Something to Talk About #2
It's a holiday here in the U.S. Many of you are sitting around the computer, constantly refreshing VSRealms just waiting for the next exciting post to show up! So, I thought I'd give you something to read and maybe stir your interest a bit with a question: What do you think of the trend in Vs. towards a short more rush focused game?

Discuss here!

It Stinks!!!!

i second that!

:p third it

Agreed.

I miss curve. I don't know about the rest of you but I like my 7 drops.

I agree, I feel that decks like high voltage are very detrimental to the game. For instance I'm part of a team trying to get a deck ready for the upcomming PC and it sucks because the focus of out testing is finding a way not to die on turn 4 and that's just no fun.

High voltage, in my opinion, is ruining the competitive game.

can that be any more true.

Everything is cyclical, we will see the curve come back, go alway, come back, go away you get the idea you just have to wait. Each set changes the game in some way! Though I agree it sucks to try to find a way to stay alive past 4!

It's part of the balance of control and aggro. When a format has no clear dominant deck or alot of similarly attractive decks, then an aggro deck will rise to fill the dominant spot because it does the same job fast and efficently for almost any deck it could face. Once the aggro deck dominates or appears to be dominant in the format, then it can be targeted and a control scheme developed to counter it.

I think that people will play and do well with high voltage, unless a deck that grandslams high voltage becomes common knowledge before the PC. There isn't a magic bullet card that can be added to an average deck to make high voltage a trivial matchup, well not that I've seen at least :). Anyone that considers themselves a pro will have a deck and strategy for high voltage at the PC.

I expect that by % the high voltage decks will do about average at the pc, while decks run by the pro teams will have a better than average win % on day 1. That happens at almost every PC, expected deck has an average win %, while the innovative decks take advantage and get better results per person playing them.

If anything, the next pc is do or die for high voltage.

I personally yearn for the old days when off-curve and rush was limited to gimmick decks and 7 drops saw play on a regular basis.

All in all, I would have to blame Curve Sentinels for the mess we're in. With designers and players doing their level best to de-fang the toasters for so long, the meta started producing some very concentrated curve hate. Rush was the best way to go if you wanted to kill Sentinels, so we got rush. Now we're stuck with it.

Give me the days when you could build with a curve to 7 (or even 8!) and not have to play every defensive trick ever printed. There has been WAY too much support for rush, in my opinion, and curve has been left swinging in the wind. MHG may have changed that in Modern, but it's not going to make a dent in Golden or Silver.

Sorry for the semi-rant, but I'm rapidly losing my desire to play this game. Hopefully something changes soon.

my biggest gripe with rush decks is that they take the skill out of what is otherwise a very skill intensive game, and that just sucks.

Having said that, rush can be beaten by a number of curve options. Heralds of galactus is a great start, in any age (earyl testing has shown heralds to handle voltage with relative ease) but there are other viable options. Unfortunately they are not unlimited and there are certain teams out there that simply do not stand a chance against voltage which just sucks.

I think the bigger question here is: Is rush the problem or voltage the problem. Perosnally I can't think of a single rush strategy that can't be easily taken down outside of voltage. If voltage really is the problem than banning a few cards probably wouldnt be the worst thing in the world. Would the vs. community miss advanced hardware that much?

Now don't take this the wrong way, I am not whining. All of the decks I plan on playing in golden can handle voltage with relative ease. But there is a problem with the game when any deck anyone builds has to be able to beat voltage to even be considered competitive. Its limiting and it does suck some of the fun out of the game.

I agree - rush decks are very formulaic at times and require little skill to play. I, too, miss the days when a player had to actively think at all times even with the best deck he (probably) got off the internet.

Pfft. Short curve is the best curve in the game. Don't like Rush, don't like stall. I like a nice: Titans, Good Guys, TNB Reservists (whatever, its fun), anything that shoots to win on 6 (please, please let me help Doom end games on Six).

I don't play on the competitive level - to be honest, I play with one or two friends, and that's it. As a result, I'm slightly out of the loop regarding competitive decktypes.

Can anyone here describe what it is about High Voltage that makes it different from other rush deck types? Is it that HV doesn't bother with attacking and only goes for burn effects? And is "rush" intended to describe a deck that is off-curve, or does it have other implications?

--thanks for the help,
carbonbased

Personally, I disagree with the mentality that rush decks are "easy to play." TNB was never an auto-deck, neither was AGL. I don't think of MHS being an "easy deck."













Who am I kidding. Yes, they are (if you have a proper build). A trained monkey who knows the mulligans can figure out what opening hands to keep, and a person with basic grasps on the game knows the attack procedures.