more official guidance regarding this. The tagline for the room when you enter is "play what is fun! What is fun? You decide!" or some similar nonsense. I've had people playing tournament grade decks against my janky combo deck in the JFF room with all sorts of justifications:
"Well, this is fun for me!"
"Well, I'm just figuring out the deck"
"Well, I drafted all these cards"
"I just want to see if it's viable as a tourney deck"
I'd love to just block the person and move on, but there are times when it takes a while to find an opponent, and people playing tourney decks are scaring off the people I want to play against, so I tell them their deck isn't appropriate for the room before blocking them. I've actually had one guy who didn't know about the Tournament Practice room, and one guy who thought he was in it already.
Additionally, while having some sort of house rule for "No LD, light on discard, light on counters and light on money mythics" would be nice, it's certainly not what gets played there right now. There's plenty of budget 8-Rack, snapcaster control (4x remand, 4x cryptic), and land destruction going on. I played against one deck that was 4xAcidic Slime, 4xStone Rain, 4x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and a few others. When you see so much of that going on, you just pretty much assume that most people don't know they shouldn't be playing it and just roll with it. I don't even say anything to these people, just take the loss and move on. I was actually shocked when a guy complained the other day when I used a Tectonic Edge against him in my UW Control deck because I was mana flooded. There are really vast differences in what is expected in that room and what gets played there.
This is the casual mill deck I've been playing with recently. I basically wanted to build a deck around Geth, Lord of the Vault that could either Mill or use his ability to out-aggro my opponent using Geth's ability.
This deck has been fun to play, although it's very casual. I have no idea on how to change it to accommodate a sideboard. Thoughts/suggestions/questions?
If I use Geth, Lord of the Vault's activated ability to steal an Elixir of Immortality from my opponent's graveyard, and then I tap and use the Elixir:
1. Whose library does the elixir get shuffled into?
2. If it goes to my opponent's library, do I shuffle my own library? If it goes to my library does my opponent shuffle theirs?
You need card tags in future posts. Read the Forum Guidelines. -Carsten
I've been playing this on Cockatrice with a friend of mine quite a bit lately (or at least, several of the RB Rack variations here, but mostly yours). A few thoughts:
1. It is very rare for me to see Master of Cruelties and be able to cast him, and if I can cast him, for him to do something worthwhile. What matchups do you see him being strongest in?
2. My friend has lately taken a liking to playing Assault Loam / DredgeVine style decks. How would you sideboard against that type of deck in game 2? What sorts of cards do you want to see in your opening hand?
Why the **** can't I log in and view my card collection on a web page?
I really think this app is great. You've put a lot of work in on it, and it shows.
I was wondering about a couple things:
1. There seems to be an intermittent bug when you sideboard after a game, that causes it to crash. Is that a known issues, and if so, what's the ETA on a fix for that?
2. There seems to be some sort of rendering issues with some of the cards. Occasionally cards will appear face-down in my hand instead of face-up, or appear as gray boxes (no art rendered). What's the status on that? Is there a way to fix it?
Thanks again, cool app.
I had one game where I managed a huge comeback after getting knocked down to 1 life, came back to win it by the skin of my teeth. Said "Good Game.", and got told I was being arrogant. It wasn't at all the sort of "I just beat the crap out of your terrible deck - Good Game!" type of thing, it was the best, most fun sort of game of Magic, where both people keep top-decking threats and answers, and one person just barely happens to draw that one threat that can't be answered and wins on turn 22 type of game.
And then another game where I thought I had my opponent locked up, and so I tapped out, and on the next turn he came out with a combo that killed me with a 44/4 flying dragon. We'd had some initial conversation going in the start of the game, so after complimenting him on his combo and saying how I didn't see it coming, and telling him 'gg', he said absolutely nothing.
I don't know.. maybe Hearthstone has it figured out with its limited set of available things to say in chat (and making those things very prominent on the game board). I didn't like the gameplay of Hearthstone (found it too shallow), but never came away from a game frustrated with the communication skills or lack of sportsmanship.
