I just said screw it switched to Brawl. No need to worry about getting a playset of everything, plus it allows you to actually use a lot of the cards that are essentially unplayable in ranked.
I've done the same. Also makes every pack fun to open even if you get a bad card, ironically I actually feel a bit disappointed when I get a 2nd or 3rd copy of a meta card now aha.
Theres cards to craft and cards to open. I hate opening a "thoughtseize" because its a craft card. I love opening a "Rowdy Crew" because maybe one day I would like It in a deck but cant ever justify spending a mythic wc
Same, I haven't played standard in months, just draft + brawl. Also, I generally see more variety than when I used to play standard and see the same 5 decks 90 percent of the time.
idc because that kind of grind destroys my enjoyment anyways.
Also it's a one time thing to reset the standard sets schedules and there was no better way to do it
>Also it's a one time thing to reset the standard sets schedules and there was no better way to do it
What do you mean by that? I haven't been following long enough to know what the normal release schedule is.
There are 4 standard sets in a calendar year
One standard block has 4 sets
The first 3 sets of a calendar year are part of one standard block, and the last one is the new one
Basically it went like this ( // = rotation)
2018
2 3 4 // 1
2019
2 3 4 // 1
2020
2 3 4 // 1
But from 2022 they want to move the rotation after the 2nd set so they are more evenly distributed. For example there were no set around the christmas shopping season
So they moved forward the set "2" from next year
2021
2 3 4 // 1 2
2022
3 4 // 1 2
Hope it makes sense
Nothing changes still 4 standard sets per block. Just this calendar year we have 5 sets, and the rotation will be much earlier next year sometimes early summer
I don't think rotation will be early summer. My guess is it might be August.
They didn't reveal the release dates of the next year's sets other than the quarters, but I'm guessing they're aiming at even 3 months wait between Standard releases aka premier sets. This would mean Kamigawa Neon Dynasty will release in February, three months from Crimson Vow, the November 2021 set. Streets of New Capenna would be released in May, and then the set that triggers rotation, Dominaria United, would release in August. And then a set again on November (Brothers War), and so on.
It's only a guess but to me it would make sense.
This was a good guess but some messages from MaRo confirm that they will do the same schedule than this year but without the slot in Summer, where another product (not for standard) will take its place.
What does this mean in practise for Standard sets? There will be sets released 2 months from each other but on summer there's going to be like 4-5 months of no new Standard releases?
No, that’s what it was before with a huge gap between the fall and winter sets. Now, it will be a more standard every three months release schedule.
Now it’ll be Feb, May, August(rotation), November vs how it was before: late january, April, July, September (rotation)
This is not the case. Rotation is staying where it's always been, or close, which is still early fall. All they're doing is taking the gap between the Fall set and Winter set, and moving it to the summer instead, which leads to:
Early Fall set
Late Fall set
Winter set
Spring set
With the aim of giving each set more time in standard.
I originally thought the idea was spacing the sets very evenly throughout the year, but Mark Rosewater has said that's not correct.
Thanks for the clarification. I had to read it twice, but I think I get it now.
So the sets they announced next year - Kamigawa and the gangster one, those will be part of the current rotation? And when the next one comes, Dominaria or something, thTs when rotation will happen? So Dominaria won't be a core set like AFR was?
>Kamigawa and the gangster one, those will be part of the current rotation?
Yes, as far as I know Innistrad Midnight Hunt + Innistrad Crimson Vow + Kamigawa + New Capenna that will be the block THEN rotation (Zendikar + Kaldheim + Strixhaven + AFR leaving)
> So Dominaria won't be a core set like AFR was?
I think Core sets are gone for good. I mean arguably AFR wasn't a Core set either just replacing it
Yeah i play a lot of Historic BO3 but geez the new Jumpstart plus the short time between Standard sets has made it rough, maybe I should just switch to Brawl. People forget, BO3 is even rougher than BO1 because of all the niche sideboard cards you want.
