[Magic The Gathering: Arena] The CCG that started it all, now F2P. New set incoming

RickRude

Magic The Gathering. The CCG that started it all. Now in a format like hearthstone, and other less forms of CCG.



It's currently in open beta and you no longer need to wait for a key! Simply download the client here and register
https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena

If You're new to Magic check out the second post for some tips!

Open beta is live!
Use code PlayRavnica for 3 free packs!
Announcement trailer
https://youtu.be/tpOySUK3Vdc [/b]

So what is it?

It's Magic the Gathering as we all know and love and in a free to play format. You get daily quests for gold (the free currency), which you can use to play in constructed events, and draft events. The current currencies are Gold that you get from quests, and Gems you get from certain events and can purchase. Packs are purchasable with gold and gems, and the various limited formats and quick draft/constructed.

Current events always available events

Currently they are running a free singleton event to celebrate the open beta, and the first sealed event to my knowledge with Guilds of Ravnica. For 2000 gems you get 6 15 card packs to build a deck with, and get 3 normal arena boosters no matter how many games you win.

They've changed up the modes but the closed beta events were

Free Play
Quick Constructed - Gold/gem fee with gold rewards
Competitive Constructed - Gold/gem fee with gold rewars
Quick Draft - Gold/Gem fee with Gem rewards
Competitive Draft - Gem fee with Gem rewards

And then they have rotating modes on top of it with a gold fee usually.

Differences From Magic Paper / MTGO

One big thing is boosters. If you purchase a pack, they are 8 card packs. There are wildcards you can draw in the packs that let you craft any card, and each pack moves you closer to guaranteed Rare and Mythic Rare wildcars. There is no dusting system, you get wildcards through various means and they are currently trying to figure out what to do with 5th copies of cards. Currently you get progress towards "The vault" which you open up and get a bunch of wildcards at once. They feel this is unrewarding at the moment and are looking to change it.

Drafts however you get full 14 card boosters, even with a land slot. There is no foils though. Also, you draft against AI pods, that use data from MTGA and MTGO to calculate how the AI drafts, and then you play until a set amount of losses, much like hearthstone, that varies on the Quick or Competitive draft. QD is Bo1, while CD, is B03 with sideboarding.

Useful tools
This section is for add ons. I know of one I can recommend that has been featred on the official forums. Has deck export/import functions, and most importantly (at least to me) gives you a link where you can go through all your draft picks pick by pick.

https://mtgatool.com/

Here's a sample of the tool with a draft I went 6-3 with
https://mtgatool.com/draft/802ab61c-71c3-4e49-8f36-ea09f0bbe665

So that's it in a nutshell

They plan on having the same release dates as paper, and parity with paper. They are not sure on legacy formats and such.

There's more to add, and I need to edit this I'm sure. Any tips let me know. I'm not great at magic just dabbled over the 37 years of my life off and on and love the game. Hated the price and could never play paper. This F2P game has me hooked.

And it's Free!!!!





The next post contains some helpful tips from forum members new to magic.

RickRude

Some tips for players new to Magic.

Combat
@feral made these handy diagrams that explain how damage works and the different types of damage and the combat steps

Phases and Steps of a turn
An in depth write-up written up by @Surfpossum

So in general, the way Magic works is that at any given time, only one player has priority. Priority is almost like an object that gets passed back and forth, and only the player who has priority can do stuff. When both players decline to do anything after having gotten priority, the game moves forward and either resolves stuff that is happening or moves to the next phase or step.

Generally, when something happens it usually goes on the stack: if a player plays a card, or activates an ability, or something on a card triggers, that *thing* gets put onto this thing called the stack. Players then get to decide if they want to respond to the thing on top of the stack; if they do, whatever they do gets put on top of the stack. When nobody wants to do anything more, the top thing on the stack is resolved or, if the stack is empty, the step or phase ends.

