Nethrandamus and Altruis the Outcast were the Demon Hunter Initiate Legendaries, for reference. Both of them told us something about how the Demon Hunter wanted to function, without using a new Keyword: Neth was about tokens and death payoffs, while Altruis supported Outcast plays without actually saying it. For this comp, I want you to create a Death Knight Legendary that shows us what the class is - hypothetically - all about.
With that in mind, I have two ideas. I think the second one is more interesting, but I kept the Dragon in there just in case people prefer it:
Sapphiron is a Freeze-payoff card, but also implies there won't be any AoE Freezing going on ('cause that would be too good). It pushes the DK into a grinder-style Control deck where you run your opponent out of resources, Freezing and Taunting your way to an inevitable victory.
Lord Tamakeen is for the oft-forgotten Blood side of the Death Knight, a specialization built around tanking with Health regen and lifestealing. Lord Tamakeen would convert healing into Armor so you can overheal, or for keeping you at "low Health" for effects like Lokholar the Ice Lord.
It has been awhile since my last update. I am still 710 wins away to have all 10 classes at 1500 or more wins. No easy task because the meta is currently not favoring most of my remaining classes left to complete.
It would be very nice to achieve this feat before the upcoming introduction of the Death Knight class with the next expansion which is kinda sorta unofficially confirmed by a reliable source.
Surely this time they will add another total wins milestone/tier to each class. Last time this happened was when the Demon Hunter class got introduced, if I remember correctly.
A big part of the reason they designed card acquisition this way is that they wanted to emulate the pre-internet physical trading card experience of different people having very different collections. Anyone with the most rudimentary number sense could have told them that THIS IS AN EXTREMELY STUPID DESIGN GOAL.
It may have been fun and interesting when you were a kid, and you only knew 20 people who collected cards, and if you were to play a game with those cards, the meta would consist of 20 players, and you'd all have extremely limited knowledge of the game system as a whole.
When you are designing a card game for the internet, where everyone has nearly instant access to the full card list, extensive knowledge of the entire metagame, and the ability to play with anyone in the world of any income level, you simply cannot hope that people will be happy leaving the shape of their collection to random chance. Instead of keeping them coming back for more in the hope of getting a specific wished-for card, it's just as likely to frustrate them and drive them away forever.
Needless to say, they very unwisely tipped their hand when they released the monstrously predatory Nexus garbage for testing. They burned a hell of a lot of good will when the players saw just how much money Second Dinner hoped to make from anyone willing to pay cash to accelerate the card acquisition process.
So, for me, nothing short of a total overhaul would ever entice me to spend a dime on Marvel Snap. Ideally, they'd let people buy fixed sets of cards for fixed sums, and find some way other than card acquisition to make additional money.
Also, the question about player retention was adorable -- as if any developer would ever give a meaningful, honest answer to that.
I just hit level 101 and completed the cosmetic part of the rewards track.
My mission now is to get 1500 wins with the remaining 5 classes for which I still need 710 wins in total. I would very much like to achieve this before the upcoming Death Knight class gets introduced with the next expansion.
Anyways, how you doing? 😉
EDIT: Off topic, that runestones BS is really scaring the crap out of me. Over time, it likely will devalue the existing gold currency and make HS cost even more real money. Worrying times 😬
I agree with a lot of your ideas; it does feel like the progression would feel more rewarding if the pools were broken up more (especially Pool 3) and players had more control over which cards they were chasing. It sounds similar to Runeterra's Region Roads where players choose a "path" with themed rewards that they earn: cards, Variants, Avatars, etc. all themed within that grouping. Obviously, the difficult part is balancing each "path" so there isn't one that's the for-sure pick and one (or several) that players will skip.
But yeah, the biggest problem in my opinion is that Pool 3 is way too big. It's got almost 3 times as many cards as Pool 2 (and will likely hit 75 cards in October, when Daredevil is added to it); there's so little control over which Pool 3 cards you get that one player can feel they're opening only "pack-filler" while everyone else gets the good stuff - and they have no control over it. Some cards are only good if you have another specific Pool 3 card: Death, for instance, isn't as good without Wave. To be honest, I don't know what's worse for player retention: offering players a choice where they might later feel they chose "wrong," or offering them no choice where they might later feel they've been "unlucky." It's possible this is one version they tested that sounded good but didn't feel great in practice.
