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Messages - Sailor Vulcan

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76
Events / Re: Origins 2018
« on: June 15, 2018, 02:53:04 PM »
for folks arriving at the con. i am holding some tables near the back middle of hall a.
Awesome I'm on my way zot

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I looked in the back middle of Hall A you weren't there. Are you in the hall c?

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77
Events / Re: Origins 2018
« on: June 15, 2018, 02:47:06 PM »
for folks arriving at the con. i am holding some tables near the back middle of hall a.
Awesome I'm on my way zot

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78
Events / Re: Origins 2018
« on: June 13, 2018, 11:46:46 AM »
Anybody here up for a match?

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79
Spells / Re: Hydra regeneration as a zombie
« on: June 12, 2018, 11:39:10 AM »
I think you missed a point. There is ONE, countem, one, zombie in this game that can heal itself at all, and nobody plays it.  Anything raised with rise again or the like has finite life and CANNOT  heal at all, in any way. So even though it doesn't lose the trait "regenerate 2" it still cannot recover any accrued damage ever.
Theres a zombie with reconstruct ability? Which one is that again?

Zombies cant heal ever. Not sure what zombie you're talking about.

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80
It's annoying when I have to explain to new Academy players how double strike and sweeping work. Clearer terminology would help in Academy too. This isn't just a problem in Arena.

Personally I think it was a mistake to change so much of the terminology between Arena and Academy. It makes it confusing to transition between them. I also think it should use the terms "action" and "quick cast action", instead of "activation" and "quick cast". The action phase should instead be called the actions phase. That way it's clear: during the actions phase, creatures perform their actions. That way it would be much more intuitive, and I wouldn't have to re-explain it over and over and over again every single time I play Academy with my few irl Academy -playing friends.

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81
Events / Re: Origins 2018 Academy
« on: June 05, 2018, 12:54:03 PM »
So nobody wants to play? Guess I'm gonna have to cancel this...

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82
General Discussion / Re: Ideas for New Traits
« on: June 03, 2018, 10:00:35 PM »
Would like to see the much fabled skirmish trait at some point. Also would like an underground trait. As in, the object is below ground.

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83
General Discussion / Re: The current state of MW
« on: May 25, 2018, 12:42:37 PM »
Correcting myself. The problem with mage wars isn't that it's too long to play, or that it's too complex.

A typical game of mtg in type 2 format takes about ten min right?

And mtg uses sideboard, ergo they have best 2/3 matches in tournaments. Therefore their matches probably tend to last around 20-30 min or so.

A typical game of warhammer 40k takes about a couple hours I think, and that game probably has a much larger competitive scene than mage wars.

A single game of mage wars arena typically lasts 60-90 min, and we include all our cards in our main deck and don't use sideboards. The game length is much more like warhammer than magic.

One possible reason that Arena never made it big was AW tried to market the game to card game players. They should have marketed it almost exclusively to minis players. Specifically, minis players that got burnt out on expensive games like warhammer and want to try something cheaper for a while which scratches a similar itch until they can afford to get back into warhammer or whatever.

Arcane Wonders did not market Mage Wars Arena this way at ALL. Instead they went with the "Combines the best aspects of both minis and ccgs" line. Which, let's be honest here, just isn't true.

Mage Wars Arena IS a minis game in every way except for the fact that it uses cards instead of minis, which makes it cheaper and means you don't have to look up what your pieces do in the rulebook because it's written directly on them!

In theory, mage wars arena could have been made as a minis game right from the very start. In fact, if we really wanted to, we could turn it into a minis game right now. Just put all the card text in a giant rulebook and replace the cards with minis, terrain features and tokens. If you want to do this cheaply, use cardboard pieces with plastic stands like the kind you would find in candyland or something. Or use the kind of cheap plastic that's sometimes used for checkers or chess pieces.

Maybe if we did that, it would suddenly become a lot easier to get new players into the game. The demographic that this game would most appeal to is and has always been largely neglected by AW, I think. It's possible that might have doomed this game to obscurity from the very beginning.

At this point, if we're being honest with ourselves, the majority if not all of this game's promotion is now done by fans and not by AW. Same thing with playtesting. And IIRC a good chunk of card design is done by volunteers. The only thing that fans don't contribute to which Arcane wonders still does is the production and funding, if I'm understanding right.

And the really sad thing is, Mage Wars is a GREAT game and would probably be WAY more popular than games like warhammer 40k if it had been better marketed and had more money behind it in the first place.

A significant number of experts think we'll get artificial superintelligence within the next few decades or so. Maybe by then copyright law will be reformed, the public domain will be brought back and mage wars will enter it, and a combination of crowd funding and a freer and more open marketing/communication industry will make it possible for mage wars to not be obscure anymore. Assuming any of us live that long anyway, which we probably won't.

I wouldn't get your hopes up. The long and short of it is that this community's future and the future of the game that ties it together are at the mercy of a company that appears to be able to only barely support it with the funds and personnel available to them. The game isn't going to die, but it will never thrive outside of very limited areas where it was lucky enough to have already gotten a large following, like Charlotte NC and OCTGN. Just a small cult following spread out across the world so most of us will only be able to play online or in conventions like gen con and origins.

I'm not sure if there's actually anything we can do except to urge arcane wonders to start more heavily involving their ambassadors in their marketing and product design for this game. You know, since the ambassadors are the ones who actually still have the time to play the game, and probably have played it a lot more than any of their paid employees. At this point we probably understand this game better than AW does, we have a better idea of who this game would appeal to than AW does, and we probably have a clearer and more comprehensive idea of what this game's selling points are than AW does. Seriously.

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84
General Discussion / Re: The current state of MW
« on: May 24, 2018, 01:25:14 PM »
3. I'd like to know if a MW format of 60 SBP's instead of 120 SBP's would improve the game.
This would make new entries easier imo - less new cards to digest at the outset.
Spellbooks would likely be much more focused on a certain strategy and less cookie cutter.
Games could be finished much faster, allowing you to play more games in the same time span and potentially opening the door to a real (Swiss) tournament format that can be played in 1 day without putting time restrictions on the games.
I have personally always felt that 120 SBP's were too much because nearly every book has counters to almost every possible threat. Make books focus more on their strategy by taking away all those bonus SBP's and hoser cards and you might be surprised how entertaining the format could be with all kinds of different strategies clashing with each other and not with a hoser card.
If we were to have a simpler format I think i would prefer pre-built spellbooks rahter than building them with 60 points. This way they could have very simple strategies, be thematic and also we could build them to play well vs eachother. For example the Arraxian crown warlock could have a book with 60 points worth of curses and only the wizard would have any enchantment removal. That could be balanced since nobody would run cards like force crush and against other mages the warlock would also lack good anwsers.

I think this could be good since:
The players don't need to worry about building books.
The books would be straightforward, thematic and easy to play.
Finally there would be no good or bad matchups.

The downside I can see is that it might be hard to build the books in a good way which would meet all the requirements.
1. Customization is a huge part of the appeal of this game. We need the ability to play custom spellbooks in organized play events

2. I have previously suggested a customizable version of apprentice mode. Problem with this is balance. If we want all arena cards to be legal in this, we would need to figure out how to make it not break the game. For instance, playing on 2x3 arena makes walls ridiculous. You would need to redesign the map with secret passages that only connect in certain directions, like that one custom map I built for standard arena previously. And I'm not sure yet if this would work.

Another possibility is to just play regular arena, but change to a 80 point spellbook with a 40 pt sidebook and play best 2/3. Problem with this is match length. It might take too long.

How about I work on some way to make a shorter, balanced version of Arena work with all the spells and mage abilities being legal, and see what people think of it? Obviously well want to make as few changes as possible so that it still feels mostly the same.

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85
General Discussion / Re: The current state of MW
« on: May 23, 2018, 11:48:35 PM »
Sharkbait's point is well taken. Okay so on to my analysis.


