You mean the ranked drafts that are 5000 gold?
Magic the Gathering: Arena - Pay to ... buy cards you can't trade (or don't).
- Thread starter Capsaicin Addict
- Start date
Honka Honka Burning Love
kiwifarms.net
Yep, I got all 4 Okos and all 4 of my gooses from drafts, the "Bots" will get completely stuck on one color after the first pack and just hand you shit.
Fervent Champion
kiwifarms.net
I'm actually pretty excited for post Oko standard. Hoping the shop I bought my Questing Beast off of doesn't cancel my order for "inventory reasons" now that it's playable.
I never played draft and am absolutely interested in not wasting my hard earned gold. I need tips if you have any other tips than this!
Honka Honka Burning Love
kiwifarms.net
Oh you aren't wasting the gold, If you win 2 games/matches you get more cards than you would have from buying straight packs as well as gems. I paid for the Eldraine "master" thing with gems purely from drafting.
Bully_Hunter_69
kiwifarms.net
I'm sad that this thread died off so hard - I thought you boys were supposed to be smart. I wanna reinvigorate it by sperging for a little bit about the new Core 2021 set, Arena, and just talking shop in general. But the first thing I want to address:
My Experience
I've been playing Magic since 2010, stopping in 2014 for college and picking back up again late in 2020. Life has gone on and I've stopped playing tabletop altogether until I start a career and settle down further, so I'm strictly a digital player. I play commander on TTS and standard/historic on Arena primarily right now, but I also played modern and attended some proxy vintage tournaments. I lucked out getting into the Arena beta early, playing steadily and ramping up heavily when I stopped playing tabletop and sold out in late 2018. I also have experience with daily operations of an LGS, not being an official employee but being a helping hand at one point. I love Magic and think that anyone who enjoys critical thinking and gaming in tandem should really give Magic a solid try. I play primarily constructed because I suck ass at draft and I'm lucky, at best, for limited/sealed.
The Pay To Win/Whiner's Fallacy
Magic IS a pay-to-win game, make no mistake about it. You have to spend money to make money, essentially. With that said, your spending can go as far as the game - for example, prior to Theros (released January of this year), I had spent about $400 across sets from Dominaria (April 201
to Eldraine (Sept 2019). For Ikoria and Theros, the only things I bought were the $20 mastery pass which gives you some additional shit. I have everything I could want and I'm able to play the three formats of the game just fine - brawl, standard, and historic.
I do recommend spending money but only if you're actually interested in the game. Because of somewhat conscious-less spending, I was finally able to get ahead and acquire basically every tier 1 deck I want with lots in the bank. My figure of $400 might sound like a lot, but here is a list of all the top performing decks, which is kind of bottomed out for the format right now (it's not unusual to see decks in the $500-$600 upper bound, with a minimum floor of $200-$300). If I buy a $400 deck, I'm looking at getting from a $150-$275 return depending if I want to piece the deck out myself or just sell it in one broad go. This is one pile of 75 cards that only has a shelf life of about a year.
Suddenly that $400 over 2 years/20 months number becomes a little bit more attractive, right? Keep in mind, you're getting additional packs and wildcards as you go, and I think the wildcard system is just about as equal as Hearthstone or Eternal or whoever else's dusting system.
Again, you don't have to spend money if you don't want to, I have a friend that's in love with his mono black devotion deck, but if you're interested in the game, I like this as a substitute way more for tabletop play. It's nice to be able to play my deck whenever I want for however long I want, not just on standards Mondays and maybe a few practice games before FNM. But then again, I've almost switched entirely to playing digitally.
Historic
Historic is definitely the chad's format right now as we wait for the Core set 2021 rotation. It reminds me of the game I fell in love with - janky brewing. For the past 3 weeks I've exclusively played historic, brewing any decks I need to complete quests. I'm in a better spot since I had a bunch of wildcards going in and I have access to a bunch of older core cards, chiefly from Dominaria and Ixalan. I'm hoping that they actually put in Amonkhet, which they've mentioned should be coming over the Summer, and work back to Kaladesh which is where I got back into the game.
