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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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