Issues for possible Errata

[CD1248]

58 minutes ago, Bakunin said:

Gamble Your Life basically has a resist, by making both models flip a card to see who takes the damage

Except that the Stiched can all but guarantee a win by using Fiendish Gamble to bring in a high card, which is the only context it's ever really used in. 

[santaclaws01]

20 minutes ago, Tors said:

A Dozen Chi a turn is no problem. More of you give those Monks time to set up.

A dozen on who? Across the whole crew? That's not that much consdering a standard monk crew is going to have more than 6 models, but not all that chi is going to be useful. The models that Chi actually matters on outside of a LRM burst heal is pretty low.

All of that besides, you're not saying Chi should only be used befored flipping, or only down to +1, or only reduced generation, you're saying it should get all of those nerfs. And I can 100% tell you that Chi will get neutered if that happens because you're literally saying it should be reverted to a beta state where is was proven weak, except weaker because I'm pretty sure it was never before flipping.

[Tapdancer]

2 hours ago, Thedeadclaw said:

I don't think that's true either. More and more results from local communities that haven't banned duel masters are coming in that are showing that duel master can be a liability in less skilled hands and that even between two highly skilled opponents duel master isn't necessary to win. I think it's very powerful and am definitely keeping an eye on it in our own meta as there is one player who is one of (if not the) best player in the area who is dead set on only running duel master resser lists, but duel master just does less in some factions. Arcanists only have a couple of good duel master combos, and Neverborn frequently needs too much in keyword support to run a competetively viable duel master list. Guild is great with it but frankly needs all the competitive help it can get. Outcasts are usually pretty middle ground, and Bayou generally doesn't want duel masters. Really it's just Ressers and 10T that benefit a lot from duel master as they have the most masters that can work independently of their own crew.

I'm open to seeing that proven wrong, but that's what the areas around me where my players are coming from has been supporting so far.

It has effectively been banned in all significant Tournaments across the UK.  I see no appetite across the top tier players for the ban to be relaxed.  I loved playing duel masters Dreamer/Zoraida was amazing was utterly shit to play against in many strat and scheme  pools 

[Tors]

15 minutes ago, santaclaws01 said:

A dozen on who? Across the whole crew? That's not that much consdering a standard monk crew is going to have more than 6 models, but not all that chi is going to be useful. The models that Chi actually matters on outside of a LRM burst heal is pretty low.

All of that besides, you're not saying Chi should only be used befored flipping, or only down to +1, or only reduced generation, you're saying it should get all of those nerfs. And I can 100% tell you that Chi will get neutered if that happens because you're literally saying it should be reverted to a beta state where is was proven weak, except weaker because I'm pretty sure it was never before flipping.

I didn't said all nerfs should apply, read my initial posting again. I said it should be Down to +1 and Before flipping OR reduces generation.

Regarding generation, its trivial to gain 3+ in relevant Models per turn.

[Fetid Strumpet]

For myself, I agree with hopefully GG banning dual masters.

For myself I’m more concerned about the crews, considered holistically, that are pretty garbage. I’d rather begin by bringing up all the lower tier crews and trying to bring them into the top rather than playing whack-a-mole.

[Thedeadclaw]

25 minutes ago, Tapdancer said:

It has effectively been banned in all significant Tournaments across the UK.  I see no appetite across the top tier players for the ban to be relaxed.  I loved playing duel masters Dreamer/Zoraida was amazing was utterly shit to play against in many strat and scheme  pools 

I'm gonna be honest: I personally think that was an absolutely wrong choice. The UK scene can do whatever they want, ofc, but the game was balanced even in beta based on reports for duel masters, and people were actively trying to break them. There are stronger combos (which I talked about), but to just ban something before you could get hard data in a competetive setting to back up a ban is fundamentally wrong imo. It's why, if Wyrd bans them in GG2020 it'll be numbers and evidence supported. Also, like I said, local communities that haven't banned it aren't having issues with it being necessary, it's about a 50/50 split as far as placings. The UK isn't the only set of communities that play the game, and since they don't have data to back it up I don't value an almost unilateral ban there as highly as multiple communities freaking out about them and then having single masters take at least 2 of the top 3 slots at most tournaments only to realize that they aren't as busted as they look on paper. Again, I'll be watching carefully as I get more data in the area around me, but right now things look really healthy meta-wise with duel masters. The only meta impediment we've had is the strongest players flocking to the stronger performing factions, which warps what's playable for less experienced players.

