So Pandora is finally here! And with it comes all the built-up hype from the past several weeks, if not months.
Now I would just like to give my opinion on the current state of this game mode.
- Pandora Keys: Called Arena Tickets in the shop but ‘Keys’ when accessing Pandora. Price seems kind of steep but we’ll see if the rewards change to make up for it. The design is nice though, and the animation upon using one and opening the ‘gate’ to Pandora is spectacular! Also, adding them to Daily Quests for more thorough testing is quite clever.
- Drafting: The drafting process seems very smooth as well, the cards are neatly presented and it’s clear from the very beginning which colour is locked out, so you can start making decisions based on that right away. Rarity changes to accomodate for Pandora seem logical since it doesn’t really affect constructed either way.
- Board: The board looks absolutely stunning and really does give you the feeling you’re playing a completely different style of game. Kudos!
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Artifacts: Now here’s where the main concerns come in. I obviously do not know what the design decision behind these was, but I feel the way they are now they sort of ‘ruin’ the Pandora experience for many. The effects of many of these cards are simply so powerful, and the randomness of when and which one is drawn makes you unable to prepare for them in advance. I honestly feel like it takes away a lot of the strategy factor.
Drafting a strong, cohesive deck and making good plays hardly feels rewarding anymore when your opponent randomly draws a card they didn’t even draft, and due to luck completely turns the game around and steals your deserved win even though their deck might have been garbage.
The drafting process alone is very fun and should be enough RNG in and of itself to make Pandora interesting. Adding such powerful, random effects to a game mode that requires spending currency to enter seems counterintuitive. Why would a player continually spend 200 gold to play a game mode that is almost entirely decided by RNG instead of skill?
Drafting carries a lot of randomness already in which cards you’re dealt, but the entire decisionmaking process in order to end up with a powerful and synergizing deck seems undermined by the fact that you can still randomly get screwed over entirely depending on when and which artifact gets drawn.
In my opinion either the majority of Artifacts need to be severly nerfed to not cause huge game-swings out of nowhere, or actually taken out altogether. Maybe a change in design is possible (perhaps only 3 per deck? And make it so they can’t be in the top 10 cards or so?) but I feel Drafting already involves enough randomness to warrant not purposefully adding even more.
I feel like most people expected/wanted Pandora to have normal gameplay but with drafted decks. This would provide a place where instead of only gameplay and piloting skills, deckbuilding also becomes very relevant. It adds more depth to the game for those willing to spend a little currency.
TL:DR;
Graphics are stunning, drafting is smooth, artifacts OP; please nerf.
Anyway, that’s just my 2 cents hardly a day after the patch.
