gruul raiding party and bad game design 101

[nethqz]

first of all let me say that i've been playing magic irl and mtg online on and off for about 10 years now (not bragging or sht, just so you know that i'm not completely incompetent).
i never played magic2014 or any of the previous versions so when the steam sale came i thought i'd give it a try.

i just finished the campaign and the only thing i want to know is who the ♥♥♥ though it was a good idea to build every encounter (except the "main decks/planeswalker duels", those actually seem to be somewhat random?!) to be a static ~6 card combo? i'm not saying every encounter should be an event deck with perfect synergy but please... dont try to sell your lacking creativity as "herp derp play the same 10 cards over and over to learn from your mistakes". i dragged the sewers mission on for about 20 turns, just to see if the ai would at least draw sth. different... nope, just relentless rats over and over.

but the most ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mission was without a doubt "gruul raiding party": a PERFECT combo of 6 blood thirst minions triggered by a goblin.
goblin fireslinger -> scab-clan mauler -> bloodscale prowler -> gorehorn minotaurs -> ghor-clan savage -> skaargan firebird -> petrified wood-kin
which is absolutely impossible to win against unless you
a) pick the right deck (im pretty certain you cannot win with with some "standard" decks in this mission)
i played every other encounter in the campaign with the "hunter's strengh" deck without changing anything in the deck manager, switched to "avacyn's glory" (basically a crappy "rally and rout"-event deck for this one). "chant of the mul daya" should also work if you manage to draw "all is dust"
b) have a really good starting hand (mulligan, restart duel, mulligan, restart duel, etc)
c) draw lucky (see spoiler above)

are you kidding me? if i just started playing the only thing i would've learned from this stupid campaign was "oh, not even a straight flush on my starting hand? better concede and hope for a royal flush then." and "i better build at least 4 really specialized decks, roll the dice and hope to hardcounter my opponent" which couldnt me further from the truth in a "real" game.

tl:dr buy this game on sale if you want to learn how to tap cards, otherwise dont buy this game.

[not_last_place]

you just have to get rid of the goblin that slings damage directly. Plenty of the decks have ways to do that. Avacyn's glory has 3 differnet cards (path to exile, oblivion ring, fiend hunter), the firewave deck obviously has lots of removal, even hunter's stregth has hunt the weak or prey upon. I could go on, but my point is that the raiding party encounter is not as broken as you make it sound.

[nethqz]

path to exile is the ONLY card in avancyn's glory that you can exile the goblin with before he proccs the first bloodthirst. you could of course exile him on turn 3-4 but then you most likely already have the 3/3 trample and the 4/2 on the board and wont have enough exiles for the "heavy hitters" later on (unless you draw VERY lucky).

if it was just about removing the goblin early firewave would also be an easy deck against this but i really dont think it is. even if you get lucky and clear the first 2-3 cards the 3/3 minotaurs will eventually procc the bloodthirst.

just to clarify, i'm not saying this encounter is broken or impossible, it is just retardrd gamedesign and you would lose >90% of the time no matter how good your deck is in a "real" game against a starting hand like that.

[135792468]

If you go first with enchanter's arsenal, or DnB, or Demon deck (and many others) you can easily remove the goblin before bloodthirst triggers.

[SaulX05]

I won the first time using the avacyn deck, that deck (when adjusted) is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Some challenges will require you to use different decks. A good magic player should branch out.

[Peewee Nipplepuss]

I understand that it can be frustrating but it's a card game and you're in charge of your deck (sorta). Customize it for the encounter or switch decks if you can't find the answers you need in the deck you're using.

[SamuraiChicken]

The Gruul Raiding Party deck is completely scripted, and the bloodthirst mechanic is broken when you play against it. Their creatures enter the battlefield with the +1/+1 counters on them whether they do damage to your player or not. Nice job Magic2014!

[dh50]

Scripted...yes. It's an encounter deck - designed to be a challenge, and the game tells you the encounter decks are stacked that way. Bloodthirst, however, is not broken. Usually it activates the counters by having the Goblin Fireslinger damage you before it casts anything. If you kill the Fireslinger or prevent the trample damage, new bloodthirst creatures won't get counters.

[gadlaw]

I just spent a few days going through this battle. It got me to look at other decks beyond the initial deck and got me exploring various strategies until I had a very satisfying win followed by the next couple of battles which provided different problems and different solutions. Do buy this game, it's had a lot of thought put into it and if you manage to not rage quit when you first run into a problem that requires you to think about solutions it is very rewarding. So basically - have a bit of patience, explore the forums and find hints on how other folks solved the problem you've run into.

[{B} chapperz {U}]

never mind you will enjoy multiplayer where game after game noobs just play chant of the mul daya and win with no thought, my nan could use that deck and win having never played in her entire life. multiplayer is so unbalanced that some decks ive bought have been a waste of money, the magic community has been robbed

[dh50]

The only decks that are a waste of money are the Deck Pack 3 decks (warsmith and hunting season). Multiplayer is otherwise very playable. The claim that you'll only face Chant in multiplayer has not been my experience - I keep track of every win and loss with a spreadsheet, and my opponents have only used Chant 13.54% of the time, in over 1300 games. The claim that beginners can win with Chant with no thought is also false. Most beginner Chant builds are pretty terrible and very easy to beat. In terms of opponent success with Chant against me, it is their FOURTEENTH most successful deck. I'm not gaming the stats by selecting the most powerful decks vs Chant either - I only play random, and have since day one.

In short, try multiplayer - it's fun, it's where this game was meant to be played, and while balance can be frustrating at times, it is by no means game-breaking.