Arena of the Modern · 3:34pm Jun 29th, 2020
This weekend, I decided to violate some long-held principles and see if they were worth upholding.
That’s right, I tried playing online Magic: the Gathering.
My chief objection to playing MtG online (ever since the early days of MtG Online) has always been a simple one: I don’t want to rebuild my collection from scratch. And the more cards I’ve accrued, the more literal and conceptual weight that argument’s had.
But, well, quarantine. Before the prerelease this last Saturday, I hadn’t had a chance to play my favorite card game for months. And Arena is finally Mac compatible—please keep the comments semi-courteous—and I had a few free pack codes burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket. So, why not see how the free-to-play experience is?
Well, first off, there’s the matter of getting through the tutorial. You can skip part of it (not that the game actually tells you that,) but you still have to work through the “color mastery” portion, which involves teachng each color’s strengths and weaknesses against an AI that doesn’t understand why pointing Chandra's Outrage at your own creatures is a bad idea.
After that… Well, it’s Magic. A bit less forgiving than a version unconstrained by code (definitely no “Oops, hold on a second, before combat” moments here,) and only getting eight cards per booster feels like I'm being cheated, but it’s still my favorite game.
That I could play at any time.
Ever.
Do you see the problem?
I am very prone to addiction and obsession, as seen by how much time I spend on this site. Offering me endless Magic, even with a constrained collection, is like presenting a bottomless hotel minifridge to an alcoholic. Yes, it's not as much of a selection as a full bar, but those little bottles never run out. And that’s before throwing in the daily rewards, the experience system, and all the other little gotchas designed to make the brain produce endorphins as it watches its numbers go up.
When I found myself “just one more game”-ing my way past midnight, I knew I had to put my foot down. I uninstalled the game yesterday. Even now, I find myself thinking of ways to improve the budget white-black life gain snowball deck I’d put together. (They give you free playsets of Ajani's Pridemate, Bloodthirsty Aerialist, and Impassioned Orator. What else was I supposed to do?)
Know thyself, folks. It’ll keep you out of a lot of trouble (he said on a blog he’s writing during work hours. 
)
Final Verdict: 11/10. Too good for my own good.
I'm of this minority that saw you played magic online and instantly thought MTGO and not Arena.
Arena is addictive as hell. Be careful fam
As someone who started playing WoW at (European) launch in 2005 and stopped around 2-3 months ago, I feel you.
We'll miss you, FOME. You had a good run.
I've wrestled with a similar problem recently in the form of Slay the Spire, a singleplayer deckbuilding roguelike. I've beaten the true ending with half the characters, though, so I think I'll be able to put it down once I do so with the other two.
In terms of Magic, I got Arena to play Ikoria drafts and such, then uninstalled it once I got my fill of that and realized how bad current standard was. In terms of playing with your existing cards, a solution I found is to play commander with my friends via webcam through Discord. You just play in front of your laptop, or use your phone for more mobility. Some cards, such as Gonti, don't function properly, but otherwise it went pretty well. You just have to ask about boardstates often, since the image resolution isn't perfect.
In terms of rebuilding your collection, Arena is a lot more manageable than MTGO.
If you reconsider playing, try limiting yourself to either one draft, or winning one match. That's what I'll do on a given evening, depending on how much time I have.
There are some games I will not allow myself to touch, even a little bit, because I know for certain that I would get permanently addicted. Minecraft is one, and Magic: The Gathering (in any medium) is another. That's not to malign the game - if it wasn't good, it wouldn't be so addictive.
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I only keep up with MTG as FoME (and formerly ScarletWeather) blogs about it, I forgot that their was even a difference.
So, if you're looking for something that is comparably fun and less likely to rip your wallet open like it's a Mortal Kombat character that just lost a match, you could consider trying Legends of Runeterra. The main monetization arm of the game is cosmetics (pretty game boards, card sleeves, emotes, avatars, etc.) which means they just blast you in the face with free cards to actually play the game. You can buy cards, but it's a case of directly purchasing singles, no packs. And it really isn't needed to be competitive.
If your worry is spending too much time on it, I'll say maybe don't try it out because that's basically saying "now that I've kicked my crack habit, I can finally get around to heroin like I've always wanted," but if a major concern of yours was having your wallet assaulted, I'd give it a shot.
As someone who's been neck deep in many a collectables game (MtG, YuGiOh, D&D minis, Warmachine [still have ca. 5 boxes of minis for that particular phase of my life]), I know the dangers of having easy access to something that can be addictive. Now days, its Warframe, and before that, it was Destiny, and before that, it was WoW.
Hopefully you don't lose yourself entirely into this thing. I know I'm steering away from it because I know how much I can sink into something like it.
If it helps, try to have at least two degrees of separation between your wallet and the in game store. For example, don't directly put in a credit card. Instead, link to something like PayPal where you actively have to put money in and that has lag time between it becoming available, then set a monthly hard cap for yourself. Not the perfect solution, but adding things that help curb impulse buying don't hurt.
I didn't realize MTGO and arena were two different things
I've already kicked the habit myself, uninstalled. Then again, I'm looking to drop more things in the distant and not-so-distant future (hint hint)... in more drastic manners. Maybe it's just me being, well, you know...
If you've not unlocked all the Guild decks yet, wait ten days and let those missions pile up. Also don't open any new packs. The way those decks work is they give you the free cards you are lacking to make it, otherwise they just fill up slots with what you already have. So if, say, you wait and unlock the Golgari and Orzhov deck at the same time, you'll get a playset of Plaguecrafters. Ditto on Lava Coil.
And if you happen to open 3 Priests of the Forgotten Gods, you don't get the fourth one for free from unlocking Rakdos.
Just a tip.
Edit: a tip for anyone starting. Not you, FoME. You exercise some self-restraint. Proud of ya for fighting yer own brain there
I suggest untap, you can make it from all the cards in the set and you can make sure you only play with your friends, so they can stop you if your going to far
Is it free to download?
Would you consider maybe only playing with certain people? Because I have an absolutely amazing friend who is a pretty darn good Magic player Both in real life and on the online version, and I really want to see you play her and considering you live on the East Coast and she lives here in Cali, this would be the way to do it.
5297160 My WOW addition is tempered by having to share the computer we have it installed on with my kid. I haven't played in the last two months, I think. I should root him off the darned thing and get Kancat back out. (played since Beta)
Ah-HA! We have discovered FOME's guilty pleasure
Teehee, don't worry. Everyone has their own addictions: you wanna know how often I find myself getting steered off-course because one of my own started singing to me? Too many times to count, no wonder I don't get anything done
the Civ games are notorious for that.
"Just one more turn, then I'll save and so to bed..."
>sun comes up
Heh. Yeah, I can understand the reasoning in your uninstalling. I found Ikoria draft to be spectacularly fun and don't really have any regrets about the amount of time I spend playing it. I don't really enjoy Standard constructed at all, but now that they have Brawl (Commander lite) and Historic (60-card constructed built from any cards that exist on Arena), I find there's plenty of constructed fun to be had while doing quests to earn me the gold for my next draft. And I don't play it during work hours... very much... Except during boring meetings...
I shouldn't tell you this. But MTGO has a thing that if you manage to put together an entire set online. You can redeem it for a physical one. (From my understanding they delete the virtual cards and mail you real ones). So in theory if you go hard at it for a few months during lockdown you could always get back on your investment.
If setting money on fire is considered investing.
I've had it on my wishlist for a very long time, but I always avoid it because... yeah, the same reason you uninstalled it. I'm already addicted to video games enough as it is.
And this is why I can never play your magical card games ever, because I wouldn't be able to put my foot down. Probably.
I think, that aside, the main objection I would have to online CCGs is that they're by nature ephemeral. All those cards can just disappear at any moment. I don't trust it.
I find the easiest cure for wanting to play Arena is trying to play Arena.
Nothing cured my desire to play Magic like cobbling together a Golgari Reanimator sans the Explore Core because I couldn't afford the rares for Jadelights and losing my third game in a row to Mono-blue Tempo.
