Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Magic the Gathering Arena

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
in dominaria draft, 3-4 colors janky deck with mana fixing are a lot more effective than 2-colors decks. Pick the best card in the pack and find some color fixing and you'll be good, 2-colors deck don't really work that well imo

edit
also, i thought radiating lightning was garbage
then i played it to try it
it's not garbage
 
Last edited:

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,380
Not very

It's all about how you spend your starting wildcards, if you manage to netdeck/build something serviceable, that can semi-reliably get you 4+ wins at quick constructed,
progressing becomes a matter of how much time you have to burn.

Since the last wipe, I was able to complete two top tier decks without spending a dime. I also have a bunch of half-finished piles that I am using to complete daily quests.

I can see the option to pay money become more alluring once more sets are coded in because you're getting 1 booster per day at best.
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
not very ptw at all, depending on your aims
you want a couple top-tier decks, it'll take you a couple months, or less if you are good and win games/drafts/quick constructed
of course if you want all the decks in the format it's impossible without spending money i'd say
but as afun pastime, if you start out with a specific deck in mind, you can get that deck and all the rares/mythics in a reasonable amount of time without spending any money
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
So I finally have the deck I want - kinda. Tried it, won 9 in a row. Cool, let's play quick constructed. 0-3, never went over 2 lands. I even played 3 Dusk Legion Zealots in one of the games. Still, 2 lands in play and that was it.
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,380
Yeah, the shuffling algorithm is something else. It managed to mana flood me at 18 lands, twice in a session. Makes me think I should try the lottery.

Some guy did the math and the way starting hands are dealt seems to favor using exactly 22 or 26 lands with this game, you won't see much difference otherwise.
The latter option pretty much guarantees flooding, so consider what to do with the extra lands.
It's because the algorithm gets two starting hands then picks the one that seems to match your deck's land to non-land ratio.

Based on experience, 22 lands seems to be the sweet spot. Going lower means your deck has to operate decently at 2 mana.
I still tend to use 24 lands for my control decks out of habit, but I don't see a marked improvement over 22 lands when it comes to starting hands.
 

Zer0wing

Cipher
Joined
Mar 22, 2017
Messages
2,607
Indeed. Had to ragequit and never look back after constant loses because of lands so happened to be at the end of the deck.
 

da_rays

Augur
Joined
Jan 23, 2014
Messages
382
Location
Filthy Pub , Quebec City
Just my 2 cent on ''Is that shit P2W?'' Well yeah kinda. I can easily fork real dough for the in game currency , get myself 1 box of each set ( with a few assured mythic WC and such ) but has a non paying player right now , the economy is pretty generous and the more pack / cards you get , you get to unlock the Vault , which contain some pack and WC . So unless like Scruffy said , and youre looking to get 6+ more fully fonctionnal deck , well its start paying or start grinding . I think they have a nice balance right now , they also took in a survey regarding the economy a few days ago.

Has for mana screwing , well its MtG , wouldnt be mtg withouta few mana screw/overload here and there. Im rarely under 22 lands in most of my deck. For a quick weenie aggro its 20-22 lands , up to 25 for midrange and 25+ for control type , usually 26-27. And with 3-4 evolving wilds to thin out the deck a bit. But gotta admit , its frustrating to get mana screw /flooded like 5-6 games in a row . thanks god that never happened in Arena for now.

Also , ive taken up paper magic since they are a few cards shops in my town with events , bought myself the 2nd sun control deck . tweaked it out a bit with dominaria , ixalan . Feel so god damn cheap playing 2nd sun and scrying like crazy . It does work tho , solid deck , only problem I had was vs Hazoret aggro and a mono green aggro. Also dueled with a young dude who had a real cheap ass deck ( 3 colors BWU , Tetsuko + with a horde of rats , the unlimited 2/1 that im forgetting the name ) prying blade , visionary aumenter and weird random shit like that , he went 2W1L vs 300$ + decks .

God i miss Aether Revolt in Arena , so much fucking good cards in there. Ho well , its gone in september anyway.
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
i think i found a way to circumvent the retarded algorithm... my deck has 24 lands in 60 cards, in normal conditions. well, now it has 26 lands in 62 cards...

working smoothly until now
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
incorrect, read how the algorithm works in this specific game
as i said, it's going very smoothly for me for now
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,380
I'm not sure if anyone did the math when going over 60 lands, but yeah sometimes adding one more land and going 61 fixes the goddamned thing, though I wasn't sure if it's just my bias.
Then, after some games, the thing goes tits up again and starts flooding you every other game, this is when I pull the extra land and everything is fine again for a time.

Scruffy your problem was that you used 24 lands while staying at 60 cards, the math some other guy did seems to indicate that you won't see any improvement from increasing your land count from to 23, 24 and 25.
My control decks seem to confirm this, I tried 24 and 25 lands and I seldom get more than 3 lands to start, in fact I barely noticed any difference compared to my 22 land decks.
The magic number seems to be 26 if you want those 3-4 land hands to start appearing. I'm not a fan of this, because this pretty much guarantees a land flood.
If you want to keep the land count low, another way could be to use 22 lands and 4x opt or a cycling card that costs one mana, though this approach has its issues and slows down your early game, which you cannot really afford when RDW is still the deck to beat.
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
your problem was that you used 24 lands while staying at 60 cards, the math some other guy did seems to indicate that you won't see any improvement from increasing your land count from to 23, 24 and 25.

they are saying that that only affects the OPENING hand
after that, you are still drawing based on what you have in your deck, blue can do that because of opt etc, but decks that don't cantrip need to be drawing those lands later on.
for now i'm very happy with 26-62, if that stops working i guess i'll have to re-evaluate
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,380
Well, the opening hand is where you get the most bang from increased land count anyway.

Consider this:
You're playing 22 lands, typical scenario is: got two in the starting hand, that means 20 lands and 23 non-lands still in the deck.
You're playing 26 lands, typical scenario is: got four in the starting hand, that makes 22 lands and 21 non-lands still in the deck.

While the difference is there, it's not overly dramatic.
The point is having a much better chance of playing all your land drops for the first ~5 turns, which is generally the plan for control.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
Any word of when will the wipe happen, and will that wipe be the last?

Seeing you fuckers having fun makes me wanna have sum fun too. No point in it tho, if all my progress is gonna get reset.
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
I still didn't get an invite :cry:
write to support. a friend of mine did and they "bumped up" his e-mail and sent him the invitation on the same day

Any word of when will the wipe happen, and will that wipe be the last?

Seeing you fuckers having fun makes me wanna have sum fun too. No point in it tho, if all my progress is gonna get reset.
There's no date. Speculation says in September, when the new expansion comes out, but it's just stuff they say on the forum, no word from WotC


on an unrelated note, i finally got my first 7 wins in quick constructed. 62 cards with 26 lands did the trick. stupid, but what can you do.
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
anyone else getting "connection lost" and then it never fucking reconnects? (the internet is fine btw)
 

spectre

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2008
Messages
5,380
Scruffy
Seemed normal today, but I only did one QC run.

Brace yourselves, next week we should get a full standard cardpool with Kaladesh and Aether Revolt.
I'd question the logic to add cards that will rotate out soon-ish, perhaps one could hope they went a bit further back to the older sets as there is already a significant overlap with Magic Duels.
 

Scruffy

Ex-janitor
Patron
Joined
May 16, 2008
Messages
18,150
Codex 2012 Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014
and first 7-wins in dominaria draft
it's a pretty good format, really makes you want to play, i guess they had to bring back Garfield to learn how the fuck it's done
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom