Magic the Gathering Arena

[Thac0]

Now, if I need wild cards, I just buy a pack from that set, otherwise I buy random historic packs or latest set rotation packs as needed.

TL/DR - You only have to fully complete one set to have as many wild cards as you want. If you already have 4 rares for a set, and you get another rare on a booster pack opener, it defaults to a wild card.

Really? That is pretty op, I would have assumed you just get that 20 gems pity amount or whatever it is you also get for normal dupes. Can you post proof? It would really surprise me since maxing out a single set and then buying from that exclusively seems counter intuitive to gain the most wildcards.

 

[NJClaw]

But wtf, it's like life is everywhere. In black or white, it seems that every relevant creature has lifelink AND even aditional abilities or good stats. In general creatures are pushed so hard, it seems pretty futile to not use a creature heavy deck.

Yeah, things changed A LOT. At first creatures started shaping entire formats: when Thragtusk came out, you either played Thragtusk or you died IRL.

If you compare this to what was considered a strong creature in the past (i.e.: the Serra Angel), it's clear that creatures have come a long way. At first a "good" creature was a creature with an acceptable body, but then the design teams had a sudden enlightenment: to be better than the removal that kills them, creatures have to do something even if said removal gets played. To do that, a creature has to (1) do something when it enters the battlefield, (2) do something when it leaves the battlefield, (3) be VERY hard to remove, so that a simple removal isn't enough to deal with it, or (4) have a TRULY exceptional body, so that if the removal doesn't get played on time it can have a real impact on the game. Basically, to compete with instants and sorceries, creatures have to become instants and sorceries. Another great example obviously is the Siege Rhino:

The "Tarkir block" had tons of great beautiful creatures, but none of them can even hope to compete with this monster. To get a feel of what was like to play when this guy was standard-legal, you should watch the first 25-minutes of this video:

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

But the vault is not the main way you gain wildcards, not even close to it. You get the bulk of your wildcards for free from opening packs. The vault is a legacy system that they could patch out without too much change.

I know, but that's why I said MTGA still stacks up well. It's just that MTGA's pretty bad in the "I have all these duplicate/shit cards and I want to turn them into playable stuff" front. And dusting/the vault are how those games handle that. It's also why I was looking at Hearthstone packs at the worst possible pull rate and disregarding getting random wildcards from MTGA packs. They have upped the gold in HS slightly, you're right it isn't a clean 100 gold a day in quests but there are a pile of higher gold quests now too, and some do hit 100. And the Dr Boom example also doesn't reflect that badly on MTGA since Boom was auto-include in almost everything but he was a single card. He'd be closer to something more universal in Magic like having a playset of appropriate rarelands that you'll use in a bunch of different decks, and while Magic rares are more common than mythics or Hearthstone legendaries it's still 4 cards to 1. Which is also why Hearthstone's stingier looking rewards are a little more comparable, since decks are 30 cards and all cards are either one-ofs or two-ofs. But at the end of the day I'm still agreeing with you MTGA's got a better economy than Hearthstone, it's just that MTGA's system for dealing with unwanted/duplicate cards still sucks worse than Hearthstone since all we have is the vault which only works for some duplicates (Can't chuck my millions of shocks in for every set under the sun until I get a playset in each).

 

[Thac0]

it's just that MTGA's system for dealing with unwanted/duplicate cards still sucks worse than Hearthstone since all we have is the vault which only works for some duplicates (Can't chuck my millions of shocks in for every set under the sun until I get a playset in each).

Yeah, the way they handle dupes from multiple sets is ultra garbage.
I guess MTGA's economy suits me very well, since I never dust playable cards and I am not in a hurry to craft cards either. I only start crafting a month into the expansion, usually only 3-5 cards in total to complete a few deck projects I have not fulfilled through the insane amount of cards you get from packs and drafting alone. I can't remember the last time I fell below 30 rare and 30 mythic wild cards piled up.

And MTGA requires you to play much less for your rewards. Since I usually cycle a large (10+) number of different rpgs per week I love that MTGA lets me get 90% of the available rewards by just playing the game for an hour once every three days.

