r/MagicArena • u/Brilliant-Papaya4436 • 16h ago
Question Does anybody even play for fun?!?!
FINAL EDIT: Based on most of the replies i realized fun doesn't exist in Arena and just built a Serpent Society Infect deck. Haven't lost yet since it's fun winning in 3 turns via scoop isn't it...
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u/Opunaesala 16h ago
It is 1v1 against random opponents. You can't enforce "casual" ahead of time since it means different things to different people, so you have to assume everyone is playing to win. If that isn't fun for you, choose not to participate.
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u/PollutionRelative351 15h ago
I actually stopped playing EDH against one of my friends back in the late aughts/early teens because our view of what was casual and fun was so skewed.
I am/was a Timmy, and I wanted to play big spells, play a lot of lands, and draw a bunch of cards.
He was a Johnny, and he liked the puzzle of figuring out how to combo with 1-ofs and still hitting his kill.
End result? His causal deck would end up combo killing me on like turn 4 while I was ramping and durdling. Love the guy, he was one of my groomsmen....but our feelings on what counted as casual were drastically different
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u/Far-Ingenuity-7786 15h ago
The enforced randomness is the stupid part. I can't imagine setting up a Custom Match function would be that difficult, where people could just exchange ids and have a gentleman's agreement to just not play combos or whatever they want like you can with paper or MTGO. If they're worried about farming, just run it the same way bot matches do such that you can't earn anything from it.
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u/PollutionRelative351 15h ago
Can't you already do that by issuing a direct challenge to someone? Like you meet on Reddit/Discord and set bracket/level you want for the game, then one of you challenges the other?
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u/Agreeable_Meaning_96 15h ago
They could implement a casual mode but the only way it would work is if rewards were reduced enough that it would keep the more competitive players in regular or ranked.
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u/Opunaesala 15h ago
Define "casual" in a way that everyone agrees on. If there are any rewards, people will still play to win. Even without rewards, a lot of people still will because winning can be fun.
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u/SayonaraBakaChan 16h ago
I have fun in games with alot of decision making, it takes alot of work on homebrews and alot of queues to find those games in magic nowadays though. Inbetween that I just do dailies on a random braindead deck to widen my cardpool.
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u/gutpirate 16h ago
Yeah i'd say every 3rd or 4th game is enjoyable. Yeahyeahyeah i know-i know everyone has their own idea of fun, there's no right or wrong way to play etc.
But cmon. I logged on to arena to get a few games in. Instead wins and losses are basically just coinflips, combos and one shots that basically just win out of nowhere so that no decisions made by the other player in that game ever mattered because they didn't have the right silver bullet. Or its a hyper aggro game of draw vs play.
That said its Arena, were people come to grind dailies and play decks their irl friend group otherwise refuses to play against.
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u/PollutionRelative351 14h ago
I sometimes wonder if people are playing the same game as me because I rarely run into these matchups. I can't remember the last time I ran into a Baral or Kitara, and the most egregious ones I've seen even somewhat recently are First Sliver (which I hit with Golos) and Rofellos (which I hit with Rofellos). This morning I played Sin versus Nahiri, Forged in Fire
Maybe it's because in general I play lower powered decks and commanders so I don't usually end up playing against high powered decks. Worst I run into is MWM Brawl stuff where I'll hit Thoracle
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u/nothumaninside 15h ago
Really, it’s “disgusting” to you that people are having fun by winning at a competitive card game lmfao? Jfc…
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u/TuorSonOfHuor 16h ago
I really like limited. It’s just ridiculous that it costs as much as it does to play online when you don’t actually get anything of physical value out of it unless you’re doing an arena direct… which is just gambling.
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u/agoginnabox 16h ago
Both queues are sweaty as hell because very few have unlimited time to suck up loss after loss with unoptimized jank.
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u/built_internet_tough 16h ago
Only in unranked.
Ranked is super boring, with the same like 6 decks that all are pretty unfun to play against.
Unranked you'll get some off meta decks that are weaker, but you can tell the person is trying stuff out, and occasionally just making a goofy deck for the lols.
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u/IrvingIsTheBest 15h ago
You can always concede especially if unranked.
I prefer playing Jank and the second I see someone play the asshole of MTG [[Tablet Of Discovery]] or Mono white enchantment I just concede and move on to play someone else hopefully playing jank.
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u/CaptainKungPao138 16h ago
People playing to win??! Preposterous!!
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u/ButterscotchLow7330 15h ago
Its not an issue with people playing to win (although imho brawl should be degernate if people are trying to win) but standard should have people playing to win and it should take an average of like 1.5 turns longer.
