Magic the Gathering Arena

[Kjaska]

I like the conjuring a lot, since it lets me squeeze more jank into my pile.

 

[anvi]

jk lol

 

[Kjaska]

The client made me chuckle today:

Just imagine them actually caring. What a game we would have on our hands by now. I can't.

If they are losing they 'rope' or afk because the trophy for showing up generation can't even handle the sight of losing.

Yeah, that's why I never play this game by itself and always try to have at least a video going on the 2nd screen or something. I do think this type of game does attract a certain type of player more so than others. The "evil weakling" I call it. The type of person who for some reason or another can't dominate others in real life but desperately wants to.

 

[Dr1f7]

The typical lifeform that plays this game is really so disgusting I just want them all to die. Although I suspect it's not the game but just the planet nowadays. If they are losing they 'rope' or afk because the trophy for showing up generation can't even handle the sight of losing. Cunts. And it's rare but today I saw someone who was just about to beat me, and rage quit because I used a spell on the LAST turn that butthurt him so much, he played a creature after it and forgot I was on about 4 fucking life. And quit anyway out of instinct even though he would have beat me 10 seconds later. I really think the human race just needs to end. Every time I stupidly play this game it reminds me of that fact.

i'd also bet that at least 8/10 mtga players don't even really like the game, they're just addicted to their daily login bullshit and seeing the "you win" screen

 

[anvi]

All those golds and shinies flying around. Preciousss.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Got a kickass card :

 

[The Limper]

Seeing Meathook Massacre leave standard is funny. A bit too late.

Gotta say though, as the game evolved over the years, i truly hate how they do ‘the stack’ rules. Reminds of when we were kids playing a new board game and since the rule system was vague, you argue over it to you come up withba completely new set of rules that are not logical.

 

[anvi]

jk lol

 

[anvi]

That shitty pilferer deck with Staggering Insight I made a much better version of that ages ago. It was insane to have a creature or two with a couple of those enchants in play. Especially on a creature with flying or unblockable. Every turn you attack and draw a card but also lifesteal so you get 4 life per turn or whatever from that. It ruins any opponent that hoped to burn you down fast because before they know it you have 30+ life and a full hand on turn 5. The problem is the whole deck relies on multiple things working together. So all it takes is one nuke or counterspell to kill the creature and then you have a hand full of enchants with nothing to use them on. You can't draw anything, and you are fucked. So it's a shit deck with a bad win rate because it's easy to break and it only has one way of winning too and it has no answers to anything except hoping to be able to counterspell everything. And yet that shit can win so easily if the opening hand is just right and the opponent's one or two removal spells get countered.

So I get to lose to a deck I know is shit and yeah it doesn't matter because if I win 60%+ then it doesn't matter who you lose to as long as you win more and progress. But it's still shit to lose to shit decks especially when you have a hand full of cards to answer their shit but you don't get to use it either because they got to go first and play stuff before you have land or because they counter your first few cards and then the game is over. Either way it sucks.

What pisses me off the most about this game is the algorithm though. I always knew it was glorified rock paper scissors but there were so many different types not just 3. It meant it so that if I built a deck that was good enough to beat that particular 'meta', then it was really fun. But the algorithm fucks everything because it pairs you against opponents that are anti your deck. It either stupidly thinks that would make a good game, and/or what I think happens which is that you get 2 wins in a row and then it pairs against someone designed to beat you. Then if you lose a few if pairs you against someone you can beat easily. But to me this ruins the entire fucking game. Because it means there is no meta anymore. I play my mid range deck and 99% of my opponents are mf white lifegain creatures deck or the red equivalent. Both fuck me in 3 or 4 turns unless you have board wipes. So then I make a new deck that has 8 board wipes and I get opponents with no creatures. Then I make a deck that uses mostly planeswalkers and the awesome Elspeth Conquers Death, and my first opponent has a fucking Solemnity deck which I've only seen in about 0.000000000000001% of matches before or since.

Again, I think this game is retarded because all the men have died/retired and now everyone in business today is a malformed Ken-doll excuse for a human.

 

[Dadd]

I don't know much about zoomer formats but in my opinion the planeswalker card type and incremental value generating low cost creatures and other permanents with no downsides other than -1 card in hand and a small amount of mana should be deleted from the card pool and we can start the clean up process from there. Holding cards in hand and bluffing should be encouraged - it's a card game, and you are a wizard - not dumping your whole hand and library and graveyard on the table and turning dumbass creatures sideways and taking 10 minute turns like a board game with cards. Powerful permanents should be difficult to work with because the inherent advantage of permanents in giving reliable value turn after turn is already so strong in a game where randomness is a fundamental aspect. Simply printing 1 for 1 answers or narrow hosers is not the answer because those cards usually do not advance the game for the player who would need those cards, unlike these permanents that generate value every turn.

Another point by Richard Garfield, which clearly shows why new cards with too many features, like most planeswalkers, are unsatisfying to use:

For example, one thing that comes up often is that there’s a mechanic that they really like, and I think it’s too complicated. It may not by itself seem complicated, but then I explain that game designs have a complexity budget. You can only have a certain amount of complexity and you have to figure whether it’s worth spending. If you figure you have 10 units of complexity budget and somebody wants to add something of one unit, but it only adds a small value to the game, then that’s not going to be as good as somebody who wants to add something that’s even more complex – it adds two units of complexity – but it adds a lot of value to the game. When people begin thinking about it as a budget that they can use up, it makes it easier to understand why a mechanic may not be strong enough.

