Having played quite a bit of quick draw league in the past few weeks I wanted to make a suggestion to add a character mulligan option. While a draft style game has a fair amount of randomness to it, you can control it through players choice. Unfortunately we don't have that option for the initial party composition. There are certain parties I can almost guarantee to get a loss with depending on what characters my opponent has. In general I would say any 2+ priest party has some difficulty due to the great variance in the quality of attacks available to them. Being about to "reroll" one of your characters would be a great option to provide more player choice and not feel like you're facing an uphill battle before you even start your draft.
I disagree that certain team compositions disadvantage at the level you identify, the challenge with QD is to learn to modify your card selections and play style based on the team compositions. That said, your complaint is not uncommon (though which class compositions are claimed to be underpowered or overpowered varies greatly and often contradict each other - there was a long thread about priests being too powerful in QD), and I think your way of handling it is better than a hard line lock of "no ______". I don't think the idea is needed for game balance, but maybe it would be enjoyable for people's perceptions, especially since these clearly vary from person to person. Three things to note though, 1) even with a "character re-roll", there's a 1/3 chance that you get the same class again. 2) If you change you composition because of your opponent's, they could be changing their team at the same time and the result may be that you wished you didn't change. 3) There will be people who will complain that this is used to get overpowered comps, not just avoid underpowered ones.
Priests have a couple of the best cards, but on average are worse than their compatriots. Two+ priest teams definitely have a harder time getting the cards they need to win a game. Wizards are sometimes really good, sometimes mediocre to bad, depending on the map. Warriors can almost always be made relevant, and 2-warrior teams in particular have a safer bet than teams with 1 or fewer warriors.
Yes, there is always a chance that you're roll the same class but still that is a 66% chance of getting someone else or at least maybe a more favorable race. What an opponent chooses to do is not really in your control but they can't change their party composition that much with a mulligan. Also this is before starting draft where you have many more choices to customize your decks to deal with your opponents character choices(Which is my favorite thing about QD BTW). The main thing I look for in QD is ways to increase the reliability of your team. Both you and your opponent are in fates hands in terms of options given but hopefully you can make some key choices to reduce your bad luck at being forced to pick a horrible trait. That and smart game play can turn a losing match into a winning one. I just hate the feeling of a random roll at the start of the match being so key to your success or failure. I have gotten double/triple priest teams that are awesome with lots of great stabs and MF. I have also had many more terrible ones where I was given few attack choices. The priest could tank fairly well but not actually do any significant damage to the other team. Once your opponent realizes the priest(s) have no real offensive ability, you're going to lose quickly if they have any sort of attack power on their team. I have also had great options given to me for a utility priest and had to pass on them for weak attacks since there is no warrior on the team to buff. A priests ability to shine depends so much on your and your opponents team composition that they are very random in performance from my own experiences. Maybe others have different opinion on that but the option of a character mulligan would only enhance player options and the QD league in general I think.
Pretty much sums it up. A "bad" warrior > "bad" wizard > "bad" priest. A good priest can be very good but a bad one is pretty much a meat shield.
Yes my disagreement was with "almost guarantee to get a loss," not that there is no disadvantage period. Without a doubt there are certain class combos that have a harder time, especially depending on what the opponent composition is. And just to be clear, while I like QD as it stands and don't particularly want it to change, I think Wildarm's suggestion is a good one, and the best I've seen as QD suggestions go.
That would be viable too, in either case both players would need to choose without knowing the other player's choice - way too much of an advantage for 2nd player if it's turn based.
When I say almost guarantee I mean I have won <25% of matches where I have drafted 2+ priests. I've probably won >75% of matches where I got 2 warriors. I think those numbers pretty much speak for themselves since in both cases you have the option to draft the best counter to your opponents team.
Whole team is a nice panic button option but I feel it takes meaningful player choice out of it. Most teams would be perfectly serviceable with single character change with the exception of triple priest which only tends to improve if you could reroll one into a warrior.
How about changing the order of picking cards? If you don´t pick all cards of one char but 1 for each you can adjust your synergies better but it might confuse some players.
Actually, I'd really like to pick all my golds first in Quick Draw. It's nice to know that I can pick X card on one character because I have Y card on another character. It doesn't make a big difference, mind you. And don't forget, this is supposed to be random. You don't know what you're going to get until you've picked it. And if your previous picks turn out to be good (or bad!) then that's how it is. Mind you, I wouldn't mind a mulligan once in a while. When it comes to picking cards for all 3 characters, I take between 1:30 to 3:00 minutes (that's actual game time, which includes some waiting for both player to connect), and my opponents are generally the same speed or slower.
Would allow you to add a bit more synergy. I suspect it would slow down the draft process a bit for some folks as you'd need to review the cards you picked more often as you step between each character. Knowing my starting drawback is the only other change I can think of that would allow for more deck planning in draft. For example, I almost never pick gold armor or blocks anymore as my first draft pick. I've seen the choice of horrible traits like cowardly/superstitious/dropped guard too many times.
Of course it does, because it depends a lot on the map. I got some more elf mages on the chess madness map today and it sucks a lot. On the bigger maps I would not complain about having any sort of mage.
The big change I REALLY want is simultaneous drafting. Teensy tiny hit to strategy with massive boost to fun:waiting ratio.
You know what? So far, I'd figured changing the turn-taking to simultaneity would be a massive programming overhaul. However, I just had an idea that has plenty of its own flaws, but if it sparks an idea for BM, then hey, nothing lost. $:^ ] Put each player in a separate room. Same map. Same chars. Maybe figure out how the character Mulligan could work with this. Put a timer on each player. Five minutes maybe. Just throwing out a number there. Each side picks cards at one's own leisure. When chars have their cards, the players enter a third room, perhaps with twenty minutes minus five, or twenty minus the-time-they-took-to-choose. Then, the battle starts. Unfortunately, that adds a lot of extra complexity, giving opportunities for the system to break down somewhere. Also, for opponents to properly chat with each other during the choosing, all chatting would have to take place in either the third room's chat or in some special "team chat"-like creature. Also, where would spectators land? Oh well, it was worth mulling it over to see how rough it'd get. Besides, this is off-topic anyway. $F^ J Leadershipping out a character at the start is an interesting approach. Hm. $:^ ]
I like the idea of both players selecting at the same time. I wouldn't even mind QD where game chose the whole deck (36 cards even) automatically for players - would make games faster. Also, some time ago I lost to a low rating player in QD who got triple elf wiz so I guess everything's possible.
My suggestion was to just draw your cards while your opponent is picking, so you have more time to look them over.
