Magic: The Gathering’s new alchemy format includes rebalancing the standard online-only cards. Is it a bad thing to embrace digital games like Hearthstone?
With the metadata changes in Hearthstone and more trading card games than ever before, Magic: The Gathering is always seeking to stand out from the competition. With an online client called Arena, Magic has been trying to enter the modern digital space for about three years. Compared with its old client Magic Online, Arena has updated graphics, voice and free modes to reflect contemporary games like Hearthstone. The client is a great way to learn the game, but it is not universally loved due to the lack of a competitive format and sometimes simplified user interface.
Just two weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast announced Alchemy, a new format that embraces the nature of digital platforms by adding new online-only cards and mechanisms. The purpose is to promote certain non-competitive prototypes by releasing special cards, thereby rebalancing and adjusting the Magic Standard System deck construction. It will also weaken the problematic cards already occupying the metagame and rebalance them to allow players to try different archetypes.
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Many Magic fans may have compared these cards to Hearthstone—their random effects, deck restrictions, and rebalancing. However, there is still a lot to learn from the successes and failures of Hearthstone, although in terms of gameplay, Magic: The Gathering is different in mechanics. If Wizards of the Coast wants to make Arena more coordinated with other competitors such as Runeterra Legends and Pokémon Trading Card Game Online client, then it needs to do more than just adopt Hearthstone’s mechanics and port them to Magic.
Hearthstone's latest standard series, Shattered Alterac Valley, has fundamentally changed the version, but its wild format is still dominated by pirate warriors. This is a set of cards that established a board presence with cheap pirates in the early days and dominates the victory. This is a non-interactive threat that can produce card and board advantages. However, the advantage of this deck is actually because it rebalances the one-round kill that was the dominant standard before.
Similarly, since the release of Kaldheim, the Magic Gathering has made Hollande’s epiphany and Isiska’s chariot vaguely visible in the standard meta game. Magic's standard format is usually good at not designing one-hit kills or oppressive combos, but it does often have the problem of a single card generating too many advantages. The new digital alchemy format in Magic Arena allows Wizards of the Coast to rebalance these problem cards and change the standard meta to make more decks more competitive and interactive.
Since Magic’s rarity is more directly related to power levels than other games, Arena decided not to use a “dust removal” system similar to its competitors, but to adopt a “wildcard” method with duplicate protection, allowing players to get what they want Cards, but once they make them, they don’t allow flexibility. Compared with other card games, the source of mana in Magic is difficult to grasp, and in the most competitive decks, rare lands like the Reprint Lands of the Rise of Zendikar are often needed. If a card is rebalanced from the metadata, it cannot be refunded unless the card is also banned.
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This also means that if cards like Luminarch Aspirant are rebalanced, or Alchemy cards take over the version, many deck owners will have to worry about their entire deck becoming uncompetitive and unable to make another. This system is also a problem in Hearthstone, but it's not only that magic players are not accustomed to it, Hearthstone's dust removal system allows players to get rebates, if it is still small. Due to the slow progress of free players, the building of Magic in the arena has been difficult to build, and adding more cards to collect like Magic's Strixhaven did to Historic's "Mystery Profile" card may weaken the experience.
Magic: The Gathering is a paper-centric game that has long enjoyed a reputation and professionalism, but there are restrictions on what players can remember and what the rules allow the cards to do. One of Hearthstone’s strengths is its permanent damage, deck restrictions, and even its random elements. Cards that provide permanent spell damage, such as Yogg-Saron, End of Hope, and Nozdormu spells, can bring interesting and fascinating rounds to end the game, but give the role of the game.
Magic: Gathering can finally design and utilize randomness with cards such as Ishkanah, Broodmother and Ominous Traveler. Innistrad’s alchemy set has cyclic cards that can "permanently" change spells, as well as cards with spell books, allowing players to obtain powerful cards without making them. Just like Magic's Jumpstart: Historic Horizons set, cards that seek lands and spells can increase opportunities to make focused artifacts, enchantments, and tribal decks better. Finally, adding these cards to the standard can make the matching more interesting after the format is resolved.
Hearthstone's mana system is linear and symmetric, while Magic is not. For decades, the land system has been one of Magic's defining characteristics, but it is also one of the most prone to randomness. Therefore, Magic players and even the design of the game adapt to the inconsistency of drawing the land by looking for effective spells without random elements. Magic players are used to building their decks around the threat of effective mana. Regardless of the card advantages provided by the spellbook, many underpowered cards cannot handle the current standard decks.
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Most importantly, Magic allows more interaction with counter-spells, instants, and flashing creatures (such as Hullbreacher, which is banned in Magic's commander format) during the opponent's turn. Cards like Geistchanneler and mechanisms like Seek may over-correct for randomness-by making spells always cost less or always grab key cards, powerful interactions and combinations that have never been tested before may be more frequent To appear. Shatterskull Smashing, Divide by Zero, and Alrund's Epiphany all permanently become super efficient and powerful spells through Geistchanneler's abilities, allowing players to fight opponents' spells while still keeping their mana unused to advance their game plans.
In the final analysis, alchemy is a form of increasing options for players who wish to gain more from the arena experience, but it may take some time to solve all problems. What Magic draws from Hearthstone is its willingness to try and adjust the card mechanics-this idea sounds good in theory, but it may have some unintended consequences. Although these updates are designed to make Magic Arena and its Android client easier to access and enjoy, more formats may mean that new players may be overwhelmed and feel that the game is too complicated for them.
As Magic Arena implements and develops more features that cannot be replicated on paper, privileged players may begin to see it as a different game, hoping to go beyond face-to-face games. With the similarities between this expansion pack and Hearthstone, it is easy to draw this conclusion, but it is difficult to say now, because Alchemy and Historical Vision are the only two series that actually include online card design. Although these cards do make Magic less focused on providing a one-to-one experience for card tournaments, it still provides another way to play Magic and provides rounds for players who want a way to practice. Draw and standard game-human event. Looking ahead to the release of the Magic series in 2022, the best thing to do is to continue to support these two experiences-alchemy cards are an additional option that provides gameplay for players who are tired of the standard mode.
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Joshua Cole is a game writer for Screen Rant and recently graduated from Emerson College with a bachelor's degree in film and television writing. He used the ability of storytelling and analysis, and applied it to the story-rich game. He lives in San Diego, California, and when he is not writing, he may be looking for another creative way out in the form of playing Magic or a roller coaster.