Hey Splinterlandians,
No fancy post today. No GIFs, or glamour... just raw data and opinion.
Ya boi Dingus has been fighting his way through Modern Bronze in an attempt to climb up to the Gold/Diamond/Champ ranks...
Now, a little backstory on this:
I joined at the end of Untamed/Dice... right after the SPS Airdrop started.
When I started - there was no Wild/Modern. Just hop in and play... and get murdered by most other people.
I got beat a LOT by LlamaKron, Yodin and Kitty Spam, Sea Serpent + Pirate Captain and more... So what did I do... I bought them.
Eventually I put CaptainDingus on the back burner and played with my Llama-Kron account...
I brought Dingus back for another go at the Ranked Battles and... well... I find myself losing to Quora and Ishgald Vorst regardless of my team and there are no purchasable cards to beat them... especially at 16 and 19 mana respectively.
In every other TCG that I have ever played and I have played a LOT - 28 years experience in them and I played at a high level for quite a while - I even qualified for and played in the Magic: the Gathering National Championships where I beat both hall of famer Darwin Kastle and Richard Garfield in the VIP Sit n Go head to head matches...
What this effectively means is:
All new players who join, regardless of whether they rent a few cards or buy EVERY CARD IN THE GAME...
Are going to be at a DISADVANTAGE to any other players who have these cards and that's an INSANE proposition... Yes... Please come play this game... but uhhh... you can't have certain cards... Oh... and at 16 or 19 Mana... YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM. PERIOD.
How do we expect to keep players when they're getting slaughtered - with no recourse... by cards that... in my opinion... shouldn't be in Ranked Play... They belong in the Arena and adding them to Ranked hurting the NPE.
Consider this:
A player buys a spellbook, rents some bronze level cards, rents some sps all to try and #play2earn... and see how the game feels...
Only to face cards they CAN'T get... and lose to them 60% of the time... the process of obtaining them isn't easy either... and you have to get LUCKY to get some of the OP Cards: Quora + Vorst...
To me, a veteran TCG player... I wouldn't play this game very long... I'd probably go play Hearthstone or try out other web3 games...
Let's go a step further... let's use someone like me as an example... I play the game a bit... I like the concept of the game... I am impressed with a deflationary card leveling mechanic... I think the token and Land are solid...
So I want to invest a chunk of money in the game to play at Diamond/Champ... I start playing Bronze with a Max Level Modern Deck I have purchased... but I can't get out of Bronze very well because I am losing to cards that I again... CAN'T buy...
Magic. Yugi-Oh. Pokemon. DBZ. Literally none of them... and they have HUGE player bases as well as attracting new players all the time...
I don't mind losing to a more skilled player... I can even tolerate losing to RNG... but I would absolutely lose my shit if I continued to lose against players and the ONLY REASON I was losing... was because they were playing a card I couldn't buy and... is not easy to get even if I were to join a Guild...
Recently, @clayboyn put forth a Proposal to "Ban" Gladiators in Bronze... it failed.
Originally, I was AGAINST this Proposal because I didn't think this was a problem... after all... I had Gladiators... I had Soulbound Summoners... I had Soulbound Reward Cards with Martyr... Wild Bronze was easy-peasy...
Then... Yesterday... I started playing in Modern Bronze with many of my cards still rented out...
I lost... a lot.
But that's ok, I was still learning the new Meta...
Then I started realizing my win-rate against players with Gladiators was terrible... like 5% or so...
Most Mavs who disagreed with me said I needed to wait until I had the rest of my cards unlocked...
Today, 90%+ of my card are available and guess what... My win rate IS better... but against gladiators it is still only about 20% now...
LET ME SAY THIS AGAIN: At 16 Mana with General Rules... Lobb + Quora is NOT BEATABLE by any other card combo in Modern that I have seen...
In addition at 19 Mana... Lobb + Marksrat/FungusFlinger + Quora is ALSO unbeatable...
Now I could be wrong - but I haven't seen one yet... I am always open to evidence showing me the error of my ways... please do so in the comments.
So... we have a massive problem for New Players and the only reason I know this - is by a twist of fate, I am EXPERIENCING it firsthand.
What's the problem?
You can't beat them.
You can't buy them.
You can't easily get them.
This will cause New Players to say "well this sucks, these guys keep beating me with cards I can't get... that's dumb..." and then leave for another game.
In higher levels, this becomes less of a problem as abilities of cards/summoners catch up to Gladiators and Battle Mana Points increase.
But if a player can't get to Silver or Gold... even after purchasing every Max Level Card in Modern... do you REALLY think they're gonna stick around??? Or put those cards back on the market and leave...
The keys to a successful TCG and or Digital TCG are simple:
Fun. Simple to Play. Difficult to master. Variety. Ease of Access. Rewards.
I played the BAJEESUS out of Magic: the Gathering Online until the SEC got ahold of it...
They had a GREAT model and I would encourage the team and mavs to go do some digging on what made it so amazing...
Finally, I come to you with a novel and simple solution... and yes... Simple is ALWAYS better...
Should Gladiators be BANNED from Bronze? Well... Yes... but no.
That means... The Soulbound Summoners wouldn't GAIN THE ABILITY to Summon a Gladiator until they were of Silver League Level...
The End. Problem Solved. No Banning. Just change at what level the ability is available. Let me repeat it...
And for those of you who think cards being abused in the meta shouldn't get banned... they ABSOLUTELY should.
Again - this goes back to my background in TCGs...
Channel/Fireball = Turn 1 Kill in Magic... Channel got banned fast af.
Arcbound Ravager + Disciple of the Vault... 70% of all decks on the Pro Tour ran this... BAN HAMMER.
Tolarian Vault... BANNED
Hell even Ornithopter got banned for a bit because of a broken ass combo... and there are so many more that were tested in beta and tested in house and then released into the world... only to be used and broken by players... so then WotC had to retroactively fix it by banning or restricting cards.
Yugi-Oh had plenty...
The list goes on and on and on...
When certain cards are causing severe PLAYABILITY issues and are too disruptive to the Meta... The COMPANY behind the game... MUST make a decision FOR the players to fix the situation... OR THEY WILL LOSE PLAYERS.
Again - this is just my opinion from the experience I have in TCGs and the experience I been having "restarting" in Modern Bronze...
I'm not just some scrub... I'm not just a whiny n00b who is pissy... I have a ton of experience here:
Veteran TCG player (you can buy every card available to play with)
Veteran 40k Player (you can buy all these pieces too)
2 Years in Splinterlands and my Tier 3 Guild, Bitcoin & Brews has taken 1st in 4 of the last 5 Brawls and we took 2nd in the 5th... So we're not bad players...
While it may just be my opinion... I am coming to you now and voicing my opinion that if this isn't rectified... it will have grave consequences on the NPE and that can affect $SPS's performance in the upcoming Bull.
Right, wrong, or indifferent... I hope you have a blessed night - regardless of whether we agree on this.
Cheers 🍻,
- CaptainDingus
