Duel of Planewalkers 2013

[Don]

Anyone playing this? It seems like the decks you get are all ridiculously weak. Against the encounters some of the deck start out having problem beating the first encounter where the opposing player just generates a 1/1 flyer every turn. I mean you probably won't lose but you can definitely get down to like 5 or less life and it's not even because say you're playing a blue deck that's inherently slow/reactive. It also feels like the computer always cheat because I never see the computer have a bad draw with like say 3 lands in 10 turns. I realize on the Revenge mode the computer actually get to build a halfway legitmate deck but it seems like they always get certain cards even if there's only one copy in the deck. Also, unlocking one card at a time when you've 30 sucks, which basically forces you to do the basic encounter over and over, and half of the time your progress isn't saved so you got to repeat it again for some reason.

The Planechase mode is pretty fun, though I think Archenemy was more interesting. For the most part it boils down to keep on rolling the planar die and hope you get a good roll and then you can turn around a game you otherwise have no chance of winning, though the reverse is also true. In Archenemy there's actually a point to have an advantage and unless the enemy draws "My Crushing Masterstroke" you can definitely handle most of the Archenemy cards if you're ahead.

Nicol Bolas apparently plays with 12 Moxes (4XSapphire, Jet, Ruby) on Revenge mode. Some of the encounters are really tough, like the one where the guy pumps out a Primordial Hydra every turn (XGG, 0/0 base, gets X +1/+1 counter. Double number of counters each upkeep. If counters > 10, gain trample). You pretty much have to win in 5 turns or you lose, and given the deck you have really suck, that's a lot harder than you'd think.

[SineSwiper]

I replayed some of 2012 yesterday, and the computer is just a goddamn dumbass sometimes, especially with Archenemy. My allies don't do stuff like Giant Growth my unblocked attackers, or they waste Stoneforge Mystics as a blocker for a weaker card. I know how much that card costs. You don't just treat her as a blocker trade.

Oh, and the challenges always have some hidden "second" solution that doesn't work because the programmers didn't think of it, even though it would work in a normal game of Magic. Of course, they try to engineer these things just so perfectly that it ends up being a stupid idea. For example, why does it have to be only one turn when you've neutered your opponent's threats? They are far from realistic from any game of MTG, especially MTG tourneys which punish critical thinking and any sort of longer play.

I'm also pretty pissed that with all of the work Stainless Steel has put into these DotP games, they aren't even using the fucking code in the beta. The whole thing is a goddamn mess, and we'll be stuck with that shitty 2004 MTGO client for a while. I haven't played MTGO in months after seeing how screwed the beta was. MTGO is so full of bugs it's insane, and it looks like we'll have a new bloatware MTGO 4 client that'll be 10 years behind the times as soon as it comes out.

[Don]

I find that the challenges you usually just try the craziest thing first, like if you can buff the enemy creature do that first. I remember there's one where you have to destroy your own Oblivion Ring and then after that the game goes on by itself for like a minute resolving the effect from you destroying your own Oblivion Ring and then you magically win.

The AI doesn't use stuff like Giant Growth unless it's needed to save a creature or it can knock out player in that turn. Normally that's not a bad idea but in Archenemy you really want to get rid of your hand quickly because there's all kinds of crazy effects the Archenemy can get. I don't see computer doing anything unusual with blockers and it's not like the computer usually gets a card like Stoneforge Mystic to work with.

I said the mono black deck is weak but Griselbrand is one of the cards you can unlock (probably the last). Sure it's still going to be weak after you have it but Griselbrand is just insane. It's kind of like how Gideon Jura's deck isn't anything special but once you have the Stoneforge Mystics you can do some pretty crazy things even though the deck is in no way designed to take advantage of her powers. One of the mono green deck starts with a Thurgtusk which is pretty fun to play with. They should add a deck where you have the version of Jace that was banned. Just don't allow it for multiplayer against human players and don't allow computer to use it, because it's not like anyone cares if the computer is getting stomped by your uber cards. For that matter you should get to use Nicol Bolas's deck. 12 Moxes sounds pretty fun. Who cares if this deck isn't legal?

