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Tamba posted:They're killing off scheduled tournaments and Swiss Drafts in a few weeks. As usual, this has led to all sorts of fits on the Hex forums. In the meantime, it's looking like they're aiming for an early July release of the new ladder patch. OP_Kyle posted:Hey everyone. I appreciate all the feedback and sentiments that you are expressing. We knew this would be a difficult thing for some of you and didn't make this decision lightly. However, please remember that we are going to evaluate the decision on the Constructed Gauntlet as it rolls out and will keep you up to date on those decisions. Uh oh. GaistHeidegger fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jun 16, 2016 |
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Jun 16, 2016 20:44
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Tamba posted:They're killing off scheduled tournaments and Swiss Drafts in a few weeks. I get the other two, but why constructed gauntlet? I thought it as a good format. quote:Lastly, to address some of the concerns I've seen in this thread... The Ladder will bring both ranked constructed and unranked constructed matches. The ranked match will offer best 2-of-3 and the unranked match will be a single-game. Neither of these will have an entry fee. Rip most tournies but draft then.
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Jun 16, 2016 22:15
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Forgotton posted:I get the other two, but why constructed gauntlet? I thought it as a good format. I think their line of reasoning is that having both ranked constructed matches and constructed gauntlet would split the player base, which is a valid concern. I'm OK with this change to be honest. I always was interested in joining a constructed gauntlet, but never felt like paying the entry fee as I was never sure how well I would do so I would just play random opponents to get my constructed fix between major tournaments. Seems like a new version of play random opponent is going to be the new default way to play constructed, which will probably get more people into it who otherwise wouldn't play and in combination with the ranking system should result in more even matches between players.
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Jun 16, 2016 22:32
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So are there going to be any constructed tournaments for prizes after these changes?
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Jun 16, 2016 23:17
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The PTR (test server) announcement thing went up as well just fyi; https://www.hextcg.com/ptr-announcement/quote:Jun 16, 2016
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Jun 16, 2016 23:22
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I can't believe they are removing constructed gauntlet... there are some players who literally only play that and I can't see a ladder being an acceptable replacement. Edit: Also I think removing swiss isn't very smart either. Unlike the dailies they still fired occasionally. It's not like the 1-3 swiss drafts that fire each day are eating into comp drafts. katkillad2 fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Jun 17, 2016 |
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Jun 17, 2016 00:00
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There will be other tournament formats to replace it, they just put out the articles in a retarded order. There's supposed to be an article tomorrow morning with more details. from the official forums via reddit: quote:Dinotropia at the forum discussion of this article: "Exactly! We have ladder play and some extra tournament events which we haven't revealed yet to keep constructed players going strong. And, like the ladder article says, we will be keeping an eye on this and evaluating moving forward."
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Jun 17, 2016 00:05
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Then why not hold off on any announcements until they get their poo poo together?
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Jun 17, 2016 00:08
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Lone Goat posted:Then why not hold off on any announcements until they get their poo poo together? This is pretty much part for the course when it comes to communication from Hex. An announcement comes out before it is ready, players freak out, Hex does damage control, players realize changes might actually not be all that bad, promises are made to communicate better in the future, and we move on to the next poorly made/timed announcement. I love Hex, but the communication decisions continue to baffle me.
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Jun 17, 2016 00:47
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Lone Goat posted:Then why not hold off on any announcements until they get their poo poo together? Lord only knows. It would have been much simpler to just package all the relevant announcements into a single Friday Update, but that's just not how things are done in Hexland I guess. It's no big deal really, just odd communication decisions.
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Jun 17, 2016 00:53
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Moon Monster, we need to play a game of Hex. Get at me.
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Jun 17, 2016 01:06
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3 drafts in today and I cannot say I am getting this cycle down very well. Best I made it was second place once. Are there any good drafting videos for this cycle I can reference?
