"Sealed Deck" Tournaments.

Back when I used to play M:tG, we'd occasionally engage in sealed deck tournaments where each player purchased a random assortment of cards (normally a starter and two boosters) or something like that and was given about ten minutes to construct a deck out of that before being thrust into play.

It was really fun. :d

I'd like to see something similar done with Guild Wars, considering the number of parallels made with M:tG.

While I'm not sure how far to extend the randomization (do we randomize classes? skills?), I'm fairly certain items need to be randomized--IE: at start, teams are given a random item drop and have to customize as best they can with that.

I think it'd be interesting.

I REALLY like this idea. Alot.


Jana

You have no idea how painful it's been waiting for someone to comment on this. Constantly refreshing.

Considering the focus on skill, I think it'd be interesting to see how players can make do with what they HAVE to work with, not what they WANT to work with. Well, that, and teams practically have to work together to coordinate the randomly assigned loot -AND- classes/skills, assuming those are randomized as well.

- edit -

I think it all should be randomized.

After all, what is skill if it only comes down to items?

Actually I like this idea too. The most fun I had playing M:tG was when my friends and I first started and we had limited cards availiable.

I remember sealed deck tournaments.

If it could be implemented in a way that translated well into Guild Wars gameplay, I think it's a great idea.

It was always fun knowing that sometimes you'd just end up with a crappy set up. Especially because sometimes you'd get lucky and own everyone six ways to Tuesday.

Completely Pre-Made build tournament? That would be fun

I miss the days of magic.. It was ruined with all those new abilities and decks though. I stopped playing when 5th Edition came out..

It's a very good idea and would add some more flavour to the game yet some sort of coherance should be present. Assuming you are playing R/E, would you like to end up with skill from each of the seven attributes at the same time? I'd say, you should be able to do either of the following:
A) Have a larger pool of skills in order to create your set.
B) Have 4 to 6 player-chosen skills and 6 to 4 random.

.. eh. I'm not familiar with "completely pre-made built" tournament.

As I explained above (I'm not sure if it's what you meant), there would be a random assignment of classes, skills, and items (I think), and each team would have X amount of time to figure out a gameplan before starting.

M:tG.. I entered.. right about.. I forget the title, but it had the little palm tree symbol?.. the Urza block was my favourite, and I stopped when they went into this new set, with equipable items and stuff. WAY too powerful.

I think it's the curse of the game that it constantly has to reinvent itself in order to stay alive, but does so at the cost of old players.

I'm not sure how skill division would work, let alone whether or not choosing class would be an option.

However, class aside, I insist on complete randomization of skills, though certainly enough skills provided (as you suggest) that there could be at least some workable strategy, even if it won't be the best.

I figure skills would be randomly selected in this format: no less than X for any one attribute, but no more than Y for any one attribute. However, no more than Z total skills will be provided.

In other words, you'll have a total randomization of Z skills, and those'll be spread in a way to provide at least X for any one attribute, but no more than Y.

- Studio

PS: I'm reluctant to flesh this out in fear that I might scare people off.

Random items? What would warriors do if they got a sucky weapon? As if DPS isn't low enough in this game as is.

I can see random skills and perhaps a choice of full damage weapons but random items sounds pretty iffy.

They'd make do.

Seriously, though, the fun of sealed deck is making do with what you have, and coming out on top despite the obvious disadvantages. Well, that, and the luck of drawing a really sweet card--and, on top of that, basing your deck around it.

I figure item spreads will be low-medium (with a focus on medium) and a few highs tossed in on either side.

- edit -

This is, of course, my opinion. I have relatively little experience with GW PvP (Academy mission, beta PVP), so more higher-end weapons might be warranted, with REALLY NICE rares few and far inbetween.

I do like this idea and, once upon a time, I entertained the idea of setting up a tournament/competition for characters with only starting armor and skills. The main problem, though, is policing things. How do you make sure that everyone involved is following the rules? And where does such a tournament take place? You can't go to an Arena or the Tombs becaues you'll be matched up against other teams who aren't following you "sealed deck" rules. The only place where you can be sure of facing a given opponent is through arranged GvG combat but that's extremely cost prohibitive to set up for temporary guilds for a tournament. I do like the idea of player-driven tournaments and leagues springing up but I don't think GW 's PvP options are robust enough yet to support them. If we ever got an Arena where you could form a team and challenge other teams, well, that would lead to a lot of opportunities but then you're back to the problem of how do you make sure everyone's obeying the rules...

:nods:

I'm hoping that someone from ArenaNet will take notice of this and make an Arena specialized for "sealed deck" format.

Otherwise, I don't see how one could account for all the necessary randomization.

AWESOME idea. I'd like to hear what hardcore PvP fanbois have to say about it, though.

I think it's a great idea. This would provide a great change from the standard PvP tournaments, and it's a show of true skill when you can form a decent squad out of mix-matched items and skills in a short period of time, a different type of skill than the skill involved in building a tombs group or similar.

Has anyone given any thought to the types of matches in a hypothetical sealed deck tournament? Would they be ctf, deathmatch, annihilation, or some combination of those and the other available playtypes?

Definitely think this would be a good idea, but i can't see it as being very possible on a community front unless and until they allow for quicker skill unlocks (if you set up which skill a character has outside a game, it still needs to be mirrored in-game) and specific team challenges beyond guild hall battles.

Laz

I like this idea. Lets say you got 15 random skills and a class you picked and have to make create a build using that.

Exactly, Kebren.

Randomize the choice of the classes.

Randomize the choice of the skills.

Randomize the choice of the items.

It shouldn't matter whether or not they're unlocked. The focus is completely on SKILL. As far as I'm concerned, someone could hop in from Day 1 and technically draw Hundred Blades of Life Transfer.

Right, but that is not something a community tournament has the option of doing, it would require a.net coding in a seal deck system.

Laz

:nods:

Which is why I'm hoping to catch the attention of ArenaNet with this.

I think it's a wonderful idea, and I'm hoping it could be implemented, whether in an update or a future expansion.