Loose Ends

Welcome constant reader, these days are a little slower than average, so let?s get a few reactions from my older posts, along with some news of friends, and accomplishments.

VS ain?t Magic (and other such notable phrases)

Well, as usual, me and my opinions get me all sorts of strange attention. Ben, the runner of the superb VSRealms.com recently referenced several of my points in his recent Marvel Knights sneak peek VS preview card from the upcoming Marvel Knights set. Just a few notes here. I?

• Never said it would ruin VS
• Never said VS was Magic
• Never implied Shadow hurt the Magic ?Machine? but it did hurt the metagame for quite awhile, at that time. It is widely regarded as a design mistake, just like this one will be for VS.

One of the most interesting posts in the forum thread regarding the new preview card was this one:

I'm looking forward to playing with this new concealed mechanic. You are right - how can people judge a new style of play when the have not yet played with it?

Simple: You look at CCG game patterns. Each CCG, at some point in time, will have to make some drastic decisions of varying components. If one of the primary goals for a CCG is to change, adapt, and evolve, then there need to be careful choices made in doing so. I feel as if adding the Concealment mechanic is the wrong choice, yes, even without playing it. Let?s take what this really does for the game:

• It adds another total play zone (duh).
• Firstly this hinders new players learning the game, adding a whole layer of complication, and secondly it adds another level of complexity for the veteran as now his decisions must be weighed against what they or their opponent control in their Concealed areas. This, in turn, adds lots of time per-match, something VS already has issues with.
• It adds amazing rule complexity. Remember when I spoke of major design decisions, and how the best choices are usually the simplest ones? Check out this article on metagame.com explaining the new mechanic and rules/character changes there-in. The part on Equipment and what makes it hidden, when its destroyed, etc, is just ridiculous in that all of this text will now have to make its way into the rulebook.
• It creates unattackable characters. This, in turn, creates almost invincible characters in terms of an offensive strategy. Now, if I?m reading this right, and I read it quite a few times, characters with this mechanic can not be attacked at all. Even other characters with Concealment cannot attack those in this new player zone.

What does this mean? Well, it means that players will be forced to deal with almost invincible characters from now on. Sure they can be stunned?but they must also be dealt with in an entirely defensive way. This changes strategy, and alters current winning conditions (such as the metagame-warping Teen Titans deck which is so lauded in the current VS metagame). This is a good thing. You want new sets to shake things up. But the way this was done?it looks like a mistake, smells like a mistake, and in a few weeks will most likely play like one as well.

But let?s say my ?offensive strategies are dead? argument is wrong. Let?s say there is a card in the new set that let?s Hidden characters be attacked as if they were not so. This doesn?t change my next point:

This mechanic is one that can?t be left alone. Sure the uninspiring mechanics from previous sets such as Invulnerability (which doesn?t do what you think it does) and Evasion (too niche to matter) don?t necessarily lean towards future use because of inherent problems (and boredom), the VS design team now has the Hidden Area hanging around their necks.

Most people don?t think of the decisions necessary to make a set, and again I would like to point out that I enjoy VS. I love the decisions that the designers have made?right up until now. This design burden will be even more disasterous if a player successfully breaks this mechanic and the metagame is now faced with a ?Fix the Hidden Area? cries along with ?But Please Also Give Us Interesting Characters and Mechanics? cries which come with any set ever released.

To put it in perspective, in Star Chamber there is a character named Professor Hernandez. He is so good that no matter how I think in terms of new set design, he is a factor that must be considered. Just as Magic begins to create more powerful answers to their design mistake Arcbound Ravager, the VS team will struggle with those same fixes in the coming year with Concealment.

But, you say, I haven?t played with it. But some truths are just self evident, aren?t they?

Betrayer

Last Saturday I took the time to head to Nashville and compete in the Betrayers of Kamigawa Magic event. Winning both of my pre-release flights, I headed home with two boxes of booster goodness.

Some friends of mine should be cracking these open for some draft action later this week, and just today I got an email saying there will be an ?emergency? pre-release make-up (due to bad weather) this Saturday. This is, to say the least, exciting and gives me yet another chance to turn $25 into $100 worth of goods (or just win a few $14 drafts). Of course, my wife?s birthday is Friday and here I am thinking of getting up at 6AM on Saturday morning. I don?t think these two situations are going to gel, as it were.

Moving Up and Out

If you haven?t been reading the Saga of Tone, perhaps you should. He?s moving into a friend?s place (technically: basement?), that according to said friend has no flooding, something Tony has been dealing with for awhile. Me, I see this as some sort of perverted system of a landlord who opts for ignorance instead of owning up to his responsibility. I know if I woke up with inches of water around my place I?d raise some serious hell.