If you compare this to what was considered a strong creature in the past (i.e.: the Serra Angel), it's clear that creatures have come a long way. At first a "good" creature was a creature with an acceptable body, but then the design teams had a sudden enlightenment: to be better than the removal that kills them, creatures have to do something even if said removal gets played. To do that, a creature has to (1) do something when it enters the battlefield, (2) do something when it leaves the battlefield, (3) be VERY hard to remove, so that a simple removal isn't enough to deal with it, or (4) have a TRULY exceptional body, so that if the removal doesn't get played on time it can have a real impact on the game. Basically, to compete with instants and sorceries, creatures have to become instants and sorceries. Another great example obviously is the Siege Rhino:

This is pretty spot on. The problem is they tipped the scale in the other direction, and made removal bad to play since proactive cards did so much shit and were so fucking sticky around the Eldraine era. Something like Dream Trawler and Oko were nightmares to get off the board.
In the latest sets we saw removal creeping back up in power (Black has some JUICE right now in Warchiefs Thirst and Heartless Act) and ZNR lowered the creature power level a lot. The strongest creature in the set after the Omnath fumble is a reprint of Lotus Cobra.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Now, if I need wild cards, I just buy a pack from that set, otherwise I buy random historic packs or latest set rotation packs as needed.

TL/DR - You only have to fully complete one set to have as many wild cards as you want. If you already have 4 rares for a set, and you get another rare on a booster pack opener, it defaults to a wild card.

Really? That is pretty op, I would have assumed you just get that 20 gems pity amount or whatever it is you also get for normal dupes. Can you post proof? It would really surprise me since maxing out a single set and then buying from that exclusively seems counter intuitive to gain the most wildcards.

I'm not really sure how to post proof, but I've never gotten another rare or mythic card once I have 4 of them, and I notice I get an obscene amount of wild cards from that one set.

I haven't 100% filled it out, there are still a few mythics I don't have fully, but I get the wild cards in place of the regular rare or mythic (not the pack opening wild card counter). I'm wondering if maybe its a glitch in their code, like it checks if you have 4 of the rare or mythic, then tries to substitute another rare or mythic card in its place, but you already have 4 of those so it just defaults to a wild card.

Also, you don't want to buy exclusively from the single set, only when you need more rare / mythic wild cards.

It's more efficient to collect commons and uncommons just from opening packs. Commons and Uncommons are what make most decks "work" in my opinion. The rares / mythics are what is used for the kill shot. (my style at least)

I might open a few packs later today and I'll post screenshots of each pack opened. Can probably buy one of those pack deals, its been a bit since I dumped money into this game.


edit..

It looks like in drafting packs you get 20 gems, but I've never done a draft yet. I have a few of the free draft tokens, but I didn't want to go down the road of dumping a ton of money into the game.

Trying to find sources on opening a pack purchased from the standard store, but I can just do some screenshots later I suppose. I looked at my cards for that set and If I had to guess, I'm about 20 packs from fully completing out the set. I didn't realize there were a couple of commander rares I've never gotten, but that set looks almost done. Not bad for a nearly free player.

I do neckbeard the game a lot and usually get the daily reward quest done though.

 

[[UCHIHA]XxDarkSasuke420xX]

But wtf, it's like life is everywhere. In black or white, it seems that every relevant creature has lifelink AND even aditional abilities or good stats. In general creatures are pushed so hard, it seems pretty futile to not use a creature heavy deck.

Yeah, things changed A LOT. At first creatures started shaping entire formats: when Thragtusk came out, you either played Thragtusk or you died IRL.

If you compare this to what was considered a strong creature in the past (i.e.: the Serra Angel), it's clear that creatures have come a long way. At first a "good" creature was a creature with an acceptable body, but then the design teams had a sudden enlightenment: to be better than the removal that kills them, creatures have to do something even if said removal gets played. To do that, a creature has to (1) do something when it enters the battlefield, (2) do something when it leaves the battlefield, (3) be VERY hard to remove, so that a simple removal isn't enough to deal with it, or (4) have a TRULY exceptional body, so that if the removal doesn't get played on time it can have a real impact on the game. Basically, to compete with instants and sorceries, creatures have to become instants and sorceries. Another great example obviously is the Siege Rhino:

The "Tarkir block" had tons of great beautiful creatures, but none of them can even hope to compete with this monster. To get a feel of what was like to play when this guy was standard-legal, you should watch the first 25-minutes of this video:

these are funny both of those cards would be totally unplayable shit in standard rn lmao

 

[Thac0]

It looks like in drafting packs you get 20 gems, but I've never done a draft yet. I have a few of the free draft tokens, but I didn't want to go down the road of dumping a ton of money into the game.

Trying to find sources on opening a pack purchased from the standard store, but I can just do some screenshots later I suppose. I looked at my cards for that set and If I had to guess, I'm about 20 packs from fully completing out the set. I didn't realize there were a couple of commander rares I've never gotten, but that set looks almost done. Not bad for a nearly free player.