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Jun 17, 2016 03:39
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Protip posted:This is pretty much part for the course when it comes to communication from Hex. An announcement comes out before it is ready, players freak out, Hex does damage control, players realize changes might actually not be all that bad, promises are made to communicate better in the future, and we move on to the next poorly made/timed announcement. "Hey guys, we're removing scheduled tournaments. Don't worry if you have any tickets left over, we'll replace those with gauntlet tickets. Oh, btw, we're removing gauntlets as well." Uh, thanks, I guess? 
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Jun 17, 2016 07:23
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Follow up on the Test Server in case you were interested;quote:we will be opening a PTR server this Monday, June 20th. You can go here for more details and for a link to the PTR client. Make sure you download it over the weekend if you want a taste. And yea the big news getting rid of paid Constructed tournaments with the new Ladder. It's pretty bold to be giving out boosters for a free format, I guess + hope when setting the rank structure up they crunched the numbers on how many wins you need to get vs how likely you were to get those wins without buying cards off the AH / otherwise engaging in the Hex economy - I trust them to be smarter than me with regards to how they run a business I also guess it kinda makes sense in that most people who have an option between a free tourney and a paid one will cheap out but if they keep both around for now it will just make both weaker. I'm sure we'll still have a few paid options; eg. VIP tourneys / etc. so there will be some opportunities for bigger payouts outside of limited but for now I don't see much of a reason to keep playing Constructed Ladder once you hit the highest rank (on the other hand, plenty of incentive to just play for fun against similarly skilled players which was missing from the current system) All in all I think they are making for a much better new-player experience at least, can't fault them on that Grim fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jun 18, 2016 |
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Jun 18, 2016 01:58
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Jun 18, 2016 08:32
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 .jpg
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Jun 18, 2016 14:17
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I lost 0-2 to Moon Monster. He dawdled much better than I did
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Jun 20, 2016 00:22
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I just got super lucky with my cosmic transmogrifiers. Second game he had me at something like 30 to 8, then I transmogged when he swung and got a master theorycrafter with the "regain hp equal to def" gem that turned the game around for me. Also worth mentioning: Citadel of Adamanth is actually a pretty good card when both decks are slow and bad.
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Jun 20, 2016 00:28
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Great! I'm glad things are moving along. I am also happy to hear this format gives life to cards that would otherwise never see play.
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Jun 20, 2016 01:38
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Only in town for another couple days before a week of travel. Just fyi in case Moon Monster/Trilin don't finish their game so I can play winner before I leave. 
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Jun 24, 2016 03:14
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Yes, please try to do your games this weekend fellas. The tournament is starting to drag on a bit.
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Jun 24, 2016 11:19
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I beat Trilin 2-1. Nothing too exciting but the game I lost did have this terrific board state. I pmed you about setting up a time, King Burgundy
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Jun 24, 2016 22:48
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I'm excited that we've finally got the Pro-Player Tournament coming that was promised during the kickstarter, I thought they might end up cancelling it because at a certain point announcing cool things that most people won't get to participate in is just gonna bite them in the arse - July 16th can't get here soon enough! I'm missing plenty of Set 4 cards so can't throw together most of the current meta decks to test (unless I wanna spend some plat, which I prefer to hoard like an idiot), but I've got a few spare cards if people wanted to trade? Also if anyone wants some practice before the big showdown I'll usually be around in the Slack channel, though being in a weird timezone and having a job probably means I'll only be available to play over the weekends (also I'm not very good but why let that get in the way  )
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Jun 24, 2016 23:35
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I too am excited about the pro player tournament, but I start my vacation on the 13th. Which means I'll have to explain to my parents why I flew across the ocean only to play computer games the entire day. Sigh. I can't not play though, there's just too much on the line: Those prizes are crazy generous. 10 packs for 64th place? Very nice.
