Matchmaking utterly broken
You really need to do something about your matchmaking. I don't know if it's ignoring deck win rates, or if it's ignoring deck contents or if it doesn't care that certain decks are in the Top 8 list.
If you keep placing starter decks with a few funky cards against Top 8 control decks people will just leave the game. The only reason I'm still playing is because of the Covid lockdown.
Fix it!
Krysath#79232
shared this idea
34 comments
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iLikeRed#41107
commented
Can't agree more... I just logged 10 mirror matches in a row... using a different deck every 2 games... I am so sick of the match making its crazy. So bored. I made Mythic every season for the last year (except last season with the rotation). But after noticing and getting frustrated over the last couple of weeks, I set this parameter tonight... it happened... so I rage uninstalled the game... and will not be back. So disappointing Wizards.... you've ruined a game I love. I'll now only play in person with mates... the only enjoyable way it seems. Oh, and I also think the shuffler isn't up to scratch at all.. but that's old news. ha.
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Rhoadkill#06903
commented
From 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm I've played on my computer, losing 90% of my matches. I look back at the matches I've lost and think it could have changed if I had only played my cards in the right sequence. Opponents seem to have no problem laying out a steamroller of activated abilities while I struggle to draw another land card. It feels like the game is scripted in a lot of ways, pairings seem to have similar advantages/disadvantages, as every adjustment just leads to another loss.
I don't spend money on the game, I play and earn my packs through the BROKEN reward system.
My disappointment really started after the season ended and they moved half of the cards to Historic. I've been struggling to build a deck since the change over, but I've really enjoyed playing the Red/White Warrior/Equipment deck.
I think it has a lot to do with the time that you play, generally I don't like playing during prime time hours, that's where a lot of the players who've spent money are playing (after a long day of killing puppies I'm sure)
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beatfux#23804
commented
our decks are most of the time matched against few very similar or identical types of decks and we can't do anything about it. there are so many other types of decks / strategies out there that we'll never be able to play against with certain decks, because the matchmaking doesn't allow it. it's not like the matched decks were the only ones that would create a "balanced" match and every other constellation would be unfair, we all know that.
it's more like the game matches you with something that couters your deck and it all comes down to drawing luck. where's the fun in that?
this only leads to more people following the meta and ultimately to most people playing the same decks / strategies.it would be great to have a card filter option before playing a match, where you will not be matched against decks that contain the selected card(s).
vote for it here: https://feedback.wizards.com/forums/918667-mtg-arena-bugs-product-suggestions/suggestions/44071368-card-filter-option-for-unranked-matchmaking
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AceKing151#93420
commented
I decided to test the algorithm, and in 14 hors of playing, and shuffling through 23 decks, I've only won 3 games. It was an insane way to spend my day off, but I wanted to know for sure.
This is unacceptable, who wants to play a game where the only way to win is to by 1000s of dollars to get all the best cards. If your coming here to add to the complaints, feel free to delete the game with the rest of us, because they won't be fixing it, otherwise they probably wouldn't come up even for the "Work" they put in.
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Red-Raven#90584
commented
Cant win a match period lost 50 games in a row really not going to touch this game with a stick! Ill play real paper cards with better sbm and rng. This game has idiots that are strictly money motivated at the helm not any fun factor, strictly cash. support the local game store and dont feed this crap wagon. I just dont see how i can lose 50 games ( with video proof ) and the devs thinks thats fun and ok? Wow! I mean wow! How hard is it to match on card and strength? I lost 50 in a row! With a winning deck! I call it rigged unless proven otherwise! I might retain a lawyer! For wasting time and money on a game thats not fun! I want my hard earned money back from this scam!
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AritzNeo#19910
commented
Matchmaking seems deck based as last 10 days I can only find Tibalt's Trickery decks with my MonoRedAggro deck, which makes it unplayable in Play Queue Bo1. Besides, all other decks seem to be matched with hard counters: Mill decks are placed against 80+ card decks and/or decks that have advantage on being milled, creature decks are placed against full removal decks, and so on. Even with Rogues deck I am being placed against MonoReds that unconcieveably bring Ox of Agonas in Bo1. My conclusion is that the game is purposedly trying to nullify my capacity to play Play Queue Bo1 in order to, perhaps, force me to switch to Bo3 and spend money as more cards would be required.
In fact, matchmaking seems much more like the Fifa Ultimate Team scripts (patent protected by EA in that case) made to troll players into spending. If this is the case then it is logical to assume that the system is programmed to render your decks useless at some given time by hard matchups.
It is a disgrace on the verge of legality. Although the fact that they don't seem to even bother to check these forum boards speaks volumes by itself. A great game like MTG deserves something better.
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AshenOne#28860
commented
Matchmaking is stupid, i ran into 7 monored aggro decks in a row, when i pay a certain slow deck! it seems im only put against counters
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incursio1#84927
commented
nice game of rng to keep you on the brink of spending money. Great gambling simulation WoTC!
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Bondra#99765
commented
with a aggro deck i get matched only against other aggro decks. Ok that's fair but to counter all those aggro decks i thought i'll play with a control deck. But since then i only get matched against yorion decks! 10 times in a row! No one can tell me that's fucking random. And a Control against Yorion control is no fun at all! That's just a 30+ Minute game of time waste.
With my mono white control deck i never face a aggro deck. Never been so angry and frustrated in 20 years of gaming with any game.
FIX MATCHMAKING! JUST MAKE IT MORE RANDOM.
It's not fun to play against the same deck all the time.oh, guess what when i made an anti yorion deck to counter them? Yes i never get matched against it...
