Mtg arena open beta

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me_in_japan
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by me_in_japan » Sun Jul 04, 2021 3:18 pm

Here's an interesting thing: What would cards look like if they could be rebalanced?

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... ne-30-2021

Honestly, I like the concept, but I think this is about as far as it should go. I'm kind of against actual rebalancing of cards, given the horrible disconnect itd cause between paper and arena (and even magic online, I guess). But anyway, it's a kind of interesting thing.

In other news, Pioneer is dead*, and apparently historic brawl is now a thing, although I've yet to test this.

How's the ol' card slinging been for you? I'll confess I'm playing much, much less than before, and have only managed gold this last season. I've tried the new-ish jeskai control deck in historic, and am quite liking it. Mostly because it poops all over phoenix decks, which after the amount of grief theyve given me, is most gratifying. What are you playing these days?

**shrug*
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by Primarch » Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:36 pm

I don't know about you, but I'm still suffering from PTED (Post Traumatic Elk Disorder). :lol: The re-balanced cards event could be okay, but I would really prefer it if WotC could get these things right before printing the cards, not a year afterwards.

No Pioneer Masters eh? I'm not really surprised. If they released all the best cards for Pioneer, they wouldn't be able to sell many 'new' historic sets. As it stands, I rarely see more than 1 or 2 cards from Amonkhet or Kaladesh these days. I'm quite happy supporting Historic as long as they keep adding to it every year. I don't really need 200 format defining cards dropped into the pool in one go.

I've been muddling by with my usual jank. Leyline of the Void seems to take care of those pesky Phoenix decks quite nicely. I'm mainly struggling against Angels and Muxus decks in BO1. I tried putting together a few new decks, but they all need tuning. I'm shocked to hear that you have been running a control deck. I never would have imagined it. :roll:

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but one of the teachers at the JHS I'm at is a Magic player. He used to play in tournaments a lot, but now mainly plays Commander and Legacy. He is sometimes on Arena as well, though usually at different times from me.
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by Primarch » Fri Jul 30, 2021 6:21 am

New State of the Game:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-07-29

Quite a lot to unpack with this one.

-100 card historic brawl, finally! It's still not really Commander, but it's nearly there. Hopefully enough people play it to keep it as a permanent queue.

-Massive update coming on August 10th. Given how well they've managed previous small updates, I'm expecting the worst for the first few days. Games not loading, animations causing crashes, Windows switching into Phyrexian. It's all possible.

-Split season due to the massive update. As I will be nowhere near any ranked level that matters, this bothers me not one bit. I guess some high ranked people may find it annoying though.

-Renewal season is nigh. Another chance for the devs to royally screw the pooch as far as stability is concerned, but it's always nice to get the freebies. As I don't pay any attention to Standard, this doesn't bother me either. My co-worker who plays is not a fan of Eldraine in Standard, so he'll be happy to see it go I guess.

-Jumpstart: Historic Horizons! I loved Jumpstart last year (Sick to death of Muxus in Historic though), so a new Jumpstart set is awesome news. The fact that it's bringing several hundred new cards to Arena is also fantastic. I'm really happy with the tweaks that have been announced too:
The Pack Pool will try to offer packs you haven't had before.
The 'reprints' of Arena cards will be the same as the Arena version. So no more duplicating of cards I already own. (Hopefully with Vault/Gem protection, though I didn't see this mentioned specifically).
Automatic mana fixing lands added to your packs. I didn't mind the optional dual coloured lands before, but they were a but clunky if you were in a single colour.

... And then their is the Loxodon in the room. Arena only cards with Arena only mechanics. I'm pretty sure parts of the fanbase will be marching on WotC headquarters with torches and pitchforks as I type, but I'm okay with the idea personally. They only work for Historic, a format that isn't officially played in paper Magic. They make good use of the fact that a computer is running the game and you don't need to track multiple things throughout the game yourself. And finally, it's not like you'll ever have an Arena Vs. Paper match-up where one player can get an advantage anyway. :D
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by me_in_japan » Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:05 am

indeed, indeed.

I was going to post about this but you beat me to the punch. So, my thinky thoughts...

-100 card historic brawl
YAY! Unmitigated YAY!

-Massive update coming on August 10th
meh?

-Split season due to the massive update
Meh?

-Renewal season is nigh
Meh?

-Jumpstart: Historic Horizons!
YAY! Although, there go my wildcards. And gold, which I dont have so much of these days, thanks to not playing so much. Hmmn. Mostly Yay?

