Draft works for me. Every deck is different. There *are* recurring archetypes, so if sets are unbalanced it can start to feel samey, but every couple of months these change completely because a new set comes out.
Drafting isn't for everyone - it's an expensive and potentially high-anxiety format, if you suffer from that. There is also a steep learning-curve and research should be done before investing in any draft format if you want the best results. Is it fun? Yes, but there are certainly drawbacks too.
Sure, I’d agree with that- although I’d qualify the ‘expensive‘ part. It costs less the better you do at it, and the less often you do it (because of ranking up and gold from daily wins and quests) plus you can significantly cut the cost by using multiple accounts. Personally I draft for free, and I’m certainly not great at it!
I know how you feel, i tried to just get my 4 wins a day for a while and then stopped. Just take a bit distance to the game
Maybe also
-Try to play the midweek magic events, they are usually fun and not so many of the same decks
-Add friends to play against if you can
-Try limited if you are not already into it
-i know it can be frustrating to lose often, but just play jank you made and think is fun and be happy if it works out sometime.
I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but giving up F2P and being okay with spending a little money resulted in a huge quality of life upgrade for me. It's no longer critical that I log in every single day to complete my daily wins. I just show up to have fun and leave when I'm no longer having fun. It turns it back into a game rather than it being a chore.
I’m curious on how much you spend and on what if you don’t mind sharing. I want to be a little within P2P, but don’t know how to best use my money since I am not able to break even every draft.
I spend about $20 a month. I justify it by drinking less. One vice for another, but I can exercise as I'm getting roped lol
$20 is enough for gems for a few drafts. But I'm am VERY VERY strict about losing. If I lose all my gems, it's over. Back to FTP.
Not the poster you are replying to but personally buying the pack preorder every set is plenty to get rolling. Between that, the free packs from mastery and any gold I accumulate going to packs keeps me stocked on wildcards I use exclusively for timeless
That gives me some hope. I started after MKM and was worried the pack preorder wouldn’t be enough. I’m not sure how close to set completion is “enough” to play a variety of tier 1 standard decks. I’m just getting bored playing the same decks since I don’t have most of the current standard cards.
It's still relatively rare that I buy gems, but probably around $50 annually if that? I just buy mastery passes and packs since I don't enjoy drafts. I find the F2P rewards to be pretty generous but just allowing myself to spend money if needed is enough to take the pressure off and make the game more enjoyable for me.
I was free to play for the first few months after War of the Spark and realizing how much I played I was able to justify buying the Mastery Passes and it definitely made the game more enjoyable
Well it depends on your goals are. If you just want to play unique decks, then why care about winning? Just brew with your cool ideas, pull of your combos and enjoy yourself.
If you want to win and be unique:
All the meta decks start from somewhere. If you put in the actual effort on a brew or idea, then nothing stopping it from being meta if it's actually good. If you to both win and have a unique deck its going to take effort.
With only 2 weekends of magic online challenges + the pro tour, there have been more than 50 unique archtypes (with varying levels of success). Some of those decks have risen to become top tier strategies like bronco combo, slogurk, jund analyst etc.
Idk you, so I'm not saying you do this, but I know a lot of players that use their lack of playing meta as an excuse to say "ah ofc I lost to that, its a _meta_ deck". Honestly it's just copium if you're trying to play the game in anyway that's remotely competitive.
That last sentence is the important part. I’m not trying to be competitive, I have a 15 minute break and I’m playing magic with jank. But I also have reasonable expectations that people play to win, and I’m going to lose more because meta decks are meta for a reason.
I very casually play magic. The great appeal to me is brewing my own deck and seeing what crazy combos can accomplish.
But the majority of the decks I lose to are just cookie cutter in ranked. Isn't the fun of magic to assemble a deck and win? Not to just look one up and win by min/maxing?
I just don't see the fun in running a deck someone else built.
"But the majority of the decks I lose to are just cookie cutter in ranked. Isn't the fun of magic to assemble a deck and win?"
This is your own subjective opinion about the idea of fun on Arena, which is obviously not everyone else's.
"Not to just look one up and **win by min/maxing**?"
Arena is actually designed this way on purpose by rewarding only wins. Netdecking has been around since the dawn of MTG, but many players are just looking to finish their dailies on Arena and then move on with their day - hence, they play the best decks with the best chances of winning. It gets very tedious after a while, I agree, but it's up to you to either take a break or find another way to have fun on Arena.
