The General Magic the Gathering Thread

Wow that interface looks great. Excited for this thing to come out.

Kotaku has an article out with Arena economy details, and the community is somewhat aflame as a result.

TBF, it doesn’t sound great.

Beta will be getting the economy patch tomorrow (along with a server wipe), so we’ll see. Also, there’s a Twitch stream going live at 2pm PT to show it off.

It doesn’t sound that bad to me, and mostly sounds in line with all other free-to-play card game economies. Wildcards seem like a strictly worse method than Hearthstone’s dust, but I like that they can be included in packs. The smaller pack size means you’ll see fewer commons overall, which is probably a net positive.

The bigger question is how generous they will be with gold and packs, given how many new cards are in each expansion.

yeah, I don’t hate this. Obviously it depends on what the prices are set at, but the Vault feature seems like it’ll work similarly to HS/Eternal and Wildcards are interesting. What are people upset about? Just that there’s no trading?

It all depends on how it’s implemented. I’m withholding judgment until I see it, but layering an RNG system over an RNG system doesn’t thrill me.

I like Wildcards. They seem like an interesting way to improve players’ ability to get the specific cards they want from a set, while still keeping packs themselves random (in the way physical packs are, not the dumb way a lot of digital CCGs do packs) and not having to implement a “pity” drop rate boost or the like, and without doing the same crafting system as everyone else.

For me, the big variables going forward are the pull rates of Wildcards from packs, which are hopefully reasonable enough that you can guarantee at least the commons and uncommons you need with minimal effort, and whether or not WotC moves forward with including Arena pack codes in paper boosters. If I can buy a $100 booster box and get 36 digital boosters at no extra charge, I’m going to have a pretty strong incentive both to buy more paper boosters and to play the digital game.

They did talk about other formats like Pauper, Commander, Modern, etc. making it in at some point. That’s encouraging.

Really enjoying the new beta phase of MTG Arena. Took a while to find a deck that worked for me, but I’m having a lot of fun with a mono-red deck. Ramunap Ruins is still legal in Arena…

Is it still a closed beta? How does it compare to using MTGO?

Still in closed beta, yes.

If you mean the interface, it’s like night and day. The NDA has been lifted, so there are many streams on Twitch/Youtube to see it in action.

Arena doesn’t represent a full Standard environment, so it’s not surprising that it doesn’t have the ban list implemented yet.

I got into the beta during an NDA’d phase, but haven’t messed with it much regardless. Been playing plenty of the paper game lately, though! I’ve been fortunate enough to have my schedule line up well with our local Commander league, so I’ve been playing at least once a week.

The user interface certainly looks nicer. Although I’m so use to MTGO I’ve not totally internalised how to do everything.

I’m just glad they’ve got a client that can play real Magic, but I can actually recommended to people without feeling embarrassed. Also, being able to play Magic for free is nice.

Wow. That’s a lot of money.

I just started playing Magic a couple of months ago. I’ll be attending a Dominaria pre-release event at a local game store tomorrow morning, and I’m really looking forward to it. On the other hand, I’m a bit nervous since I’ve only ever played kitchen table magic with my wife and a friend, so I expect that I’m going to be quickly taught a lesson on how bad I actually am at this.

Anyone else excited about Dominaria? My only real experience is with Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan, so I really don’t have much basis for comparison, but from what I read online, it’s looking like a great set.

I haven’t played a game of Magic with my own cards for about four or five years. But I read the Magic subreddit every day, look at the spoilers, read the stories, all of it.

Prereleases are a blast, and you’re likely going to find a lot of people there in the same spot as you. It draws competitive people, but it draws probably an equal proportion of casual folks. I wouldn’t worry too much!

Dominaria looks like a lot of fun. I like all the legendary creatures. Lots of nostalgia. I’m waiting for Arena to open its doors a little more widely, but Dominaria makes me want to jump back in for a while.

I don’t think I’ve been excited for a Standard-legal set as much as Dominaria at any point since I started playing the game. I certainly haven’t been so excited by cards in the set that I made proxies to test a deck before the set’s release before now!

Supposedly we’re getting the Dominaria set in Arena next week. Looking over spoilers, I’m pretty pumped.

Yeah, this next set looks freaking amazing.

Dominaria drops into Arena today. Plus a bunch of other changes…looking forward to checking out the new draft events.