Not sure if I understand the sealed-pool in DotP 2014...

[KamikazeKo]

So, when I first read the descripton of the game in the store, by sealed pools where you have to open digital booster packs, what came to my mind is something similar to the real game tournaments where people would buy 4-5 boosters, open them, pick a card and pass the rest along, until they openned all boosters and had no cards left. Then proceed to play with the deck you had just created.

But then I read this..:

"While DOTP will give players their first two sealed pools for free, though those who find themselves addicted to the thrill of opening virtual packs can open additional sealed pools for $1.99 apiece, up to 20 pools in total.When asked at E3 why the limit on sealed pool slots, brand manager Adam Dickson made the astute observation that anyone who’s dropped $40 on digital cards is probably ready to make the move to the actual game. He’s probably right, though as a longtime player of the game I advise you to make the most of DOTP’s value pricing before you start turning your paychecks into boxes of actual boosters."

from: http://www.destructoid.com/duels-of-the-planeswalkers-2014-introduces-sealed-play-256452.phtml (I think someone else in the forum posted the link)

Wtf? You can only played the sealed pool TWICE then you have to pay everytime??? Did I completely misunderstand how the sealed pool works or has WotC become insanely greedy...?

The main appeal of the game to me was the new sealed pool feature ><

[kristijanH]

You're a little confused here. What you initialy described is called drafting (and you need 3 boosters to do that).

Sealed is a little different. You get 6 boosters and only you can use these cads. You choose the ones you want to use in yur deck. Duels will hav a slightly different rules where you will add another 3 boosters to help you build your deck (but not initially).

How I understand the payment method is this. You can play the sealed portion twice. So you get to make 2 decks out of 9 + 9 different boosters. You can play unlimited number of games with these two decks but you cannot add new cards to it. You also cannot change cards betwean these two decks. They are completly seperated.

If you want to play a third deck (9 new boosters) you need to pay 2 dollars. Etc. etc.

[Puzzlemint]

The format you're describing is Draft, not Sealed.

In Sealed, each player is given a number of booster packs, and keeps all the cards they receive. They then use them to build their decks.

In D14, each Sealed pool is a different set of boosters. Once you open the boosters for a given pool, you can build and modify your deck as much as you want using the cards you received, but you can't trade them in for a different set of cards.
Frankly, being able to do so would defeat the purpose of the format, as everyone would just keep resetting until they got a 'perfect' set.

[KamikazeKo]

Ok I see. I guess I'll probably wait for some sale then. I would have loved to have a draft mode but I guess that would be too time consuming and unpractical for online play :(

Thanks for explaining.

[Auron]

Първоначално публикувано от To The Puzzlemoon:

as everyone would just keep resetting until they got a 'perfect' set.

I think there will definately be a way to do this if the data is not stored on thier servers but rather in the steam save folder (our hard drives). I don't think wizards could be that stupid, but they might be. who knows

[Bal3Wolf]

Първоначално публикувано от {a}The{U}{P}{B}Seeker{j}:

Първоначално публикувано от To The Puzzlemoon:

as everyone would just keep resetting until they got a 'perfect' set.

I think there will definately be a way to do this if the data is not stored on thier servers but rather in the steam save folder (our hard drives). I don't think wizards could be that stupid, but they might be. who knows

Would still need to be saved localy for when your playing with steam offline so some people will cheat the system im sure.

[kiranearitachi]

from what people on the forums are saying is that the sealed decks are based on you gamertag/name/id so even if you delete it you will get the same cards

[Kartana]

How does "Online Sealed" work if you can have only two (free) decks?

[Wazhai]

You get two separate random *pools* of 126 cards for free (basic lands are free and not included in this number), out of which you can make decks of at least 40 cards and modify them as often as you like. The pools are separate, so you only have access to one 126 card pool for a single deck.

And to avoid resetting the pools, the random seed used to generate your pools is your Steam ID number which cannot be changed in any way and is tied to your account. This means that even if you delete all save files and reset everything, you'll still get the same pool of cards every time on a single account.

[KingCoward]

Sounds promising, and 2$ for a third deck (9 new boosters) ? seems like a reasonable price.

[Wazhai]

Except that there are only 151 cards total available in the sealed format. So it's mostly down to the rares and mythics you get with each new 126 card pool.

[KingCoward]

Първоначално публикувано от Wazhai:

Except that there are only 151 cards total available in the sealed format. So it's mostly down to the rares and mythics you get with each new 126 card pool.

151 individual cards from which you have a chance to get 3 copies each (or more?)? so that would make the total card pool 453.

In which case its not only the rares and mythics but maybe even more important whether or not you manage get 2-3 copies of the common/uncommon cards you need for your deck.

[Dr. Steve Brule]

I've never played this type of format before. Anyone care to answer a few questions?

1) Do those that have experience with this feel the pool of cards will be sufficient? The 6 booster packs can presumably have doubles amonst them, so it isn't like you will have 126 of the 151 cards available to you.

2) Will this actually be popular? With 2013 DOTP, the online population doesn't really seem that big (although I never played it when it first came out)

3) I have a suspicion that there will be those that heavily invest until they get the perfect deck, and anyone trying to play this with their random deck they got for free will just get curbstomped. Maybe I am wrong?

[kristijanH]

OK. Here is another try to explain how it works.

You get 6 boosters and you make a deck only out of these cards. Each booster has 14 cards (1 rare OR mythic), 3 uncommons and 11 commons). These cards are random per booster and unique. You cannot get the same card in a booster. You can get the same card from different boosters thought. After beating the mini campaign againts the AI you get a nother 3 boosters. At the end of that you have 9*14= 126 random cards (9 rares OR mythics, 27 uncommons and 99 commons). These cards are random for each pool / player.

Edit: The number 151 means the number of possible unique cards you might get. You will always get multiples of some cards (unless there are 99 different commons and you somehow got 1 of each which is preatty unlikely) and you will always not get some cards (mostly rares and mythics since you can get up to 9 of them).

[Llanwain]

To Dr Steve

I am presuming (until I know better ) That we will all get get different random boosters so it is unlikely we will all have the same deck build.

I am basing this on the fact that a set can have upto 350 different cards so the chances of meeting some one with exactly the same cards will be remote.

Which is going to mean every opponent you play will have a different combo of cards, I think this going to be a lot of fun .

[A Mighty Duck]

*sigh* I was disappointed to hear that's how it worked. I remember back when Card video games were primarily about fun, rather than 'teaser' marketing. The old GBA Yugioh games where you win a game, get boosters build a deck, build several it didn't matter it was just for fun.

I was real excited hearing I could build decks at last it put me off previous games as I couldn't customise or build the multi-coloured decks the way I wanted. It would be good practice and allow me to experiment for my real-world decks without blowing a bunch of money on cards that might not work.

I guess they suckered me good here.