I do neckbeard the game a lot and usually get the daily reward quest done though.

From what I researched you do not get more wildcards from having a full set, only 20/40 gems per pack and the usual WC tick. That said I did not want to dump gold into a full set either, since that is a massive investment. It would be a pretty OP farming method tho, one wildcard and 1/6th of a wildcard for 1000 gold would be a killer deal on a completed set.

these are funny both of those cards would be totally unplayable shit in standard rn lmao

I am not too sure about that. Siege Rhino would probably be bad, Abzan is not really a colour atm.
Thraggy might still see play, it is much stronger than Elder Gargaoth, and Elder sees play in a bunch of jank as a generic top end beater for rampish strategies.
The ultra low colour requirement and a neat ETB combined with a potent deathrattle make it somewhat evergreen, even though it is far from OP now at 5 mana.

 

[[UCHIHA]XxDarkSasuke420xX]

these are funny both of those cards would be totally unplayable shit in standard rn lmao

I am not too sure about that. Siege Rhino would probably be bad, Abzan is not really a colour atm.
Thraggy might still see play, it is much stronger than Elder Gargaoth, and Elder sees play in a bunch of jank as a generic top end beater for rampish strategies.
The ultra low colour requirement and a neat ETB combined with a potent deathrattle make it somewhat evergreen, even though it is far from OP now at 5 mana.

didn't they release thragboi in the jumpstart thing? I've never seen anyone play the card.
I think garg is better because if it sticks for a round it's basically gg, and even that card seems borderline playable. thrag looks underwhelming

 

[Thac0]

didn't they release thragboi in the jumpstart thing? I've never seen anyone play the card.
I think garg is better because if it sticks for a round it's basically gg, and even that card seems borderline playable. thrag looks underwhelming

Interesting, Gargaroth sees play in Historic sideboards while Thragtusk does not. I wonder if the sheer mass of abilities makes Gargaroth actually better when you want to side him in against decks with low hard removal or just many people do not own care to test Thraggy.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Core+Set+2021/Elder+Gargaroth-extended#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Double+Masters/Thragtusk#online

Still I think of Thraggy was standard playable he would be player over Gargaroth. Being sticky is very good for a creature.

 

[Axioms]

Tusk is way worse than Garg.

Unless you are comparing them vs instant removal. But in that case neither card is good for 5 mana. For either card to be good you have to assume they stick for 1 or more turns.

 

[NJClaw]

didn't they release thragboi in the jumpstart thing? I've never seen anyone play the card.
I think garg is better because if it sticks for a round it's basically gg, and even that card seems borderline playable. thrag looks underwhelming

Interesting, Gargaroth sees play in Historic sideboards while Thragtusk does not. I wonder if the sheer mass of abilities makes Gargaroth actually better when you want to side him in against decks with low hard removal or just many people do not own care to test Thraggy.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Core+Set+2021/Elder+Gargaroth-extended#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Double+Masters/Thragtusk#online

Still I think of Thraggy was standard playable he would be player over Gargaroth. Being sticky is very good for a creature.

One of the main appeals of Thragtusk was that bounce effects were very common when it came out, especially thanks to the ultra-gay Delver of Secrets. And casting a Vapor Snag becomes much less appealing when you add "your opponent gains 5 life and puts a 3/3 on the battlefield" to its text. Thragtusk + Restoration Angel was also a great way to reset the counter against any burn/aggro deck.

But he crumbles in comparison to what came after him. He was an acceptable body which couldn't be blindly removed without consequences, but he didn't have the strength to win the gam on his own. Compare it to Uro, Titan of Deez Nuts and Carnage Tyrant: not only they are incredibly hard to deal with, but you also absolutely have to remove them as soon as possible.

 

[[UCHIHA]XxDarkSasuke420xX]

i still think green is underpowered, until they release a card that says:

• flash
• cannot be countered
• trample
• haste
• deathtouch
• 500/500
• 3 mana
• hexproof
• indestructible
• every time this creature attacks, opponent must wire $2000000 directly to your bank account

3 mana actually may be overpriced for this tbh since it could still be beaten with ashiok's erasure if not played on curve :/

 

[Axioms]

anyone who thinks tusk is good doesnt understand current state of game. gargo has very specific usage which is why people use it. tusk is worse than many other options with similar features.