This game is so complicated that I suspect it's basically unapproachable to most new players. Some of us have the advantage of having been able to learn the game gradually over time as new sets came out. Newer players end up having to deal with everything all at once, unlike us older players. The amount of complexity in current mage wars is staggering relative to the number of cards, and there has been no rotation. Not to mention that for most of the game's history the meta was broken because wizard before his nerf. Mtg has a standard format with only a few sets being legal at a time. We might want to work out something like that? Problem is we don't have a large enough player base to support both a "standard style" meta and a "legacy" style meta.

One possible way to resolve this is to reboot the metagame. Go back to core set only and reintroduce already existing sets back into the competitive meta one at a time, but more quickly than the actual release schedule was originally.

Another thing I would point out is that domination as well as team play died out almost completely because our playerbase isn't big enough to support them on top of vanilla arena. And lately the amount of new innovative spellbook strategies on OCTGN has been going down a bit. The octgn meta is just starting to become stale as players stick to tried and tested tactics and are less likely to try to do something new and surprising.

I think if we really want to see this game thrive and not just survive, we need to find a way to drastically increase this game's playerbase. Since we can't expect arcane wonders to be able to do that since they are a VERY small company and have other games besides this one, we need to do this ourselves.

In other words, our community needs to play a more active role in marketing the game to new players. Arcane Wonders has already had Arcane Duels doing promotional video on their behalf. You remember how a lot of sets have had their cards spoiled on arcane duels? More of us should do videos like that.

I think it's also a safe bet at this point to assume that the mage wars official storyline is dead. We probably want to make our own "official" fan stories and lore to help promote the game. If we could get arcane wonders permission to write mage wars fanfic and publish it in physical books where new players might actually see it rather than just on these forums, that might help. Ideally we will want the storyline to coincide with the organized play scene, with new story material being associated with newly reintroduced sets. Hint hint, this is another reason we should reboot the metagame as I stated earlier.

Some of us might also want to consider getting over their aversion to Academy and giving it another chance. It's easier to get newer players to try academy first rather than putting them in Arena right off the bat. Academy may not have the tactical depth of arena but it sure has more tactical depth than most tcgs, despite having less strategic depth from having a smaller card pool.

Any other ideas for how we can increase the size of the playerbase more?

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86
Events / Re: Gen Con 2018
« on: May 18, 2018, 04:16:57 PM »
Personally I'm disappointed. these rules are totally fair but there is a minimum amount of experience with the game to realize that these rules are fair. I didn't realize for the longest time that time limits don't break or unbalance the game unless you have timed wins. And considering previous use of timed wins in tournaments, I bet I'm not the only one.

Now the argument about time limits is about to be rehashed for the umpteenth time. I really wish we had a larger competitive playerbase so that we could get more tournament data more quickly. It's sad that it's taken so many years for us to start to realize that time limits are okay and timed wins are the real source of imbalance in tourneys.

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87
General Discussion / Re: The current state of MW
« on: May 18, 2018, 03:49:26 PM »
@Borg Also your statistics neglects the fact that many of the sets have been replaced by newer editions. Did you look at ratings for both editions of each set? Particularly including the ones before the "Arena" rebranding?

Mage Wars was never as popular as other similar games because it's made by a SMALL COMPANY.

Arcane wonders has never had more than 5 total employees and right now it only has 3. It does not have the ridiculous amount of money to throw around on advertising like wizards of the coast does. Nearly all other customizable strategy games are tcgs, and those are usually produced by bigger companies. Mage Wars was probably more popular when it was new BECAUSE it was new. Now it's no longer a shiny new toy to add to a casual gamer's board game collection and the current popularity probably reflects that.

Mage Wars likely has a low popularity in large part because there are a low number of people who even know about it. That doesn't mean its popularity is consistently going down over time. It could be about stable, neither going up or down much. And even if it is decreasing in popularity, if the rate at which the popularity goes down is also decreasing then you should expect the size of the playerbase to stabilize at some point. Based on what I've seen and heard of OCTGN as well as the German and North Carolina MW communities the game is still thriving in some places.

