So, what prompted me to write this thread is how poison actually takes me back in time and reminds me about the no-unit decks. You put stuff on the board, just to have it removed by some special card, the opponent never playing a unit.
It's not exactly the same, but poison is just spammy removal, and against NG or SY and sometimes ST, you can expect anything you put on the board in the beginning to just be poisoned, which is utter rubbish. 4p/5p units removing whatever you put on the board, while also outputting points on their own or putting coins in the bank or putting harmony on the board. It's nonsense.
Sure, Enslave decks with alot of special cards can also be annoying, and does the same thing, but in a different way. It doesn't output it's own points on the board, and the special cards have limits to their efficiency (let's say, they cannot take out a 6body+ unit). Poison does not have this limit, and it also outputs points at the same time.
What's even the point of trying anything in round 1 against these kind of decks? Poison restricts alot of decks from being viable, you simply have to output rubbish in the start of the round, and preferably rubbish that can do something before it dies, like damaging the opponent. This again leaves you having to build decks with such rubbish cards instead of being able to have an actual gameplan (that will just be poisoned).
So, now you end up in a situation where things become increasingly binary. Did you have bomb heaver when the opponent played scenario? yes, you win, no, you lost. Did you have purify when the opponent played defender? yes, you win, no you lost. And then in addition you have to deal with utter nonsense like poison? For all intents and purposes, purify is NOT EFFICIENT against poison. It cannot stop poison. Poison is pretty damn silly with it 1-2 destroy mechanic.
Decks with alot of special cards is annoying to play against sure, they just reduce or take out alot of the things you play, but at least they are acceptable in a way. Poison does the same exact things, but it's like a special card with a body, and a very powerful special card that can take out ANY body. Few special cards can take out bodies higher than 5, and they rarely if ever put a body on the table at the same time (exception like elf damage 3 deathblow spawn elven deadeye).
Then you even have the worst kind of units like dryad ranger which poison AND have harmony at the same time. Bwah, really?? ST is not so bad actually, if poison was removed from Dryad Ranger it would even be an acceptable solution (as things are). But it doesn't fix poison as a binary mechanic. Removing poison entirely from SY would make SY less toxic, pun intended.. SY is considered perhaps THE strongest faction, and poison actually underpins this.
That leaves us with NG, which alot of people think is a toxic faction alltogether, pun intended.. I don't really agree with that, but poison doesn't really help me in defending NG from these accusations.
Poison has not been in the game for that long. At first it was only a very few poisons, then more were added. But is it not time for the developers to review this mechanic already? What it does and does not do for this game, positive and negative..
I don't think poison is a bad idea, just badly implemented and in its current state a bad mechanic, and very binary in nature. There are many ways to solve this, one is to introduce even more poison, but change the mechanic:
Poison 1: (Half cup) - drains enemy health by 1 per turn
Poison 2: (full cup) - drains enemy health by 2 per turn
Poison 3: (deathblow) - destroys the enemy
If it worked in such a way, it would become more about draining the enemy and killing them slowly, rather than just destroying them in a binary way. It would also make purify a viable solution to poison.
There could also be other counters to poison in such a scenario, including units that are more or less susceptible to poison or even cards (like potions etc), that can turn poison into an advantage before the deathblow.
If poison is a richer and less binary mechanic, it's possible to introduce new and interesting poison units like spies, multi-poison, turn-by-turn poison units etc etc. More powerful poison cards could give poison 2 immediately.
The way poison is now, it's just a 1-2kill, binary, boring and annoying. It has no nuance and in my opinion is a badly implemented mechanic that hasn't been properly reviewed since introduction. It's toxic, yes.. Toxic..
I've played a fair bit of poison myself, and while it is in a way overpowered, it's not really overpowered. It's just dumb. My poison decks is mostly just "poison everything", and I can imagine how boring and annoying this is for my opponents. Making it even worse when I Assire my Masquerade Ball back into my deck and play it again in round 3. It's just toxic, especially by allowing a second play of the scenario for NG. It does nothing for NG reputation in general, which is already quite bad.
I don't necessarily think the above is the solution, it's just one possibility. I think poison currently is very poorly implemented and generally a toxic mechanic, yes yes, again... I did it.. From what I've seen and experienced, this kind of deck is also viable on pro-rank, so don't try to justify poison as "not bad" by saying it's not tier1.