Your last point is very interesting, but sounds mostly like a matchmaking problem. I wonder if the team has this sort of scenario on their mind. For my money, Daredevil is really the only Season Pass card (so far) that would feel unfair to play against. Wave is a meta staple, but much of her power comes from interactions with other Pool 3 cards. Thor has good upside, but is a vanilla 4-Drop if you never find Mjolnir. With only Pool 1 cards, it's hard to build "unfair" decks surrounding these cards, even though their power level is higher than the standard Pool 1 card. I might ask a similar question on the Discord (or see if one has already been asked) and see what the response is. My guess is it's something along the lines of, "We believe that having more cards equals more options, not more power."
I've already had my day ruined enough times playing against Concurrent Timelines decks and watching my opponent roll Boxtopus and Ancient Crocolith on the first two units they play. I do not need more random summons in this game, thanks.
Okay riot... I am not sure who told you that more hearthstone is what players wanted, and I don't care that this is proably going to be a LoR exclusive champion with norra,
...get this highroll shit out of office... NOW
Chimes and husks were bad enough we don't need even worse rng mechanics in the game, that make players saltier than needed.
I hope the portal archetype is shit and not even close to competetive because if it is... you will find me playing mtg only
Since Ben discussed it a little, I'm curious to hear if other people have ideas about how the progression system should work? Their collection system is unusual (needing only one copy of each card, and using a small number in a deck), so I agree that they need something different than other games. Making it easy to get the exact cards you want would probably make the game feel less interesting, but it's frustrating to have to grind with no control over the order you'll get cards.
The best idea I've had is to group all the cards into sets of 10 or so. (Thematically, each set would hopefully be a team of some sort.) Then you would choose which team you are currently trying to "recruit" from. When you earn a new card, it would be a random one from that team that you don't yet have. Switching between teams has some cost to it - say, half of the resources equivalent to getting the next card. That way, you can bounce between teams to get the meta cards, but there is some motivation to stick around and complete the set. Of course, since I don't work for Second Dinner, I haven't gotten past the idea stages. I don't know how much effort it should take to earn each card, how quickly a paid player should be allowed to add cards, etc.
If the game does keep a system similar to what it has now, then I think there are two important changes they need to make: First, they need to break the cards up into smaller pools. Pool 3 has so many cards that it truly feels hopeless if you don't have a certain meta card yet and all your opponents do. Secondly, they can't give out new cards in the monthly pass or other events. Someone in pool 1 could earn a strong card that isn't supposed to be available until pool 3 normally, and their opponents won't feel like they're playing on an even field.
I always disliked playing against quest-lines (particularly hunter, mage, and priest) but Renathal has made it much worse. I think Renathal should not exist in standard alongside any form of quest deck, because playing against a quest deck often comes down to killing them asap and Renathal makes that significantly harder. However, the increased deck size and hence inconsistency in draws is almost completely negated by the quest starting in hand.
My impressions of the overall meta;
High-rolling has become more important, off-board damage is too high (Brann and/or Kaelthas are big problems there, as well as Macaw in shaman), there are a lot of freeze effects, and the disruption tools that are available (Mutanus and Theotar) have massive elements of luck to them and I am fed up of games being decided by luck. Sure , I can influence the luck but ultimately games are still decided by a roll of a die.
Master Yi actually is pretty nuts if you ask me, not because huge attack quick attackers would be so impressive but much more because yi is proably THE best unit to use Retreat/Return on as it lets him dodge any removal for 2 mana and activate Flow.
The fact that he buffs yis everywhere is just very huge when you consider that recalling him to dodge removal is not nearly as troll as it would be with other self buffing units.
