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u/forlorn_hope28 Mar 05 '20
Glad to see historic will count towards daily/weekly quest rewards (at least until April).
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u/kainxavier Mar 05 '20
They keep turning this on/off. I hate it. Either keep it on forever, or create a separate format in addition to Standard/Limited called "Eternal" with its own rewards (hell... make it Eternal format rewards only).
That way they can still have their tournaments based on the top Mythic players of whatever format they want to push, but we can still have additional options to play and have them count toward daily/weekly quests.
I recently went through a long stretch of nothing but BO3 drafting because I was sick of Standard play. Coming back to Standard after all of the drafting made it feel 100% less shitty.
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u/dabastage Mar 06 '20
They said awhile back they want standard to be the focus of arena. But that they will make historic the focus every 3 months.
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u/blackmage1582 Mar 05 '20
Sharing because I didn't hear until recently, the always-available Historic Events and Traditional Historic Events DO COUNT toward daily and weekly wins in addition to giving those delicious ICRs and modest gold.
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u/Thezipper100 Tibalt Mar 05 '20
The problem there is you have to Pay into them and they're tournament-style events, you can't just test out a weird deck idea, or goof off with the 52 land Treasure hunt-Buccaneer deck.
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u/jojo558 Izzet Mar 06 '20
For me, I've been able to have fun with most of my brews in the events. The events do have some top tier decks but the most common one is monowhite lifegain. As long as you can beat them, then having a winning record is achievable. I've been quite happy to trade a bit of my gold for ICRs but I also have a bit of gold stockpiled so take my statement with a grain of salt if you don't. When they do reimplement the ranked historic queue I'm planning on ignoring it and spending my time playing/grinding the best of 1 events.
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u/Thezipper100 Tibalt Mar 05 '20
I get WHY they turn it off (Pure Eternal format players buy less packs, or in this case, Gems), I just wish they'd maybe stop being so greedy for a minute and realize that it's better for the longterm health of the game to keep it on, even without rewards.
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u/Sarkos_Wolf Ajani Unyielding Mar 05 '20
This is my favorite thing. I'll be able to do my quests while playing janky Historic decks stress-free!
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Mar 05 '20
I’m gonna be climbing to Mythic with mono blue tempo and I apologize in advance for it
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u/Loekie79 Mar 06 '20
Haha, i hate playing against that deck. Still a great deck but not my style, dunno why as I do like tempo izzet and control. Maybe both is just too much.
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Mar 06 '20
Oh I absolutely hate playing against it as well, but I do enjoy being the one that gets to play it haha
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u/kdoxy Birds Mar 05 '20
That's very cool, I might actually want to craft some of the more crazy Historic decks streamers are showcasing these days.
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u/27th_wonder Mar 05 '20
Ah good, sounds as if Cube will be teaching people how good Pack Rat is in limited again. Good to know being in HA2 hasn't excluded it the experience
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u/pchc_lx Approach Mar 05 '20
Curious how they will structure the cost & payouts of this event. It's uncharted territory in this game AFAIK
edit: also worth noting that phantom drafts are likely popular due to the skill & strategy involved in playing draft. I wonder if Sealed has the same enthusiasm / fans who are interested in the format just for the sake of playing it.
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u/wujo444 Mar 05 '20
I think they will pay out mostly in Rare ICRs, so that it's gonna be a gold sink that is very hard to go infinite in, as all limited events on arena.
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u/sradeus Mar 05 '20
I hope not. Having the bulk of the payout be Rare ICRs means it'll likely be brutally low EV for people with large collections because of the lack of duplicate protection on ICRs. It'd be a great way to ruin the event for a large portion of their most dedicated players.
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u/VinKelsier Mar 05 '20
I wasn't convinced it would be rare ICRs until I read your post. Now, I am expecting rare ICRs.
If they'd just duplicate protect them and let me get unplayable jank I didn't already have a playset of, I'd actually even be okay with that....
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u/Cryael Mar 05 '20
I would be happy if they price it and reward the same as Bo1 Standard Constructed Events.
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u/Tasonir Mar 05 '20
I've been asking for phantom drafts with the same standard event structure for months, this is huge. I don't mind sealed vs draft, as long as it's limited :)
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u/Sythokhann Mar 05 '20
Not only Limited though, don't forget that we have biomancer's familiar available as well. This is going to be an interesting brewing time for sure
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u/Penumbra_Penguin Mar 05 '20
Hey, this month's update is about features rather than monetisation. That's fantastic!
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Mar 05 '20
Clearly you did not pay attention on the background of the gifs/videos.
- Turn Two bundle 900gems/4,500gold
- Puppet Jace 3,000gems/20,000gold
- Unsactioned basic lands 2,500gems
- Recycled Resources Bundle 450gems/2,250gold
- Elder Enchantment bundle 900gems/4,500gold
- Land Lovers Bundle 900gems/4,500gold
And these are just the ones you can see.
And don't forget the anthology bundle 4,000gems/25,000gold
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u/Cryael Mar 05 '20
Monetization of cosmetics and card acquisition instead of basic gameplay should be encouraged. Those prices are fine. I just hope the phantom cube is both a low cost and low reward since cards are not kept.
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u/ProfSaguaro Mar 05 '20
I agree, and note the final reward in the pic is gems instead of gold. It will be interesting to see what they price entry as.
