Warning to NEW Players

[Tero]

You're probably here after wondering why the game feels...so rigged...and makes you so angry when you think you made a good deck, played with it skillfully, and got rugged pulled by an opponent who should've had no chance at winning. So let me explain how this actually works (I played in Beta - Dominaria to Kaldheim).

1. This game is made with reward and frustration mechanics designed to get you hooked on opening packs (aka loot boxes). This incentivizes you to spend more money and the more you spend, the more you'll be successful until...they rug pull you at the right moment to get you to spend again.

2. The economy used to be viable free to play. Its not anymore. They slow boiled the frog to get as much money as they could from the minnows and sharks (small and medium spenders). They don't worry about the whales because they spend the money regardless of their success or not.

3. The game is rigged. There's no skill to the actual game of MTG (which has been ruined by powercreep btw) except maybe 1 of every 10 games that may actually be fair. The rest are either matchmaking rigged, hand rigged, deck manipulated, or you could even face a bot/employee posing as an opponent playing on the same level. Let me say this again. You are not good at this game because being good at it doesn't matter. You will get cheated by the Yu-gi-oh Exodia moment after your winstreak. Then you'll find yourself on a constant 1-3 win to loss ratio until you buy or quit the game for a while, or delete your deck and rebuild it.

4. Research all the MTG Arena is rigged videos on youtubes to see it for yourself. Don't give money to this company or put it into this game. You will be happier if you find a game that isn't designed to prey on you. You have been warned.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Origineel geplaatst door Hevy:

Origineel geplaatst door The Sylvan Learning Center:

To me this seems completely insane.

happens, not everyone can understand complex math problems.

It's not understanding.

It's just a very silly thing to work so hard on

[Gryfn]

Origineel geplaatst door Hevy:

Origineel geplaatst door Gryfn:

They explained why they introduced hand smoothing for bo1 and it has nothing to do with the shuffler not being random enough. In bo3, you can still win the match after losing a game with a bad hand by winning the other 2 games. There is no such luxury in bo1.

Hand smoothing in bo1 is basically giving you free automatic mulligans.

"MTG Arena has a system for randomizing opening hands in single-game matches that is different from the traditional method. We knew early on that the ability to play a meaningful single game of Magic would be an important part of the MTG Arena play options for the time-constrained player, but in testing, losing a single-game match after a mulligan felt worse than normal without the fallback plan of winning the other two games.

To mitigate this loss of the “foul to give” built into best-of-three matches, we wanted to randomize starting hands in a way that would reduce the frequency of mulligans, but without incentivizing mana-base construction outside the strategic norms of the game."

This tweet is worth looking at.
https://twitter.com/Sierkovitz/status/1640309986654814209

"
Jokes aside, the concept that shuffler is out to get you is ripe in Magic community. It is fed by desire to blame ones misplays or even plain bad luck on some malicious entity as it removes responsibility.

But there is plenty of data showing that shuffler is just fine:
...
But why do some people still believe in shuffler conspiracies?

There are several good reasons.

One is inability to take responsibility for defeat, as I mentioned. Loads of Magic players religiously avoid saying "I made a mistake". They will never become good players.

Ability to look for a problem in your play is essential for improvement in the game. Some can't do it through self love or entitlement. In my experience this type of player is also very good at making the game miserable for others. Avoid like a plague.
..."

feel free to look at the statistics I provided, which you clearly didnt read/understand. Literally the first sentence is quote: "Data gathered after this post shows an abrupt change in distribution precisely when War of the Spark was released on Arena, April 25, 2019. After that Arena update, all of the new data that I've looked at closely matches the expected distributions for a correct shuffle. I am working on a web page to display this data in customizable charts and tables. ETA for that is "Soon™". Sorry for the long delay before coming back to this."

which is precisely when hand smoothing was added. to clarify my point as its been clearly missed due to sheer ignorance or ones sense of knowledgement, the shuffler was rigged. the current data based on tracking programs shows it is arguably not rigged.

I read those posts a long time ago, clearly before you did because you only read them recently. The hand smoothing algorithm was added BEFORE War of the Spark. The hand smoothing algorithm does NOT affect the shuffler. Are you dense ?

[Zap]

Incredible that that guy is claiming it's a waste of time to try to figure out the logic of how matchmaking and card draws work while also claiming to be able to understand it? If he can "understand" it, then why doesn't he explain it? Too complicated? Pure shill gaslighting. Ask yourself if there is any standards-enforcing entity that is checking up on WOTC to ensure their algorithms are above board, in the consumers' interest, and truly random? Even if the shuffling is truly random, there remain the problems of the other practices in this game and in its economy. This game is beyond predatory with its microtransction model and its focus on doing everything it possibly can to get you to buy packs constantly.

