Magic the Gathering Arena

[Jason Liang]

It's one of the more popular decks in Pioneer, although that has Ensoul Artifact aka Scissors to power it, as well as Shrapnel Blast.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Thac0]

Digging the Ixalan Draft. Cards not standard legal is no problem if you win that many gems.

Path of mettle has to be my favourite Ixalan card. I had a copy IRL but could never make it work since it is a bad magic card and I didnt heave enough creatures fulfilling its condition to win. Stomping in draft with it is amazing.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Thac0]

mono black in historic is making me happy. Problem is that there are a lot of cards coming up and so little wildcards. By the look of it we will be hit by 2 expansions at the same time, 1 standard and 1 historic? With how historic packs arent discounted, Im thinking for the first time getting some gems to buy bundled packs...

I am pretty sure we will get Jumpstart at a later time that has not been disclosed yet. Also I dont think it will follow the typical exppansion structure.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articl...art-cards-being-replaced-mtg-arena-2020-06-17
We get more infos on the July state of the game, but Jumpstart has very big booster packs with a lot of lands, 12 nonland cards and 8 lands usually, where you are meant to take two boosters and combine them for a finished 40 deck that can be played like limited.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I have to stop being nice and rushing myself in fear the other person is getting bored and saying "HURRY UP, FUCKER" so I can properly read cards.

Namely, the Phyrexian Obliterator. It was a very bad idea to swing into that thing.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

i don't understand how, every time i match against this stupid 'all that glitters' deck, they 1-2-3 curve out with asshole of life bounty, gingerbrutes, two buff enchantments then all that glitters perfectly.

you'd think that if half the fucking deck is enchantments they'd just not draw a creature, not draw their dumb protection boy, flood out, just draw a bunch of enchantments and no creatures or just draw a bunch of creatures and no enchantments but every damn time it's like they start with the perfect combination of bullshit

constructed is so dumb

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I'm almost certain there's some sort of behind the scenes bullshit going down where the game decides you've won too much and will give you mulligan city opening hands and then throw so many fucking lands at you that you feel like you're playing a real estate agent deck.

 

[spectre]

you'd think that if half the fucking deck is enchantments they'd just not draw a creature, not draw their dumb protection boy, flood out, just draw a bunch of enchantments and no creatures or just draw a bunch of creatures and no enchantments but every damn time it's like they start with the perfect combination of bullshit

I've played this deck a lot before the companion rule change. The trick is to figure out the optimal creature count (and realise you probably shouldn't count Arselings as "real" creatures for that purpose).
I've seen a lot of folks play too few critters and had them concede two or three times when I T1 shocked their birdy.
So yeah, it sometimes happens, there are also times where you draw no fucking enchantments. You can tell a decent player because they tend to mulligan aggressively for the optimal hand - 2 critters, 1 Glitter, 1 protection. Especially without the glitter, the deck doesn't really have any bite.

I'm almost certain there's some sort of behind the scenes bullshit going down where the game decides you've won too much and will give you mulligan city opening hands and then throw so many fucking lands at you that you feel like you're playing a real estate agent deck.

Ah yes, the shuffler's capacity to flood never ceases to amaze me. That one time when I tested out an 18 land deck, I think I've hit a 4-5 land draw streak at least a few times (with the chance for mana flood being a whooping 1,9% in this case).
Sometimes you can tell the bloody thing is at it again, say when you typically draw two land hands and suddenly see a three lander in your 20 land aggro, you can bet your ass that more lands are coming. Best just mulligan and reshuffle,
because if you count on the algorithm to "do the right thing" and give you the land you need (or stop giving you lands you don't need)... that's exactly what it's not going to do.

As a side effect of this, I found that it helps if you just accept mana flood as a fact of life in this game. A lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction to cut lands after their first flooding. Instead, focus on giving yourself enough to be able to cast all your shit
and use some contingencies to make use of excess lands. These can be small things that actually fit into your game plan, like Castle Embereth, Phoenix of Ash or Risk Factor in red aggro, Cryptic Caves also work for some arrangements where you're not too hard pressed for colored mana, but I much rather use the cycling lands we get in historic.

 

[spectre]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/statement-regarding-noah-bradley-2020-06-22
At this rate, they'll soon be running out of artists to work with.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/statement-regarding-noah-bradley-2020-06-22
At this rate, they'll soon be running out of artists to work with.

hopefully they hire some black dudes and let them get away with drawing big tit babes

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I can tell that "Kaya" planeswalker is their attempt at DIVERSITY. I know this because she looks distinctly lame as fuck compared to many others which is the telltale sign she was made to be as incl00siv and inoffensive towards the brothas/sistas as possible.

 

[Thac0]

I can tell that "Kaya" planeswalker is their attempt at DIVERSITY. I know this because she looks distinctly lame as fuck compared to many others which is the telltale sign she was made to be as incl00siv and inoffensive towards the brothas/sistas as possible.

Good eye for this shit. She was made by a diversity council with a specific black women specialist or some retardo like that.
https://wizardsmagic.tumblr.com/post/148459722916/if-you-read-yesterdays-magic-story-laid-to-rest

Makes her my least favourite Planeswalker next to T3feri who is just obnoxious from a gameplay perspective. Her powers are completely embellished and bullshit for diversitys sake.
https://www.cardmarket.com/de/Magic/Products/Singles/Ravnica-Allegiance/Kaya-s-Wrath in this card she skill a much better character(s) in the Ghost Council just to have an entry into standard with a bang.
Also she breaks one of the fundamental rules of magic and planeswalkers by being able to planeswalk with another living being in some of their bullshit novels.