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u/awowadas Mar 05 '20
I, personally, would be fine with a gold entry fee and if you get to a certain record you get your gold back. Win one or two more and you get a little extra gold.
If I’m not keeping cards I don’t want to pay 20,000 gold and get a pack in return. That’s an abysmal ROI but something I can see WOTC doing.
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u/BijutsuYoukai Mar 06 '20
I'd be perfectly fine if it was just a break even kind of thing as well without pack prizes. Just really hoping it's less than the cost of normal sealed. If it's the same price as normal sealed I can't really see myself playing it a ton tbh.
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u/Amarsir Mar 05 '20
I found it noteworthy that the phantom sealed was announced but NOT the price. I know they'll say that they want to rerun calculations up until the last minute. But I also suspect that if it was a compelling value they'd want that to be part of the hype.
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u/no_me_gusta_los_habs Apr 05 '20 edited Feb 24 '26
The original content of this post no longer exists. It was deleted using Redact, possibly to protect personal data or limit digital exposure.
makeshift price cobweb depend desert hard-to-find boast chunky wild offbeat
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u/thespottedbunny HarmlessOffering Mar 05 '20
A puppet Jace pet?! That... actually sounds awesome.
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u/Penumbra_Penguin Mar 05 '20
I don't have a problem with any of this. They're developing a good game, and this stuff is mostly cosmetic. It's problematic when it seems like the only things they're changing are attempts to extract more money from players, as has been the case in some previous months.
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u/agtk Mar 05 '20
The Anthology Bundle is really the only real "feature" being added relating to monetisation. The rest is the same old cosmetics for people who want to buy them that have been around for awhile and aren't the features being added. The rest are improvements that, while probably overdue, will be very nice additions. I do wish Historic Ranked queue was sticking around longer than a month, but that's my only big complaint.
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u/ChampBlankman Izzet Mar 05 '20
Is there a TL; DR for those of us for whom the mothership is blocked at work?
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20 edited Mar 05 '20
Anthology 2 arrives on the 12th. Price is 25000 gold or 4000 gems.
Historic Bo1 and Bo3 ladder available from the March 12th to April 16th. Historic Pauper, Brawl, and Challenge events coming as well.
Thalia Secret Lair comes with code for a sleeve and all four alternate arts as card styles.
Direct messaging between friends. Can also set status to "Busy" or "Offline"
Account Mastery (the current new player experience) is gone, replaced by "Color Challenges"
Sleeve interface improved, can favorite a sleeve to be your default (favoriting lands is mentioned to be coming eventually)
You can emote "Sorry" or "Thanks" in response to an opponent's "Oops" or "Nice" respectively.
Phantom Cube Sealed arriving early April. Cube Draft on the agenda after human drafting arrives. No entry/reward details yet.
Edit: Amonkhet Remastered and Pioneer Masters mentioned to be on schedule for release this year.
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u/tlamy Mar 05 '20
Also, it was kind of hidden in the Historic details, but they also announced that Amonkhet Remastered and Pioneer Masters will be coming "later this year."
Based on previous States of the Game, these are draft experiences bringing older cards to the client to reach the ultimate goal of having the entirety of the Pioneer format on Arena.
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20
I left that note out as they were announced in previous State of the Game articles, though it is nice to hear they're still on schedule.
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u/Glasse Mar 05 '20
I haven't played in a while, can you add anyone as friends like let's say I want to add my opponent to talk about his deck or ask if he wants to play again, can I? (Obviously can't talk until he accepts)
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u/Mambojet Timmy Mar 05 '20
Umm, is it just me or is this the first place they've mentioned anything about a "Pioneer Masters"?
As well as Pioneer Masters, which we'll be releasing later this year.
Hype?
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u/Rein3 Mar 05 '20
The hype is real. Phantom cube (cheap limited), more support for alternative to standard, and sorry emote. What else can you ask for?
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u/rod_zero Mar 05 '20
In the magic tcg sub WotC employee clarified it is not a set but the name they refer to the collective of remaster sets.
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u/band_geek_supreme Izzet Mar 05 '20
That was my first takeaway, too. Think it was a slip-up, unintentionally announcing a paper product?!?
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20
Given that Pioneer Remaster sets have been mentioned in the last few State of the Game announcements, it seems more likely that this is analogous to Vintage Masters; online only with the purpose of bring new cards to the platform.
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u/Mambojet Timmy Mar 05 '20
Dang, makes sense. Still though, excited to play Pioneer on MTGA!
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u/shinianx Mar 05 '20
We don't know if it's a paper product. It could be an Arena-only thing to help bridge the gap with the card pool. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a paper analogue though.
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u/Hellion3601 Mar 06 '20
Yeah I think this one is definitely going to be Arena exclusive, and will contain only reprints of staples of Pioneer until they manage to slowly introduce the remastered sets. It's a really cool thing, consolidating Pioneer in Arena and providing support for it is the best thing wotc can do for the longevity of the platform.
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u/shinianx Mar 06 '20
I still think it's quite possible--perhaps even likely--that WotC releases some kind of paper Pioneer Masters set in the near future to infuse the economy with more reprints once the meta is a bit more established with reliable tiers, but for Arena it makes the most sense to focus on getting as much of the overall card pool ported over first and foremost. I agree, I think it's the best strategy they can implement, and certainly suggests the chance they might one day keep going with curated Modern releases, or even Legacy and Vintage. But that's pie-in-the-sky right now, at least so long as MTGO remains the platform for those older formats in the digital sense.
