all of the frostbite spells being burst tilts me to no end
It’s because of how our stack works- if we made frostbite spells fast it would actually be an enormous buff to frostbite bc any buff applied after the frostbite spell goes on the stack would then be negated by the frostbite spell. In other words:
You attack with zed
I frostbite zed
You respond with twin disciplines
In a fast world, zed is an 0/2, in a burst world he’s a 3/2- we prefer the world where you have more counterplay :). We also found the same interaction to be true between barrier and damage spells which is why barrier spells are burst
The only balance knob we have to turn here is making effects slow (but that I will leave to our design & balance team!)
Any chance for the stack change in the future? I mean it is obvious that if that stack implementation doesn't give yout freedom to design but instead constrains choices it is not very sound implementation. And if the stack worked like it does in MTG (spell-by-spell resolution) the problem you described would not exist!
And it doesn't necessarily make the game harder for those who didn't play MTG. The big button still can resolve all stack at once with small button resolving stack step-by-step with an ability to put a "stop" on any spell (click on a spell to set a stop) in the stack to get priority after it resolved. Really, it would make the game so much more interactive if we could intervene during the stack resolution.
I'm only a somewhat credible source here (not a designer), but I think it's unlikely. The mtg stack has a really big downside in that it requires a lot of passing back and forth in the digital space (queue up the conversation with autopass that there are very strongly feelings on both sides as to whether or not that should exist). The current way the stack operates was a result of a loooot of iteration: our design team recognizes its downsides but decided it was the overall best choice for our game.
I have a question pertaining to burst spells. Burst spells state that opponents don't get a chance to react. However, during an attack phase, if you use a burst spell, the turn goes back to the opponent before commencing the attacks. Why does this happen? I feel like that defeats the purpose of the word burst if they get a turn after.
It's not for effects that we want your opponents to be completely unable to react to: just for effects we want to resolve immediately. I know that sounds a little pedantic but the example I gave above is an instance of that: we want frostbite to feel like it has counterplay. Another example is card draw: putting that on the stack limits the amount of counterplay you can have (you'd have to wait for your cards), and the only reason to put it on the stack would be explictly for deny (and I think most of this subreddit would agree: that card already does a lot).
riot_kuaggie
It’s because of how our stack works- if we made frostbite spells fast it would actually be an enormous buff to frostbite bc any buff applied after the frostbite spell goes on the stack would then be negated by the frostbite spell. In other words:
You attack with zed
I frostbite zed
You respond with twin disciplines
In a fast world, zed is an 0/2, in a burst world he’s a 3/2- we prefer the world where you have more counterplay :). We also found the same interaction to be true between barrier and damage spells which is why barrier spells are burst
The only balance knob we have to turn here is making effects slow (but that I will leave to our design & balance team!)
riot_kuaggie
I'm only a somewhat credible source here (not a designer), but I think it's unlikely. The mtg stack has a really big downside in that it requires a lot of passing back and forth in the digital space (queue up the conversation with autopass that there are very strongly feelings on both sides as to whether or not that should exist). The current way the stack operates was a result of a loooot of iteration: our design team recognizes its downsides but decided it was the overall best choice for our game.
riot_kuaggie
It's not for effects that we want your opponents to be completely unable to react to: just for effects we want to resolve immediately. I know that sounds a little pedantic but the example I gave above is an instance of that: we want frostbite to feel like it has counterplay. Another example is card draw: putting that on the stack limits the amount of counterplay you can have (you'd have to wait for your cards), and the only reason to put it on the stack would be explictly for deny (and I think most of this subreddit would agree: that card already does a lot).