[Ogid]

1 hour ago, CD1248 said:

Except that the Stiched can all but guarantee a win by using Fiendish Gamble to bring in a high card, which is the only context it's ever really used in.

But that has an huge oportunity cost, to set that up you need to commit his own lucid dreams to get high cards instead of making the deck hotter (so it's hurting you in the long run). If you don't risk a second friendish gamble then it's not that different to other models doing a concentrate + attack. If the Dreamer player uses it only with the few bad lucid dreams flips, then you won't face that many safe gambles; in the latter turns it will hit like a truck if the crew is heavy on lucid dreams, but that's what Dreamer does; any beater of his crew will be scary at that point.

The damage track of that ability is 1 point above of what is expected for a model of his cost, but that offset the fact it may (and will) backfire. With the fiendish gamble is harder, but without fiendish your odds aren't that good unless you are in turn 4 or 5 and ran a lucid dream heavy crew. Also is an spell with a lower than average range, and is afected by damage reduction and negative flips to damage (so armored models or shielded spam will help versus it). 

Is it good? Yes. Does it need a hotfix? No.

22 minutes ago, Thedeadclaw said:

The only meta impediment we've had is the strongest players flocking to the stronger performing factions, which warps what's playable for less experienced players.

Im curious, which is the meta right now? The considered best factions and masters.

[katadder]

On shenlong he is maybe over the top ignoring most stuff but chi certainly isnt the issue. It is the crews only defence and whilst they can use it for attack that leaves them open to dying quickly.plus most damage tracks in monks are 2/3/4 so whilst they may be more accurate or more defensive they are nowhere near as damaging as most other crews. Easy way to take them is concentrate them down one at a time, burn the chi then kill them as df5 with nothing else is poor.

For me some of the broken things are archie and first mate being seriously undercosted. Both at least 10ss models, archie maybe even 11 with suited leap, flurry, terrifying, min 3, built in healing.

Next would be soulstone miners, maybe should be insignificant on turn they unbury or it's an auto 2vp in outflank. Then also in arcanists I would look at spider swarms with guilt in pos damage flip and built in onslaught.

I would also increase the cost of stitched or lower their defence to 5, maybe even 4

[Thedeadclaw]

1 minute ago, Ogid said:

Im curious, which is the meta right now? The considered best factions and masters.

Right now, using just a few tournaments, in my meta the big threats have been Ressurectionists and Ten Thunders. Ressurectionists have Kirai and Molly, which do the bulk of the busted gameplay, but require high game sense and understanding of positioning and reserved play. The duel master player who uses them has also brought Von Shtook and Seamus, which are great as second masters, but really Archie and the higher returns on better game sense have been what's made it so prevalent.

We've seen a lot of Ten Thunders because of mostly Asami and Shenlong, although Lynch and Youko do their parts in certain pools. Asami's flicker is very powerful for players who have a high skill level, especially against factions like Bayou and Guild, which see a decent amount of play here. Shenlong is mostly best in a Corrupted Idols list but dominates that gameplay. The issue is about to be compounded as we have 5 or 6 lower level Ten Thunders players getting better, but what's very evident in a lot of their wins is that the breadth of versatile models make a lot of lists look like soup already, and it's making their results consistently higher than when they've played other factions.

Outcasts are very strong in our meta but not brokenly strong and definitely not soup-y. Arcanists are mostly absent competitively so I don't have data for them. Bayou has done fairly well. Neverborn has had mixed results tending towards poor placings against bad matchups. Guild has had universally bad showings.

[Thedeadclaw]

7 minutes ago, katadder said:

I would also increase the cost of stitched or lower their defence to 5, maybe even 4

If you're having a hard time killing Stitched Together you're fighting them wrong. It takes 2-3 hits with most damage spreads to kill them. They're not super tanky and if you shoot or bring armor piercing you can trade one model's activation to kill them. Raising their cost would not work since they're a middle-high end summonable, and they aren't good enough to compete with Insidious Madness at a better cost. They don't need to be fixed, they're one of Nightmare's only minions that has any real oomph to them and prevents an all enforcer board, and they're priced to be equally valuable with Bunraku in the puppet crew.

This whole thread feels a lot like when Magic: The Gathering players complain a lot about a new deck being too good; more often than not, it's not that the new thing is too good, it's just that you need to adjust your play style and expectations because you know that you're going to be playing against that new thing.