 

[Gyor]

Yea, the approach to creatures has changed dramatically through the years. To the point when you see a Serendib Effret (I think they added them Jumpstart), it now feels rather meh.
Standard have always been creature heavy, though it's still possible to go creatureless or creature-light in historic.

Best thing about this platform is that it's rather easy to get cards. This cuts both ways, because it means now every schmuck can get a top tier deck after a few weeks of playing.
If you're not horrible playing this game, it's takes some grinding, but it's quite possible to keep up with standard and get all the playable stuff form new expansions.
Throwing some money can give you a bit of a boost to get things going, but isn't required, unless you want to get stuff immediately after release.

Check if you got all the freebies:
https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arena-codes/

I've been up against a few nearly creatureless brawl decks in blue or blue red where the only creature I ran into was the commander. That legendary crab that was 0/17 was an effective commander for this style for example, my oppenant didn't do much, but play his commander and a jillion counter spells, then used the ability to boost his commanders attack to equal his islands and crushed me. Brutal and very effective and utterly unfun to play against.

 

[Gyor]

i still think green is underpowered, until they release a card that says:

• flash
• cannot be countered
• trample
• haste
• deathtouch
• 500/500
• 3 mana
• hexproof
• indestructible
• every time this creature attacks, opponent must wire $2000000 directly to your bank account

3 mana actually may be overpriced for this tbh since it could still be beaten with ashiok's erasure if not played on curve :/

How long have you been hooked on crack?

Everyone knows its white (except in Pauper and Artisan) and to a lesser extent red that is under powered.

 

[Thac0]

i still think green is underpowered, until they release a card that says:

• flash
• cannot be countered
• trample
• haste
• deathtouch
• 500/500
• 3 mana
• hexproof
• indestructible
• every time this creature attacks, opponent must wire $2000000 directly to your bank account

3 mana actually may be overpriced for this tbh since it could still be beaten with ashiok's erasure if not played on curve :/

How long have you been hooked on crack?

Everyone knows its white (except in Pauper and Artisan) and to a lesser extent red that is under powered.

Nah I think it's actually Green that's underpowered.
Let's release a card called Uro 2 which is the same card again but entirely in green with gggg as escape cost. That should do the trick and make the colour great again.

 

[Gyor]

i still think green is underpowered, until they release a card that says:

• flash
• cannot be countered
• trample
• haste
• deathtouch
• 500/500
• 3 mana
• hexproof
• indestructible
• every time this creature attacks, opponent must wire $2000000 directly to your bank account

3 mana actually may be overpriced for this tbh since it could still be beaten with ashiok's erasure if not played on curve :/

How long have you been hooked on crack?

Everyone knows its white (except in Pauper and Artisan) and to a lesser extent red that is under powered.

Nah I think it's actually Green that's underpowered.
Let's release a card called Uro 2 which is the same card again but entirely in green with gggg as escape cost. That should do the trick and make the colour great again.

Green is far from underpowered. Scute Swarm, Ramp out the ass, ect..., its overpowered although outside of scute swarm less annoying to play against then blue counterspell decks.

 

[Thac0]

Green is far from underpowered. Scute Swarm, Ramp out the ass, ect..., its overpowered although outside of scute swarm less annoying to play against then blue counterspell decks.

Nah, Green needs a powerhouse card like Skyclave Apparition to help them off the ground.

Spoiler

He is obviously in jest. Green has been the best colour in the game for a while.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard/full/lands

Spoiler

Also Scute Swarm is unironically a bad card, it has literally no presence in tournaments and I have never seen it in ranked play above gold. Scute decks fold to any instant removal and can often be grinded out even without removing the bug since the engine gives you so much time to react.

 

[[UCHIHA]XxDarkSasuke420xX]

i still think green is underpowered, until they release a card that says:

• flash
• cannot be countered
• trample
• haste
• deathtouch
• 500/500
• 3 mana
• hexproof
• indestructible
• every time this creature attacks, opponent must wire $2000000 directly to your bank account

3 mana actually may be overpriced for this tbh since it could still be beaten with ashiok's erasure if not played on curve :/

How long have you been hooked on crack?

Everyone knows its white (except in Pauper and Artisan) and to a lesser extent red that is under powered.

Nah I think it's actually Green that's underpowered.
Let's release a card called Uro 2 which is the same card again but entirely in green with gggg as escape cost. That should do the trick and make the colour great again.