As an example, say Player 1 passes priority to Player 2 during their first main phase, because they want to move to their combat phase. There is nothing on the stack. Player 2 gets priority and casts Shock targeting Player 1's Grizzly Bears, then passes priority back to Player 1. Shock is now on the stack, waiting to resolve. Player 1 then casts Giant Growth targeting their Grizzly Bears, and passes priority back to Player 2. Giant Growth is now on the stack on top of Shock, waiting to resolve. Player 2 also passes priority, and Giant Growth resolves, giving the Bears +3/+3. Now we're back to Shock being on top of the stack, and Player 1 has priority. They pass, and Player 2 also passes. Shock resolves, dealing 2 damage to the Bears. Player 1 is once again given the opportunity to do stuff but passes, and Player 2 passes as well. The game then exits the first main phase (because both players have passed priority on an empty stack) and enters the combat phase.

So, given all that, here are the phases and steps of a turn:

Beginning Phase
This is the beginning of the turn. Players do not receive priority and therefore can't do anything, so entering this phase is just to let things that happen at the beginning of a turn get queued up to get added to the stack at the start of the Upkeep step.
Untap Step

• During this step, players still do not receive priority. Things get untapped, and if anything triggers it waits to get added to the stack at the start of the Upkeep step.

Upkeep Step

• At this point, anything waiting to go on the stack from the previous two steps does so; first, the waiting effects (triggered abilities) controlled by the active player are put on the stack in the order the active player chooses, and then the nonactive player puts their triggered abilities on the stack in any order they want. Then the active player receives priority.
• It's sometimes important to do stuff during this phase; it's the last chance to play stuff before the active player draws a card, for example, so if you want to tap one of their creatures before they draw a counterspell or tap one of their lands before they can use it to play an instant they draw, now's the time to do it.

Draw Step

• The active player draws a card, and then stuff that triggers at the start of the draw step is put on the stack, and then the active player gets priority.
• It's pretty uncommon for anything to happen during the draw step; you generally don't want to let them draw a card unless you have instant speed discard effects (pretty rare) and want them to draw a card and then make them discard it before they enter their main phase and get priority (because then they can cast whatever it is and it'll be too late to make them discard it).

First Main Phase

• Stuff that triggers when you enter this phase goes on the stack, then the active player gets priority.
• The main phases are when you get to play all your lands and creatures and stuff. Here's where the difference between instants (and abilities etc.) and sorceries (and creatures etc.) comes in: instants can be played whenever you have priority. Sorceries can be played during your main phase when you have priority and the stack is empty.
• Lands are a bit weird; they don't go onto the stack, they just pop into play when you play them. This means playing a land doesn't create an opportunity for players to respond before the land enters play.

Combat Phase
Beginning of Combat Step

• Stuff that triggers when you enter this step goes on the stack, then the active player gets priority.
• This is a chance for players to do stuff before any creatures start attacking. For example, this would be the last chance you get to increase a Mentor creature's power if you want it to mentor something bigger than itself because once you move to the next step, when the mentor ability triggers it will check the creatures' power to see which ones are legal targets. This would also be the last chance to prevent a creature from attacking (by tapping it, or killing it, or whatever).

Declare Attackers Step

• This is the part where you get to declare your attackers. Declaring attackers happens immediately at the start of this step, and doesn't use the stack. Any creatures you choose to attack with are immediately 1) attacking and 2) become tapped (unless they have vigilance). Once they are attacking, the only ways for them to no longer be attacking creatures (removed from combat) are if they leave play, regenerate, change controllers, stop being creatures, or a card or an effect specifically says they are removed from combat. This means that tapping or untapping them doesn't change whether or not they are attacking; you can activate abilities they have that require them to be tapped, you can use them to cast Convoke stuff, your opponent can try to tap them, whatever. They'll still be attacking.
• Once attackers are declared, do the priority dance. This is the last chance you have to prevent creatures from blocking (by tapping it, or killing it, or whatever). If no attackers are declared, the other combat steps get skipped.
• This is the point at which you can start to cast spells or use abilities that target attacking creatures.