Mage wars isn't dying, you're just using the wrong standard to measure arcane wonder's and MW's success.

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88


Magic is fun if you do drafts because at least there you can see a certain variation of cards used - because you just don't always draft the cards you need. So by design the decks there vary.
But if you look at standard..  it's fun the first few weeks after the release, but the following month after the pro tour it's dull as heck because everyone who plays seriously (with ambition) is playing the same deck the pros play. You may see some slight variation in the sideboard, but apart from that you know exactly what cards your opponent has as early as in t1 or t2.
You are right, the different decks don't use the same cards but everyone is using the same decks and that it far worse than overlaps in essential cards, what you have in Mage Wars.

It might be the same in Mage Wars if we had a "pro scene" as well, who knows, but since we don't have a pro scene everyone builds there deck as THEY think it is best and not just copying it from the internet. That alone is reason enough for me why I prefer Mage Wars.

Hi Enti,

As you point out, if MW had a "pro scene" I think you'd notice the exact same situation : lots of players bringing the same, latest powerbuild netdeck to a tournament.

However, I can't speak for "Standard" as I only play Legacy.
I think however it may be safe to say that standard may have somewhat less variety & power builds because of its limited card pool.
From my Legacy experience last year I can however say that I'm very pleased with the number and variety of competitive Legacy decks.

The "fantastic time" I'm having with it is because I like to build my own decks and not netdeck.
The challenge here lies of course in the fact that anything you come up with has to be able to stand up against the decks to beat.

I agree that in Magic tournament settings, you likely know what you're up against after your opponents' first two turns.
In MW however I usually know what my opponent has in his book BEFORE we even sit down.
Likely, at least one Dissolve, Dispel, Bear Strength, Force Push, Teleport, Regrowth, Rhino Hide, Surging Wave, Hurl Rock, Pillar of Righteous Flame, Tanglevine etc ...
That's what I dislike in MW by now : every book using too many identical staple cards from all different spell schools.

Apart from that, being able to choose from your whole deck every single turn adds so much more depth to the game.. Makes it so much more important to predict what your enemy might want to do, imho that's something unique no other game has.

That's what I thought as well.
But not anymore.

IMO 120 SBP's is too much. ( at least 20 too much imo )
A book's base strategy cards can usually be built with +/- 60 SBP's.
That leaves way too much SBP's to cherrypick a Toolbox of counter cards especially because you often need only 1 copy of a card due to the non-random draw in MW.
So many extra SBP's also means you can too easily tap into other schools.

This has two very negative results imo
1- games take way too long to play out as card after card can be countered or neutralized until someone eventually runs out of counters.
2- the different schools mean nothing outside the bookbuilding phase as any mage can freely cherrypick and cast any spell he likes ( with some restrictions to some mages alright )

If I compare that with Magic TG
1- Decks are much more refined and tuned because of the random draw.
In magic every card in your deck has to advance your strategy.
If you put a "bad" card in your MW book, you're not necessarily hindered by it. You'll likely find out after a couple of plays that you never play it during a game or that the card doesn't fit but you won't suffer any gameplay consequences right away.
If you put a "bad" card in your Magic deck this can cause you to lose the game.
You can draw it into your hand thereby wasting a turn and giving your opponent one more turn to beat you.

So because of the Random Draw Magic deckbuilding needs more skill imo than MW bookbuilding and it also leads to less ( needlessly ) drawn out games.

2- The different schools actually mean something in Magic.
Figuring out how many and which Lands exactly you need to run in your deck are one of the key aspects of succesful deckbuilding. They also limit what you can play in your deck and whatnot.
In MW this doesn't matter at all. It's too easy for every mage imo to just use any spell from any school in general.
With more expansions (potentially ) coming out and thus more power cards coming out this only leads to spellbooks looking more and more identical as the number of "staples" will only grow.
So, I think MW has a problem here.