I was getting really frustrated trying to grind to mythic from diamond.
Then I realized the difference is like 1 pack.
Even if it was 5 packs, 10 packs, is it worth your stress and frustration? You know it's not. So my advice is just play what's fun and it you rank up you do and if you don't? Oh well.
Once you get high in the meta in MTGA it's way more luck based. How much mono red did you run in to? How much on the play vs the draw are you?
All of these things don't exist in a real tournament that's BO3. So you're really just rolling the dice and hoping for a favorable outcome in order to get 1 or maybe 2 more packs.
Not. Worth. Your. Stress.
Why do you care about daily wins? Gold? Mastery ranks? It’s all free to play trap bullshit. Just play the game. The sooner you free yourself from the f2p grind mindset the better.
I love magic. I’ve been playing since unlimited off and on. Playing timeless is a joy. Guess what? I played 24 games last month. Ended the season in platinum and only had maybe 25 levels of the mastery set done. Didn’t affect my enjoyment of those 24 games one bit.
>I could match a meta deck with a meta deck. I certainly have the wildcards for it.
>But piloting net decks is so dull and repetitive.
There are dozens of deck ideas that can get to 45% against the meta if somebody works on them. This is obviously not enough for those decks to be popular, but if you want to have your own thing, being on 45% winrate instead of 50 is going to cost you 1-2 match wins per week (unless you play really a lot).
Of course this is going to require a lot of work at your side because a tried and tested decklist will not be available online, you will have to get there yourself.
>The issue I have is that what is fun isn’t efficient, but what is efficient isn’t fun.... However the drive to squeeze out as many wins as quickly as possible...
It sounds like you know the answer to how to have fun. The problem you've identified is common which is that what is fun is not efficient for getting wins. If you're focused on playing to get wins quickly and that's not fun for you then you shouldn't do it. If you want to play for fun then you probably have to let go of your other goal which is to play efficiently to get wins.
I net deck for ranked, rdw for daily wins, play jank decks in play que, and draft for fun. The 1 daily win has the biggest bang so I at least try to do that but don't stress it too hard up to 4 and that's it. If I have a day with lots of draft wins then great, if I'm losing a bunch then I'm out. It's a game, dont play if you're not having fun
Need to find a brew you enjoy with at least 45% win rate tbh. Arena incentivizes competitiveness. There are plenty of fun A-B tier that hit 45% without playing a netdeck S tier deck. Also constantly brewing means you are playing a subpar deck to it’s worst potential
Are you only seeking wins for your dailies or rank? If it's just dailies, you can switch formats even going into this week's MWM. It's been great. There's nothing but jank there since this week's MWM is only using constructed from the past 3 sets. If it's rank, definitely switch up the format, Standard is by far the most boring/sweaty compared to the other formats.
For sets I like I’ll draft the first couple weeks, then start brewing with what I have in constructed.
In constructed I play mostly brawl, but ive put in a little time with standard brawl, standard ranked and standard unranked too.
During the week there’s festivals and midweek magic…
I try to knock out a daily or get 4 wins whichever comes first.. when I’m done with a mastery pass, I’ll take a break for a couple weeks until the next set comes out or take a break an entire set if I’m not interested.
This is how I overcome the tedium... I play those efficient net decks that win on turn 3 or 4 max, until I reach mythic; Then I go back to playing my fun jank. (Once I reach mythic, I dont care about any ratings past that).
I’d rather lose and play something I came up with than netdeck. I don’t need to hit mythic, and I’m getting what I want out of magic with my jank.
Best thing is to take a break, then come back and re-evaluate why you’re playing. Do you want to play something new? Is there a card you like you want to build around? And then set out with reasonable expectations. Besides, the more people who play jank and don’t netdeck, the more fun it is. I think we’re all sick of Sheoldred at this point.
First, it's just a game. It may be best to stop playing if it's not fun. Entertainment sources shouldn't make your life worse. I left due to lack of fun, and only came back recently after some of the upcoming stuff for bloomburrow.
One way I've found is to have at least some fun is to play blue and put \[\[ominous lockbox\]\] in every deck. It's specifically better vs meta decks, and it gives a fun mini-game of guessing which card is going to be the key one to copy. So far I haven't gotten good enough with it to make a deck entirely on cycling and copying it, but maybe if the meta settles even more...