Declare Blockers Step

• This is very similar to the declare attackers step, except the defending player is choosing their blockers. Once creatures have been declared as blockers, they will continue to be a blocking creature unless they leave play, regenerate, change controllers, stop being creatures, or a card or an effect specifically says they are removed from combat. Any attacking creature that gets blocked will continue to be blocked until it is removed from combat, regardless of whether or not anything is still blocking it. Think of it kind of like this: when they get blocked, they start to swing at the thing blocking them, and even if that thing goes poof they've already committed to the swing.
• After blockers are declared, do the priority dance. This is the last chance to do anything before creatures start dealing damage, such as altering their power or toughness, or giving them first strike, or whatever.
• This is the point at which you can start to cast spells or use abilities that target blocking creatures.

Combat Damage Step

• Basically, damage gets dealt, any effects that trigger off of combat damage get added to the stack, and then players do the priority dance. This means that once this step starts, damage is going to be dealt before players get to do anything.
• If any creatures have first or double strike, what actually happens is a second combat damage step is created after the first one; during the first one, double strikers and first strikers deal combat damage, and during the second one double strikers and non-first strikers deal combat damage. This allows players to do the priority dance in between first strike damage and regular combat damage (because they will get priority at the end of the first strike combat damage step). This could be important if, say, you have a first strike creature and a Thallid Omnivore: you can let the first strike creature deal its damage and then feed it to the Omnivore, and then the Omnivore would be bigger when it deals damage.
• Generally, blocked creatures only get to deal damage to creatures that are blocking them. If a blocked creature no longer has any creatures blocking it, it just doesn't get to deal damage... UNLESS it has trample. Trample lets the attacking creature deal any extra damage to the player or planeswalker that it attacked, and if nothing is blocking it then all the damage is extra damage.
• Because abilities that trigger off of combat damage (for example, Enrage) go onto the stack, players get a chance to respond to them before they resolve but after creatures have taken damage. To use an example: your 1/1 is blocked by a 3/3 Siegehorn Ceratops. The 1/1 deals its combat damage, and the Siegehorn's Enrage ability triggers and is put on the stack. You then receive priority and cast Shock on the Siegehorn. Shock goes onto the stack on top of the Enrage and you pass priority. Your opponent passes priority as well. Shock resolves, dealing 2 damage to the Siegehorn, which triggers another Enrage (which goes on top of the stack) and then the Siegehorn dies. By the time either Enrage would resolve, the Siegehorn is gone.

End of Combat Step

• At the start of this step, players do the priority dance, then at the end of the step creatures get removed from combat (are no longer attacking or blocking).
• This is your last chance to cast spells or use abilities that target attacking or blocking creatures.

Second Main Phase

• Exactly like the first.

Ending Phase
End Step

• This is when stuff that happens "at end of turn" gets put on the stack, and then the active player gets priority. This is generally the last chance for players to do the priority dance before the next turn begins.
• This is a good time to do things like play spells that draw you cards or play creatures with flash or create tokens (if you didn't need them for blockers), since now your opponent probably won't be playing any more creatures or sorceries that might affect your decision.

Cleanup Step

• This is when 1) the active player discards down to seven cards in hand and 2) effects that last until the end of turn end and damage gets removed and then we move to the next turn.
• Just kidding, if anything triggers and gets put onto the stack then players get to do the priority dance.

Note: I haven't mentioned every single time that stuff can trigger and get put on the stack, because there are a lot of weird cards out there. But I think that generally speaking, when stuff triggers it gets put onto the stack just before the next time a player would receive priority. But also don't quote me on that.

So there you have it, couldn't possibly be simpler. But really, if you can get comfortable with the idea of when players get priority and how the stack works, everything largely falls into place after that because MTGA doesn't have Humility in it.

Differences between Hearthstone and Magic for a new Player
Copied from https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/862vee/hearthstone_players_guide_for_magic_the_gathering/

If it seems like the game is exceedingly complex, it really isn't. There are lots of interactions, but the rules are straightforward, and each card does exactly what's written on it. If two effects look similar but are worded differently, there's a good chance that they work differently in some cases. If you really want to learn, I encourage you to go to your Local Magic: The Gathering Game Store (LGS). You can find the closest one at The Wizards store and event locator. Magic Arena doesn't yet have a new player tutorial, so if you'd like to learn on a digital version, pick up Magic Duels: Origins for free on Steam, iOS, PS4, or XB1.

