I'm long interested in Magic, but I've never really play, until two months ago, when I tried Arena.
The tutorial was quite useful, but right after that it started being terribly difficult. But finally I got all 10 two color decks so I can play with them and I am slowly upgrading them from boosters I buy.
I also bought real planeswalker decks (Ral's and Vraska's), and brought their decks into Arena, but even with them I am not able to win much. And I made some improvements - got rid of Fearless Halberdier, add more Wee Dragonauts, switch Precision Bolts for Lightning Strike and so on. I even have Izzet and Golgari dual lands from packs.
I am definitely not a great player, but as I am losing nearly every game I play, I am just hopeless now. Maybe I really am that terrible, but if it's the case I do not know where to begin to improve.
I tried draft several times, but I must admit I have no knowledge of drafting, so it was always 0 wins for me.
I then choose to play common games, not ranked, I think there are playing those who do not want to hoard gold or rank. But regardless of the deck, I am nearly always paired with an opponent who has answer for everything I have.
When I play white/black vampire deck, opponent has either the same, but faster, or they counter everything I have and then play Tempest Djinn or something which I am not able to get rid of easily.
When I tried red burn deck, opponent starts with Ajani's presence or something and after several turns they are at 40 life, or always use Conclave Tribunal for my Rekindling Phoenix.
When I tried some blue counters, they always have Carnage Tyrant (which I, sadly, still never drawn since when I am playing red green deck)
Last week I wasn't able to win any of the three bonus Ravnica packs - I win only four games during the whole week.
Also it boggles me that the opponent begin the game way more ofter than I. And this is not only an impression:
Monday - 12 games WB deck, 1 win, opponent starts 8 times.
Tuesday - 10 games mono U, 0 wins, opponent starts 7 times.
Wednesday - 11 games RG decks, 1 win, opponent starts 9 times.
Thursday - 12 games BR deck, 0 wins, opponent starts 7 times.
Friday - 10 games with Ral planeswalker deck, 1 win, opponent starts 8 times.
Saturday - 11 games with Vraska planeswalker deck, 1 win, opponent starts 7 times.
Of course every day there are games when I have terrible hand, and I am trying to learn how to mulligan, but the majority of games are just that I have quite good hand (at least I think), but opponent is just better.
Sorry for rant, I just do not know what to do now. But at least I am able to win daily rewards, because they are for playing, not winning
Hi! The thing is, Arena is not really that welcoming to new players. Magic has a great deal of depth and I believe that all people playing Arena are quite competitive. Going up against more experienced players hell-bent on winning doesn't tend to work, irrespective of the game. And yes, the matchups can sometimes be so frustrating it's hard to believe it's happening at random. One day I got my Llanowar ElvesShocked t1 in 8 out of 10 games I played, which doesn't seem very statistically appropriate, but that's a topic people have been discussing ad nauseam in other threads.
If you do enjoy the idea of Magic (which you seem to), it's probably better to play with people face to face if that is an option - that way, you will learn about common strategies and essential concepts much more quickly, since in MTGA you can't really talk to your opponents. The other option to increase your winrate is to study - I personally learned a lot about how to play properly from articles by Mike Flores and Adrian Sullivan, but that's some seriously old stuff, you can certainly find something more up-to-date. The least you can do is observe what other people are playing in their decks and upgrade yours with the cards you grind out. And you can always ask for help and suggestions here. Just post a decklist you would like people to help you optimize and someone will give you suggestions in no time.
I think drafts are better for building you collection, but only if you can eke out at least a few wins here and there, but they do take some amount of skill and experience, so maybe just buy packs with the gold you earn so that you earn wildcards from opening packs. Or you can go read (and watch) on how to draft, but I think it's easier to start with Constructed.
You'll get better with practice, just be patient and observant.
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standard: BUG The Baron (it doesn't work, but I try anyway)
I'd also suggest playing in the 'Constructed' event when its available, as the match making is not as tight, and you'll have more opportunity to learn.
I also bought real planeswalker decks (Ral's and Vraska's), and brought their decks into Arena, but even with them I am not able to win much.
Same here, but I don't think any Planeswalker Intro deck has been competitive.
I am definitely not a great player, but as I am losing nearly every game I play, I am just hopeless now. Maybe I really am that terrible, but if it's the case I do not know where to begin to improve.
Same, losing every game - been playing 2-3hrs a day since Guilds was released and have won a total of 1 game. Started playing IRL just before Tempest.
