Thursday, January 26, 2017

Card Games and Me (What I Like and Dislike)

Long time no see! I've been working on this post for awhile as the last post before I attempt to revamp the blog to look prettier and advertise it more heavily to hopefully get more readers (I love watching numbers go up). This post is simply how I explain what I want from a card game and will most likely have different opinions than some of you. I will refrain from using names of specific card games to keep myself from getting off topic. So without further ado (Okay this is strictly further ado) click that read more button to see actual content (Long posts are annoying on front pages).

Mechanics I Like

  • I like Bullet Lists so there
  • Comeback mechanics make me giddy (Such as Triggers, Cards that work best from behind, and so on)
  • Targeted Combat - as in you can choose to attack opposing creatures.
  • Instant Speed interaction.
  • Evolving Creatures to a more powerful state throughout the game
  • Alternate Win Conditions

Mechanics I Don't Like

  • Resources that must be included in your deck (Lands, etc)
  • Low incentive to attack
  • Rules based deck building limits (Aside from deck size minimums)
As can be seen, I tend to like the eastern approach to card games rather than the western. I do enjoy the western approach on occasion but it leads to a lot of feel bad moments for players outside of either players control. By low incentive to attack I mean games where if you attack you cannot block, leading to stalled out board-states where playing to win is a bad move and playing to not lose is often best to a point.

Gameplay I Like

  • A balanced mixture of constructive and destructive play.
  • Games where the outcome isn't decided until the last point of damage or other win condition.
  • Players have an incentive to play-to-win
  • Short games where a match can be decided during a rousing romp in Call of Duty and not a full game of League of Legends

Gameplay I Don't Like

  • Pre-determined outcomes based on deck choice (Such as Type matchups or a lack of generic answers to top lists)
  • Prevalent One-Turn Kills that cannot be interrupted easily
  • Absolutely Zero pacing 
Whenever you have a chance to win based on the turn of a card regardless of situation then it's good gameplay to me. Long games lead to exhaustion and a defeated feeling when you lose after 40 minutes of time essentially wasted if you get nothing for it. The worst kind of gameplay though is when your opponent just sits there and defends instead of proactively trying to deal with your threats and turn the tables (Stalling is not fun unless it is your win condition then its on me to proactively stop it).

Availability and Viability of Deck Types or Playstyles

This one is structured differently because its not a like or dislike thing its just a list of things that I need to see available in either deck building options or in playstyle options in a non-personal deck game.

  • Hyper Aggresive decks or play that avoid interaction to win early but is very weak to it
  • Combo decks that are similar to Hyper Aggro with a goal to present a specific combination of cards to either win the game or put it nearly out of reach.
  • Control decks or playstyle with a goal to maximize interaction and play in a reactive way in order to win the game after the aggro decks are out of win conditions.
  • Goodstuff strategies and decks where the goal is just to play the best general cards with a balanced deck but no actual good matchups.
  • Flavorful play and decks where the goal is to play in the most flavorful (IE: based on the game lore) way possible. As long as Flavorful play is available it doesn't have to be good but it has to exist.
Most if not all of these are available in most games to some degree but if one is missing it'll most likely be combo and flavor and either of those missing leads to me feeling the game is incomplete. Or when more than 1 of these isn't viable at all times during a games lifespan.

A Tidy Conclusion

With that all said, I give everything the benefit of the doubt. I don't quite know what my next review or post will be but that'll be figured out after I figure out how I want this blog to look. Its currently quite drab and plain, so I feel it needs some flare and fun. I am taking requests for reviews and such so leave a comment if you have any suggestions regarding this blog. 

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