Play advantage is prevalent across all formats. Nobody chooses to go second except very infrequently in decks such as 8-rack or weird things like manaless dredge (but that's more to do with the hand size rule than anything).
The reason for this is simple: draw advatage is only realized when enough resources are traded, so the extra card begins to have higher proportional value (2 cards is 100% more cards than 1 card, but 8 cards is only 14% more cards than 7).
Since many games end with cards still in players' hands, this extra card advantage will not always matter. But the extra play advantage (tempo advantage) always matters in every game. This is why players (almost) always opt to go first. If there were more decks like 8 rack, this would not matter so much. But Wizards has generally avoided printing powerful attrition cards in recent sets.
Is this a problem? Yes, because due to the random nature of determining who goes first, it randomly assigns advantage to one player over another. Not all variance can be removed from this game, of course, but reducing play advantage would go a long way towards reducing one obvious example of it.
By reducing the opening hand size to 6, it automatically increases the advantage of the draw player in a clean and simple manner. The value of the 7th card is higher than the value of the 8th. (~17% vs ~14%).
Wouldn't this make mulligans even more frequent? Yes, but I would propose instituting a free mulligan to compensate for that. First mulligan free, then proceed as normal for the additional ones.
I agree about the advantage of playing first. Personally I'd like to see the player on the draw get a free Scry 1, after all mulligans and before the player on the play starts their turn.
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Playing since 1994: Currently MAGS (HomeBrew),Standard & Pauper (Pioneer and Modern are degenerate trash formats)
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
That is a 20% increase in your chance to win, an increase which required no thought nor strategy to achieve, merely a lucky roll of a die.
That's a good study if you wanted to say in multiplayer games the player who goes first shouldn't draw. But to say that going first is an advantage in single player games they have to look at games where the first player is actually giving up something.
If at some point in the video they do cover single player games I retract what I said. The part I listed to, which is where you linked they talk about how the first player draws and plays first which is an obvious advantage.
That is a 20% increase in your chance to win, an increase which required no thought nor strategy to achieve, merely a lucky roll of a die.
That's a good study if you wanted to say in multiplayer games the player who goes first shouldn't draw. But to say that going first is an advantage in single player games they have to look at games where the first player is actually giving up something.
If at some point in the video they do cover single player games I retract what I said. The part I listed to, which is where you linked they talk about how the first player draws and plays first which is an obvious advantage.
It is all Commander games, sadly. I would love to watch a video or read an article by someone who did something similar for normal games.
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The reason for this is simple: draw advatage is only realized when enough resources are traded, so the extra card begins to have higher proportional value (2 cards is 100% more cards than 1 card, but 8 cards is only 14% more cards than 7).
Since many games end with cards still in players' hands, this extra card advantage will not always matter. But the extra play advantage (tempo advantage) always matters in every game. This is why players (almost) always opt to go first. If there were more decks like 8 rack, this would not matter so much. But Wizards has generally avoided printing powerful attrition cards in recent sets.
Is this a problem? Yes, because due to the random nature of determining who goes first, it randomly assigns advantage to one player over another. Not all variance can be removed from this game, of course, but reducing play advantage would go a long way towards reducing one obvious example of it.
By reducing the opening hand size to 6, it automatically increases the advantage of the draw player in a clean and simple manner. The value of the 7th card is higher than the value of the 8th. (~17% vs ~14%).
Wouldn't this make mulligans even more frequent? Yes, but I would propose instituting a free mulligan to compensate for that. First mulligan free, then proceed as normal for the additional ones.
Anyways that's my solution. Questions?
STOP using "dude/bro" as a pejorative or insult. Grow up.
Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
Benjamin Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Martin Luther King Jr.: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
I want numbers not gut instinct.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
The Command Zone did a study of 300 4-player Commander games and found that going first increased your chance to win from 25% to 30%, while decreasing everyone else from 25% to 23%.
That is a 20% increase in your chance to win, an increase which required no thought nor strategy to achieve, merely a lucky roll of a die.
If at some point in the video they do cover single player games I retract what I said. The part I listed to, which is where you linked they talk about how the first player draws and plays first which is an obvious advantage.
It is all Commander games, sadly. I would love to watch a video or read an article by someone who did something similar for normal games.