500 vs 600 points, Which are you using?

[Kajoq]

The more I play the more I feel 600 points is a much better point total than 500. Has anyone else been playing around with the values much? 500 feels super restricted and the low number of figures available means that 1 bad die roll can set you back super super far.
600 points allows for 3-4 army card loadouts which really opens up the options. You can build truly Synergistic builds such as Lili + all 3 Zombies. It also means you have a lot more to consider while positioning and timing your summons. With 500 points it seems every single game T1 you dump one or both army cards and turn two you have all figs on the field.

I know this game is unlikely to ever have a large competitive scene, but before anything gets set I thought I'd see what the community felt on the matter. I'd like to see 600 points become to the standard.

 

[lefton4ya]

I played 550 the other day and liked it a lot. I think when they made the sets they designed them for 500 point armies and also have 90-100 point heroes/squads that you can add to that, so I think to spice it up I would go with random army sizes as I don't want to be forced into something. I might go with a modified version of what I normally do in home games for Heroscape which is roll a D20, multiply that by 10 and add to 400 to determine the army size each time before drafting (so 410 - 600 point armies).

For AotP I would either do 450 + D20 result *10 (460-650), or do 500 + D20 result * 5 (505-600). Variety is the spice of life. However, with a currently limited amount of creature choices, some point totals are hard to get to for multiple armies. I was also thinking of being able to "donate" 25 point of magic deck to or from your army. So for example instead of set 500 point army + 200 point deck, you could do anywhere between 475 army + 225 deck to 525 army + 175 deck, as long as the point total doesn't exceed 700, although you still are limited to exactly 12 cards. That leeway would definitely help in the random army size with a D20 as well, especially if you are drafting from a common figure pool and the low point creatures such as the colorless Eldrazi Scions will get drafted first.

 

[chas]

I haven't started playing with my new Innistrad yet, but I sympathize. Rather than play tournament style, The NYC Gang of Four here in Brooklyn plays on giant Heroscape maps with large armies. My concern right now is whether with even 500 Innistrad points I can get five players into a game. Your 500 point army list came along just at the right time for me to check it out, so thanks.

Like Scape, the answer is to do what you like. Its your game after you buy it! Of course, if you do a Blended game, you can add Scape points to your 500 for a longer game...

 

[igelkott]

I've played with 800 points with either 500 AOTP+300 HS or 600 AOTP+200 HS and it worked well.

 

[Tornado]

With a 385 point PW, 500 feels almost laughably low. Thankfully they added the Cultists so Ob can actually have two squads at 500, though when your best cards require you to injure or destroy your own figures, you really need bodies(they both can 're-spawn' also which had to be intentional).

Still, with the your PW taking up the majority of your point total even in a 600 point game, I have to believe that higher points is the direction of the future.

 

[chas]

Kajoq,

Are you going to do a similar Possible Armies list for 600 points? If you want to push that format, this would be the way to do it!

 

[TREX]

I initially voted 500pts for this thread, but feel that 600 is a bit more fun, because the planeswalkers are so expensive, this allows more of an army to play adding at least one more extra card.

 

[Kajoq]

Kajoq,

Are you going to do a similar Possible Armies list for 600 points? If you want to push that format, this would be the way to do it!

That original thread wasn't mine actually, I just cross-posted another user's thread from planeswalker-arena.

I think really the next step is less just text repositories, and creating an actual Excel / Javascript squad builder the way we have for HeroScape. I've been brainstorming on it, but haven't taken the plunge

 

[twilkerson]

For classic 'Scape, 400 points.

This allows us to play best 2 out of 3 in a single session. (Bring 2 armies and the winner must keep same army in the second or third games)

 

[chas]

Its clear now that the game is meant to be expanded in things like point totals, as new sets come out. A German bgger posted that his local Hasbro affiliate sanctioned 600 Points now for all scenarios past and present. If you think about it, unless you bought multiples (and I haven't), 600 Points only makes sense once you get Innistrad as your third set anyhow. Hence 600 was ruled in Zendikar, but the Innistrad scenarios are still set for 500, in case, as a second stand alone Master Set, that's all you own. Now that I've played some Innistrad 2 Player, my next plans are to try it with more players. For that 500 points may still be required so there are enough cards for 4-5 players. But I'll go up to 600 for two players, and more if I either cherry pick how that could work for more players, or after another set is published.

 

[caps]

I think we will ultimately see 700 points as the norm, because Planeswalkers just eat up so many darn points that you can't get much else in.

 

[The B.I.V.]

I dunno. I haven't played a lot of higher point games. Seems like it would just drag things out longer. At 500 points you have a fairly decently long game. Sometimes you can catch a bad break and the game ends early but for the most part it works. At 600 or 700 seems like the game could drag a bit...which is defintely bad for competitions.

 

[Monochrome_Night]

Definitely 600. I'd be fine with 500 if every color either had a small squad that cost 50 points or less like the Skirsdag Cultists, or a hero that cost 70 points like Mad Prophet. Let's say I wanted Gideon at 500. I can't play Gideon + a hero + a squad.

Edit: I also think that in a longer game with larger armies, managing your spells becomes more important, especially if it's a free for all with more than two players.

 

[TREX]

With the new sets out, 600 is definitely the better pick. I don't use 500pt armies since those newer rules came out.

EDIT: If you only have the first base set, 500 is your better pick.

 

[lefton4ya]

FYI at Origins (and hopefully Gencon) we are running both point sizes, although the 500 point one is kill the planeswalker and 600 is kill the entire army. I think with large point values you do need to play it out as many times you may loose the Planeswalker first but able to win the game as you still may have a lot more figures on the field. I still reiterate I like between 500 and 600 and/or adding in Heroscape armies just to mix up the point values.