Something to note: if I were to talk about every exception to every point I'd be here forever. So assume that there are exceptions, and unless I talk about them they're usually not relevant. Also, I've included lots of pictures of cards.

MANA

Both games have a resource called Mana which you use each turn to cast spells, and replenishes when your turn starts again. In Hearthstone mana is given to you without expending other resources, and you always get an additional mana to use each turn, up to 10. In Magic, players get mana by playing and using Lands. Lands take up space in your deck. By default, you can play one land from your hand per turn. Each turn, you may tap, or use, a land to produce one mana of the appropriate color; plains produce white mana, forests make green, mountains make red, swamps make black and islands make blue. At the start of each of your turns you untap all your lands. In paper magic, tapping is signified by turning the card 90 degrees sideways, and untapping brings it back upright. In Magic Arena, tapped cards are shown slightly tilted, grayed out and with a tap symbol on top of them. Think of tapping a card as exhausting it's power for the turn, and untapping it as recharging it.

You use mana to pay the cost of a spell, which is located at the top right corner of the card. For example, Nezahal, Primal Tide requires 7 mana total to cast. Two mana must be blue (the water drops), and five can be mana of any color.

It's important to note that unlike Hearthstone you're not guaranteed to get a new land to play each turn, and lands also take up space in your deck. Most decks run about 40% lands, depending on how fast or big the deck is. Also, it's possible for your shuffled deck to draw too many or too few lands in a game. This is called Mana Screw, it happens to everyone occasionally. That's why official paper Magic matches are best of 3 games.

Finally, the lands I referenced before (Plains, Island, etc) are called Basic Lands. You're allowed to have as many of each in your deck as you want, but they're, well, basic. They just tap for a single color and don't do anything special. There are also non-basic lands which do all sorts of fun things. Many tap for more than one color of mana, some do things when they come into play, some have special abilities besides making mana, some even become creatures. Non-basic lands fall under the same deck building restrictions as other cards though, namely you can't have more than 4 in your deck.

COLOR

In Hearthstone, you have nine classes, each of which gets access to exclusive cards, and a bunch of other cards that can be used by any class. In Magic, you have five different colors; White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green, often shortened to WUBRG (U is for blue). Decks may play as many colors as they wish and in any combination. Each color has a unique role, along with strengths and weaknesses. This is known as the color pie. You can learn everything you'd want to know about color and the color pie at [MTGSalvation's page.] (http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Color_Pie) It's important to note that while the meta changes from set to set, no one color is inherently stronger than another. Each color simply answers the question "how do I win?" differently. Also, while most cards have one color, some have more than one, and some have none.

/u/WizzMuch pointed out a very useful blizzard forum post that relates the different heroes to colors in magic. They're not an exact match, but some are very close.

For a quick rundown on colors (skip if you want):

White: The color of healing, protection and order. White has a lot of small creatures that build on each other, and Angels that serve as medium-to-big fliers. Combat tricks involve preventing damage dealt by opponents or preventing creatures from attacking. White also has a number of "board wipes", that kill off all creatures or all non-lands on the board.

Blue: The color of logic, technology, air and water. Blue loves to control the board by drawing extra cards, countering spells, bouncing creatures back into their owners' hands, and even milling (making a player move cards from their library directly to their graveyard). Blue creatures are a bit weaker, but many have flying or similarly evasive abilities, which can lead to a blowout if your opponent can't deal with them.

Black: The color of death, selfishness, and power at any cost. Black isn't necessarily evil, but it's rarely used for good. Black loves bringing creatures back from the graveyard, destroying creatures outright, or sacrificing its own creatures to get an edge. Black often uses its life total for advantage, like drawing extra cards or powering up creatures. Black can also force opponents to discard cards from their hand, sometimes even choosing which card for their opponent.

Red: The color of impulsiveness, chaos, fire, lightning, and earth. Red loves dealing damage directly to creatures or players. Its creatures attack fast and hard, even if they're not the most resilient, and some creatures can even power themselves up with mana. Red also loves playing dragons.