[katadder]

9 minutes ago, Thedeadclaw said:

If you're having a hard time killing Stitched Together you're fighting them wrong. It takes 2-3 hits with most damage spreads to kill them. They're not super tanky and if you shoot or bring armor piercing you can trade one model's activation to kill them. Raising their cost would not work since they're a middle-high end summonable, and they aren't good enough to compete with Insidious Madness at a better cost. They don't need to be fixed, they're one of Nightmare's only minions that has any real oomph to them and prevents an all enforcer board, and they're priced to be equally valuable with Bunraku in the puppet crew.

This whole thread feels a lot like when Magic: The Gathering players complain a lot about a new deck being too good; more often than not, it's not that the new thing is too good, it's just that you need to adjust your play style and expectations because you know that you're going to be playing against that new thing.

Really? They have df6 which means on average you are on a negflip assuming they havent just put in a 13 for defense from their removed cards. They also have armour 1, so as min damage is generally 2 that's 6 hits, maybe 4 to account for the odd moderate on negflip. And everytime you hit them they give you poison back.

Most models with armour have less wounds than their cost and also are not so high df. I am a dreamer player and I know these are ruining the game and putting people off playing more than any other model in the game it anything else we have listed here.

As for damage in dreamer crews, we have min 3 damage from chompy,effective min 3 from Selena, min 3 from teddy, effective min 3 from carver. So depending on what you bring I really dont see us lacking for damage output..nothing wrong with relying on enforcers for your damage output, alot of crews have to and we shouldn't be putting out damage that ignores all defenses on a summon able minion that has min 3. I would even consider them being 2/3/4 on gamble as let's be honest it's not much of a gamble 

[Maniacal_cackle]

Something I love about Malifaux is that every crew feels like it can do 'broken' things. Shouldn't errata things just because they feel overpowered. I agree the data needs to show they are overpowered or problematic in some ways.

My problem with dual masters isn't so much game imbalance but homogenization. I feel like if dual masters are legal, almost every Dreamer list runs Zoraida. They also have an insane power level at times. For now I'm asking our local TO to not allow dual masters in tournaments to allow everyone to get used to the game/purchase enough crews that everyone can dual master. It sucks if one person owns a faction and one person owns a single crew already, but dual masters exacerbate that. It is not at all ideal for new players.

Not sure if they should be banned in the long run, but I'm hoping for a temporary ban at the local level until we see what is going on overseas.

[Gnomezilla]

@Thedeadclaw (and anyone else who cares to argue that the beta was balanced around dual masters): that’s simply a lie. When the gobs of feedback came in about ‘dual masters will be broken’ it was answered with ‘it’s staying in, get used to it’. Someone eventually came up with the counter offer of ‘when this model is the crew’s leader etc.’ restricted abilities but by then it was too late to apply it globally.

[Paddywhack]

16 hours ago, Squiptar said:

suggestion- a cost restriction on Anna’s ability. Or simply make it just for mindless zombies or a particular keyword

Crap. I went through most of the beta and can't recall this one coming up. I think I mentally added in a 'minion only' restriction on it without realising that wasn't the case. 

There is still some counter play. Killing Gokudo isn't that hard. Anna is harder, but still doable. I would think the easiest fix, if needed, would be to make it minion only. 

I do think the Stitched could go to Df5 and still be above par. Do they really need Df6 on top of everything else they bring? 

I haven't faced ShenLong yet, but as a Result I read the day...

[Ogid]

3 hours ago, katadder said:

Really? They have df6 which means on average you are on a negflip assuming they havent just put in a 13 for defense from their removed cards. They also have armour 1, so as min damage is generally 2 that's 6 hits, maybe 4 to account for the odd moderate on negflip. And everytime you hit them they give you poison back.

To beat these kind of models is better using focused attacks, with armor+1 and bloating doing a lot of attacks looking for min damage will hurt you more than you are hurting him. He shouldn't survive a decent beater who uses 2 focused attack versus him.