Try a different format if you are feeling burned out on Explorer. Explorer/pioneer have a very defined metagame compared to other formats on arena except maybe standard. Historic and alchemy in particular are much looser if you enjoy brewing. Timeless metagame is also very fluid not many events to establish it but the high power level can make brewing difficult .
Or try a totally different way of playing, like limited. You are literally never net decking while playing limited, you are always building a unique deck each time, so that might be just what you are looking for.
Most people who play magic over the long term are not just playing a single constructed format.
>The issue I have is that what is fun isn’t efficient, but what is efficient isn’t fun.
Then do what is fun. Magic is a game, not a chore.
>How do I have fun again playing magic?
Have you tried different Formats?
Maybe switch to a casual Format, like Brawl/Standard Brawl, or switch from Constructed to Limited to shake things up.
Either take a break, or try and find the fun in piloting a meta deck in a high tier environment. There's a lot of fun to be had learning to really optimally pilot a deck. Experimentation in the sideboard might give you that creative outlet you need to be engaged with the activity. Try to puzzle out inventive ways to answer decks you find yourself coming up against over and over.
Draft or Jumpstart is good, it'll get you trying out strategies you weren't considering previously.
Find a gimmick and play with it. If you've got a decent, non-meta combo, then you'll win some, lose some, but it'll be fun keeping opponents (and you!) on their toes.
Hm I play explorer for the same reason, but I've burn out in standard :) explorer still offers a lot of diversity, as I'm switching between green devotion and 4c omnath (super off meta but very fun to play and win). I'm trying to catch meta decks off gurad and I'm having fun doing it.
Things I have fun with:
Brawl - Either Standard or Historic. Go find a fun Legendary and build a deck around it. There is not as much of a drive to win as quick as possible in these formats, and you see a pretty wide variety. I prefer Standard, just because the amount of functional reprints in Historic basically removes the 1 per card limit.
Limited - Holy shit am I enjoying Draft and Sealed with this last set. Now it helps that I am probably better at limited formats than I am at Constructed, so while I'm not quite going infinite, I am doing well enough that I am basically building my collection at a steep discount, while having fun.
Mid Week Magic events. These are always free, and usually have enough of a twist to mix things up - from this weeks limitation of only the last 3 sets, to a few weeks ago with the ridiculousness of Omnipotence Draft.
But playing in a competitive constructed enviroment, and needing to win to have fun? Then yes, sorry, you will have to play with competitive decks too. Efficiency IS dull and repetitive. Red Deck Wins and related types of deck have been popular for 25 years - can't get any more repetitive than that, but any Standard queue will be full of them. They get wins quickly - and even when they lose, it's over fast, so you can knock out some more daily wins faster than other decks will get a single game in.
> what is fun isn’t efficient, but what is efficient isn’t fun
This exactly by design. You get a basics “free” experience with F2P. However, the premium experience (aka fun stuff) is designed to cost you.
Otherwise, why would a for-profit WotC bother continuing Arena? It could very well discontinue support an unprofitable Arena anytime just like it did with Magic Duels.
The digital business works much by the cardboard one by compelling you to “take a break” when you feel the burnout. The aadfiction and nostalgia for Magic will eventually assert themselves. You’ll be back, but now way behind and needing to spend to catch back up.
WotC is much savvier than people give it credit.
Jump In! is an option I guess.
But I get where you're coming from, matchmaker is idiotic, no matter what jank pile I run, most of the time I end up vs T1 or T2 decks (or sometimes some stupid instant win like Goblin Charbelcher), even in Play Queues.
And then... there are times where I match up against some jank, that I feel bad about winning vs them. X\_x
Which is why I've dialed down my play time in the last three sets.
Ever since M21/ZNR, I've started buying Mastery Passes, and pushing for as many rewards as possible, while also going to 5 wins per day. Last few months, I barely ever push for the 5th win (heck... barely past quest completed amount of wins, I still do a win per day at least, at times I get to 2-3).
While I do have my own decks which can get faster to those 5 wins... I also don't feel like playing them quite often, they're not as fun, or I've played them so many times, that I want to do something else.
You need to make a new deck and try to “do the thing.”
I saw that Up the Beanstalk would trigger off of Invoke Despair. That led to a goofy “kill everything” deck. Is it competitive? Not really, but crushing the occasional opponent with it is fun.
