zzeris
King Turd of Shit Hill
- 19,950
- 81,569
MTG: Arena
- Thread starter Vaclav
- Start date
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Guest, did you like the last podcast notification?? Well here's the second one, and for the third podcast! Yep. This Thursday 8-8-24 at 7pm Central
Go here to check out his podcast thread for info on topics and links!Go into the FoH discord and find the Happy Time Fun Hour channel and give it a listen!
Chimney
Trakanon Raider
- 1,657
- 1,173
I finally just sold all of my value paper cards and now I have 40 pauper esque decks in the standard format from XLN->GRN that I play with friends on paper which is enjoyable since there isn't any turn 4 kills and lets new players experience the game without being super overwhelmed.
Haven't felt the need to do a FNM or anything else ever since and I probably play more paper now than I ever did since I have people that actually want to play when we get bored of board games.
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Tmac
Adventurer
- 9,929
- 16,828
Mist
REEEEeyore
- 31,086
- 23,420
yimmien
Molten Core Raider
- 877
- 669
So this is blatantly stolen from reddit but I thought it was too good to end up buried halfway down a random post.
It started off innocently enough. After a night of playing white weenies at your local FNM you were cleaning up and talking shop with some of the other players. Someone asked how you did and you told them you did worse than you'd like and it just felt like your deck was missing something. A couple people offered suggestions and then a player you haven't ever really talked to before smiled and put a card face down in front of you. You turned it over and it was a Deputy of Detention. Then they asked you a question. You didn't think much of it at the time but months later when you had hit rock bottom you would think back to that moment and how those five words ruined your life. "Have you ever splashed blue?"
You're not a dummy. You've been around a block or two (which means you've at least been around since they were called blocks). You have seen people go down that road before. But you're smarter than that, you thought.
You told yourself it's just a splash. Just until the next set comes out. Maybe until the next roatation, tops.
But then one day while you were getting ready to head to your FLGS your partner found the Dovin Baan in your sideboard. You told them it wasn't a big deal. They asked if you were thinking about casting any other white blue planeswalkers. You told them not to be ridiculous. The Dovin Baan was just in case you needed it. You lied and said you had only even sided it in once. The bigger lie was when you told your partner you hadn't liked how playing it felt.
A week later your partner walked in on you using your last wild cards to craft a playset of Search for Azcanta. They asked if they should be worried. You said, "No, I've got it under control."
They said, "That's exactly what I'm afraid of." You told them you chose your words poorly but that everything was fine. You promised that if you ever needed help you would go to them. And when you found yourself main decking Teferi a week later you almost did ask for help. Almost.
Eventually you woke to find your partner had left in the middle of the night. Their key was on your desk taped to a piece of paper. There was no note, just a screen shot of a post from /r/MagicArena of a player complaining about their opponent looping Nexus of Fate for hours with no win condition. Tears were already rolling down your face when you saw your username on the screen shot.
You're not a dummy. You've been around a block or two (which means you've at least been around since they were called blocks). You have seen people go down that road before. But you're smarter than that, you thought.
You told yourself it's just a splash. Just until the next set comes out. Maybe until the next roatation, tops.
But then one day while you were getting ready to head to your FLGS your partner found the Dovin Baan in your sideboard. You told them it wasn't a big deal. They asked if you were thinking about casting any other white blue planeswalkers. You told them not to be ridiculous. The Dovin Baan was just in case you needed it. You lied and said you had only even sided it in once. The bigger lie was when you told your partner you hadn't liked how playing it felt.
A week later your partner walked in on you using your last wild cards to craft a playset of Search for Azcanta. They asked if they should be worried. You said, "No, I've got it under control."
They said, "That's exactly what I'm afraid of." You told them you chose your words poorly but that everything was fine. You promised that if you ever needed help you would go to them. And when you found yourself main decking Teferi a week later you almost did ask for help. Almost.