When Arena started, the economy was less blatant, yet still problematic, as were the matching and overall play mechanics. That's not to speak of the horrendous problem of people intentionally wasting your time passive aggressively with outrageously long turn periods and timeouts, the lack of addressing that problem, lack of commendations for good play behavior, lack of any social element whatsoever aside from emotes which are so often used in a toxic manner.

Fast forward and metas have become imbalanced and power creep is out of control. They release sets so frequently now, and without the block system, there is no cohesion to the meta of the sets. They have to ban cards retroactively, destroying the play value of cards by digitally rewriting them now because they aren't taking their time with designing these sets to begin with--they are rushing them as fast as possible to get you to buy them. And on the paper magic side, take a look at what they've done with these "limited edition sets" and you'll understand why BofA analysts double downgraded Hasbro stock because WOTC is "destroying the long term value" of MTG and milking their customers.

Transformers in MTG cards? Seriously? Have fun trusting an algorithm to give you the cards you draw and giving you the opponents you play against. They have spoken openly about matching you based on "card strength" in your deck. To actually make a "good match" based on "card strength" is so complicated, due to the inherent complexity of this game and all its different abilities, triggers, types, etc., that they almost certainly cannot achieve it. And if they can achieve it, that means that there are only a handful of viable decks--which is a problem itself and a stale game as a result. You can see the result of their "matching" In Arena constructed by observing how your opponents' metas change dramatically and consistently when you pick different deck metas to play with. How about they just let people play random opponents, or opponents based on rank? No, they are afraid of new players losing too much, so they match based on "card strength." This is not Magic the Gathering. Playing with paper cards eliminates all the shenanigans of this nonsense cash grab attempt at milking MTG player nostalgia. Ever since Hasbro purchased MTG, it is all about squeezing every penny from their customers. The fact that there is still no dusting system is hilarious and just a testament to their anti-consumer practices. Let's be honest--MTG was always a gambling-type game, and that is the core problem. However, this "Arena" game is simply on another level of trying to make you gamble as much as possible. It's beyond unfortunate. At least it exposes the problem with TCG in general. If people want to subject themselves to this sort of nonsense, then go ahead. But debating it on here is largely pointless. Choose to do something productive with your time instead of gambling with an algorithm. Or don't. MTG is a game that's supposed to be played in person (you know, interacting with people in person, that thing we used to do a few years ago?) with paper cards that you shuffle and trade. This Arena game is a mockery of a kitchen table card game, and it's purely designed to milk your nostalgia and manipulate you into buying every in-game item they possibly can get you to buy. Have at it if that's your thing.

[Brother Alpha]

Origineel geplaatst door Hevy:

Origineel geplaatst door Berserkr:

They admitted that the shuffler was rigged? lol

basically, they added the draw 2 hands pick the better hand system. due to the shuffler not being random enough.

This is not why they did this.

Origineel geplaatst door Hevy:

feel free to look at the statistics I provided

Feel free to Google P-Hacking.

[Cypher Vorthos]

The most forward read of the current state of Arena I have ever seen. Good work. New players stay away. If you're curious about MTG, try playing the commander format with friends. Arena is not worth your time and money.

[Brother Alpha]

Origineel geplaatst door Cypher Vorthos:

The most forward read of the current state of Arena I have ever seen. Good work. New players stay away. If you're curious about MTG, try playing the commander format with friends. Arena is not worth your time and money.

What part of that was accurate? He thinks WotC is rigging the game so he only wins 25% of the time. This is conspiracy theory nonsense.

[Insomniac Jack]

Origineel geplaatst door Brother Alpha:

Origineel geplaatst door Cypher Vorthos:

The most forward read of the current state of Arena I have ever seen. Good work. New players stay away. If you're curious about MTG, try playing the commander format with friends. Arena is not worth your time and money.

What part of that was accurate? He thinks WotC is rigging the game so he only wins 25% of the time. This is conspiracy theory nonsense.

It's not "conspiracy theory nonsense" if it systematically happens to everyone. You might turn a blind eye to it, but you're in no position to ridicule anyone since you have no concrete evidence to back up your claim. Until they allow an impartial third party to analyze their algorithm, without any tampering, no one has definitive proof. That being said, their refusal to do so and the observed results speak for themselves.

[Jimison]

Origineel geplaatst door Insomniac Jack:

Origineel geplaatst door Brother Alpha:

What part of that was accurate? He thinks WotC is rigging the game so he only wins 25% of the time. This is conspiracy theory nonsense.

