this is very frustrating friend. I was going to make a post with this same subject and I decided to research it before and I realized that they don't respond to any post with this subject. Unfortunately I'm thinking about abandoning the game because it's no longer fun, when I get to the diamond league the flood doesn't allow me to progress and I'm going through a lot of anger.

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)

Genuinely why am I getting mana starved even when I follow the 60 card guidelines, have taken to solely using one color bc I thought the problem was multicolored decks, especially in Brawl? Wtaf? Y’all suck at programming.

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to report a bug concerning Magic Arena Online game matchup stage. I understand that player turn priority is determined randomly, but in the scores if not hundreds of standard games I have played it is the opponent that always goes first. I understand the idea of large numbers theory and the concept of variance but I can assure you with utmost certainty that in all attempts it is ALWAYS the opponent that goes first. Please assist me in solving this problem. I attach for your convenience the log capture. Thank you in advance, Gilead B.

For newer players with decks that use a minimal amount of mythics to be paired with players with egregious amount of mythics is a massive turn-off for the play queue. If I'm not mistaken that queue is supposed to be about casual fun so a matchmaking system that creates such imbalanced pairings really defeat the purpose.

I have many 1st tier decks but sometimes I want to create something janky to experiment with. To be paired with players who approach every queue as if it's a competitive ladder is a massive disservice to paying non-competitive players.

It's not just there, if you.play any kind of tourney you will either go against a deck perfectly made to counter your deck, you will either get mana flooded or no lands at all, and your not even playing other players your playing against a bot with access to every card in the game and it just "pulls" whatever it needs to beat you everytime. It's a joke, I have a turn 2 deck, real life, 84% win rate, in tournaments, 0% win rate after playing 25 times in a row, that's a ****** rigged price of **** and I'm getting my lawyer to draw a class action lawsuit for false claims of PVP fairness in these paid tournaments. You can't tell your customers to pay for access to a pop tourney then put them up against a rigged bot that can't loose. It's literally fraud.

9/28 UPDATE: Seriously, this is ridiculous - routinely getting zero mana after the initial hand for 4+ turns when opponent has gotten all the mana they could ask for… with a 33% ratio, statistically 1 in 3 draws should be mana. FIX THIS.

———————
WHY are initial hands routinely short on mana (2 mana or less about 75% of the time - usually requiring at least 2 mulligans to get a reasonable starting mix)??

AND WHY, again nearly 75% of the time, do games progress with either little to no mana drawn after turn 1 OR conversely little to no creatures - such that you end up with just mana draws or just non-mana draws in game??

This is with decks that are generally constructed to be 66%/33% - non-mana/mana ratio…

Routinely getting these sorts of draws repeatedly doesn’t make any sense - and it’s also not very fun when it seems to be happening game after game.

You should consider reevaluating your shuffle and draw algorithms, as they don’t seem entirely random nor at least logical.

Just got matched with 5 different players in a row, all playing the Tibalt's Trickery glass cannon deck. This is getting ridiculous, fix your algorithm or the meta, or both, somehow. I'm sick of seeing glass cannon and mill decks every **** time I try to play this game.

The title says it all. Your ideas of match pairings suck. Let people "rung what ya brung". I'm so sick of being paired up against the same deck over and over and over again. Let me enjoy the digital cards I paid for without the nanny'ing of your matchmaking system. FFS.

I played matches all morning and ran some test decks in regular play. Not one of my decks contained mythics because frankly I don't have the wild craft to craft them. I was matched against players that would have multiple mythics and mythic planeswalkers. Once again none of my decks contained a planeswalker.
I am not sure what the deck power matchmaking algorithm is but is is not working for players to complete on a balanced playing field.
You must create a meta deck to actually have some wins in normal play atm. This was not the case a few months back but now it is ridiculous.
Also I have even tried out the starter decks that were given out a few weeks ago and I am placed against meta decks and I made 0 edits.
Please fix you matchmaking!

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

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

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

Hello,

I have been told that in best of one queues if there are not enough players online then Arena will most likely just pair you with the person you just played. (I am talking Premier Drafts)

I was wondering if you could change this algorithm as I feel it’s unfair for these reasons:

1. Let’s say the opponent you just played destroyed your deck. I don’t want to play that deck again. This is the reason I play best of one over best of three, the variety.

This next reason is imho the strongest

2. This feels like I am playing best of three, playing the same opponent 2 times in a row. However with one huge difference, I don’t have the opportunity to sideboard. Yes the same can be said for the opponent but if my deck doesn’t match up great or there are some cards I could sideboard in/out to increase my chances I am going to do it. However with this process it’s like I’m playing the same opponent without the opportunity to sideboard against them.

3. I just played the same opponent two times in a row with a wait time for the second pairing of only a few seconds. At least make it wait 1 minute or so before you pair me with that same person. I don’t mind waiting.

4. Give us players on the Arena interface of the number of players that are currently active and playing limited best of one queues so we have the option of whether or not to join a queue to play.

Please let me know your thoughts

How tf do I mulligan 3 times, down to 4 cards and every time there isnt a single land. I'm running a standard deck 24 lands. Yet your algorithm sucks azz. Like wtf, this **** really starting to **** me off and not want to play

You guys need transparency with your shuffler and how the coin toss and deck matchups are chosen. You are losing customers who don't understand the algorithms you use and your "independent studies" of the matter are far from independent and so unrepresentative they are a joke. Furthermore, every day on your support discord and forums you have people complaining about it and sucking up valuable time and resources, as well as doing damage to the brand. Release the code for the shuffler, let people look at it, if you truly have nothing to hide. Until then I am going to continue to assume that you bias it in favor of new players who have yet to purchase cards. I bought the cards for several meta decks and climbed to Mythic with a 72% winrate over the course of a week two months in a row. Since then I am on the draw more often than not with a bad hand, a bad matchup, or a land drought/glut and struggle to maintain a winrate above 50%. The same is true for how matchups are chosen. If I face three monowhite lifegain in a row as a monored player, I shouldn't immediately face three decks with zero creatures as a Rakdos sacrifice player which is designed to deal with them. As it stands now I will never spend another dime on your product until I start getting fairer matchups. But you already got my money, so why do you care?

I believe that deck shuffling should not be left to an algorithm. It seems all too often that as you play a deck more and more the mana gets separated from the spell cards. I think if you could create a "shuffle interface" that allows the player to "shuffle their own cards, at least the blame of a poorly shuffled deck wouldn't be blamed on the game. Ask me and I'll share my idea with you! Thanks. -WARLORD

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.

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!

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.