Poll: A Rant about Mojang's Scrolls

[Alorxico]

I love Minecraft. I really do. It is one of the coolest games out there. So, naturally I assumed that Mojang's latest Brain-Child, Scrolls, would be cool too. Lesson learned, never assume a company that made a good game will continue making them.

Scrolls is utterly broken. Of the original three decks that were released, only one (Energy, which is essentially robots, bombs and goblins) is any good; great offense, great defense, insta-kill cards for both creatures AND structures (they're version of Artifacts for those of you familiar with Magic the Gathering) and they are all CHEAP to put out. Order (Soldiers, priests and obelisks) is okay, assuming you can get enough cards out quickly, as the cards build on each other and boast each others powers. But the runt of this litter, Growth (druids, animals and totems) will always lose. How do I know? I made the mistake of picking Growth as my starting deck and now I'm stuck with it. There is a new one, Decay (zombies, rats and dead trees ... ooooo, spooky!) but I haven't played against it much to make a sound judgement.

When you start, you can choose a pre-constructed deck from one of the three (now four) types. From there, you can play the computer or play other players. Having started late in this game (much like with my Dota 2 account), I am at a disadvantage; other players have better skills and more cards than me and my starter deck, so I decided to play the AI in Easy Mode to learn the ropes. Bad idea.

The AI always wins. Hands down. I have the Growth deck and even against other Growth decks I lose. The AI ALWAYS draws the cards it needs, ALWAYS has the energy it needs to cast the scrolls and can always move their units around the board to block and kill yours. On top of that, it has access to cards that are NOT part of your starter deck. Example: there is a cute little critter in Growth called a Bunny. As long as it has a 0 attack power, it will generate more bunnies, that will themselves generate more bunnies if they have an attack power of 0. A great card if you want to build a soft, cuddly army of doom, but the starter does not COME with Bunny. It also does not come with Wildlings or Rats, creatures that increase attack power for each of their kind in play. But the AI had them, en masse, and I lost every game I played.

I thought it was just my bad luck with games and always picking the stupid decks, but nope. I have watched fellow students at the university playing with Energy, Order and the new Decay deck and the same thing happens. The AI always wins, even on Easy Mode. Sure, you can boost your deck's power by buying more cards or buying another deck, but the best cards and a whole new deck requires Shards (which you must buy with REAL cash) AND in-game earned gold, which you can only earn if you WIN a match. One would naturally assume that the easiest way to do that is to play the computer, which should also teach you some game strategy, but as I have said, this is not the case.

Mojang does not want you playing the computer, it wants you be social and play other people. Admirable when dealing with shy 5th graders just discovering they like girls (or boys), but we are not children. I am assuming this attitude is because Mojang wants the game to be an on-line version of Magic the Gathering or Yu-gi-Oh! or Pokemon or whatever card game kids play these days; something EVERYONE talks about and creates their own Leagues to compete in Championships for glory, honor and bragging rights. But, to be brutally honest, the game will never be that because we are all still sitting in our houses at our computers hoping our internet connections don't timeout during a thunderstorm and we get auto-surrendered by the Diving Scrolls Master in Mojang-land.

Plus, since the best cards cost REAL money in addition to in-game gold and, as stated earlier, in game gold can ONLY be earned if you win a match, broke, inexperienced players like myself are ALWAYS going to lose to the players who shell out cash, win a few games then buy the best cards from the store. Why are you punishing the players who are strapped for cash? (Ironically, if you Surrender from an AI Match you get gold. Like, 5 pieces of it, but if you tough it out to the bitter end against the AI, you get NOTHING.)

I found one of those "We are interested in what you have to say" forums for Mojang's Scrolls and made a suggestion that they dumb down the AI a bit in Easy Mode to help players out. I even suggested they cut the winnings in half so people didn't farm the Easy Mode for quick gold, and the response I got was just plain rude.