3 hours ago, katadder said:

As for damage in dreamer crews, we have min 3 damage from chompy,effective min 3 from Selena, min 3 from teddy, effective min 3 from carver. So depending on what you bring I really dont see us lacking for damage output..nothing wrong with relying on enforcers for your damage output, alot of crews have to and we shouldn't be putting out damage that ignores all defenses on a summon able minion that has min 3. I would even consider them being 2/3/4 on gamble as let's be honest it's not much of a gamble 

The thing is, outside of the totem none of the heavy beaters of the creed have lucid dreams; so you have to choose. Reliable damage and strong models from turn 1 and weak lucid dreaming or you go light on the powerhouses and fit extra minions (who aren't exactly top notch) to have a good lucid dream machine and strong gambles late game. Without a solid lucid dreaming is risky going for non-friendish gamble (you'll have about 50% to lose Wd and actions), and going for safest gamble means that your few lucid dreams are not making your deck any better (and with only 1 gamble per turn, there are a lot of other models with more possible damage output)

Also let's also talk about the bad things of the crew: The leader is a df5, 7wds model who needs to stay near of other models to not being 1 shooted, any blast, reposition, bury or shockwaves will destroy him; outside styched his summons aren't exactly top notch; ruthless, which is widely avaliable, just shut down the main defenses for most of the crew; he lacks good schemers, the spiders are fast and have good tricks but none of them (or any nightmare) may put more than 1 scheme marker per turn; the damage tracks of the beaters is good but there is no onslaught/swift attack/any trigger that allow extra attack actions...

The Dreamer is a good master, but it's not flawless. Styched gets a lot out of the lucid dreams, so in late game they are scary (as lucid dreams just make the gamble safer); but outside nightmare and puppet they are pretty meh, nobody get OOK styched. Their profile is good, but considering the summons of the keyword are weakish and their absence in other crews I don't think they need to be nerfed.

2 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Something I love about Malifaux is that every crew feels like it can do 'broken' things. Shouldn't errata things just because they feel overpowered. I agree the data needs to show they are overpowered or problematic in some ways.

QFT. Each crew may do his broken thing; knowing your faction and the tools it has to counter their tricks while preventing them to do the same to you is the name of the game.

2 hours ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

My problem with dual masters isn't so much game imbalance but homogenization. I feel like if dual masters are legal, almost every Dreamer list runs Zoraida. They also have an insane power level at times. For now I'm asking our local TO to not allow dual masters in tournaments to allow everyone to get used to the game/purchase enough crews that everyone can dual master. It sucks if one person owns a faction and one person owns a single crew already, but dual masters exacerbate that. It is not at all ideal for new players.

Not sure if they should be banned in the long run, but I'm hoping for a temporary ban at the local level until we see what is going on overseas.

Double masters enable fun builds and let extra adaptability. I'd rather just observe for a while. If there are problematic ones, they could be patched or banned as second masters later; or if they show to be too good they could be nerfed, but with enough evidence.

[katadder]

So now we need a beater to use 2 activations to focus it down and you still think this 6ss model isnt a problem? It's the main npe event for people playing dreamer and is causing issues.

Ruthless isnt that widely available, our summons outside of stitched are good, the dreamer does not go down that easily as he still has serene countenance on top of everything else. Have you actually played much dreamer?

My crews rarely start with more than 2 lucid dreams anyway as every summon brings in more and too much of it will see you throwing away red joker (which I do most turns even with my limited stuff). I also dont start with any stitched. I have no problems killing things though as most my opponents can attest I am an aggressive player.

One of my dreamer crews:

Neverborn, 50 SS

Soul Stone Cache: 5
[Masters]
 - The Dreamer, Leader
   + Ancient Pact
[Henchmen]
 - Lord Chompy Bits
   + Inhuman Reflexes
 - Widow Weaver
 - Hinamatsu
   + Inhuman Reflexes
[Enforcers]
 - Teddy
 - Coppelius
[Minions]
 - Daydream
 

 

[Ogid]

5 hours ago, katadder said:

So now we need a beater to use 2 activations to focus it down and you still think this 6ss model isnt a problem? It's the main npe event for people playing dreamer and is causing issues.

It's as big as a problem as any other 6 points model with armor+1 and 6 wd... a support model hanling focus or abilities that give  to damage flips would make it much more effective for that beater, specially with triggers like onslaught or using flurry.

The npe thing in this case it's probably a perception problem, the gamble is uninteractive, but it's as uninteractive as other abilities and mechanics in this game like the piggapult/spark combo, the pale rider nuking 3 models for 8 irreductible damage (and burning+slow) or wong/misaki shockwaving your clustered models to death... these other abilities doesn't target and deals area damage and they seem to be perceived to be more fine than this one that targets, which feels like a "f**k you in particular". It also has an asociated risk and trade off that is not easy to see unless you understand the crew. Plus going only for 1 gamble each turn is simmilar to what other models can do, a Rable Risser with focused spamming 3 attacks may do higher damage than an styched for example (and this one may also get a double activation in his crew).

