I just love how Deadly Poison is a Nature spell instead of something that makes sense (like Fel or Shadow or no school). What's next, rogues running, oh I don't know, Earthmuffin Apprentice or whatever Blizzard comes up with as a minion making Nature spells cheaper, because that would be sooo flavorful.
Self-Sharpening Sword is flat-out better, and no-one will save poisons to combo with the Shank if they can get any value out of them in combination with SSS or hero power so the combo is unlikely to ever work.
Ugh. It's cheap and flexible, which might be to say it has many ways to be useless. If I had to assign an archetype for it at gunpoint, maybe Weapon Rogue, where one could use it for extra damage that stacks with an equipped weapon (Hunter, Mage, Demon Hunter, Druid). Of course in that it is often just worse Sinister Strike. Or Weapon Rogue could use more life maybe (Priest, Warrior, Druid). But who am I kidding. Pack filler all the way.
Circle of Healing died so we can have this. Yay. Seriously, this only seems useful as a surprise lethal in an Auchenai Soulpriest world or in a spell synergy deck, so weirdly this might be a tiny bit better in Wild than Standard, but pretty unimpressive overall. And useless in Arena.
Just to explain the sheer number of cards released, in 2020 MTGArena released the following sets:
Theros Beyond Death (254 cards)
Ikoria Lair of Behemots (274 cards)
Core Set 2021 (274 cards)
Jumpstart (496 cards)
Amonkhet Remastered (338 cards)
Zendikar Rising (280 cards)
Historic Anthology 2 & 3 (54 cards)
With very limited crafting (only from wildcards available in every X boosters) and requirement of having 4 cards in deck, having cards for large variety of decks is nearly impossible.
You forgot Kaladesh Remastered (287 cards I think, I don't play Historic outside of events so not sure).
The economy of MTGA is better than HS, but not great. As Almaniarra mentioned, the starter decks get you going just fine. They aren't great, but they are enough. I started about 7 months ago in the middle of the Core 2021 expansion, and only buying a couple of very cheap starter bundles (less than I spent starting HS) I now have 61% of a full collection (4x all cards) for Core 2021, 79% of a full collection of Zendikar Rising (including over half of a full collection of rares and Mythic Rares), and 57% of a full collection of Kaldheim (a little over a month in). For wildcards, I have 109 common, 116 uncommon, 29 rare, and 18 Mythic Rare. I have crafted at least four full non-Smorc meta decks in that time. Mind you, none of those decks have a lot of last year's expansions (e.g. no Adventures-heavy decks), and I don't have all of the power land cards, but I get by just fine. As for Historic, well I suppose like if I were starting HS today for Wild that isn't much fun. But for the events I am able to construct not terrible decks.
As far as RNG, well it's just different than HS. There is always the mana screw/flood problem, but other than that only a few powerful RNG clown-fiesta cards in the meta at any one time. That said, they do exist.
I like the complexity and the variety of events (even the Historic events), but it isn't for everyone.
Like Thraxus, I would say you have to try it to really know how you like it.
Exactly this. Particularly if you are running a low mana curve, you'll never go through your deck anyways and you'll pitch two cards you can't use any more in most cases. But I guess the "buffed" Tracking is great for... Value hunter???
Former HS player on mac, so LoR not an option and stuck on 64-bit OS so Steam Mythgard also not an option. So that leaves Magic, which I like fine. It is more complex and has deeper gameplay than HS, which I like a lot. They also have many ways to play and interesting events, like the current Momir event which is almost a puzzle. And while I'll never ever get all of the cards that's fine. The wildcard system (I currently have over 250 wildcards in about 7 months of play, including about 50 in the two highest rarities) means that I can basically craft the deck I need, as long as I don't need to totally change decks too often. And I love that in most of the draft formats you get to keep the cards. I always hated in HS Arena how I got used to playing with the cards in my Arena deck, just to lose them at the end of the run.
And as for deck styles, there are so many keywords and interactions that there are many viable archetypes at any given moment.
Edit: And the one thing I forgot to mention is that the most refreshing thing in playing Magic compared with HS is the almost complete absence of BM in Magic.
A congratulatory Snowball to our current cochampions Alleria and Pezman, and like Caro the final Snowball to Fluxflashor for an awesome event. 444 seems a fun number to stop at, so I will bank the remaining snow for next time!
Snowball fights are not what they used to be... Stupid global warming... Lately there is not enough snow to build a snow forts like we used to when I was a kid...
And another thing. Get off my lawn! (which I can still see in January. Stupid global warming!)
Hmm, a G god with a UB artifact on the flip side. Sounds hard to use. At least since one of the colors is G you can splash a color with Lotus Cobra but still.
Foretell seems awfully strong, particularly if it costs no net mana. It lets you save a card from discard and other hand stealing/surveillance effects, stash a card from overdrawing, and spend unused mana for a cheap surprise play later. I mean it seemed good even when it cost one net mana (Alrund's Epiphany, Cosmos Charger), but some of these other Foretell cards like Ravenform have no net cost. Yikes!
Yeah, I got one (fortunately near the beginning of the expansion) using the gems from one of the promotional starter packages, and since then with the draft token, the gems, and stonks it has been pretty much self-perpetuating. But I am a pretty skinflinty mostly F2Per (I have over 200 wildcards accumulated in about 7 months of play).