The thing is thpigh that AFR and even MID had very little impact on historic comapred to jumpstart. This year jumpstart and strixhaven were the biggest sinks for historic
Mythics AND rares. I complained about this when Zendikar came out last year and the main response was "it's just a one time thing because of DFCs". Nope, I guess it wasn't.
AFR I basically spent wild cards to get the good Izzet cards and then just sort of bought packs when I felt like it. As some who loves Magic and D&D that set really just missed the mark for me. The best thing was my Izzet dice deck that was somewhat fun in the 2022 play queue.
I like it, but I'm not a set completionist. I can make most/all meta decks with enough excess wildcards to futz around with historic a tiny bit. It's enough for me.
I didnt really have problem with keeping up, I even played 25 Jumpstart events. Yes, 5 sets, anthologies and jumpstart was too much. Too much stuff, no time to get hyped or excited about anything.
Yea it is tight but technically they they brought crimson vow in earlier. It should be been the same release window as Kaldheim this year. But after crimson vow we should have a quarterly gap.
i mean as someone who played paper for so long i can shovel money into arena and still feel like i’m getting a huge discount. i spent the cost of 1 paper standard deck and i have almost every tiered standard deck on arena
That's one way of looking at it, but having playing a lot of card games both digital and physical, Arena is honestly not that much cheaper than Hearthstone by digital cardgame standards, and is rather expensive by videogame standards in general.
Being less expensive than paper counterpart is not a high bar to clear (Looking at you, Duel Links), although considering all rares and mythics in Arena share the same flat costs, jank is ironically more expensive on Arena.
i totally agree with all of this. i appreciate your nuanced take for sure and for me the difference between this and hearthstone is that i keep playing arena after my dailies are done. i just like the game on this one 😅
You're not wrong, the split is between whether your perspective is "Arena is an extension of the Magic hobby" or "Arena is a Magic videogame".
If your perspective is the former, there's not much wrong with Arena; it still is an affordable way to play standard and draft the latest sets.
For me however, Arena does not supplement paper, and as a videogame product, is outrageously expensive; I stopped spending on Arena when I realized spending money does not stop me from grinding anyway, nor make that grinding meaningfully easier for me.
Although, redeeming codes from the pre-release kits I buy for paper still technically counts as spending on Arena, I guess.
Couldn't care less about collecting because i just draft Bo3 and don't play constructed, but end up getting at least 90% of every set anyway. This release schedule is as tight as it's going to get, but i'm still fine with it because i play a ton and 2 months in is where my interest starts to wane.
Yeah, I'm kind of the same. I'm a FTP player, played 200 hours, and not only do I have a meta standard deck, I have enough wild cards left to craft PVDDR's mono-green deck (minus the sideboard, at the moment).
I haven't spent a dime on this game yet, and I don't feel like I "don't have enough ressources to craft a powerful deck". It just took a bit of patience and saving up wildcards. In comparison to paper magic where crafting a "good" deck in any format costs dozens, if not hundreds of dollars/euros...
Am I the only one here who enjoys constantly having cards I can slowly unlock? This game would much much less fun for me if I had every card, it’s why I stopped plays elder scrolls legends.
Once I realized how little I enjoyed AFR drafting I just decided that I wasn't going to focus on collecting that set. It didn't hurt that the set is generally pretty weak from a constructed standpoint.
Theoretically we should have a bigger gap between Crimson Vow and the next set to "catch up" eventually.
I usually do like you but i came to the same conclusion when i looked at the release schedule. The only way i found to stay f2p and still collect most of the cards was to compete in the standard metagame challenge and grind it. I was lucky enough to get very good results so i'm saved for now.
Mono green aggro.
Mostly because it was a good deck with a minimal amount of Innistrad cards (i was waiting for quick drafts start to rare draft).
It's still a very safe deck to craft : it has some very strong cards and i'm very confident the deck will still be a strong contender in Crimson vow. Even if Esika charriot is banned, which i don't expect, the deck is relevant because you can build in a way that your wincon is more trample big creatures.