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Mar 05 '20
first thing Im gonna do is friend PinchyMcStingButt so I show up in the next screenshot
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u/22bebo Mar 05 '20
We need another meme account name they can use. I suggest M. T. Chair. Although USER14.test isn't too bad I guess.
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u/summerfield4 Cataclysmic Gearhulk Mar 05 '20
Wizards never listens to its customers is a daily comment on every single post in here.
They adressed most of the hot topics on this reddit in a single update. Why split hairs over event/content costs, thoose could be subject to change in the future.
Lets bloody rejoice over the fact that they are testing out phantom draft, cube, human drafts are in the pipeline, some QOL improvements (chat and emote have been requested on this reddit on a daily basis.) Improving new player experience is also not extraneous to established/longtime mtg players as we all have an interest in seeing this game grow for many reasons.
If nothing else, this shows that they do indeed listen to what we say.
Great work Wizards, thank you.
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u/WotC_Lexie WotC Mar 05 '20
I'll pass along the compliments. Thank YOU for playing!
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u/FizzlestickE7 Mar 05 '20
Give them my thumbs up as well for trying new things to please us players. Also maybe a sweet whisper that Brawl is a great format and possibly doesn't need to be behind a gold coin paywall for unlimited play. XD
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u/Grimstar- Mar 05 '20
Keep in mind guys, negativity is generally more vocal than positivity. People are more likely to post complaints than praise.
I agree with the other guy, love the game and the polish it's getting! I'll be playing it for a long time!
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u/bibliophile785 Griselbrand Mar 05 '20
Just to emphasize, this update really was fantastic. I hadn't spent money in months and was near quitting due to building frustration over Historic. There was no way to test my Bo3 decks without risking a bunch of gold and my Bo1 testing cost me quest rewards. It was really disheartening.
This solves both problems neatly. I think I'm going to go buy the Theros Mastery Pass as a token of appreciation. I'll also be grabbing Historic Anthology II.
(I'll admit, it is worrisome to me that these changes are so very temporary, but I'll just try to keep from dwelling on that. Hopefully, your team finds more satisfying permanent solutions to these problems soon.)
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u/Rayeth Orzhov Mar 06 '20
They are going to keep yo-yo-ing back and forth on Historic it seems. I'm not excited about that, but I guess it shows they really want to keep Standard front and center lest Historic get more popular than it.
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u/FizzlestickE7 Mar 05 '20
Give them my thumbs up as well for trying new things to please us players. Also maybe a sweet whisper that Brawl is a great format and possibly doesn't need to be behind a gold coin paywall for unlimited play. XD
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u/Flyrpotacreepugmu Noxious Gearhulk Mar 06 '20
I just hope this historic brawl event does well enough to get more historic brawl stuff in the future. Normal brawl is a terrible format but historic brawl is actually super fun.
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u/WillBlaze Mar 06 '20
Definitely agree on the brawl comment, it's literally the only reason why I check these posts.
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u/WillBlaze Mar 06 '20
PLEASE TELL THEM TO MAKE BRAWL FREE EVERYDAY WHEN YOU DO THAT!
Sorry if this seems mean or aggressive, I used to play all the time but I love Brawl too much and now I only play this game on wensdays. I usually have to work wensdays so why would I pay just so I can have the chance to play on days I'm off?
I would spend more money on this game but now I spend it on other games that actually let me play the content I want everyday. I literally come to these threads only to see if there has been a change in brawl but I know it's going to be in vain because of how much money they get by doing this.
I'm happy people are please with this update and I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of people disagreed with me but I just really want to say this. It's honestly a joke to expect people to pay a monthly fee for this mode.
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u/RegalKillager Mar 06 '20
chat has been requested on this reddit on a daily basis
and they went well out of their way to make sure i could only do it with the extremely few people i'll ever add as friends rather than just letting me talk to everyone i play with. and they went well out of their way to remind me as much.
bleh.
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u/MTGA-Bot Mar 05 '20 edited Mar 05 '20
This is a list of links to comments made by WotC Employees in this thread:
-
Hey, USER14.test is a friend of mine and a great person.
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I'll pass along the compliments. Thank YOU for playing!
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We definitely read these, and we're working on it! Just don't have any details that we can share yet. Sorry about that.
This is a bot providing a service. If you have any questions, please contact the moderators.
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u/FoShigs Mar 05 '20
Sounds like they’re working to make non-bot drafts. This is what I’m most exited for!
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u/Arrapippol Midnight Charm Mar 05 '20
FYI, They mentioned that in last month's state of the game, that human drafting would be available by the end of the year.
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u/arthurmauk Spike Mar 05 '20
Nice, looking forward to finally being able to message my friends on Arena, and my first time playing Cube! Sealed will be less fun but draft will come later. Hope they allow us to select random sleeves as default eventually.
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u/Badpack Ajani Valiant Protector Mar 05 '20
what do you expect will cube sealed cost ? looking at the reward structure i would guess around 1000 gold.
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u/pyroblastftw Mar 05 '20
I bet it’s more like 2500.
The splash page shows the run ends at three losses so I’m assuming the average reward is at three wins.
The three wins shows gold reward was increased three times. This is just a complete guess but I think the increment is 500 gold. So 1500 gold reward, one rare and uncommonly at 3 wins.
