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.

[swagen2167]

anaris lähetti viestin:

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

Do you know how to calculate the probability of getting nothing but 4 and 5 drops in an opening hand? Well I do. I was a math major in college. The probability, given the above distribution, is very low for just one hand. Two consecutive hands? Even lower. Three consecutive hands? Even lower. Know how many consecutive hands I've had of nothing but 4 and 5 drops? Sorry, mathematically this is highly unlikely.

But the guy is right. I should just ignore you.

yes. I just did it. it's 42% of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hands hahah

You better work on your math because you're wrong. And if I have to do the math right here to prove how wrong you are and how stupid you look, I will.

[nul]

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

EVERY card in my opening hand a 4 or 5 drop.

mulligan

but also, if this happens, you definitely have too many of them.
My main standard deck (kind of outdated too) only has 4x four mana cards, and 4x six mana cards. The rest are 3 and under. Majority of them 2.

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

And please don't tell me to put together a better deck. That's the problem. I haven't been playing long enough to get the cards I need to put together a better deck unless, again, I dig into my wallet and buy them.

Not going to happen.

I will admit this part of the game can be very frustrating. Some tips for a free to play player that wants to brew your own decks...
1. Only go for 4 wins a day. They give the largest amounts of gold before you start getting low amounts and random cards. By playing less, you remove the amount of stress in trying to meet difficult goals when your decks aren't that good.
2. Daily quests. If a quest is ever 500 gold, reroll it for a chance of getting a 750 gold quest.
3. Formats. If your standard deck currently isn't any good, it sucks. It really does. Try making a low powered 1-2 color brawl deck (matchmaking will try to pair you by deck weight). Or try playing Starter Deck Duel. It's a good way of getting your "play x of these two color cards" quests done, while also having a reasonably leveled play experience.

[swagen2167]

nul lähetti viestin:

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

EVERY card in my opening hand a 4 or 5 drop.

mulligan

but also, if this happens, you definitely have too many of them.
My main standard deck (kind of outdated too) only has 4x four mana cards, and 4x six mana cards. The rest are 3 and under. Majority of them 2.

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

And please don't tell me to put together a better deck. That's the problem. I haven't been playing long enough to get the cards I need to put together a better deck unless, again, I dig into my wallet and buy them.

Not going to happen.

I will admit this part of the game can be very frustrating. Some tips for a free to play player that wants to brew your own decks...
1. Only go for 4 wins a day. They give the largest amounts of gold before you start getting low amounts and random cards. By playing less, you remove the amount of stress in trying to meet difficult goals when your decks aren't that good.
2. Daily quests. If a quest is ever 500 gold, reroll it for a chance of getting a 750 gold quest.
3. Formats. If your standard deck currently isn't any good, it sucks. It really does. Try making a low powered 1-2 color brawl deck (matchmaking will try to pair you by deck weight). Or try playing Starter Deck Duel. It's a good way of getting your "play x of these two color cards" quests done, while also having a reasonably leveled play experience.

Thanks. Question: Is there a way to actually create a deck from scratch? Right now, the only thing I see is going into decks, picking one that exists and modifying it. I'd like to build one from scratch. Can I?

[swagen2167]

nul lähetti viestin:

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

EVERY card in my opening hand a 4 or 5 drop.

mulligan

but also, if this happens, you definitely have too many of them.
My main standard deck (kind of outdated too) only has 4x four mana cards, and 4x six mana cards. The rest are 3 and under. Majority of them 2.

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

And please don't tell me to put together a better deck. That's the problem. I haven't been playing long enough to get the cards I need to put together a better deck unless, again, I dig into my wallet and buy them.

Not going to happen.

I will admit this part of the game can be very frustrating. Some tips for a free to play player that wants to brew your own decks...
1. Only go for 4 wins a day. They give the largest amounts of gold before you start getting low amounts and random cards. By playing less, you remove the amount of stress in trying to meet difficult goals when your decks aren't that good.
2. Daily quests. If a quest is ever 500 gold, reroll it for a chance of getting a 750 gold quest.
3. Formats. If your standard deck currently isn't any good, it sucks. It really does. Try making a low powered 1-2 color brawl deck (matchmaking will try to pair you by deck weight). Or try playing Starter Deck Duel. It's a good way of getting your "play x of these two color cards" quests done, while also having a reasonably leveled play experience.

