So, are there any card games that *aren't* pay-to-win?
Sure, players can agree upon casual MtG decks in advance, but chances are, any random MtG player you see in a gaming store is going to be sinking all their cash into mythic rares while making fun of you for being a poor casual.
tons of card games fit into this niche.
The FFG card games.
Magic has a format called Pauper, the average cost for a deck is between 10-20 dollars.
People have mentioned you can put together a decent force of will deck rather cheaply(you just have to avoid all their alternative blinged up card versions).
Netrunner as well.
The best ladder decks in hearthstone are stuff like hunter and zoo that run almost no legendaries and aim to end the game quickly. Can drop some cash on the adventures but at least you get a PVE experience and actual gameplay out of it rather than just buying packs, and they can be bought with gold although its inefficient
It's hardly what you're looking for, but that's just the nature of these games
>People have mentioned you can put together a decent force of will deck rather cheaply(you just have to avoid all their alternative blinged up card versions)
I'm actually curious about this. I think I saw it discussed on Veeky Forums once, but I didn't save the info.
I'm not a force of will player, but from what I understand, if you avoid all of the weird full art, foil, and other alternate versions of cards you can put together something decent for under a 100.
check out lcgs like netrunner
The most expensive card in FoW competitive is like 10-12 dollars, and due to drop soon with viable alternatives dropping in an expansion set at the end of July. Cards come in different variants, you can bring out your deck with foils and full arts, or just buy the regular versions on the cheap. Makes the game very affordable.
If it helps calculation, after buying a single booster box I built a deck. After purchasing the singles I required(about 8, 4 rare, 3sr[all full art], 1 Common + I bought a foil of a (common) card I already had) it took about $25. The game is super cheap.
izzet blitz is a pauper deck that costs around ~20 bucks and can beat a lot of high tier legacy and modern decks
I looked up the deck and it's $67 are you playing it without gitaxian probe
>pay-to-win
when will this meme die?
Also are you playing it without the sideboard?
Magic limited formats aren't pay to win, and are a test of deck building skills as well as playing skill.
Don't forget the most important skill in limited, luck
If Magic the Gathering falls into your definition of pay2win then no, every card game ever is pay2win
not actually true.
Luck is a factor, but good limited players will win much more consistently than bad ones.
Especially in draft. Sealed can fuck you over, but a good drafter will be able reliably get at least a decent deck.
>a standard draft has 8 players, 3 packs per player, 15 cards per pack, total of 360 cards
>You see every card in the first pack, 14 cards from the next pack, 13 from the next, etc.
> You will see 276/360, or ~77% of the cards in the pool.
I guess the pros just cheat at every draft to have such a consistent win ratio.
>inefficient
DO you mean the gold to $ ratio, or the card to $ ratio, i just got the one with reno jackson for the 700 gold, and a guaranteed legendary for 700 seemed like better odds than i've been getting in packs other than very first gold bought pack pack gold legendary alexstraza
>a good drafter will be able reliably get at least a decent deck.
It isn't really that they'll get a decent deck, it's that you can almost guarantee your deck is on par, bar a few specific p1p1 type cards, with every deck of the 8 if you draft well, even if all 8 are hot garbage.
luck can be a bit more than that. P2P1, P3P1, of course get added, having to swap colors (which the other players might not), etc.
But they can make sure that they aren't much below par, close enough that they've still got a decent chance of winning if they play well.
They can get is so their win rate in 'unlucky drafts' is in the 40% range, plus being better able to capitalize on 'lucky drafts', so their overall win percentage gets into the 70s even against other experienced players.
Not really sure how you feel about it, but what about yugioh?
Sure, it is still a pay2win game, but you can get good cards easy from starter and structure decks. Especially structure decks. And don't forget the tin-boxes...
desu, infect and red deck are budget and modern tier, wtf
hearthstone has tons of shaman, hunter and paladin that only need time investment to attain
just make a cheap deck to counter whatever that guy does and laugh at his face.
Pay to play is not equivalent to pay to win. MtG has certain formats that have a high monetary barrier to entry, but paying money doesn't guarantee you a win.
Talrand in EDH. Super annoying deck to play against, especially once you do spring for the money cards.
You can do a lot of impact with a cheap deck. There are plenty of good cheap cards as well. As long as you're not playing legacy/vintage, you should do just fine.
It's 700 gold for just one wing, which will generally only have one or two good cards, and you can't buy them out of order
With the amount of time it takes to grind 700 gold you're probably just better off spending cash on adventure wings and saving your gold to go infinite in arena for packs
Nigga just buy fakes like damn
>sinking all their cash into mythic rares
Yep that's what Magic is all about. Ca$h money mythics.
>cherrypicking one obviously bad NWO mythic
>draft every week at LGS
>always make it into the prize pool
>everyone bitches about how i get the best pulls
>meanwhile their decks are steaming piles of shit
Last Friday I went blue/white spirits and my only rare was Slayer's Plate. I didn't get shit, I just drafted better than everyone else. I'll admit that sealed is more luck-based though.
He didn't even pick the worst mythic in recent memory bruh.
What the fuck does this have to do with NWO?
You should try METW, if you can find anyone who still plays. A lot of the most powerful cards were environments, which tended to be common as fuark. I used to destroy pretty beefy parties with a combo of Doors of Night (common) Clouds (uncommon) Minions Stir (rare) and piles of Orcs (generally common or uncommon)
>pay-to-win
I don't think you understand what that term actually means.
MTG is not pay to win, you do have to pay to have a good deck but there is an effective hard cap on how much you can spend on a deck (hovers in the low to mid hundreds depending on the current Standard rotation) and no amount of money above that point will help you in any way.
By the same logic Soccer is pay-to-win because if you want to compete at a high level you have to buy expensive shoes, and golf must be the most pay-to-win bullshit on the planet with how expensive a set of golf clubs are.
Its amazing how much difference the word "at random" makes.
When it stops being true? Good luck winning in a tournament with a $20 deck.
>LCGs.
And for MTG
>Draft/Cube.
>Sealed
>Proxy leagues.
>Price limited deck leagues.
if you're fine with online only, hex is cheap to get a competitive deck.
Go Fish
>sinking all their cash into mythic rares
There are some formats besides standard, you know?