Is limited more enjoyable to you than constructed?

[yoshi1001]

Back in 2007, I decided to stop playing in constructed tournaments so I could better focus on covering the game and free myself up during tournaments. It was a somewhat difficult choice at the time, but since I do still play constructed at league...I've grown to not regret the decision. Instead, I participate frequently in prereleases, to the point where I greatly prefer the limited experience. I think the reasons are:

Larger number of useful cards: Essentially forced by the nature of the format, in limited you will see more variety.
Lighter atmosphere: With few or no prizes on the line, the experience feels more social and interactive.
Better value: This is kind of sad, but with the introduction of entry fees and what I perceive to be a shift in focus toward rarer, more expensive cards, limited actually seems to be emerging as the cheaper investment.

I'm not saying I'd be happy if limited replaced constructed as the main competitive format (definitely a bad idea), but it has some merits. What do you think?

 

[Mystery Thing]

Define "limited." I find sealed to be categorically un-fun. If you get a garbage set of packs, there's nothing you can do - one of the years at Origins, I did a sealed event and my deck wound up with every single type of Energy, no evolutions, and no Trainers. I drew 1 prize card in 5 rounds, and it was miserable.

I find draft extremely enjoyable. Sealed, not so much.

 

[FunnyBear]

I think its more like I want something other than prepping for serious tournaments. Drafts, theme deck tournaments, old deck formats, provide an outlet for those that occasionally want to play Pokemon for fun outside of the tournament scene. Those of us that have chased for a World's invite this year know that even League challenges have become extremely competitive and we're looking for an occasional mutant draft or something. Not a big fan of pre-releases for the reasons mentioned above, though.

 

[LOLZ]

Back in 2007, I decided to stop playing in constructed tournaments so I could better focus on covering the game and free myself up during tournaments. It was a somewhat difficult choice at the time, but since I do still play constructed at league...I've grown to not regret the decision. Instead, I participate frequently in prereleases, to the point where I greatly prefer the limited experience. I think the reasons are:

Larger number of useful cards: Essentially forced by the nature of the format, in limited you will see more variety.
Lighter atmosphere: With few or no prizes on the line, the experience feels more social and interactive.
Better value: This is kind of sad, but with the introduction of entry fees and what I perceive to be a shift in focus toward rarer, more expensive cards, limited actually seems to be emerging as the cheaper investment.

I'm not saying I'd be happy if limited replaced constructed as the main competitive format (definitely a bad idea), but it has some merits. What do you think?

I agree with Mystery Thing, Sealed sucks. Draft is far more enjoyable. I would even pay more to play in a draft if each player was given more packs at the start of the draft to draft with.

Given the current power creep that comes with the latest sets in the form of big basic EXs, I do think Draft would become even more enjoyable if EXs can not be played. Really in draft if anyone comes across an EX will instantly draw it, but if EXs are banned a player who opens an EX may decide to make a strategic choice rather then a $$$ choice.

 

[vaporeon]

There are a handful of decks I want to play but can't due to the power creep. I would love a limited format where people cant just throw big basics at it. I want to see skill comeback to the game.

 

[DMoCTTA]

I think it's more fun for those who, such as myself, don't have the time nor money to go out and try to get the best 60 cards for a deck. I do agree that sealed is two thumbs down, unless you're opening 10 packs in which you have some room to work with.

I don't think it should take over, but I think it should be a more common play option.

 

[Golden Suikun]

I share a similar opinion to many of the posters. After a long hiatus (until I started seriously getting back into the game in January right before XY came out, I haven't kept up much with the TCG metagame since sometime after the EX Fire Red/Leaf Green series), I started getting back in the game. I participated in two prereleases: XY and Flashfire. They are a fun way of getting new cards and meeting other players, but from a gameplay perspective, the prospect of facing down an EX Pokémon does suck out some of the fun, given that their power is unbalanced. I don't know, however, if a ban on EX Pokémon is the solution, given that some expansions have powerful anti-EX counters (think Suicune in Plasma Blast and Pyroar in Flashfire), and part of the challenge and fun of playing in a limited tournament is trying to make the best out of whatever cards are obtained.

Slightly deviating from limited and talking about the current metagame, I do believe, though, that something should be done in future sets to contain EX Pokémon and to encourage evolution again. Even back in the early days of the TCG where Haymaker decks were commonplace, it still took at least two turns to knock out a Pokémon. Not anymore, where even a 170 HP EX Pokémon is at risk of getting OHKO'd by an attack doing 140 + Muscle Band + Hypnotoxic Laser. It's a very different environment from what I was used to a decade ago, and it took me a while to adapt.