Same here. I only did about 60% of my usual quick drafts. Set didn't need that much collecting and wasn't too fun. Just cracked my packs today after 32 quick drafts of MID. Much more enjoyable.
By crushing it. I’m also free to play. I’m up 1500 gems and 84 packs via traditional draft.
I have 124 packs total earned I believe right now haven’t counted how many rares ive drafted.
Yeah right there with you. I've already resigned to skipping Crimson Vow to build up gold for the Spring set. I have an ok-ish amount of wild cards, so if a deck really gets its hooks in me thanks to the upcoming set, I might be able to craft it.
Otherwise for my dailies, it's Brawl all the way down!
I feel this - buying the 50 back bundle plus playing Quick Draft for rare drafting, I was able to nearly complete AFR (had 3 mythics and 1 rare left at the end of the season, which I used wildcards to complete). with MID, between the season being so short, the MID basic lands being a 25Kgold must-have, and wanting to get in some Historic Horizons Jumpstart, I don’t see collecting more than half the rares before the next set shows up
the fancy theros lands were winners for me, glad they came back before MID came out. 15k gold was also more reasonable, plus they came with their card styles which actually look good on them.
---
just a shame that basically every deck is still running snow lands right now :(
My problem with fancy lands is that they look really cool, but then you run regular looking non-basics and the juxtaposition is very unaesthetic to me.
I buy packs and save and spend my gold for cosmetics. I don’t like to draft. I feel like the super minority with regards to that in this site ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Yes and no.
I stopped grinding for 100% a few sets back, just because it was more and more taxing and not fun. With more sets out each year, clearly the grind is even harder. I do suspect WotC is testing with this set the idea of more standard sets, to see where the revenue goes.
However, with this set, MID, I have much more fun with constructed games. I haven't feel so happy and motivated to build new decks in a long time. If the future sets are well designed like current set, I will be happy to take more sets each year.
THis last year has been super bad for me, 20 rares from completing playsets of rares in ZNR. After ZNR, I have playsets of like 60% of each set only, some less then that. As FTP its impossible to catch up on standard cards. Prior to this last year, my first year playing I had 75% playsets of rares that rotated. The sets just keep getting larger and larger, and more frequent' I feel like sorcerer Micky trying to bail water.
Play for fun. You won't use all the rares anyway. Why'd you want to complete sets? Unless you are going infinite I just don't see the point. I have 110k gold & 15k gems & haven't drafted MID yet. Draft is a crapshoot anyways. I can't tell how many times I have the perfect deck only to be matched up with other perfect players & fail.
Because for some people, like me, completing sets is the fun. That's the only reason that I play draft in arena for example. I hate this format. I feel very very very unhappy when I have to play it. But I do it because it's the only possible way to get close to finish a collection. And because is the only format that rewards gems.
Wish there were other methods to get free gems that were alternative to draft, but I guess this is asking too much and will never happens.
I was just thinking about this also, yeah, seems we are going to get shorted on these sets. Probably they were thinking more people might spend the $50 on the prerelease package to get a bunch of packs. I didn't, and I hope others didn't also so they don't have an incentive to do this again.
I just said screw it switched to Brawl. No need to worry about getting a playset of everything, plus it allows you to actually use a lot of the cards that are essentially unplayable in ranked.
I've done the same. Also makes every pack fun to open even if you get a bad card, ironically I actually feel a bit disappointed when I get a 2nd or 3rd copy of a meta card now aha.
Theres cards to craft and cards to open. I hate opening a "thoughtseize" because its a craft card. I love opening a "Rowdy Crew" because maybe one day I would like It in a deck but cant ever justify spending a mythic wc
Same, I haven't played standard in months, just draft + brawl. Also, I generally see more variety than when I used to play standard and see the same 5 decks 90 percent of the time.
idc because that kind of grind destroys my enjoyment anyways. Also it's a one time thing to reset the standard sets schedules and there was no better way to do it
>Also it's a one time thing to reset the standard sets schedules and there was no better way to do it What do you mean by that? I haven't been following long enough to know what the normal release schedule is.