Translated from Legal Speak (thanks to my internet brother GeminiFlux, Lawyer in Training) the response was essentially "As this is not a glitch or a bug, this is an inappropriate remark and has been removed. Please refrain from posting your complaints on this forum and if you find you are not having fun, that is not our fault" Now, I am hoping that this wasn't from Mojang directly, but from the third party they have hired to monitor their site, but for the record I posted my comment in the SUGGESTIONS section of the forum, NOT the Bug and Glitch Section.

The game has GREAT potential, it really does, and I WANT to love it and play it and support it, but when I find myself on the third round flipping off my computer screen, scaring both the cat and my fiance with the language coming out of my mouth because the Easy Mode AI played five cards after three rounds and destroyed my only defender (singular) with an insta-kill card I can only get with 5000 gold and 65 Shards, then I cannot invest myself into the game. I would rather go to the local game store, buy a pack of Magic Card, a soda and lose to the guy who makes Doctor Who references (like telling everyone at the table that the first person to blink while an Angle card was in play had to buy everyone who didn't blink chips then was the first to blink. Yes, we are weird).

I am probably alone in this boat and will get swarmed with "Well, you just have to practice" or "Then go back to your "traditional card games" if all your going to do is complain" upon posting this, but I wanted to vent my frustrations with other gamers. After all, we have ALL had a moment in our gaming career where we have encountered a game that cheated and nothing stops a gamer from playing a game faster than the feeling that the game is rigged to keep you from winning ... except maybe a power outage.

~~ Alorxico

NOTE: Trying to fix the poll and it just isn't working. Sorry. Choices should be "I agree because", "I don't agree because" "You missed the point because" and "What's Scrolls?"

 

[Baldr]

I think what made scrolls worse is that you have to choose a deck right off the bat with no experience. The deck I choose wasn't fun, after a few games I got knew the deck wasn't right for me. I would have to pay MORE money if I wanted to change decks. I'm an experienced card player. I know strategy and how to play card games. Scrolls is just badly designed. After a few more games and going through the setup battles. I knew this wasn't the card game for me.

 

[lacktheknack]

Whelp, I'll keep my distance until it gets rebalanced. Thanks for the warning.

 

[likalaruku]

Haven't been keeping up with anything of theirs but Minecraft.

Isn't Scrolls still in Beta? Even 3-year-old Minecraft is still being adjusted & added to, heavily.

Try the game in another year; The staff will have made so many changes to the game by that time that it won't even be recognizable.

 

[Rack]

It's really REALLY poor form for Scrolls not to give you a starter deck of every faction to play around with. I picked Energy which felt like so much crap with 5 or 6 decent cards but I could just about win enough games against easy AI to build up a half decent deck. Then I stopped playing because getting an Order and Growth deck would have meant either spending an amount of money I didn't consider worthwhile or endlessly playing with the same deck over and over and over again until I finally could afford enough cards of these factions.

I hope in future the game will get less miserly as well as decently expanded.

You should try Solforge though, it's still pretty slight but it gives you a halfway decent selection of cards free and if you play 1-3 times a day you can unlock new cards and build new decks at a decent rate. Online is probably a no-go but the AI is fun.

 

[Smertnik]

I've never looked into Scrolls but if you're searching for a casual CCG you could always wait for Hearthstone.

 

[Baldr]

I've never looked into Scrolls but if you're searching for a casual CCG you could always wait for Hearthstone.

I didn't want to be bashing Scrolls, then bring up Hearthstone. I'm in the closed Beta for Hearthstone. I play about 10-20 games a day, the difference is night and day, and you don't have to spend a penny if you choose not to. Very easy to learn, although you might have to play a lot to be really great at it.

 

[2xDouble]

The costs for single cards are in Gold OR crystals, not gold AND crystals. Also don't buy singles unless you play Scrolls like some play League of Legends; all-day, every day.