"Oh, you have an unblockable 1/1, an unblockable 3/3 that draws two cards whenever you attack, a flying 5/5 and a flying 6/4, a full hand, passed the turn to me with all your lands untapped and I have... nothing, because you countered literally every spell I played this game. Again."
For some reason, after multiple nights of this, I mysteriously lost the urge to play.
Brawl is a load of fun, especially Historic Brawl with friends. 10/10 would have Cynewulf god draw her only burn spell off the top and dome me for lethal the turn I'm about to win with my unstoppable Muldrotha #Walue engine.
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I appreciate the tips and well-wishes, but as noted in the blog, I've already taken the ultimate precaution. Uninstalled it and not planning on downloading it again. My LGS is enough of a control valve for me.
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Oh goodness, WoW. Yeah, I knew from the moment I heard about that that I shouldn't get involved in it, and that became a certainty when I first saw someone playing it. (And that was just someone grinding a gathering skill.) I recognize a soul-sucking corrupted artifact when I see it, which, based on my limited understanding of the lore, makes me much wiser than Arthas Menethil.
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Truth. Though I admit, it does amuse me to see people cursing my name as I entice them with colorful marvels and wonders.
I suppose my Arena experience could be seen as karma.
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Time was definitely a bigger concern than money here, but thanks for the recommendation.
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It is. It's also technically free to play, though you're sure to hit a ceiling on the ranked ladder, to say nothing of saving up enough non-premium currency for a draft.
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In terms of playing with friends, there's always Cockatrice.
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Yup. Now imagine that "just one turn" can take fifteen to twenty minutes. Especially since my computer had a tendency to hang up on certain special card styles.
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Don't worry, I've known about that offer for years. Never enticed me; I'd rather try to get a complete physical set by buying physical packs.
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Oh, I threw the thing in the trash while I was still in the basement tiers where people haven't figured out that you can activate abilities during combat. The netdeckers were several floors above me. Even the monored players hadn't taken out their decks' baby fat yet.
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At this point I'm cautiously optimistic that it's going to stick. Since quitting I haven't really felt any desire to go back (last time my resolve lasted around three weeks, I believe), and after all these years I think the game might be getting too old to continue holding my interest. I'm completely uninterested in the next expansion and the major changes planned to the world structure make me extremely wary and makes this seem like a great time to get out.
Knock on wood.
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Well, it depends... would you play WoW if it was the only apparent way to save your people from demonic predation?
I still play Arena periodically; recently started playing Historic a bit. But the lack of true Magic—cube, commander, pauper, and so many others—really prevents me from playing it as much as paper Magic.
I started playing a bit of MTGO, but the dated interface and priority system makes it a struggle to enjoy.
In short, I would have the the same problem as you...if the products WOTC made were better.
I'm a limited player at heart; Drafted and Sealed are my jam. Arena's been great for getting my drafting fix in during the quarantine, especially since they finally added in human drafting! Ikoria was so much fun to draft.
I tried a free-to-play MTG game on Steam once. In the tutorial battle, I got my ass handed to me because the computer saw fit to deal me all my most expensive cards and no lands.
This is why I hate playing Magic. :| But I'm glad you're enjoying it.
So you got the obsession in a different variety than I have. I rarely go for "one more game" but rather "shit, I haven't gotten the daily wins yet" (the first 4 are the most gold gain efficient). So I've been "only 4 wins a day"-ed myself through half a dozen standards by now.
Good for you noticing it as a problem for you and getting rid of it.
MtG is still fun though.
Thing is, I can't stand Arena. Not because of anything on a mechanical level, but I started playing Magic face-to-face. Half the fun is trying to read your opponent, bluffing them, and watching their face fall into despair when you manage to get Winged Temple of Orazca, Atzal, Cave of Eternity and Temple of Aclazotz online at the same time in a draft.
Without any of that, it feels... empty? It just doesn't feel right.
Glad you enjoyed it, and glad you recognized you were enjoying it too much and were able to act on that. :)
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This is all multiplayer card games, even poker and those using the same deck. Especially those.
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To be fair, I did specify the tip was not for you... but yeah, again: good on ya. If you can't control your own thoughts and habits, something or someone else will.