So I've only been playing MTG for about 4 years now, so I'm a relative newbie to everything, but to those of you who have been playing for longer, how often does it get this shitty, and how long does it last?? Formats are completely busted wide open, with Standard especially has been near unplayable for over half a year, Arena got predatory af, WOTC has been pricing up the game worse than ever, and the story got completely dog after Ixalan.
I don't enjoy playing Commander and draft has never really been my forte, so what should I really do? Invest an unhealthy amount of money into Modern? Just wait for things to turn around? I haven't spent a dime on the game since Throne of Eldraine and my wallet has been thanking me, but I'm still dissapointed as Magic had been a fantastic experience for me the past few years.
Is there any other paper card games I could be looking into rn? Honestly my experience with TCG's is limited to just Pokemon, Magic, and Hearthstone so I'm willing to try anything, it's just depressing to watch something seemingly fall apart so disastrously as this.
"Chandra had never been into girls. Her crushes -- and she'd had her fair share--were mostly the brawny (and decidedly male) types like Gids."
That sounds really cool, though to be honest, I would miss the enjoyment I get from trading cards with others or cracking packs when everyone has everything from the start, as strange as that i.
Wizards has gone full Yugioh in terms of using power creep to sell new product. They seem incapable of printing merely "good" cards in favor of "let's make it so you can shit out an 8/8 with trample on turn 2 in modern!" or "let's print a 3-cost planeswalker that wins games by himself" because they know their customer base will buy shitloads of packs to try and get them.
Yeah it honestly feels extremely bizarre. I remember being excited when I heard about play design being created, and to be honest, Dominaria and both of the Ravnica sets were really fun (outside of a few completely busted cards like Teferi and Arclight Pheonix). Shoot, even the Ixalan sets weren't too bad. But for some reason- likely a decision made from Hasbro- everything has been spiraling out of control since Eldrain, from broken cards by the handful instead of a rare exception, greedy cashgrabs and upcharges for necessary reprints, everything now being sold by Hasbro or Amazon instead of through LGS's. WotC's catering towards whales has gotten depressing at this point.
As dumb as it sounds, Magic and the surrounding secondary market for it unironically helped radicalize me, because I realized just how fucking stupid it was that this wonderful game was at the mercy of a bunch of assholes that didn't care about it in the slightest trying to get rich. MtG with no profit motive would be an infinitely better game.
Proxy for paper unless going to tournaments, in which case uh... panic. But if you're playing Kitchen Table, proxying will be far cheaper.
LGS: Commander is king depending on the area, otherwise it's Standard. If you're not a Commander player, you're hosed there. Modern has kind of fallen in terms of popularity since it's "reboot"/Pioneer was introduced, but both are probably played if Standard/Commander aren't your jam. But you'll have to "invest" in some of the older cards depending on which of the formats/decks you go for.
Standard has been a trash fire ever since it was introduced, so don't worry about it. It goes through cycles of "fucking busted" to "ok, this is marginally playable" constantly.
Arena was always gonna be scummy because the game itself is scummy (sorry to all the lovers, that's just how the TCG market is). I'd suggest looking into the "LCG"/Living Card Game market, but that depends on how much you can stomach the difference (and slightly higher investment depending on the game/etc.) that Fantasy Flight Games introduced: No more trading cards, everything you buy will give you what you need and it's a matter of deck-building for the meta. But if you hate "Standard"'s balance problems, the balance in Living Card Games (in terms of tournaments) will probably give you fits.
In any case, <shill mode>Play Android: Netrunner! It's by Richard Garfield/MtG's creator and it's superior (in my not so humble opinion) to Magic!</shill mode>.
https://www.nearearthhub.net/
(ETA: Magic has been horrible post-Invasion block, IMO. But Planeswalkers and Mythic Rares is what killed a lot of the love for the game for me.)
ETA2: As for digital card games, Pokemon (in terms of better support for codes than Magic: Arena), Gwent (depending on how you feel about "muh 3 rows!"/homecomings changes from the Witcher 3 version/old beta for standalone), and that's probably it... OH, Yu-gi-oh: Duel Links (I guess) depending on how you can stomach the "grind" there are pretty F2P friendly and decent enough... though, I don't really highly recommend Yu-gi-oh as it can be as fucking busted as Magic.
Thanks for all the info man, that was really great. Tbh I think I'm just dissapointed because playing standard from Dominaria to RtRtRavnica block was so much fun.
