Duel of Champions

[Hoaxmetal]

http://na.alienwarearena.com/giveaways/might-magic-duel-of-champions-starter-box

Basically free The Box for new accounts.

 

[Jaedar]

http://na.alienwarearena.com/giveaways/might-magic-duel-of-champions-starter-box

Basically free The Box for new accounts.

That's really good value.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Yeah, I wish I had known about this when I started :<<

 

[Infinitron]

Now on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/256410/

 

[procrastinator]

In other news, they also nerfed Ammar and Strength of the Sea

 

[Grunker]

In other news, they also nerfed Ammar and Strength of the Sea

yup, finally

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

I might give this a shot. Tried MtG, thought it was interesting, but I can't stand the whole buying cards thing. A grind mechanism would work for me, I think, and I have a thing for ELO based games.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

It's on steam, best game got even better.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been playing this for a little bit, the free Alienware shit was pretty good, that and some other random codes netted me something like 180 cards, which is pretty good.

However, I didn't get a single Hero out of them. I'm trying to play a Necro deck and the default Hero seems garbage, is it worth ponying up some crystals at the Altar for a new one?

 

[procrastinator]

If you're at 1200-1300 ELO and trying to get to 1.5k, than maybe it is. Otherwise, unlikely.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Thanks. Also on the subject of deck building, I've read people referring to deck construction in terms of X/X/X values, I assume those to be Might/Magic/Destiny, correct? When for example someone mentions a 4/4/2 deck, do they mean that they'll only be going up to 4 Might/4 Magic/2 Destiny throughout the course of a match, yes?

The only board wiping spell (kinda) I have right now for this deck is one that requires 6 Magic - Curse of the Netherworld. Is it worth keeping it?

 

[Hoaxmetal]

You're right about the values. Personally I don't use lvl5 cards, takes too much rounds to get there and you may have lost the game by that point.

 

[procrastinator]

Depends on where you're going with your deck, really. I have 36 creatures in my deck, so it's kinda aggressive and because of that I limit my Magic to 4. Get some reinforcement packs to get Geysers, those are definitely worth keeping.

 

[Grunker]

Thanks. Also on the subject of deck building, I've read people referring to deck construction in terms of X/X/X values, I assume those to be Might/Magic/Destiny, correct? When for example someone mentions a 4/4/2 deck, do they mean that they'll only be going up to 4 Might/4 Magic/2 Destiny throughout the course of a match, yes?

The only board wiping spell (kinda) I have right now for this deck is one that requires 6 Magic - Curse of the Netherworld. Is it worth keeping it?

In the "beginning" of your career - definetely. Games often go long at sub 1100, and big spells to finish the game can be key.

 

[Great Deceiver]

So I've been playing and thinking about the best way to spend Gold - I did the campaign (are there only 3 "stages"?), and used all the Gold I earned to buy regular boosters (regular Reinforcement packs). I didn't spend any Seals yet, and I'm wondering if it's worth saving up for the 2 expansion box bundle that's up on the store. I think I can make it with my next levelup reward.

When is buying the expansion(s) single boosters worth it?

I have around 10 Wildcards, and have a pretty decent idea of some specific cards I would like to round up my Necro deck - after getting lucky with some drops in my regular Reinforcement purchases earlier, I managed to get an Atropos, one Pao Deathseeker (I would like a couple more of those), and an Archlich (I also think I could do with another couple of those). Should I keep opening base-set regular booster packs and hope for the best, or just put down some Wildcards? I would manage to get 2 of the cards I want at best, so not sure if worth it.

I've done a few matchmaking games and got curbstomped in most of them. I seem to lose to aggro decks really easily.

 

[procrastinator]

I use seals only for those 1400 boxes, this way you get the most wildcards for your seals.

When is buying the expansion(s) single boosters worth it?

You must have 200 cards from an expansion to unlock it at the altar, so you'll have to get those anyway.

 

[Zeriel]

Use gold to buy Herald of the Void packs unless you literally have 0 cards and need to build up a foundation, they give wildcards which are very valuable for building real decks.

Like Procrastinator said, you need a certain number of cards for base and each expansion to unlock using wildcards for that set, so I suppose it's worth it to buy reinforcement packs until you hit that threshold. But as soon as you do, only buy the expansions. Herald gives the best wildcard ratio, and it declines from there.

 

[Great Deceiver]

So I managed to scrounge up enough seals to buy the combination box that's on sale for the first two expansions I'm not sure it was a good value from a Necro deck perspective. My first impression is that the Necro cards for those two sets so far are pretty underwhelming, I managed to find some decent ones (like 3 Untamed Wraiths) and I'm slowly getting my deck out of the gutter. I also bought some more base packs and I now have 3 Banshees, and the fortune that allows you to search the deck for 3 more same-name cards and pull them out into your hand (Serla's Legion).

