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Live’s Build & Battle Mode is a poor adaptation of the Sealed/Prerelease Format
As the title suggests, this thread is about the newly-released Build & Battle Mode. To be more precise it’s about how it’s just a slog to play and that REALLY should’ve been given more time in the oven before being released.
- The mode itself isn’t in a proper tournament structure like IRL prereleases are and how the Tounament Mode ran in Online (Rest in peace), it’s basically Live’s attempt at combining said events with its dreadful drop-pairing and the result is ham-handed at best.
- The problem of “You get X Evolution pack as your 40-card deck, you win” that prereleases have had ever since XY - Fates Collide introduced the concept of Build & Battle Boxes and the RNG Live uses for shuffling and pack contents make said problem much worse.
- With the above issue mentioned there’s also the problem of matches essentially boiling down to whoever gets to go first, especially when they get a “meta” Build & Battle box.
- The 600 Trainer Credit cost for 1 Event Token looks bad on paper and, as of the current writing, bad in practice. Sure, you could get Event Tokens from placing well in Build & Battle Mode but that’s difficult considering the problems mentioned earlier.
I’m sure there are other issues but these four are the ones that I’ve noticed with my runs through the gauntlet.
Comments
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To me it was kind of fun for a change, instead of going against Dragapult again and again… I only played a couple of runs tho.
But yes, I agree it's very poorly made and isn't something that I'll play daily or even weekly. I would prefer the Expanded format or even the Theme decks format.
I guess this new game mode is mostly directed at newer players, definitely not that interesting for veteran players.
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Hello @grriffinn, thanks for taking the time to share such detailed feedback regarding the Build & Battle Mode experience. Your feedback has been noted, and we’ll make sure it’s shared with the appropriate team for review. You can also submit your thoughts directly at https://support.pokemon.com/ (select TCG Live, then click “Contact Us”) so they can be formally tracked. Thanks again for contributing your feedback!
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I found a couple more issues I have with the mode, thankfully the grievances I have with ‘em aren’t as scathing as the previous ones.
- B&B Mode’s prizing is funky: losing every match makes the mode a complete waste of time (and not 1-to-1 with IRL’s prereleases since a majority of ‘em give you two post-event packs) and while winning every single match is “fun” getting a lot of packs/EXP/ladder point and an Event Token it still doesn’t justify spending 600 Trainer Points on an Event Token.
- The end-mode prize acquisition screen is a jumbled mess. It factors in the B&B box’s contents and each match’s prizing as its own thing rather than cosolidating the EXP/ladder points into two single sums and the B&B box+4 starting packs as their own little sub-section.
The sad part is that I love attending IRL prereleases and sealed tournaments, it’s just that Live’s handling of the mode makes a cumbersome for both new and old players.
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I was talking solely about the online mode... and I still think it has potential to be a fun game mode.
It doesn't even need to be like IRL prereleases, they just need to make it more engaging... the concept it's ok, but I find playing five similar matches in a row slowly and easy to be just boring... I mean once in a wile it's fine, but not as a daily routine.
Also, most of the players I played against are definitely newbies... I can tell by how slow they play and their many misplays... that makes the experience even worse. That's one of the reasons most veteran players won't play it regularly.
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Oh, and tack on one more complaint to the list: No ability to drop out of a 5-match set.
Once you lose 3 matches, the minimum amount of matches you need to win in order to get an Event Token, there’s no point in continuing to play your other two matches. I honestly don’t care if we don’t even get to keep the items we spent a token on, it’s embarrassing to keep playing for crumbs and a couple of packs.
We must be playing against different people: in the current set rotation I always seem to end up getting paired with people who the Babaracle box inside and out and manage to get the Twist Knuckle train running by Turn 2, going up against nonsense like that isn’t fun for anyone regardless of their status as a player.
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Well, that's been my experience... but I haven't played in it every day. I agree that once you lose 3 matches, there is no point in playing the remaining ones.
But regarding the "No ability to drop out of a 5-match set" part, what do you mean exactly? There's a forfeit button and it's available at any time.
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I mean being able to leave the 5-match set and restarting it, it’s basically similar to how IRL TCG competitors can drop out of a tournament at any given time If they feel they aren’t doing well enough.
And I don’t consider the in-match forfeit button a good comparison to it, especially when we still have those dreadful Fortnite-tier end match animation that no one enjoys and we can’t turn off. Seriously, those end match animations make a certain high-profile competitive Pokémon GO player’s end match celebration look like a graceful bow to an audience.
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Ok, sure... but about the end match animation I agree... it's unnecessay and annoying.
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After doing a few more runs with the current PFL set-up (the Zacian and Ceruledge packs are the best of the bunch win rate-wise, the Flygon pack is situational at best and the Toxtricity pack is garbage) I partially rescind my complaint regarding the lack of a drop option, there actually is one in said mode but it’s buried in the options menu where no one will really see it. It should be moved to a location on the main B&B screen where it’s visible.
What’s really sad is that it’s something that’s been dogged on for years but Live’s staff refuses to even address the complaint. It just reeks of stubborn developers/game designers at this point.
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Indeed, I just look away at the end game animation... maybe next year they will address it.
About your other complain yes... it's the forfeit button that I mentioned a couple of comments above.
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