I then choose to play common games, not ranked, I think there are playing those who do not want to hoard gold or rank. But regardless of the deck, I am nearly always paired with an opponent who has answer for everything I have.
When I play white/black vampire deck, opponent has either the same, but faster, or they counter everything I have and then play Tempest Djinn or something which I am not able to get rid of easily.When I tried red burn deck, opponent starts with Ajani's presence or something and after several turns they are at 40 life, or always use Conclave Tribunal for my Rekindling Phoenix.
When I tried some blue counters, they always have Carnage Tyrant (which I, sadly, still never drawn since when I am playing red green deck)
I feel your pain here.
To the poster above that states MTG is not welcoming for new players - I agree 100%. Well at least for my experience. When I started, I lost my first 2 games and from there all I was facing was Top8 Goldfish decks...with the beginnner mono colored decks
Thanks to all, apparently it really is quite competitive, I just thought in common play (not competitive constructed or ranked) there will be less pressure and more "noobs" like me.
About decks, well, I am using preconstructed decks, mainly WB vampires, RG beasts, I didn't change those much, except for some cards I cracked from packs (Elenda, the Dusk Rose for WB vampires or Hallar, the Firefletcher for RG beasts).
Yesterday I tried constructed with WB vampires. I even managed to win once, and as a reward a got Sarkhan, Fireblood - I will try to use him in the red preconstructed deck.
But mostly I am using the two planeswalker decks (and I plan to buy the Dovin and Domri ones too). I modified those a bit more (at least I have quite a luck when cracking packs) so there are the decklists:
The Izzet deck is definitely my favourite. The win I have with it last week was really epic. It was against Black green, the game was quite long, and at the end I win with four copies of Wee Dragonauts buffed by normal and jump-started Chemister's Insight, and subsequently drawn Shock and Risk Factor. It was worth the whole week waiting.
Hellkite Whelp and Command the Storm are both exceptionally subpar. I would focus on finding replacements for them. For example, more drakes, of either the Crackling or Enigma variety, would be far better than the Hellkite Whelp. As for Command the Storm, either Fight with Fire or Beacon Bolt seem like solid replacements.
I'm trying to concoct Izzet also; what are your thoughts on Beacon Bolt ?
Beacon Bolt is a good card, but a) it's not a 4-of due to its situational and self-recycling nature, and b) requires the right cards to be truly great. Izzet Drakes usually use it quite successfully in a competitive level (though they mostly shifted to Lava Coil due to the current metagame), but they also have an insane amount of cheap Instant/Sorcery card draw that enables it. Chart a Course is a fantastic card to work in tandem with Instant/Sorcery matters cards and I'd say is the bare minimum to make Bolt work consistently.
I've been playing since a little before Arena went into open beta (so around August, 2018). In total I've only been playing for around 30 hours since then. That isn't that much. I've been only using the precons that were given. I have around a 47-48% overall winrate (own measurement). My favourite decks to play are Strength in Numbers(W/R), Forest's Might (G), and Eternal Thirst (W/B). I've only been playing unranked. Eternal Thirst is my favourite because I went with Orzhov in the pre-release. Eternal Thirst has, from my measurement, a 58% win ratio for me (23-16). No changes to the deck.
Before this I've never played any Magic. Only watching the odd Spellslingers series with Day9. Now I'm neck-deep with Rhystic Studies, Limited Resources podcasts, Channel Fireball, MTGGoldfish, Command zone and Game Knights, LegenVD, and Tolarian Community College and more (I think I watch more than I actually play, in part that I'm slightly scared of spending gold to do draft. haha). Just a few days ago I attended my first pre-release and pretty much went 0-4 but had so much fun.
How are you approaching the games? Because I went in with the mindset of learning my decks that were given to me, even though they were precons and regarded as underpowered but, if I'm understanding this correctly, unranked matches your decks in terms of strength. I also went in with the mindset of how I'm playing my hand, for example: "maybe I shouldn't have played that now and played it in the next phase", etc. I don't go in with the mentality of winning, just wanting to play cards and learn what's going on. If I'm on the verge of winning, then I'm going through my options a bit more intensely.
I'm keen to continue this discussion and go through our Magic experience together.
I started last night. I bought the welcome pack and started drafting. After 8 drafts I lost too early and was unable to continue, however I had enough cards to build a standard deck and am now 14-0 in the constructed events, I assume this streak will end when I start facing people with real decks as opposed to the welcome decks.