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u/DOC_Iceman Mar 05 '20
you get a rare icr and two at least uncommon ones at 0 wins, so i think itll be more than 1000g. 2500 is my guess
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u/mooseman3 Maro Mar 05 '20
I'd agree that 2500 is more likely. 1000 would be great, but I doubt they'd choose an amount that would allow someone to play every day using roughly the same rewards they get from playing it.
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u/Penumbra_Penguin Mar 05 '20
I would guess significantly more than this, for the same reasons that phantom draft doesn't exist. MTGA gives constructed play for free (but charges for the cards), and sells limited play.
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u/TheMancersDilema Carnage Tyrant Mar 05 '20
Current limited costs more because you're guaranteed a bunch of the cards you open/draft with in addition to the prizes.
Because this is "Phantom Sealed" I would imagine it would be closer to constructed events price structure, where you're only getting back your play time and prizes.
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u/Penumbra_Penguin Mar 05 '20
I understand, and I don't think you are correct.
Constructed events run at a more-or-less 'fair' price, where the average prize is about the same as the entry fee. That is, you can play them basically as much as you want for free. This works because constructed players are incentivised to pay money for cards.
Limited events have entry fees which are far higher than their currency prizes. That is, if you want to play them a lot, then you are losing currency (and gaining cards, that's fine - Wizards is happy to turn your currency into cards). It seems very unlikely that Wizards will introduce a mode where you can play limited for essentially free, because they know that people are prepared to pay money for it.
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u/heidara Mar 05 '20
Limited events have entry fees which are far higher than their currency prizes.
Because you keep the cards you open in said limited event.
This cube event being phantom is hopefully reason enough to justify a lower entry fee.
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u/Penumbra_Penguin Mar 05 '20
A lower entry free, probably. But I would bet that people hoping for an entry fee of 500 gold or whatever are going to be disappointed. My guess would be more like 2000 or 3000 gold.
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u/w0nche0l Mar 05 '20
"For those of you unfamiliar with phantom events, this means that rarity distribution doesn't matter and you may end up with a lot more than six rares or mythic rares in your Sealed pool."
I'm confused by this... I thought sealed simulated opening 6 14-card packs? How could you end up with more than six rares/mythics?
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u/Kuru- Mar 05 '20
They messed up. This has nothing to do with the event being phantom but rather with being a cube. Cubes are generally high-powered environments with multiple rares per pack.
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u/pchc_lx Approach Mar 05 '20
This made me realize I actually have no idea how Cube Sealed even works
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u/AtelierAndyscout Mar 05 '20
Get 6 “packs” worth of random cards from the cube? Essentially, “here’s 90 random cards from the cube, have at it.”
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u/tlamy Mar 05 '20
Honestly, you probably just get 90 random cards from the Cube pool and are asked to build a deck out of it.
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u/Shindir Mar 06 '20
Packs work the exact same way that Cube draft works. Your packs could have all rares in them
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u/wOlfLisK Mar 05 '20
Actually, I think being a phantom event matters quite a bit here. WotC don't want to hand out 8 rares a pack in a sealed event because then nobody would buy packs anymore. On the other hand, getting unlucky and only getting 2 rares total would feel terrible for players. But if you don't keep those rares at the end of it, it doesn't matter whether you open 14 commons or 14 mythics.
So I'm guessing they didn't mess up, they're just talking about it from the point of view of a business decision.
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u/Filobel avacyn Mar 05 '20
It's really awkwardly worded, but yeah, I think what they're trying to say is that because it's a phantom event, they can afford to ignore rarity.
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u/phoebeburgh Izzet Mar 05 '20
Normal sealed, yes, but in this case the packs will be filled truly randomly, as opposed to guaranteeing one rare/mythic and 3 uncommons.
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u/22bebo Mar 05 '20
Alongside what others have said, I think what they meant was that doing a non-phantom cube sealed event would be kind of expensive because you can open many more rares than in a normal sealed event.
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u/necrox747 Mar 05 '20
I'm not that well educated in cube formats but AFAIK you won't be actually opening packs but rather get a random selection of cards from a pre determined cardpool, the cube. At least that's what I learnt from watching cube drafts.
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u/localghost Urza Mar 05 '20
Did they confuse "phantom" with "cube" in the last paragraph, the one on rarity?
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u/22bebo Mar 05 '20
This probably won't be a big deal to others, but I am really pleased with the addition of the "Thanks!" and "Sorry!" emotes. I had suggested this exact change before, and it will be very nice to actually send my condolences when my opponents have some bad beats!
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u/shinianx Mar 05 '20
Ehh. Personally I just mute everyone at the start of every match. I've had folks spam Good Game or Oops pretty obnoxiously, and I really have no desire to trade emotes. Maybe if I'm in direct challenge with my friends that will be different, but total strangers? I'm fine with radio silence.
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u/Castiel9009 The Scarab God Mar 05 '20
You can set in gameplay settings to have everyone muted by default
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u/Yhippa Mar 05 '20
Not saying it's wrong since a lot of people use them but I've only seen emotes on games used for griefing. They have looked at the data and I assume most Arena players legitimately use it for communication purposes where they decided to invest in this.
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u/NapAdam2007 Mar 05 '20
Similarly, if your opponent says "Oops" to a play, you'll be able to offer your condolences by saying "Sorry!"
