-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Magic the Gathering: Arena |OT| Tapped Out of Witty Titles
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Hey, I asked a few pages back, but figured I'd give it another shot- can we re-title the thread? Considering we're talking about playing the game at this point and not about the September release. It's basically an OT now.
I'm happy for that precedent since the "change" precedent in this case is "go back to a slightly more consumer friendly model that already existed in closed beta".
The Ravnica sets are all about gold (multi-color) cards, so they'll have a lot more multicolor cards than a normal set. Guilds of Ravnica is focused on 5 of the 10 guilds (2-color pairs):
- Dimir (blue-black)
- Selesnya (green-white)
- Izzet (blue-red)
- Golgari (black green)
- Boros (red-white)
The type of deck you're looking for is going to determine the sets you'll want to open since each set has different themes. That said, if you're looking to play and green you can probably start out with the black-green starter deck which has a saproling theme and modify it as you get new cards. Dominaria will be your best best for upgrading that deck since there's a saproling theme in that set.
I need someone to talk me out of what I'm thinking (or maybe talk me into it...)
I've got two copies of Muldrotha that I kinda want to make a janky self-mill value-town deck with. I'm thinking almost no blue, just the standard Golgari stuff (unless I get enough rares for some Hostage Takers). I just really want to by in a position where I can re-cast Ravenous Chupacabra again and again and again.
This sounds like a shitty idea. Should I go with it anyway?
I've got two copies of Muldrotha that I kinda want to make a janky self-mill value-town deck with. I'm thinking almost no blue, just the standard Golgari stuff (unless I get enough rares for some Hostage Takers). I just really want to by in a position where I can re-cast Ravenous Chupacabra again and again and again.
This sounds like a shitty idea. Should I go with it anyway?
Of course.
The biggest problem I see is that the deck would have a BUNCH of uncommons, rares, and mythics (because I want Undercity Lich in there) so it wouldn't be cheap/quick.
Can I see your list? I'm playing U/W Angels now, but I may go back to pure control if I keep running into grixis, I'm only not playing it now cause I despise the mirror, but it's pretty rare now, a few months ago it was an approach mirror every other game.
maybe wait on it a bit if you're so unsure. there's some brewing going around for sultai and muldrotha after ravnica hit the meta. golgari by itself is a safe bet for sure.
Thanks for the info. I've been out of the loop so long I found myself at a loss. My main deck when I played was just a plain black vampire deck but I honestly don't remember anything about it. I haven't got the black-green deck but I saw that should be coming to everyone today? The starter deck I've been using the most is the black-white one they gave out which has been really fun (so many tokens though, wow). The prospect of a fast and aggressive deck really appeals to me. I think I'll avoid the Ravnica packs for now then until I get a better grasp on what I'm going to try to do.
Thanks for the help!
Sort of! Yes, you could get all ten of the decks at the end of closed beta, but they were also different decks than the ones we get here. I'm of the opinion that the new ones are slightly more valuable than the ones we had before, and was pretty okay with only getting five of them, but definitely prefer that we're getting all ten.
I think I might be done with this already.
Just like normal MtG, it's a game where money wins. I can't compete with super powered decks that the matchmaking throws me against. Dudes with a constant stream of rare board wipes, planeswalkers every other turn, "take an extra turn after this one", etc. And it's not like I can be judicious with my money like the paper game because I can't buy the cards I want. I spent $25 and have next to nothing to show for it, whereas with paper I'd have a bunch of cards I specifically wanted.
Unless it gets some sort of Pauper variant for people that want to spend as little money as possible, I might be out.
Just like normal MtG, it's a game where money wins. I can't compete with super powered decks that the matchmaking throws me against. Dudes with a constant stream of rare board wipes, planeswalkers every other turn, "take an extra turn after this one", etc. And it's not like I can be judicious with my money like the paper game because I can't buy the cards I want. I spent $25 and have next to nothing to show for it, whereas with paper I'd have a bunch of cards I specifically wanted.
Unless it gets some sort of Pauper variant for people that want to spend as little money as possible, I might be out.
I spent 50€ and have enough wildcards to craft any deck i want. I don't want to be dismissiv, have you already spent all your wildcards?
I got nothing but crap. Getting anything but a wildcard in a pack feels awful when there's no trading.