Otherwise, after playing a little more I've come to some conclusions - I like the game, it's fun, the f2p model is generous enough (definitely possible to get a decent collection without paying a dime - you get cards frequently), but there was something bothering me that I couldn't quite put my finger on, then I realize, it's the fact that there are so many instant spells and no interrupt category. It's really a pain in the ass to plan for a nice attack on your next turn and then get blasted by instant board clears that you can barely do anything about without. Maybe it's just inexperience and lack of familiarity with cards, but those seem to get me more often than not, even though I try to avoid clumping shit together for obvious AoE spells.

What do you think? Does the lack of interrupts bother you at all?

 

[Jaedar]

As someone who plays magic frequently, the lack of instants ALWAYS bothers me. But I see why they don't have them in the game, I just wish there were some more tools to hate on control decks(more magic immune creatures, or ones that gave you stuff when they took spell damage or such).

Imo all sets have playable undead creatures(same goes for all the other castles). Doesn't mean you drew them though

 

[Grunker]

As someone who plays magic frequently, the lack of instants ALWAYS bothers me. But I see why they don't have them in the game, I just wish there were some more tools to hate on control decks(more magic immune creatures, or ones that gave you stuff when they took spell damage or such).

Imo all sets have playable undead creatures(same goes for all the other castles). Doesn't mean you drew them though

Well, events are there to do what instants should. In theory, at least.

 

[procrastinator]

I'm more bothered by the way a choice of a hero limits your deck building capabilities. As I see it, there are about two good decks for each faction and it's usually a creature deck vs non-creature deck. This will obviously change as the new expansions are released, but then it will be much harder to have a decent collection with the current f2p model.

 

[Grunker]

I'm more bothered by the way a choice of a hero limits your deck building capabilities. As I see it, there are about two good decks for each faction and it's usually a creature deck vs non-creature deck. This will obviously change as the new expansions are released, but then it will be much harder to have a decent collection with the current f2p model.

Yeah, forcing you into "colors" instead of making it difficult is what makes this inherently inferior to MtG. At least its more complex and has more longevity than Hearthstone, though Hearthstone has a draft mode which is a pretty fucking big plus.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I'm getting close to 1000 now and I'm having a lot of problems with board clearing shit like Tsunami, etc. There are far too many instant aoe spells in the game that you apparently can do nothing about. Any tips for a Necro deck using the default Hero (Water and Dark spells)?

 

[Zeriel]

I'm getting close to 1000 now and I'm having a lot of problems with board clearing shit like Tsunami, etc. There are far too many instant aoe spells in the game that you apparently can do nothing about. Any tips for a Necro deck using the default Hero (Water and Dark spells)?

The default hero is basically an aggro deck, you take advantage of Strength of the Sea and hope that wins you the game flat-out. Necro decks in general are experiencing a heavy downswing after an era of dominance. There are certain faggy decks that work at top tier (Nergal slowpoke for example) but they work because of stalldeck mechanics, not because of the hero/faction.

To answer your more general question from earlier on in the thread:

Yes, the lack of interrupts ruins the game's fun factor once you approach 1500. More generally, spells are way too strong, fortunes have no all-around counter (there are a few specific ones, but they are locked to certan heroes/factions), and high cost creatures are almost always a terrible thing to play, no matter what.

Also the advent of buying individual cards ruined a lot of the balance that existed based around the rarity of cards. It's pretty clear to me that when Pao Deathseeker was first designed, it was designed with the intention that most people would not have 4X of it. Same goes for things like Dark Assassin. Now in a meta where everyone has 4X of such cards, things get pretty ridiculous.

You can play average spell/creature necro decks to around the 1300 range, but after that point you'll get beaten down by stalldecks and things like Sandalphon. If you like creature decks, I suggest playing Haven and picking Sandalphon, he has probably the best toolbox in the game for the creature/spell deck approach. Keep in mind I haven't played since the Strength of Sea nerf someone mentioned, so if someone else coudl pipe in with the details of that change, that'd be great.

All of the above may sound really negative, so here's a gentle reminder: despite all of this, Duel of Champions is still, in my opinion, by far the best online TCG. (Not counting Magic because it's really ugly and you can play it offline, so you know, different genre entirely.)

 

[procrastinator]

I'm getting close to 1000 now and I'm having a lot of problems with board clearing shit like Tsunami, etc. There are far too many instant aoe spells in the game that you apparently can do nothing about. Any tips for a Necro deck using the default Hero (Water and Dark spells)?

Play more Paos and Shadow Images to push those last points of damage and maybe try to keep a backup creature in hand, dunno.

You can play average spell/creature necro decks to around the 1300 range, but after that point you'll get beaten down by stalldecks and things like Sandalphon.

Sandalphon is bearable, Ishuma seems to be the hardest matchup to me.

Keep in mind I haven't played since the Strength of Sea nerf someone mentioned, so if someone else coudl pipe in with the details of that change, that'd be great.

They upped cost and magic requirement by one.