Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-9713390-20130724000005/@comment-9890645-20130724022419

Final Rank: 21. Blackjack, baby. :D

Final Score: 33,607,895

Deck Strength (Pre-event, during, and Post-event): 14226, up to 21089 (last 24h, see below), 14471

Money Spent (Amount and Currency): Yowza! Probably about $200. I had a coin surplus from last event, but I have a slightly higher surplus now (~4500).

Mobacoins Spent: 3000: 5x pack; 4900: Tiered character bridges (1 loop plus 3 tiers got me Tantrum and Headstrong MTMs plus a Tantrum alt and two Headstrong alts on the bench, then I pulled the last of my tiers after my first miraculous medal pull and got a Headstrong bot!); 100: Weapon tier (Tantrum's weapon, YAY! It was actually good on him, considering Rampage's sucked.); 10300: CUBES. That's how you roll when you can't one-cube day 1 all the way, yo. But those days may be somewhat behind me with four top tier finishes and substantial new knowledge under my belt now.

Cubes banked/burned: LOL I started with six cubes so... Yeah. I have 93 or so cubes left from my last pack, as the slow movement at the top made me feel far less pressure to expend cubes without good cause.

Medals (Type, Amount, and Draws): Funny story, but I pulled FOUR Rampage alts from gold medals in the last four days. (If you read my blog here, you know the first one got me thinking...) Also pulled another Headstrong alt in the same run I pulled the first Rampage in on Saturday afternoon. Unlike last event, I pulled some R4s that got me some MTM Elites: bots for Ironhide and Skywarp and alts for Metroplex, Bumblebee and Soundwave. A few other R4 also, mostly duplicates. No old episode cards this time. Still not pulling many weapon medals in protest of 100 card weapon storage limits.

Liked: Expanded prize tiers!!! Some parts of the slow pace of the event, particularly the later appearance of the L8s. My early flag planted in the top 100 (due to the relative ease at which I attained 2M points on day 1), and not having to have had a balls-out day defending it at any point. The massive gain in game mechanic understanding I gained in one fell swoop just by paying attention, and the benefits I reaped from it. As always, TEAMWORK by the best team of the best individuals in this game BAR NONE - y'all are amazing people just in general but great teammates as well, and I thank you for all that you have done for me.

Disliked: A lot (surprise). Smokescreen is the lowest boss :( and lower than Windcharger WTF. Come on, he was the only one other than Jazz with a RACE CAR NUMBER on him in the event. Predacons v. this team is completely random and doesn't really make sense - they would have made more sense vs. the Bee Team, though the Bee-Insecticon funny is not lost on me. Teammates noting an excessive pull of Rampage bots from the tiered bridges combined with my pulling four Rampage alts from medals makes something smell quite funny. DAT LAG Part 3 in a seemingly infinite saga. Some other things below...

Any other notes/comments: I believe Mobage is trying desperately to balance the game out right now. The awards are relatively lackluster; Jazz is nice but doesn't hold a candle to Nemmy... BUT Nemmy is twice as rare now as Jazz is. Jazz's overall stats are an indication of things to come, where the cards are generally comparable and have differing purposes instead of just being a constant power creep. I think the SB manipulation is intentional and done to slow the proliferation of 25k+ decks we saw in Nemesis Rising and events prior, as one cannot acquire them without substantial luck or infinite pocket depth. The increase in HP of the earlier bosses slows down most decks early enough in the event to let the big boys slide on through; this and ninja boss buffs slow those players down enough to require multiple cube pack purchases from players who already have plenty of skin in the game. I wish they'd just have more forward thinking on card balance and ease out the early game a little bit. They should revise the "basic" card pool to reflect the advancements in boss strength with the new L7 cycle of bosses. They also need to be HONEST with their players about Space Bridge rarity manipulation, especially with raid cards, and with ALL boss buffs and nerfs. They could fix the app in three steps: Fix all the allies bugs (most ally manipulation requires a force quit/restart), replace all the popup status and inventory graphics with static ones, and eliminate the gyroscope usage. These all serve to SLOW the game down for most players unnecesarily; your app is flashy but is laggy as hell. Get it together, guys. Players spend enough money on this game to have such a poorly designed app!!!