The latest update came with a lot of neat new features, in particular signposting the phases is far superior to the previous method. They have now implemented the Ranked mode. In the past despite a decent win rate I would hover between bronze Tier 2 and 3. It seems with the new system a win adds 2 rank points to the bracket whilst a loss means you lose 1.

In this new mode I have ranked up to silver already. Not sure if you can lose a whole bracket as before but it seems possibly not. The matchmaking also seems to make a difference now as facing a lot of new and clever decks. Yes in particular RDW does seem to appear every few matches but otherwise some different decks and so a different meta.

With the latest shake up in Pro Tour and plans it appears that Wizards are really leveraging Arena as the future. The card collection and sets for MTGO was always going to be a tough one to master from a development point of view.

The other obvious observation is that whilst in Magic Duels era under “Brainless Stainless” there were numerous game play bugs. There were also cards and mechanics they could not or would not implement (looking at you Dovin Baan). In Arena all the mechanics just work. The only issue I have had recently with the new update is a couple of just random game quits! Just playing mid game and then Arena is not running at all and needs a restart (app not computer).


Anyway the summary is update is superior and rank mode is at least something that can let you see progress. Also it’s potentially working towards some significant notability for future professional ranking.

Nice job wizards! This is still in Open Beta! Will the new year and new set finally see the launch of the finished version and also a confirmation of the platforms and launch dates?

What are other players view on the latest update and rank mode and how this is changing your game and match experience deck wise?

SD

Yep, it seems going up is way faster, nice...I guess

I hear the have an end of season award thing where depending where you rank you will receive awards. The top awards accruing to players that achieve rank mythic! I think the season end is due to coincide with the next set release but they mention 31st January 2019 I think so not sure as that is earlier I think than the next set release. At least it seems this time out there is a better outcome reward rather than just the “bragging rights” in days of Magic Duels where hitting the magic 40 was the goal. SD

It feels weird that if I want to get my daily win I'm better off using a precon so I can face against other precon players rather than using my own constructed deck and getting crushed by custom decks

I started out being cute and playing my Golgari because it's fun and damnit I kept losing. Changed to my mono white and I'm up in Silver before I knew it. I like my Golgari more honestly. Nice I guess we get prizes at the end of the season. I need to draft or do an event or something soon.

That's not the case in ranked. In ranked, you get matched by rank, not deck.

From Gold 4 and on a win nets 1 rank up and a loss 1 down. I'm now in Gold 1 and it just got quite a bit harder, going to see if I can make it to Platinum today. And yes you can lose a rank, I dropped back to Gold 2 two times yesterday when I had a streak of not so good luck. I don't think you can drop a whole tier though (like, from Gold back down to Silver).

Oh and some people already made Mythic, wtf!!

Easy mythic. It's not about if you get to mythic, but when. Every reasonable deck should have 50%+ win rate... and if you have a lot of time to play each day...

it seems the ranks differ somewhat

In bronze, a win gave 2 ticks and a loss seemed to not take any ticks away. 4 ticks in total pr rank, 4 ranks in bronze(like we're used to).
So 8 wins and any amount of losses will get you to silver.

In silver, a win awards 2 ticks and a loss takes away 1 tick. 5 ticks in total pr rank, 4 ranks in silver.

So 20 ticks, meaning you need to win a bit more than 33% of your games.

I just started, so I'm not at gold yet.

In gold, a win awards 1 tick and a loss takes away 1 tick. 6 ticks in total pr rank, 4 ranks in gold.

Unsurprisingly, that means you need to win >50% of your games to rank up. However, I havent been downranked due to losses yet, so technically, you could start out by losing 50 games, and then winning 24 in a row and still get to diamond. Unless I'm mistaken.

Totally relevant

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/ju ... agic-arena

What's the point of playing ranked? Is there a writeup somewhere?

I'm still comfortably bronze in constructed (I think), and very low silver in limited.

