Magic: The Gathering Arena Beta Impressions. Magic: The Gathering Arena review

I took 3 decks with different playstyles from the recent standard - control, midrange and aggro, added their average playtime and came up with interesting conclusions.

Additionally, it matters whether you play bo1 or bo3. With an explosive aggro deck, it is easy for us to surprise the opponent with a quick distribution and punish for greedy hands, but after the side it will be difficult to repeat this trick. The opponent is already ready to restrain early aggression. I think the bo1 format is preferable for aggro style.
On the contrary, playing with control, I prefer bo3, because after the side I can be ready for anything, even after losing the first game.

We figured out the ascent to the mythic, but what if this is not enough for us? What if we want to top the leaderboards and qualify for some cool Wizard tournaments? Then we have a long road to the top of the mythic.

It's already full hardcore - no fireproof results, experienced opponents and ONLY meta decks (about three decks, that's all the variety. Seriously, don't play without a specific goal, it's incredibly dull there). After you reach mythic rank, you are assigned a percentage, as shown in the picture.

An extraordinary attempt to transfer "Magic" to a digital format, sets itself a single goal: to make the "father of all CCGs" accessible to everyone.

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Now every new CCI after the release inevitably remains in the shadow of the mastodon from Blizzard — Hearthstone. No matter what new mechanics they offer, no matter how hard they try to bribe with a beautiful wrapper, not a single project has managed to reach the same quality bar. But the company Wizards of the Coast- in fact, the founders of the genre - decided to try anyway. Them Magic: The Gathering Arena, an extraordinary effort to digitalize "Magic", has a single goal: to make the "father of all CCGs" accessible to everyone.

And, oddly enough, the developers have been successful.

Great Equalizer

Arena plays exactly like the tabletop version of the game. If you have seen any other CCI at least with one eye, then you already have a rough idea of ​​how everything looks. Two players try to overpower each other by playing cards: creatures, items, spells, magical artifacts, and the like. The mechanics of MTG are quite complicated for beginners (for example, there is not one type of mana, but as many as five), but do not be afraid: when you first start the game, it will definitely lead you through the tutorial, served as a small adventure. Training will help beginners understand the basic mechanics, and professionals get used to innovations.

The Wizards of the Coast project cleverly simplifies some of the pesky aspects of physical MTG and allows you to focus on strategy rather than meticulously following all the small rules. The turn is conveniently divided into phases, and the game will always tell you when and what you can play. Only experienced people who knew the synergies of more than a thousand cards by heart could build decks in the desktop version, but the digital version itself sorts and arranges the cards according to various parameters.

Due to the fact that there is no longer a need to wade through a ton of incomprehensible data, even beginners will be able to quickly collect something of their own - the benefit of manuals on the Internet is abyss. In the end, collecting cards in Arena is much easier: they do not deteriorate over time, which means that you do not need to spend money on protectors separately. This, of course, is not at all the same (someone will probably miss the tactile sensations), but virtual cards are much cheaper than real ones. And everything is in order with the economy: the game rewards success so generously that you don’t even need to constantly complete daily tasks to replenish the deck.

The interface and menus are intuitive, the graphics are pleasing to the eye, but the arenas are drawn without unnecessary prettiness, so they do not draw too much attention to themselves. But the rich illustrations on the cards themselves, for which MTG has always been famous, were transferred to digital directly from physical primary sources. The actions of the creatures are accompanied by spectacular animations, whether they are goblins soaring into the air, a tornado sweeping cards off the table, or the spirits of the forest come to life. Beauty, and more!

It's a classic, you need to know it

There are several game modes in Arena: the usual duel and draft, where players take turns choosing one card from the available boosters, making up a deck of forty pieces. Also, the format of a sealed deck was transferred to the figure - that is, Sealed. This format allows you to get acquainted with new cards and play a tournament by building a deck of six available boosters. It’s a pity, of course, that there is no frivolous mode like a brawl from Hearthstone, but what can you do ...

If you've never played the tabletop version and decide to try out Arena after some Hearthstone, you'll have to get used to some of the nuances. For example, mana does not come by itself, but is obtained from lands played from the hand - this is a special type of card. You can only play one per round. And each card, be it a creature or a spell, requires a certain amount of mana of the corresponding color. Forests give green, swamps black, islands blue, mountains red, and so on.

Also, interruptions of the opponent's turn were transferred from the desktop version. For example, in an alien round, you can spend the remaining mana on instant spells that, say, strengthen your fighters or cancel the opponent’s buffs. The advantage of the system is that players retain partial control of the table no matter whose turn it is.

Let's say you're being attacked by a monster with 1 attack, but you choose not to block (yes, here, unlike Hearthstone, you can choose who gets hit) to save your creatures for the next round. Then the opponent gives the attacking creature a powerful buff, but you have an ace up your sleeve - a spell that allows you to reflect damage back to the attacker. So you will protect yourself, and throw a wonderful trick to your opponent!