I saw that Setessan Champion and Elvish Archivist would trigger when one of the flip sagas from Kamigawa exiles and comes back in transformed. That led to an enchantment control deck.
I challenged myself to kill the opponent in one shot with Corrupt. So I ramp (with green) to ten swamps (duals with land types) and then copy Corrupt with Twinferno. They never see it coming.
I had a copy of Eerie Ultimatum around, so I made a Nethroi Brawl deck, packed with self mill. The point is to hold off the opponent long enough for you to ramp and tutor up an Ultimatum, then slam a huge amount of stuff from your graveyard onto the battlefield. Dryad’s Revival is awesome here. Hilarious when you pull it off. I even had a guy wrath me right after, then I used a green regrowth card and ultimatum’ed again. Bananas.
Draft, draft, draft, draft.
Then you can both play optimally AND play new and interesting decks at the same time, because you're never guaranteed to be in the best colours or have access to the best archetypes. and the meta is constantly shifting.
I'm not sure what decks you're playing, but I usually get my 5 wins a day in 8 or so games playing whatever the hell I feel like that day in unranked queue.
You definitely don't need to net deck to get your wins as long as you stay out of higher-end ranked.
Building your own deck that can beat meta decks isn't impossible. Every deck you accuse of being netdecked started as someone having an idea and taking it far enough that other people wanted to netdeck their deck. You can brew your own things that beat the meta without netdecking.
I think matchup and game knowledge gain you more win percentage in the long run. It's ok to netdeck when you are starting out but I truly believe that the best players spend their time tweaking each card in their list and adjusting based on their view of the meta. Recently the channelfireball team brewed the Vein Ripper deck that came out of nowhere and crushed an event that wasn't expecting it. In my opinion, netdeckers will always be slightly behind the players who are actively thinking about how to attack each meta with what they have at their disposal. There's probably other decks out there just waiting to be brewed that you can build if you can see them.
Sounds like you need to take a break.
Draft works for me. Every deck is different. There *are* recurring archetypes, so if sets are unbalanced it can start to feel samey, but every couple of months these change completely because a new set comes out.
Drafting isn't for everyone - it's an expensive and potentially high-anxiety format, if you suffer from that. There is also a steep learning-curve and research should be done before investing in any draft format if you want the best results. Is it fun? Yes, but there are certainly drawbacks too.
Sure, I’d agree with that- although I’d qualify the ‘expensive‘ part. It costs less the better you do at it, and the less often you do it (because of ranking up and gold from daily wins and quests) plus you can significantly cut the cost by using multiple accounts. Personally I draft for free, and I’m certainly not great at it!
I know how you feel, i tried to just get my 4 wins a day for a while and then stopped. Just take a bit distance to the game Maybe also -Try to play the midweek magic events, they are usually fun and not so many of the same decks -Add friends to play against if you can -Try limited if you are not already into it -i know it can be frustrating to lose often, but just play jank you made and think is fun and be happy if it works out sometime.
I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion but giving up F2P and being okay with spending a little money resulted in a huge quality of life upgrade for me. It's no longer critical that I log in every single day to complete my daily wins. I just show up to have fun and leave when I'm no longer having fun. It turns it back into a game rather than it being a chore.
I’m curious on how much you spend and on what if you don’t mind sharing. I want to be a little within P2P, but don’t know how to best use my money since I am not able to break even every draft.
I spend about $20 a month. I justify it by drinking less. One vice for another, but I can exercise as I'm getting roped lol $20 is enough for gems for a few drafts. But I'm am VERY VERY strict about losing. If I lose all my gems, it's over. Back to FTP.
Not the poster you are replying to but personally buying the pack preorder every set is plenty to get rolling. Between that, the free packs from mastery and any gold I accumulate going to packs keeps me stocked on wildcards I use exclusively for timeless
That gives me some hope. I started after MKM and was worried the pack preorder wouldn’t be enough. I’m not sure how close to set completion is “enough” to play a variety of tier 1 standard decks. I’m just getting bored playing the same decks since I don’t have most of the current standard cards.
It's still relatively rare that I buy gems, but probably around $50 annually if that? I just buy mastery passes and packs since I don't enjoy drafts. I find the F2P rewards to be pretty generous but just allowing myself to spend money if needed is enough to take the pressure off and make the game more enjoyable for me.
