Spellslingers

[TheMatt]

Re: TTR

TTR plays fast because of the way you pick cards. Your options are face up, and you can see them even before your turn. MTG draft works much the same way, except you have to remember what cards the other took.

Also recall that shared tickets ('CutThroat') made TTR a much more interesting game. (And a much simpler one).

A 'draft pool', using TTR's pick rules ("Pick a card: 1 face down or 1 face up. Do this twice"). Ticket also has 'rares'--the engines are 'wild', but count as two cards if you pick it as a face up card.

[Maugh]

HP and casting "mana" were the same stat, called Energy. You were defeated when you had no energy on your magi and no critters in play. It was their way of trying to prevent people from dumping all of their energy all at once, but it just meant that hitting the magi was doubly effective, reducing their options AND putting them closer to death. Worse still because when you hit creatures, they dealt counter-damage. When you hit magi, they didn't.

It actually accomplished the exact opposite of what it was supposed to, making it in your best interest to have zero or very little energy on your magi, and putting your focus on protecting your critters, since they were basically your life-blood. You either played creatures that were hard to kill, or put as many critters on the table as possible, to make it harder for your opponent to counter-balance.

Further unintended consequences, this meant that since people were dumping as many creatures as they could as fast as they could, this meant that draw mechanics were -awesome-, and board-wipe mechanics, a la wrath of god, were flat out game-winning cards. There were only two of them in the whole history of the game, but they were unholy strong.