All of these are understandable to me if they're playing some sort of combo that is about to be totally ruined by your discard. If I'm playing the Seismic Assault / Treasure Hunt deck, and you make me discard my only non-land card, there's not really any point in continuing the game. Same goes for the Terastodon game - are you really surprised that they conceded when you were about to get 3 3/3 tokens and a 9/9?
The other cases of dropping f-bombs because of certain cards or plays and then going afk is pretty poor sportsmanship though.
I don't think I have more than one or two decks that can handle a resolved Karn Liberated, and I don't like playing against decks that can get him out on turn 3. I don't think that's unreasonable. I don't make a fuss about it or curse about it, I just say "sorry that card's too strong for my deck to handle" and move on. But I can see if someone has to go up against several big money cards game after game, and they're new and only have a beginner deck, how that would make them upset.
This bothers me too. Some of the best games have been ones where I can have a good discussion going with my opponent that turns into a buddy I can play with frequently. People who close the chat entirely are generally the least sportsmanlike in my opinion.
And if someone said "hey, don't you think that deck's a bit overpowered for the JFF room?" you'd be justified in calling him a jerk?
Him: You done whining now?
I guess I wasn't clear enough - I wish that WotC provided automated matchmaking, or barring that, more granulated sets of rooms so that if I want to play my kitchen table combo deck, or my deck that just rotated out of standard that I'm able to do so at a level that's competitive and fun for my opponent and myself, and not have to go up against a just barely budget version of Living End. The JFF room simply has far too broad of a range of decks in it for it to be fun sometimes, and I think the primary fault here lies with the way WotC has designed the room.
In lieu of that guidance, some people have established this notion of house rules, where certain types of decks are frowned upon, but my second point is that it just doesn't seem like that notion is widely held by people who play there.
I wish there was more official guidance regarding this. The tagline for the room when you enter is "play what is fun! What is fun? You decide!" or some similar nonsense. I've had people playing tournament grade decks against my janky combo deck in the JFF room with all sorts of justifications:
"Well, this is fun for me!"
"Well, I'm just figuring out the deck"
"Well, I drafted all these cards"
"I just want to see if it's viable as a tourney deck"
I'd love to just block the person and move on, but there are times when it takes a while to find an opponent, and people playing tourney decks are scaring off the people I want to play against, so I tell them their deck isn't appropriate for the room before blocking them. I've actually had one guy who didn't know about the Tournament Practice room, and one guy who thought he was in it already.
Additionally, while having some sort of house rule for "No LD, light on discard, light on counters and light on money mythics" would be nice, it's certainly not what gets played there right now. There's plenty of budget 8-Rack, snapcaster control (4x remand, 4x cryptic), and land destruction going on. I played against one deck that was 4xAcidic Slime, 4xStone Rain, 4x Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and a few others. When you see so much of that going on, you just pretty much assume that most people don't know they shouldn't be playing it and just roll with it. I don't even say anything to these people, just take the loss and move on. I was actually shocked when a guy complained the other day when I used a Tectonic Edge against him in my UW Control deck because I was mana flooded. There are really vast differences in what is expected in that room and what gets played there.
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Geth, Lord of the Vault
2 Trinket Mage
Planeswalkers
1 Jace Beleren
Artifacts
1 Amulet of Vigor
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Archive Trap
3 Consume the Meek
1 Disfigure
4 Doom Blade
1 Haunting Echoes
3 Into the Roil
4 Preordain
1 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
5 Island
4 Jwar Isle Refuge
8 Swamp
This deck has been fun to play, although it's very casual. I have no idea on how to change it to accommodate a sideboard. Thoughts/suggestions/questions?
1. Whose library does the elixir get shuffled into?
2. If it goes to my opponent's library, do I shuffle my own library? If it goes to my library does my opponent shuffle theirs?
You need card tags in future posts. Read the Forum Guidelines. -Carsten