I propose Uromnath: 1GG - when Uromnath enters the battlefied:

• draw 2 cards
• search your library for 3 land cards and put them onto the battlefield under your control
• gain 10 mana of any colors you want
• gain 10 life
• deal 10 damage to any target
• every time Uromnath attacks or blocks, repeat the ETB effect
• escape: 0, exile your opponent's graveyard

this might finally make green playable

 

[Gyor]

Green is far from underpowered. Scute Swarm, Ramp out the ass, ect..., its overpowered although outside of scute swarm less annoying to play against then blue counterspell decks.

Nah, Green needs a powerhouse card like Skyclave Apparition to help them off the ground.

Spoiler

He is obviously in jest. Green has been the best colour in the game for a while.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard/full/lands

Spoiler

Also Scute Swarm is unironically a bad card, it has literally no presence in tournaments and I have never seen it in ranked play above gold. Scute decks fold to any instant removal and can often be grinded out even without removing the bug since the engine gives you so much time to react.

To play scute swarm right, it's a matter of timing, play it at the right time, combined with mutate, and your fucked.

 

[Ranselknulf]

It looks like in drafting packs you get 20 gems, but I've never done a draft yet. I have a few of the free draft tokens, but I didn't want to go down the road of dumping a ton of money into the game.

Trying to find sources on opening a pack purchased from the standard store, but I can just do some screenshots later I suppose. I looked at my cards for that set and If I had to guess, I'm about 20 packs from fully completing out the set. I didn't realize there were a couple of commander rares I've never gotten, but that set looks almost done. Not bad for a nearly free player.

I do neckbeard the game a lot and usually get the daily reward quest done though.

From what I researched you do not get more wildcards from having a full set, only 20/40 gems per pack and the usual WC tick. That said I did not want to dump gold into a full set either, since that is a massive investment. It would be a pretty OP farming method tho, one wildcard and 1/6th of a wildcard for 1000 gold would be a killer deal on a completed set.

these are funny both of those cards would be totally unplayable shit in standard rn lmao

I am not too sure about that. Siege Rhino would probably be bad, Abzan is not really a colour atm.
Thraggy might still see play, it is much stronger than Elder Gargaoth, and Elder sees play in a bunch of jank as a generic top end beater for rampish strategies.
The ultra low colour requirement and a neat ETB combined with a potent deathrattle make it somewhat evergreen, even though it is far from OP now at 5 mana.

I'm not sure what else gold is good for when you dont need cards, I can make it my cheap way to always have a season pass by converting the free packs into gems if it does end up working that way.

I counted out the cards and, if banned cards dont count towards the set completion, I'm about 20 packs from completion, if they do count I'm 38 packs from completion.

I guess we will know in a months time give or take. I'll dump all my gold over the next month into finishing the set.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Green is far from underpowered. Scute Swarm, Ramp out the ass, ect..., its overpowered although outside of scute swarm less annoying to play against then blue counterspell decks.

Nah, Green needs a powerhouse card like Skyclave Apparition to help them off the ground.

Spoiler

He is obviously in jest. Green has been the best colour in the game for a while.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard/full/lands

Spoiler

Also Scute Swarm is unironically a bad card, it has literally no presence in tournaments and I have never seen it in ranked play above gold. Scute decks fold to any instant removal and can often be grinded out even without removing the bug since the engine gives you so much time to react.

To play scute swarm right, it's a matter of timing, play it at the right time, combined with mutate, and your fucked.

Scute swarm is why I had to splash red in my white blue black deck.

I needed more board wipes.

This card has been growing on me.

Spoiler

 

[Gyor]

Green is far from underpowered. Scute Swarm, Ramp out the ass, ect..., its overpowered although outside of scute swarm less annoying to play against then blue counterspell decks.

Nah, Green needs a powerhouse card like Skyclave Apparition to help them off the ground.

Spoiler

He is obviously in jest. Green has been the best colour in the game for a while.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/standard/full/lands

Spoiler

Also Scute Swarm is unironically a bad card, it has literally no presence in tournaments and I have never seen it in ranked play above gold. Scute decks fold to any instant removal and can often be grinded out even without removing the bug since the engine gives you so much time to react.

To play scute swarm right, it's a matter of timing, play it at the right time, combined with mutate, and your fucked.

Scute swarm is why I had to splash red in my white blue black deck.

I needed more board wipes.

This card has been growing on me.

Spoiler

Seige Dragon can be a fun way to deal with Scute Swarm or Seige Dragon + Torban if it's mutated (anything that isn't indestructible, tougher then */4, or a flier just fucking dies then).

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Gyor]

[Spoilers/] Leaks have reveal that the Phyrexians are back and they invade Kaldheim [Spoilers/]