Are Triple Triad tournament rules unfair?

[Holy-chan]

In a perfect game of Triple Triad, all games end in a draw. Rules spice things up a lot, as players need to understand each rule to play accordingly, and perhaps even alter their deck to accomodate the rule change.

However, in a tournament setting, I believe that skill alone should be factored to determine the top players. Rules like Swap or Roulette can lose you the game before the first player placed a single card on the board. I believe that this is not how a tournament should go. Most rules are fine, such as Ascension, Descension, Reverse, All/Three Open, and even Same/Plus. But the instant a pure random factor is added, the outcome of the game is often determined without player input. Of course, static rules create more draws, which are not necessarily as interesting. But neither are games that are not determined by skill and proper decision making.

Case in point: The first tournament of the new system had Swap as a rule. How often would people have their 5* card taken, and get a 3* card from their opponent? The game is already lost for them before the game has even started (unless the other player blunders immensely).

This week's tournament is double Roulette. I personally had a rather unfortunate occurance of ending up with the Reverse rule against an opponent who was starting out and had 1* cards. Needless to say, I lost the game. I never had a chance. (Good for them though - I know it sucks doing tournaments with a low tier deck.) The game *right* after, there was a Swap rule, and my 5* card was taken and I got a 3* card in return. It is frustrating, and I'm sure most players that participate in these tournaments have experienced this.

Situations like these happen to everyone based on luck (or lack thereof), so one could argue that it balances out. But I personally believe that rulings that involve randomization should simply not be a thing in tournaments. The Random rule appears to be nonexistant in Roulette now, therefore Swap is arguably the worst rule in a tournament setting (and by proxy, getting Swap from a Roulette rule).

Thoughts/Opinions?