Pandora and Treasures

Balance Discussion
#1

First I’d like to say this is a really cool idea.
It’s interesting but not something I would call fun.

To get straight to my point.

Where is the balance?
Why should a game be determined over who gets the better treasure and who gets to use theirs first.

It’s total chaos and doesn’t make sense no matter how you look at it.

Most of them are WAY to powerful and can instantly change how the game is playing out with no real way to counter it.

This is exceptionally true if your opponent is already winning. Gets a good treasure AND gets to use theirs first.
Then you get poop. Can’t use your treasure at all. And proceed to lose.

Or You are winning. Same thing happens. And lose anyways.

I haven’t played a single game against other players yet in which I actually received a decent treasure when needed but it always seems like my opponents have exactly what they needed to reverse the board and win.

Just treasures. That is it.

Why would any game developer make something so strong and literally game changing with no real way to play around it or against it? Please either nerf them. Add a replacement mechanic. Or better yet. Remove them until actual balance can in some form be found.

Right now. There just isn’t any.
Extreme balance issues (Over treasures) = A very sad player.

The only thing I’ve learned from Pandora is to stay away.

#2

When you play Pandora you have to understand that treasure cards are apart of that game mode. You are right they are powerful and can change the board. But that’s kind of the point. They are meant to speed up the game. There are 30 different treasures in the game. I’ve outlined a few in rough categories

Hard Removal: Death’s Desire, Astral Weapon, Wheel of Chaos, Doom Scythe

Aoe: Dancing Blade, Earthfire Shaker, Bottled Lightning, Dark Crystal, Flameburst Ruby

Direct Damage: Flameburst Ruby, Hammer of Destruction, Bottled Lightning,

Buff: Chalice from Palace, Cloud Machine, Secret of Strength, Eredon’s Drum.

Summon: Blood Stone Golem, Void Guardian, Crystal Dragon, Equinox Automation,

When you draft a deck, identify the treasure that will cause you the most difficulty. If you are playing a Green deck with big minions, Hard removal cards will cause you trouble. If you are playing a bunch of cards with 3 health or less, aoe will be your enemy. I know it’s random, but look for treasures help alleviate this Their are certainly more than one for each situation. For instance, Yakhorn Warhorn is great if you are weak against aoe, to put yourself back on the board and immediately start attacking again. Urn of Gabria can also help give you some more Faeria and draw a couple new cards, Clockwork Yak can get you back into threat range with a very efficient 6,9 dash creature. These become especially good if the opponent destroyed their cards in the process of clearing the board.

Blood Stone golem, Void Guardian, Crystal Dragon, Equinox Automation, are all cards that can give you big minions to put back on the board after a hard removal. This is especially good if you got your opponent to low health before they cleared the board, or if they removed a big minion, or if you have a land near their god.

With that being said Pandora is not for everyone, and that is okay. If you don’t like Pandora mode than don’t play it, but understand that you at least have access to one free run a day, so while you might not like it, you can get some rewards from it that will allow you to spend less time in Pandora and more time in casual or ranked playing without the treasures or shards.

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#3

A couple assorted thoughts in this area.

  1. Why are there these special elements of Pandora? The timing of when Pandora activates adds a massive RNG element (if you don’t have well control you want Pandora to activate sooner; if you do have well control you want it to activate later). I do think the treasures and Pandora opening makes it what is is. But generally the concept of a game mode like this in card games it to play the same game but with randomly drafted cards. This is a similar game but has features which some may think are better and others think are worse.

  2. I’ve discussed the Hammer of Aoros as being problematic so I won’t mention that again. But with regard to the treasures one frustrating element is that they are so varied in what they do. In card games, you generally like to know what your opponent is doing so you can try to play around it. For example, if he is playing Red you try to play around direct damage. If he is playing Green you are aware of buffing minions. But you can’t play around treasures. When he gets one, you have no idea what it could be. Do you play around him doing AOE damage or do you play around him taking control of one big minion? Its simply more RNG that you hope he didn’t pick the treasure that screws you or that it isn’t the one he just drew.

#4

Inferno, this isn’t against you or really anyone, I just hate it when people bitch about things without figuring out how to beat them. (Obviously this doesn’t apply to everything, there are very legitimate complaints people have about this game and others)

  1. Learn how to draft Treasures, and to play around them or with them in mind.

  2. Treasures being swingy isn’t exclusive to treasures, there are a lot of swingy cards you can draft.

  3. People who complain about something being broken are very often just not good at figuring out how to beat it, and their complaint is just a kneejerk reaction to them losing to the thing they are complaining about.

#5

It isn’t “just” anything.
Trying to say play around it isn’t repeatable.
Not in Pandora when sometimes you need certain things to play out a certain unique way.
Said things would play out correct then the treasures go out and a massive play occurs that just involves treasures.
That is my issue.

I understand that sometimes you won’t draft a decent deck in comparison to your opponent.
What I don’t understand is why certain treasures will change the game field and others quite literally do nothing.

It isn’t a kneejerk reaction.
I find this to be a massive issue.

And I don’t know if you understand you can’t play around everything always.
It is complexly unrealistic and just not worth it.

What happens happens.
The result is the result.

And in my opinion of the result is a lot of the decks in Pandora rely on treasures to win.
That isn’t very fun.

#6

Well said.

I like the “arena” style play but I just can’t see the value of RNG added into an already RNG packed system.

I like Pandora a lot until the treasures go out.
They could spend time and balance it out but like you said I don’t think they would really want to.
A lot highs and lows for me.
You could probably guess my lows.

#7

pandora is actually OK. i hated pandora when it came out. it was the most unbalanced thing. now it’s at least bearable, props to the balance team.

to please everyone they should have pandora draft and normal draft, cycling in normal draft every few weeks as an event.