So, further to the latest state of the game and the new eternal format discussions, it seems that the contents of the much discussed 'blast from the past' event have actually been out since December 2021 and it's... only standard sets with a long banned list:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article.../midweek-magic
If this is the new eternal format... well... people that were dreaming of vintage, modern and pioneer on arena will have their hopes brought to reality...
We're people realistically expecting Vintage or Modern on Arena? The closest they can get to a paper non-rotating format is Pioneer, and I haven't seen anything from the mother ship to imply they even want Arena to correlate to any paper formats...Originally Posted by jmlima
Oh yeah, some at least. You can still see it in the twitter threads from the previous announcement re to a new format. It was the use of the word 'eternal' that got people going... Of course wotc has used the word eternal often and not exactly meaning what it used to mean. Heck, even things like modern are essentially rotating formats (by ban or special set) these days.
An idea of numbers in Arena:
https://twitter.com/JeffHoogland/sta...95490276163588The ratio of BO3 players is much higher in Historic than other formats.
In a 2 week window:
Standard 360k BO1 & 22k BO3.
Alchemy 100k BO1 & 9k BO3
Historic 100k BO1 & 55k BO3.
Interesting that Bo1 is THE mode of play (kind of expected given the demographics and target audience), also that Alchemy is as popular as Historic which explains why WotC are not that fussed about pleasing Historic players with big changes...
Very interesting to see the data. I assumed BO1 was more popular, but didn't anticipate 87% of matches on Arena were BO1.
As a note, untapped also have data, which even if different in the number of games, still reflects roughly the same percentages breakdown.Very interesting to see the data. I assumed BO1 was more popular, but didn't anticipate 87% of matches on Arena were BO1.
Another bible length list of Alchemy changes... main point, Fires of Invention is back (need to dig out my old list...)... second point on interest, we are now on the second nerf to a single card (Town-Razer Tyrant). If at first you don't succeed...
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...bruary-24-2022
So...ermmm...
March 22–24: What Was Written
This event uses all MTG Arena's cards from Standard format releases starting with Return to Ravnica.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...s-march-9-2022
So, the implication is there will not be a banned list? And the non-standard includes from Strixhaven and whatever else aren't in the card pool?So...ermmm...
I wonder if exceptions will be made for the cards 'fixed' by Alchemy
Usually these events do not use Alchemy cards, and use only standard sets (ie, no anthologies, special sets, etc) but there's a ban list, no idea what that's going to be. It is interesting because it means there are prob far more sets already in the engine than we know about...
This is the continued testing for the new format...
I almost didn't notice I was playing Bo1 when I first played Arena, I guess EDH and Hearthstone broke my brain a little. Honestly I love Bo1. I've always been really shitty at sideboards, and games usually go pretty fast so I'm not locked into some 45-minute match over lunch.Very interesting to see the data. I assumed BO1 was more popular, but didn't anticipate 87% of matches on Arena were BO1.
There are problems with just looking at these numbers and going "oh but look, Alchemy competes with Historic, no need to support paper on Arena" though, right - like for one, a f2p game is always going to be drug by the nose by that 2% of players that actually fork over cash (and of that 2%, the 2% that spend the 1k-10k per year to actually keep the game in business. f2p is a *terrible* model in terms of empowering end-users).The ratio of BO3 players is much higher in Historic than other formats.
In a 2 week window:
Standard 360k BO1 & 22k BO3.
Alchemy 100k BO1 & 9k BO3
Historic 100k BO1 & 55k BO3.
Interesting that Bo1 is THE mode of play (kind of expected given the demographics and target audience), also that Alchemy is as popular as Historic which explains why WotC are not that fussed about pleasing Historic players with big changes...
Another issue here is that all these numbers are *huge*. I don't mean in relative terms like compared to like other apps in the world, I mean like on their face these numbers are representing a fuckton of people. 100,000 people played Historic? 350,000 people played Standard? More people played Standard in two weeks than live in my home city. There are entire countries with a head count less than the Historic player base. This isn't popularity, these are populations. The developers of Arena shouldn't think in terms of a single majority at this scale, it makes way more sense to support a multitude of usergroups and play modes than to prop up a singular of any of them.
It's number of games, not people.
Well that's my mistake then, but it does point to a large number of users in multiple game modes. I'd like to see a real breakdown of which users are spending their time where.
Also would be nice to know what is meant by "Standard" since that may also encompass draft/sealed events. I'm not even sure if there is a "Sealed Bo3" option?
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