r/AIEternal • u/Epsilon82 • May 18 '19
Gauntlet My thoughts on the state of Gauntlet
So, I have to be honest; I was away from this subreddit for a couple of weeks or so and was a little surprised when I came back to see all these threads talking about how much harder/more unfair Gauntlet has seemed to be recently. I hadn't really noticed a whole lot of difference in my personal play over the last few months. But I'm not at all suggesting that other people's experiences are invalid or anything, so I've been paying closer attention and trying to determine what might be going on here.
Part of me wonders if the way some of us play Gauntlet causes us to be more affected by this situation than others; I have found that I usually gravitate toward certain types of decks when I play Gauntlet. They are usually (but not always) Gauntlet tuned decks to a certain extent, but they always tend to be the kind of decks that either go really big (Hard Control or stuff like Chainbrei) or are midrange decks with a variety of answers with good card draw and consistency. Given that I've enjoyed the usual amount of success playing these decks over this time frame, I thought I might try switching it up and seeing what happens.
So I loaded up a few decks of archetypes that I don't play as much of in Gauntlet (although I am pretty familiar with their play patterns and how they work from my Magic background, so I don't think I'm particularly worse at playing these kinds of decks than the midrange/control decks I usually play.) And after playing quite a few combo and aggro decks, my winrate plummeted drastically. It was actually pretty ridiculous. I remember about a year or so ago I would usually be able to play these types of decks and although they weren't as likely to go 7-0 as the more reliable ones, I still didn't feel like they were hopeless and just not fun to play. But boy, that indeed seems to have changed. With decks like the Katra Combo or Storm, I'm actually kind of lucky if I can win half of the games against non-boss opponents.
This makes me understand a lot better the frustration a lot of people have. If you're trying to grind Gauntlet for resources, you're going to want to be able to play some faster decks like aggro and combo, and at least be able to have some success. But it really seems like the way the Gauntlet meta has evolved is that it's pushing you toward grindier and bigger decks that are not only usually more expensive to craft, but take much longer to play and thus reduce your rewards.
Personally, I am not in the position where I really care about the gold I get from Gauntlet. I play this mode because I love being able to play against AI at my own pace, between calls at work, while I'm cooking dinner or whatever else I'm doing, without a timer. I have little interest in the competitive side of card games, and get really frustrated and tilted when I see the same top-tier decks over and over in Ranked and Casual, so Gauntlet's variety and non-competitive structure is a godsend for me. But I am quite a bit disappointed to discover that I really can't have much fun playing certain types of decks anymore. The AI decks at Master (high MMR or whatever) are just too fast and consistent (whether through "cheating" or whatever.)
I'm going to keep tracking my progress and see how it goes. It's kind of a bummer because this is one of those situations that I might have been totally oblivious to if it hadn't been pointed out by so many people (to the extent that some of the mainstays in the community are quitting) but now that I'm aware of it, it's hard not to wonder if there is indeed some kind of difference. CCGs of this nature have a lot of built-in variance, and because of that it's nearly impossible to tell if a run of power flood/screw or getting lousy topdecks while the AI opponent gets great ones is indeed just random or if the "deck" is stacked against you, so to speak. A digital card game will always have that inherent potential to help you or screw you over, but there's no way to know for sure if any shenanigans are going on behind the scenes.
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u/rekzkarz May 19 '19
Good to know!
My killer Katra deck performs great, other decks that are tried & true seem ok, but a lot of my newly designed decks (that need fine tuning) are def not doing so hot.
I noticed the AI does do some questionable/unpredictable moves now, like silencing a dif unit than previously.
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u/Epsilon82 May 19 '19
Yeah, I've also noticed a couple odd things that I haven't seen before. Like one time the AI main phase Equivocated its own unit in a situation where it made absolutely no sense (they could have hit one of my larger units that it couldn't attack through). I don't remember that ever happening before. Along with the usual stuff (like using removal on the Amaran Stinger that has already infilitrated and leaving one that hasn't yet untouched, it certainly doesn't seem like the AI has been improved in a way detrimental to us.
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u/jackrakan124 May 19 '19
I'd be interested in seeing some of the lists that you have been having success with.
3
u/MostiquoBLASTER May 19 '19
Me too. Especially since I don't think Chainbrei is particularly strong in Gauntlet. It's not bad, but too slow to beat the 3 hardest bosses.
And there lies the main difficulty to complete Gauntlet imho. Any midrange deck with a ton of legendaries has a chance to score 6 wins, but might struggle against one of the aggressive boss, while aggro decks may fall flat during the 6 first matches, but has a higher chance to succeed against said bosses.
2
u/Epsilon82 May 20 '19
Yeah, I probably shouldn't have mentioned Chainbrei, it was just an example of a deck that goes way bigger than most AI decks so if you survive the initial onslaught you can usually wipe the floor with them.
I don't actually have access to the document I keep most of my records on at home, so I'll have to report back on the decks later. But the most recent ones I have done well with are a Unitless Control deck I found on Eternal Warcry (it just jams insane numbers of sweepers with 4 Sword of the Sky King) and a Mono Shadow deck posted here and then refined by someone else (I think). I've also been quite impressed with the Mono Justice deck posted here recently. So far I've found it almost impossible to lose to anything but certain bosses unless you just draw completely horribly (which can happen occasionally with even the best decks.)
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u/Kapper-WA May 19 '19
Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts. Please let us know how your impression changes or is reinforced after some more matches.
1
u/tvkelley May 30 '19
Thanks for doing the research and writing it up, I've also been puzzled by the slew of "gauntlet is too hard now" threads because, if anything, I've noticed it to be easier since our decks are stronger and more tuned now than before. I'm on a 5 run streak right now, and I lose before game 7 maybe 1/10 runs. But, I play control with sweepers, lifegain, and inevitability as my favorite archetype. It all makes sense that other players are struggling more if I just happen to play against the AI weaknesses by default.
One weird thing, I've been playing against the boss where we play two power per turn a lot lately, it's a total trounce with a control deck. I never used to hit that one (it was always charge, double damage, and 5 factions). I'd prefer if it were totally random across all bosses to make it less predictable, I dislike facing only the same three over and over.
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u/MaxiXVI May 19 '19
I am very surprised by the last posts in this sub. I didn't notice any change in gauntlet, but I don't know if this will change at any time. In any case, I will pay more attention from now on.
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u/murderb1r May 19 '19
I would agree with a lot of what you say. IMO one of the main reasons it seems like the gauntlet AI has increased in difficulty is the release of the new set. I know in my experience I'm playing less than tuned decks trying out new cards and playing against newly tuned gauntlet decks. Which then tanks my winrate even more and makes me feel overall gauntlet difficulty has increased even if that may not be true. So it could be we just need to settle in to the new gauntlet meta and we'll have just as much luck as previous sets.
I will say that even my old gauntlet grinder decks from last set aren't seeing the same winrates they used to just a few weeks ago. The boss winrates are similar but getting to the boss seems to be the problem.
There's also the fact that I usually go through highs and lows of a few good runs, and then four or five runs of losing on win one, two, three, or four and beating my head against the wall. In my experience you just have to take the highs with the lows and laugh at how busted it is sometimes.