It's not exactly the same, but poison is just spammy removal, and against NG or SY and sometimes ST, you can expect anything you put on the board in the beginning to just be poisoned, which is utter rubbish. 4p/5p units removing whatever you put on the board, while also outputting points on their own or putting coins in the bank or putting harmony on the board. It's nonsense.
Sure, Enslave decks with alot of special cards can also be annoying, and does the same thing, but in a different way. It doesn't output it's own points on the board, and the special cards have limits to their efficiency (let's say, they cannot take out a 6body+ unit). Poison does not have this limit, and it also outputs points at the same time.
What's even the point of trying anything in round 1 against these kind of decks? Poison restricts alot of decks from being viable, you simply have to output rubbish in the start of the round, and preferably rubbish that can do something before it dies, like damaging the opponent. This again leaves you having to build decks with such rubbish cards instead of being able to have an actual gameplan (that will just be poisoned).
So, now you end up in a situation where things become increasingly binary. Did you have bomb heaver when the opponent played scenario? yes, you win, no, you lost. Did you have purify when the opponent played defender? yes, you win, no you lost. And then in addition you have to deal with utter nonsense like poison? For all intents and purposes, purify is NOT EFFICIENT against poison. It cannot stop poison. Poison is pretty damn silly with it 1-2 destroy mechanic.
Decks with alot of special cards is annoying to play against sure, they just reduce or take out alot of the things you play, but at least they are acceptable in a way. Poison does the same exact things, but it's like a special card with a body, and a very powerful special card that can take out ANY body. Few special cards can take out bodies higher than 5, and they rarely if ever put a body on the table at the same time (exception like elf damage 3 deathblow spawn elven deadeye).
Then you even have the worst kind of units like dryad ranger which poison AND have harmony at the same time. Bwah, really?? ST is not so bad actually, if poison was removed from Dryad Ranger it would even be an acceptable solution (as things are). But it doesn't fix poison as a binary mechanic. Removing poison entirely from SY would make SY less toxic, pun intended.. SY is considered perhaps THE strongest faction, and poison actually underpins this.
That leaves us with NG, which alot of people think is a toxic faction alltogether, pun intended.. I don't really agree with that, but poison doesn't really help me in defending NG from these accusations.
Poison has not been in the game for that long. At first it was only a very few poisons, then more were added. But is it not time for the developers to review this mechanic already? What it does and does not do for this game, positive and negative..
I don't think poison is a bad idea, just badly implemented and in its current state a bad mechanic, and very binary in nature. There are many ways to solve this, one is to introduce even more poison, but change the mechanic:
Poison 1: (Half cup) - drains enemy health by 1 per turn
Poison 2: (full cup) - drains enemy health by 2 per turn
Poison 3: (deathblow) - destroys the enemy
If it worked in such a way, it would become more about draining the enemy and killing them slowly, rather than just destroying them in a binary way. It would also make purify a viable solution to poison.
There could also be other counters to poison in such a scenario, including units that are more or less susceptible to poison or even cards (like potions etc), that can turn poison into an advantage before the deathblow.
If poison is a richer and less binary mechanic, it's possible to introduce new and interesting poison units like spies, multi-poison, turn-by-turn poison units etc etc. More powerful poison cards could give poison 2 immediately.
The way poison is now, it's just a 1-2kill, binary, boring and annoying. It has no nuance and in my opinion is a badly implemented mechanic that hasn't been properly reviewed since introduction. It's toxic, yes.. Toxic..
I've played a fair bit of poison myself, and while it is in a way overpowered, it's not really overpowered. It's just dumb. My poison decks is mostly just "poison everything", and I can imagine how boring and annoying this is for my opponents. Making it even worse when I Assire my Masquerade Ball back into my deck and play it again in round 3. It's just toxic, especially by allowing a second play of the scenario for NG. It does nothing for NG reputation in general, which is already quite bad.
I don't necessarily think the above is the solution, it's just one possibility. I think poison currently is very poorly implemented and generally a toxic mechanic, yes yes, again... I did it.. From what I've seen and experienced, this kind of deck is also viable on pro-rank, so don't try to justify poison as "not bad" by saying it's not tier1.
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