 

[yoshi1001]

I'll admit I'm probably a little more accepting of the chaotic nature than others.

EX Pokemon definitely still pose an obstacle-I generally try to include a Pokemon with a confusion attack to help deal with single-basic decks (quite effective if the set or player has no status-healing cards).

 

[signofzeta]

Most if not all MTG sets were designed with limited in mind.

Yugioh has the battle pack series that is designed with limited in mind.

For draft, ideally, you would want to have a 200+ card set.

If you draft, each pack should have 15 cards. In MTG, you get 15 card boosters, while you get 5 card battle packs, but in that case you open 3 at a time to look through 15 cards.

Knowing this, I wonder why there isn't a set that isn't released as part of the 4 set schedule made for sealed and draft. The set would be 200+ cards containing reprints and would come in 15 card boosters, or maybe 5 card boosters, depending if you want to open 1 pack or 3 packs at once.

The way the current boosters containing only 10 cards and around 100 to 150 cards makes it hard to draft. I don't think it is fun to draft the main sets of Yugioh, such as Primal Origin, or Legacy of the Valiant, and is more fun to draft the battle packs.

Every year I see the 4 main sets and their associated theme decks. They also release other stuff, but that is just the combination of the 4 main sets or the associated theme decks released in a box or tin with a promo. An example of "other stuff" would be dragon vault, Red Genesect collection, the epic collection decks, because they are new content, rather than repackaged content, so I would like to see new content beyond boosters and theme decks for the 4 main sets.

A reprint set for draft

More all reverse holo theme decks

Theme decks with EX cards as the cover cards.

Sets similar to Dragon Vault

- - - Updated - - -

Most if not all MTG sets were designed with limited in mind.

Yugioh has the battle pack series that is designed with limited in mind.

For draft, ideally, you would want to have a 200+ card set.

If you draft, each pack should have 15 cards. In MTG, you get 15 card boosters, while you get 5 card battle packs, but in that case you open 3 at a time to look through 15 cards.

Knowing this, I wonder why there isn't a set that isn't released as part of the 4 set schedule made for sealed and draft. The set would be 200+ cards containing reprints and would come in 15 card boosters, or maybe 5 card boosters, depending if you want to open 1 pack or 3 packs at once.

The way the current boosters containing only 10 cards and around 100 to 150 cards makes it hard to draft. I don't think it is fun to draft the main sets of Yugioh, such as Primal Origin, or Legacy of the Valiant, and is more fun to draft the battle packs.

Every year I see the 4 main sets and their associated theme decks. They also release other stuff, but that is just the combination of the 4 main sets or the associated theme decks released in a box or tin with a promo. An example of "other stuff" would be dragon vault, Red Genesect collection, the epic collection decks, because they are new content, rather than repackaged content, so I would like to see new content beyond boosters and theme decks for the 4 main sets.

A reprint set for draft

More all reverse holo theme decks

Theme decks with EX cards as the cover cards.

Sets similar to Dragon Vault

 

[Sevus]

I share a similar opinion to many of the posters. After a long hiatus (until I started seriously getting back into the game in January right before XY came out, I haven't kept up much with the TCG metagame since sometime after the EX Fire Red/Leaf Green series), I started getting back in the game. I participated in two prereleases: XY and Flashfire. They are a fun way of getting new cards and meeting other players, but from a gameplay perspective, the prospect of facing down an EX Pokémon does suck out some of the fun, given that their power is unbalanced. I don't know, however, if a ban on EX Pokémon is the solution, given that some expansions have powerful anti-EX counters (think Suicune in Plasma Blast and Pyroar in Flashfire), and part of the challenge and fun of playing in a limited tournament is trying to make the best out of whatever cards are obtained.

Slightly deviating from limited and talking about the current metagame, I do believe, though, that something should be done in future sets to contain EX Pokémon and to encourage evolution again. Even back in the early days of the TCG where Haymaker decks were commonplace, it still took at least two turns to knock out a Pokémon. Not anymore, where even a 170 HP EX Pokémon is at risk of getting OHKO'd by an attack doing 140 + Muscle Band + Hypnotoxic Laser. It's a very different environment from what I was used to a decade ago, and it took me a while to adapt.

Not at all true - the highest HP Basic Pokémon in the Haymaker days tended to have 60-80 HP, and the Haymaker basics could do 40 damage on an attack. With the powerful Trainers available (Professor Oak, Bill, Computer Search, Item Finder), you could easily PlusPower your way into a OHKO, that is, if you weren't already hitting weakness for the OHKO.