Yesterday, as a few of you might have heard SteemMonsters launched their "Battle" mechanic or "the actual" game as some might call it..

If im being completely honest i was a bit skeptical going into this even though i did support the project with $200 during their fund raiser. I was always keeping an eye on the project but not until i ran into the project listed on Fundition did i really decide to give this a legit shot. I was fortunate to catch the announcement 2 days before the fundraiser ended and grab what i think was an awesome deal. Not only that, but i got a bunch of fundition hearts that will be worth 10USD each, once SMTs launch :D (jk, thats not actually true haha...).... Anyways...

People seemed to be ecstatic at a prospect of a card game built on the Steem blockchain by guys native to the platform so i went for it and put in some money and supported the cause.
Some may say i am a bit of a pessimist maybe even a cynic if you read some of my other work, but i like to think of my self as a realist. Not being a believer in high chance of individual success on the platform but a firm believer in gain through overall platform growth which is why i decided to stand behind Steem monsters with what i could spare.

I have a background in card games (even though SM is not a classic card game), strategic combat, turn based strategy, etc..
As a kid i was a frequent player of Pokemon TCG, went on a few tournaments, got my butt kicked, but i loved it non the less. I think i had a pile of 5000 Pokemon cards in the day.

I didnt meddle in cards for years after that but strategy always interested me. I dont consider myself a gamer since i never really played a lot, nor did i play the mainstream stuff, except a bit of League of Legends.
I loved mostly obscure strategy video games like "Europa Universalis" and "Crusader Kings". Those 2 probably being my favorite games of all time.
Once i got tired of them after a bunch of hours of gameplay (try them out and you will understand) i picked up Hearthstone.

And i went at it. Over the course of the year i played i got to learn all the mechanics, the decks, and the meta. Once you mastered the game it all boiled down to one thing:

Using a high win rate, low time cost, deck...

Even though some decks had a higher win rate then mine (i used a Aggro Paladin and Murloc Paladin, Both Aggro), the simple fact was that i could win a game in 5 turns and end it quickly. If i didnt win in 7 turns i would just surrender and start again.
Those decks with a higher win rate then mine took a much longer time finish a match.
When you get to such a high level, the Meta turns into a war of attrition. Everyone knows their cards at this point. They know your every move just like you can instantly recognize their deck and their moves.

I did quite well and was for a few months getting to ranks 3-5. But any lower then that it was a damn grind fest.
At one point i knew the exact combo that a warlock (one of my counters) had to have for me to have any chance of beating him. If that card combination didnt happen after a couple turns it was a lose almost 90% of the time.

At a point my actions became "robotic", i didnt make mistakes, the opponent didnt make mistakes and moving up the ladder meant simply: Repetition.
And a ton of it....

So i quit. (Uh. If someone wants to buy my account im open to offers :D )

.......Anyways........

Back to the topic in question. So i learned about SM and got interested. I noticed one thing early on that made all the difference. While SM is an automated game and Hearthstone does achieve automation in player action after some time, the inherent randomness of card abilities creates a certainty of uncertainty.
All things equal, the special abilities make for a "% chance win scenario". Now Hearthstone has that to a degree with the initial draw but the difference here being that this kind of randomness leads to a "base strength vs ability trigger % chance gameplay"....

So im just assuming here, but what i think will happen with the meta is that there will be a constant fluidity in draft choices..
As with any game like this, "decks" or "team drafts" with the highest win % will exist and be copied, but the player ability to instantly adjust to the deck with the biggest probability of occurrence without having to relearn how to play a deck etc, will give us a constantly shifting meta once most of the top 100 players have upgraded their cards to a decent level.
Hearthstone didnt have "hard counters" tied into a class, it had "deck type" counters that were inefficient in most other cases, but SM has that, though it might be counter intuitive, but it actually adds to the variety in gameplay.

Now im not saying SM doesnt have some issues, though a 100 games i played isnt enough to notice much really. That shear fact is an achievement in its own right.
I think i noticed some imbalance, mostly with some Legendary cards that have a wide range between them in actual usability in-game inside their own element groups (Some offering much more flexibility and use to their perspective element groups then others).
But after all is said and done, the game is extremely well balanced and extremely fun, and i cant emphasize this enough, for a game thats just launched on a blockchain of all things with a minimal developer team. ..

So really, after the launch i have only one thing to say to @aggroed, @yabapmatt and everyone else involved.

Ill see you guys around. And have a great day.