Recent reviews by Implicit Truth

This game has been good for decades.

The base level of this game is "fun" especially if you enjoy Magic the Gathering. Animations are pretty, all the new cards are always added, and the game mechanics and behavior are just overall very clean. However, the monetization model in this game is incredibly predatory and will sneakily have you making purchases to participate in content that should be part of the game, full-stop.

You start out with access to a number of starter decks, all of which are incredibly under-powered for those used to playing normal over-the-table Magic. That's fine in the beginning and maybe even for a while, especially if you're new to the game. However, to engage with "Magic" proper, i.e formats that fans of the game are used to, you're going to need to open a LOT of packs. There are free ways of attaining these packs, but these are tied behind repetitive one-of daily challenges. For reference, a very straightforward historic deck took me almost 2 months of playing relatively frequently to build. And considering that this is a dynamically growing and maintained card game, it's very possible that you build a deck only for the main cards to get banned or be power-crept.

So instead, they push you to buy starter packs and "low"-priced digital content to supplement your collection. They also push you to take part in limited formats, draft or sealed events where you either draft a deck from packs passed with players or open a number of packs and make a deck out of what you get. This is a good way of attaining cards but is not actually efficient compared to the other boring methods of playing Jump In (a starter deck, sealed-adjacent contained game mode).

It takes about 10 days of completing all dailies on your account before you can save enough to do a draft of the most recent set. This means 20+ hours. Or, you can spend the equivalent of $8.50 or so (USD) per draft and skip ahead on the slog. I, for one, only really enjoy draft. And so after weeks and weeks of doing it the free way, I looked at my wallet, then my screen, then shrugged and decided to buy the starter pack, then the next starter-esque pack, then a $20 and another $20 until I catch myself, now, realizing that they had caught me, gambling away my real money in exchange for the simple right to play a game mode and "earn" digital content, something that is neither owned nor guaranteed to always be available.

I spent $60 pre-tax drafting the most recent set, Bloomburrow. It started out great, I was playing with fellow bad players. However, this is the really cynical part, they artificially inflate your rank if you happen to play a lot of games in the format. You get +2 rank for a win and -1 for a loss until you end up in a relatively high ranking where the players around you are very experienced. And in a triple-elimination format, you need to get 5 wins on average to break even enough to keep playing. However, the reward for a perfect run is FAR less than the punishment for a poor run. For 3 wins (an even record) you get 1,000 points back. For 7 wins, the maximum, you get 2200 points back. It takes 1500 to draft. And if you (like me) frequent the 0 to 1 wins, you'll be getting just about 100 gems back. That's right, 100. It would take 15 x $8.50 = $125, roughly, to earn a single draft if you are, like me, quite bad.

But how is anyone supposed to get better? The only way I've ever known to get better at a video game is to play a lot of it. I play draft-style card games a lot, namely Slay the Spire and Monster Train. These games give you the same level of satisfaction from deck building and game-play (notably without the competitive aspect with other players) all for the cost on the tin when you buy the game. I've spent $60 on drafts in about 3 days. 3. DAYS.

The freemium model of gaming is frankly the bane of this industry, this hobby. There are good, smart people designing and crafting these game experiences, but between us and them is a tangled web of open palms with sweaty wiggling fingers reaching into your pockets as you draw too close. There are no real "free" alternatives. If you really enjoy limited Magic and want to play it, please please please avoid Magic Arena. It is a black hole. It is the island of lotus-eaters. It exists solely to lull you into giving them money that is simply not worth the product on offer.

You've been warned.

Bought the game because it was cheap in my discovery queue and had really great reviews. Meh.