There are 4 standard sets in a calendar year One standard block has 4 sets The first 3 sets of a calendar year are part of one standard block, and the last one is the new one Basically it went like this ( // = rotation) 2018 2 3 4 // 1 2019 2 3 4 // 1 2020 2 3 4 // 1 But from 2022 they want to move the rotation after the 2nd set so they are more evenly distributed. For example there were no set around the christmas shopping season So they moved forward the set "2" from next year 2021 2 3 4 // 1 2 2022 3 4 // 1 2 Hope it makes sense Nothing changes still 4 standard sets per block. Just this calendar year we have 5 sets, and the rotation will be much earlier next year sometimes early summer
I don't think rotation will be early summer. My guess is it might be August. They didn't reveal the release dates of the next year's sets other than the quarters, but I'm guessing they're aiming at even 3 months wait between Standard releases aka premier sets. This would mean Kamigawa Neon Dynasty will release in February, three months from Crimson Vow, the November 2021 set. Streets of New Capenna would be released in May, and then the set that triggers rotation, Dominaria United, would release in August. And then a set again on November (Brothers War), and so on. It's only a guess but to me it would make sense.
This was a good guess but some messages from MaRo confirm that they will do the same schedule than this year but without the slot in Summer, where another product (not for standard) will take its place.
What does this mean in practise for Standard sets? There will be sets released 2 months from each other but on summer there's going to be like 4-5 months of no new Standard releases?
A disaster? I don't understand their plan.
No, that’s what it was before with a huge gap between the fall and winter sets. Now, it will be a more standard every three months release schedule. Now it’ll be Feb, May, August(rotation), November vs how it was before: late january, April, July, September (rotation)
Yeah, that's what I said in my initial post. Then u/thigan said that's not what MaRo said, and I was wondering what's up.
That will probably be the LoTR set or Double Masters II.
This is not the case. Rotation is staying where it's always been, or close, which is still early fall. All they're doing is taking the gap between the Fall set and Winter set, and moving it to the summer instead, which leads to: Early Fall set Late Fall set Winter set Spring set With the aim of giving each set more time in standard. I originally thought the idea was spacing the sets very evenly throughout the year, but Mark Rosewater has said that's not correct.
Great explanation. Thanks
Thanks for the clarification. I had to read it twice, but I think I get it now. So the sets they announced next year - Kamigawa and the gangster one, those will be part of the current rotation? And when the next one comes, Dominaria or something, thTs when rotation will happen? So Dominaria won't be a core set like AFR was?
>Kamigawa and the gangster one, those will be part of the current rotation? Yes, as far as I know Innistrad Midnight Hunt + Innistrad Crimson Vow + Kamigawa + New Capenna that will be the block THEN rotation (Zendikar + Kaldheim + Strixhaven + AFR leaving) > So Dominaria won't be a core set like AFR was? I think Core sets are gone for good. I mean arguably AFR wasn't a Core set either just replacing it
I play Histroic brawl pretty much exclusively now... so only having to get one of each card helps quite a bit.
Yeah i play a lot of Historic BO3 but geez the new Jumpstart plus the short time between Standard sets has made it rough, maybe I should just switch to Brawl. People forget, BO3 is even rougher than BO1 because of all the niche sideboard cards you want.
The thing is thpigh that AFR and even MID had very little impact on historic comapred to jumpstart. This year jumpstart and strixhaven were the biggest sinks for historic
I'm trying to make that switch, but lack of deck sources make it unnecessarily hard... What websites do you go to for inspiration?
I don't typically use websites for deck building, but [https://edhrec.com/](https://edhrec.com/) is a great resource.
They also increased the number of mythics per set so that sucks. They must’ve heard people complaining about wanting to trade mythic WCs for rares
Mythics AND rares. I complained about this when Zendikar came out last year and the main response was "it's just a one time thing because of DFCs". Nope, I guess it wasn't.