You can see that the character was 100% creatied to fit to corporate demand. Soulless and bland.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

hey kaya's cool! I've built whole decks based around otk people with her ulti and it's hilarious

anyway new state of game is out and it's actually pretty damn good:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-game-june-2020-06-23

dupe protection on reprint rares, free brawl forever (not historic tho wtf fuck u wotc i wanna play with dinos ), jumpstart's gonna be a sweet limited format, amontheprhetmotkoekmonthet remaster in august.. actually i think this may be the first 'state of the game' they've ever done that hasn't had anything to really piss people off

 

[spectre]

Well, the only thing I'm pissed about is the list of cards they replaced for MtGA jumpstart.
Sorry, you can't handle the Chad Exhume, here, have the Virgin Bond of Revival you most likely already have.

The way they're dropping it is pretty weird though. No packs available, limited only. From a completionist perspective, limited mostly gives me shit I already have, which means I'll probably have to burn wildcards to get the things that are actually new.
It's like they made an anthology, without the option to buy it all at once.
I'd still want to play limited with this, it also looks to be the only way to get the basic lands from this.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Well, the only thing I'm pissed about is the list of cards they replaced for MtGA jumpstart.
Sorry, you can't handle the Chad Exhume, here, have the Virgin Bond of Revival you most likely already have.

I'm starting to wonder if the reason some of these cards are being replaced is because of "graphic" art. Like, I don't see anything broken with some of these cards but time to feed has a dude being eaten alive and thought scour may be too metal for the game?

I hope that's not the case cuz that'd suck if we have phyrexian or horror shit in the future and they're like "no blood allowed!"

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

You can see that the character was 100% creatied to fit to corporate demand. Soulless and bland.

As an outsider to Magic up until this month a lot of what interested me was the art style you'd see in many of the cards. Kaya though literally looks like someone's mom playing dress-up, exhibits zero cool factor or imagination. Card art like the alternate version of Murderous Rider or Thirsting Shade is what makes you want to include them into a deck somehow, Kaya could have the best cards but her visual is so intensely lame I wouldn't even give a fuck about using them.

I hope they one day introduce into Arena this particular card because the art on it is badass:

Spoiler

Now that makes you wanna create some gatdam zambiez.

 

[Thac0]

anyway new state of game is out and it's actually pretty damn good:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-game-june-2020-06-23

dupe protection on reprint rares, free brawl forever (not historic tho wtf fuck u wotc i wanna play with dinos ), jumpstart's gonna be a sweet limited format, amontheprhetmotkoekmonthet remaster in august.. actually i think this may be the first 'state of the game' they've ever done that hasn't had anything to really piss people off

Was in disbelief reading those patchnotes, first big patch where nothing is in there that smells like greed.
No hidden hook, no stealth nerfs to the economy, just new features which are very much welcome. Could it be Wotc is ... learning?

 

[spectre]

Seems like they found the best solution to their greed problem. Just throw enough product at us that we start seriously considering buying gems just to keep up.
I mean, how else am I going to get all the stuff I need from M21, Jumpstart and Amnkptkphpt?

I'm rather interested on how the remaster will look like. They say its 300 new cards for historic, and the original set should be ~270,
so they either added a bunch of stuff, or glued two sets together, which means we'll be losing a whole bunch of cards in the process.
If it's draft chaff, I don't really mind. Though if its meant to be limited playable, the chaff needs to stay. I don't know what limited was like earlier, I only gotten into it with m20, but it looks like they more or less know what they're doing when designing stuff for it.

I'm starting to wonder if the reason some of these cards are being replaced is because of "graphic" art. Like, I don't see anything broken with some of these cards but time to feed has a dude being eaten alive and thought scour may be too metal for the game? I hope that's not the case cuz that'd suck if we have phyrexian or horror shit in the future and they're like "no blood allowed!"

I really hope you're wrong on this one. Technically, Eldraine had some potentially disturbing pieces, like the eye on a stick from Eye Collector, a bunch of references to cannibalism, or ravens plucking eyes out. Perhaps someone caught whiff of it and they're trying to overcompensate in the other direction? Though yeah, I doubt we'd see a same-art reprint of Ad Nauseam or Surgical Extraction.

 

[Thac0]

I really hope you're wrong on this one. Technically, Eldraine had some potentially disturbing pieces, like the eye on a stick from Eye Collector, a bunch of references to cannibalism, or ravens plucking eyes out. Perhaps someone caught whiff of it and they're trying to overcompensate in the other direction? Though yeah, I doubt we'd see a same-art reprint of Ad Nauseam or Surgical Extraction.

Official reason given is programming difficulties, and I am inclined to believe them. Those cards which have no balance reason to be banned usually do something unusual when it comes to abilities or timing.
I have heard they were on a very short clock when it came to implementing Jumpstart next to the standard set, and when they couldnt fix the bugs on some cards fast enough they just replaced them.

I dont see that the green feed card is banned because it would push the age rating of the game, the most gruesome pieces in the game already are probably Sebs black and red cards and its far from those.

 

[spectre]

Well, MtG in general is rated 13+, so eeeh. As long as there's no blood and boobs and booze, it's all good.

When it comes to rules, their engine seems to do a rather good job, though I can't really know how much work they have with the problematic effects.
I think "programming difficulties" might be more about the need to voice every 'wanker and give every rare thing a fancy animation. That thing eats time and resources like a motherfucker.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Well, I hit Gold ranking. Do you ever get demoted from your rank/tier and does the game reward you for your highest ranking attained that season if so (meaning if I was say, Gold and got knocked down to Silver by the end of the season would it give me only the Silver reward or remember I was Gold and give me that instead)?

 

[spectre]

You won't get knocked down to silver until season ends. Gold 4 is lowest you can go until you get to platinum or higher. As long as your winrate is near 50%, you should be able to go plat, no probs. Gold still gives two pips per win, just like silver.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG