MMDOC – Base Set 2 Analysis

Base Set 2 is coming!!!! I’m very excited for this if you couldn’t tell already, but a lot of people are either having mixed feelings or just plain done like it.  Hopefully by reading this it will clear up some of the confusing.  On my stream and on the forums a lot of people seem to be misinformed or confused about those changes. “They are deleting all the Base set 1 cards?” was a question I had in my stream at one point.  To answer that simple no they are not.  I’ve built a couple of Base Set 2 decks and played a few games over the last couple days. It’s pretty fun to start fresh and get to deck building.  I’ll be streaming multiple times this week and also I’ll be doing a 24hr live stream this Saturday the 15^th. Feel free to pop in ask any questions or challenge me to a Base Set 2 duel. I want to test as much as possible.

Overall these changes are very good for the game.  The meta was very messy and needed a change.  People are saying o they don’t know how to balance so they are just resetting.  Which in part is semi true. But they have stated even though there will be two formats they are still looking to balance things in the Open format.  So it’s not like they are just putting all the old cards off and not focusing on them.  There will still updates and balancing to them as well.

If you are confused on what I’m even talking about I’m going to go into each change hopefully clearing up the questions people are having and giving my input on them.  And at the end I’ll take a look at the Base Set 2 card list and give my thoughts on that as well.

–          New Formats There will be 3 new formats.  Two of them will be on the completive level (open, standard) while the third (weekly) will be more casual. What are these formats?

Open– All cards in the MMDOC card pool will be usable. YES YOU CAN USE YOUR OLD CARDS STILL!  I’ve seen complaints about the old cards being useless, but you would be wrong still going to be able to play with them.  Even when new expansions come out they will be playable in the Open format.  Still earing Elo for this  

Standard – This will have Base Set 2 cards and any new expansions usable.  If you have a Void Rising version of a card that is in Base Set 2 you will be able to use that version of the card in this format.  Elo to be earned!

Weekly – This will be a format that changes week to week with a variety of restrictions.  Some weeks it will be only void rising cards usable or only commons usable. This is more of a  fun format with some interesting deck building options.   I’m not clear on if this format will affect elo rating.

–          Jackpot and Swiss How will JP and swiss work with the new formats? In a pretty cool way actually.  Each day you will be able to play in JP and Swiss!!.  The change is the formats will rotate instead of the tournament type.  For example:  Today is Monday JP is Open format and Swiss will be Standard format. The next day, Tuesday, JP is Standard and Swiss is Open.  This gives you a lot of options to play which format you like.

–          Drafts? In the live stream announcement the Dev talked about how they want to do drafts right. They are working on it but they don’t want to rush out a bad product. This is something I appreciate. I’m excited for the day when draft does come. This will help broaden the game and be a new way to play.

–          Removing Base Set 1 Cards from the Shop This I’m not so much of a fan of.  New players will find it harder to obtain cards for Open format because of this.  Also another question I’ve seen a lot about this is “is this just Reinforcement packs?” No this is all packs that are currently in the Shop at the moment, all expansions and the reinforcement packs.   They should make a pack that is similar to Emilios Pack where it has all cards in Base Set 1 era that aren’t included in Base set 2.  For example if you were to buy this pack you would have a chance to get Strength of the Sea, Wolf Captain, Forbidden flame…etc. but not Raya or Atropos.  This would help newer players still spend gold to get a chance to open some cards for Open format rather than spend all their WC cards on them.   On that note you will still be able to purchase all cards (Base Set 1 and 2) via Wildcards.  They are looking at the WC prices they may change they may not.  They did say they were looking into flash sales of the older sets as something they could do every once and a while.

–          New Expansion? They are already working on a new expansion to come out following Base Set 2. I’m hoping they don’t wait too long after Base Set 2 to release the new expansion.

–          Creature type Changes One thing I don’t see many people talking about are the creature type changes.  This is an awesome change though.  It helps the team develop new cards that will impact the game.  What am I talking about? Creatures will now have a type assigned to them i.e. Crusader Watchmen – Human Archer, Hellfire Imp Fire Imp. Wait, Hellfire Imp says fire, that’s a magic school. Yes some, not all, will also have a magic school.  Banshee for example will now be a dark ghoul.  This now makes it affected by Dark ward protection spells.  This is a big change but it’s a good change.  The new expansion will definitely have some cards that use these changes and I’m excited to see them.

–          Elo Changes As of now there are no Elo changes, but they are looking into new systems.  I’m glad this is something they are looking into.  It will help the game for the higher level players and also the newer players.  They didn’t announce much on this topic but just that they are looking at and testing new ways to manage the system.

–          Achievements They are removing all achievements tied in with Base Set 1 cards.  The main reason is because you won’t be able to purchase these packs in the shop. IF they find a way to keep the cards in the shop they may not have to remove the.  I’m not too upset by this change, I understand it but I also understand why some people are upset by this.   They did also say they will be adding new achievements to go along with the Base set 2 release.

–          UI update They updated the UI!!! Finally!  They changed up the deck builder and it looks a lot more organized. From the looks of it you will be able to order the cards much easier and you can filter through formats as well.  This is one of the biggest changes I was looking for. This update will come when Base Set 2 gets released.

–          Release Date They are taking in all feedback from the community and may even change some of the cards in the list.  That’s awesome but any changes will delay the release due to testing.  On the stream they did say they were looking at late March.  The sooner the better.  I just want to start playing the new formats asap.   Those are the highlights of the changes. One thing I would like to see from Ubisoft is larger Tournaments.  They NEED to start having some sort of larger tournament scene. Just having JP and swiss is nice and all but a higher level of play is needed.   Something along the lines of the way Magic the Gathering does Grand Prix.  They don’t even have to be location events but just larger with a big prize pool. Even if it’s once every other month or so. With a bigger tournament scene it will also help promote the game a bit better then what we have seen. I only heard of the game because I was bored one day and was looking at games on Steam.

If you want to look at the live stream for yourself where they did all the announcements  click this link http://www.twitch.tv/duelofchampions/b/501521649

After building and testing some decks, I’ve come to notice a few things about each Factions/Spell Schools with the Base Set 2 card list. Here is the list if you want to follow along http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/832417

Academy Academy is strong. A lot of there more powerful creatures are still in Base Set 2.  Scholar and Wizard Tutor still there to pump up your magic along with Rakshasa Skimisher and Scout to block those melee/flyers.  There one weakness could be the three drop slot but its not that much of an anchor to worry about.  One card that could be a stand out is Obsidian Golem. Magic guard is very good and with a bit less removal it’s going to be powerful.  Out of the Heroes Akane will most likely stand out on top because of her passive and spell schools.  Myranda could be close on Akanes heels though for the same reasons.

Haven Ouch they took a hit. The loss of Wolf Captain is huge. Losing Holy Praetorian is also a big hit.  Some of the larger Stronghold creatures will run over Havens smaller creatures because of this.   Haven will be one of the weaker factions but I suspect there will be a list or two that will be competitive.  I’m not sure which hero will stand out as of yet.

Inferno Inferno has a chance to be pretty good. Gate is still in but there isn’t much besides Abyssal Worm to Gate in. I wouldn’t worry too much as with more expansions there will be more fatties.  Hellfire Maniac is going to do a lot for the Inferno decks and I suspect it will be in all of the decks Dhamria still has a chance to be the top Inferno hero because of it having Earth magic and Insect Swarm still being in Base Set 2. Garant rush also is something to keep on your radar.

Necro Necro came out of this really well. Decay Spitter, Atropos, Vampire Knight, Banshee. Look at that list all powerful.  Their biggest hit was the loss of Adar Malik. I’m very thankful for this. It helps free up the other Necro heroes.  Ariana is going to be strong, I’m not sure if it will be the top Necro hero but I’m leaning that way. Insect swarm is going to be very good so having earth magic is strong.