You say it's too many but here is the math. 37 spells. 25 3 or less mana. 12 4 or more. The probability of getting nothing but 4 or 5 mana spells in an opening hand, given you get 3 land is as follows.

12/37 x 11/36 x 10/35 x 9/34.

That comes out to 0.7% chance

Two consecutive hands like that.

0.005%

And I have played large curves playing green where I'd play 8 elves and everything else 4 drops or more. Those are large curve decks. This is not a large curve deck by any stretch of the imagination.

[nul]

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

Thanks. Question: Is there a way to actually create a deck from scratch? Right now, the only thing I see is going into decks, picking one that exists and modifying it. I'd like to build one from scratch. Can I?

In the Decks screen, there should be a big [+] button on the left side under "My Decks". Click that, and it will ask you to select a format with a purple dropdown. (If you don't select one here, it will assume Alchemy by default)

[anaris]

...you need to use the hypergeometric probabilities, but in fairness I used 2 or more rather than 4 or more bc i forget you said 3 lands lol

[anaris]

4 or more in ur opening hand is 2.5% tho

[swagen2167]

anaris lähetti viestin:

4 or more in ur opening hand is 2.5% tho

Please, you're just making yourself look stupid. I've done the math above. I suggest you look at it and learn something about probability.

[swagen2167]

nul lähetti viestin:

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

Thanks. Question: Is there a way to actually create a deck from scratch? Right now, the only thing I see is going into decks, picking one that exists and modifying it. I'd like to build one from scratch. Can I?

In the Decks screen, there should be a big [+] button on the left side under "My Decks". Click that, and it will ask you to select a format with a purple dropdown. (If you don't select one here, it will assume Alchemy by default)

Thanks. But where are the basic lands? I don't see any way of adding them to the deck.

[swagen2167]

anaris lähetti viestin:

4 or more in ur opening hand is 2.5% tho

Here is the math again.

You say it's too many but here is the math. 37 spells. 25 3 or less mana. 12 4 or more. The probability of getting nothing but 4 or 5 mana spells in an opening hand, given you get 3 land is as follows.

12/37 x 11/36 x 10/35 x 9/34.

That comes out to 0.7% chance

Two consecutive hands like that.

0.005%

Okay, got it? Damn has our educational system failed us.

[Kurt Angle's Neck]

Bro your math is not even close to being correct, how are you a math major?
Why are you using your total number of available spells as the bottom number of your fractions rather than the current size of deck? You have no clue what you're doing...

[nul]

swagen2167 lähetti viestin:

nul lähetti viestin:

In the Decks screen, there should be a big [+] button on the left side under "My Decks". Click that, and it will ask you to select a format with a purple dropdown. (If you don't select one here, it will assume Alchemy by default)

Thanks. But where are the basic lands? I don't see any way of adding them to the deck.

To the right of the search bar, you should see some circular icons. 1 for each color, 1 for colorless, 1 for multicolor (if no other colors are selected, it will show all multicolor cards. if other colors are selected, it will only include multicolor cards that include all of the selected colors)
Then right after that is lands. If you click that, the cards display should change. First it will show a "suggest lands" button, which will try to automatically assign basic lands. Then right after that should be the basics in the chosen colors from the other circular icons. So long as you don't have "multicolor" selected, or only colorless. Then after that it shows the rest of the mono color lands, then the multicolor, then the colorless.

The last button lets you choose some more advanced filters.

[anaris]

u understand i'm using a hypergeometric calculator written by university staff right?

[anaris]

Kurt's the maths guy round here lol I literally have dyscalculia, so like any sensible person I checked with experts :p

[anaris]

nul lähetti viestin:

First it will show a "suggest lands" button, which will try to automatically assign basic lands.

don't trust this incidentally. I think maybe it counts card numbers but not symbols