Let me preface this by saying I have been playing in M:TG & STCCG competitive events since 1995. I currently play Open, OTF, and PAQ formats. I have worked inside the game industry since 98, and so I have a bit of perspective from having seen the rise and fall of literally dozens of TCG formats. Alot has changed over the years from rules sets to ban lists, but all in all I think OTF has STCCG competitive in a fairly good place. Is it the best place? Probably not, but that's what I feel the purpose of this thread is!! Without further ado. here are my main gripes with OTF format.
1) Not being able to solve Opponent's missions.
YES. I know enchanting dilemmas was gross, but removing an entire aspect of the core rules was not the way to deal with it. Print EXTREMELY punishing
cards that will deter those degenerate play patterns or ban the main culprits. Removing Espionage and deep thought from the dilemma seed phase weakens the game itself and the overall experience.
2) Tournament Round Time limits
This has been a problem since the decipher days. We have this amazingly complex game, that can go in myriad directions and offers tons of cool playstyles. It is meant to be an epic clash between two groups culminating in ultimate control of the spaceline. We wait for MONTHS to play in an actual OTF event... drive HOURS (for most of us) to play our deck we've been crafting for months. Then, we get there, play 3-4 rounds in 4-5 hours and its over?? We are expected to finish these epic games in 75 minutes? Just over an hour to play?
That makes ZERO sense. It makes so little sense in fact, that if you look at the tournament results posted on the site, VERY FEW people are actually finishing their matches. I hardly ever see someone with an actual 100 point victory. I had a match at Gen Con a few years back where we made it to literally turn 4 before time was called. Turn 4. This makes many decks archetypes simply invalid and leads to the hyper-efficient solver meta we see in front of us. Plenty of decks COULD deal with those archetypes and come back around for a win, but current limitations put you in a situation where you are probably losing 40-0 instead. Also the human factor of having to think in between downloads and plays is real. Most of us don't get to play STCCG often. To expect well-oiled machines making plays as fast as possible is illogical.
As with any issue, if it affects more than 50% of the population, the issue is SYSTEMIC. That means you need to look at the rules with an objective eye and figure out how to get more completions. My suggestion? 2 Hr rounds. None of us are out here grinding STCCG every weekend competitively. There is no exhaustion factor. I've never been to a STCCG event (even at Gen Con) that had enough players to constitute 5 rounds. Most of us have waited so long to play that we would much rather finish our games than be rushed through an event.
3) Red Alert and Power Creep
Let me be clear: I'm not here to beg for Red Alert back. It is probably hands down the best STCCG card ever printed and creates so many one sided wins around turn 4-5 that even most PAQ groups play with a highly errata'd version or ban the card altogether. I don't want to live in a world where people drop Red Alert and immediately win the game either.
What has happened though, is through power creep, the CC have circumvented the Red Alert ban for us. While we might not get to dump our whole hands on the table turn 1 the plethora of extra play cards now available ensure that most competitive decks are making 3-4 card plays a turn, and by turn 4-5 have that same board they would have gotten with Red Alert. It is not uncommon for a Solver or the Borg to have 8-12 crew on turn 3-4, ready to start racking up points. I love construct starship, but its continued legality further compounds the problem.
This ensures that any "fringe" archetypes and strategies just aren't viable. It also ensures each turn takes longer, which is why we often see games that time out at 4-6 turns. A slower rate of card plays would allow a wider variety of decks into the meta while simultaneously ensuring that more games finish within a reasonable time limit (see above).
How do we achieve a slower rate of Play? We may be past the event horizon without some serious
cards and bannings that would likely make people upset. We could unban
Anti-Time Anomaly Its existence punishes decks that front end dump cards into play and forces them to think about their play patterns. Another option would be to stop focusing on just constantly printing more great solver cards or weird goofy archetypes. Actually look at how do we print powerful cards that can make some other archetypes compete in the meta? Power Creep can be fine if it is crept across the board, but leaving archetypes like Dabo, assimilation, and Run and Gun in the dust creates a stale metagame.
4) The Big Picture
Why are we still functioning under this general rule? The solver decks are WAY faster at scoring points than the fair bonus point decks. While they may get to avoid dilemmas, these decks are forced into a slower rate of play as they accumulate points turn over turn. If the main offender
Gift of the Tormentor were banned and Ressikan Flute errata'd to a cap, (there's one more I'm not thinking of) the other fair decks wouldn't have to pay for their sins.
5.) The Download Dilemma
I love the General Order Personnel Download Rule in OTF. I think it makes play more fair and keeps things clean and crisp. There are times it doesn't work, however. I think the rule should be lifted from downloads based on a faced dilemma. Cards like
Scout Encounter aren't problematic, and if my opponent is in the position to attempt multiple missions in a single turn, my download from a second copy of this dilemma should not be limited. There are other examples of this same thing, but I felt this is an easy one to see the issue.
Dilemmas are our line of defense against the best archetype in the game: The Solver. They shouldn't be limited in effectiveness by a blanket rule that attempts to keep game balance. If problem cards arise, ban them.
6) Relic on the Banlist
There is one card on the banlist, IMO that is a relic of a time gone by, one which could help create a more diverse metagame.
Anti-Time Anomaly
This card is in no way too good for STCCG OTF play. Pretty much every single healthy CCG has some sort of boardwipe that helps decks come back or limits board flood strategies. This card helps so much against the latter its insane. We have entered an era of OTF where board flooding is so common all decks are forced to be able to do it or cease to exist. This card could bring much needed balance.
7) You are a monument
This General rule is completely unnecessary nowadays due to power creep. The delta and Gamma quadrant decks are no faster at scoring 100 points than their Alpha quadrant counterparts, and this blanket 40 point handicap not only hurts their ability to be competitive: it restricts their deck building as well, forcing them to find ways to come to the Alpha quadrant to solve a mission. This sort of blanket rule was fine when we lived in the "Voyager is the most pushed thing ever" era, but it has long outgrown its usefulness and turned into a diversity killer.
Community Outreach
OTF is a great format, but we need MORE local outreach. We need people that are able to get us registered at a local level to run events. For example: I sent a message to our Regional organizer back in 2021 asking about organizing events for my store. I own a LGS in Central Indiana and have about 8 players that hang out regularly who Trek. I was really excited to try to get them into the OTF format, but alas, I am not sure how to get support to do that. So instead we all play a PAQ league. We could grow the playerbase through a bit of effort, but we really need people at a more local level than regional as points of contact.
Let me end this by saying the following. I love and respect the CC for working so hard to protect and curate new sets for what is, in my opinion , one of the best CCGs to ever exist. I think that 90% of what they do and work on is brilliant, and the OTF format is great considering the vast undertaking that is something on this scale. Does it have its flaws? Sure. The gameplay and experience are still phenomenal. I'd simply like to see us finish more games, hold more events with local support, and live inside a more diverse metagame.