Sanctuary Bye Bye Ishuma. YAY finally get to play other Sanctuary heroes.  On a side note for all those upset about purchasing the alt art Ishuma YOU CAN STILL USE IT IN OPEN FORMAT! I like all the heroes they kept and I’ve been working on a Yukiko deck. They still have a solid group of creatures but losing Sayama Stalker and Dune Prowler are its biggest hits.  Not having Stalker in the 2 drop slot leaves a void that’s hard to fill. Dune Prowler means less outmaneuvers, but I think that was the perfect outmaneuver creature to remove because it was so cost efficient. The Ambush and 3 power on it made it so strong.  They have some work to do but may sit on the tier 2 level until the next expansion.

Stronghold The more I look at things. Stronghold could be the top dog.  They lost Tainted Orc but they still have Vulture Rider and Blackskull Crusher among there other strong fatties.  BSG is going to be a force in the Standard Meta. You have no fortunes that really deal with it anymore so you are going to have to set up good blockers in front of it. Along with the solid creature line-up, Surprise Attack and Sacrificial Altar are still in. I played my Base Set 2 Kat deck against a current Meta Asalah control deck and I smashed it up.   Zardoc is looking really good for standard and I would plan on playing against it a lot. (but not Kelthor a lot J )

Spell Schools

Air Could be the best one in Base Set 2 because they got to keep Forked Lightning. There aren’t many mass removal spells and this one helps.  One thing to be on the lookout is people staking there creatures to not get blown out by Forked lightning. They won’t zig zag like they do from playing against fireballs. They will learn the patterns to play around Forked lightning.

Dark Thankfully Soulreaver is still in Base Set 2.  Along with Curse of the Netherworld, Dark removal is in ok shape.  No more Puppet Master or Shadow Image so Enthrall will have to do.

Earth Earth will help heroes like Dhamria and Zardoc standout because of how powerful Insect Swarm will be. There aren’t nearly any mass damage spells left.  Stone Shield will also help the Control heroes.  Earth is in pretty good shape.

Fire No more Fireball is huge.  Changes up how people line up their creatures a lot.  Fire bolt will be a very good spell and you might even see people running Fire blast.  Fire is looking ok but not that impressive.

Light Losing Sunburst hurts a lot. Bless will most likely be the stand out card from Light. Divine Intervention will be good if a lot of decks are running stuff like Ice Armor and such. Light looks pretty mediocre.

Prime Time Jump, Time Portal, Void Ripple WHAT! Prime is set for PRIME TIME. Very solid line up of spells. Time portal is going to be very good in the up and coming meta.  This is one of the reason Myranda has a chance at being very good in the Base Set 2 Meta

Water Geyser and Ice Armor stand out to me from this bunch. Geyser will be a big key to the heroes with the Water school just as it is now.

Events The event line up looks pretty weak.  Week of the Mercinaries will be everywhere as it will be a heavy creature meta especially early on.  Other Events that may catch a lot of play with be Rise of the Necromancer (eats Akane’s spells) Night of the Rising Moon will still be good in certain decks. You can’t shuffle your deck now but still drawing that many cards is very good.

Fortunes Overall Fortunes took a big it. No more Fortune control lock decks thankfully. Some Factions still have some good Fortunes though. Academy has Favorite Spell, Stronghold has Sacrificial Altar, Inferno has Garants Purge and you might even see some Seria’s Legion decks floating around. Nothing to big here besides the loss of the big cards. I could make a case for Broken Bridge to come back though. I don’t think it’s to overpowered. There’s no lock out combos with it now and it will help against Blackskull Crusher.

Buildings All the Unique Buildings are gone making this section less exciting.  Hidden Dojo and War Tent will be the most used ones. We already see War Tent in use now and it will still be powerful in Base set 2

Well there you have it my thoughts on Base Set 2.  As I said earlier I’ll be doing testing this week so feel free to join me in stream – twitch.tv/thecounterbob. Some of my thoughts may change for the card pool as I do more testing and seeing what works and what others come up with. That’s the joy of all this, the new decks, the deck building and testing.  I’m really looking forward to the changes. If you want to discuss this with me, I’m up for any questions. Get with me in the comment section , on twitter or in my streams.   Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

–          Bob   Twitter – @counterbob Twitch – http://www.twitch.tv/thecoutnerbob Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/counterbob8

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