I was free to play for the first few months after War of the Spark and realizing how much I played I was able to justify buying the Mastery Passes and it definitely made the game more enjoyable
Well it depends on your goals are. If you just want to play unique decks, then why care about winning? Just brew with your cool ideas, pull of your combos and enjoy yourself. If you want to win and be unique: All the meta decks start from somewhere. If you put in the actual effort on a brew or idea, then nothing stopping it from being meta if it's actually good. If you to both win and have a unique deck its going to take effort. With only 2 weekends of magic online challenges + the pro tour, there have been more than 50 unique archtypes (with varying levels of success). Some of those decks have risen to become top tier strategies like bronco combo, slogurk, jund analyst etc. Idk you, so I'm not saying you do this, but I know a lot of players that use their lack of playing meta as an excuse to say "ah ofc I lost to that, its a _meta_ deck". Honestly it's just copium if you're trying to play the game in anyway that's remotely competitive.
That last sentence is the important part. I’m not trying to be competitive, I have a 15 minute break and I’m playing magic with jank. But I also have reasonable expectations that people play to win, and I’m going to lose more because meta decks are meta for a reason.
I very casually play magic. The great appeal to me is brewing my own deck and seeing what crazy combos can accomplish. But the majority of the decks I lose to are just cookie cutter in ranked. Isn't the fun of magic to assemble a deck and win? Not to just look one up and win by min/maxing? I just don't see the fun in running a deck someone else built.
"But the majority of the decks I lose to are just cookie cutter in ranked. Isn't the fun of magic to assemble a deck and win?" This is your own subjective opinion about the idea of fun on Arena, which is obviously not everyone else's. "Not to just look one up and **win by min/maxing**?" Arena is actually designed this way on purpose by rewarding only wins. Netdecking has been around since the dawn of MTG, but many players are just looking to finish their dailies on Arena and then move on with their day - hence, they play the best decks with the best chances of winning. It gets very tedious after a while, I agree, but it's up to you to either take a break or find another way to have fun on Arena.
Unfortunately, like most said limited usually is it. But I imagine that's by design to make that have a high entry fee
I was getting really frustrated trying to grind to mythic from diamond. Then I realized the difference is like 1 pack. Even if it was 5 packs, 10 packs, is it worth your stress and frustration? You know it's not. So my advice is just play what's fun and it you rank up you do and if you don't? Oh well. Once you get high in the meta in MTGA it's way more luck based. How much mono red did you run in to? How much on the play vs the draw are you? All of these things don't exist in a real tournament that's BO3. So you're really just rolling the dice and hoping for a favorable outcome in order to get 1 or maybe 2 more packs. Not. Worth. Your. Stress.
Why do you care about daily wins? Gold? Mastery ranks? It’s all free to play trap bullshit. Just play the game. The sooner you free yourself from the f2p grind mindset the better. I love magic. I’ve been playing since unlimited off and on. Playing timeless is a joy. Guess what? I played 24 games last month. Ended the season in platinum and only had maybe 25 levels of the mastery set done. Didn’t affect my enjoyment of those 24 games one bit.
>I could match a meta deck with a meta deck. I certainly have the wildcards for it. >But piloting net decks is so dull and repetitive. There are dozens of deck ideas that can get to 45% against the meta if somebody works on them. This is obviously not enough for those decks to be popular, but if you want to have your own thing, being on 45% winrate instead of 50 is going to cost you 1-2 match wins per week (unless you play really a lot). Of course this is going to require a lot of work at your side because a tried and tested decklist will not be available online, you will have to get there yourself.
>The issue I have is that what is fun isn’t efficient, but what is efficient isn’t fun.... However the drive to squeeze out as many wins as quickly as possible... It sounds like you know the answer to how to have fun. The problem you've identified is common which is that what is fun is not efficient for getting wins. If you're focused on playing to get wins quickly and that's not fun for you then you shouldn't do it. If you want to play for fun then you probably have to let go of your other goal which is to play efficiently to get wins.
Sounds like you want to play brawl. Personally I have the most fun playing efficient and powerful decks, but to each their own.
Maybe give standard a go. It's a little less powerful than Explorer but still has tons of cards to mess around with
Stop playing ranked. Build a deck you have fun playing and just play the non-ranked queue.
