> ok, true story, my bro was elimmed from the tournament last night (he is going to be mad when i tell him). i am not going to mention the player he was up against, but he had one really levelled up monster and two weak ones. my brother put two of his best against his opponent's best. the opponent, though, before the battle, changes the equipment around so his best guy isnt the one it originally was.
>
> so my poll question: do you think that this is a move of good strategy, or do you think it is quite unfair?

Both. The effectiveness of the "shell game" strategy was discovered within the first couple of days after Monster Arena opened, and a lot of people have been using it ever since. It was even more of a problem in last month's tournament than it is this time around.

It's a fair use of the game rules, but it does take a lot of the skill out of the game and replace it with sheer luck, which isn't as much fun IMO. I've been trying to play a balanced game, and when you do that, it's hard to beat an opposing "shell game" tactic.

Monster Arena is still quite new, and Sam's aware of these gameplay issues, so he may come up with even more ways to reward balanced teams in future games. We'll have to wait and see.

Iss "shell-out" achar