A Veteran Paper Player's Thoughts On This Game

[swagen2167]

First some background so I'm not just some noob new to Magic.

I started playing around Revised. I think it was late 1994. I graduated from Standard to Legacy when Standard started to bore me. Was able to hold my own against most opponents and won quite a few tournaments. Okay, I know how to play Magic.

So far, I'm finding playing this game itself easy. I win most of my matches. Of course I run into a lot of opponents who seem to scoop, sometimes before they even play a land. I'm not sure I understand that, but whatever.

For the most part, I like this game. Of course I love playing Magic itself so I am quite biased.

Having said that, there are things about this game that bug me a little. Not enough to stop playing but enough that I felt the need to vent just a little.

1. It's obvious that opening hands are somewhat rigged. People here call it hand smoothing. I call it a shame. Not every hand should be playable. Sometimes, in the real world, you just get no land or too much land. That doesn't happen here. Some people would say that's a good thing. I'm not so sure I agree. Deciding whether or not to mulligan should be harder than it is here. I had to mulligan ONCE in all the games I've played. I think a realistic hand draw based on real probability and not on some algo would make this a better game,

2. The reward system discourages playing this game a lot. I sometimes run out of things to shoot for early in the day long before I want to stop playing. But what's the point when a win gets you nothing at some point?

3. The rewards themselves, for free players, are almost meaningless. With all the cards I've won (most early on) only 2 were worth putting in my RW deck and those 2 marginally made the deck better. In fact, it's arguable if they even DID make the deck better. As they are one ofs, I've yet to use them. Mostly because this deck is so fast that the game ends usually before those cards are even drawn, let alone cast.

4. Then there is the player base itself. Sometimes I get the feeling that I'm playing against a bot. Two matches today, it took way too much time for them to decide whether to mulligan or not. And the one player scooped on his turn before he even played a card and even knew what I was playing. This leads me to believe that they know that most decks in this format (Standard) are very fast. In my experience, they are lightning fast. Some are even faster than my deck. The ramp I've seen on some of these decks is insane. Point is, I've played some matches where I didn't feel I deserved to win based on how quickly some players quit.

Having said all that, Magic The Gathering has been my favorite game for over 30 years. I have some good memories. I spent a lot of money on cards and at one point owned every legal Legacy top tier deck. Those were incredibly fun days. Every week I would bring a different deck to our Legacy shop. When they closed, I cried. Literally.

I eventually sold all my cards for a crap ton of money simply because there was no place left to play around me. I don't even know what the state of Magic is these days as I haven't really followed either the Standard or Legacy meta in a long time. I'd like to think the game is still healthy but it wouldn't surprise me to find out it's not. Like I said, I'm biased but I can understand if people don't like the current Standard meta. Some of these decks are insane. I don't think the best Legacy decks could keep up with them.

In closing, I think the reward system needs to be seriously revamped so as not to discourage f2p players. Though it is doubtful that will ever happen.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on all this. What I said that you agree with as well as what I said that you don't agree with.

[Free Palestine]

Publicado originalmente por swagen2167:

Okay, so I've got 150 hours into this game and I'm starting to get a feel for things. I've got a little over 20,000 gold saved up but don't know what to spend it on yet, if anything. I still need to do some research on my options.

As for the battles themselves and the meta that seems to be shaping up, I have found about a half dozen viable decks. The power creep, compared to early magic, is considerable. I don't remember ever seeing so many 6/6 and 8/8 creatures by turn 3 or 4. And the spawning capabilities of the current sets is off the charts. My own deck, as cheap as it is, just recently played...