Things are frustrating when people don't undertand them or failt to adapt and fall just into the trap. People just need time to know and learn to adapt to the crews they are facing.

5 hours ago, katadder said:

Ruthless isnt that widely available, our summons outside of stitched are good, the dreamer does not go down that easily as he still has serene countenance on top of everything else. Have you actually played much dreamer?

I played the devil's advocate back there because people was making it sounds as if dreamer were the most broken stuff in the game, so I gave some counter-arguments to put it in context. Serene counterance is good, but just a focus get through it and with df5 is not hard to win the flip or cheat it; protected is a good defensive tech, but it make him vulnerable to blasts and shockwaves. It's all about getting the right tools for the game. And yes, I'm a quite new player and don't have that many games with him under my belt, but I've played skirmish games long enough (and I've making an effort to go through all crews and do some research) to not needing that many to understand this game.

About ruthless... well, 2 entire factions may get ruthless out a upgrade card and in the others is about adapting going OOK or just get high wp values and not spamming attacks (get focus and high damage tracks with triggers that deal even more damage). Again it's just a matter to adapt to the other crew.

5 hours ago, katadder said:

My crews rarely start with more than 2 lucid dreams anyway as every summon brings in more and too much of it will see you throwing away red joker (which I do most turns even with my limited stuff). I also dont start with any stitched. I have no problems killing things though as most my opponents can attest I am an aggressive player.

One of my dreamer crews:

Haha, yes, that list do looks scary and agressive. I tend to load up more lucid dreams to get a hotter deck and the advantage over time, but you know, different folks for different styles. I take note of that one

IDK, I think i'm going in circles with this topic; from my pow styched are good models and maybe they can be frustating to play against (and this is probably the reason of people asking for nerfs); but they seem to be fine (considering other models in this game, how his masters are performing and that they are not hired OOK). If the Dreamer/Puppets start to overperform and they are the reason, then sure, bat them; but until then I think there are higher priorities to focus in this game (keep an eye in the potential of the double masters, buff underwhelming crews, fix model that appear in every list of the faction...)

[katadder]

You mention models that have no defence against that cost alot more, dont get summoned in and you dont have 3 of. A 10 of masks to being one of these in

Gamble gets around everything (except armour and stones), cover, concealment, resistance triggers, incorporeal, stealth, terror, manipulative and even being able to resist it. It happens with no resistance and it's not a gamble as stitched just use that 13 they had to guarantee it.

Out of all the things that need nerfing these are top of the pile as I have seen them put people off even playing the game.

[Kharnage]

13 hours ago, Ogid said:

but outside nightmare and puppet they are pretty meh, nobody get OOK styched.

I'd argue that any time I saw a dreamer player I'd hire OOK stitched. You too can take a model that gets around Incorporeal AND protected and deal cheatable 3/4/5 damage. He'll be dead in 3 gambles, tops. 

[Adran]

24 minutes ago, katadder said:

Gamble gets around everything (except armour and stones), cover, concealment, resistance triggers, incorporeal, stealth, terror, manipulative and even being able to resist it. It happens with no resistance and it's not a gamble as stitched just use that 13 they had to guarantee it.

You can probably add Shielding, hard to wound, hard to kill, demise, black blood, cruel intentions as other defensive abilities that will still work  just from the Neverborn section of cards. (that's probably a fairly full list of them to be fair)

I'm not saying stitched are not strong, but they can only use Fiendish gamble once per activation, so most of the time you use an action to do 3/4/5 flip to an enemy model and then what? He can do it again, and rely on the deck, or make an attack within 1" with stat 5 2/3/4.

And a 6 cost model reliable doing 5 damage to an enemy for the cost of a severe card is not that over powered (or  averaging 4 without cheating). They look strong (and are farily strong) but when you look at what they do over their full activation I'm much less scared because typically so much of their power seems to be in them having that good card removed from their deck and making sure they win that 1 gamble each turn.

[Ogid]

20 minutes ago, katadder said:

You mention models that have no defence against that cost alot more, dont get summoned in and you dont have 3 of.

Gamble gets around everything (except armour and stones), cover, concealment, resistance triggers, incorporeal, stealth, vengeance, terror, manipulative and even being able to resist it. It happens with no resistance and it's not a gamble as stitched just use that 13 they had to guarantee it.