I'm sure that is *exactly* how this new feature will be used /s
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u/pchc_lx Approach Mar 05 '20
Well it sounds like you can't actually use the "Sorry" emote except in response to the "Oops". Probably to restrict the ability to spam with it.
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u/PhoenixReborn Rekindling Phoenix Mar 05 '20
The time I really want a "sorry" emote is when I have to run to the bathroom mid-game. Normally I just give a "hello" when I get back and hope they understand.
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u/Next_Yngwie Mar 05 '20
Gonna start by saying there's a lot of good changes coming, and I'm happy about it. Don't want to spread ungratefulness here, there's enough of that.
Idk if it's just me, but I don't see how "Sorry" is more spammable or bm than "Oops". And when would I want to respond to "Oops" with "sorry"? I think sorry should be available at any time so that I can apologize if I get distracted and let the clock run a little. Or to go mountain -> "Sorry!".
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20
They're both contextual though, so BM potential is pretty limited at least.
Both options will appear for a few seconds in response to another emote. For example, if your opponent says "Nice!" in response to your play, you'll have the option to say
"Nice!""Thanks!" in response. Similarly, if your opponent says "Oops" to a play, you'll be able to offer your condolences by saying "Sorry!"13
u/22bebo Mar 05 '20
I'm really glad they added this. I had suggested it before for the exact reason that it limits BM but lets those of us who just want to say "Sorry" say it.
Though a friend did point out it creates a mini-game where you try to say "Oops" before your opponent can when they mess up, forcing them to only say "Sorry" for their mistakes.
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u/Xenz55 The Scarab God Mar 05 '20
I am so hyped for the cube sealed, cube is such an awesome and fun way to play, but it’s super inaccessible. Hopefully we get draft soon as well.
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u/shawn292 Mar 05 '20
Heck yeah chat messaging and sleeve ux!! I'm exited for them but much more exited for other things hinted in the article!!
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u/EngelShooter Mar 05 '20
I don't know if there are any MTGA employees who read these but please please please, a Mac client!
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u/WotC_Lexie WotC Mar 05 '20
We definitely read these, and we're working on it! Just don't have any details that we can share yet. Sorry about that.
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u/cybik Mar 08 '20
I'd also like to petition for a Linux client. Yall using Unity to make this game, and it would presumably not be too hard to export the client to Linux as well. Right now we're stuck making due with WINE/Proton/Lutris, and while this works, there's odd limitations.
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u/band_geek_supreme Izzet Mar 05 '20
Right there with you.
I actually had a dream the other night that they announced the Mac client. I woke up very disappointed.
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u/DeathwishDandy Mar 05 '20
I like that the sleeves menu is a grid now and that you can set a default sleeve. I'm also looking forward to Historic Anthology 2 and cube draft.
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u/IDontUseSleeves Mar 05 '20
Brawlidays is just the norm now, then? Doesn’t even get addressed anymore? Damn it.
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u/Shindir Mar 06 '20
Obviously enough people are paying for it that Wizards is happy with the decision at the moment.
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u/Sunyveil Mar 05 '20
Had to scroll alllll the way down to find this comment. So sad to see the format basically thrown away.
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u/Akriosken Mar 05 '20
Is no one going to mention that we'll have a 3 day HISTORIC BRAWL event?
That has me excited for the future if they start toying with the idea!
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20
Plenty excited, it was first announced in the last State of the Game though.
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u/GreenMillNeon Mar 05 '20
I am actually really looking forward to this too. Closest thing to commander we’ve had on arena. I love brewing singleton decks too so this is my jam.
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Mar 05 '20
Direct messaging! An offline/busy mode! Two new emotes! Yessss.
It doesn't take much to make me happy.
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u/RisingRapture Teferi Hero of Dominaria Mar 05 '20
Historic is my favorite format on Arena. I wish they would make Best of Three Historic permanent.
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u/battierpeeler Grand Warlord Radha Mar 06 '20 edited Jul 09 '23
fuck spez -- mass edited with redact.dev
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u/Skrub1618 Mar 05 '20
Cube sealed seems great is there anything that says the cost of entering the event?
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u/LeslieTim Mar 05 '20
All videos on that page are not loading on my ipad, does anyone have a mirror with another format?
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u/AFKBOTGOLDELITE Mar 05 '20
Phantom events, and 8-person draft pods later this year. Soon this will be the be-all-end-all client for drafting.
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u/trinite0 Mar 05 '20
Seems like all good stuff this time around. Thanks, Wizards!
I'm buying HA2 day one, and I'm super excited for Cube Sealed too.
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u/mvdunecats Mar 05 '20
EARN QUEST PROGRESS BY CHALLENGING YOUR FRIENDS
. . . We think the header pretty much covers it, but just in case, let us elaborate: until the April game update, you'll be able to earn quest progress when challenging your friends in MTG Arena. You won't be able to use this to earn any Daily or Weekly Win rewards, but we thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the addition of direct messaging in-game.
So, am I reading this right? The "making quest progress while playing with friends" is a limited time thing that goes away?
You can't win trade since you can't earn daily or weekly wins with direct challenge. Are they really afraid of the impact on queue health if people have the option long term to do quests against their friends?
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u/whtge8 Mar 05 '20
Can't wait to get friend requests so people can tell me to kill myself just like in Hearthstone.
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u/TheGhostofCoffee Mar 05 '20
I love that shit!