I think if I continue playing Magic, it'd probably be in the form of pioneer, Modern is just too expensive, and even though you used to be able to buy one modern deck and play it for years, nowadays the Modern meta rotates just as much as standard.
I'll definitely look into the LCG and Netrunner stuff though, it seems cool.
Oh! I just remembered, I enjoyed Legends of Runeterra as a "casual Magic" clone digitally. It's not EXACT, but it does some good things (changes the land system to a Hearthstone "ramp" system, but if you don't use your "mana" that turn, you bank at least 3 of them for spells, which helps during a turn to cast more things.
I think that and Eternal are decent Magic clones but they make mobile-version concessions that Arena's mobile is gonna be interesting to see in regards to Magic's stack/complexity.
Also Runeterra was pretty F2P friendly when I tried it during the mobile version launch. I don't THINK it has expansions yet, so I can't say if that'll hold true when it starts to bring expansions out, but it's a good "ground floor" time in trying that right now.
Modern is still played, but Pioneer has kind of taken over it's thunder because it cut a lot of the older sets out.
Balance in Magic goes in a "see-saw" fashion where people complain about power-creep and then Wizards nerfs things to where people complain about it not being "fun"/interesting (hello, FIRE design) to where they then power-creep. The block/era you're talking about (Dominaria to Guilds-Alli-War) is where Dominaria "nerfed" levels and then it crept-up to War. So you rode the "crest." Thing is, Wizards supposedly "nerfed" in Elderaine, but we all know how that's gone (Hello brOko!).
Buy cheap, gorgeous proxies, play with comrades, enjoy vintage power at pauper prices. Some sites you can get custom foils for like 60 cents each.
Edit: Also cube to scratch that draft itch
I've been playing since Dominaria came out. I've been enjoying myself as long as I don't get too into things.
I was actually planning on starting to get into Pauper right before the pandemic hit since there's a decently sized Pauper community in Boston. Standard's been a nightmare between set release and initial bannings though. Fucking ELD.
Pauper is a fantastic format and I love it. Except the people at my LGS refuse to support the format bc they're all loaded neckbeards who believe that spending less than $300 on a deck means you aren't actually playing Magic. It's insanely dissapointing.
And I know I'm gonna sound like an idiot for saying this, but Rise of Zendikar actually looks pretty good? Maybe it can do something to heal the wounds form War of the Spark and Eldraine
Eldraine was decent once green got nuked from orbit (Mardi Knights was a really fun deck). The Ravnica/WotS block was an unfun mess.
My biggest issue with ELD was that I missed the pre-release because I got hit by a car while riding my bike and spent the week in the hospital.
Holy shit man that sucks, sorry to hear that, I hope you've since recovered.
I never continued to play Eldraine after all the card bannings, partially because it felt like the meta was just to chaotic to try to keep track of, and partly because the groans heard from players whenever you put down a breeding pool became unbearable (Simic is my favorite color combo).
I was a total shitter in the Ravnica sets, I played Nexus of Fate because I found the concept of the deck fun, but I can totally see how lots of players found a lot of the decks in the meta unbearable.
Oof, yeah. In Arena I almost always dropped when I saw Teferi hit the table just because it wasn't fun to play against. I get why MTG got kinda fucked up during ELD (starting with that set they were working on increasing the power level of standard), but it was kinda annoying how they flubbed it initially.
Ikora was cool, but I can't tell if mutations are a good mechanic, or if it's just a gimmick. Battlecruiser creatures always seem like a bad idea unless you can get protection or hexproof on them.
Knee's mostly fine at this point. Two plates and 18 screws for the last year and I'm gonna talk with my surgeon soon about getting all that out.
Hearthstone is pretty good. I used to play it all the time, particularly the arena mode. You'll run into try hard wallet warriors in the standard play mode, but arena is a lot more skill driven
I'm playing Hearthstone as I type this lol, have been playing since Naxx. The game is pretty good even though standard is always a mess, but digital card games can never really substitute the feeling of paper and person to person interaction for me.
Huh, back when I used to play hearthstone religiously, I used to rp as a person playing the game. Blizzard made that easy with a very immerse soundtrack + design.
Oh yeah, Blizzard is always amazing with their world design and theming, especially in hearthstone. But being able to walk into a local game store, say hi to the regulars, chat with your opponent while playing a game, digital just can't replicate that.
I'd wait if I were you.. i play commander myself and haven't played standard since aether revolt so I'm sated.. but if standards your jam then wait.. that's an ebbe/flow thing. Also I hate the story, the entire gatewatch storyline was really not my shit.