I mean... 0 mana Recall to be allways ready to interact? Am I seeing things or will Master Yi the hardest to remove champion after Kai'Sa in the game
The equipment is big enough and Interesting enough to not be terrible... but I don't see any yordle besides Poppy use this and Poppy isn't a discard archetype
Dawn Of The Dead - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Nethrandamus and Altruis the Outcast were the Demon Hunter Initiate Legendaries, for reference. Both of them told us something about how the Demon Hunter wanted to function, without using a new Keyword: Neth was about tokens and death payoffs, while Altruis supported Outcast plays without actually saying it. For this comp, I want you to create a Death Knight Legendary that shows us what the class is - hypothetically - all about.
With that in mind, I have two ideas. I think the second one is more interesting, but I kept the Dragon in there just in case people prefer it:
Sapphiron is a Freeze-payoff card, but also implies there won't be any AoE Freezing going on ('cause that would be too good). It pushes the DK into a grinder-style Control deck where you run your opponent out of resources, Freezing and Taunting your way to an inevitable victory.
Lord Tamakeen is for the oft-forgotten Blood side of the Death Knight, a specialization built around tanking with Health regen and lifestealing. Lord Tamakeen would convert healing into Armor so you can overheal, or for keeping you at "low Health" for effects like Lokholar the Ice Lord.
Dawn Of The Dead - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Competition Theme: Dawn Of The Dead
Demon Hunter was added to the game so smoothly with no issues at all - surely adding another class will be easy enough?
This time linkblade91 wants us to imagine a world in which the Death Knight is added to the game. I wonder why...?
As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.
Competition Phases
Here are the phases of this card design competition
Discussion Thread Rules
No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.
Golden Hero Portrait - Completionist & Grind
It has been awhile since my last update. I am still 710 wins away to have all 10 classes at 1500 or more wins. No easy task because the meta is currently not favoring most of my remaining classes left to complete.
It would be very nice to achieve this feat before the upcoming introduction of the Death Knight class with the next expansion which is kinda sorta unofficially confirmed by a reliable source.
Surely this time they will add another total wins milestone/tier to each class. Last time this happened was when the Demon Hunter class got introduced, if I remember correctly.
Anyways, here are my current statistics:
Peace and good luck to y'all 🤟🏻
Marvel Snap Developer Discord Recap #9 - Current Roadmap, Player Retention, Card Design, & More!
A big part of the reason they designed card acquisition this way is that they wanted to emulate the pre-internet physical trading card experience of different people having very different collections. Anyone with the most rudimentary number sense could have told them that THIS IS AN EXTREMELY STUPID DESIGN GOAL.
It may have been fun and interesting when you were a kid, and you only knew 20 people who collected cards, and if you were to play a game with those cards, the meta would consist of 20 players, and you'd all have extremely limited knowledge of the game system as a whole.
When you are designing a card game for the internet, where everyone has nearly instant access to the full card list, extensive knowledge of the entire metagame, and the ability to play with anyone in the world of any income level, you simply cannot hope that people will be happy leaving the shape of their collection to random chance. Instead of keeping them coming back for more in the hope of getting a specific wished-for card, it's just as likely to frustrate them and drive them away forever.
Needless to say, they very unwisely tipped their hand when they released the monstrously predatory Nexus garbage for testing. They burned a hell of a lot of good will when the players saw just how much money Second Dinner hoped to make from anyone willing to pay cash to accelerate the card acquisition process.
So, for me, nothing short of a total overhaul would ever entice me to spend a dime on Marvel Snap. Ideally, they'd let people buy fixed sets of cards for fixed sums, and find some way other than card acquisition to make additional money.
Also, the question about player retention was adorable -- as if any developer would ever give a meaningful, honest answer to that.
Rewards Track: Current progress 6.0
I just hit level 101 and completed the cosmetic part of the rewards track.
My mission now is to get 1500 wins with the remaining 5 classes for which I still need 710 wins in total. I would very much like to achieve this before the upcoming Death Knight class gets introduced with the next expansion.
