The Worst POS Matchmaking In Any Digital MTG Game I've Played

[TribalSage]

I've been playing MTG since unlimited in 1993 with real cards and I've played multiple digital MTG games as well over the years. I currently have around 800 hours on MTG Arena on Steam, plus many hours on the game long before it came to Steam. I obviously have loved playing MTG for a very, very long time. For the last several years MTG Arena is the only version of MTG I've played.

The matchmaking in MTG Arena is the worst aggressive POS system I've ever encountered in an MTG digital game. I play a large range of deck types, so I'm going to provide an extremely simple example of what is severely wrong with the matchmaking. For this example I'll be using a mill deck.

I haven't used any of the 3 mill decks I have for about 4 weeks now. I haven't seen Gaea's Blessing in at least a month, until today. I played one of my mill decks for 5 games and in every single one of those matches it puts me against an opponent that used Gaea's Blessing in their deck. This matchmaking system is so ridiculously broken that it's actually destroyed my love for this great game known as Magic The Gathering.

[Free Palestine]

Originally posted by TribalSage:

I've been playing MTG since unlimited in 1993 with real cards and I've played multiple digital MTG games as well over the years. I currently around 800 hours for playtime on MTG Arena on Steam, plus I played it long before it ever got to Steam. I obviously have loved playing MTG for a very, very long time. MTG Arena is the only version of MTG I've played for awhile now.

The matchmaking in MTG Arena is the worst aggressive POS system I've ever encountered in an MTG digital game. I play a large range of deck types so I'm going to provide an extremely simple example of what is severely wrong with the matchmaking. For this example I'll be using a mill deck.

I haven't used any of the 3 mill decks I have for about 4 weeks now. I haven't seen Gaea's Blessing in at least a month, until today. I played one of my mill decks for 5 games and in every single one of those matches it put me against an opponent that used Gaea's Blessing in their deck. This matchmaking system is so ridiculously broken that it's actually destroyed my love for this great game known as Magic The Gathering.

It's not broken. It's working as intended. It's designed as a dopamine machine to keep you playing. That's why it does what it does.

[Luso]

The matchmaking is bad enough, then you got the shuffler holding the hands of the agro decks. With zero extra card draw they can draw manifold mouse, multiple sheltered by ghosts and somehow enough lands to play it all...oh and they always go first.

Its such as shame this artificial game manipulation has taken over every online game now

[ʍolɟ ǝɥʇ ǝsɹǝʌǝɹ]

That's toxic matchmaking. Wtf is wrong with them

[Arma]

It's crazy honestly.

The thing is people will defend the game until they die but the truth of the matter is the game rigs games to make you lose to keep you playing. The amount of times you can get both land flooded in one game causing you to lose only to get land starved the following game with the exact same deck is just beyond belief.

If I play my white-green buff deck going vs blue players is super rare however if I change to my White flying deck boom suddenly the game is filled with nothing but blue flying counterspell decks.

If I play my red burn deck suddenly the game is filled with white healing decks.

It's always funny because the deck that I built that got me to Diamond I played vs my friend last night best of 3. In the first game I drew 10 lands and 3 non land cards. The 2nd game I won. The third game I lost as I ended up getting 4 forests while my entire hand was filled with cards that needed planes. We played without my friend attacking to see how long it would take to draw a plane. I ended up basically drawing a total of 18 cards before I saw a planes, I ended up drawing 2 more forests during those draws. (I have 24 land in the deck 10 forests, 10 plains, 2 mixed land and 2 evolving wilds)

Shows you how different ranked plays out compared to say playing with a friend where a lot of the other systems aren't in play. If my deck was that janky in ranked I would of never won enough to get into Diamond.

[TribalSage]

Originally posted by Luso:

The matchmaking is bad enough, then you got the shuffler holding the hands of the agro decks. With zero extra card draw they can draw manifold mouse, multiple sheltered by ghosts and somehow enough lands to play it all...oh and they always go first.

Its such as shame this artificial game manipulation has taken over every online game now

Yes, unfortunately the shuffler is another issue. I know a lot of people will give people crap when they make comments about the shuffler and it's issues. A digital shuffler can be tuned by game develops to make things appear more or less often. Of course the goal is to simulate a random shuffle like you would with real cards, but it often doesn't seem that way in MTG Arena. If you play MTG Online, or if you've played Magic Duels for example, you get a more realistic shuffle. If you've played these two games, you'll understand what I mean by this.