I understand that WotC needs to make money, and it could be worse, but I don't think it's for me. I'd like to simply be able to put down some money and buy, if not the cards I want, then at least the wild cards I want.
Because buying 15 packs and getting 1 mythic wildcard when you need a bunch of mythics for the deck you want fucking sucks. Especially when I know that the mythics in question are cheap enough in paper that I could've bought them outright with that money.
Technically, you can buy rare WCs at a cost of about $5.50 each, with mythic and UC WCs coming along.
Well, then I might get back in when that happens.
Unless the prices really suck, but I guess that's inevitable when I'm looking at jank mythics that aren't as valuable as the top-tier ones. There's no way they won't end up costing more than they do with paper MtG.
No, it's happening right now. That's the price of buying packs, which slowly give you guaranteed rares and mythics, on top of whatever you get randomly by opening the packs. It's not a great deal compared to paper Magic since you don't own them, but it's alright.
Yeah, I had such a guy earlier, too. Like he dragged every step out as long as possible. People always find a way to be assholes, I guess.
Is it possible to craft a card I don't have any copies of, because all I've managed to do is make extra copies of cards I already own.
Oh right.
Honestly, packs feel kinda dumb now that wild cards are a thing. Like, you can open a rare that's either complete garbage or something you don't want for any of your decks, or you can open a wild card which is automatically exactly whatever you need.
Feels like an artifact of the paper game seeing as how those unused cards now have 0 use instead of just being eventual trade fodder.
Like, I got a Sacred Foundary in a pack, which would normally be great as I'd almost certainly be able to trade it for any other shockland that I needed, but here it's just sitting there doing nothing.
From a value standpoint a lot of people's frustration with arena are just a matter of impatience.
You want access to all of thr cards now and want to be competitive now. There's nothing wrong with that, it's understandable...but it's that tension they're using to monetize the game.
At 3 packs a week, 500 easy gold a day with a very low time investment spread out over 10 weeks and your free to play value will be far different. Now that they're handing out all ten free decks, you also have the free M19 packs, the PlayRavnica code packs...and there's to be honest a huge value in just dropping the 4.99 on the welcome pack. Even if you consider it a 5.00 game...that's a lot of value when taken in comparison to the paper game.
Perhaps I'm just not particularly obsessed with having everything right away? I play other games, do other things, and my favorite cards are likely to be in the next Ravnica set anyhow. By then I should have tons of extra cards, and I wouldn't be surprised if they offer some other value bundle for real money I pay for then...
The game definitely preys upon people's impatience to be competitive. I'd suggest to slow down a bit and it may feel more fun.
It probably helps my personal play experience that I used most of my free wild cards to tune up the w/b deck so that it wins consistently...but that isn't even some hyper competitive meta deck by any means and I'm only running singletons of things like legions landing and mavren fein.
Definitely acknowledge that no trading or ability to convert a larger quantity of Rares/mythical to wildcards feels a bit frustrating though. Not trying to dispute the validity of that frustration in the immediate moment.
You want access to all of thr cards now and want to be competitive now. There's nothing wrong with that, it's understandable...but it's that tension they're using to monetize the game.
At 3 packs a week, 500 easy gold a day with a very low time investment spread out over 10 weeks and your free to play value will be far different. Now that they're handing out all ten free decks, you also have the free M19 packs, the PlayRavnica code packs...and there's to be honest a huge value in just dropping the 4.99 on the welcome pack. Even if you consider it a 5.00 game...that's a lot of value when taken in comparison to the paper game.
Perhaps I'm just not particularly obsessed with having everything right away? I play other games, do other things, and my favorite cards are likely to be in the next Ravnica set anyhow. By then I should have tons of extra cards, and I wouldn't be surprised if they offer some other value bundle for real money I pay for then...
The game definitely preys upon people's impatience to be competitive. I'd suggest to slow down a bit and it may feel more fun.
It probably helps my personal play experience that I used most of my free wild cards to tune up the w/b deck so that it wins consistently...but that isn't even some hyper competitive meta deck by any means and I'm only running singletons of things like legions landing and mavren fein.
Definitely acknowledge that no trading or ability to convert a larger quantity of Rares/mythical to wildcards feels a bit frustrating though. Not trying to dispute the validity of that frustration in the immediate moment.
