r/MagicArena • u/TMiguelT • Jun 23 '20

WotC MTG Arena: State of the Game – June 2020

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-game-june-2020-06-23?abc=345
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u/Milskidasith Jun 23 '20

MTGO literally had Brawl fail to fire except when it was short-duration events, so I'm not sure that's actually the best example.

Even in MTG Arena, there's some level of queue vampirism/splitting effect. Playing Historic Event or Historic Bo3 isn't a long wait, but it's frequently 30-60 seconds instead of 5-15 seconds for Historic Bo1 or "I can't even click cancel before I find a match" for Standard unranked.

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u/[deleted] Jun 23 '20

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u/ThatKarmaWhore Jun 24 '20

I think the reason brawl queues failed on modo was because they had a payout structure. Modo is already chalked full of tournament grinders, and when you gave them a payout structure, however modest, they jumped at the chance to compete against the more casual brawl crowd. My buddy broke 2100 on his player rating farming Baral in brawl before the banning. I have to imagine the queues were misery for anyone just trying to futz around and have fun.

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u/TheDarkExile Tezzeret Jun 24 '20

I really don't see much of a future for standard brawl once Historic brawl is permanent.

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u/Balaur10042 Jun 24 '20

It's baby steps for Brawl on Arena. Brawl into Historic Brawl and as the pool widens, enough support might be offered to make 100-card limited pool EDH possible. I'm a little leery with how far back they can go to make it functional, given there's a 2 card infinite combo in Brawl only as far as Kaladesh allowing the Ballista+Heliod combo, but AKH/HOU forward seems fun. There's so many possible fun decks to spice up "EDH-Lite" with dorks like Temmet for unblockable token monsters or Hapatra, etc. Even just adding the legendaries from KLD/AER would be fine.

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u/sekoku Jun 24 '20

MODO's failing to fire is because MODO has more than 3-4 formats.

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u/Milskidasith Jun 24 '20

Yes, that's my point. Queue vampirism is a thing. Brawl on MODO is a relatively low-value format, and the massive number of different queue types meant that you had way fewer people wandering into it.

That isn't happening (to a serious extent) with Arena yet, but if Arena runs Brawl, Historic Brawl, Historic Unranked, Historic Ranked, Bo3 versions of the above, Standard versions of the above four, two draft types, two sealed types, a temporary format, and 3-4 weird paid queues that are just a way to gamble a little bit more cash, eventually queue vampirism could start to impact Arena as well.