Lucas Horta

Helena's Father, Software Developer, TCG Judge. I'm a lucky man to count on both hands the ones I love.

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

@RossHunneds roughly 40% of people on this planet don't experience seasons as we live in the tropics, so I'm not sure seasons are really that part of the human condition.

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

@Smdster This is an excellent tweet. Thank you.

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

@emerald_h0ney I most definitely don't have an art channel, you might have tagged the incorrect in5ano :)

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

@williamfenselau @PedroPertusi @AzulGG also @ChipRichey if you need topics to discuss on the podcast, I'm not sure you've touched this, although I've heard you and azul cover a few points on judging and rulings in the past.

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

This weekend I played a Regionals, my first since 2017. While I had fun, I had a very bad experience with the current DPC penalty. I do not have a lot of reach but I would like to hear opinions from pros on this, so tagging a few: @williamfenselau @PedroPertusi @AzulGG 1/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

I did not pay for a blue checkmark to make this one tweet on principle. Sorry you had to read it as a thread rather than one continuous text. I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this. 13/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

I will be adding a support ticket, but my voice alone is not enough. If you believe the current penalty on drawing extra cards is overly punitive, I suggest you do the same. Support tickets can feel like shouting at the clouds, but they actually listen. 12/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

Prize penalties used to involve drawing physical Prize Cards. It broke the game in even worse ways. I am sure everyone knows the horror stories behind quad prize and N into donk. But now Japan has single or multi virtual prize penalties, rather than 2 or 4. 11/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

An argument for this is "it is on the opponent for screwing up," and that is not wrong. But it is a matter of what competitions are for: do we want the players who make the best plays or the ones who make the fewest technical mistakes to win? What holds more value? 10/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

I have been AHJ/TCG lead in multiple Regionals, ICs, and Worlds. This is one of the most frequent infractions at these events. I have even tried tallying how many DPCs became effective game losses until I realized it was most of them anyway. 9/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

This fix alone would have turned all 4 DPCs I faced into games with no handicap. Any potential advantage is completely nullified, depending exclusively on the skill of the opponent to make the right choice on which card is best to remove. 8/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

For example, if you overdrew, your opponent would look at your hand, pick a card, and you shuffle it back in the random portion of the deck (keeping any Iono or Drakloak order intact). If you look at 9 cards with a Pokegear, the opponent chooses 2 from the 9. 7/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

For drawing or looking at extra cards, every other competitive card game currently uses a fix invented over a decade ago: the opponent gets to choose which card out of the set goes back into the random portion of the deck. 6/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

Second, it uses an element unrelated to the infraction (prize cards needed to win) to mitigate potential advantage acquired (access to information or cards). Our current fixes use randomness to fix the game state, leaving it potentially more broken than it was. 5/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

As a judge, I have been trying to voice my concern about the penalty for years. First, it is either a game loss with extra steps or does nothing, which makes it incredibly inconsistent in effectiveness, especially for decks where prizes are not win conditions. 4/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

In both scenarios where I made a mistake that resulted in a DPC, it was game 3 and I was rushing, pressed for time. In order to effectively play three games, I had to either play suboptimally or eventually make mistakes, and twice the latter happened. 3/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

I had a total of 4 DPC rulings in my games: 2 in my favor and 2 against. I feel like both in my favor did not do much as my opponents never got to 2 prizes in those games, but the 2 against me were effectively game losses where I would have won otherwise. 2/13

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

91/1433 in Curitiba. 8-4-1. One of my losses and my tie were me screwing up and getting DPC penalties. Wouldn't change anything and would recommend the list for Houston/Seville. 80 points towards my Ace Trainer because this is the only major I'm playing this season... probably.

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

@Dreamjew @JesperKEriksen @Kozart_25 well you to be fair with jespy the ego has always been up there in the past 6 years.

[Lucas Horta @in5ano]

@steff5001 GOODS