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Jun 25, 2016 00:58
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Grim posted:I'm excited that we've finally got the Pro-Player Tournament coming that was promised during the kickstarter, I thought they might end up cancelling it because at a certain point announcing cool things that most people won't get to participate in is just gonna bite them in the arse - July 16th can't get here soon enough! Oh Goddam I have to come up with a deck now don't I
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Jun 25, 2016 03:17
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Afgad posted:I too am excited about the pro player tournament, but I start my vacation on the 13th. Which means I'll have to explain to my parents why I flew across the ocean only to play computer games the entire day. Sigh. Remember there were 1000 Pro Players, 1000 Grand Kings, and a reasonable number of higher tiers. So 64th out of potentially 2000+ participants is still a pretty tall order. (Assuming all of them are still playing and end up participating, which probably won't be the case. But still. Even half of that...) Unless I'm wildly misunderstanding something. Given that I barely ever win draft, much less constructed, I'll probably shrink the numbers for you by not bothering, myself.
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Jun 25, 2016 15:19
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They split it into two tournaments for the different time zones. Assuming there are 1000 players in each tournament, you'll need to play 10 swiss rounds ( http://swisstriangle.net/ ). e: actually, 7 rounds might be is enough, since they split off the top 8 into their own draft after that. That means you need to go 6-1 for a place in the top 64, with a single lucky 5-2 player also getting in. Tamba fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Jun 25, 2016 |
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Jun 25, 2016 16:14
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I lost to KingBurgundy 1-2. I thought with 44 cards in my deck I could take a hit from Reginald Lancashire but I drew him with his "draw 3 cards" effect 
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Jun 25, 2016 17:33
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The Moon Monster posted:I lost to KingBurgundy 1-2. I thought with 44 cards in my deck I could take a hit from Reginald Lancashire but I drew him with his "draw 3 cards" effect 1st game I drew all my good stuff and only like one of my awful cards and had nice consistent mana while he had to mulligan, so I won. 2nd game I drew pretty much all shards the whole game except for my bard and two other uniques while he had air superiority and flying troops owning me. 3rd game felt the closest to a normal game for both of us. He got off transmog, I got off some ruby of flames. But as he said, Reginald pulled out the win for me!
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Jun 25, 2016 17:37
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Yo peeps! I'm pretty new to this game. Got a handful of Frost Ring wins with my aggro ruby deck I built based on some guide, but now I wanna start PvPing. I hear Evolving Sealed Gauntlet is a good mode for beginners? I don't really know most cards in the game, except the ones in my aggro deck and the ones the NPCs in Frost Ring use, so does anyone have any tips for building Evolving Sealed Gauntlet decks?
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Jun 26, 2016 22:47
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Granbar posted:...does anyone have any tips for building Evolving Sealed Gauntlet decks?
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Jun 26, 2016 23:36
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Evo-specific tips: With your initial pool of cards, don't be afraid to go 3 or more shards if you're having trouble putting together something in 2. Just pick Uzzu the Bonewalker as your champion and you shouldn't have to worry too much about thresholds. After 1 and 3 wins, if your deck was an Uzzu pile, re-evaluate and see if you can build something more focused with the additional cards.
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Jun 27, 2016 00:21
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Grim posted:I don't have any experience with evo sealed myself but it should be the same with all limited formats - identify / prioritize your Bombs (cards that can win the game on their own), then Removal (to kill your opponents bombs), Evasion (flying / unblockable / etc), I never remember what A or D stand for in the BREAD acronym but just make sure between the cards you do pick there is maximum synergy; does this card work well with this other card? does this push my overall game-plan? Bomb Removal Evasion Attackers Dumb poo poo (23rd card etc.) For starting out, to get a feel for the meta and what is commonly used in constructed, check out this site. It shows the evolving meta and typical tier 1 decks. http://hex.tcgbrowser.com/#!/meta-decks/gauntlet=true Have you played any kind of card games that have limited tournament types? Also, there is a meta ruby deck that is basically 10$ to put together and typically performs very well in the current meta. Could be a good starter to casual play people with and get a feel for playing against opponents.