You get prizes at the end of the season (About once a month?) It isn't a huge deal because the difference between bronze and mythic is 5 boosters. I think it is worth getting to silver and maybe gold to get 1 or 2 extra boosters without much work. In the future we can expect some sort of cosmetic "bragging rights" type of reward. Also the matchmaking is slightly different so if you want to play Bo1 for free without any Deck-strength based matchmaking, that is a reason to play ranked.

Yeah, rewards seems not that big
Bronze: 1 pack
Silver: 1 pack + 500 gold
Gold: 2 packs + 1000 gold
Platinum: 3 packs + 1000 gold
Diamond: 4 packs + 1000 gold
Mythic: 5 packs + 1000 gold

I today finished 2 BO3 events with 5-x, so already like win 1/3 Mythic rewards +Karn on top. So if you prefer BO3 dont see a big reason to switch.

Yeah don't do it for the pizes. I like a challenge, so that's why I'm playing ranked.

Do you get anything other than gold/gems for mythic? For example when I played Hearthstone, after I reached Legend for the first time, I actually received an invitation to a Hearthstone tournament. I played it, but it was stressful and I bombed out in the first round anyway partly because they wanted 3 decks and I only knew how to play two, one of which wasn't even top tier. Is there anything similar in MTGA?

They have not announced anything along that line yet, as far as I am aware of.

So I have played 75 matches @ Diamond level, at about 50% winrate (which is why I am solid on square 1). The meta is as following: RDW 33%, Esper + fog/nexus control (all together) 16%, Jeskai control 13%, WWr 9%, Grixis 7%, Selesnya tokens 5%, IZ drakes 5%, Golgari 4%, Midrange creatures (all together) 5%, Djin 1%.

Anyone have an idea what to play in such a meta that would reach a decent winrate?

If Drakes is such a small percentage of the meta, you could try a heavily teched-out version of Selesnya tokens. Run Thorn Lieutenant + Shalai, which makes your RDW matchup very solid, and then fill your sideboard with Karn, Vivien, Carnage Tyrant, and Nullhide Ferox. You're busted against Fog, though (you actually see that deck? I almost never see it).

But there is no sideboard right, this is Bo1? Or what did you mean?

I ran into some of those Foggy decks yes, as the % indicates, but its not too many, so it could be ignored and just taken as a loss, which is ok as long as a deck wins vs other decks.

Yay, made it to mythic! That only took about 45 hours of insane grinding, lol. The most important thing I found last few days was adapting to an ever changing meta, which can be fun but also very frustrating... all of a sudden you are on a winstreak, and a bit later you try again and nothing seems to work anymore.

The deck that pushed me the last bit on the ladder is a Selenya tokens deck (a mythic player on reddit recommended it), which I adapted a bit to suit the aggro-heavy meta I met in diamond. It seems very powerful to me and a good match for many of the decks you meet out there. If anyone wants to give it a swing:

3 Emmara, Soul of the Accord (GRN) 168
4 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
3 Trostani Discordant (GRN) 208
4 Flower // Flourish (GRN) 226
4 Saproling Migration (DAR) 178
4 March of the Multitudes (GRN) 188
2 Pride of Conquerors (RIX) 17
3 Settle the Wreckage (XLN) 34
4 Legion's Landing (XLN) 22
4 History of Benalia (DAR) 21
4 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6
8 Plains (XLN) 261
4 Forest (XLN) 277
4 Sunpetal Grove (XLN) 257
4 Temple Garden (GRN) 258
1 Memorial to Glory (DAR) 244

I also used a WW deck to grind the lower diamond ranks, it's this stuff (thanks to a streamer on Twitch called Wincon):

4 Benalish Marshal (DAR) 6
4 History of Benalia (DAR) 21
3 Pride of Conquerors (RIX) 17
4 Skymarcher Aspirant (RIX) 21
4 Snubhorn Sentry (RIX) 23
3 Squire's Devotion (RIX) 25
3 Legion's Landing (XLN) 22
4 Adanto Vanguard (XLN) 1
20 Plains (RIX) 192
4 Rustwing Falcon (M19) 36
4 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
3 Venerated Loxodon (GRN) 30

Good luck to anyone out there still trying to get higher up!