Green: The color of nature, instinct and survival. Green loves big, lumbering creatures, and has spells to get lands on the board fast to play those big creatures quickly. Green also has combat tricks that beef up their own creatures, or make creatures fight each other outside of normal combat. Green also hates fliers, and has effects to deal with them while not giving their own creatures flying.

CARD TYPES

In Hearthstone, you have four types of cards: Minions, Spells, Weapons and Heroes. Magic has a quite a few more. Each card has its types listed about halfway down on the left, underneath the art. Since lands were already addressed, the other main types are, in no particular order:

Creature: Just like Hearthstone, these are your army. You use them to attack, and defend from attacks. They have power (combat strength) and toughness (hit points) listed on the bottom right-hand corner.

Enchantment: Spells that effect the battlefield as long as long as they're in play. Some have passive effects, some have interesting abilities. An enchantment that only affects a single card is called an Aura.

Sorcery: Like Spells in Hearthstone. They can only be played on your turn during your main phases, have an immediate effect, and are placed in the graveyard afterwards.

Instant: Like sorceries, they have an immediate effect and go to your graveyard afterwards. However unlike sorceries, they can be played at any time, even on your opponent's turn or in response to another spell or ability (see the section on phases of a turn and prority). So long as you left lands untapped for them.

Artifact: Like enchantments, they stay on the field and have an effect, or have an ability. Generally, an artifact is a "thing" where an enchantment is "magic." Artifacts are usually colorless. Creatures can also be Artifacts, and Equipment artifacts can be given to a creature like weapons can be given to heroes in Hearthstone. Equipment stays on the battlefield if the equipped creature dies, and can be switched around during your turn. To equip something to a creature, you must pay the equip cost listed on the card. Finally, some artifacts are Vehicles. They're not normally creatures, but they can be turned into creatures by using your creatures to crew them.

Planeswalker: A special "ally", usually famous characters in MTG lore. Each has loyalty, and can use one ability once per turn, which changes their loyalty. Planeswalkers must have at least as much loyalty as the ability uses if it removes loyalty, and a planeswalker with 0 loyalty is dead. They cannot usually attack or block like regular creatures. They're kind of like hero cards, if you could choose one of three to use each turn.

You'll notice some of these cards are legendary. Legendary cards are special pieces of MTG lore. You can't control two legendary cards with the same name on the battlefield at the same time. If that ever happens, you have to choose one and put the other in your graveyard. Here's an example: you can't have two copies of the planeswalker Huatli, Warrior Poet under your control. But you can have one of them along with Huatli, Radiant Champion on the battlefield at the same time, since even though they're the same character, the cards themselves have different names. Also, even if you have Huatli, Warrior Poet in play, your opponent may still play his own Huatli, Warrior Poet.

Cards, especially creatures, can also have subtypes. This refers to any characteristics of the card, and creatures, spells or abilities may reference a card subtype for a certain effect. For example, Legion Lieutenant is a creature, more specifically a Vampire Knight. If there are other Vampires on the battlefield, Legion Lieutenant gives each an extra 1 power and 1 toughness. Spells can have no subtypes, one, a few, or literally all of them.

Here be Dragons: This is important, but can be complicated if you're seeing this for the first time. Feel free to skip ahead to Phases of a Turn and come back to this when you finish the rest.

When a card is on the battlefield (in play, on the board), it's always considered to be whatever type or subtype is listed on the card. However, when a card is not on the battlefield (like when it's in your hand, library, or graveyard) it's referred to as a card, and if necessary by the types listed on it. So for example, Dutiful Return refers to cards of the type creature that are in your graveyard. It cannot refer to a creature that's on the battlefield, since it wouldn't be considered a card. Also, any non-land card that is actively being cast (called "on the stack," see The Stack later on) is called a spell. For example, Dispel has an ability "Counter target instant spell." That means if someone just cast a spell, and the type on the card is "instant", you can cast Dispel in response to counter it (make it not work). If you look at Clutch of Currents, its ability doesn't refer to either cards or spells. That means it will only work on creatures that are already on the battlefield, not creatures in the graveyard or about to be cast.

Surfpossum

My poor scrolling thumb. Could we maybe get the various sections of that put into spoilers?

