Which Master do you most hate to see played in a tournament?

Darby, nice response about all the benefits of Ashur Tablets.

However, it does not delve into their inherent drawback which is the "race" to see who can pop them first. They do have a real cost which is one MPA each. This can lead to a sunk cost when the benefit of playing them is not realized (someone else pops them first and yours are then gone). I think these risks are substantial enough that Ashur Tablets are not inherently broken or bad for the game.

What is more significant from my point of view is access. I firmly believe that if everyone owned 9+ Ashur Tablets, that they would greatly diminish in power. More people would experiment with them and they would start to self-regulate within the metagame.

Some Tablet Poppers (tm), myself included, often negotiation with others at the table who play with them in order to mutually (though asynchronously) benefit. This also reduces risk especially since there are relatively few Methuselahs who play them in real games. JOL is another story entirely.

Lastly, a bit of advice for everyone in the game, PLAY MORE SUDDEN REVERSALS.

Izaak wrote:

People seem to arbitrarily hate Ashur Tablets because they possess none and they cost $15 each. I play them a lot and the more I play them, the less powerful they seem.

I think this is totally valid reason to not like Ashurs. This is first time in Vtes when there is a no discpline or clan specific common card which can go to different decks in many copies. Vtes is not supposed to be about that. Villein situation is even worse for new players. I feel Vtes went out of production at very bad time because there are some good and too valuable common and uncommon cards which can go to many decks.

Jeff wrote:

However, it does not delve into their inherent drawback which is the "race" to see who can pop them first. They do have a real cost which is one MPA each. This can lead to a sunk cost when the benefit of playing them is not realized (someone else pops them first and yours are then gone). I think these risks are substantial enough that Ashur Tablets are not inherently broken or bad for the game.

This I am interested. How often do you see Ashurs discarded because somebody else triggered them first. I see this almost never but this might be metagame thing. I feel it is rare worth it to start the race.

Also Ashurs had made some combat decks suddenly very viable which is kind of cool (mainly with MMPA:s). Reasons for this should be thought carefully if somebody wants to make combat better and what kind of new cards would offer similar benefits to combat decks without MMPA:s.

Jeff wrote:

Darby, nice response about all the benefits of Ashur Tablets.

Thanks Jeff.

Jeff wrote:

However, it does not delve into their inherent drawback which is the "race" to see who can pop them first.

In my opinion, there is no real race. In all my tournament AND casual games, I've lost a total of ONE Ashur tablet to it.

If there's only player with MMPA, he owns the Tablet stack: he has more copies to draw and can play them more quickly. He is makes a strategically correct play when he monopolizes the effect.

I've never seen an MMPA vs MMPA without contestation in tournament play. I've even seen good players collude before smaller tournaments to avoid this very conflict (completely legal when decks are selected). JOL might be different, but I care little for what happens in that environment.

So from my experience, that "drawback" is largely irrelevant.

---METAGAME DIVERSION HERE---
I think we'll see the occasional Nana vs Anson MMPA-headbutt this year. Net-deckers will run Nana and the bleeding edge players use Rapid-fire Anson.

The prince will hold his own until [ANI} players figure out a few Drawing Out the Beast, Terror Frenzies or Canine Hordes are good - at which point Nana gets her Tablets back.

-Darby