I just love how Deadly Poison is a Nature spell instead of something that makes sense (like Fel or Shadow or no school). What's next, rogues running, oh I don't know, Earthmuffin Apprentice or whatever Blizzard comes up with as a minion making Nature spells cheaper, because that would be sooo flavorful.
Self-Sharpening Sword is flat-out better, and no-one will save poisons to combo with the Shank if they can get any value out of them in combination with SSS or hero power so the combo is unlikely to ever work.
Ugh. It's cheap and flexible, which might be to say it has many ways to be useless. If I had to assign an archetype for it at gunpoint, maybe Weapon Rogue, where one could use it for extra damage that stacks with an equipped weapon (Hunter, Mage, Demon Hunter, Druid). Of course in that it is often just worse Sinister Strike. Or Weapon Rogue could use more life maybe (Priest, Warrior, Druid). But who am I kidding. Pack filler all the way.
Seems really good against aggro and stealth strategies, leaving aside the obvious hero power synergies. Seems solid in all formats.
Nice link with great info! Including that Pi Day is also Albert Einstein's birthday. If that isn't cool I don't know what is!
Circle of Healing died so we can have this. Yay. Seriously, this only seems useful as a surprise lethal in an Auchenai Soulpriest world or in a spell synergy deck, so weirdly this might be a tiny bit better in Wild than Standard, but pretty unimpressive overall. And useless in Arena.
You forgot Kaladesh Remastered (287 cards I think, I don't play Historic outside of events so not sure).
Former HS player and current MTGA player here:
The economy of MTGA is better than HS, but not great. As Almaniarra mentioned, the starter decks get you going just fine. They aren't great, but they are enough. I started about 7 months ago in the middle of the Core 2021 expansion, and only buying a couple of very cheap starter bundles (less than I spent starting HS) I now have 61% of a full collection (4x all cards) for Core 2021, 79% of a full collection of Zendikar Rising (including over half of a full collection of rares and Mythic Rares), and 57% of a full collection of Kaldheim (a little over a month in). For wildcards, I have 109 common, 116 uncommon, 29 rare, and 18 Mythic Rare. I have crafted at least four full non-Smorc meta decks in that time. Mind you, none of those decks have a lot of last year's expansions (e.g. no Adventures-heavy decks), and I don't have all of the power land cards, but I get by just fine. As for Historic, well I suppose like if I were starting HS today for Wild that isn't much fun. But for the events I am able to construct not terrible decks.
As far as RNG, well it's just different than HS. There is always the mana screw/flood problem, but other than that only a few powerful RNG clown-fiesta cards in the meta at any one time. That said, they do exist.
I like the complexity and the variety of events (even the Historic events), but it isn't for everyone.
Like Thraxus, I would say you have to try it to really know how you like it.
Exactly this. Particularly if you are running a low mana curve, you'll never go through your deck anyways and you'll pitch two cards you can't use any more in most cases. But I guess the "buffed" Tracking is great for... Value hunter???
Yeah, brings back memories. The Mankrik flavor text makes me feel so sorry for him for all of the Horde toons I made over the years.
Former HS player on mac, so LoR not an option and stuck on 64-bit OS so Steam Mythgard also not an option. So that leaves Magic, which I like fine. It is more complex and has deeper gameplay than HS, which I like a lot. They also have many ways to play and interesting events, like the current Momir event which is almost a puzzle. And while I'll never ever get all of the cards that's fine. The wildcard system (I currently have over 250 wildcards in about 7 months of play, including about 50 in the two highest rarities) means that I can basically craft the deck I need, as long as I don't need to totally change decks too often. And I love that in most of the draft formats you get to keep the cards. I always hated in HS Arena how I got used to playing with the cards in my Arena deck, just to lose them at the end of the run.
And as for deck styles, there are so many keywords and interactions that there are many viable archetypes at any given moment.
Edit: And the one thing I forgot to mention is that the most refreshing thing in playing Magic compared with HS is the almost complete absence of BM in Magic.
Exactly this. But as a workaround I just noticed that typing into the browser address bar something like https://outof.cards/members/madcat/ works.
A congratulatory Snowball to our current cochampions Alleria and Pezman, and like Caro the final Snowball to Fluxflashor for an awesome event. 444 seems a fun number to stop at, so I will bank the remaining snow for next time!
Same here, and when I select Snowball (after I bought Candy Cane) sometimes it shows a Snowball and other times not (never the Candy Cane).
Hmm, methinks my forum title will become very apt soon...
And another thing. Get off my lawn! (which I can still see in January. Stupid global warming!)
Hmm, a G god with a UB artifact on the flip side. Sounds hard to use. At least since one of the colors is G you can splash a color with Lotus Cobra but still.
Edit: fix stupid typo in tag.
I do. That hair! Ugh!
Foretell seems awfully strong, particularly if it costs no net mana. It lets you save a card from discard and other hand stealing/surveillance effects, stash a card from overdrawing, and spend unused mana for a cheap surprise play later. I mean it seemed good even when it cost one net mana (Alrund's Epiphany, Cosmos Charger), but some of these other Foretell cards like Ravenform have no net cost. Yikes!
Yeah, I got one (fortunately near the beginning of the expansion) using the gems from one of the promotional starter packages, and since then with the draft token, the gems, and stonks it has been pretty much self-perpetuating. But I am a pretty skinflinty mostly F2Per (I have over 200 wildcards accumulated in about 7 months of play).