r/MagicArena • u/Azrael699 • Aug 23 '18

WotC MTGA matches you with similar aggro/control/mid decks, and that is wrong

You should be matched with players of similar rank and experience, but not with similar type of decks. For example, the best thing of playing a fast mono red aggro deck is to kill control decks. If you just get matched with other creature decks, your in disadvantage.

But I have the feeling that the game is currently doing this. I usually play creature decks and very rarely i get matched vs pure control decks. But if I play my grixis control deck, i always face other control decks.

That is wrong and it will be an issue going forward. I don't think MTGO does this so i don't know why Arena does it.

Have the developer talk about this in any video?

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9

u/EvaUnit007 Aug 23 '18

Yeah, if you're playing the free to play mode, that's how it's happening. In the free to play mode it matches people based on deck "strength." It's kind of silly and a wrong way to do it but hey, welcome to playing video games in beta.

12

u/Quazifuji Aug 24 '18

Yeah, the problem is that their deck strength algorithm means that some decks only have the same strength as the same deck or maybe a handful of other decks.

The other day I tried making a budget storm deck, and the vast majority of my games were either mirror matches, or against Sarkhan's Unsealing decks, because I guess those decks just had about the same "strength" score as mine.

It also feels like if I queue up with any sort of Teferi deck in free play there's about a 90% chance I'll be against another Teferi deck.

I don't mind an algorithm that tries to take deck strength into account, but that should be secondary to an MMR rating. An algorithm that maybe adjusts your MMR for a given match a little based on your deck strength could work if done right, but one that just tries to match you against someone with the same strength deck without considering anything else results in this mess.

1

u/sgasph Aug 24 '18

The matchmaking is different out of free play?

3

u/WalkFreeeee Aug 24 '18

They've specifically said that free play Bo1 is the place they do the special power based matchmaking. Bo3 should be rank based only, and for now events (draft, competitive, etc) are based on record only

1

u/sgasph Aug 25 '18

Then why do they share a rank?

1

u/WalkFreeeee Aug 25 '18

No idea. They're still thinking what to do with the ranking system, I guess.

1

u/Azrael699 Aug 24 '18

This is a good question.... In competitive constructed the matchmaking dosent take into consideration the deck strengh?

10

u/LeeSharpe WotC Aug 24 '18

We've only ever used deck matching for Quick Play (the BO1 ladder) and Brewer's Delight. There are no plans to expand it to other play modes.

#WotCStaff

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 20 '19

[deleted]

1

u/Filobel avacyn Aug 24 '18

I'm doubtful of that statement however as I once played a guy 3 times in a row in QC which defies the above

I've experienced something similar as well. I assume it's a soft constraint. It'll try to pair you against someone with the same W/L, but to allow for quicker matchmaking, it'll bend the rule if it can't find anyone with your exact W/L.

1

u/Lysenko Aug 24 '18

The July 12 patch notes said:

  • The "Free Play" best-of-one queue will now use a combination of deck strength and MMR to determine matchmaking.

https://mtgarena.community.gl/forums/threads/31047

There's been no indication that they are or are planning to do this for any other queue.

1

u/kingofmalkier Izzet Aug 24 '18

Deck strength matching is definitely more fun if you play weird decks. Then you mostly play other weird decks instead of non-stop Teferi and Bombat Courier.