The more stiched a player has, the less effective and higher cost in the long run gamble has; there aren't enough 13s in the deck to have the perfect card for every single gamble; and if you are using all your lucid dreaming to fish for high cards instead of making the deck hotter, that's damage (and defense) potential in the long run that every other model from the crew is losing.

if a player has 3 stiched and is removing high card from the deck to go for safe gambles, each one could do a mean of 4 reductible damage each turn, with a range of 6''. A player with that information should be able adapt his crew (armor, shielded, heals, henchman heavy and some SS to reduce damage, rush to kill Dreamer early...)

Gamble is useful just for that, to bypass defenses that rely in not being hit, like shockwaves or blasts. But this has a damage flip, so for example hard to wound help, the damage isn't irreductible, so armored (or shielded) targets will suffer less, it may backfire and damage the styched, also it only damage 1 target. The examples I said above have a bigger threat range and some could be cast safely and several times per turn (not like the 1 safe-but-it-could-still-backfire gamble)

Gamble isn't the only ability that bypass defenses in this game; the fact that in Nightmare/Puppets it is allocated in a minion is what happen in an asymetric game. If I wanted mirror matches, I'd play chess.

2 minutes ago, Kharnage said:

I'd argue that any time I saw a dreamer player I'd hire OOK stitched. You too can take a model that gets around Incorporeal AND protected and deal cheatable 3/4/5 damage. He'll be dead in 3 gambles, tops.

Go for it! The Dreamer is the perfect example of a very good target for that ability. Good luck getting these stiched in position to do that tho; and even if one of them would somehow get near, a gamble versus The Dreamer would be riskier if he is making a good use of lucid dreams (aka, not removing high cards for his own deck), plus he can get healed after that gamble.

A pale rider would be cheaper and more dangerous for the dreamer than 3 OOK stiched (11 vs 21 SS) for example. Wait until the last activation of the turn 3 and be less than 20'' away from him (instead of the 11'' of the stiched), move+move and use rebel in conflict and pay for Devastation and cheat severe; that's 4 irreductible damage + burn + slow (so 5 damage). Cheat fate in turn 4, devastation again and good bye dreamer. Much easier and cheaper that try to wak the 3 OOK stiched through his crew.

[Maniacal_cackle]

I think stitched together are somewhat poor game design and just generally a 'feels bad' experience.

I think that's reason enough to change something while it is still in beta, but I would hope errata would only be used for things that are overpowered (winning lots of tournaments) or homogenising (every list takes a particular model, such as if Zoraida becomes present in most Neverborn lists).

So while some good ideas have been floated here, I hope it'll be at least a year before we see any model errata (unless an emergency situation comes up).

[Rufess]

Nothing can I do to avoid the damage once the original cards have flipped upset me most. I do not mind that it is a tactical action that can bypass half of the defensive tech, but at least let both player cheat the flip just like it is a opposite duel (where it isn't).

[Ogid]

On 9/18/2019 at 10:09 AM, Maniacal_cackle said:

I think stitched together are somewhat poor game design and just generally a 'feels bad' experience.

I think just the opposite, gamble is an example of very good game design. Different from other ways to attack, very well integrated with the mechanic of the crew, powerful enough to be impactul but not busted and with trade off and risk involved.

I don't get why getting your model blown by a model jumping+charging or by an sniper from a mile away, by a model spamming attacks thanks to their abilities/triggers, by a shockwave, 3 blasts attacks or by any other shenanigan is perfectly fine, but getting damaged by gamble is bad game design...

[Kharnage]

3 hours ago, Ogid said:

I don't get why getting your model blown by a model jumping+charging or by an sniper from a mile away, by a model spamming attacks thanks to their abilities/triggers, by a shockwave, 3 blasts attacks or by any other shenanigan is perfectly fine, but getting damaged by gamble is bad game design...

Because a Stitched pulling a 13 from exile to basically auto win the "duel", followed by cheating severe for damage assuming he didn't top deck the straight flip, is inevitable. You basically watch the Dreamer player masturbate until he has what he needs, no input required from you, and then deals 5 damage. Other than flipping a not-red-joker, the game "we're" playing is pretty one sided. Everything you just mentioned, has a decently sizeable opportunity for failure. There's an actual Df vs Attack value flip that's cheatable for everything else you just mentioned. They can flip low, you could flip high enough that they might not have that card in hand, etc. Dreamer on the other hand, can cycle with a single stitched, 3 daydreams, and his totem, 15 cards a turn, looking for a single king. As far as the opposing player is concerned, we're hoping for RJs, which having less than a 2% chance of being able to stop something isn't hope at all. It's freaking frustrating.