How about, lets keep the older phantom rules for ec as the way to go. So phantoms cannot be used to generate gold in any way, as it should be.

Also, i have 2279 things to update via my tfw launcher... its taking SOOO long.
i really wana c the last ladder's high score. if it has reached 5000, i wont be surprised.

If theres some unknown issues with having both Minor and EC (as explained above) maybe make EC's an end of the week thing or possibly even a monthly event. Or have them switch every day. One day its minor only, next day ec only, next minor. Actually better not lol.

Maybe just limit the number of phantoms possible in a deck?

I still think just have minor every 8 hours and EC every 8 hours (so that theres 4 hours in between every tournament). Net result MOAR turnaments! (increase time delay for more budgeted solution etc...)

This is a bit of a long post, but please read.

I think this change helps newbies a lot more than people are giving credit for. For starters, I would believe this means that players can mix default decks for clashes. That is GREAT! I wanted that since day one so badly, now from the first day I can play in a clash and not be bitter about having an un-cohesive deck (no offense jed) forced on me if I want to compete.

So new players and even just players with less owned cards will have a much better chance in the clashes. Maybe the veterans with cards are salty about this or something. People definitely seemed worried about seeing better decked opponents with phantoms in clashes but so what.

Increasing # of phantoms new players get equates to more experience with more cards which is a good thing.

I’m going to generalize and say most (certainly not all) true newbies don’t do squat on the ladder anyways. There are plenty of experienced players even at the lower ratings that just constantly siphon off these new players in the ladder. I got my butt kicked by someone who wasn’t even 1200 the other day, I can’t imagine what he’s doing down there outside of racking in gold on the ladder every week.

Let’s take a look at the ladder system. There is no reason someone should be getting 3000 points in a week. I don’t care if you went 20-0 legitimately, the bottom line is your rating shouldn’t have been that low then and we have no check and balance system to ensure your rating doesn’t drop back down for you to do it again. Removing gold from the ladder will greatly reduce the incentive for these alt/cheater accounts.

So I think this is great for new players, there is less incentive for veterans and/or cheaters to focus on ladder.

I will say an increased amount of clashes in light of this is very welcome on my end.

TFW peeps:

After much consideration, Diet Pepsi, presents from Santa, and some internet surfing r/t philosophy and ethics... I have decided--and also because of Christmas--that this change is indeed an improvement over the previous wildly abused ladder. Congrats Jed et al. (Including the mother Russia dude).

More incentive for noobs, less for Alt1337s (elites running alt accounts). The vets are still running off-the-hook SICK decks, but at least newer players have a bit more flexibility with their EC decks. It is all good in da 'hood.

Merry Christmas wherever you may be!

DarkJello (Friend of the Claus)

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Ad astra per alia porci!$!

I'd like to second Zurken's suggestion. Because the ladder now awards only phantom cards, it is fairly useless to people with their own collections. Would it be possible to give an option to allow people to opt out of the ladder?
If done, this would mean people that did not want/need phantoms would not be taking them from those who could use the cards to both increase (temporarily) their competitiveness and increase their exposure to the game's variety. I think this a good thing.