There are Toolbox decks in Magic too, like the old Survival of the Fittest decks or the more recent Green Sun's Zenith based decks but in general, most competitive decks are finely tuned decks with a specific strategy and without any "fat" on it.
In MW every spellbook is actually a Toolbox of Counters with a certain Mage and a strategy for him tacked on.
This leads to games taking way too long and becoming too repetitive after a number of games imo.

Out of curiosity, how many competitive mage wars tournaments have you participated in? Speaking for myself, the only "staples" you listed that I actually use in every deck were dissolve, dispel, and teleport. I suspect some of the more aggressive decks are better off using vanpirism and/or heal, rather than regrowth or regrowth belt. And how often do you see necromancer running bear strengths? I am not sure what your local meta looks like, but I dont think the problems you describe quite generalize outside of your local meta.

The metagame on OCTGN is a little stale, but not THAT stale. And part of the reason for that is likely that we don't have a very large number of skilled tournament players, so there is not enough people coming up with new competitive deck ideas in the first place.

It's not because MW competitive deck design space has been fully explored. It hasn't been, ever. We simply don't have a large enough player base to fully explore it.

And the idea that adding more cards to the game would *decrease* the number of competitive strategies, and that the cause for that would be the spell point system, appears to demonstrate a lack of familiarity with the history of the metagames on OCTGN and at big conventions like gen con. In the past, adding more cards to the game has increased the number of competitive spellbooks people could make. Is there some reason for this trend to reverse direction that I don't know of?

People often make the mistake of trying to make a direct comparison between game balance and metagame diversity in mage wars to that of tcgs like magic. But most tcgs don't have a spell point system. In terms of game balance and metagame diversity mage wars just doesn't work the same way as other customizable card games - they're not in the same league.

In magic and other tcgs an overpowered card unbalances gameplay directly. But in mage wars if someone includes an overpowered card in their deck, that drives other players to have to spend even more spell points on putting cards in their deck to counter it.
Back before the wizard and his tower got nerfed, it was still entirely possible to beat a skilled wizard player with a non-wizard deck. But you would have to use more of your spell points to prepare your deck for that particular matchup. And if you did that then your deck would be less able to deal with other mages besides the wizard who did not overcommit themselves to dealing with wizards.

The old wizard wasn't overpowered in the conventional sense. All of his tactics could still be countered. But he overcentralized the metagame, placing a severe limit on the number of tournament-viable strategies. When people were building decks back then, the first question they would have to ask was "how will I deal with the wizard?"

Contrast to mtg or other tcgs where oftentimes an OP card is just broken and leads to decks that use it dominating tournaments, rather than just having an advantage that limits the number of viable decks that can oppose it.

Being able to choose from your whole deck each turn makes a huge difference. If your opponent draws their OP card they could potentially use it right away. But if you draw the counter before they draw the OP card, the counter could be a dead draw until they draw their OP card.

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89
Ugh, this again. The game isn't dying, it's just not as popular because it's made by a three-person company with a corresponding amount of money. And how popular the game is very much varies by location. This year I think we've had more people active on OCTGN then I've ever seen since I first got into the game a year after it first released.

I think it's a shame the game isn't as successful outside the U.S. and I really wish the translators in other countries didn't keep discontinuing their translations of mage wars without any warning or explanation given.

I also wish MW was popular enough to support a competitive domination metagame and a competitive academy metagame.
I doubt either of those things is going to happen any time soon.  Remember, AW has only 3 people in it and they've never had more than 5. This isn't mtg. MW isn't dying, it's just not growing anywhere near as big as we'd like.

Game quality isn't what determines which games become popular, it's just a historical fact of which games became better known earlier. Mtg has a big fan base because it was the first tcg *ever*. And coordination problems make it so that even if a better game comes along afterwards, people will stick to the worse game that came first because that's what their friends play. Probably if mage wars came first and had enough money for some  better advertising it would be more popular.

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90
General Discussion / Re: Questions about OCTGN meta
« on: May 01, 2018, 06:23:23 PM »
@Romeoxero Was that a reply to me or to Werner?

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