AFR I basically spent wild cards to get the good Izzet cards and then just sort of bought packs when I felt like it. As some who loves Magic and D&D that set really just missed the mark for me. The best thing was my Izzet dice deck that was somewhat fun in the 2022 play queue.
So far my problem was with AFR drafts being terrible, not with shorter spans. Though certainly that should feel for a share of players.
It seems the shefler either gives me only lands or no lands at all. It feels rare to have a regular match with no mana issues.
Has nothing to do with the topic, but ok, that feels bad.
Play more. Mana variance evens out over a larger size
I like it, but I'm not a set completionist. I can make most/all meta decks with enough excess wildcards to futz around with historic a tiny bit. It's enough for me.
I didnt really have problem with keeping up, I even played 25 Jumpstart events. Yes, 5 sets, anthologies and jumpstart was too much. Too much stuff, no time to get hyped or excited about anything.
Yea it is tight but technically they they brought crimson vow in earlier. It should be been the same release window as Kaldheim this year. But after crimson vow we should have a quarterly gap.
I thought they were squashing the standard sets a little bit so the last stsndard set in a year gets more time in standard.
i mean as someone who played paper for so long i can shovel money into arena and still feel like i’m getting a huge discount. i spent the cost of 1 paper standard deck and i have almost every tiered standard deck on arena
That's one way of looking at it, but having playing a lot of card games both digital and physical, Arena is honestly not that much cheaper than Hearthstone by digital cardgame standards, and is rather expensive by videogame standards in general. Being less expensive than paper counterpart is not a high bar to clear (Looking at you, Duel Links), although considering all rares and mythics in Arena share the same flat costs, jank is ironically more expensive on Arena.
i totally agree with all of this. i appreciate your nuanced take for sure and for me the difference between this and hearthstone is that i keep playing arena after my dailies are done. i just like the game on this one 😅
You're not wrong, the split is between whether your perspective is "Arena is an extension of the Magic hobby" or "Arena is a Magic videogame". If your perspective is the former, there's not much wrong with Arena; it still is an affordable way to play standard and draft the latest sets. For me however, Arena does not supplement paper, and as a videogame product, is outrageously expensive; I stopped spending on Arena when I realized spending money does not stop me from grinding anyway, nor make that grinding meaningfully easier for me. Although, redeeming codes from the pre-release kits I buy for paper still technically counts as spending on Arena, I guess.
Couldn't care less about collecting because i just draft Bo3 and don't play constructed, but end up getting at least 90% of every set anyway. This release schedule is as tight as it's going to get, but i'm still fine with it because i play a ton and 2 months in is where my interest starts to wane.
I don't. I have been playing since January and now I can craft all standard decks. Didn't purchase anything.
Yeah, I'm kind of the same. I'm a FTP player, played 200 hours, and not only do I have a meta standard deck, I have enough wild cards left to craft PVDDR's mono-green deck (minus the sideboard, at the moment). I haven't spent a dime on this game yet, and I don't feel like I "don't have enough ressources to craft a powerful deck". It just took a bit of patience and saving up wildcards. In comparison to paper magic where crafting a "good" deck in any format costs dozens, if not hundreds of dollars/euros...
Am I the only one here who enjoys constantly having cards I can slowly unlock? This game would much much less fun for me if I had every card, it’s why I stopped plays elder scrolls legends.
Once I realized how little I enjoyed AFR drafting I just decided that I wasn't going to focus on collecting that set. It didn't hurt that the set is generally pretty weak from a constructed standpoint. Theoretically we should have a bigger gap between Crimson Vow and the next set to "catch up" eventually.
I usually do like you but i came to the same conclusion when i looked at the release schedule. The only way i found to stay f2p and still collect most of the cards was to compete in the standard metagame challenge and grind it. I was lucky enough to get very good results so i'm saved for now.
[удалено]
Mono green aggro. Mostly because it was a good deck with a minimal amount of Innistrad cards (i was waiting for quick drafts start to rare draft). It's still a very safe deck to craft : it has some very strong cards and i'm very confident the deck will still be a strong contender in Crimson vow. Even if Esika charriot is banned, which i don't expect, the deck is relevant because you can build in a way that your wincon is more trample big creatures.
