I am of the firm belief that if you are playing Paradox Engine, you are responsible for being able to manage your turn post play efficiently and quickly. Now, there is only so much you can do in this case because yes, the trigger itself can take a minute to resolve. Let me use my own deck as an example.
The biggest complaint I ever see with Paradox Engine comes from two points. 1 - The player takes too long to resolve their turn and 2 - the amount of pointless triggers people will abuse with Paradox Engine. As someone who plays this card, this is how I manage both these complaints. The first thing I did is I will ignore any cards on the field that do not help me reach my end game goal. Sure, I could use Paradox Engine to abuse a trigger or two, but I won't. It cuts off a lot of wasted time. Second, I use a D20 or Notepad to track how much non-land mana I can make and will update it as I roll through the triggers. This way I do not have to keep counting how much mana I am getting. Additionally, I will keep my board grouped accordingly to what is being used in tangent with the Engine. This leaves notable targets clear and easy to identify for anyone wanting to interact with combo pieces. I am not going to hide what the deck intends to do or the key cards.
Most of all, I will warn the players I am playing with in advance if the card is in my deck and what it aims to do. This way, even if everyone agrees, they know what to look out for or expect.
Over time, my play group has grown from hating this card to actually enjoying the card quite a bit. We all know the card is coming and everyone tries their best to slow it down or beat the race, but when it hits the field and goes off, we get a kick out of watching the board state grow. The other thing I have learned with playing this card is that I do not play the deck often. Once or twice a month at best. And if I can, I will try to play a different deck with a different win con. It keeps the games refreshing and it keeps us from falling into that dread lock of "OMG, I know what is coming, just end me already."
With cards like Paradox Engine, you HAVE to be a responsible player, manage your board, and make your turn go as quickly as you can for the sake of the table if you play this. I personally have a limit to how many times I will use the trigger on the Engine. There have been games where despite the triggers, I am just not hitting the win stride and in those cases, rather than pushing the turn further, I will cap my trigger on the engine between 10 - 15 triggers. Sometimes a little less than 10. Typically, this isn't necessary and playing Paradox Engine is just gg.
The other thing I make note of is that I will not abuse my win condition. My favorite example of this is my MG Elf Deck lead my Renegade Leader. I have a hard cap on his ability too. (20 triggers). Most of the time with him I will only buff my elves to be 10 damage higher than the highest player health among my opponents and then go for the swing. I won't sit around and abuse Paradox Engine to endlessly draw and play cards for an unnecessary load of triggers on Ezuri. The only time I have to concern myself with additional triggers is if a player in the group has a possible answer to what I am doing or the damage being dealt in which additional triggers are necessary for me to win the game. Which, is also why with this deck I will always leave all my mana dorks untapped with the last trigger I use on Paradox Engine.
For what it is worth, I understand why people are opposed to Paradox Engine. It is a busted card. But I think the biggest reason I see people get annoyed with it is not because of the card itself but is often how it is used. The biggest complaint I hear from people is that players will just take forever to micro manage their board or they keep triggering cards that do nothing to the game state or their win condition. I do my best to avoid a lot of these situations so I don't waste time in a game. Its allowed my fellow players to enjoy the fruits of the cards labor more. Enough that we all have a once a month game where all of us play a paradox engine deck and race each-other for our combos.
James_C#88040
Okay, so I am going to play devils advocate here.
I am of the firm belief that if you are playing Paradox Engine, you are responsible for being able to manage your turn post play efficiently and quickly. Now, there is only so much you can do in this case because yes, the trigger itself can take a minute to resolve. Let me use my own deck as an example.
The biggest complaint I ever see with Paradox Engine comes from two points. 1 - The player takes too long to resolve their turn and 2 - the amount of pointless triggers people will abuse with Paradox Engine. As someone who plays this card, this is how I manage both these complaints. The first thing I did is I will ignore any cards on the field that do not help me reach my end game goal. Sure, I could use Paradox Engine to abuse a trigger or two, but I won't. It cuts off a lot of wasted time. Second, I use a D20 or Notepad to track how much non-land mana I can make and will update it as I roll through the triggers. This way I do not have to keep counting how much mana I am getting. Additionally, I will keep my board grouped accordingly to what is being used in tangent with the Engine. This leaves notable targets clear and easy to identify for anyone wanting to interact with combo pieces. I am not going to hide what the deck intends to do or the key cards.
Most of all, I will warn the players I am playing with in advance if the card is in my deck and what it aims to do. This way, even if everyone agrees, they know what to look out for or expect.
Over time, my play group has grown from hating this card to actually enjoying the card quite a bit. We all know the card is coming and everyone tries their best to slow it down or beat the race, but when it hits the field and goes off, we get a kick out of watching the board state grow. The other thing I have learned with playing this card is that I do not play the deck often. Once or twice a month at best. And if I can, I will try to play a different deck with a different win con. It keeps the games refreshing and it keeps us from falling into that dread lock of "OMG, I know what is coming, just end me already."
With cards like Paradox Engine, you HAVE to be a responsible player, manage your board, and make your turn go as quickly as you can for the sake of the table if you play this. I personally have a limit to how many times I will use the trigger on the Engine. There have been games where despite the triggers, I am just not hitting the win stride and in those cases, rather than pushing the turn further, I will cap my trigger on the engine between 10 - 15 triggers. Sometimes a little less than 10. Typically, this isn't necessary and playing Paradox Engine is just gg.
The other thing I make note of is that I will not abuse my win condition. My favorite example of this is my MG Elf Deck lead my Renegade Leader. I have a hard cap on his ability too. (20 triggers). Most of the time with him I will only buff my elves to be 10 damage higher than the highest player health among my opponents and then go for the swing. I won't sit around and abuse Paradox Engine to endlessly draw and play cards for an unnecessary load of triggers on Ezuri. The only time I have to concern myself with additional triggers is if a player in the group has a possible answer to what I am doing or the damage being dealt in which additional triggers are necessary for me to win the game. Which, is also why with this deck I will always leave all my mana dorks untapped with the last trigger I use on Paradox Engine.
For what it is worth, I understand why people are opposed to Paradox Engine. It is a busted card. But I think the biggest reason I see people get annoyed with it is not because of the card itself but is often how it is used. The biggest complaint I hear from people is that players will just take forever to micro manage their board or they keep triggering cards that do nothing to the game state or their win condition. I do my best to avoid a lot of these situations so I don't waste time in a game. Its allowed my fellow players to enjoy the fruits of the cards labor more. Enough that we all have a once a month game where all of us play a paradox engine deck and race each-other for our combos.