I was highly skeptical about how easy this would be to F2P as most people just complain about how unreasonable it is to get all of the shocklands and checklands. They made it seem like it would be weeks or months before I had a standard level deck. But not even 24 hours in and I can compete at a reasonable level. Mono Red Memekin encase you are wondering what deck I could possible build, I hear Mono Blue Merfolk is also competitive but the Memekin looked way more fun.
My win ratio is 15-20% at best (with Izzet and Golgari planeswalker decks). With preconstructed decks it's worse. During weekend I played ca 15 games with WB Eternal Thirst and won only one of them.
But the problem will definitely be me, because yesterday I was really shocked when I played against BR deck. They used Act of Treason to steal my Niv-Mizzet, Parun, attack with it, and then they just destroyed it with Ravenous Harpy.
I played with the same BR deck several times before, used Act of Treason for stealing, and thought I was smart when I was repeatedly sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton into Ravenous Harpy, but I would never come up with something that nasty...
I love that combo from the Chaos and Mayhem precon they give you. I made minor modifications by trying to get either a few more Reassembling Skeletons or tokens to feed the Harpy. I named it "Feed Me Chaos". It wasn't very efficient but it was fun.
My win ratio is 15-20% at best (with Izzet and Golgari planeswalker decks).
Mine is at 1% at best, even with "top8" decks, let alone Planeswalker decks. Not sure how the "matching" system works (although I have heard several answers), I don't think my Azorious PW deck can win against the 18 games I just had against Dimir control, RDW, Teferi UW, and all those "tier" decks. Would be nice if I could play a fairer game.....
But the problem will definitely be me, because yesterday I was really shocked when I played against BR deck. They used Act of Treason to steal my Niv-Mizzet, Parun, attack with it, and then they just destroyed it with Ravenous Harpy.
I played with the same BR deck several times before, used Act of Treason for stealing, and thought I was smart when I was repeatedly sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton into Ravenous Harpy, but I would never come up with something that nasty...
LOL, what are the chances it was me? I do that all the time with those cards. I think one of my dailies yesterday was to cast 25 black spells or some such so I was playing a BR Harpy deck.
Tip: try to keep at least and 2 other mana open. When you chump block with the skeleton, sacrifice the skeleton to Harpy, then at the end of your opponents turn, before it's your turn, spend to put the skeleton back into play. Sometimes you have to put a "stop" on main phase 2 to ensure you get priority. This paints a HUGE target on the Harpy so always expect it to get killed in a hurry.
Honestly I gave up on trying to win on Arena..2 wins since September. Now I go on and do the "Play X color spells" quests, and jam my deck full of 1cc cards from the respective color. Hey, it doesn't win either but at least I get the quests done a LOT quicker.
...
Tip: try to keep at least and 2 other mana open. When you chump block with the skeleton, sacrifice the skeleton to Harpy, then at the end of your opponents turn, before it's your turn, spend to put the skeleton back into play.
I don't understand. If I block with skeleton, it will be killed by attacking creature, or won't it?
And if I sacrifice it, the attacking creature will be free to deal damage.
And I already know I can return the skeleton to play on my opponent's turn, but again, I found it out the "hard way", from my opponents
I don't understand. If I block with skeleton, it will be killed by attacking creature, or won't it?
And if I sacrifice it, the attacking creature will be free to deal damage.
...you can block with the skeleton, THEN sacrifice it to the Harpy. The skeleton will die but the creature it is blocking won't do damage to you, as it is considered blocked.
...you can block with the skeleton, THEN sacrifice it to the Harpy. The skeleton will die but the creature it is blocking won't do damage to you, as it is considered blocked.
Wow, I didn't know this. So the combat tricks can be even nastier...
I suppose that if I sacrifice it to the Harpy, it will also have the +1/+1 counter before, so it will damage the attacking creature more.
...you can block with the skeleton, THEN sacrifice it to the Harpy. The skeleton will die but the creature it is blocking won't do damage to you, as it is considered blocked.
Wow, I didn't know this. So the combat tricks can be even nastier...
I suppose that if I sacrifice it to the Harpy, it will also have the +1/+1 counter before, so it will damage the attacking creature more.
As long as it's all done before the damage step, yes.
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I'm long interested in Magic, but I've never really play, until two months ago, when I tried Arena.
The tutorial was quite useful, but right after that it started being terribly difficult. But finally I got all 10 two color decks so I can play with them and I am slowly upgrading them from boosters I buy.
I also bought real planeswalker decks (Ral's and Vraska's), and brought their decks into Arena, but even with them I am not able to win much. And I made some improvements - got rid of Fearless Halberdier, add more Wee Dragonauts, switch Precision Bolts for Lightning Strike and so on. I even have Izzet and Golgari dual lands from packs.