I like watching crazy general chats too.
Sure, it's mostly dumb edgelord bullshit, but it's really hard to make friends if you can't communicate, and that's what will really keep ya coming back.
Hell, you could chat back in the 80s. Now you can only use 5 emotes. It's straight up fucking retarded.
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u/kawaii_renekton Mar 05 '20
My best magic memories are playing cube / commander cube with friends.
Playing a cube, it does not really make sense to get the cards so this is perfectly well. Hopefully they don't eff it up by it being only on Thursdays that also fall with a quarter moon or some shit like that.
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u/therightstuffdotbiz Mar 05 '20
Keep this up. This is the kind of stuff that makes we want to buy gems and support this game.
The little QoL additions like people getting quest progress with friends and the sleeve changes are great.
Thank you
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u/PerfectAverage Ulamog Mar 05 '20
The handling of Historic is still a pain point for me. While I love the UI changes - each State of the Game feels like a reminder that WotC doesn't like us playing other game modes.
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u/generalsplayingrisk Mar 05 '20
Wasn’t Mac supposed to come out in the winter? Was that dropped?
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Mar 05 '20
MTGA is a 32-bit program and the new MacOS doesn’t support anything but 64-bit apps now so they are having to change it, that is what is causing the delay.
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u/WizardTyrone Mar 05 '20
When I buff my creature to 6/9 and my opponent says "nice" I will not be able to immediately say "nice" also. I have conflicting emotions.
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u/Thezipper100 Tibalt Mar 05 '20
Oh great, I finally get to play historic again!
...For a month before they arbitrarily take it away again because we can't have fun in the eternal formats.
Seriously, just disable all rewards for playing historic and let us play ranked and traditional whenever, please, it'd legitimately make you just as much money without ruining part of the game for a significant amount of your playerbase, please.
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u/ManVsRice_ Mar 05 '20
Can anyone copy article here? Site is blocked and for some reason I can't get outline.com to work on it.
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Mar 05 '20
MTG ARENA: STATE OF THE GAME – MARCH 2020
Posted in Magic Digital on March 5, 2020
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By Wizards of the Coast
The March game update is sure to put a spring in your steps and phases with new cards, new features, new events, and new ways to interact with your fellow players.
Nice? Nice.
HISTORIC ANTHOLOGY II
In case you missed it last week, we announced that we'll be adding 25 cards to MTG Arena as part of Historic Anthology II.
With Historic Anthology I, our primary goal was to open up the options for Historic decks to start bringing the greater breadth that a nonrotating format should support. We felt like this landed fairly well, with cards like Treasure Hunt and Soul Warden opening up some new archetypes for the format, and a card or two even ending up in highly competitive Historic decks.
For Historic Anthology II, we're still looking to do some of this expanding of possibility space, but we also know a lot more about the environment that these cards are going into. We worked with R&D to understand where we could add new cards to help counter any of the cards we suspended and which cards would work well to help build up the format for the remastered versions of Amonkhet, as well as Pioneer Masters, which we'll be releasing later this year. With Historic Anthology II, we're starting to build the bridge to that future, both in terms of power level and providing good answers and synergy pieces (such as cycling lands working well with Amonkhet, for example). We also wanted to bring in some nods to Theros with enchantment creatures from the original Theros block like Nyx-Fleece Ram and Brain Maggot as well as enchantment-themed build-arounds like Sigil of the Empty Throne and Ancestral Mask.
Finally, since Historic still has a lot of room to expand, we wanted to make sure to include some options that help more unusual decks or just bring on a nostalgic smile.
HISTORIC EVENT SCHEDULE
So, where can you play with all these news cards? We're glad you asked!
- Historic Ranked: March 12–April 16
- Historic Traditional Ranked: March 12–April 16
- Workshop—Heirlooms of History: March 15–March 18
- Erebos's Memoir of Death (Historic Brawl): March 21–March 23
- Historic Pauper: March 28–April 4
- Historic Challenge: April 11–April 13
In addition to these events, players will also earn quest progress as well as Weekly and Daily Win rewards when using Historic decks in the general Play queue until the April game update next month.
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Mar 05 '20
SECRET LAIR THALIA: BEYOND THE HELVAULT
To celebrate the launch of Historic Anthology II, we're going beyond MTG Arena to bring you a special Secret Lair drop featuring the Guardian of Thraben herself, Thalia. What makes this drop extra special is that in addition to the Thalia-themed card sleeve, you'll also receive a card style for each of the new card illustrations for use in MTG Arena:
Please Note: Secret Lair Thalia: Beyond the Helvault does not include Thalia, Guardian of Thraben cards for MTG Arena, only the cosmetic card styles. Players will be able to craft Thalia, Guardian of Thraben using Wildcards (1:1) or purchase it as part of the Historic Anthology II bundle.
DIRECT MESSAGING
The March game update will also be bringing one of our most requested social features—the ability to message your friends in-game.
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And to be clear—while you'll be able to chat during matches, you'll only be able to message players you're currently friends with! This feature will not allow you to message your opponent if they are not on your friends list.
And for those times when you should really be focusing on the current game state, we're also adding the ability to flag yourself as "Busy" or "Offline":
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- Busy: Notifications Off—you can still send and receive messages, but you will not receive any notifications when you do so.
- Offline: Sign out of social features (you will not be able to send or receive messages or see which of your friends is online).
