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."

  • throwawaylemmy [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    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.

    • YeForPrez2020 [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      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.

      • throwawaylemmy [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        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!).