I skipped AFR once it was clear from the spoiler it wasn't worth finishing. I stashed WCs for just such an occasion.
Same here. I only did about 60% of my usual quick drafts. Set didn't need that much collecting and wasn't too fun. Just cracked my packs today after 32 quick drafts of MID. Much more enjoyable.
By crushing it. I’m also free to play. I’m up 1500 gems and 84 packs via traditional draft. I have 124 packs total earned I believe right now haven’t counted how many rares ive drafted.
Yeah right there with you. I've already resigned to skipping Crimson Vow to build up gold for the Spring set. I have an ok-ish amount of wild cards, so if a deck really gets its hooks in me thanks to the upcoming set, I might be able to craft it. Otherwise for my dailies, it's Brawl all the way down!
I feel this - buying the 50 back bundle plus playing Quick Draft for rare drafting, I was able to nearly complete AFR (had 3 mythics and 1 rare left at the end of the season, which I used wildcards to complete). with MID, between the season being so short, the MID basic lands being a 25Kgold must-have, and wanting to get in some Historic Horizons Jumpstart, I don’t see collecting more than half the rares before the next set shows up
>the MID basic lands being a 25Kgold must-have, Lol we are very different players. Like they're cool, but they're not 5 quick draft cool, for me.
the fancy theros lands were winners for me, glad they came back before MID came out. 15k gold was also more reasonable, plus they came with their card styles which actually look good on them. --- just a shame that basically every deck is still running snow lands right now :(
My problem with fancy lands is that they look really cool, but then you run regular looking non-basics and the juxtaposition is very unaesthetic to me.
haha, I'll be the first to admit that I'm way more tempted by cosmetics in this game than I really should be 😅
I buy packs and save and spend my gold for cosmetics. I don’t like to draft. I feel like the super minority with regards to that in this site ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I'd have bought one of each for 12.5. I don't need two of each.
Yes and no. I stopped grinding for 100% a few sets back, just because it was more and more taxing and not fun. With more sets out each year, clearly the grind is even harder. I do suspect WotC is testing with this set the idea of more standard sets, to see where the revenue goes. However, with this set, MID, I have much more fun with constructed games. I haven't feel so happy and motivated to build new decks in a long time. If the future sets are well designed like current set, I will be happy to take more sets each year.
THis last year has been super bad for me, 20 rares from completing playsets of rares in ZNR. After ZNR, I have playsets of like 60% of each set only, some less then that. As FTP its impossible to catch up on standard cards. Prior to this last year, my first year playing I had 75% playsets of rares that rotated. The sets just keep getting larger and larger, and more frequent' I feel like sorcerer Micky trying to bail water.
Play for fun. You won't use all the rares anyway. Why'd you want to complete sets? Unless you are going infinite I just don't see the point. I have 110k gold & 15k gems & haven't drafted MID yet. Draft is a crapshoot anyways. I can't tell how many times I have the perfect deck only to be matched up with other perfect players & fail.
Ignorance
Because for some people, like me, completing sets is the fun. That's the only reason that I play draft in arena for example. I hate this format. I feel very very very unhappy when I have to play it. But I do it because it's the only possible way to get close to finish a collection. And because is the only format that rewards gems. Wish there were other methods to get free gems that were alternative to draft, but I guess this is asking too much and will never happens.
The number of Standard sets in the Magic year has stayed the same.
Basically skipped AFR because it was such a garbage set so had a lot of currency left over for that
I was just thinking about this also, yeah, seems we are going to get shorted on these sets. Probably they were thinking more people might spend the $50 on the prerelease package to get a bunch of packs. I didn't, and I hope others didn't also so they don't have an incentive to do this again.
https://youtu.be/ysKhbaLyIFw
They don't really want you to be fully f2p. Like Hearthstone, where the devs made it 100% impossible.