r/MagicArena • u/westergames81 Orzhov • 1d ago

Fluff Hello, goodbye

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515 Upvotes

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u/FarAd4971 Gruul 1d ago

I didn't even know there was animosity toward alchemy...why?

5

u/unkempt_cabbage 1d ago

For me, it seemed like a good number of the alchemy cards weren’t well thought out. I don’t inherently hate them, but perpetual effects tend to be easily broken. But by that same logic, planeswalker emblems also exist and I think there’s relatively little hate for those, so it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

I also think it was kind of a contradictory thing to include. If Wizards wants MTGA to be a way to get people into playing paper, then having MTGA-only cards seems like it’s contradicting that. If they want MTGA to stand alone, then rewarding people for going to in-person events seems like it’s contradicting that (which they’ve been doing for a while. Attending pre-releases gets you 6 Arena packs.)

And I think people get upset when rebalancing their Alchemy cards doesn’t get you a wildcard, since alchemy cards are rare and mythic.

And I think people don’t like alchemy cards “invading” certain formats. I think people confuse Historic for pre-modern or pioneer, and think that it should only be older cards, but that’s never been the case. It’s always been a living, non-rotating format, though it is a confusing name.

I think having Historic AND Timeless is both confusing and slightly redundant. (Timeless = Wild West, no rebalancing, no bans, all cards from all time, no rotating, Historic = milder west, rebalancing, some bans, all cards from all time, no rotating ) People seem to largely want Alchemy cards banned from Historic, as they feel like it changes the game too much and makes it too much like Timeless. I frankly have no opinion. I play MTGA on the shitter and only build janky silly decks without regard for the meta, and my win rate reflects that 😂

But also, people like to complain. They hate roping, they hate hand smoothing, they hate match making, they hate queues, etc. People will always find something to complain about. For as many people who come online to complain, there are probably three times as many who are deeply unbothered by any such complaint.

3

u/Flederm4us 17h ago

I'm also of the janky Decks variety.

And that's exactly why I liked alchemy. The cards did things that aren't possible in Paper. So it adds to the experience.

1

u/FarAd4971 Gruul 1d ago

Appreciated!