devtrackers.gg
We agree that there are balance issues in Brawl beyond Teferi, and we don’t think this B&R solved that. We’ve been working for a bit on a different solution there; stay tuned for the August State of the Game for more info.
We agree that there are balance issues in Brawl beyond Teferi, and we don’t think this B&R solved that. We’ve been working for a bit on a different solution there; stay tuned for the August State of the Game for more info.
The standard bans aren't too much of a big deal since rotation is soon (though I guess Cat being banned is pretty huge), but both Wilderness Reclamation and Teferi being gone from Historic is huge and amazing.
The Teferi ban in Brawl is... strange. Banning it won't fix the problems of the stale meta in brawl
Just a quick note: We agree that this change doesn't fully address Brawl balance, and we've been working for a bit on some improvements there. Stay tuned for the August State of the Game for more info.
Aug 3, 16:25 UTC
Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Aug 3, 15:30 UTC
In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Aug 3, 15:10 UTC
Scheduled - We will be performing scheduled maintenance on AUG 03 at approximately 8:30 a.m. PT (15:30 UTC) to deploy patch 1.10.01.00, to implement the new B&R changes. Maintenance is expected to last approximately one hour.
This is a data only deployment, and players will not need to update their client to continue playing Magic: The Gathering Arena. No downtime is expected.
So basically competitive players who enjoy the BO3 tournament style either have to hope for good dice rolls for Day 2 or pay for a tonne of entry fees for repeated attempts.
You’re basically putting the real tournament behind a pay wall.
Edit: I want to add that if you do want to make Day 1 more accessible keep it BO1 that’s fine, but it shouldn’t be a qualifier then. Make it a seeding setup. Day 1 is BO1 for seeding, Day 2 is BO3 but you could end up with tougher matchups if you don’t do well on Day 1.
We really do want there to be a strong competitive path for players that prefer only playing Bo3. That's a small minority of the playerbase, but something we take very seriously. Currently we aim to support that via the Traditional Ladder and working your way to top Mythic and organized play tournaments from there. If that's not an appealing path for you/players like you, then we're very interested to learn more about how and why you feel that way. Honestly, we will try to fix that.
The Arena Opens are not designed to be that path. These are built for wide appeal to the whole audience of Magic players, rather than the Bo3-only hardcore.
Taking (another) step back, I have very vivid memories of way back in the mid-90's when my LGS ran its first "Type II" tournament. (In the olden days, Magic didn't have multiple formats. The first change here was between "Type I" (effectively Vintage) and "Type II" (effectively Standard now).) Some of the players I saw back then were...
Read moreDivide BO1 metrics by 10 to account for the new player wall blocking the BO3 option. Then Divide by an extra 2.5 to account for the extra BO3 time commitment
We're accounting for all of that in the numbers we're citing here. Players with the toggle flipped still play the vast majority of their games (games, not matches) in Bo1.
Read morePeople play BO1 a lot, but not competitively. Any competitive player would prefer BO3 over BO1, BO1 is played more, simply because casual players prefer it, but casual players wouldn't want to participate in tournaments, since it's just a waste of money for them.
Those excuses don't make any sense, it's pretty obvious that it's all about money, to drain people of their resources and to lure them into spending more than they could afford.
If someone only plays BO1, it doesn't make sense for them to participate in this tournament, since they won't have any hope in BO3 part anyway, where all the prizes are.
BO1 games are especially vulnerable to being on the play vs on the draw.
I played 140 BO1 matches during last 2 days, and my winrate on the play was 81%, while on the draw 59%. That's insane discrepancy, and it's somewhat alleviated in BO3, but in BO1 it turns the whole tournament into series coinflips.
If you slightly fallen behind, you are...
I'm not sure what you mean by saying that people don't play Bo1 competitively. The vast majority of Mythic play (or play on the way to Mythic) is Bo1, for example. The majority of players qualify for tournaments by getting Mythic through Bo1 play. The Open works in a similar way (qualify via Bo1, prove yourself via Bo3).
The data we see shows that players that predominantly play Bo1 very much do want to compete in these tournaments. And they have the skills to win them.
The play/draw percentages you cite are quite exceptional. The normal spread is much closer than that.
Taking a step back, one of the first principles we live by on Arena is (shockingly) the first principle of Magic R&D: "We are stewards of Magic. We want Magic to last forever and to be better tomorrow than it is today".
That means we need to appeal to a broad audience, so Magic keeps growing. That also means we need to maintain competitive integrity, so Magic doesn'...
Read more