Many of these subtleties will have to be figured out on your own, through trial and error. Therefore, I advise you not to rush into PvP on the move, but to start with training battles. Impatient newcomers or former players in Hearthstone, of course, from the very first minutes they throw the table to everyone in a row. And then, left with an empty hand, they wonder why unkilled enemy creatures at the end of the round replenish their health and hit back.

So take your time, it's better to first deal with the starting decks and understand how everything works. Poor map management is the main source of problems in a duel with a live player. Few lands? You will sit with powerful creatures in your hand and wither over gold, because there is no mana. Lots of land? They will litter the deck, and the opposite situation will develop: a lot of mana, but there is nothing to spend it on. Balancing the two extremes and understanding creature synergy is the essence of MTG.

And with each new opponent, this essence will be revealed more and more deeply. Arena is not just a card strategy, but a real battle of magicians. Both players are sure to have surprises in store for each other, and the most harmless creature with the help of a few spells can turn into the most dangerous monster. You can never predict what will happen next. Even if you are lucky and good cards come into your hand, this still does not guarantee victory. This is what attracts Arena: here everything is decided not by luck, as in most CCGs, but by a correctly played strategy and the ability to adapt to the situation.

It is still unclear what fate awaits the game and whether it will be able to push Hearthstone, but the eSports league is already being launched, and new players are constantly arriving and leaving positive feedback to the project.

For beginners, this is a great way to get acquainted with the rules of the game, which are actually no more difficult than last year's Artifact. Perhaps it is thanks to Arena that young gamers will have a desire to try out the game in the desktop version - or, what the hell is not joking, even participate in real tournaments. If you love CCG but for some reason haven't played MTG yet, then… Why are you still here?!

So, gentlemen and ladies, there will be many letters further. The idea to write a guide came to me a long time ago, but the abundance of material on the Internet has always pushed this thought far back. But now, the time has come. The guide will be more useful for beginners, but also " veterans“I think it will not hurt to read it. The guide is dedicated to the selection of cards in the arena.

Arena - game mode Hearthstone, where you play cards that don't belong to you. You get a "random" set of 30 cards, sequentially choosing from the 3 best ones in your opinion. Entrance to the arena costs $2 with change or 150 coins. The first entry is free!

Your goal for getting the best reward, win 12 matches, while you should not lose more than 3 times. If the number of your victories is 7 or more, then the gold spent on the arena is returned to you (+\-).

The essence of the selection of players in the arena is extremely simple. That is, if you, for example, won 7 games in a row, then you will get the same opponent, who won 7 matches in a row. You can leave the arena at any time, and enter the same way, the same principle applies when choosing cards.

Arena Rewards: dust, boosters, gold, cards. The more victories you have, the more valuable the reward will be. You will receive a booster in any case, no matter how many victories you have, at least 3 losses and not a single victory. As I wrote above, on the 7th victory, you "recover" the gold spent on the arena.

More interesting, my dear friend. So you earned hard-earned 150 gold on dailies, you click the coveted button and you are offered a choice of 3 heroes. We will consider in detail 3 strongest(in my opinion) class.

1. Paladin

The first in this issue will be Mag

So Mag. In my opinion Jaina has best hero power in the game. She can hit a unit without taking damage, unlike other classes that have a similar (offensive) hero power.

But that's not the only reason why Jaina is top 1 on our hit parade. The best removals in the game concentrated in the hands of one class. I think even HS newbies are familiar with them.

Meet:

• Fire ball- Costs 4 mana, deals 6 damage to the target.
• Ice arrow- costs 2 mana, deals 3 damage to the character and freezes him.
• transformation- costs 4 mana, turns the target creature into a 1/1 sheep.
• Well, the thunderstorm of the "filled table": - cost 7 mana, deals 4 damage to all enemy creatures.

The power of these spells lies not only in the fact that they are concentrated in the hands of one Jaina, but also in " rarity» maps. Since these cards do not even have a “rarity” crystal, in the arena they will drop very often.

If you come across at least one of the cards listed above in your choice, do not think, feel free to take it (in the case of Frostbolt 50 to 50).

When compiling a deck, I observe 3 important factors. Let's consider each of them.

The first important factor is the mana curve.

Depending on your play style, you will have a certain card value prevail. The main idea is that your deck must have an acceptable distribution of cards, depending on their price (although some preference should still be given to cheaper cards). In this case, the probability that during each turn you will be able to play cards with the most suitable price for it increases significantly.

For each stage of the game (early, mid or late) you have the deck should have some strong creatures and some useful spells that you could play. If you follow the tables, regardless of your deck's mana distribution curve, things can go wrong.