[John-Silver]

If you're playing historic blessing has been a thing for years now?

[TribalSage]

Originally posted by John-Silver:

If you're playing historic blessing has been a thing for years now?

If a specific card has been available in MTG Arena for years is irrelevant to this discussion.

[John-Silver]

Originally posted by TribalSage:

Originally posted by John-Silver:

If you're playing historic blessing has been a thing for years now?

If a specific card has been available in MTG Arena for years is irrelevant to this discussion.

Mill's been a thing for years, is it irrelevant?

[TribalSage]

Originally posted by John-Silver:

Originally posted by TribalSage:

If a specific card has been available in MTG Arena for years is irrelevant to this discussion.

Mill's been a thing for years, is it irrelevant?

Yes, it's irrelevant to this discussion. TBH based on both your comments I don't think you understand what this thread is about. On that note, I won't be responding anymore to your comments. I hope you have a good day though.

[Free Palestine]

Originally posted by Arma:

It's crazy honestly.

The thing is people will defend the game until they die but the truth of the matter is the game rigs games to make you lose to keep you playing. The amount of times you can get both land flooded in one game causing you to lose only to get land starved the following game with the exact same deck is just beyond belief.

If I play my white-green buff deck going vs blue players is super rare however if I change to my White flying deck boom suddenly the game is filled with nothing but blue flying counterspell decks.

If I play my red burn deck suddenly the game is filled with white healing decks.

It's always funny because the deck that I built that got me to Diamond I played vs my friend last night best of 3. In the first game I drew 10 lands and 3 non land cards. The 2nd game I won. The third game I lost as I ended up getting 4 forests while my entire hand was filled with cards that needed planes. We played without my friend attacking to see how long it would take to draw a plane. I ended up basically drawing a total of 18 cards before I saw a planes, I ended up drawing 2 more forests during those draws. (I have 24 land in the deck 10 forests, 10 plains, 2 mixed land and 2 evolving wilds)

Shows you how different ranked plays out compared to say playing with a friend where a lot of the other systems aren't in play. If my deck was that janky in ranked I would of never won enough to get into Diamond.

Well said and true. Yes.

[Free Palestine]

Originally posted by TribalSage:

Originally posted by John-Silver:

If you're playing historic blessing has been a thing for years now?

If a specific card has been available in MTG Arena for years is irrelevant to this discussion.

There are a number of people to block. They will try to troll and derail. I'd just hit block if I were you like I did.

[John-Silver]

Originally posted by TribalSage:

Originally posted by John-Silver:

Mill's been a thing for years, is it irrelevant?

Yes, it's irrelevant to this discussion. TBH based on both your comments I don't think you understand what this thread is about. On that note, I won't be responding anymore to your comments. I hope you have a good day though.

Should I have quoted just the part of the post I was reacting to, it should be clear that my first remark was aimed at the bit about running into blessing, which again has been a staple for a very long time and has been a go-to card for protecting against mill, mill decks have become much more rampant over the last handful of sets, makes sense you're going to see more of the answers on a regular, running into multiple blessings back to back in a era where mill's more supported than ever isn't a sign of "rigged matchmaking".

Adding that i'm not refuting that the matchmaker is out to get people, their's obviously an algorithm that determines your opponent, I just don't believe half the things people blame on it.

[Kurt Angle's Neck]

One thing you will never see in any of these threads claiming that the game is rigged: Evidence.

[ʍolɟ ǝɥʇ ǝsɹǝʌǝɹ]

I'm not good a building mill decks, and usually end up building ones that win normal.

Can you exile gais blessing at instant speed as it hits the graveyard with a soul lantern or a Cauldron. There's also the black leyline that exiles instead. Ghost gun too

Maybe try a 3 match game with these in sideboard.

Idk what the color identity of your deck is in order to give you suggestions.

[TribalSage]

Originally posted by Free Palestine:

Originally posted by TribalSage:

If a specific card has been available in MTG Arena for years is irrelevant to this discussion.

There are a number of people to block. They will try to troll and derail. I'd just hit block if I were you like I did.

Yeah, of course. Unfortunately it doesn't stop an account or any of the alts from commenting or replying though. It would be nice to see Valve actually make it so the block does this one day.