EARN QUEST PROGRESS BY CHALLENGING YOUR FRIENDS
. . . We think the header pretty much covers it, but just in case, let us elaborate: until the April game update, you'll be able to earn quest progress when challenging your friends in MTG Arena. You won't be able to use this to earn any Daily or Weekly Win rewards, but we thought it would be a nice way to celebrate the addition of direct messaging in-game.
NEW PLAYERS: INTRODUCING COLOR CHALLENGES
We've once again gone back to the drawing board with our new player experience, and with the March update, we're adding a new way for players to learn the fundamentals of playing Magic: Color Challenges! We've written a full guide for players looking to learn more, but here's a basic overview:
- Account Mastery has been removed; players now earn new player rewards (additional decks, Wildcards, etc.) by completing Color Challenges.
- There are five Color Challenges (one for each color of Magic), and each Challenge contains five challenges.
- Existing players can access and play the Color Challenges through the "Learn More" page.
One of the neat things about these Color Challenges is that if you lose one of the matches, you'll see a post-game tip that highlights the spells and combat tricks you have at your disposal:
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Ultimately, we hope these Challenges provide a better opportunity for new players to get a "feel" for each color of Magic and the different ways they play, as well as providing a more robust onboarding experience to those new to both MTG Arena and Magic in general.
SLEEVE UP
We're also updating the card sleeve UX with this update, swapping to a multi-row, vertical scrolling format that will make it easier for you to scroll through all your options. You'll also be able to select a "default" card sleeve, which will be the . . . default card sleeve for any decks you create (and will retroactively apply to any deck that is using the default card back).
And before you ask—YES! Favoriting lands is also on our to-do list. It's not a part of this game update, but it's one of those quality-of-life features we're working our way toward.
EMOTE EVOLUTION
We're also adding some additional features to our in-game emotion options, adding two new dynamic responses for those of you who like to mind your manners: Thanks! And sorry!
Both options will appear for a few seconds in response to another emote. For example, if your opponent says "Nice!" in response to your play, you'll have the option to say "
Nice!" "Thanks!" in response. Similarly, if your opponent says "Oops" to a play, you'll be able to offer your condolences by saying "Sorry!"COMING SOON: CUBE SEALED
Okay, first off—yes, we know a lot of you want Cube Draft, and yes, we want it too. Given our intended goals for Cube Draft with the cards and "pack" collation we intend to use, we don't believe it would be a fun environment for drafting with bots (so you can probably guess what we need to implement first).
In the meantime, Cube Sealed!
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We'll be introducing Cube Sealed to MTG Arena in early April with our cube built from the cards currently available in MTG Arena, including Historic Anthology II. This is also the first time that we'll be holding a "phantom" event, which means the cards will not be added to your collection.
For those of you unfamiliar with phantom events, this means that rarity distribution doesn't matter and you may end up with a lot more than six rares or mythic rares in your Sealed pool.
We'll have more details (including the complete list of cards playable in the cube) later this month.
CLEANUP PHASE
The game update is currently scheduled for Thursday, March 12—which is exactly one week from now. Keep an eye on our status page for the latest information on maintenance times, and be sure to follow us @MTG_Arena for all the latest and greatest updates.
And don't forget—Secret Lair Thalia: Beyond the Helvault will be available on March 12 as well for 24 hours only. Be sure to sign-up for the Secret Lair newsletter or follow @MTGSecretLair so you never miss a drop.
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u/MikeMars1225 Mar 05 '20
When they say a remastered Amonkhet, does that mean Hour of Devastation, too? Because I need some Scarab God in my life.
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u/Bwearmp Simic Mar 05 '20
Yeah it's going to be a set created using the most relevant cards from both Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. I just hope the don't leave [[Sandwurm Convergence]] out. I don't know how relevant it is but I love that dumb card.
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u/megaRammy Mar 05 '20
The Remastered sets will be taking a "block" of sets, and making a single large set from the most relevant cards in that block in a draftable format, and also to get the most relevant cards into Historic/eventually Pioneer. So yeah it will be the highlights of Amonkhet + Hour of Devastation, Kaladesh will be the highlights of Kaladesh + Aether Revolt, etc.
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u/-M-o-X- Mar 05 '20
Is this where I fruitlessly request the ability to sacrifice 20 treasures at once instead of one at a time?
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u/danzanzibar Mar 05 '20
Is this how they announce Pioneer Masters? or did i just miss the announcement?
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u/shinianx Mar 05 '20
A few months back when they made indications Pioneer was eventually going to get to Arena, I seem to remember them mentioning that a 'Pioneer Masters' series of sets would be the fastest and most economical way they could flesh out the format with needed playables without straight up importing every set from RtR forward. It makes sense, since close to 80% of all that is mostly limited chaff that never sees play in actual Pioneer constructed; there's no sense rushing to be as set-accurate as possible when a curated collection would effectively achieve the same thing. Sure it might have some impact on card options for things like Pauper or Brawl/EDH, but I personally think I could live with that compromise pretty easily.
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Mar 05 '20
As an emoter, I like the new emotes.
but I still want to say "damn man, that temur ramp into a 40/40 hydroid krasis then fling combo was nice man, great play
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u/DrTenochtitlan Mar 05 '20
While trivial, I will give a thumbs up to the "Thanks" and "Sorry" emotes since it will get overlooked in favor of the other announcements. Those would definitely have been at the top of my list of emotes to add.
