Please vote in the poll to choose in order of most to least, what determines a win. Gameplay - What strategic decisions you make during a game. Assume people have a basic understanding regardless. This is to represent that added skill/knowledge. Deck Building - What characters you choose. What items you have and how you choose which ones to use Luck - Luck in card draw and luck in rolls This doesn't have any hidden agenda, I'm just curious what people think.
I reckon deck building is the most important part. However, I actually voted for Gameplay / Deck building / luck, because the deck-building part can be somewhat "outsourced" by just copying other players or reading forums etc. i.e. you don't necessarily have to be a great player to have a great deck. - So I was in two minds about whether to choose gameplay then deck or deck then gameplay.
I think this is a really close one. Each of thev three options are important and you need a solid basis of everything. You need to build a deck, which is capable of winning, which is not that easy, since there are many edges, like damage, movement, overall plan, armor removel, purging ... The gameplay is also very important. I have seen so many players playing way to aggressive and throwing away the match with that. And that even with players in the 1700s. Also you can do a lot during games to play around blocks, armor, nimbus, ... And last but not least luck is very important. There are the games you will not forget, like getting killed your first character through double parry and defenders block with an all out attack and the next turn getting killed another character trough one parry and defenders block with another all out attack. So without luck you certainly dont win. So you need a solid base in everything in order to win. If this would be a rolegame and you could distribute 100 points to your character, the first thing would be to give everything 33% and afterwards adjust it a little bit. I think gameplay is more important than deck building, given you have a basic understandment of how important movement in your decks is. I would go for 39% Gameplay, 33% deckbuilding and 27% luck. But it is certainly close enough.
Gameplay is affected and planned for by deck building, and that the range of luck needed to win is limited by the cards you have in your deck. As well, gameplay serves to limit this range of luck as well. Therefore deckbuilding > gameplay > luck.
I'm in a minority here... But I think that HOW you build your deck determines whether your wins are more determined by luck or skill. (You can have a deck with more or less variance--with the former, luck will have a greater role in your wins, with the latter, luck will have a smaller role). That said there are also bad players who do relatively well with "easy to play" decks that also happen to be consistent (e.g. bejeweled elves), and i would suggest that these players' wins are primarily determined by their deck. Basically I think that each of deck building, gameplay, and luck can be the largest factor in a player's wins, depending on their style, deck archetype, opponents, etc.. The big question-which of these factors is the greatest on average (or, perhaps more interestingly, which is the greatest factor on average for skilled players)-seems really hard to answer.
That is definitly true. Many of The Beerbarians Crew's players play decks which are build with a high upside and if that works out, it is just great. But you can still influence that with a certain play skill. I myself have played such a deck for some time with the stab elves. It is really important to know, how to position you chars in order to go in or out if necessary and also when to pass.
Funny thinking: What determines my wins is Gameplay/Deck Building/Luck (i'm that good); but when i lose the reasons are the opposite. Could it be?
For ranked matches, uncontrolled bloodlust and overly aggressive play has certainly cost me matches. For leagues, bringing a poorly suited deck (like, say, stepping into Barrels with a conventional two non-airborne warrior/one buff priest build...) has also resulted in terrible games (probably from both perspectives, because a stomp is likely boring for the winner, too.) Luck has played a reduced role since I've largely stopped experimenting with radiation spray spam and radiation bombs on the priest and switching away from Angry Attacker and Tough Leather Cap so there are fewer All Out Attack cards in my builds.
Switching away from Angry Attacker is a good idea, while I think not using a Tough Leather Cap is not that such a good idea. It is the best minor token helmet by far.
It is an excellent helmet, but I keep vacillating between how to allocate tokens between armor/helmet/boots assuming I use a minor for Buckler Of Protection and another for Savvy Attacker. If I stick with Tough Leather Cap (vs. Crusty Helm)... both Gauntlets Of The Giant (vs. say Perilous Ringmail) and Diamond Moccasins (vs. Goat Boots or Mouse Boots) beg for the last minor. *sigh* Well, it'd be a worse game if decisions were always obvious.
I can stay at a relatively good ELO with awful luck and not great decks and I've seen lots of people with copypasta decks getting absolutely trashed because they can't use them right, so I'm gonna have to go gameplay/deck/luck.
Very interesting that 85% think that Luck is the least determining factor. World chat would certainly make you think otherwise.
Right - but maybe that's because the question says "what do you think determines a win?", and it's not being associated with any bad experiences. Whenever a player wins, it's due to their skill and planning. But when they lose, it's due to bad luck. (Human psychology is weird like that.) If a poll showed up whenever someone lost a game with a question like "what do you think caused you to lose?", I'm sure we'd have a lot more votes for luck.
I think the players in this thread have a sounder grasp on the game than the average player in world chat.
I don't know about the other 2, but deck building is on the top of my list. Deck building pretty much determines how consistent or "lucky" you are, which then influence how you play (since you play based on what you draw, not based on what you think you will draw in the future). Well, this is more based on my mindset from my MTG days.
The way I see it, deckbuilding is just another part of gameplay. I would use gameplay/item collection/luck as my three big factors. Optional 4th factor: power of fires membership