I am definitely not a great player, but as I am losing nearly every game I play, I am just hopeless now. Maybe I really am that terrible, but if it's the case I do not know where to begin to improve.
I tried draft several times, but I must admit I have no knowledge of drafting, so it was always 0 wins for me.
I then choose to play common games, not ranked, I think there are playing those who do not want to hoard gold or rank. But regardless of the deck, I am nearly always paired with an opponent who has answer for everything I have.
When I play white/black vampire deck, opponent has either the same, but faster, or they counter everything I have and then play Tempest Djinn or something which I am not able to get rid of easily.
When I tried red burn deck, opponent starts with Ajani's presence or something and after several turns they are at 40 life, or always use Conclave Tribunal for my Rekindling Phoenix.
When I tried some blue counters, they always have Carnage Tyrant (which I, sadly, still never drawn since when I am playing red green deck)
Last week I wasn't able to win any of the three bonus Ravnica packs - I win only four games during the whole week.
Also it boggles me that the opponent begin the game way more ofter than I. And this is not only an impression:
Monday - 12 games WB deck, 1 win, opponent starts 8 times.
Tuesday - 10 games mono U, 0 wins, opponent starts 7 times.
Wednesday - 11 games RG decks, 1 win, opponent starts 9 times.
Thursday - 12 games BR deck, 0 wins, opponent starts 7 times.
Friday - 10 games with Ral planeswalker deck, 1 win, opponent starts 8 times.
Saturday - 11 games with Vraska planeswalker deck, 1 win, opponent starts 7 times.
Of course every day there are games when I have terrible hand, and I am trying to learn how to mulligan, but the majority of games are just that I have quite good hand (at least I think), but opponent is just better.
Sorry for rant, I just do not know what to do now. But at least I am able to win daily rewards, because they are for playing, not winning
If you do enjoy the idea of Magic (which you seem to), it's probably better to play with people face to face if that is an option - that way, you will learn about common strategies and essential concepts much more quickly, since in MTGA you can't really talk to your opponents. The other option to increase your winrate is to study - I personally learned a lot about how to play properly from articles by Mike Flores and Adrian Sullivan, but that's some seriously old stuff, you can certainly find something more up-to-date. The least you can do is observe what other people are playing in their decks and upgrade yours with the cards you grind out. And you can always ask for help and suggestions here. Just post a decklist you would like people to help you optimize and someone will give you suggestions in no time.
I think drafts are better for building you collection, but only if you can eke out at least a few wins here and there, but they do take some amount of skill and experience, so maybe just buy packs with the gold you earn so that you earn wildcards from opening packs. Or you can go read (and watch) on how to draft, but I think it's easier to start with Constructed.
You'll get better with practice, just be patient and observant.
BUG The Baron (it doesn't work, but I try anyway)
modern:
RGShaman Aggro
legacy:
UHigh Tide
German highlander:
BUG aggro control
EDH:
a positively unhealthy amount of decks
Spirits
Same here, but I don't think any Planeswalker Intro deck has been competitive.
Same, losing every game - been playing 2-3hrs a day since Guilds was released and have won a total of 1 game. Started playing IRL just before Tempest.
I feel your pain here.
To the poster above that states MTG is not welcoming for new players - I agree 100%. Well at least for my experience. When I started, I lost my first 2 games and from there all I was facing was Top8 Goldfish decks...with the beginnner mono colored decks
About decks, well, I am using preconstructed decks, mainly WB vampires, RG beasts, I didn't change those much, except for some cards I cracked from packs (Elenda, the Dusk Rose for WB vampires or Hallar, the Firefletcher for RG beasts).
Yesterday I tried constructed with WB vampires. I even managed to win once, and as a reward a got Sarkhan, Fireblood - I will try to use him in the red preconstructed deck.
