Discussion Forum

So far I've enjoyed it. I admit however I just downloaded and started playing yesterday. There is definitely a weird vibe to the game-either I smash my opposition or I get smashed. I have had one in 12 games that was even remotely close. I can definitely tell which people have a ton of time/money wrapped up in it.

I also seem to see a lot of three color decks.

Overall I like it so far!

So just you and me apparently?

The only thing that frustrates me about arena is you basically are required to play with 24 lands. It's already bad enough I average 10 lands a game, but int he grand scheme of things that's small potatoes. I liked the pauper events. I hope they bring commander and two headed giant into it.

I also see no way to add friends, which would be cool. I'd also like a way to look at a few decks-even if it's only people willing to share and not everyone. Some people have had some really cool ideas and I'd love to test drive them. Not always easy to find them. (I admit to also not really trying too hard, so this is kind of unverified if you will.)

And I, perhaps selfishlessly, love being able to sleeve my cards!

Is anyone else kind of frustrated with the process of updating the game? I get it, it's a total first world problem, but I have to redownload the damn thing from the forum every single time? We can't get an updater or something simpler?

I mean definitely still playing so it's a minor issue obviously!

The updates are a catastrophe. When a new edition is released you basically have to re-download the whole program, and even the small updates take a lot of time...more than I've expected with any other program.

I have put some time into the game in the last months and can now say a little bit more about some points that frustrated me.
I've found the option to play against friends, tough it's complicated and not really user friendly. In the main menu, select the icon with the crossed swords (Direct Challenge), enter the user's name who you want to play against and click play. He has to do the same with your name, neither of you receives a notification that you've been challenged, so basically without a (voice-)chat it's impossible to use.

As for your problem with the 24 lands, you can change that when editing the deck, haven't had any problems here.

The problem with the interrupts exists further, I don't see an option how to solve that. Either you activate full control (Press CTRL) and pass on every action or the engine stops every time you could use an instant, revealing this clearly to your opponent.

Something I'm very unhappy with is the way Arena tracks combat damage. On the first glance it seems that damage/ combat damage lowers a creatures toughness, which is simply wrong, wrong, wrong! Only on a second look, when you hoover over the card with the cursor, you see that it not this way, but many new players will start with arena and getting this error out of their heads can be complicated.

Seriously fix the damn the download and update process! Heh, that said still playing!

Still playing, but yeah the download and updater is annoying as hell. And maybe this is shit luck but every time I play a deck-especially for the daily challenges-I either get a red deck or ther same colored deck as an opponent. period. might just be the meta, but I kind of wish you could filter a little bit. Even if it cost some money.

Friends list would be niced. Same for a blocked list. I've enjoyed the Pauper events, and even the singleton is okay (less my speed, but a neat concept I think.)

All in all I give it pretty high marks. It will never take the place of table top MtG for us, but it's a fun diversion!

And a clock. Seriously a clock would be wonderful.

Another thing that I really dislike at the moment (since the M20 update) is that the AI used in the bot matches is very weak, does some idiotic stuff.
Some examples for the AI's behaviour:
I attack with a 1/1, the AI blocks with a 3/3 and a 2/2. I do nothing and before the damage-step the AI uses 3 spells to give the 3/3 a total of +9/+8. The AI's creature have no lifelink or whatsoever, a simple waste of cards.
The AI uses a "destroy target enchantment and gain 4 life" spell on an exile enchantment of mine. I have 3 on the field, one of those having exiled nothing any more (I did target a token with it). And the AI chooses the one enchantment that doesn't bring anything instead of one of the other two which would bring back one of it's creatures.
The AI casts a "tap target creature" spell on one of my creatures. The next spell is a "return target creature to owners hand" onto the same creature.
Also the AI's attack-logic is...well it needs a hefty rework, but that is an old problem and nothing new

The decks are also simply catastrophic since the update before they were at least not totally boring to play and test against. I have taken a look at the green, red, white and blue deck until nearly the last card was played.
Green has nothing stronger than a 2/2 with vigilance, many ramp creatures like Llanowar elves, or 0/3 creatures that give 1-2 mana and so on. The most dangerous spell in this deck is "Growth Cycle" (Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. It gets an additional +2/+2 until end of turn for each card named Growth Cycle in your graveyard). Red has some spells that deal 2-3 damage any target and 4-5 damage to target creature an it's strongest creature is a 3/2 with no further ability. Blue, dito, some "return to hand" spells, and some 2/2 flyers as most potent creatures. White some "exile target creature" spells and also nothing more powerful than 2/2's.
The only thing missing is a text at the beginning of the match with "Oh please kill me as fast as possible so that this nightmare is over fast".
How should new players that start with Arena learn something against something like that?

One thing I've noticed is Arena absolutely lacks the interaction that you can get from tabletop. This is why i think a lot of people get angry about what they see and do on Arena. In a way it's good, because I think it means table top will never die as long as people like me, who enjoy the face to face interaction of table top are still out there.

On the other hand it's bad for the long term health of Arena.

Sadly they have demonstrated that responsive is not what their forums are for. So all of my hopes for at least a voice in the process is like pissing in a fan.

Revisiting this, as I feel that Arena has evolved into it's own distinct format. I find over all enjoyable, but definitely no substitute for table top play. Overall I continue to think of it as a time waster-something to do when I am tired, don't want to think to hard, or my game group can't get together. It's good at what it does, mostly, but it's definitely not going to replace table top play for me.