Anyways, how you doing? 😉
EDIT: Off topic, that runestones BS is really scaring the crap out of me. Over time, it likely will devalue the existing gold currency and make HS cost even more real money. Worrying times 😬
New Bandle City Card - The Tea Maker
Now you only need to hit The Tea Maker from the myterious portal every time to start an infinite loop ;)
New Bandle City Card - Junk Construct
A new Common Bandle City Unit, Junk Construct, has been revealed!
Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!
Learn more about Worldwalker
Head on over to our dedicated guide for Worldwalker!
New Bandle City Card - The Tea Maker
A new Common Bandle City Unit, The Tea Maker, has been revealed!
Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!
Learn more about Worldwalker
Head on over to our dedicated guide for Worldwalker!
New Bandle City Equipment - Origami Slicer
A new Rare Bandle City Equipment, Origami Slicer, has been revealed!
Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!
Learn more about Worldwalker
Head on over to our dedicated guide for Worldwalker!
New Bandle City Spell - Magical Journey
A new Common Bandle City Spell, Magical Journey, has been revealed!
Discuss this card below or head on over to the card page to give it a rating!
Learn more about Worldwalker
Head on over to our dedicated guide for Worldwalker!
Marvel Snap Developer Discord Recap #9 - Current Roadmap, Player Retention, Card Design, & More!
I agree with a lot of your ideas; it does feel like the progression would feel more rewarding if the pools were broken up more (especially Pool 3) and players had more control over which cards they were chasing. It sounds similar to Runeterra's Region Roads where players choose a "path" with themed rewards that they earn: cards, Variants, Avatars, etc. all themed within that grouping. Obviously, the difficult part is balancing each "path" so there isn't one that's the for-sure pick and one (or several) that players will skip.
But yeah, the biggest problem in my opinion is that Pool 3 is way too big. It's got almost 3 times as many cards as Pool 2 (and will likely hit 75 cards in October, when Daredevil is added to it); there's so little control over which Pool 3 cards you get that one player can feel they're opening only "pack-filler" while everyone else gets the good stuff - and they have no control over it. Some cards are only good if you have another specific Pool 3 card: Death, for instance, isn't as good without Wave. To be honest, I don't know what's worse for player retention: offering players a choice where they might later feel they chose "wrong," or offering them no choice where they might later feel they've been "unlucky." It's possible this is one version they tested that sounded good but didn't feel great in practice.
Your last point is very interesting, but sounds mostly like a matchmaking problem. I wonder if the team has this sort of scenario on their mind. For my money, Daredevil is really the only Season Pass card (so far) that would feel unfair to play against. Wave is a meta staple, but much of her power comes from interactions with other Pool 3 cards. Thor has good upside, but is a vanilla 4-Drop if you never find Mjolnir. With only Pool 1 cards, it's hard to build "unfair" decks surrounding these cards, even though their power level is higher than the standard Pool 1 card. I might ask a similar question on the Discord (or see if one has already been asked) and see what the response is. My guess is it's something along the lines of, "We believe that having more cards equals more options, not more power."
Riot Reveals 4 New Bandle City Cards from Legends of Runeterra's Upcoming "Awakening" Expansion
I've already had my day ruined enough times playing against Concurrent Timelines decks and watching my opponent roll Boxtopus and Ancient Crocolith on the first two units they play. I do not need more random summons in this game, thanks.
Riot Reveals 4 New Bandle City Cards from Legends of Runeterra's Upcoming "Awakening" Expansion
Okay riot... I am not sure who told you that more hearthstone is what players wanted, and I don't care that this is proably going to be a LoR exclusive champion with norra,
...get this highroll shit out of office... NOW
Chimes and husks were bad enough we don't need even worse rng mechanics in the game, that make players saltier than needed.
I hope the portal archetype is shit and not even close to competetive because if it is... you will find me playing mtg only
Marvel Snap Developer Discord Recap #9 - Current Roadmap, Player Retention, Card Design, & More!
Since Ben discussed it a little, I'm curious to hear if other people have ideas about how the progression system should work? Their collection system is unusual (needing only one copy of each card, and using a small number in a deck), so I agree that they need something different than other games. Making it easy to get the exact cards you want would probably make the game feel less interesting, but it's frustrating to have to grind with no control over the order you'll get cards.