It's not "conspiracy theory nonsense" if it systematically happens to everyone. You might turn a blind eye to it, but you're in no position to ridicule anyone since you have no concrete evidence to back up your claim. Until they allow an impartial third party to analyze their algorithm, without any tampering, no one has definitive proof. That being said, their refusal to do so and the observed results speak for themselves.

It's not "conspiracy theory nonsense" He says as he also says "no one has definitive proof" Sounds pretty conspiracy theory nonsense to me LOLOL

[Weeload]

Origineel geplaatst door Brother Alpha:

Origineel geplaatst door Cypher Vorthos:

The most forward read of the current state of Arena I have ever seen. Good work. New players stay away. If you're curious about MTG, try playing the commander format with friends. Arena is not worth your time and money.

What part of that was accurate? He thinks WotC is rigging the game so he only wins 25% of the time. This is conspiracy theory nonsense.

Well. I play a green stompy in historic because I like that type of a deck. I met Elves at least 50% of the time and lost every single time because the lack of removal. I decided to make a grixis control deck so I had chance. Guess what? I rarely encounter Elves when I play that deck and always play against UB control or other boring fable control decks.

[Brother Alpha]

Origineel geplaatst door Weeload:

Origineel geplaatst door Brother Alpha:

What part of that was accurate? He thinks WotC is rigging the game so he only wins 25% of the time. This is conspiracy theory nonsense.

Well. I play a green stompy in historic because I like that type of a deck. I met Elves at least 50% of the time and lost every single time because the lack of removal. I decided to make a grixis control deck so I had chance. Guess what? I rarely encounter Elves when I play that deck and always play against UB control or other boring fable control decks.

Three points:

1.) You are matched up against decks based on similar number of meta-relevant rares and mythics.
2.) Why don't you have removal in your green stompy deck? Use Cosmic Hunger if you have any battles and there are a few battles that are really good in Mono-Green Stompy. Ram Through or maybe Primal Might if you use trample. Blizzard Brawl if you use Snow Lands.
3.) 50%? Really? You're exaggerating, aren't you.

[Brother Alpha]

Origineel geplaatst door Insomniac Jack:

Origineel geplaatst door Brother Alpha:

What part of that was accurate? He thinks WotC is rigging the game so he only wins 25% of the time. This is conspiracy theory nonsense.

It's not "conspiracy theory nonsense" if it systematically happens to everyone.

It doesn't happen to everyone. It mathematically can NOT happen to everyone. For every person being screwed over, someone else is being unfairly rewarded. That's the key point your side ignores.

Origineel geplaatst door Insomniac Jack:

but you're in no position to ridicule anyone since you have no concrete evidence to back up your claim.

Google burden of proof.

Origineel geplaatst door Insomniac Jack:

Until they allow an impartial third party to analyze their algorithm, without any tampering, no one has definitive proof. That being said, their refusal to do so and the observed results speak for themselves.

They don't want third-parties to have access to the matchmaking algorithm, because they don't want people gaming the system. It's as simply as that.

Only some conspiracy theorist would think this is unusual.

[Insomniac Jack]

There's no use reasoning with someone with a terminal case of cognitive dissonance, you can't be helped.

[Berserkr]

Origineel geplaatst door Weeload:

Well. I play a green stompy in historic because I like that type of a deck. I met Elves at least 50% of the time and lost every single time because the lack of removal. I decided to make a grixis control deck so I had chance. Guess what? I rarely encounter Elves when I play that deck and always play against UB control or other boring fable control decks.

Green has lots of fight cards some even bypass right through to a Planeswalker, and you also have reach and deathtouch

[Zap]

There will always be people defending these practices--let them have their algorithmic gambling game in peace if they choose to consent to the experience of Hasbro attempting to squeeze every penny from them. If gambling weren't an alluring and popular vice, then Las Vegas would not be successful. Wake up if you think arguing on a forum with those addicted to virtual gambling is going to make you feel "right" and that you've won the argument with them. Are you really arguing with them, or are you arguing with the part of yourself that still wants to pull the handle on this elaborate slot machine? The guy posting about the decks you play against changing based on the deck you pick is correct. MTG is a paper game meant to be shuffled and played in person with other human beings. It is not meant to be a slot machine experience behind a black box with impersonal toxic emotes being your only communication with the other "player." This game is a travesty of the experience of classic MTG. Classic MTG itself had elements of gambling and was problematic for that reason, but at least it was social, and at least at one time the block sets invited you to interesting fantasy worlds, an element to the game which is long gone by now. If people want to submit to this economy and this sad experience, so be it.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Origineel geplaatst door Ness:

There The guy posting about the decks you play against changing based on the deck you pick is correct.

You have to be so far gone out into la la land to believe this.