Don't get me wrong; I hated this card once I saw how stupid it could be in something like Ivy. But with Christie it's just plain dumb as she breaks this card to a terrifying degree.

I'd rally for a ban but I'm sure most would disagree, and hell...I don't post nearly enough for anyone to care about my opinion.

And maybe it's 'just one card', but that argument's been heard before (regarding Hugo) and I didn't listen to it then and I won't now. Frankly, this card needs to go.

Just a thought.

Hmmm......

Path of the master, I think the card is indeed powerful, however all of it's abilities promote what this game is headed towards no?

let's just y'know wait and see what time will tell, will it be broken? I've heard from various players UK and US that PoTM is an auto include in any deck that can run it and an absolute dealbreaker in Ivy and Christie.

Answers to this card do exist, whether or not they reliably exist across the symbols is questionable. :/

Besides in what decks does this card seem broken? And even then, surely the payoff is worth it.?

My only gripes with the card are acessability ( FFG as per usual, dropped the ball on that one.) and the Infinity symbol although it makes sense to have it on this card.

Meh, i'll still be rockin my 4' till she hits the hammer

Cheers

Dan

The card is good, but you have to taylor your deck to abuse it, and there are different ways to stop it/destroy it.

sir_shajir said:

Second the `supposedly retired from UFS` guy. Yeah, seconded.

Bloodrunstrue said:

Sorry to (sort of) thread-jack, but in what way did FFG "drop the ball" on accessibility of the card? It was always, from the moment it was announced, only going to be available at specific PotM events, of which there were two - one in the USA and one in the UK. Given I didn't go to the US event, I can only comment on the UK one, but every person there got copies for every patch they had, and then some as Steve gave additional copies out for position in the event, etc etc.

Kev

Bloodrunstrue said:

I agree that the biggest issue with the card is accessibility. The distribution handled very poorly imo.

But overall, the card is very, very good and format defining, but i dont think its proven itself problematic to the point of banning or errata yet. Certain characters can abuse it very well (tira, king, etc.) while others simply dont that well, but it is in almost every deck i build. I think its a little early right now to be calling it bannable.

BUt yeah, the card is great and it is important.

Bloodrunstrue said:

I disagree with this. Path of the Masters is the OPPOSITE of where this game is headed. The current block has balanced damage and speed bumps, and the only close-to-unbalanced damage bumps are on character cards. Path of the Masters is a cheap, huge damage bump. What is worse, it is an Infinity, meaning it can show up in any deck and get at least some use, even if it is just that damage bump.

Bloodrunstrue said:

Ummm. Ivy, Christie, Algol, Zi Mei, Tira, Astrid, Nightmare, Temujin. Shall I go on? Any character that has access to Combos benefits from running this card. If the Combo is based on 3 cards, all from one character (ex: Algol), you get +9 damage, for commiting 1 thing. In Ivy, that damage bump can get as high as 20 damage, after a string of attacks. In addition, it universalizes the Samba Loop for all All, Life or Water characters (ha, Water characters). Something that is probably not intended, as the Samba loop is Christies' last hope for playability on a large scale.

As for the cost of running it? Oh no, a 5 check? Oh no, a card draw ability that can't be commited by stun? I see very little downside, unless you are made violently ill by the color green.

Bloodrunstrue said:

Agree here. Such a good card, at a limited venue, making new players feel excluded because they are unable to get the card without dropping a large chuck of money. And even if people are willing to give away extras for free, that is the thing. They are extras. Meaning they will eventually run out, and the prices will rise. People with the card will benefit, and people without the card will feel handicapped.

I /sign that Path of the Masters make its way to the Ban-Anvil, awaiting the Ban-Hammer. Or, the least FFG could do is cycle it, and let it go the way of Lotus Garden.