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Teenager#22353
commented
I get matched with decks that don't even make sense in the meta or play mode. Like I recently started playing a creature heavy deck from a control deck, and OUT OF NOWHERE I end up matched against Esper/Control decks that are playing MASSIVE amounts of removal. Like so much removal it would make your deck worthless in a normal meta. I played a deck that was ONLY removal and Ugin, not even counters. Literally just 22 removal cards. Why does this exist? WHO is playing such a worthless deck? If I was not playing creatures this deck would be utter trash, but I've been paired against similar decks MULTIPLE times suddenly, when I never saw anything even remotely like that before. Like, the algorithm in this game is SO BAD you can make a deck that is land, removal spells, and Ugin, and win games at diamond rank because it will apparently pair you up with creature heavy decks. Over and over! Over and over I played these decks until I switch back to control and suddenly they drop off the face of the Earth. Christ Wizards. Come on.
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Kalucynation#57830
commented
Pffffff change that fckn algorithm !! Go from 9-1 to 9-10, are you serious ?? Always the same match up ???
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Fraska#35245
commented
I never thought I would say this but this matchmaking algorithm is even more frustrating than the one used by Call of Duty WarZone. I really enjoy Magic but after weeks of a 10% win rate I will absolutely be boycotting this game. The most frustrating part is that everything was going great until I bought $60 worth of packs. Since then I have been getting hammered by the matchmaking algorithm and I am forced to boycott this game until they either add a mode where you can play against the computer like you could in Magic Duels or they fix Matchmaking. Why would I play a game that just makes me angry.
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Rancid Renegade#66566
commented
Do something about matchmaking
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Rancid Renegade#66566
commented
Do something about matchmaking
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Keldan#79342
commented
The reason why this behaviour is killing the game is that, as a result of the frustration many players (no shame, including me) do not concede any more, they (I) just leave open the game until all timeouts goes away, wasting time and annoying other players.
Does this sound new to you? It has become a gameplay strategy: I cannot win against an unfairly stronger competitor so I just waste my time and his, hoping is getting bored and leaves the game/concede.
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Keldan#79342
commented
no actual need to read full comments, the title itself explains: I consider me an average player, with pretty good setup of cards for Standard (not yet for Historic) and I always play almost the same way (I mean I rarely Mulligan, quite often attack and sacrifice creatures, etc..) so what? With the same set of decks (I rotate 6-7 decks) there are days in which I win 7 games in a row and days in which I loose 10 games straight. Is this ever possible? It's always me, with my playstyle and my decks. There is obviously something broken not only in the mathcmaking but also in the (not) shuffling mechanism: Wizards decides who wins (those who spend more $$$, I guess) and who lose. Completely unfair.
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Valor_of_Bunny#38107
commented
I don't think I've ever complained about a game in the 2 decades or so I've played online games, but whatever you've got going on with your algorithm seems almost spiteful of the playerbase. I hadn't played in a year or so, started back again a few months ago and had an incredibly variety of deck types I'd play against. You know. Fun, that thing. Now it seems like 90% of the players play top tier control decks and the other 10% play "this is my first game" decks and it makes it all but pointless to play anything other than 50% MR/50%R control decks. Cuz why try to build the algorithm for fun when you can just force the playerbase to spend money buying the digital cards they need if they even want a chance of winning, right?
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TFX Wretched#04982
commented
Hey WOTC! Maybe listen to the peeps ******** about matchmaking?????? CAUE IT IS A PROBLEM! ffs
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Maxory#61516
commented
I agree that matchmaking is done badly, everyone keeps complaining and the programmers still don't do anything to make the game fun ...
right now if you want to play magic, the algorithms will decide if you will almost certainly lose or almost certainly win, I am seriously considering quitting the game. -
Suazaa#78839
commented
I can't stand their matchmaking algorithm. I can understand it for casual play to protect newer players with weaker decks, but in events there should be no matchmaking at all--if you're deck is bad you'll get steamrolled, or if you build a deck specifically good against the current meta you will destroy everyone. This is how games are played at ACTUAL paper magic events. The person behind the counter at your FNM doesn't say "Oh it looks like you're playing Legacy Charbelcher, let me only match you up against other decks which have 4 copies of force of will, that way it's closer to a 50/50 game". This doesn't happen. If your built your deck around a meta with little/no counterspell then you get rewarded for deckbuilding and playing smart and you get to steamroll everyone, that's how it works. Instead, WOTC is deadset on everyone having a 50% winrate...why? If I win half my games and lose half my games no matter how I change my deck around, it's not fun. I understand why they do this, it's purely business from their perspective--rewards for events are only advantageous to the player when they win more than anywhere between 60%-70% of their matches. So if they build an algorithm where players are designed to win 50% of the time then the players will never build resources and will be forced to spend actual money on the game. They're not doing it to promote positive gameplay or whatever BS the WOTC employee is payed to say, they're doing it to force people to spend money, period.
I'll give an example this past week that really got to me. I had been playing monoblack devotion (not vampires, but phyrexian obliterator with gray merchant) in historic events with pretty good results, but noticed after a few too many wins I started getting matched up against jund sacrifice, zenith flair cycling decks, and dreadhorde arcanist decks, which had much better winrates against me. I adapted to this by maindecking 4 leyline of the voids and what do you know?...all the sudden I wasn't getting matched up against any of those decks at all. I played over 100 matches and played less than 10% of matches against jund and dreadhorde, and NO GAMES WHATSOEVER against zenith flair. The next day I decide to take out the leylines since I thought maybe the meta was moving away from graveyard shenanigans, but what do you know?...the very first match I play against without the leylines is against zenith flair! I just can't stand it, there's literally no point to adapting or building your deck at all. Just throw whatever together and whether your deck sucks or not you win 50% of the time. It's not fun at all.