Historic really isn't that degenerate with combos and it's cool to see the curated card selection. Counterspelling an Ulamog is a really good feeling.
To share, here's some of the decks I've been toying with brewing. They're outdated before the companion nerf, which was sorely needed.
www.mtggoldfish.com
The TL;DR of Historic is 'nobody has enough data to solve the format, it's really fun to brew decks and will only get better with age.'
Ikoria/Core Set 2021/Zendikar
Ikoria super raised the bar in terms of creature-based power level. Mutate stacks are a thing to consider (but make kill spells so much sweeter) now, empowering kill spells and board wipes. Lots of creatures are just outside shock and lightning strike levels of comfort, having 3 and 4 health respectively. I think the meta has red in a weak spot and with Core 2021, white will get stronger but it's also not in a terribly strong spot right now outside of occasional splashing and 'go tall' decks.
Core Set 2021 is coming out on June 24th for Arena, and I'm fucking hyped to see what jank I can assemble. We're mid-stroke of spoilers season and I'm excited to see what all comes with it as they're getting comfortable with testing out mechanics and banning as a response. This'll also be a good time for new players to get into the game as I'm sure there'll be codes, but the mastery pass and unsolved meta means that new players can get a lot of grinding in.
Zendikar: set 3 comes out Q4 of this year and it's been promised to be an Eldrazi-free experience this time. It's been pretty debunked that we're getting fetchlands, so hopefully we get some sort of interesting land cycle or mechanic because that's what the plane has always been known for - lands.
*The reason I mention these dates is so that you know if and when to start considering saving gold for the next set
If any Kiwis have questions about decks or getting into the game, just send me a notification somehow. I fucking love Magic.
My Experience
I've been playing Magic since 2010, stopping in 2014 for college and picking back up again late in 2020. Life has gone on and I've stopped playing tabletop altogether until I start a career and settle down further, so I'm strictly a digital player. I play commander on TTS and standard/historic on Arena primarily right now, but I also played modern and attended some proxy vintage tournaments. I lucked out getting into the Arena beta early, playing steadily and ramping up heavily when I stopped playing tabletop and sold out in late 2018. I also have experience with daily operations of an LGS, not being an official employee but being a helping hand at one point. I love Magic and think that anyone who enjoys critical thinking and gaming in tandem should really give Magic a solid try. I play primarily constructed because I suck ass at draft and I'm lucky, at best, for limited/sealed.
The Pay To Win/Whiner's Fallacy
Magic IS a pay-to-win game, make no mistake about it. You have to spend money to make money, essentially. With that said, your spending can go as far as the game - for example, prior to Theros (released January of this year), I had spent about $400 across sets from Dominaria (April 201
to Eldraine (Sept 2019). For Ikoria and Theros, the only things I bought were the $20 mastery pass which gives you some additional shit. I have everything I could want and I'm able to play the three formats of the game just fine - brawl, standard, and historic.I do recommend spending money but only if you're actually interested in the game. Because of somewhat conscious-less spending, I was finally able to get ahead and acquire basically every tier 1 deck I want with lots in the bank. My figure of $400 might sound like a lot, but here is a list of all the top performing decks, which is kind of bottomed out for the format right now (it's not unusual to see decks in the $500-$600 upper bound, with a minimum floor of $200-$300). If I buy a $400 deck, I'm looking at getting from a $150-$275 return depending if I want to piece the deck out myself or just sell it in one broad go. This is one pile of 75 cards that only has a shelf life of about a year.
Suddenly that $400 over 2 years/20 months number becomes a little bit more attractive, right? Keep in mind, you're getting additional packs and wildcards as you go, and I think the wildcard system is just about as equal as Hearthstone or Eternal or whoever else's dusting system.
Again, you don't have to spend money if you don't want to, I have a friend that's in love with his mono black devotion deck, but if you're interested in the game, I like this as a substitute way more for tabletop play. It's nice to be able to play my deck whenever I want for however long I want, not just on standards Mondays and maybe a few practice games before FNM. But then again, I've almost switched entirely to playing digitally.
