 Vol. 1, Issue 3 - 8/23/99
R&D, Do Your Job!
By Da'Sarge
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Before I start let me first apologize to those readers who took the time to write and tell me how they felt about last monthís article. I have always made it a point to ensure I write back to everyone that writes. Last month I could not due to computer problems. In fact if you read this article in September it means I could not make the deadline for this month because of my computer. For those readers who did write I will be writing to everyone this month. Thank you very much for your patience.
Last month I banged R&D around, well guess what, I get to do it again. Thank you very much R&D. Thanks to you and DCI, I can never run out of ideas for articles. I have come to the conclusion that the players are smarter then R&D. Why do I say this? Think about it like this: What makes a Pro-Tour (PT) player better then the average player? I would be willing to bet that everyone who has played this game at one time or another has said the following: I am just as good as the Pros or I copied your deck..and got my butt beat, and so on.
What is the difference between a PT and you? Is it the cards? Nope, when it comes down to it, and if you really try hard enough, you can borrow the cards you need. Is it play-testing? To a certain extent, yes, but it all depends on who you play test with. I know what your saying "So what's the answer Sarge?" The answer is real simple, in my humble opinion. It's the rules. The person who can read the rules and find the holes will always have the biggest advantage.
Play testing will give a person the best deck without a doubt. When you play test you will always find the right deck for you at the next tournament. Now you can surround yourself with the best players in your area. You can even copy decks the pros use. But unless you know how to use those decks with the current rules (Lord knows that changes often enough), your deck ain't worth much. So what does this all have to do with R&D, everything.
R&D created a card for white called Waylay. It is an instant that three 2/2 knight tokens into play until end of turn. Now the average player (like me) would look at this card and say "Nice for defense". But the Pro would look at the rules and see where this card would work as what I call the X-Factor card. An X-Factor card is one where you can't plan for it because you have no idea how the card works any other way then how it reads. Now not all cards will work this way, but this one did.
Now, I have to re-read the rules but to make a long story short, there is a way to play Waylay and be able to attack with the knight tokens on your turn. I am not even going to try and understand how because to be honest I am not sure how it really works. But it works and itís legal.
A lot of players started to complain that it was unfair and wanted the card to be re-written. Others even wanted to have it Banned / Restricted. WOTC decided to have that famous word ERRATA used and had the card re-written to say that it could only be used during combat.
Let me tell ya. This is straight BULL. This is the chicken's way out. Why? Earlier in the article I mentioned that I thought the Pro-Tour player was better then the average player because of being able to use the rules to his best advantage. Here is a good example of it. They found the trick behind Waylay. So how do they get thanked? WOTC decides itís an unfair advantage and a mistake with the card and re-word it. Boy is R&D dumb to let something like that get by them..or did they??
I said I would bang R&D earlier because they screwed up. I just said that because I knew that people would think "yup, they don't know what they are doing". But ya know, what if they didn't? What is R&D knew exactly what it was doing? Scary thought, I know, but could it be possible that they made that card for this exact purpose? To be honest I really don't think they did. But it is something to think about. But if they didn't make it to work like that, then that means that once again R&D did indeed screw up.
It also means the Pro-Players are indeed smarter then R&D. Not a great surprise really. What really surprised me was the action by WOTC to re-word the card. I really don't understand why they had to re-word. Did the Waylay give a big advantage to players? Yes. Was the Waylay deck taking over? In some places yes. But it is not the players fault that R&D can't do their job correctly. An advantage was found, played and the players were punished because R&D screwed up.
I don't know what is worse, the players crying about Waylay because they did not figure it out first. Or WOTC changing the card to make the crybabies happy. I have often heard that WOTC listens to the players. Yea they listen, but only if you cry loud enough. This is a classic example of WOTC over-reacting to the crying of players.
WOTC seems to give no credit to the players. Has it ever occurred to WOTC that the same players that figured out the screw-up would find a way to defeat it? I guess not. Because if they did they would have never have re-worded Waylay. But what can you expect from WOTC? WOTC (if they were smart) should have said "Deal with it". But once again WOTC had to play god. I can see them (WOTC) shaking in their offices saying "This card is too powerful, we must change it for the good of the game". What a bunch of Bull!
Here's an idea. Why can't R&D LEARN HOW TO DO THEIR JOB!!! Better yet why not get some pros to explain the rules to you. Maybe we would not get so many broken cards in the game. Hereís another one for WOTC: DON'T PANDER ALL THE TIME TO THE DAMN CRYBABIES!!!! Every time people cry, WOTC over reacts. Their was no reason to change Waylay just because some of the players read the rules THAT WOTC CHANGED. Hey, I got another idea letís just add another rule that would say. PS: ALL RULES THAT HAVE BEEN CHANGED WILL BE CHANGED AGAIN TO ENSURE THAT ALL PLAYERS (IE: CRYBABIES) WILL BE SATISIFIED WITH THE GAME.
Dem'd My Views and I'm.......
DA’ SARGE
Email: n***s@r***p.com |
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