Card(s) of the Day April 9, 2017 - Wardown/Meltbird

[mmf]

Hey folks, mmf here making good in my pair day promise to @isbee! Alright, so seeing as it’s the ninth today what better card pair is there than the infamous wardown (Faie + Meltdown)? Yes, I know this is a bad idea, but I couldn’t help myself !
Anyways, here are your questions:

1.) How has the inclusion of Meltdown changed vanar’s gameplan?
2.) Does the frustration of playing against this card a fault within the design of either Meltdown or Warbird or does it come from somewhere else? And why?
3.) Was designer John Treviranus right in saying that “there’s a sort of equal joy in beating other players with [cards that are abused due to their strong effects]”? TLDR: do you find playing meta cards fun?

Almost forgot the pictures:

(Warbird is her BBS)

Summary

[isbee]

Ooooo love the Meltdown art. Where did that come from?

[mmf]

I believe it was on their (CP’s) twitter? Otherwise, I got it from google images

[johnbob78]

1. Meltdown allows Vanar to play a more reactive game with high amounts of removal and stall tactics, while sacrificing less game ending power.

2. I think the frustration most people have with the card, is the RNG and not its actual power level. For example: If I have 8 health and 4 other minions on the board, My opponent has a 1/5 chance of winning with a meltdown play. Those are really bad odds, as this will only result in victory 20% of the time, but it’s that 20% people get annoyed about.

3. I guess?

[thefirstgokun]

1. Meltdown gives Vanar (and some other archetypes, I think some Healyonar play it) a wincon that doesn’t require any setup (read: no thinking).
2. The frustration probably comes from the fact that the card just ends the game when you get lucky. Other cards with RNG (Chrysalis Burst, Rot9M, Grimes, etc.) are nowhere near as infuriating because they just generate value on the board. Sometimes you can outplay that, sometimes you can’t, but at least you have a moment to consider and think: what can I do in this situation? Is this really unwinnable? If Meltdown snipes you with that 10-33% chance, you don’t get a moment to come to terms with it: you just lose. Boom, its over. It’s like getting with a Spiral Tech, but worse because its RNG. It’s like a perfect Chrysalis Burst, but worse because it’s instantaneous. It’s the worst way to lose in every way. Fuck this card.
3. That statement really makes me upset. I can see to some extent why people might think “Yay, its fun to win,” but speaking from personal experience winning =/= fun. The only time I ever got to S Rank was by grinding the ladder with some bullshit Reva netdeck a couple months ago, and it was a soulless experience. I love Duelyst so much, but I love it so much more when I’m memeing in Gold rank and playing a deck I designed to be fun to PLAY. Games of Duelyst last about 3 minutes and I want every turn to be interesting and thought provoking, not some boring autopilot experience. If I didn’t, I’d just play Hearthstone.

TL;DR Rework Meltdown -> Bloodsurge: Deal 2 damage to each enemy nearby a mana tile.

[phayze]

You dense a f m80

[mmf]

What’d I miss?

[mrmana3]

This should’ve been April 4th’s card, cuz you already know this card comes out turn 4 now.

But seriously, Meltdown is less concerning to me than Warbird on the grounds that I can at least ANSWER a Meltdown. There’s no answering a BBS, so I just have to take it for the rest of the game, no matter where I am no less.

And if I’m being truthful, I don’t enjoy winning with Meltdown any more than I enjoy losing to it. No matter how a game plays out, I don’t want to be left with the feeling that the outcome would have been different because of a single instance of RNG.

Just look at that grin on Meltdown’s face. You just know he’s the kind of guy who would dedicate his life to triggering people.

[sviel]

1. By the time I started playing again, Meltdown was already a thing. I don’t think I can answer this question~

2. There are problems on both ends.

Faie’s BBS is the textbook example of uninteresting–Do 2 face damage. It has a little something extra tacked on, but that doesn’t change the core of it. If it only did the damage if there were minions in the column, it would pass muster but would also be too weak.

Meanwhile, Meltdown is a troll’s card with an absurd power level. Nevermind that, with mass removal, it becomes insanely powerful–that sort of power attached to RNG does not make for a fun experience. Sure, some assholes may enjoy lucky snipes, but those moments are nothing compared to what happens on the other end. There’s no way to make an effect like that powerful enough to be viable without invalidating the premise of the game.

3. Treviranus is unfortunately missing the point. Even if you can play Meltdown and enjoy it, that is not the reason that players are generally drawn to Duelyst. We can assume that some people want to just roll the dice and laugh at the results but they are a minority compared to those who want their input to have some effect on the output of the game.

Also, anytime a game is only enjoyable if you use some particular broken card/strat, the game is in a terrible place. Thus, whether he’s right or wrong, the end product is awful.

P.S.
It is worth noting that some other Vanar finishers also don’t require set-up. Embla doesn’t, at least. In that case, it’s a slow finisher in that the other player generally has a turn to react. Thus, it doesn’t feel as bad to play against. Lack of required set-up is certainly an issue with Meltdown but it is not necessarily the main issue with this pairing.