For example, if you follow the tables completely, you can end up with a deck that consists of 75% cards worth two crystals. There is a very good chance that, when considered individually, each of these cards will turn out to be much better than the other options offered, but, nevertheless, the results of using so many of these cheap cards can be disastrous.

It follows from this that when choosing cards, you never forget your mana curve. The ideal look for your distribution curve will depend on the type of deck you want to play ( an aggressive early game deck should be drawn with a large number of cheap cards and slightly more expensive, while a late game board control deck should be drawn in the opposite manner.). Anyway should strive to maintain some balance.

In practice, this means that when choosing the 15th card between the 2-crystal cost cards from the first group and the 4-crystal cost from the second group, when your deck already has seven cards that cost 2 crystals and none for four, you should choose a card that costs 4 crystal, even if it belongs to a lower group.

We will not go into details here, because there are many possible situations However, let's hope you understand the basic principles.

The second factor is synergy

Of course, the presence of synergy between some of the cards in your deck is a great bonus and allows you to increase the value of these cards. Sometimes you even get the ability to make cool combinations. However, in Arena, you should avoid cards whose main value lies in their ability to synergize effectively with other cards you don't already have.

This is due to the fact that there is no guarantee that in the end you will be able to collect the cards you need. It may happen that, even after seeing them, you prefer to opt for more valuable cards that will appear in the same trio with them.

The ideal approach when drawing cards in the Arena is to choose cards in which you start from individual value of cards and only when they are in your hand can you pick up some cards that form a good interaction with them, in no case placing excessive hopes on this interaction.

Some cards, such as Sin'dorei Priest and Dark Iron Dwarf, have great synergies with many cards, they will always be desirable candidates for getting into your deck, and will be able to strengthen many of your creatures.

Some other cards that will limit your play and force you to collect unique ones are not suitable for an adequate card recruitment strategy. For example, a set of murlocs in any scenario would be a bad idea, as normal murloc cards don't have very good stats, and you'll have to rely on rare murloc cards to interact effectively with other cards.

Even if you are initially offered an exceptionally valuable Rare Murloc card, it will be much more far-sighted to choose another rare card, which will have a higher value than the Murloc card, since in the future you are unlikely to be able to collect enough ordinary murlocs that the rare murloc you selected earlier could effectively interact with.

The third factor is the definition of the style of play

The deck style is aggressive, control, combo (I highly do not recommend it).

Aggressive is my favorite deck type. What could be better than killing your opponent on the 5-6th move. Unfortunately, Jaina is not designed for that. Hero power, mana cost of removals, and lack of strong "base" creatures ( Exception - . There are several combo mage archetypes in ranked. Echo Mage and Freeze Mage are the most effective. I doubt very much that in the arena you will be able to collect anything approximately similar to these decks.

There are possible sets of all kinds of ovs in the deck, one of the first cards, naturally your further choice of cards will be based on creatures with an attack indicator of 1, then to surprise the opponent ejection of several creatures, empowered by .

If the gods of the random house were merciful to you and the Archmage Antonidas came to you, you will try to hold back the removals in order to get more benefit. Also, with a further selection of cards, you can look for creatures that give you a spare part, which significantly increase the efficiency Archmage Antonidas. As I said above, this style is very situational and each player decides how to play. Lots of options.

I hope this article helped beginners, and also opened up something new for " experienced» players. With uv. Edward

The Magic: The Gathering community is huge. The presence of many experienced magicians does not scare off newcomers, and Wizards of the Coast are doing everything to eliminate obstacles between the game and the player, including releasing electronic versions of their most popular TCG. Magic Online was created for those who could not visit gaming clubs or did not want to save cards. But historically, it was chosen mainly by experienced players. Duels of the Planeswalkers and Magic Duels were products for those who want to get comfortable in the game - as accessible as possible, but cut down in functionality. Magic: Arena, currently in beta testing, combines elements of all its predecessors.

The main charm of "Magic" is in the plot and illustrations. Take them away and you're left with one lifeless math: this card allows you to deal damage for three, this one for two, this creature has more health than another, and so on. But the bright design of the cards and artistic texts make the player feel like a commander. In Magic: Arena enough attention is paid to the atmosphere: for example, when summoning a creature with the type "cat", you will hear a meow or growl, depending on its size. When casting powerful spells, there will be additional effects: for creatures - beautiful animation, for Planeswalkers - also voice acting for each attack.

Aurelia, angel of the Boros Guild, enters the battlefield in spectacular fashion

The question of money is the most painful for all magicians. We will answer right away: in Arena you can collect for free good deck. It may not immediately be as good as your deck in the desktop "Magic", but making something working on the go is real. At the beginning of the game, you will be offered five one-color decks that already have valuable cards. For completing game tasks (causing 50 damage, laying out 20 lands, casting 20 black spells), the player is rewarded with new decks or game currency - gold. Gold can be used to buy boosters, one card in which will certainly be rare or mythical. Tasks are updated once a day, so the game encourages regular visits, but does not require you to hang in it all the time.

