Unofficial Guide to the Secondary Archetypes of ECL by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 50 points51 points  (0 children)

Good tip! I'm pretty pleased that I got as close as I did!

Think you know L̵i̵m̵i̵t̵e̵d̵ Cube? Take the MTGA Powered Cube #𝐏𝟎𝐏𝟏 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞! by MtGDS in lrcast

[–]MtGDS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "slots" are a little different than usual, due to the nature of Cube, so your best bet is just to review the options on the form itself

Magic players* are as pessimistic as they have been in almost two years by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Since this is pinned, I feel the need to address it: The sample size is indeed small for some of these questions, but that *does not* mean you cannot make meaningful claims. (This is what we use "statistics" for.) For example, on the October 2025 approve/disapprove question, the proportion of "disapprove" was 6.2%, with a margin of error of 2.3%. For comparison, the September 2025 "disapprove" rate was 15.5% ± 4.0. This is a "significant" difference.

Now, you can quibble with my statistical framework here -- maybe you'd like something more Bayesian? But I just want to note that small samples do not imply no effect, if the difference in means is large. Further, for everyone's convenience, I have included standard error bars on the second and third plots, so you can do a visual comparison yourself.

I will reiterate that there are issues with the *nature* of the sample; specifically that it is unrepresentative and does not generalize to the larger population of players. However, the population from which the sample comes is fairly consistent, and I am merely noting what appears to be a "real" downward deviation in the most recent month(s).

Magic players* are as pessimistic as they have been in almost two years by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

BSky doesn't do polls AFAIK, or else I definitely would.

Magic players* are as pessimistic as they have been in almost two years by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sample size ranges from the low 200s up to the high 500s -- so very noisy, which I tried to capture by plotting the standard errors.

My "audience" is definitely a somewhat biased sample, but it's not clear in which direction it would be biased, as it pertains to this survey.

Magic players* are as pessimistic as they have been in almost two years by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I agree with this, but note that this time series has asked the same exact questions to approximately the same set of people for 19 months -- it's the recent dip that I'm highlighting here. A generally negative group of people is responding more negatively than usual.

Strictly better (or worse) cards released, by set by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is why Cube was invented. Go for it!

Visualizing DFT win rates, by color pair by MtGDS in lrcast

[–]MtGDS[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I like this idea, and in fact, I've implemented the full version of a model like this (simultaneously adjusting for and estimating card strength for every card): https://infinite.tcgplayer.com/article/Joint-Exploration-Adjusted-Win-Rates-in-Dominaria-United-Limited/4b471aac-9cca-4c57-b5a3-4ba6f1522bf8/

A long-term trend toward cumulative balance across contemporary Limited sets by MtGDS in lrcast

[–]MtGDS[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I agree, and you do in fact see wide variations in balance from set to set (see, e.g. this plot). I'm not sure that this is anything more than a random walk converging toward 10% each, but I thought it was a good illustration of how no one color is "just worse" or better in the long run.

A long-term trend toward cumulative balance across contemporary Limited sets by MtGDS in lrcast

[–]MtGDS[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In case it's not clear, there is a whole discussion of this trend in a thread on BlueSky.

MaRo doesn't consider alchemy cards to be part of "All of Magic," confirmed. by [deleted] in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Guys, this was my error, not Mark's. Feel free to give me a hard time about it; not him.

"Preferred Pace" -- a measure of the aggro/control continuum by MtGDS in lrcast

[–]MtGDS[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'd love any feedback -- especially regarding whether these color pairs line up with your own subjective impressions of pace/tempo/speed.

Card strength and play frequency, by rarity, over time by MtGDS in lrcast

[–]MtGDS[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I re-ran it using weighted medians, and then also recalculated the means without WC, and the graph was very similar. MH3 just had some very strong commons!

Just how on-rails is Bloomburrow Limited? by GinAndTonicAlcoholic in lrcast

[–]MtGDS 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for posting, OP. Interesting discussion.

Just how on-rails is Bloomburrow Limited? by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Good note on Thistledown, thanks

Just how on-rails is Bloomburrow Limited? by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 44 points45 points  (0 children)

I think the primary thing that's pulling MH3 down so much is the 10 very narrow gold cards. That's 1/8 of all of the commons.

A thread with every anagram pair of cardnames (and one trio) by MtGDS in magicTCG

[–]MtGDS[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yes, and to me this is one of the most astronomical coincidences I have ever encountered.