Echo wrote: »

Surfpossum wrote: »

So here's the deck from above; I'm 3-1 so far today, and boy howdy it is fun to play. Much thanks to everyone who pointed out that Journey to Eternity exists, that card is baller as heck.

Muldrotha is basically Journey to Eternity plus a ton of extra features. I've had so much fun since I discovered I had three Muldrothas.

And then you can just Journey to Eternity Muldrotha back.

Muldrotha does seem great, but for some reason my brain refuses to see her as anything but a Commander.

If I make a blue-green deck there will almost certainly be a black splash for her tho.

21stCentury

BIG AESTHETIC!

If you want your Lands to not be the Ixalan ones, there's a way to use Basic Land cards from any standard legal set!

Step 1: Search the land type in the search box ie. island
Step 2: Open the filter menu and click "reset"
Step 3: ta-daaaa, all the sets' basic lands are at your disposal. you can click one to add it to your deck! You can even have multiple different basic lands of one type!

Now you, too, can be the envy of your peers!

(Warning: Does not work in Limited formats)

Dr. Flamingo

Do they have the art from the Guild Kit basics?

KalTorak

Fine, I will consent to play Izzet in draft on the condition that I open NOTHING BUT BOMBS

I needed anime to post.

Just a casual reminder that if you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing

P10

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

Just a casual reminder that if you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing

but i need my 15 wins a day

cncaudata

Re: 5th card issues.
Yeah, they say they're working on the details, and there are a lot, but "you get nothing at all from draft except rares you dont have" is quite the detail.

For those that dont draft a lot, you will get playsets of the good commons, and really uncommons, super fast, and will want to keep taking them in future drafts because, yeah, they're good.

If the solution is just "you dont open fifth copies" that literally doesn't work at all for draft.

21stCentury

cncaudata wrote: »

Re: 5th card issues.
Yeah, they say they're working on the details, and there are a lot, but "you get nothing at all from draft except rares you dont have" is quite the detail.

For those that dont draft a lot, you will get playsets of the good commons, and really uncommons, super fast, and will want to keep taking them in future drafts because, yeah, they're good.

If the solution is just "you dont open fifth copies" that literally doesn't work at all for draft.

They could maybe have two systems in place?

one for boosters and one for drafts/sealed events?

discrider

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

Just a casual reminder that if you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing

Or.. draft only, and nothing above rare on Bo1 ladder.

I needed anime to post.

discrider wrote: »

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

Just a casual reminder that if you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing

Or.. draft only, and nothing above rare on Bo1 ladder.

If you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing.

discrider

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

discrider wrote: »

I needed a gnome to post. wrote: »

Just a casual reminder that if you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing

Or.. draft only, and nothing above rare on Bo1 ladder.

If you're not having fun, you don't have to keep playing.

No, no.
Eventually this wall will yeild to my forehead.

initiatefailure

i ran a league with a drakes deck on mtgo today after a few weeks of playing arena and i can't believe how much i've lost my tolerance for little things there. like one opponent had a stop set on my upkeep and every goddamn turn would take 5-10s to ok through it and it was far too tilting.

TheBlackWind

Man, I got WRECKED in draft today. I went Dimir a couple times and I'm not sure I got all the intricacies down for that, because I found myself in some tough spots early.

3cl1ps3

I finally cobbled together a Golgari list that more or less resembles the lists I've seen floating around (and almost entirely wiped out my Wildcards while doing so) and won my first game with it so clearly I am the best deckbuilder of all time, hire me Channel Fireball.

furbat

Why not do the Vault AND do the no 5th copies from packs/card rewards?

Everybody wins!

If they do the no 5th copies thing though with in game card rewards, they might have to tone those down at some point.

Surfpossum

I think maybe the solution to the 5th card problem that they are working on is more complicated than the general idea (you don't get a fifth copy anymore) presented in the dev post.

Drascin

They did say the thing is significantly complex, and all these considerations are certainly part of why. Just flagging cards to not show up on boosters should be significantly easy programming-wise and would probably be done inside a week, but there is a lot more going on here than just "boosters can't drop cards you already have 4 of".