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Jun 27, 2016 05:33
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Granbar posted:I'm pretty new to this game. Got a handful of Frost Ring wins with my aggro ruby deck I built based on some guide, but now I wanna start PvPing. I hear Evolving Sealed Gauntlet is a good mode for beginners? I don't really know most cards in the game, except the ones in my aggro deck and the ones the NPCs in Frost Ring use, so does anyone have any tips for building Evolving Sealed Gauntlet decks? Hi, welcome to Hex. Here's an effort post about PvP and Evo Sealed in general. First off, I need to mention that Evo Sealed is a great way to build your collection and practice your deck building skills and is easily my favorite of the PvP formats and something that I play a lot of. Having said that, it's terrible, terrible value and will drain your pack and plat reserves quickly. Even if you can consistently pull off 5-x, you are still paying a pack (~170-200 plat) and 100 plat for 4 rares. If those are all price floor rares (which they often times are), you lose value even when you go 5-0. As much as I love Evo Sealed, if you are starting out with the intention of building your plat reserves and going infinite off a small initial investment, you are going to need to learn to draft and should aim to get the cards together for a budget constructed deck (McBombus Gobbler decks can be really cheap, and while they aren't tier 1 they can hold their own in even the highest levels of constructed competition). If you go into Evo with the knowledge that it's going to cost you plat just to play it and you are OK with that (my view of it) then don't worry about it. On to Evo Sealed strategy. The BREAD guideline that has been mentioned in the thread already is a solid guideline, but it's a Draft guideline for the order in which you should pick cards during drafting and not a strategy for sealed deck building. The guideline still holds true for the relative importance of the different types of cards but building a deck around a bomb legendary in a shard that is otherwise very weak is generally a bad idea as there is no guarantee you will actually see that card during a game. Instead, try to figure out which combination of two or three shards gets you the strongest overall deck. Filter your cards so that you are looking at each shard individually and see how many playable cards you have in each shard (it will take a bit of time to learn which cards are garbage and which are really good). Build a few different decks from various shard combinations and do some test draws. Go with the one you like the most. When deck building, there are a few things to keep in mind:
You really, really want at least three pieces of decent removal in your deck, and more is better. A lot of times I end up going with the two shards that I have the best removal in. Ideally you want at least one piece of removal that can answer early aggro (totem trap, rotcast, most any of the ruby burn spells, etc), at least one piece that can answer massive threats like gigantasaur (etherealize, incubation webs, reap, parriphagy, skarnbreath, etc) and ideally something to answer a spider swarm (staggering blast, cleave, scion of volosolov, mackerel mitts, stinging ambush). Since ruby has all of these available as commons, ruby is usually a good shard choice. 2. Know what your win condition is, and build your deck around it if you can. If your win condition is a single card, that's generally very bad. You can swarm your opponent early with aggro, in which case you want to prioritize aggressive 2 drops, cheap removal and combat tricks. You can win through evasion (flight or unblockable gem), in which case you want to prioritize permanent buffs to finish your opponent faster and big butt defenders to stop your opponent from doing the same to you. You can also win through having a strong late game with strong 5+ drops (Mightsinger Alyndra is good for this!) in which case you want to focus on stall cards and troops that can trade upwards until you get your big threats online. You can win through spiders, in which case you should uninstall Hex, light your computer on fire and then throw it in a bath of acid (seriously, gently caress spiders). There are of course others ways to win like 5 shard chant decks and the like, you'll figure it out as you go. 3. Have a good curve. Even with the best decks you will lose a lot of games to threshold screw, shard screw and flood. It's a feature of Hex's antiquated resource system. To minimize the number of games in which this occurs, the troops in your deck and preferably your deck as a whole should have either a bell curve or Christmas tree shape when sorted by cost in the stacked card view. This helps ensure you aren't sitting around doing nothing for the first few turns while your opponent develops their board while still being able to pull some good gas once the game devolves into a top deck war. I like to follow the guideline of having 13-17 troops (13 or 14 being appropriate for action heavy decks like McBombus and 15-17 being appropriate for most other decks) and having 4-6 of those being one or two cost troops. Having more than four 5+ cost cards is usually asking for trouble in decks that aren't built around 5+ drops. You will generally want to run 17 shards but 16 is OK for low curve decks and 