-Tinman

It's an Infinity card. This i exactly what UFS was trying to get away from. There is no reason to NOT run this card. Its a Staple plain and simple. Which sucks because of it's limited avalibility. In Ivy it's just retarded. Spam out like 4-5 or her foundations then use her form to play an attack then POTM for a +18 Damage? Screw that. And like I said that fact that it is an infitity card makes it even stupider as that means everyone needs it to be competitive and supposedly we were never going to see infinity cards again -__-

I would love to see it go. But if not then I will just have to get a playset somewhere down the line.

I dont think POTM is that bad. To be perfectly blunt, the Damage pump in most situations I have seen it used in was unnessasary overkill at the point it was used. The ability to use symbol specifc abilities also seems moot as 99% of players will already be able to, that just sorta the way most cards are rigth now.

The card draw is a massive advantage. I wont lie, but some characters already had strong draw and no one complained about it. Ivy can play her deck if she plays correctly. Angol also has strong draw. A lot of people are pointing at samba loop as the offender but honestly whats christie going to do with a hand full of cards if she already has the loop going. Likewise other characters can benefit from the loop more and POTM allows them to use it but then they are completley relying on one unique card to have a win condition.

It's also an asset as opposed to a foundation so it cannot be committed for checks, which is fairly important right now except for maybe Jin. Also since it's unique it can be reliably controled without a redundant backup, including I think that new rashotep asset promo (forget exactly but it blanks assets I think.) It is a great card to put through a kill shot if the game drags on too long, which i think is something that is needed to fight the inevatable control war that will arise with the release of future sets.

Really though when zimei has Six 7 speed 6 damage attacks coming at you turn 2, does POTM really matter that much?

Here's a simple solution....

Terrain

there you go, now there are about a million cards that can get rid of it.

One reason why it's so good is because in the SC4 and Shadowar sets all 3 symbols on each card matched the chracters symbols, and a lot of cards also have simular symbols (every card that had fire also had order). So for Ivy when she spams her attacks each one is pumping up PotM by 3 damage instead of maybe one or two damage. PotM become less powerful when more cards come out because there will be a lot more symbol diversity.

Protoaddict said:

Thankyou Mr. protoaddict, at least you understand.

Sol Badguy said:

In most decks I don't want to run more then 4-8 assets. If I'm already running a terrain, because the Terrain works better in the deck then what POTM does (such as readies a card every time I ping them with miniscule damage in Ivy), I can't see a reason to run it.

Additionally I've tried a few decks with PotM, and I've yet to keep it in a final build of any 5 star deck I've built, because each deck so far has been better without it.

If the card was so damned amazing that EVERYONE wants it, I wouldn't have 4 Copies sitting in my trade binder untouched after Can Nats, straight through Gencon.

If they're that super awesome sauce, I should throw them up on Ebay and they'll go for OMG $$$, but I get the feeling they won't go for more then $8 for the playset, and that to me isn't superawesomesauce.

Bloodrunstrue said:

No, I honestly don't think you guys do.

But you will, so...whatever.

Ryken said:

Could I trouble you to post the deck that is so powerful with PotM that can't be stopped?

Because otherwise I'm getting the feeling we may have another Ukyo's Apple.

I don't think its too overpowered or even broken. I think the reason it should go is that it is an infinity card with VERY powerful effects.

Antigoth said:

Hiayayapapapapaaa

WE DONT MENTION THE APPLE, YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN We BRING OUT THE APPLE

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Soul wave just keeps getting better and better. Discard is starting to flair up again and it has the added benefit of destroying assets (like Potm)before they get out hand. I think I'll be running at least 2-3 in every deck between main and side.

The only deck I Really Really hate the card in is King.

It's a frustratingly strong card in him, for everyone else it is a very strong but manageable damage pump that everyone can use, and getting them is not that hard, look on the Trade forums and im sure you will find some, offered for very resonable trades, go figure.

In king tho the card is problematic due to his ability to build then attack with no cost, creating just huge owe to the face at the end of his turns.

jasco games said:

Path of the Master is UNIQUE, not TERRAIN

Either way...

As I've said before, it needs to go, or be immensely errata'd, which has never been a concept FFG has liked.

It's too much of turbo draw and turbo damage pump.