Turn 1 - Goblin with haste.
Turn 2 - Dragon Fodder. 3 Goblins total now.
Turn 3 - Howlsquad Heavy - 5 Goblins total after attack.
Turn 4 - Krenko Mob Boss - 12 Goblins total after using his ability. All with haste.
Turn 5 - Game over

I actually fulfilled the quest "Attack with 20 creatures at once." There was a time that wouldn't have been possible, let alone on turn 5. So obviously the game has been buffed to ridiculous levels. I'm not sure how I feel about it except to say this. We're all on the same level playing field, depending on what deck you choose to play. If you choose to play a slow, control deck, you better be prepared to handle a crap ton of creatures coming at you quickly. If not, then play a different deck. It's that simple.

Right now, with my current deck which isn't bad, I win a little over half my matches.

In this game, that's all anybody can expect.

Keep your gold, IMO. There will be a better set coming out eventually. This isn't it.

[Zlehtnoba]

IMO, it does not make sense to try building a top constructed set until you have enough resources to build a few of them. At least, I get bored playing the same deck over and over. There's a learning curve, then the enjoyment, and then it becomes boring.

[swagen2167]

Publicado originalmente por Zlehtnoba:

IMO, it does not make sense to try building a top constructed set until you have enough resources to build a few of them. At least, I get bored playing the same deck over and over. There's a learning curve, then the enjoyment, and then it becomes boring.

The boring part I guess depends on your love for this game. For me, even at its worst, Magic The Gathering has always been my favorite game since the first day I started playing it. You can't imagine how sad I was when my local play group was no more. Selling my cards was the hardest thing I ever did. No, it's doubtful I'll ever get bored with this game, no matter how "bad" it gets.

[ChaffyExpert]

Any people reading this, STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME. IT's so toxic and unfun.

and somehow, the forums are even worse, you will be called a troll, for merely talking on the forum, and harassed by certain users that can say whatever they want without consequence.

[Free Palestine]

Publicado originalmente por ChaffyExpert:

Any people reading this, STAY AWAY FROM THIS GAME. IT's so toxic and unfun.

and somehow, the forums are even worse, you will be called a troll, for merely talking on the forum, and harassed by certain users that can say whatever they want without consequence.

It's only your avatar.

[Zlehtnoba]

Publicado originalmente por swagen2167:

Publicado originalmente por Zlehtnoba:

IMO, it does not make sense to try building a top constructed set until you have enough resources to build a few of them. At least, I get bored playing the same deck over and over. There's a learning curve, then the enjoyment, and then it becomes boring.

The boring part I guess depends on your love for this game. For me, even at its worst, Magic The Gathering has always been my favorite game since the first day I started playing it. You can't imagine how sad I was when my local play group was no more. Selling my cards was the hardest thing I ever did. No, it's doubtful I'll ever get bored with this game, no matter how "bad" it gets.

I love the game because of the constant change it undergoes with any new expansion. What I get bored with is the metagame matches when it's aggro against aggro, with little or no real decisions. There can be good games among those, but many are not.

As I said before, I play Limited, for the variety. But it can be quite expensive.

[swagen2167]

There are days where this game is just plain stupid. Like staring down at 8 14/14 tokens manufactured by a bunch of dumb artifacts. Yeah, just plain stupid. And I wonder why I have 1 win the whole day.

[swagen2167]

Seriously? A 10/10 for 5 green?

[anaris]

magic is for sure more powerful than it was, but the official design position is that they were way too cautious in the early sets and the game handles the increased power level just fine (and the general community position is that creatures in the 90s were severely disadvantaged against spellslinging decks)

[swagen2167]

Publicado originalmente por anaris:

magic is for sure more powerful than it was, but the official design position is that they were way too cautious in the early sets and the game handles the increased power level just fine (and the general community position is that creatures in the 90s were severely disadvantaged against spellslinging decks)

No argument from me. But I'm just not used to the power creep being off the charts. It almost forces you to play the same kind of deck. Doesn't that tend to stifle creativity?

[swagen2167]

You know what? I'm ready to quit playing.