Historic
Historic is definitely the chad's format right now as we wait for the Core set 2021 rotation. It reminds me of the game I fell in love with - janky brewing. For the past 3 weeks I've exclusively played historic, brewing any decks I need to complete quests. I'm in a better spot since I had a bunch of wildcards going in and I have access to a bunch of older core cards, chiefly from Dominaria and Ixalan. I'm hoping that they actually put in Amonkhet, which they've mentioned should be coming over the Summer, and work back to Kaladesh which is where I got back into the game.
Historic really isn't that degenerate with combos and it's cool to see the curated card selection. Counterspelling an Ulamog is a really good feeling.
To share, here's some of the decks I've been toying with brewing. They're outdated before the companion nerf, which was sorely needed.
Historic Bant Control Deck
Historic Bant Control deck list with prices for Magic: the Gathering (MTG).
www.mtggoldfish.com
The TL;DR of Historic is 'nobody has enough data to solve the format, it's really fun to brew decks and will only get better with age.'
Ikoria/Core Set 2021/Zendikar
Ikoria super raised the bar in terms of creature-based power level. Mutate stacks are a thing to consider (but make kill spells so much sweeter) now, empowering kill spells and board wipes. Lots of creatures are just outside shock and lightning strike levels of comfort, having 3 and 4 health respectively. I think the meta has red in a weak spot and with Core 2021, white will get stronger but it's also not in a terribly strong spot right now outside of occasional splashing and 'go tall' decks.
Core Set 2021 is coming out on June 24th for Arena, and I'm fucking hyped to see what jank I can assemble. We're mid-stroke of spoilers season and I'm excited to see what all comes with it as they're getting comfortable with testing out mechanics and banning as a response. This'll also be a good time for new players to get into the game as I'm sure there'll be codes, but the mastery pass and unsolved meta means that new players can get a lot of grinding in.
Zendikar: set 3 comes out Q4 of this year and it's been promised to be an Eldrazi-free experience this time. It's been pretty debunked that we're getting fetchlands, so hopefully we get some sort of interesting land cycle or mechanic because that's what the plane has always been known for - lands.
*The reason I mention these dates is so that you know if and when to start considering saving gold for the next set
If any Kiwis have questions about decks or getting into the game, just send me a notification somehow. I fucking love Magic.
because normies hurt themself while doing mathing...
Stab You in the Back
kiwifarms.net
My local gas station had intro decks for half off, so I reinstalled Arena to cash in the deck codes that came with the decks. Now I'm locked behind a color challenge and have to play 20 matches against the AI and 5 matches with no deck (because the decks they give you in the color challenge aren't standard legal) just to play draft and participate in weekly events. Wonderful.
Meanwhile, Hearthstone just released some new free solo content which, unlike Arena's color challenge, is actually fun.
Meanwhile, Hearthstone just released some new free solo content which, unlike Arena's color challenge, is actually fun.
Got to admit, I have NEVER seen mtg in a gas station.
Heck I remember kind of freaking out when they started showing up in walmarts. (The small mexican town I was built in didn't get a long lasting LGS until recently.)
Been playing daily to get gold for 21. I got to Gold rank last season piloting a Gruul deck and I am excited to see how the meta plays out on the 25th!
Stab You in the Back
kiwifarms.net
I gotta learn to play Draft. I love Sealed, but they only hold Sealed tournaments for a week after a set comes out.
edit:hey if anybody needs an ikoria prerelease pack code, let me know. apparently you can only redeem one of them per account
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Honka Honka Burning Love
kiwifarms.net
When your only formats are Standard and Brawl you lose interest.
Standard is fucking garbage, Brawl is fucking Garbage. The only reason to play arena is to log in every 3 days, grind out your quests for gold and hope that someday the game stops being shit.
Everybody I know that plays on arena any really just plays Historic.
Honka Honka Burning Love
kiwifarms.net
Historic is okay, but Winota made that really unfun to play until they banned her.
Edit : Brawl would be okay if the Block Structure weren't fucked. Them printing "okay" counterspells every set for limited means you can just jam a blue deck full of okay counter spells so if you don't go first against a blue Commander just concede.
Anyone still playing this? The meta seems really diverse right now. I'm laddering with U/W Yorion and I'm seeing all kinds of shit.