But mostly I am using the two planeswalker decks (and I plan to buy the Dovin and Domri ones too). I modified those a bit more (at least I have quite a luck when cracking packs) so there are the decklists:
1 Ral, Caller of Storms
1 Erratic Cyclops
2 Hellkite Whelp
2 Goblin Electromancer
3 Ral's Staticaster
4 Wee Dragonauts
2 Crackling Drake
1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
2 Chemister's Insight
2 Command the Storm
2 Shock
2 Sonic Assault
1 Firemind's Research
1 Quasiduplicate
3 Risk Factor
4 Lightning Strike
2 Steam Vents
10 Mountain
9 Island
1 Vraska, Regal Gorgon
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 Beast Whisperer
3 Kraul Raider
1 Lotleth Giant
2 Spinal Centipede
2 Ironshell Beetle
3 Attendant of Vraska
1 Rhizome Lurcher
1 Swarm Guildmage
3 Grappling Sundew
2 Vraska's Stoneglare
3 Dead Weight
3 Prey Upon
1 Vicious Rumors
2 Undercity Uprising
2 Assassin's Trophy
1 Status // Statue
4 Overgrown Tomb
8 Swamp
8 Forest
1 Guildmages' Forum
The Izzet deck is definitely my favourite. The win I have with it last week was really epic. It was against Black green, the game was quite long, and at the end I win with four copies of Wee Dragonauts buffed by normal and jump-started Chemister's Insight, and subsequently drawn Shock and Risk Factor. It was worth the whole week waiting.
Before this I've never played any Magic. Only watching the odd Spellslingers series with Day9. Now I'm neck-deep with Rhystic Studies, Limited Resources podcasts, Channel Fireball, MTGGoldfish, Command zone and Game Knights, LegenVD, and Tolarian Community College and more (I think I watch more than I actually play, in part that I'm slightly scared of spending gold to do draft. haha). Just a few days ago I attended my first pre-release and pretty much went 0-4 but had so much fun.
How are you approaching the games? Because I went in with the mindset of learning my decks that were given to me, even though they were precons and regarded as underpowered but, if I'm understanding this correctly, unranked matches your decks in terms of strength. I also went in with the mindset of how I'm playing my hand, for example: "maybe I shouldn't have played that now and played it in the next phase", etc. I don't go in with the mentality of winning, just wanting to play cards and learn what's going on. If I'm on the verge of winning, then I'm going through my options a bit more intensely.
I'm keen to continue this discussion and go through our Magic experience together.
I was highly skeptical about how easy this would be to F2P as most people just complain about how unreasonable it is to get all of the shocklands and checklands. They made it seem like it would be weeks or months before I had a standard level deck. But not even 24 hours in and I can compete at a reasonable level. Mono Red Memekin encase you are wondering what deck I could possible build, I hear Mono Blue Merfolk is also competitive but the Memekin looked way more fun.
My win ratio is 15-20% at best (with Izzet and Golgari planeswalker decks). With preconstructed decks it's worse. During weekend I played ca 15 games with WB Eternal Thirst and won only one of them.
But the problem will definitely be me, because yesterday I was really shocked when I played against BR deck. They used Act of Treason to steal my Niv-Mizzet, Parun, attack with it, and then they just destroyed it with Ravenous Harpy.
I played with the same BR deck several times before, used Act of Treason for stealing, and thought I was smart when I was repeatedly sacrificing Reassembling Skeleton into Ravenous Harpy, but I would never come up with something that nasty...
I love that combo from the Chaos and Mayhem precon they give you. I made minor modifications by trying to get either a few more Reassembling Skeletons or tokens to feed the Harpy. I named it "Feed Me Chaos". It wasn't very efficient but it was fun.
Mine is at 1% at best, even with "top8" decks, let alone Planeswalker decks. Not sure how the "matching" system works (although I have heard several answers), I don't think my Azorious PW deck can win against the 18 games I just had against Dimir control, RDW, Teferi UW, and all those "tier" decks. Would be nice if I could play a fairer game.....
LOL, what are the chances it was me? I do that all the time with those cards. I think one of my dailies yesterday was to cast 25 black spells or some such so I was playing a BR Harpy deck.
Tip: try to keep at least and 2 other mana open. When you chump block with the skeleton, sacrifice the skeleton to Harpy, then at the end of your opponents turn, before it's your turn, spend to put the skeleton back into play. Sometimes you have to put a "stop" on main phase 2 to ensure you get priority. This paints a HUGE target on the Harpy so always expect it to get killed in a hurry.
I don't understand. If I block with skeleton, it will be killed by attacking creature, or won't it?
And if I sacrifice it, the attacking creature will be free to deal damage.
And I already know I can return the skeleton to play on my opponent's turn, but again, I found it out the "hard way", from my opponents
...you can block with the skeleton, THEN sacrifice it to the Harpy. The skeleton will die but the creature it is blocking won't do damage to you, as it is considered blocked.
Wow, I didn't know this. So the combat tricks can be even nastier...
I suppose that if I sacrifice it to the Harpy, it will also have the +1/+1 counter before, so it will damage the attacking creature more.
As long as it's all done before the damage step, yes.