Are you talking about the wildcards? The answer is yes. I think your issue is that when you go to your library, or try to redeem a wildcard, you have to adjust the filter because it hides cards you don't own by default.
The problem that I've had is that I keep getting my shit pushed in by people that seemingly have spent the money to tune up their decks to be competitive, meaning I either pony up the cash or I keep losing. Which is never fun.
But that could be more of an issue with matchmaking than anything. I have no idea how it works.
I agree. In paper Magic, there's incentive to be competitive right away. Here, I think part of the fun is the build-up toward something great. I've spent $25 so far and who knows, I might spend more. But the grind hasn't been so bad so far.
Yeah, I don't really agree with the complaints on pricing in this game or inability to buy specific cards. Let's look at an economy breakdown on this thing:
$100 nets you 20000 gems, which translates to $10/2000 gems or $1/200 gems.
The cheapest packs you can buy are three packs for 600 gems, which nets you 24 cards for the cost of $3, including 3 rares. If you buy 6 packs for 1200 gems, you get 7 rares(6 in packs plus a wildcard) for $6. A single pack at the store may be $3.99 or $4.99 with 15 cards and a single rare, unless you luck out on a foil card. Buying singles on the other hand, a single rare dual land in the physical card game at a singles store/online will run $6-10, upwards of $15 for dual lands that are blue, which you can wildcard up plus have 6 extra rares for the same price in this game, along with 42 other commons and uncommons. I don't remember the mythic WC rate (30 packs maybe? Which would translate to 6000 gems or $30, which is price gougingly high for a janky phoenix, but roughly on par with top end planeswalkers at $20-25, plus you get 25-30 other rares and 0-5 other mythics to join the party.
Looking at the limited prices, Core 2019 is currently 750 gems($3.75 for 3 packs), competitive Guilds is 1500 gems($7.50 for 3 packs, dropping to 750 gems on the 11th of October), and Guilds sealed is 2000 gems($10 for 6 packs). The limited formats aren't "Arena Packs" of 8 cards, they are just like the physical ones of 15 cards, so you're getting upwards of 6 packs for $10, plus a rare wildcard of your choice(potentially $10+ in value on its own), along with all the other stuff in your draft/sealed pool. Compared to a physical purchase of 6 boosters for a sealed event, you'll be looking at $24-$30+ dollars at the store, plus taxes. The game maxes out at 4 copies of each card, after which they contribute to a magical vault algorithm which will eventually give you more wildcards to pick whatever you want with.
I haven't run all the numbers to figure out the exact specifics on price for building a tier one standard deck using only wildcards, but unless it runs like 12 planeswalkers there is a decent chance that you are financially way further ahead here than in paper, potentially even like half price or better?
Now, is the video game version as "worth it" as owning a physical card that you can turn around and sell in the future? Or that you can trade to the person across the table for that one rare you really need? Of course it isn't. Is the experience of sitting behind you're computer screen the same as sitting across the table from someone who's holding their cards and trying to disguise the disappointing fact they just hit their third land draw in a row? Absolutely not. But if you're someone who hasn't played a game of physical magic in ages and you just want to play a few games at 11 at night because you're bored, then Arena is potentially a very cost effective way to do this.
I personally think the asking price is super reasonable, but I also don't bat an eye at paying $20 for an expansion in Total Warhammer for a new race because a box of say 10 space marines or 20 goblins is going to cost more than that at a Games Workshop, and is not even close to a playable amount of pieces for the tabletop game. Arena is a way better approximation of MTG than Total Warhammer is of the tabletop game, so it's even more value to me in approximating that feeling/experience.
It all depends on the value you place ina digital product, but the fact that WOTC is offering this stuff at about a 1/3 discount compared to the physical cards seems like a reasonable ask to me.
$100 nets you 20000 gems, which translates to $10/2000 gems or $1/200 gems.