Phyphor

I just played a fun game with my completely slapped together Golgari deck vs a Dmir deck. I managed to get the emblem but couldn't get any creatures through. My removal was hiding and I was eventually faced with a choice: he was either going to steal my Vraska or my Gravewaker from my graveyard, and then he killed my other gravewaker which pretty much eliminated any chance I had of getting through his minion wall. But, so close. If he hadn't had exactly two removal spells out of two cards in hand at one point I had won

Munkus Beaver

@Echo yeah I switch out a few other removal spells and I forget what else to make room for the three Rituals of Soot I own in that Thef orf Sanety deck and I am honestly gonna add a fourth one (and buy it with wildcards if it doesn't show up in a pack very soon). I also added a hostage taker because those are v. v. good.

I have had I think SIX different games that were won purely on the backs of Ritual of Soot. So many fuckin weeny decks out there tryin to make name for themselves.

And a number of those games I went down to one life before I got the nut draw and topdecked a ritual.

On the flipside, I played against the most annoying standard deck I have ever seen. It was like, 90% counterspells, removal, and card draw and then like, two fuckin Drakes that get get +1/+0 per instant/sorcery in your GY or exile and two planeswalkers. And because i had a sanety thef out I tried to cast three of those things myself and he counterspelled every fuckin one.

It was like, a 20 minute single round arena match and I ended up losing anyway for my troubles.

Fuck stall decks.
Love sinister thievin

discrider

There's the Dead man's chest card for more theiving if you don't have it.
Enchant enemy creature for 1B, when it dies get to steal its power in cards.

furbat

3clipse wrote: »

I finally cobbled together a Golgari list that more or less resembles the lists I've seen floating around (and almost entirely wiped out my Wildcards while doing so) and won my first game with it so clearly I am the best deckbuilder of all time, hire me Channel Fireball.

If you do Bo1 constructed events look at the tournament lists for golgari and think, 'what would they sideboard in against mono-red or white weeny', then main deck that shit. See all those wildgrowth walkers and that golden demise the pros put in their sideboard? Main deck that shit.

Any ETA on the 5th card problem? I've been making about 2-3% vault progress each day recently and am at 39% right now grinding out events all day. My fear is that I get to like 99% vault progress right as they change the system. Not that I could really complain because a new system is going to greatly benefit me anyway.

I bet they do something about the massive amount of card rewards they give out when they fix the 5th card issue. They simply have to. Even somewhat casual players are going to run around with full sets of cards without spending money. I bet that's the hold up. The community seems to undervalue the in game card rewards, it isn't immediately obvious at least, and taking a step back from those won't go over well.

Neaden

I think the vault is workable for the fifth card problem, they just need to up the percentage. If a mythic have 10% vault progress I think most people should be satisfied.

Surfpossum

I don't even know what the vault is but they said they are looking to make sure that you don't lose out on stuff even if you haven't completed it.

The tentative timeframe for changes is Q1 2019.


(Despite my relaying of this info, I must note that I personally believe developers should never tell players anything.)

furbat

I think vault % has to stay low or you will get a ton of wildcards from F2P in card rewards. You put it at 10% for a mythic and eventually people like me will be opening the vault multiple times a week. I got 20 mythic rares last week from F2P in constructed events/buying packs with gold.

Surfpossum

I have just looked up what the vault is.


I am extremely underwhelmed. The way people were talking about it I thought it must be a significant thing.

Yilias

The vault basically doesn't exist in it's current state. That's fine by me, constructed event gets me all the cards I need.

furbat

It's underwhelming now. If I got 4-6 rare wildcards from the vault each week for F2P grinding it would break the economy.

Right now the vault gives you the amount of wildcards you'd get from about opening 12 packs.

Darkewolfe

Honestly, I think what they need to do rather than just up the drop chance of cards is offer more fun events for non-meta constructed play. More regular pauper events and stuff like that. Better player matchmaking so that f2p players can more frequently get their jollies rather than getting roflmaoed by several T1 decks in a row.

cncaudata

Someone did the math and the rate on the vault is essentially 1:21. I.e. the vault gives you 2 mythics (i think?) so you need the equivalent of 42, x rares so you need 21x...