Eventually you woke to find your partner had left in the middle of the night. Their key was on your desk taped to a piece of paper. There was no note, just a screen shot of a post from /r/MagicArena of a player complaining about their opponent looping Nexus of Fate for hours with no win condition. Tears were already rolling down your face when you saw your username on the screen shot.
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Enzee
Trakanon Raider
- 2,197
- 715
uhh, what do you link you're linking? It's a list of people selling accounts, so? I wasn't bragging about how long I've been in, I got in after the large release of invites to closed beta, a week after a few people on here posted about getting in. It wasn't super exclusive by that point. I was just saying I've been seeing this same argument on the beta forums and now everywhere else for 6+ months. That it's cheaper than paper, so therefore it's fine. But, paper magic isn't arena's competitor. If all they want to do is pull from existing paper players, then yes, there was never anything wrong with their pricing models. But, that's just going to shoot themselves in the foot long term. They have to be competitive with other digital ccgs.
And yes, I have been in the beta since then, when it was just merfolk decks everywhere because they were strong and finished games fast. The only other viable decks were all tribal, with vampires and dinos being decent. There was no draft, no events, nothing but spamming ranked bo1 games all day. Once you logged in and got your daily/weekly rewards, it got boring real fast, and I hardly played past collecting rewards till they added more stuff.
Enzee
Trakanon Raider
- 2,197
- 715
Seriously though, from an experienced magic player's perspective, arena might seem reasonable. From my own personal experience, I've not had trouble building a big enough collection for cheap. However, by design, only a small portion of the playerbase can ever be good enough to win enough for that to be true. All the noobs and scrubs are the ones keeping the game healthy, and it's their experience that's the most important. If they feel they aren't making progress in building decks without paying hundreds of dollars, they will just leave. Don't get me wrong, what we have now is definitely better than what it was previously, and many of us argued for months on the beta forums to help get it there. Take away the new 5th copy rule, the guaranteed wildcard counter, half the total rare/mythic WCs, and the free pre-con rares (especially lands).. and thats where it would have been if wotc had their way. They originally intended for draft to be a gem only thing, not just for 'traditional bo3' but also for the bo1, but quickly walked that idea back.
I still think they should have a way to trade your wildcards up/down in some way.. like 50 common wcs for 1 rare, and to increase the player's agency in choosing the specific rares they get in some way. Mythics aren't even the bottleneck, it's rares. At one point in beta, when they went back and released Kaladesh block.. they gave us 1 of every card in the sets, and playsets of the bigger cards, just so people could have the cards to test them without grinding for weeks/months. While doing that for every set is overly generous, even by my standards, that was the most fun I had in arena, during that time. I could make a reasonable version of most of the top decks, and grind for any specific cards I was missing. If they gave 1 of each rare in older blocks when a new player starts an account.. that would be a huge step. example: you make a new account today, you buy the welcome bundle and it comes with 1 of every c/uc/r in ixalan block, dom, core19 and maybe GRN.. but not the newest set. Welcome bundles are always a 'loss leader' type of product, it's not meant to make a profit for the company, but to get new players comfortable with putting in payment info and actually buying something. Giving that new guy a reasonable card pool to choose from, various cards to try out that they then want more of, would be huge for player involvement and enjoyment.
Caliane
Avatar of War Slayer
- 15,230
- 11,376
mono-U is very competitive. and cheap as heck.
Mono-Blue Tempo by max_9 Deck
Mono-Blue Tempo by fil2hot Deck
Arena is just expensive if you are trying to create MANY DIFFERENT viable decks.
I'm f2p, except the 5$ deal, which I still havent even spent the gems. I have 13 common, 19 uncommon, 18 rare, and 10 mythic rare WC atm.
I could pick pretty much any ONE singular top ranked deck and craft it, If I wanted. But that would burn my WC, and push me further away from being able to craft a second, or third. but to suggest you can't be competitive at all is silly.
Drafting is also still a thing as well... Play drafts for a totally even playing field.
Mono-Blue Tempo by max_9 Deck
Mono-Blue Tempo by fil2hot Deck
Arena is just expensive if you are trying to create MANY DIFFERENT viable decks.
