MTG Salvation

In general (70-80% of the time), what happens is this:
1) The matchmaker looks at your deck.
2) The matchmaker will determine your deck's makeup and match you against the deck that is best able to counter everything you are doing.
3) If you do not have all the best cards, min/maxing your deck with every rare you need to optimize your outcome, you will be placed against someone who has that.
4) Once the match-up is determined, the matchmaker will shuffle your deck to provide the worst possible outcome (mana flooding, mana choking, wrong lands in multi-color decks, all high cost spells early on, etc.)
5) The matchmaker will give your opponent an optimal layout of hands and deck shuffling for perfect tempo and play optimization.

Enjoy!!

This morning, I have run into SEVERAL opponents with, for example, within the first few rounds:

4x Dreadhorde Butchers or 4x Tefaris or 4x Scorch Spitters.

Seriously, the odds are astronomical.

Get it together MTG Arena!!! Fix your Randomizer!!!

Does it seem, with the release of M20, that they turned the land abuse up another notch?

I get that they obviously wanted to dump a ton of Planeswalkers into the game with WAR. What they forgot was to add in just as many opportunities for anti-Planeswalker options - something like Gates Ablaze, or Cry the Carnium, or Cleansing Nova that targets Planeswalkers. Basically Planeswalker wiping spells, just as easy to attain and similar cost to play as the Planeswalkers themselves. Cards that deactivate Planeswalker abilities. Some "paper" to the "rock" that are Planeswalkers in this rock-paper-scissors game. I mean, PWs completely unbalance the game as it is. Its like having another opponent, but comes with inate abilities AND the ability to cast spells without spending mana. Did WotC playtest any of this at all?

I don't mind the matchmaking idea, but it really needs to be based on full collection level. People with a boatload of Rares and Mythic Rares have obviously been playing forever, investing tons of money or both. They should be matched up against similar players. F2P noobs like me with few rares/mythics should also be matched up in kind.

Having power players play novices like me creates match-ups which are just frustrating for us peasants and not challenging for the power players.

They may think the way they are doing it will "force" players to invest money in the game, but, for me, that is not the way it works. Before I invest, I evaluate the game to see how well it is designed. If I see Pay-to-win aspects, or unbalanced matchmaking or broken random deck generation, that becomes a "hard-no" from my wallet. WotC - if you want my money, don't break your games.

This is still a problem. The code they use to randomize the deck HAS to be bad. I just played 10 games and got stuck on 2 lands or 2 non-lands in 9 of the games. 40 card deck, 17 lands. Seeing 14 cards and the ratio being 12:2 or 2:12. This ***** is just unreal. Uninstalling the game and sticking to paper.

For ****s sake I want to try out a new deck and NO JOKE - 6 mono red opponents in a row. Are they all retarded? Why play it in Free Play? Goddamn ******* handicapped morons.

I had the quest to "Play 20 Black spells". So I put in 20 Swamp and all the 1 cmc black creatures and cards like Disfigure, Bone Splinters etc I could find. NO RARES. No dual lands. I start and I ***** you not:

1st matchup: Temur Elementals
2nd Matchup: RDW
3rd Match: Espers.
Last match (needed 1 more black spell): RDW

Seems legit..lol

Quote from SardoNespa »

In general (70-80% of the time), what happens is this:
1) The matchmaker looks at your deck.
2) The matchmaker will determine your deck's makeup and match you against the deck that is best able to counter everything you are doing.
3) If you do not have all the best cards, min/maxing your deck with every rare you need to optimize your outcome, you will be placed against someone who has that.
4) Once the match-up is determined, the matchmaker will shuffle your deck to provide the worst possible outcome (mana flooding, mana choking, wrong lands in multi-color decks, all high cost spells early on, etc.)
5) The matchmaker will give your opponent an optimal layout of hands and deck shuffling for perfect tempo and play optimization.

Enjoy!!

This.

And then match you against Teferi control or RDW, regardless of what you play, even if you ran 20 a no-rare no dual land, cluttered deck full of commons.
Then if you proceed to ask about the matchmaking issue on the Arena forums, be told to "git gud".

It's a lot worse than that. Despite what they're claiming, if you have a large-size collection, you can pretty easily see our matchmaking is being manipulated in ranked. Build a Feather deck, you'll almost exclusively fight aggro. Build Elementals, hope you like playing against Esper. Dreadhorde? Lots of mirrors.

You can literally fight RDW 5 times in a row, reach for a white lifegain deck, and never see red again. It's impossible to adjust to the day's meta, because you're always shifting depending on your deck.

As with every set release there is a new code to get 3 packs "playm20"

And a code to get XP for the mastery system "levelup"

Quote from SardoNespa »

I swear its like I am up against bots, with decks perfectly matched to counter my deck AS WELL AS my opponents getting perfectly ordered cards vs. me getting mana abused.

Can relate.It's not unlike on Duels, if I played Delirium the AI would "suddenly" pull out Watchers of the Dead and that card for B that removes 3 cards from a graveyard, out of nowhere.

Quote from MTGSavage »

I spent the first few weeks getting spanked with my newb decks, that's a given, but didn't really experience any really powerful decks.

I was matched up against Teferi control and Nexus a DAY after starting out on Arena, lol. I must have the worst of luck.

Quote from SardoNespa »

The mana choking and mana drowning must stop!!!!

So true. I have 21 land in one deck, and I swear to god I draw like 11-12 out of the first 18 cards EVERY time.

New code for a random Mythic from Guilds, Allegiance and War. MYTHICMAGIC

One issue I have almost every game is that if I play Arboreal Grazer first turn (with 2 lands in hand) I NEVER draw a 3rd land, for like 4-5 turns.

This week's code is "SHIELDSUP" for the stained glass art of (who would have thought?) Teyo, the Shieldmage