[SineSwiper]

I find that the challenges you usually just try the craziest thing first, like if you can buff the enemy creature do that first. I remember there's one where you have to destroy your own Oblivion Ring and then after that the game goes on by itself for like a minute resolving the effect from you destroying your own Oblivion Ring and then you magically win.

Yeah, that was the last Archenemy challenge. I tried it a different way that was more straightforward and direct, but the game didn't account for it and the game winning effect just didn't take. There's so many card interactions that it doesn't take into account. Like Karn playing a Show and Tell, so I pick Yavimaya's Embrace on an empty battlefield, expecting him to put down a creature. Instead of me taking the creature, like it's supposed to do in a real MTG game, his creature comes out and somehow I get my card back.

You would think that they would be improving this stuff over time, but the plan isn't working, especially since Stainless and the MTGO team aren't the same thing.

I said the mono black deck is weak but Griselbrand is one of the cards you can unlock (probably the last). Sure it's still going to be weak after you have it but Griselbrand is just insane. It's kind of like how Gideon Jura's deck isn't anything special but once you have the Stoneforge Mystics you can do some pretty crazy things even though the deck is in no way designed to take advantage of her powers. One of the mono green deck starts with a Thurgtusk which is pretty fun to play with. They should add a deck where you have the version of Jace that was banned. Just don't allow it for multiplayer against human players and don't allow computer to use it, because it's not like anyone cares if the computer is getting stomped by your uber cards. For that matter you should get to use Nicol Bolas's deck. 12 Moxes sounds pretty fun. Who cares if this deck isn't legal?

Griselbrand was one of those cards that they banned in EDH pretty much as soon as it had a few months of play. Not the even the "took too long to ban" Primeval Titan can hold a candle to seven free cards per turn. Even if it was insta-buried, you could still get the cards. And frankly, black's not suppose to have that kind of card advantage. (Discard 7 cards, maybe, though I guess this is some attempt to revive a Necropotence-like effect.)

As far as the 12 Moxes, that's just crazy and stupid. I mean, all they have to do to make the deck able to really hurt you is to bring some sort of tourney-level deck into the game. Three colors is tough, but it's still possible, especially with the new set coming encouraging multi-colored play.

[Don]

Well Nicol Bolas obviously has to be red/black/blue, and his deck is actually pretty weak when running only 3 Moxes because he doesn't have any powerful cards to finish you off. That said that deck would be pretty tough if Nicol Bolas actually played his Planewalker since that's pretty much game over once it comes out and with all the mana acceleration he has access to, getting Nicol Bolas out wouldn't even be very hard.

I actually think it's pretty cool in DOTP you can play with cards that'd otherwise be banned or cost way too much money to buy. I doubt it's meant to be balanced for multiplayer. I mean WOTC is reprinting a new set that has a lot of the uber cards that'd be too expensive to buy now in an upcoming expansion so there's certainly always a market for having overpowered cards.

I was reading a list of the top decks that won the eternal or whatever it's called format (everything minus banned cards are legal) and Griselbrand shows up in quite a few of them. In fact I think the only creatures in such deck were Griselbrand and Emerakul.

[SineSwiper]

That's a weird deck for a Legacy format. Legacy is even more spazzy on the low mana cards than Standard is. Cards like Griselbrand and Emerakul are only for longer formats like EDH/Commander, and both of those are banned there, because they are TOO good.

[Don]

Hmm looked it up it was the winner of the 2012 Vintage and looks like it's got multiple ways to put creatures in play without paying so I guess you use Griselbrand to draw Emerakul or something alogn these lines. At any rate any creature that's good enough to show up in a Vintage championship must be pretty good in general.

Here's the list of the decks in the 2012 Vintage/Legacy tournament: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/a ... 12/welcome

[SineSwiper]

Oooh, it's using Sneak Attack and Show and Tell to put the cards down. You can't get the extra turn out of Emrakul, but for a 15/15/ flyer, who cares? It's actually a RU deck, so Griselbrand can't even be hard cast.