The best idea I've had is to group all the cards into sets of 10 or so. (Thematically, each set would hopefully be a team of some sort.) Then you would choose which team you are currently trying to "recruit" from. When you earn a new card, it would be a random one from that team that you don't yet have. Switching between teams has some cost to it - say, half of the resources equivalent to getting the next card. That way, you can bounce between teams to get the meta cards, but there is some motivation to stick around and complete the set. Of course, since I don't work for Second Dinner, I haven't gotten past the idea stages. I don't know how much effort it should take to earn each card, how quickly a paid player should be allowed to add cards, etc.
If the game does keep a system similar to what it has now, then I think there are two important changes they need to make: First, they need to break the cards up into smaller pools. Pool 3 has so many cards that it truly feels hopeless if you don't have a certain meta card yet and all your opponents do. Secondly, they can't give out new cards in the monthly pass or other events. Someone in pool 1 could earn a strong card that isn't supposed to be available until pool 3 normally, and their opponents won't feel like they're playing on an even field.
What creature is this?
I think it's a carb with some leave stick to it. If you give a bath to carbs, then it will be easy to recognise
Group Therapy! Need to blow off some steam? Mega salty? Here's the place!
Is anyone else finding this meta unenjoyable?
I always disliked playing against quest-lines (particularly hunter, mage, and priest) but Renathal has made it much worse. I think Renathal should not exist in standard alongside any form of quest deck, because playing against a quest deck often comes down to killing them asap and Renathal makes that significantly harder. However, the increased deck size and hence inconsistency in draws is almost completely negated by the quest starting in hand.
My impressions of the overall meta;
High-rolling has become more important, off-board damage is too high (Brann and/or Kaelthas are big problems there, as well as Macaw in shaman), there are a lot of freeze effects, and the disruption tools that are available (Mutanus and Theotar) have massive elements of luck to them and I am fed up of games being decided by luck. Sure , I can influence the luck but ultimately games are still decided by a roll of a die.
Hearthstone Grandmasters: Last Call Continues With Week 3 - Here's What You Need to Know
still nothing here :(
New Ionia Champion - Master Yi
Master Yi actually is pretty nuts if you ask me, not because huge attack quick attackers would be so impressive but much more because yi is proably THE best unit to use Retreat/Return on as it lets him dodge any removal for 2 mana and activate Flow.
The fact that he buffs yis everywhere is just very huge when you consider that recalling him to dodge removal is not nearly as troll as it would be with other self buffing units.
I mean... 0 mana Recall to be allways ready to interact? Am I seeing things or will Master Yi the hardest to remove champion after Kai'Sa in the game
New Ionia Spell - Wuju Style
3 mana +2/+2 + double spell activation is neat. Is it really good? No but I think it's good enough to be played in it's archetype and that fair enough
New Bandle City Equipment - Mechapulverizer
The equipment is big enough and Interesting enough to not be terrible... but I don't see any yordle besides Poppy use this and Poppy isn't a discard archetype
New Piltover & Zaun Landmark - Back Alley Bar
Highly competetive card, just as every Back Alley Barkeep card
0/5 stars
New Targon Equipment - The Darkin Lodestone
2 Stars because this card is flexible but not more because both sides kinda are 1 star cards on their own
New Targon Spell - Seal In Steel
As snnuy already mentioned in his video, this spell can be quite good in fated decks as a failsafe for large units.
Also I could see this working with ephemeral units as those tend to die anyways and be overstatted.
Targon SI also have the mikhaels ephemeral combination and I would think that with the right build a janky midrange deck could work
Hearthstone Grandmasters: Last Call Continues With Week 3 - Here's What You Need to Know
Here too - this morning.
Riot Reveals 4 New Cards from Legends of Runeterra's Upcoming "Awakening" Expansion
Yup, one of the devs confirmed it on Twitter. But I agree that "new" is not very descriptive.