18 is OK for high curve decks. Don't play more than 40 cards in your deck. 4. Know how to Uzzu. As others have pointed out, a lot of times Uzzu ends up being the best pick in the initial pack of an Evo sealed. A good Uzzu deck is not just gobbled together from the best card in every shard, as even Uzzu can get threshold screwed. Uzzu has a lot of great uses though. A great way to use Uzzu is to splash a third shard in a two shard deck where the splash cards are all cards that have a cost of 4+ or are otherwise cards that you don't mind playing on turn 4 or later (e.g. removal or massive blowout combat tricks like cry of Gawaine), then not run any resources for that particular shard. This allows you to keep the threshold consistency of a two shard deck and guarantees that Uzzu's power will be useful. Another way to use Uzzu is to run a three shard deck and have a few cards that benefit from having different thresholds, such as any of the midnight or sepulchra cards. This again allows you to ensure that Uzzu's power is always useful, because you can use it to either avoid threshold screw or buff your threshold based troops if you already have all your thresholds met. 5. Ask for help. You can post your sealed pool in this thread or the slack channel (PM Afgad or Blazing Zero for an invite) and people will give you advice. Finally, and this is general Hex advice, you should check out Hex streamers on Twitch. You can learn a lot from the better ones (and what not to do from the bad ones) and they tend to give away a bunch of free stuff. A lot of the streamers are chill dudes and competent players, but I would particularly recommend watching Havoc who is actually streaming at the time of this posting on the Hex main channel. Havoc is probably the single best constructed deck builder in the game- Koma gave him credit for the deck that won the 100k tournament and he was the architect for a number of meta defining decks. He primarily does constructed but he does limited sometimes and he sat near the top of the limited ladder for a long time (looks like he had some bad luck lately though). He's also a really goofy guy and it's fun to listen to him yell at his tiny dog. Happy Hexing! God of Evil Cows fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Jun 27, 2016 |
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Jun 27, 2016 08:30
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Forgotton posted:Have you played any kind of card games that have limited tournament types? Nope! Not really. Thanks a LOT for the excellent answers, peeps. Gonna gently caress around with the Evolving Sealed Gauntlet I've already joined when I get back from work while reading this.
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Jun 27, 2016 12:28
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God of Evil Cows posted:The BREAD guideline that has been mentioned in the thread already is a solid guideline, but it's a Draft guideline for the order in which you should pick cards during drafting and not a strategy for sealed deck building. I can't ever see this without laughing to myself now. I watched a debate in a streamers chat one day, and I wish I could remember who started it, where an argument broke out that BREAD doesn't really work for draft and was meant as a strategy for sealed deck building. 
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Jun 27, 2016 15:26
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Bread is an incredibly rudimentary heuristic that is good for people who are completely new to limited formats. It's fine for someone's first couple limited excursions but Bread's usefulness goes off a cliff quickly. I feel like you get more useful information from watching a good player explain what they're playing than following Bread.
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Jun 27, 2016 17:31
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The key thing that BREAD leaves out is that you can't just evaluate cards in a vacuum and stick a label on each one. You have to consider synergies. For example, Gossamer Tears on its own is a pretty terrible card. If you just looked at BREAD, it would be a very solid D. But put a couple of Ghost Howlers in your pool, and suddenly it becomes a very potent way to keep them triggering every turn.
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Jun 27, 2016 19:07
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Thoom posted:Evo-specific tips: I've definitely had the best luck with the Uzzu method. 3 colors of playables is way better than 2 colors of 2/3s playables. Even after the 1 win and 3 win packs I often don't really have the cards to go two color (although if you can make a 2 color deck that's as playable as your 3 color you probably should). The Moon Monster fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Jun 27, 2016 |
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Jun 27, 2016 22:07
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Thoom posted:The key thing that BREAD leaves out is that you can't just evaluate cards in a vacuum and stick a label on each one. You have to consider synergies. Yeah, that's because the mnemonic was designed before Wizards started making highly synergistic draft formats.
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Jun 28, 2016 00:13
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