skill vs luck

[jcbow]

I have been pondering this for awhile and after reading the unbalanced thread I thought maybe some discussion could be interesting. I was wondering what weight people hold on skill and luck. I know both play a factor, but on the over all what has more impact. I ask because as a newer player who generally sits in the mid to high 200's I don't get much for skilled tuned deck play, but rather crazy wtf am I going to see next and how did you just pull 3 of those in a row in that 60 card deck kinda things. My personal theory is that the importance of both shifts depending on where you play. Would be nice to ear from some more season players in this game and in card games in general what they think.

Also this isn't meant to be a complaint or gripe thread to the fairness of the game.

[tafkad]

Nice thread, and well worded.

First luck, when playing a really skilled player luck becomes more important the better the match up. Luck is always the driving force of any "risk" and games of risk reward you or destroy you with luck - it rocks.

Skill, without this well - good luck!

Played against a 75 card deck and saw 3 Cutlass - I was like wtf? I stomped it though hehe was good fun game

[Airact]

SE is a kinda different in that most tournaments use a single elimination bracket instead of a round robin score-type system so in that sense being unlucky punishes you extremely hard in comparison.

It's also really tough to maintain a mindset of win percentages instead of individual tournament performances because every tournament is different in their rulings, making a solid metagame practically non-existent. That means more tournaments are won by getting lucky with a deck choice than by preparation.


So, while I'd like to think that good players win more, it's hard to prove and in general good players don't have the advantages they deserve IMO. There's not enough prices to win and there's little to no way to have any sense of expected value from tournaments.

[Misanthropic]

Skill is knowing how to construct your deck, knowing what to sac, what to play and when, etc.

Luck can help win once
Skill can help you win lots

Sure that overweight 200 card embarassment might get lucky and shut down a skilled player with a tuned deck but play best of 10 and the skilled player will come out on top.

[snipnigth]

This puzzels me too, i have fought this kinds of decks, and its hilatious how can they pull 3 off the same cards or draw every single card they need in such big decks, its just mindblowing and frustrating.

Luck plays a big part in winning a game, but if you dont know what to sac or what to play, your luck gets worse, but this is not the only factor, some heros are counters to other heros and that can affect you luck and plays a lot.

[Veles]

You need skill to take advantage of those lucky draws. You need even more skill to mitigate disadvantage of bad ones.

[pjoe0211]

simple definition: When I win it's skill, when you win its luck.

[tafkad]

simple definition: When I win it's skill, when you win its luck.

That's the golden rule of games

[igornvidal]

The way I see it, luck is the realization of probabilities. But everyone has it's own "luck threshold" so, for some, any event realization which had a 1 in 5 chance is considered luck. For some it may be 1:100, or 3 cards in a row in a deck of 60...

That's why we like to keep deck sizes to the minimum, as to depend less on what everyone of us consider luck. That's why huge decks need to have draw engines, and if they do, I don't find them lucky; not more than I am.

Some two thoughts I read somewhere:

Skilled players/professionals/students are luckier, anon.

God doesn't play dice, A. Einstein.

[Preybird]

I'm of the opinion that skill dominates this game. There is always luck involved but in general good deckbuilding mitigates bad luck a lot, as does skillful play. There is no mana screw or flood in SE, every card will always have a use (even if it's just a resource) and there are plenty of tools to turn a game around.

Sure sometimes you are going to get stomped by the guy with the golden start, but that is the nature of the game. I think the biggest element of luck in QM is the moment of matchup, but that can be mitigated too with a correct read of the meta.