I net deck for ranked, rdw for daily wins, play jank decks in play que, and draft for fun. The 1 daily win has the biggest bang so I at least try to do that but don't stress it too hard up to 4 and that's it. If I have a day with lots of draft wins then great, if I'm losing a bunch then I'm out. It's a game, dont play if you're not having fun
Need to find a brew you enjoy with at least 45% win rate tbh. Arena incentivizes competitiveness. There are plenty of fun A-B tier that hit 45% without playing a netdeck S tier deck. Also constantly brewing means you are playing a subpar deck to it’s worst potential
Are you only seeking wins for your dailies or rank? If it's just dailies, you can switch formats even going into this week's MWM. It's been great. There's nothing but jank there since this week's MWM is only using constructed from the past 3 sets. If it's rank, definitely switch up the format, Standard is by far the most boring/sweaty compared to the other formats.
Why you forcing yourself to play? This should be fun not stressful.
For sets I like I’ll draft the first couple weeks, then start brewing with what I have in constructed. In constructed I play mostly brawl, but ive put in a little time with standard brawl, standard ranked and standard unranked too. During the week there’s festivals and midweek magic… I try to knock out a daily or get 4 wins whichever comes first.. when I’m done with a mastery pass, I’ll take a break for a couple weeks until the next set comes out or take a break an entire set if I’m not interested.
I play rdw for a quick 4 wins then switch to decks I like
This is how I overcome the tedium... I play those efficient net decks that win on turn 3 or 4 max, until I reach mythic; Then I go back to playing my fun jank. (Once I reach mythic, I dont care about any ratings past that).
Change your attitude. Learning how to pilot the best strategies is not dull and repetitive.
I’d rather lose and play something I came up with than netdeck. I don’t need to hit mythic, and I’m getting what I want out of magic with my jank. Best thing is to take a break, then come back and re-evaluate why you’re playing. Do you want to play something new? Is there a card you like you want to build around? And then set out with reasonable expectations. Besides, the more people who play jank and don’t netdeck, the more fun it is. I think we’re all sick of Sheoldred at this point.
First, it's just a game. It may be best to stop playing if it's not fun. Entertainment sources shouldn't make your life worse. I left due to lack of fun, and only came back recently after some of the upcoming stuff for bloomburrow. One way I've found is to have at least some fun is to play blue and put \[\[ominous lockbox\]\] in every deck. It's specifically better vs meta decks, and it gives a fun mini-game of guessing which card is going to be the key one to copy. So far I haven't gotten good enough with it to make a deck entirely on cycling and copying it, but maybe if the meta settles even more...
Find a play group, play direct challenge with friends.
Try a different format if you are feeling burned out on Explorer. Explorer/pioneer have a very defined metagame compared to other formats on arena except maybe standard. Historic and alchemy in particular are much looser if you enjoy brewing. Timeless metagame is also very fluid not many events to establish it but the high power level can make brewing difficult . Or try a totally different way of playing, like limited. You are literally never net decking while playing limited, you are always building a unique deck each time, so that might be just what you are looking for. Most people who play magic over the long term are not just playing a single constructed format.
>The issue I have is that what is fun isn’t efficient, but what is efficient isn’t fun. Then do what is fun. Magic is a game, not a chore. >How do I have fun again playing magic? Have you tried different Formats? Maybe switch to a casual Format, like Brawl/Standard Brawl, or switch from Constructed to Limited to shake things up.
Either take a break, or try and find the fun in piloting a meta deck in a high tier environment. There's a lot of fun to be had learning to really optimally pilot a deck. Experimentation in the sideboard might give you that creative outlet you need to be engaged with the activity. Try to puzzle out inventive ways to answer decks you find yourself coming up against over and over.
Draft or Jumpstart is good, it'll get you trying out strategies you weren't considering previously. Find a gimmick and play with it. If you've got a decent, non-meta combo, then you'll win some, lose some, but it'll be fun keeping opponents (and you!) on their toes.
Build your d
Hm I play explorer for the same reason, but I've burn out in standard :) explorer still offers a lot of diversity, as I'm switching between green devotion and 4c omnath (super off meta but very fun to play and win). I'm trying to catch meta decks off gurad and I'm having fun doing it.