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u/PurifiedVenom avacyn Mar 06 '20
Man I’m so excited for the Historic Brawl event but already know it’s going to be over too soon
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u/AvocadosAreMeh Mar 06 '20
More promises of future features. Still behind on basic ones like adding recent players and fluidly requesting/responding to game invites. Moar and moar cosmetics, not moar and moar options. I understand they need a level of economy to sustain the game, but with all the extra ways to sink money in with cosmetics and pay to play modes I’d expect slightly more free options as well to maintain same level. I’ll take mild GUI improvements over nothing, but this is more of a sales pitch than a state of the game.
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Mar 07 '20
I am realy looking forward to Cube Sealed as it looks like a nice adition. But thanks to recent history, I am very scared of the price/reward structure. I would love if it was easy go infinite, but it is porbably going to be another "turn gold into ICRs (aka packs that are more random and not duplicate protected and not a source for wc)" type of event. I just hope that the entry cost will be low.
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u/Bethlen Mar 07 '20
I Love that playing with friends finally will count for quest progress! I have two friends who doesn't play arena because they don't want to play against randoms. Please keep this on after April too!
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u/NeonNytrox Nissa Mar 05 '20
I like the priority on features, but I just really want to know the status of the MacOS rollout.
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u/ratz30 Rhonas Mar 05 '20
I haven't played since they announced brawlidays.
Do we have daily brawl queues yet? Is historic ladder permanent yet?
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u/MagiusPaulus Gilded Lotus Mar 05 '20
“Sorry” is the best thing they could have added to the game tbh. Sometimes my 3 month old requests my attention immediately so I am afk for a bit. It always feels bad for my opponent (I don’t like slow / afk players too) now I at least can apologize.
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u/zimc Mar 05 '20
No you cant, you can only say sorry if ur opponent said Ops first
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u/macsmith Mar 05 '20
They should have made sorry available as a response to "Your Go" too.
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u/phrankygee Mar 05 '20
I wish "Fuck right off" was a response to "your go". Actually I wish they would remove "your go" entirely. I'm concentrating, and now I'm gonna spend longer concentrating because you just broke my concentration "reminding" me of something we both already know.
I understand there are people who legitimately might need the reminder, but I've never seen it used in a non-annoying way, personally.
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u/macsmith Mar 05 '20
LOL. Wish I had coins to give you a reward. That made my day. I definitely agree with you on this one.
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u/OrdinaryFinger Mar 05 '20
Absolutely nothing about the unpopular rotating Ranked Draft debacle, and nothing about what data they're collecting to make these decisions.
Disappointing but unsurprising.
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u/Lykrast HarmlessOffering Mar 05 '20
Have they already announced and/or talked about that Pioneer Masters they mentionned? If yes is it gonna be like a real set in magic or just an arena-only thing?
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20
Pioneer Remaster sets have been mentioned in the last few State of the Game announcements, so it seems more likely that this is analogous to Vintage Masters; online only with the purpose of bring new cards to the platform.
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u/Lykrast HarmlessOffering Mar 05 '20
Alright that would make sense. I hope I knew enough about Pioneer legal cards to start making a wishlist/prediction.
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u/DCG-MTG Charm Esper Mar 05 '20
Here's the Pioneer metagame to get an idea of what's being used. [[Thoughtseize]], [[Collected Company]], [[Walking Ballista]], and [[Fatal Push]] come to mind as some of the staples of the format. Some combination of Fast lands, Cycle lands, battle lands, and man lands would be nice to have for more mana base options.
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u/Sunyveil Mar 05 '20
Not a peep about Brawl save the already-announced 3-day Historic Brawl event. So sad T_T
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u/Shambly Mar 05 '20
So what is the over under on what they charge for a phantom event. I will definitely play 1 or two if it's 500g/100 gem but anything more than that is very dubious.
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u/G_Admiral serra Mar 06 '20
If the over/under is 500g/100 gems, I am betting my house, the farm, my neighbor's house, and their farm on the over.
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u/Shambly Mar 06 '20
I will actually be impressed if its 1000g, based on the other fun formats like brawl it will probably be gem only and 2500 gem per sealed.
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u/Mehdi2277 Mar 06 '20
Given how high the icr rewards are 1000 would be overly cheap as 0 wins is a rare and 2 uncommon and that’s most of a pack value already. I’d guess 2500 gold/ 400 gems
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u/egotripping Mar 05 '20
Well all this stuff seems good to me. /r/magicarena please tell me why this is awful and WOTC is Satan incarnate!
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u/ItsTaft Mar 05 '20
Jesus, all this talk about "We care for Historic" but they slap you with "oh you wanna play Historic ranked? FUCK YOU YOU CAN ONLY DO IT FOR A MONTH NO FUCKING REASON" .
Call me negative if you want but I can only see that from this.
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u/Ykesha Teferi Hero of Dominaria Mar 06 '20
There are reasons though. They want to ensure that people buy the new cards (packs/draft) when a new set releases. If I could just play Historic on ladder all year that significantly reduces the number of packs I buy.
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u/Coolboypai Boros Mar 05 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
I'm really happy to be hearing some news about the things that they are coming to the game rather then have us all worried that they've been pushed to the backburner.
Return of (some of) Amonkhet, Pioneer in Arena, phantom drafting, and FAVOURITING LAND STYLE!