You could have bought 2-3 packs using the Gold you get from completing the Tutorial and gotten cards that help your deck gel... at least enough to get through some of the first Challenge missions. Packs have guaranteed two Uncommon cards and one Rare card (the ones you'd be paying about $2.99 for)

Collectible Card Games have always been pay-to-win, at least in any competitive sense.

Growth is by far the the STRONGEST starter deck, once you look at the cards and figure out how they synergize. They do so even better than the Order decks, and are more versatile in use. Here's a hint: play your Wolves.

Energy is high-risk, high-reward. There is a high payoff, but you can easily punish the risks once you know what you're doing. Energy is also kind of bullshit, like the Red Deck Wins that spawned it.

Easy and Medium AI don't use Decay decks, or at least, I haven't seen one.

I have never lost to the Easy AI unless it was able to combo out early (turn 4-5) and overwhelm the board once I figured out what I liked in my deck and what I didn't (which I would then use as sacrifice fodder until I could replace it). Incidentally, I picked Order, which is easily the most complex starter deck in terms of synergy and by far the narrowest in terms of victory conditions (pretty much Honorable General combo or Bust).

I play about 10-20 games a day, the difference is night and day, and you don't have to spend a penny if you choose not to. Very easy to learn, although you might have to play a lot to be really great at it.

I agree that Hearthstone is the better game, but this is crap. The only really fun game mode costs $2.99 every time you want to play it. Otherwise you're just derping around with your friends or smashing face-first into the hyper-competitive players who did spend money for cards and just steamroll everything. CCG's, or any collectible-based game for that matter, are always pay-to-win. That's a simple fact.

 

[Alorxico]

Isn't Scrolls still in Beta?

Yes, it is still in Beta, which is why I felt I could contact their "suggestions" people and explain what was happening to me and give my suggestions for improvement. Maybe I'm just old (I've been gaming since the 80s) and "Easy" now means something else, but to me the Easy Mode should be an "Play wins 90% of the time" Mode but give out significantly low rewards. I mean, I played Halo (I know Scrolls is not in the same league as Halo, but stay with me) on Easy Mode and it was because I could breeze through the entire thing with no problem that I wanted to play the harder modes. I knew what the game wanted me to do and I wanted a challenge.

2xDouble, I am glad that you aren't having any trouble with the game, it means there is hope. As for me, half of my Easy AI battles are against Decay decks and when I tried to purchase a new deck it asked for both Shards and Gold. I am NOT going to claim my game is not glitched in some way, but that is what has happened to me when I tried to purchase a new deck and why I made that statement.

And, I agree, most collectable card games are pay-2-win in the competitive circuit, but I don't think I should have to pay to win against my own computer on Easy Mode; but, again, I am not going to claim my game isn't glitched or cursed or purposefully trying to ruin my day, but it is massively annoying.

 

[Ayjona]

I got my Scrolls on not long ago, chose Growth, and since the very first day, I've been consistently beating the AI on easy, no matter what deck it ends up with, in both quick matches and the easy trials. And while I have many, many years of TCG experience, I've never been devoted, and never, more importantly, very good at any trading card game. But I hold a steady 8/10 win rate against the easy AI. Much like 2xDouble says, Growth seems to me to be the most powerful starter deck, the (admittedly) few players I know seem to agree, and what little online reports I've read seem to indicate it might even be in need of rebalancing (the starter deck, that is, not the faction as a whole).

(I actually find Decay AIs the most entertaining to face and beat, and probably the easiest. Decay tends to flood the board to a perhas even greater extent that Growth, but the critters have very little in terms of synergy compared to my forces, and after the first few turns of watching them pound away at my idols, I always quickly overwhelm and out-synergize them.)

All this amounts to an income rate that allows me to buy one scroll pack (7 commons, 2 uncommons and 1 rare) every day I have two hours to spare for Scrolls. Should I ever have a whole afternoon and evening to dedicate to the game, I'd probably buy two, and see my card collection grow quite significantly. It is not Solforge-bizarre levels of card amass-age, but card trickle in at a higher rate than I expected for a game with p2p mechanics (and rightly so, since Scrolls IS a premium title), and the rate is high enough that I feel that I am constantly making headway and adding to my collection and my deck construction opportunities.