The ratio in other games is much much higher. In hearthstone it's 1:4, and you don't actually need to have a playset of a card before you trade it in for other stuff.

furbat

Yilias wrote: »

The vault basically doesn't exist in it's current state. That's fine by me, constructed event gets me all the cards I need.

If you grind out constructed events at 50% win rate, you'll reach a point where you'll be opening the vault about 10 times a year as a F2P player. I think that makes up about 25% of your expected wildcards a year. But considering most people are still trying to piece together a functioning deck, it isn't too hard to blow that 50% win rate out the water.

But event rewards are extremely generous with free cards.

Yilias

I don't really need to open it though. You get like 1 mythic a run and I'm steadily approaching 100k gold. I could buy packs with winnings and get wild cards that way if I really needed something asap.

I'm much more sympathetic to the 5 of issue where people need to craft lands but don't want to commit because extra copies poof into nothingness.

cncaudata

Yilias wrote: »

I don't really need to open it though. You get like 1 mythic a run and I'm steadily approaching 100k gold. I could buy packs with winnings and get wild cards that way if I really needed something asap.

I'm much more sympathetic to the 5 of issue where people need to craft lands but don't want to commit because extra copies poof into nothingness.

I dont know what game y'all are playing. I have done like 8 constructed events and got 1 crappy mythic and a bunch of crappy rares. 1/run maybe if you are constantly getting 7 wins...

furbat

cncaudata wrote: »

Yilias wrote: »

I don't really need to open it though. You get like 1 mythic a run and I'm steadily approaching 100k gold. I could buy packs with winnings and get wild cards that way if I really needed something asap.

I'm much more sympathetic to the 5 of issue where people need to craft lands but don't want to commit because extra copies poof into nothingness.

I dont know what game y'all are playing. I have done like 8 constructed events and got 1 crappy mythic and a bunch of crappy rares. 1/run maybe if you are constantly getting 7 wins...

Each uncommon has a 10% chance of being a rare instead and a 5% chance of being a mythic. The rares have a 33% chance. A 6-7 wins you over 70% chance to get a mythic.



The above is at a 50% win rate. At 50% win rate you are turning 90 gold into 0.29 mythic rares, 0.58 rares, and 2.13 uncommons. If you can achieve a 50% win rate, and the match making does its best to make this possible, you should never ever ever do free play ladder over constructed events.

Surfpossum

Yeah, the current rate of acquisition feels... very fast. I have not played very much (for certain values of very much) and have probably opened... a couple dozen boosters? Plus gotten several drafts worth of cards; I can do basically two drafts a week even if I do poorly thanks to the daily gold. All for $5.

When I was playing paper doing a draft at a store would be, like, a whole event that friends and I would often plan weeks in advance.

I wouldn't be surprised if the rate at which you get stuff is toned down, but I do hope that drafting remains as accessible as it is now.

furbat

Yilias wrote: »

I don't really need to open it though. You get like 1 mythic a run and I'm steadily approaching 100k gold. I could buy packs with winnings and get wild cards that way if I really needed something asap.

I'm much more sympathetic to the 5 of issue where people need to craft lands but don't want to commit because extra copies poof into nothingness.

lol wth? I do pretty well in CE and I maybe make 20k a week. To be fair, I'm not taking mono-U to CE though lol. It takes me all morning to do 3 runs.

SniperGuy

What you guys haven't opened the vault 3 times already?

I may play too many drafts.

How in the world do you have 100k gold though, I spend that shit on drafts immediately

Bizazedo

Boo, I'm only at 42k gold. I have not been grinding constructed event, though, been too busy in real life.

Yilias

I don't draft because I'm bad.

I just log in, do my 750 quest in casual, then queue aggro in constructed bo1 until my 15 wins are done.

Kay

I've never opened the vault, but I didn't draft much as I kept being punished for drafting "correctly" given the weird choices bots make.

I've got a couple top tier decks, some with crossover (Rakdos and Mono-R Burn), but I'll maybe do one competitive constructive event per day, tops? I did nothing yesterday, though.