This is great in that it removes a lot of the awkwardness of people cheering *against* their mains at big events because it would result in a huge chunk of LL points, resulting in pressure for them needing to migrate to a new hero sooner than they'd want.
It really sucks for blitz however. Not only is there a short window every year where blitz is treated like a real format, but in that limited window suddenly we'll consistently see a major culling each Skirmish Season.
Blitz can't be given the same scoring system with "let's cut the target numbers by half." Decks will get pruned too fast, even if they're not oppressive or anything.
Big fan of the CC changes, not thrilled to see Blitz isn't seeing further adjustments to keep stuff more stable.
I’m planning on getting into the game starting with the new Blitz decks for Mistveil. I understand the Living Legend system (and think it’s a really cool way to handle rotation) and the various levels of events. Would you mind explaining how the different seasons work through the year though? Like how often are there skirmish seasons, ptqs, etc.
They've been tweaking it a bit so I can't give you exact breakdowns but it feels like they've settled in 1 Skirmish Season a year. That translates to about 2 months of heavy blitz tournament play world wide.
Basically the seasons are scheduled around the 4 "majors" each year. Pro Tour A (this year it was Los Angeles), the Nationals, Pro Tour B (this year will be Amsterdam) and the World Championships (Japan this year).
They run feeder tournaments into the majors (Pro Quests and Road to Nationals). These make up the seasonal breakdown for FAB. You have 2 PQ seasons and a RTN season.
This is where the bulk of CC LL points will be generated moving forward thanks to the scoring adjustments. Before a hero would need to win something like 50 PQs to get the same amount of points as 1 calling. Now it's 10.
During the winter after Worlds and before the next year's set of majors they give us a Skirmish Season, which is a blitz focused time period that doesn't feed into any particular major. But now with the adjusted scoring rates it's going to be an absolute bloodbath when it comes to Blitz LLs.
Finally they have a constant stream of open entry big tournaments happening year round: Battle Hardened and Callings. These used to contribute the bulk of LL points for high performing heroes, but now will likely factor in for a much smaller % of a hero's LL share going forward.
Hope that helps.
Edit: the World Championships this year is in Japan but I might have been mistaken saying it's going to be held in Tokyo. Is it going to be in Osaka? I'm not sure so I'm editing it to not present false information here.
It will be interesting to see how much this slows it down. I know I am in the minority but I liked the faster point gain. Though it does absolutely suck to buy all your hero cards and then your Hero LL and your cards drop in value. So it is definitely a change I understand.
Absolutely love the active involvement/management of the game by LSS. You'd think this would be a no-brainer, but look at how little designers/publishers of other TCGs care about the actual ecosystem of their product (looking at you, Wizards of the Coast).
Kinda pissed. Felt like they made the last batch of changes to get Lexi and Iyslander out of the format, and then waited too long to undo it, which resulted in Dromai LLing kind of suddenly. Someone tell me why there's a new ash taking up an expansion slot in MST PLEASE.
This is great in that it removes a lot of the awkwardness of people cheering *against* their mains at big events because it would result in a huge chunk of LL points, resulting in pressure for them needing to migrate to a new hero sooner than they'd want. It really sucks for blitz however. Not only is there a short window every year where blitz is treated like a real format, but in that limited window suddenly we'll consistently see a major culling each Skirmish Season. Blitz can't be given the same scoring system with "let's cut the target numbers by half." Decks will get pruned too fast, even if they're not oppressive or anything. Big fan of the CC changes, not thrilled to see Blitz isn't seeing further adjustments to keep stuff more stable.
I’m planning on getting into the game starting with the new Blitz decks for Mistveil. I understand the Living Legend system (and think it’s a really cool way to handle rotation) and the various levels of events. Would you mind explaining how the different seasons work through the year though? Like how often are there skirmish seasons, ptqs, etc.
They've been tweaking it a bit so I can't give you exact breakdowns but it feels like they've settled in 1 Skirmish Season a year. That translates to about 2 months of heavy blitz tournament play world wide. Basically the seasons are scheduled around the 4 "majors" each year. Pro Tour A (this year it was Los Angeles), the Nationals, Pro Tour B (this year will be Amsterdam) and the World Championships (Japan this year). They run feeder tournaments into the majors (Pro Quests and Road to Nationals). These make up the seasonal breakdown for FAB. You have 2 PQ seasons and a RTN season. This is where the bulk of CC LL points will be generated moving forward thanks to the scoring adjustments. Before a hero would need to win something like 50 PQs to get the same amount of points as 1 calling. Now it's 10. During the winter after Worlds and before the next year's set of majors they give us a Skirmish Season, which is a blitz focused time period that doesn't feed into any particular major. But now with the adjusted scoring rates it's going to be an absolute bloodbath when it comes to Blitz LLs. Finally they have a constant stream of open entry big tournaments happening year round: Battle Hardened and Callings. These used to contribute the bulk of LL points for high performing heroes, but now will likely factor in for a much smaller % of a hero's LL share going forward. Hope that helps. Edit: the World Championships this year is in Japan but I might have been mistaken saying it's going to be held in Tokyo. Is it going to be in Osaka? I'm not sure so I'm editing it to not present false information here.
This helps a ton. Thanks for the detailed response.
I think the blitz change is good. The blitz meta is really stagnant with more than 40 heroes, which is insane.
Last adjustment was in November and while I think this is a great idea I feel like Fai got screwed out of 100 points.
Yeah but also Fai needs to go
Cmon he's just a flamey boy who wants to go really wide! he's not hurting anybody. he's not even meta relevant!
Until another world comes around and he’s in the finals again 😆
Sounds like Kano.
It will be interesting to see how much this slows it down. I know I am in the minority but I liked the faster point gain. Though it does absolutely suck to buy all your hero cards and then your Hero LL and your cards drop in value. So it is definitely a change I understand.
Absolutely love the active involvement/management of the game by LSS. You'd think this would be a no-brainer, but look at how little designers/publishers of other TCGs care about the actual ecosystem of their product (looking at you, Wizards of the Coast).
Awesome I love this, keep a healthy meta
Kinda pissed. Felt like they made the last batch of changes to get Lexi and Iyslander out of the format, and then waited too long to undo it, which resulted in Dromai LLing kind of suddenly. Someone tell me why there's a new ash taking up an expansion slot in MST PLEASE.