The cheapest packs you can buy are three packs for 600 gems, which nets you 24 cards for the cost of $3, including 3 rares. If you buy 6 packs for 1200 gems, you get 7 rares(6 in packs plus a wildcard) for $6. A single pack at the store may be $3.99 or $4.99 with 15 cards and a single rare, unless you luck out on a foil card. Buying singles on the other hand, a single rare dual land in the physical card game at a singles store/online will run $6-10, upwards of $15 for dual lands that are blue, which you can wildcard up plus have 6 extra rares for the same price in this game, along with 42 other commons and uncommons. I don't remember the mythic WC rate (30 packs maybe? Which would translate to 6000 gems or $30, which is price gougingly high for a janky phoenix, but roughly on par with top end planeswalkers at $20-25, plus you get 25-30 other rares and 0-5 other mythics to join the party.
Looking at the limited prices, Core 2019 is currently 750 gems($3.75 for 3 packs), competitive Guilds is 1500 gems($7.50 for 3 packs, dropping to 750 gems on the 11th of October), and Guilds sealed is 2000 gems($10 for 6 packs). The limited formats aren't "Arena Packs" of 8 cards, they are just like the physical ones of 15 cards, so you're getting upwards of 6 packs for $10, plus a rare wildcard of your choice(potentially $10+ in value on its own), along with all the other stuff in your draft/sealed pool. Compared to a physical purchase of 6 boosters for a sealed event, you'll be looking at $24-$30+ dollars at the store, plus taxes. The game maxes out at 4 copies of each card, after which they contribute to a magical vault algorithm which will eventually give you more wildcards to pick whatever you want with.
I haven't run all the numbers to figure out the exact specifics on price for building a tier one standard deck using only wildcards, but unless it runs like 12 planeswalkers there is a decent chance that you are financially way further ahead here than in paper, potentially even like half price or better?
Now, is the video game version as "worth it" as owning a physical card that you can turn around and sell in the future? Or that you can trade to the person across the table for that one rare you really need? Of course it isn't. Is the experience of sitting behind you're computer screen the same as sitting across the table from someone who's holding their cards and trying to disguise the disappointing fact they just hit their third land draw in a row? Absolutely not. But if you're someone who hasn't played a game of physical magic in ages and you just want to play a few games at 11 at night because you're bored, then Arena is potentially a very cost effective way to do this.
I personally think the asking price is super reasonable, but I also don't bat an eye at paying $20 for an expansion in Total Warhammer for a new race because a box of say 10 space marines or 20 goblins is going to cost more than that at a Games Workshop, and is not even close to a playable amount of pieces for the tabletop game. Arena is a way better approximation of MTG than Total Warhammer is of the tabletop game, so it's even more value to me in approximating that feeling/experience.
It all depends on the value you place ina digital product, but the fact that WOTC is offering this stuff at about a 1/3 discount compared to the physical cards seems like a reasonable ask to me.
My only worry investing in this is that it could shut down. Magic Origins was the new thing going forward until it wasn't. Will this be the same?
I don't see this quest in my client? I have around 10 pre-constructed decks from previous wins, so does this go up in 24 hours or so?
it's honestly baffling how they can run out of time extensions, and still get one every turn. Why the fuck is this a thing
Gonna have to plot out what I want to go with. Got the loop glitch, so I restarted on Dino again today and presumably the next three will be those repeats (UW Artifact, Pirate, Saproling) then I can finish off. Will probably evaluate my collection then.
Not focusing on competetive anyway, but may as well work to build something decent to lose less with while doing my dailies and the like.
Edit: I've done the prereleases for the sets from Ixalan on (missed rivals) and I liked the merfolk and dinos of Ixalan (and the pirates to a lesser degree), the Saprolings in Dominaria, and the Dimir in Ravnica (with some interest in Boros, too), and my general go-to colors are G/W. For if anyone has any relatively fair budgeted yet strong decks to recommend.
Not focusing on competetive anyway, but may as well work to build something decent to lose less with while doing my dailies and the like.
Edit: I've done the prereleases for the sets from Ixalan on (missed rivals) and I liked the merfolk and dinos of Ixalan (and the pirates to a lesser degree), the Saprolings in Dominaria, and the Dimir in Ravnica (with some interest in Boros, too), and my general go-to colors are G/W. For if anyone has any relatively fair budgeted yet strong decks to recommend.
I've spent $25 on Arena and I have everything I need for my two main decks, one Pirates and one Dimir. The open Beta has been available for one week. I imagine if I'd spent nothing at all, this might have taken me an extra week or two as I amassed the free packs.