It would be difficult to assemble a deck to your liking from the cards found, but wildcards save the matter. These are special "empty" cards of a certain rarity, given for opening a certain number of boosters. Wildcards can be turned into any card of a given rarity.

Successfully opened booster: a golden wild card can be turned into any "rare" card

Of course, you can invest in the purchase of in-game items. Wildcards themselves cannot be bought for real money, but you can buy crystals, which are beneficial to pay for participation in tournaments and buy sets. It is impossible to convert crystals into in-game gold, but they can be won if you play well the "Quick Draft" - a tournament in which participation is paid for in gold.

Do not rush to invest in the game while the beta testing is in progress! On September 24, all cards from the collection will disappear, only purchased crystals will remain on your account.

In a way, wildcards have given Arena players more options than tabletop Magic players. Take, for example, the Nexus of Destiny card, which gives an additional turn. In boosters this strong card not found, it was issued in stores for the purchase of a display of boosters. However, in Arena, any mythical wild card can be turned into a Nexus of Destiny, and decks with it will cause a lot of problems for your opponents (as they did to me).

In Magic, only four copies of a single card can usually be kept in a deck. However, the Nexus of Destiny cannot be put into the graveyard - when played, discarded, canceled, it will return to the deck. And the fewer cards left in the deck, the more likely it is to have several Nexuses in your hand at once, which means that you can completely deprive your opponent of the opportunity to play. It is very pleasant if you yourself play this card, and painful if it is used against you. And if Teferi's Planeswalker is already on the field, as a rule, playing the Nexus means that the game is over: soon Teferi will score points to expel half the opponent's table.

Rare outcome: Teferi played his last ability, but can't win - the deck is out! He has to exorcise himself in order not to lose, but even this will not save him from the stubborn goblins.

It may not be pleasant for a beginner to run into a deck on the Nexus, but he will learn what cunning is found in Magic tournaments. In general, the game offers a fairly convenient system for ranking the difficulty of opponents: for victories, your rank rises, the higher the rank, the stronger the opponents. For defeat, the rating is reduced, and, as in life, you fall faster than you rise.

Such a system, along with a user-friendly interface, nice animation and the ability to play a game with an opponent from anywhere in the world at any time, makes the game really open to beginners.

"Magic" is good with an abundance of game formats and strategies. The formats in the Arena are divided into "Completed" and "Limited" decks. In the first case, the player uses a pre-prepared set of cards. In the second, for example, the draft is popular.

Five colors of mana allow you to build decks in a variety of combinations with all sorts of combinations of cards. Each new set brings changes to the Standard format, adding cards and giving birth to new deck archetypes.

Currently active in Standard is Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet, Hour of Destruction, Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, Dominaria, Core Set 2019. Soon, with the release of Guilds of Ravnica, sets from Kaladesh to Hour of Destruction will enter the rotation, and a new cycle will begin.

All Arena modes are only open to Standard-legal cards. You can play a quick match with a random opponent, you can try your deck in a competitive format, where a sideboard will come in handy (an additional 15 cards with answers in case of specific problems), or you can draft. In addition, game events are regularly held, such as "Research" (the size of the player's hand is not limited, you can put two lands per turn) or "Pauper" (only cards of the lowest rarity can be put in the deck). The latest example is "Momir's Madness".

The deck is not needed, the player is invited to blindly call creatures onto the battlefield. With each move, the creatures become more dangerous

Are the developers going to extend the user-friendly Arena interface to other formats (Modern, Legacy, Commander)? It is not yet known, but I would not count on it, since in this case the Arena will become a direct competitor to Magic Online, which is unlikely to be what Wizards of the Coast themselves want.

The interface also faithfully conveys game actions - turning creatures, grouping lands, and manipulating the card graveyard

Guilds of Ravnica table magic planeswalker decks will contain codes that unlock the same deck in Arena. Using the code from the prerelease set, they will be admitted to a special event in the “sealed deck” format.

All in all, Arena is a good collection of the best ideas from past games. The beta version still has its bugs, but in fact, all the improvements that come to mind are cosmetic. I would like to put on the avatar not only one of the Planeswalkers, but also a creature or even a favorite card (why not?). It would be nice if statistics were kept somewhere on the total number of victories and defeats in specific tournaments.

Outcome:"Arena" is an excellent product, beautiful, worthy of conveying the impressions of real game. It will be interesting for both beginners and experienced players. It is quite possible to play it for free, especially if you learn how to win tournaments. The beta test code can be found on Twitter or requested at e-mail on the Magic: The Gathering website. And from September 28, the beta version will be available to all players.

Saint George match: dragons against knights. The end is a little predictable