-Jumpstart: Historic Horizons! The details.
Again, yay.

-The Loxodon in the room.
hmmn? I guess? I mean, I don't agree with all the sky-is-falling sayers, as Historic was never going to be a tabletop format. We have modern for that kind of thing, and the plop that was Pioneer disappearing into the ether pretty much sums up the player base's response to new paper formats. I'm a tiny bit concerned about the game-ification of MtG, insofar as stuff that can only be done on a computer smells of computer games? But I suspect that just my inner grumpy old man speaking. We'll see how it goes. I do like the art on that new Davriel card. Also, yay! Mulldrifter! It's going to be merry hell playing control decks for the first few weeks/months though, until the meta settles down...
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by Primarch » Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:39 am

me_in_japan wrote:
Fri Jul 30, 2021 10:05 am
It's going to be merry hell playing control decks for the first few weeks/months though...
Yay! :lol:

Hopefully we get a load of cards that facilitate a variety of fun decks and combos and not the obnoxiousness that is Muxus or Craterhoof. (being well aware that control is great against both cards).
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by me_in_japan » Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:32 am

Whoopsie, I guess? But fair play to them for owning their mistake and offering freebies to make up for it. 3 premier drafts ain’t nothin’.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... sDWx7aU-L0
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by Primarch » Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:29 am

me_in_japan wrote:
Tue Aug 10, 2021 1:32 am
Whoopsie, I guess? But fair play to them for owning their mistake and offering freebies to make up for it. 3 premier drafts ain’t nothin’.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... sDWx7aU-L0
And they even announced everything in advance instead of waiting for the whole thing to crash and irritate the player base. While I am excited for J:HH, I'm quite happy to wait for it as I can save up more gold. :D

The three free drafts is awesome news. I can use more cards for Amonkhet & Kaladesh, and the free gems/vault progress from Ikoria will be nice too I guess. :lol:

I think this kind of behaviour from WotC is what they should have been doing all along. Problems should be addressed pro-actively and the players should be kept informed and treated fairly.
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by Primarch » Wed Aug 18, 2021 1:15 am

Well, I managed 7-2 on Amonkhet and 3-3 on Kaladesh, so I'm pretty happy with those results. :D Loads of free gems and some free packs, just because WotC had a scheduling problem.

I see online that someone managed to get a copyright on a deck that they built. Link. It looks like the guy behind it has no serious intention of doing anything with it, he just wanted to see if it could be done. Could this mean the end of net-decks? Probably not, but one can dream. :lol:
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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by me_in_japan » Wed Aug 18, 2021 3:30 pm

I was almost the reverse of you - my Amonkhet draft was poop (I dont recall exactly how poop, but it was definitely at the poopy end of things.) My kaladesh went 6-3, which I'll take, especially since the last game was just a kind of shrug-and-say-"eh" kind of game* . But a fun draft, and as you say, all free, so no complaints here.

and re. netdeck guy - yeah, I saw that. He's just making a point, so far as I can see. Pretty meaningless so far as magic as a whole is concerned. I have no problem with netdecking, meself. Having done it many times, I can defo confirm that copying a deck and actually learning to play said deck well enough to win are entirely different animals, especially when it comes to the control decks I favour.

Incidentally, Arena hates me today. I've started (I hesitate to say "play" given how short some matches were) 6 games this evening. In Every.Single.One I got colour screwed. I only need 2 colours. It ain't hard. But noooooo, I get all the islands or all the mountains. And in one extreme case, ghost quarter, reliquary tower and field of ruin in my opening hand. Twas pretty grim...

*OK, so the last game was: It's the end of turn 4, and I have a 2/2 double striker in play, with 11 HP, and he has 4 land on an otherwise empty board and 6 or 7 HP, with 2 cards in hand. Things look good. Go his turn. He draws, plays a 1/1 with haste, steals my double striker, and plays a +3/+3 pump spell on it. Swing for the win.

*shrug* mmkay. Sometimes yer just screwed, I guess?
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Wow. And then Corona happened. Just....crickets, all the way through to 2023...

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Re: Mtg arena open beta

Post by Primarch » Wed Aug 18, 2021 9:39 pm

Yeah, I've had days like that.
It's not a full colour screw unless you have all colour A mana and colour B spells, then you mulligan into colour B mana and colour A spells. :lol:
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