 

[spectre]

If you hate linear strategies, don't play Bo1. It will and has always been chock-full of those because of the way it's designed.
Play Bo3 and you'll suddenly find yourself in a more strategic game, with people who won't throw tantrums at the first boardwipe into an overcommited board.

 

[lukaszek]

play hbrawl, scoop until you find proper janky enemy

 

[Dr1f7]

i was over this game but then i saw this:

can anyone say HECKIN EPIC?!?

 

[lukaszek]

big change people.
Golden packs are coming to arena.

WHAT'S IN A GOLDEN PACK​

A Golden Pack contains six cards, all of which are rare or mythic rare from a Standard-legal set and have duplicate protection. At least one card will be mythic rare, and each other card has an independent chance of being mythic rare approximately 1 in 8 times. At least two cards will be from the latest Standard-legal set (currently, The Brothers' War).

Golden Packs will not have cards replaced with wildcards and do not affect the odds of packs opened later containing wildcards. However, opening Golden Packs does advance your wildcard tracks.

If you would receive a card but you have four copies of all cards of that rarity from that Standard-legal set, you will instead receive a card from another Standard-legal set. Only when you have four copies of all cards of that rarity from each set in Standard will cards be replaced by gems.

HOW TO GET GOLDEN PACKS​

Each The Brothers' War pack purchased from the MTG Arena Store progresses your Golden Pack meter one step. The meter does not advance when packs are acquired through means other than pack purchases. When all ten steps of the meter are filled, it resets and a Golden Pack is added to your collection, which you can open on the Packs scene.

If you purchase a pack bundle that contains more packs than steps left in your Golden Pack meter, it will continue to progress after it has reset with the remaining number of packs in the bundle. For instance, if you have five steps already filled on your meter and you buy a bundle containing ten The Brothers' War packs, your Golden Pack meter will fill, reset, and then fill five more steps.

tl;dr; you get like 60% increase in rares from packs buying. Not sure how I feel about it (yet) when comparing to rare drafting and jumpstart.
So far my not very involved beg drafting + jump in was resulting in me missing like 5 rares per set. As in 1 copy of each, only metric I care about since I only do h brawl.
Anyway I do own 20k gems, can just buy 50packs from store as an experiment.

 

[spectre]

Looks like they want to get people to buy packs, which was the least efficient way to build your collection.
I'd say, about time, because buying packs in bulk never felt worth it.
In the end, if it makes it easier to get that elusive 100% set completion, especially with duplicate protection, so much the better.

Though it's hard to say without pricing and how many Sasha vs. Misha packs you need to buy to get one.

 

[lukaszek]

might be good for me. Lately I couldnt get myself to play enough draft to reach even gold rank. If not for jump start affiction Id be swiming in money. I can see myself shifting more towards pack buying. It would certainly result in gaining more wc. Not that I need them but can always start doing something stupid, like owning 1 of everything

 

[anvi]

I have about 300,000 gold that I could spend on packs but each one needs clicking individually because this game is run by morons.

 

[Dr1f7]

i just realized they're making like 4 phyrexia themed sets in a row then following up with a dinosaur set so I guess I'm sucked back in for a year or two...
they can jerk themselves off over economy changes all they want tho i've lost hope and stopped giving a fuck, all they ever see is "how do we post 10% increased year-on-year revenue for our overlords", and their solution is always gouging their dwindling playerbase it's all crap

 

[Dr1f7]

I have about 300,000 gold that I could spend on packs but each one needs clicking individually because this game is run by morons.

damn that's a lot of free drafts

 

[lukaszek]

oh and next set is another with mystic archive thing, making it worth it to spend more resources than usual on beg drafting/packs buying.
Suddenly jump in appears to be a bit worse...

 

[anvi]

They banned my game account for insulting them.

 

[spectre]

Congratulations. This is how you win at Tragic the Garnering.
What did you do? Go "good game" "nice" "your go" on an orange guy?

 

[anvi]

They do that too? Lol. No I tried politely criticizing them on reddit but they banned me on there. So I tried emailing them thinking they might see I've paid money in the past, but they said they can't take feedback by email and it needs to be sent to a special feedback website they have with upvotes and downvotes just like reddit... I got an error when trying to register there so had to find cookies for that site and delete them before I could register. With that fourth and final hurdle jumped I as a paying customer could finally tell them what a bunch of total fucks they have become. I just split what their game is into several parts and explained how they are doing a terrible job at all of those parts and insulted them as much as possible without clouding the overall point of the message. It was received as I expected.

 

[The Limper]

I have about 300,000 gold that I could spend on packs but each one needs clicking individually because this game is run by morons.

They finally fixed that feature with buying packs in groups and opening in groups. Only took several years to fox the obvious… hilarious!

 

[spectre]

For those who care, a one-off gold for gems trade is up today at the store.