Ryken said:

To be totally honest - I just look for reasonably well thought out discussions, that take all sides into account.

If someone calls for a ban, and doesn't provide objective evidence, I tend to dismiss it because people do tend to over react and call for bans prematurely.

<Note the guy above me, who is calling for a ban of the card, but he doesn't understand the order of the phases of the game, or how to resolve card effects, which tends to reduce the credibility of his arguements in my eyes. True story, I had to call James over to get him to believe that it went Ready, Review, Draw.>

We are considering a local ban, but I think the best aproach is to just let the new "meta" grow. Damage redux and cards that encourage running char blocks are already making thier way back into the game. In the future the damage pump on PoTM might be needed to punch through late game walls of defense earth is beggining to have again. It does encourage people to spam out their hand and run cards that match symbols.

Don't get me wrong the card is just dumb with certain decks like Ivy and possibly king. But with some characters it never really amounted to crazy amounts of damage for me. I'd rather be running other green cards for those chars. It truly is a powerful card that is on my list of mistake cards along side financial troubles and for the money. With that said these cards pale in comparison to how degenerate BRT, bitter rivals, and spike were. I just really think we need to play with this new standard before we make to many rash decisions so soon after effectivly "banning" an entire block of cards.

I second this, and wholeheartedly. After hearing your testimonies, I think we should indeed stand back and let the meta develop. Path of the Master may be powerful now, and it will be for people who religiously run their character's support/have a lot of symbol-specific abilities/both. But after 4 or so sets, most high-caliber decks will have a smattering of cards from all the sets, and they won't necessarily share all that many symbols. BTW, James, I think we've had enough Fire / Order and Life / Water characters for one block, bro. You can separate them now.

Well, run it in Christie and see how it works out.

See, I understand that people are complaining/arguing/whatever about the SSS Loop, and that's fine. However, adding something like PotM is what really makes it dumb... er .

And really, all it TAKES is one deck. Remember Hugo? Zasalamel? Just about every Ibuki ever made? Maybe it isn't a fair comparison, but if PotM hits and Christie starts attacking, you got a character who's drawing for just attacking. And maybe, eventually, she'll tap herself out. By then she'll still have a relatively clear card pool and can spam out any foundation she needs to make your life hell on your own turn.

Simply put, I'm thinking this is a card that makes you think; IF I give this card a Symbol Only Enhance, will it be broken with PotM? Just like Hugo made them think (and fail , but whatever) IF I print this foundation, will Hugo break it?

(I may have worded that wrong, but I hope I get the point across.)

And yes, I think the SSS Loop with be that powerful in the sense that many people will play it, and PotM will break it. (Along with cards like For The Money...lord...)

And yes, maybe the SSS Loop itself is the problem, but I still think PotM will be a problem in the future when the card pool starts to get a bit bigger.

Just my thoughts.

EDIT : I guess what I'm really trying to say is that with this card, every Symbol Only Enhance says "Symbol E: Blah. Draw 1 Card". And to me, that's not all that balanced.

Almost every symbol has access to asset destruction...
Air-
All-
Chaos- Scroll of the Abyss, Evil Intentions, Destruction in his Wake
Death, Scroll of the Abyss, Ymirfang, Shield Breaker, Soul Wave*, Evil Intentions, Destruction in his Wake
Earth- Shield Breaker, Ymirfang
Evil- Scroll of the Abyss, Soul Wave*, Evil Intentions, Destruction in his Wake
Fire- Shield Breaker, Ymirfang, Soul Wave*
Good- Scroll of the Celestial Dawn
Life- Scroll of the Celestial Dawn
Order-
Water- Scroll of the Celestial Dawn
Void-

There's also a various amount of cards that can blank it. Rashotep can just blank it the moment they start attacking >_> Kazuya can just nuke them with his effect or his gloves. Proficient Sniper can just RFG them, and chances are people won't run more than 2-3 copies. If they try to nuke one of your assets you can R with Killer Android to kill their PotM. I just don't see PotM as being that problematic... Yes it is strong, but not too strong.