[Frost]

Publicado originalmente por swagen2167:

Publicado originalmente por anaris:

magic is for sure more powerful than it was, but the official design position is that they were way too cautious in the early sets and the game handles the increased power level just fine (and the general community position is that creatures in the 90s were severely disadvantaged against spellslinging decks)

No argument from me. But I'm just not used to the power creep being off the charts. It almost forces you to play the same kind of deck. Doesn't that tend to stifle creativity?

Yup. There's a pixie bounce deck that's been around since OTJ released. With each new release it just keeps getting better, and now that deck is all over standard. That's how it has been for a while now; meta decks become even stronger with some cards from the new set, which stifles creation of new decks using more interesting cards.

If you look at mono red, you'll see sets like BLM & DSK catapulted it into absurdity. The good decks just get better and better, while decks that are below the top tier generally just get worse as a result. That's why there's a massive over-representation of certain colors and decks. There's so many different versions of red that around 6/7 of the top 10 decks with the highest win-rate consist of the same red cards. 8 out of 10 are all aggro decks, and the only two decks remaining are domain and the pixie deck that I mentioned. It doesn't get much better if you ignore the top 10 either.

Standard is in an extremely rough place at the moment. DFT is a dead set considering the current meta, TDM is looking like it is going to be a slower set which means it is also DOA when it comes to creativity.

[anaris]

There's so many different versions of red that around 6/7 of the top 10 decks with the highest win-rate consist of the same red cards

if u look at the pro tour this is just not true

[The_Dybbuk_King]

Publicado originalmente por swagen2167:

You know what? I'm ready to quit playing.

Cool story bro

Publicado originalmente por Frost:

Publicado originalmente por swagen2167:

No argument from me. But I'm just not used to the power creep being off the charts. It almost forces you to play the same kind of deck. Doesn't that tend to stifle creativity?

Yup. There's a pixie bounce deck that's been around since OTJ released. With each new release it just keeps getting better, and now that deck is all over standard. That's how it has been for a while now; meta decks become even stronger with some cards from the new set, which stifles creation of new decks using more interesting cards.

If you look at mono red, you'll see sets like BLM & DSK catapulted it into absurdity. The good decks just get better and better, while decks that are below the top tier generally just get worse as a result. That's why there's a massive over-representation of certain colors and decks. There's so many different versions of red that around 6/7 of the top 10 decks with the highest win-rate consist of the same red cards. 8 out of 10 are all aggro decks, and the only two decks remaining are domain and the pixie deck that I mentioned. It doesn't get much better if you ignore the top 10 either.

Standard is in an extremely rough place at the moment. DFT is a dead set considering the current meta, TDM is looking like it is going to be a slower set which means it is also DOA when it comes to creativity.

tl;dr "I'm just going to make up stuff and push it as fact"

[swagen2167]

Publicado originalmente por The_Dybbuk_King:

Publicado originalmente por swagen2167:

You know what? I'm ready to quit playing.

Cool story bro

Publicado originalmente por Frost:

Yup. There's a pixie bounce deck that's been around since OTJ released. With each new release it just keeps getting better, and now that deck is all over standard. That's how it has been for a while now; meta decks become even stronger with some cards from the new set, which stifles creation of new decks using more interesting cards.

If you look at mono red, you'll see sets like BLM & DSK catapulted it into absurdity. The good decks just get better and better, while decks that are below the top tier generally just get worse as a result. That's why there's a massive over-representation of certain colors and decks. There's so many different versions of red that around 6/7 of the top 10 decks with the highest win-rate consist of the same red cards. 8 out of 10 are all aggro decks, and the only two decks remaining are domain and the pixie deck that I mentioned. It doesn't get much better if you ignore the top 10 either.

Standard is in an extremely rough place at the moment. DFT is a dead set considering the current meta, TDM is looking like it is going to be a slower set which means it is also DOA when it comes to creativity.

tl;dr "I'm just going to make up stuff and push it as fact"

I'm not so sure it's far from the truth. Personally, I'm getting tired of "Turn 4, pump out as many 6/6s as I can with trample and haste." It gets old after a while.