With the hundreds of free cards chucked at you from the start and the ability to earn at least a couple of packs and single cards each day along with the Wild Card system, this is ridiculously good for beginners compared to real-life MTG.
Yes, right now whales with money can buy their way to having lots of rares, but two months from now, they're just going to have wasted that money because you'll have picked up those cards too without paying a penny.
With the hundreds of free cards chucked at you from the start and the ability to earn at least a couple of packs and single cards each day along with the Wild Card system, this is ridiculously good for beginners compared to real-life MTG.
Yes, right now whales with money can buy their way to having lots of rares, but two months from now, they're just going to have wasted that money because you'll have picked up those cards too without paying a penny.
Is there a reason I search for a particular card in the deck maker that I know is in Guilds of Ravnica but it doesn't show up? Its a card I don't own that Im trying to get with my wildcards. This has happened with a few cards
Have you changed the settings to include 'Not In Collection'?
It's always a possibility.
For what it's worth, though, it became clear really quickly among the Origins community that Origins was not going to be supported long term. Within a couple months at most there was already mention of "Magic Digital Next" as the true long term digital initiative from WOTC. Now that Arena has arrived it's very clear Wizards views this as a more serious project. It's 10 times more polished and definitely has actual development backing behind it. The experiments they're doing with paper card pack-ins would reassure me as well.
So yeah, there's no guarantee this game doesn't vanish. But I feel much more confident about it than I did about Origins early on.
Really the only thing keeping me from dumping money into it right now is the upcoming change to the Vault. Seems bad to go too hard when that system is currently so poor.
It's not really a waste if they get to play with actually good decks for two months.
Also, are you sure it's better value for beginners than paper or modo? The opportunity cost of spending a R/M wildcard on a jank casual card in Arena is a huge feels bad compared to being able to get jank cards for pennies.
One thing we can at least say is that WotC has never pushed one of their digital offerings as hard as they're pushing Arena, to the point that some physical products now have redeemable Arena codes. Also, they opened their own, internal game development studio for this one (Wizards Digital Games Studio) and are communicating much more with players than previously.
Still, it's an understandable concern. I can only imagine how upset I'd be if I dropped big money on Magic Duels only three years ago, then was told they're canceling it for a new game that I can't transfer any of my stuff to.
I'm trying to make a super spooky zombie deck with Lilith: Untouched by Death and Open the Gates (I've opened both of these- two of the latter). Could this work?
Has someone figured out the approximate dollar value of the wildcards based on how many packs you have to buy to get each one?
Yeah, you can craft any one deck you want. And then subsequent decks will drain everything you have. I'm not bitching but people should know it will take a crapload of packs to be competitive. Once you start rolling on sets of creatures and lands those wildcards go quick.
Picture link is broken (at least on my end)
Is $50 even enough for most good decks? How many WCs do you actually get from that?
Is $50 even enough for most good decks? How many WCs do you actually get from that?
User Banned (3 Days): Inappropriate language and numerous accumulated infractions
Also, this meta is already slightly boring. From the counter whores to the weenie tokens, I think it is either join them or just rot at this point. There doesn't seem to be room for creativity in here all that much.
If a counter deck goes first he can basically draw his way through his deck until he casts a planeswalker. It's such a simplistic strategy, but it does work incredibly well because there are so few creatures that can't be countered.
Will be interesting to see how builds try to work at this kind of meta deck. What do you guys think works best against the counter/PW whores?
If a counter deck goes first he can basically draw his way through his deck until he casts a planeswalker. It's such a simplistic strategy, but it does work incredibly well because there are so few creatures that can't be countered.
Will be interesting to see how builds try to work at this kind of meta deck. What do you guys think works best against the counter/PW whores?
You beat draw-go control the same way people have been beating it for over two decades: playing efficient on curve threats and avoiding being on the receiving end of as many two-for-ones as possible. The standard 5-0 decklists posted earlier has some aggressive w/r and w/g decklists you should check out.
Decks that run a lot of medium threats and are fast can beat a counter deck. Like Boros. A white control deck can shut down tokens, probably Golgari also.
Just go for black splash, add 4 times assasins trophy and 2 vraska, relic seekers and watch your enemies fold even harder lol.