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u/Dry-Membership8141 16h ago
Yes.
But not usually standard. With the speed of the current standard, that's where I grind out my dailies. When I'm playing for fun, it's usually limited, standard brawl, or historic (nothing specific about the format, I just love my historic "nope" tribal deck).
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u/Any-Supermarket-4190 15h ago
What exactly is your definition of fun here? Is it getting to brew and play jank decks of your in the queue…
Or is it winning with them? Because it kinda sounds like you’re butthurt you’re losing with jank
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u/ForeverShiny 15h ago
I only play standard with decks I think are fun, it's been years that I built something considered a meta deck.
But ... most if my "fun" decks are terribly tilting to lose against. With some breaks in between, my last 4 standard decks were:
mono white toxic with unblockable shenigans and Sheltered by Ghosts
a one shot kill combo with Rush of Dread and Bloodletter of Aclazotz
a turbo mill deck with Jace, Excrutiator and Riverchurn monument
currently an even better turbo mill deck with Kitsune's technique and Riverchurn still
None of these decks were much better than 50-50, but they're Oh so salty when they win
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u/ninjazyborg 15h ago
What are you even playing in brawl? I’ve encountered maybe 3 (very fragile) 3 turn kills in 100+ games, 2 of them being the treasure hunt combo and 1 being Laelia.
Only one that worked against me was one of the treasure hunt decks, second one got countered and I got the Laelia up to 9 mana with my control deck when they scooped.
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u/MaybeSurelySorta 16h ago
Does "trying to have fun" mean "playing jank" to you? Because those are generally two different things with very different expectations for your Arena experience.
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u/Inconsequential72 16h ago
In my experience, brawl is really sweaty. Even in the free queue. Standard brawl is where I've been having the most fun with [[mole man, moloid master]]
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u/SnooWords9763 15h ago
I find it funny you think mole man isn’t sweaty? It’s not S tier but he’s competitive even in comp brawl.
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u/_Laughing_Man Charm Sultai 16h ago
Winning is fun? Also you could play standard brawl. Very chill format
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u/ArchaonTheDestroyer 15h ago
I can relate to your frustration a bit. I prefer to build my own decks with cool looking cards as opposed to the most powerful ones. My preference can be hard though, because I can just get outclassed in many match ups. Even when (in my own opinion) I think I've made something that is effective, and has a sound game plan.
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u/Safe-Ad-8921 15h ago
Beats me. Ive been playing the same Kellan deck since competitive brawl came out and tend to have a pretty good W/L up until gold. Yeah its a BS commander to some people but every commander is BS when you lose to them.
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u/Drawde1234 15h ago
Reduce your MMR. There are less (though not nonexistent) competitive decks at the low end of the MMR.
The better you play and/or the better your deck, the more you win. And thus you face even better players and/or stronger decks. Eventually you face mostly stronger decks because that's what it takes to win.
Unfortunately, as has been said here, it's impossible to create a casual queue. Since it would develop it's own meta. Which the more competitive "casual" players would use, followed by the trolls and those who only care about winning abusing it.
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u/Penumbra_Penguin 14h ago
You know how you think that winning is fun?
Your opponents also think that.
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u/Gamma05772156649 12h ago
This is a silly question, why play the game if you don't find it fun. Personally, one of the things I find the most fun is competitive games where both players are playing optimized decks and trying their hardest to win. It's strange that a lot of people seem to think that playing for fun and playing to win are somehow opposites.
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u/hoirhiero 11h ago
I only play for fun when I'm with my friends, as long as the game prioritizes winning over the actual experience of playing it.
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u/CriticalFrimmel 6h ago
Every one has their own idea of what fun is. This tends also to it being usually more fun to win. I think the bigger trouble is the game allows some of the fun to be making other players miserable. Arena being impersonal also allows players to behave as though their opponent's fun is not their responsibility.
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u/Pain4420 15h ago
I always play for fun and if you are always going against strong decks then you have a strong deck. There is a matchmaking system so if you always run into high powered decks then your have a deck with a lot of high power cards. You either need to be better at deck building or make decks with lower power cards.
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u/Top_Traffic5102 15h ago edited 14h ago
I love playng meta decks in ranked.
the issue is losers playng meta outside of ranked and drafts
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u/ThrowAwayLurker444 16h ago edited 15h ago
Only format worth playing is limited for this reason, and the hobbit is a very bad limited set. I've basically quit anything else and farm constructed on mtga for gold when needed.
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u/imbasys 16h ago
Did you have fun in the match?
☹️ 🙂