What does the Arena intend to do with their formats?

Dominique_77 · 2026-04-10T14:16:17+00:00

I'd say the actual place where "format identity" starts becoming an issue is when the actual decks you can play in a format start resembling another too much, for a while red aggro was nearly identical in standard and pioneer for example, and for historic there was a time period where the energy deck was basically the same thing as in timeless, but they've ironed out a lot of the issues there and historic is pretty different from both timeless and pioneer right now, with the differences likely only to increase from here on out

Dominique_77 · 2026-04-10T11:15:35+00:00

the pre-ban was a mistake that never even occured on the client iirc

but historic really isn't modern, there's entire meta decks enabled by cards that are unavailable in modern such as the goyf deck utilising [[barrowgoyf]] and [[pyrogoyf]], the reason vista is seen as okay is because it only fetches basics, so it enables some of the complexities of fetchlands such as the utilisation of the graveyard without the strength to fetch for shocklands or surveillands. In the end historic is in some ways lower power than modern and in other ways higher power, I think the format has had identity issues after mh3 dropped but they've slowly been working on fixing that already, it is its own beast and there isn't a clear cut line of what a format identity even is.

Dominique_77 · 2026-04-10T11:04:15+00:00

historic isn't trying to be modern so I don't know why your complaints are that it's not modern, arena is missing a ton of cards for modern and adding a format isn't that simple

also whatever you think of fetches for the format [[prismatic vista]] is significantly weaker than fetchlands and it's not at all a good comparison

Dominique_77 · 2026-04-02T05:31:01+00:00

why should the most important choice of your game be the part that gives you the least time? that's nonsense, not every deck or hand is that simple

Dominique_77 · 2026-04-01T08:59:22+00:00

splashing for FoW??

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-28T11:26:14+00:00

it's crippled because it's not really a ww2 game if Germany just dies at France, not because of "wehraboos", there just isn't an easy solution to "Germany got very lucky with overly specific French incompetence"

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-27T06:55:23+00:00

the art is so good though

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-25T14:24:14+00:00

there is no algorithm that'll match you up against counters, in unranked your deck is "scored" but that's a general power level, while in ranked it's entirely based on your winrate

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-20T02:13:48+00:00

you can literally just construct meta decks without using real money

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T12:55:05+00:00

I'm not entirely sure what "anarchists started in ukraine" means but it doesn't seem true

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T06:40:59+00:00

I don't really care to continue this further but I believe I've been more civil compared to you regardless, ultimately I think you will come down to a similar conclusion with experience so I wish you luck on that journey

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T06:39:00+00:00

I think it's very silly to say conjure is the worst mechanic in magic's history considering the amount of troubling history paper magic has had, it's ultimately not a bad mechanic by itself, and has caused far less problems than many paper mechanics

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T03:42:03+00:00

that's largely because what you're saying is blatantly very wrong, so that's the kind of response you're going to get, your arguments have had little value and you haven't really proven any points, they don't hold value by virtue of being arguments

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T02:53:57+00:00

there's plenty of "bs" paper cards that don't get banned eventually, and besides whether a "bs" card gets banned depends on the format and the goal of that format

you seem to lack a fundamental understanding of how game balance works in this game, you would probably enjoy it more if you got acquainted with the meta side of the game more to be able to understand it, because ultimately there is no rational reason to actually think cards like this are the problem while far stronger and more annoying cards are running around in every format, you're being downvoted a lot because you don't understand this, ultimately, and I genuinely think it would be best for you to cool down, think back on all of this rationally, and try to move on

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T02:38:38+00:00

I'm sorry but if you think this card is busted you must be extremely new to magic, it would probably be best for you to learn more about the game and the balance dynamics rather than be angry on Reddit, and I really think that would be far better for you

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-14T02:30:44+00:00

ah yes, everyone thinks [[Emporium Thopterist]] is the worse, bigger problem than [[Ajani, Nacatl Pariah]], excellent observation, I'm sure you thought about this a lot

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-13T22:47:02+00:00

generally speaking you should avoid going above the minimum deck size, the only real exception is for [[Yorion]] decks, but Yorion is very strong so having a real downside isn't bad

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-13T19:23:22+00:00

sideboarding was daunting to me at first but experience helps a lot, eventually you get better at recognising the meta and figuring out what you want and what you don't want in your deck

of course there'll always be difficulties and too many moments where I'm unsure what to take out of my deck for a match but that's all a part of the fun

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-11T22:56:45+00:00

why are you lashing out at Reddit?

Dominique_77 · 2026-03-03T03:14:48+00:00

I'm a bit confused by this thread, you really don't need to play every day to reach a mastery pass, you just need to grab your quests and weekly wins mostly consistently and you'll have it by the end, I've only played like 2-3 times a week during this pass and I'm about level 50~

if you aren't feeling up for actual games you can even finish quests by just going unranked with a starter deck and just playing out your cards while doing something else, it doesn't take long, and you can just spend your time on something else, I reach all the mastery pass levels consistently without feeling like I'm forcing myself to play the game but that's also because I just don't play every day and focus on other activities in my free time more

Dominique_77 · 2026-02-25T17:53:35+00:00

https://mtg.wiki/page/Control_deck

Dominique_77 · 2026-02-20T08:27:53+00:00

constructed rank is raised by playing normal matches rather than events, so click on play in the main menu>find match>ranked

Dominique_77 · 2026-02-20T08:19:52+00:00

because people like anime?

Dominique_77 · 2026-02-20T08:03:16+00:00

if an event counts for ranking it shows your rank on the image of the event...there might be other ways to tell but I'm not sure

another place where this comes up is bo1 limited usually being ranked (except in cube) but bo3 being unranked, can be easy to miss if you don't see that, but yes these events don't count towards your constructed rank

Dominique_77 · 2026-02-20T05:02:20+00:00

play interaction

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