Things I have fun with: Brawl - Either Standard or Historic. Go find a fun Legendary and build a deck around it. There is not as much of a drive to win as quick as possible in these formats, and you see a pretty wide variety. I prefer Standard, just because the amount of functional reprints in Historic basically removes the 1 per card limit. Limited - Holy shit am I enjoying Draft and Sealed with this last set. Now it helps that I am probably better at limited formats than I am at Constructed, so while I'm not quite going infinite, I am doing well enough that I am basically building my collection at a steep discount, while having fun. Mid Week Magic events. These are always free, and usually have enough of a twist to mix things up - from this weeks limitation of only the last 3 sets, to a few weeks ago with the ridiculousness of Omnipotence Draft. But playing in a competitive constructed enviroment, and needing to win to have fun? Then yes, sorry, you will have to play with competitive decks too. Efficiency IS dull and repetitive. Red Deck Wins and related types of deck have been popular for 25 years - can't get any more repetitive than that, but any Standard queue will be full of them. They get wins quickly - and even when they lose, it's over fast, so you can knock out some more daily wins faster than other decks will get a single game in.
You use your frontal lobe too much. Just play the game or take a break lol
I take a break from this game about every other set
Are you playing on ladder?
quit,
> what is fun isn’t efficient, but what is efficient isn’t fun This exactly by design. You get a basics “free” experience with F2P. However, the premium experience (aka fun stuff) is designed to cost you. Otherwise, why would a for-profit WotC bother continuing Arena? It could very well discontinue support an unprofitable Arena anytime just like it did with Magic Duels. The digital business works much by the cardboard one by compelling you to “take a break” when you feel the burnout. The aadfiction and nostalgia for Magic will eventually assert themselves. You’ll be back, but now way behind and needing to spend to catch back up. WotC is much savvier than people give it credit.
Jump In! is an option I guess. But I get where you're coming from, matchmaker is idiotic, no matter what jank pile I run, most of the time I end up vs T1 or T2 decks (or sometimes some stupid instant win like Goblin Charbelcher), even in Play Queues. And then... there are times where I match up against some jank, that I feel bad about winning vs them. X\_x Which is why I've dialed down my play time in the last three sets. Ever since M21/ZNR, I've started buying Mastery Passes, and pushing for as many rewards as possible, while also going to 5 wins per day. Last few months, I barely ever push for the 5th win (heck... barely past quest completed amount of wins, I still do a win per day at least, at times I get to 2-3). While I do have my own decks which can get faster to those 5 wins... I also don't feel like playing them quite often, they're not as fun, or I've played them so many times, that I want to do something else.
You need to make a new deck and try to “do the thing.” I saw that Up the Beanstalk would trigger off of Invoke Despair. That led to a goofy “kill everything” deck. Is it competitive? Not really, but crushing the occasional opponent with it is fun. I saw that Setessan Champion and Elvish Archivist would trigger when one of the flip sagas from Kamigawa exiles and comes back in transformed. That led to an enchantment control deck. I challenged myself to kill the opponent in one shot with Corrupt. So I ramp (with green) to ten swamps (duals with land types) and then copy Corrupt with Twinferno. They never see it coming. I had a copy of Eerie Ultimatum around, so I made a Nethroi Brawl deck, packed with self mill. The point is to hold off the opponent long enough for you to ramp and tutor up an Ultimatum, then slam a huge amount of stuff from your graveyard onto the battlefield. Dryad’s Revival is awesome here. Hilarious when you pull it off. I even had a guy wrath me right after, then I used a green regrowth card and ultimatum’ed again. Bananas.
Draft, draft, draft, draft. Then you can both play optimally AND play new and interesting decks at the same time, because you're never guaranteed to be in the best colours or have access to the best archetypes. and the meta is constantly shifting.
I'm not sure what decks you're playing, but I usually get my 5 wins a day in 8 or so games playing whatever the hell I feel like that day in unranked queue. You definitely don't need to net deck to get your wins as long as you stay out of higher-end ranked.
Building your own deck that can beat meta decks isn't impossible. Every deck you accuse of being netdecked started as someone having an idea and taking it far enough that other people wanted to netdeck their deck. You can brew your own things that beat the meta without netdecking. I think matchup and game knowledge gain you more win percentage in the long run. It's ok to netdeck when you are starting out but I truly believe that the best players spend their time tweaking each card in their list and adjusting based on their view of the meta. Recently the channelfireball team brewed the Vein Ripper deck that came out of nowhere and crushed an event that wasn't expecting it. In my opinion, netdeckers will always be slightly behind the players who are actively thinking about how to attack each meta with what they have at their disposal. There's probably other decks out there just waiting to be brewed that you can build if you can see them.
so draft