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.

[Gryfn]

Think about it. Why does Teferi have both a weight of 1800 and a weight of 45 in the same spreadsheet if it can not be included more than once in a Commander deck ? The same spreadsheet gives Hallowed Fountain a weight of 0 in both commander and non-commander.

[anaris]

because the deck and the commander are on different scales lol

[anaris]

the highest possible total of the 100 cards probably adds up to the same number as the highest possible commander lol it's not a conspiracy it's just coding

[Gryfn]

You cannot have Teferi as a commander and also in the deck, lol.

[anaris]

you understand how the spreadsheet was made, right?

[anaris]

Gryfn eredeti hozzászólása:

Think about it. Why does Teferi have both a weight of 1800 and a weight of 45 in the same spreadsheet if it can not be included more than once in a Commander deck ? The same spreadsheet gives Hallowed Fountain a weight of 0 in both commander and non-commander.

because he can be run as a commander and in the deck.

[anaris]

he's weighted 45 if you have to draw to him and 1800 if you can cast him repeatedly, and the numbers are probably far apart because the two aren't on the same scale. What are you "asking"? like what is your expected answer to that rhetorical question?

[Gryfn]

Do you understand that you cannot have Teferi as a Commander and also in the main deck ? So why does he also have a value of 45 ? Why are lands like Hallowed Fountain given both a commander AND a non-commander value ?

[anaris]

????

You can run teferi in your deck. He's legal in brawl?????

[anaris]

What do you think it is that prevents you running Teferi in your deck?

[anaris]

45 is his weight if you run him in say, the popular superfriends shell that uses Sisay as a commander.

[Gryfn]

Lol, have you ever played Brawl ? You can only have 1 copy of a card as a commander. You cannot have 2 copies of Teferi in your Brawl deck if he is your commander.

[anaris]

Why would you need two copies? 45 is his weight if he's in the 100, and 1800 is his weight if he's your commander. What is confusing you exactly?

[anaris]

anaris eredeti hozzászólása:

45 is his weight if you run him in say, the popular superfriends shell that uses Sisay as a commander.

you understand this right?

[Gryfn]

When they already have values for commander and non-commander, why would you think the non-commander values would be different for non-brawl decks ?