I'm f2p, except the 5$ deal, which I still havent even spent the gems. I have 13 common, 19 uncommon, 18 rare, and 10 mythic rare WC atm.
I could pick pretty much any ONE singular top ranked deck and craft it, If I wanted. But that would burn my WC, and push me further away from being able to craft a second, or third. but to suggest you can't be competitive at all is silly.
Drafting is also still a thing as well... Play drafts for a totally even playing field.
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Kiroy
Marine Biologist
- 35,209
- 101,959
Delly
Trakanon Raider
- 2,995
- 634
Kiroy
Marine Biologist
- 35,209
- 101,959
Caliane
Avatar of War Slayer
- 15,230
- 11,376
drakes is a tough match for mono-u. if do dont have all your counters ready to go. ouch.
Especially most who do not run 2 or more ess capture, and sin sabotage like I do.
Also, started running deep freeze. I think was a huge add to the deck today.
mono-u had no answer to niv at all. deep freeze however... brutal. ended up throwing that shit, at many previously deadly targets today. a mirror match shut down that curious herald, a seraph of the scales #4 that made it past the first 3 being countered..., shut down that wildgrowth walker.
But yeah, was looking at a solid looking pteramander drakes as well.
Especially most who do not run 2 or more ess capture, and sin sabotage like I do.
Also, started running deep freeze. I think was a huge add to the deck today.
mono-u had no answer to niv at all. deep freeze however... brutal. ended up throwing that shit, at many previously deadly targets today. a mirror match shut down that curious herald, a seraph of the scales #4 that made it past the first 3 being countered..., shut down that wildgrowth walker.
But yeah, was looking at a solid looking pteramander drakes as well.
Siddar
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 6,456
- 6,003
I quit magic to go play everquest back in 2000 because it was clear that magic was pay to win, even before that term was invented. You guys have lost perspective on what pay to win even means. If you don't think magic is pay to win truth magic can be considered as have invented the pay to win model.
That being said there are mono colored decks that are affordable.
Also must be noted that Tmac has a point on acquiring new set being very hard on players who don't want to spend money. I spent twenty buck on new expansions thats the amount I'm willing spend on a video game monthly and it left me feeling a bit left out when it come to new expansion. Going by past experience that feeling will vanish very soon as month tick down until my next cash infusion on MTGA. I have no doubt ill be back opening older expansion packs by end of second month just like I was last expansion.
The first month of new expansion is hard and ill probably bring more purchases forward to offset that negative while reducing late expansion purchase to keep my dolphin status clean.
Really through magic is a play to win game and has been sense the beginning.
That being said there are mono colored decks that are affordable.
Also must be noted that Tmac has a point on acquiring new set being very hard on players who don't want to spend money. I spent twenty buck on new expansions thats the amount I'm willing spend on a video game monthly and it left me feeling a bit left out when it come to new expansion. Going by past experience that feeling will vanish very soon as month tick down until my next cash infusion on MTGA. I have no doubt ill be back opening older expansion packs by end of second month just like I was last expansion.
The first month of new expansion is hard and ill probably bring more purchases forward to offset that negative while reducing late expansion purchase to keep my dolphin status clean.
Really through magic is a play to win game and has been sense the beginning.
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Kiroy
Marine Biologist
- 35,209
- 101,959
everyone said these e-cards games are all pay to win, this is just one of the more generous ones where you could compete with fairly minimal to no investment
what the fuck are you talking about
the fact that you are even using terms like "acquiring new set" points to you not knowing what the fuck you're even talking about
Siddar
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 6,456
- 6,003
Sterling
El Presidente
- 13,089
- 8,063
This and MTGO are very cheap/freeroll if you're good at the game. The top 10 percent or whatever it works out to basically get supported by everyone else, and if you're in the bottom 25 percent or so it's always going to be kind of brutal in games like this. With the dailies and prerelease codes and all that shit though even being mediocre at Magic seems like you can do this relatively cheap compared to other games in the genre.