By the way, trading with players for designated cards is often a much better way to strengthen your deck than buying Scrolls from the store. I prefer scroll pack, since I intend to play the game for quite some time to come and want a large variety of cards with which to build differend kinds of decks. But planning your deck (and here's a quick guide on how to do that: http://www.scrollsguide.com/news/1240/turning-an-idea-into-a-scrolls-deck-a-step-by-step-guide ) and focusing your efforts and resources on acquiring particular cards to strengthen your chosen strategy is probably a better way to boost your deck strength and win games early on.

Incidentally, my roomate chose Energy, and has similar levels of success against the AI in quick matches. He struggles just a tad more with the trials, though, and his income rate might be a bit lower since Energy seem to take a few more minutes to win their matches.

EDIT: A quick how-to for the Growth starter: block your enemies efforts until you have your Brothers of the Wolf on the board. Protect them with those nifty Vitality Wells that both block and heal (unless you intend to keep them solely for healing, in which case they should be protected, of course) and whatever structures and critters you can throw in front, as you fill the board with wolves. Play Mangy Wolves to lower countdowns and see your wolves attack in synergized force. Hide Ancenstral Totems behind just about every other unit for massive over-the-board attack boosts. Finally, terrorize the battlefield with Great Wolves to crush clusters and finish off an already ragged and worn enemy.

 

[gavinmcinns]

snip

Duh. The enjoyment of minecraft comes not because it is a good game, but rather it enables you to build stuff out of blocks like legos.You can use your imagination to build static, blocky crap and thats why 10 year olds love it. Technically, it is a skid mark of a game. The guy probably spent about 20 hours coding the whole thing in between cake breaks, and you expected his next game to be good?

 

[Shinsei-J]

I've personally found Scrolls to be great and I haven't spent a dime since the original purchase. Anything that sells for the cash currency you can also buy with the gold you earn in game which I think you may have misunderstood. As for always losing that's due to the games lack of strategic tutorial, while it may show you how to play the game it certainly doesn't show you how to win. Not going into the details of Scrolls strategy myself once you've got down the basics it becomes that 90% win rate you believe you should be having.

The one real gripe I have with the game I'm well past already, which is the bad tutorial and deck selection which just locks you in.
My advice is just to go check out a beginners guide to Scrolls on youtube for now because figuring out the game by yourself takes forever.

 

[0986875533423]

Deceptively, Growth is in fact the most powerful faction, though only because of one card: Quake. Some blame God Hand too, but in a faction with so little card draw God Hand really isn't useful because it's way too expensive and its effect only combines what two cheaper cards do.

Wolves are very powerful, but energy's "lobber" structures mop them right up and keep new growth players off the field. The only reason Growth is doing well against Energy right now is because whiny Energy players, seeking to ape the top tier decks, have taken all the structures out of their own in fear of Quake, which can wipe them all out instantly.

Which shows what nincompoops they are. Top tier players remove the structures from their decks because Quake (which is admittedly overpowered) has real lasting consequences for their keenly optimised strategies. Standard player decks are just weakened by their removal. My high-speed optimised Growth deck, which had been kerbstomping decently competent Order and Energy decks all session, was taken down by the edited precon deck of a guy who had only ever played 4 matches, even after I played all three of my Quakes, because the glorious little bastard had never seen a Quake before and wasn't afraid to use lobbers in his deck.

Tl;dr: Growth has a frustrating difficulty curve but once you have a decent number of its most powerful cards it's godly. I felt the same way you do when I started with Growth. Keep at it, you get gold for losing too.

In addition, purchasing more cards will never require shards. I can see how you might be confused, since the prices and options to pay with shards or gold appear next to each other in the purchase popup and on the store items, but it can all be done with in-game gold. You do not have to shell out real money.