So it's become very predictable how my games will go. If I start a match with 2 lands in my hand I won't get a land draw. If I start a game with 4 lands in my hand I'll draw nothing but lands.

Fix your matchmaking algorithm.

You have to know it's broken. You HAVE to know that 'working as designed' doesn't mean it work; it means it's doing what it's told to do. Looking at the number of posts here, on the reddit forum, in your own forums from people who are frustrated with the game because you cannot actually get a fair and balanced match. I know what first level support will say to this ticket - I work in software development so I understand how it works. Your level one guys will close out this case because there's a document on your knowledgebase that indicates that matchmaking is fine. Level 1 guy - you gotta do better than that. Players can't find good games, not because Magic stopped being fun, but because it's being decided by the matchmaking algorithm what your opponent will be. You can't just play against a random opponent; the game decides before the game begins who is going to win.
Do better.

It's obvious that some players are being targeted, algorithmically in some fashion, to experience deeply unfair "coin flips" to determine who goes first. The commentary and analytics on this go back 3 years at this point. It's not a bug. It's deliberate.

Regain confidence by a publication about the shuffler in MTGA :
- Is it fully random ? ==> if not, do it
- Are PNJ players used ? ==> if yes, stop it
- Is the matchmaking in ranked game fully random ? ==> if not, do it (only parameter : the rank)

And choose about MTGO/MTGA. It's ridiculous to have two digital products for the same game : quality suffers !

And, last but not least, MTG is MTG, not hearthstone or pokemon or ... ! Never forget it !!!!

PS : I stopped buying your products (around 2000$ a year) because I'm not a patsy !

Is there any way we could sue magic the gathering as a community since we are paying real life currency

This is insane. I create a new deck. I win 2 games with it and then your algorithm figures out the hands that can beat mine and suddenly I go into 4 matches in a row with decks I could NEVER beat. They are perfectly suited to not only oppose my deck but not even give me a chance to win. These are decks I've never seen before in a year and a half of playing Arena. But this happens anytime I create a new deck. Suddenly I'm facing opposing decks that are perfectly suited to beat me, decks I've never faced with any of my previous decks.

I want an option to play an honest to god random match! Not to be matched up against decks your algorithm has identified as being able to beat me.

To be clear, I don't care if I lose. What I care about is it being a fair match. If I walk into any in-person match there isn't a 3rd party reviewing both our decks and then deciding who can play who, which is what Arena does. You pre-determine who is going to win and the worst part is you are completely shady about it. I see from many other posts we all know you're doing it with these algorithms but you don't make new players aware.

The game is unplayable for me at the moment, because I'm trying to play ranked with 'go wide' creature decks and so the matchmaker decides that 90% of my opponents should maindeck 4 Meathook Massacres. There is no way that this is a true representation of the actual meta game, just check any stat tracking website, it's clearly not true. I should see far more mono-white decks than mono-black. Can you at least explain why you think this is a good idea?

I've been keeping track, the number of less the 2% chance floods is like 10%, which is statistically highly improbable. Driving me mad. 10 out of 14 when there are 17 in a 40 card deck? Please. Shuffler is NOT fine.

The matchmaking in standard ranked and in normal play is literally trash!!!
Recently it became very difficult to proceed in career...it looks like the opponents are chosen based on the deck I want to play.
Where is the randomness (aka fairness)?? Please hire some statisticians for task/piece of code which requires statistical way of thinking.

I'd like to add to this:

You guys have NO problem managing deck strength matchmaking in limited play (often favoring same color pairs, it seems - and this is having watched A LOT of MTGA limited play)

Why is it so tough to AT LEAST match the gimme decks against other free decks???

I've changed NOT A SINGLE CARD, and yet I'm matched in "PLAY" mode against actual constructed decks often. It's absolutely ridiculous.

I can easily go look up a list of current meta decks, so I expect you can too. Why not cross-reference these decks and match them against each other in play mode? I could find better matchups playing in bronze ranked play than I can in what should be a casual mode.

And sure, you're always going to have people who are selfish and just want their quick daily wins bringing T1 decks into a casual setting. But you could shut that down in a hurry if you matched them against each other, and clearly there is an existing deck strength matchmaking system in the code.

I've said it over and over but if you don't create a casual arena for Magic fans, you're going to lose out on a LOT of new players and older casual players alike (and, more importantly, clearly, on the MONEY they would be spending).

Plus, it's extremely frustrating. And why, you ask, don't I just make T1 decks and do the same thing? Because I don't want to be that Ahole. And why not play ranked then? I don't always want to play that sort of Magic. Any time, I could take a good deck into bronze ranked play (or silver, or gold, ranked doesn't really get competitive until plat or maybe diamond rank) and win 80+% of games but that's not always FUN.

This is gross. It also seems illegal since if one can win crystals (ie have monetary value), by not disclosing that the algorithms are not random, people are misled about their chances of winning.

I am 100% about this and was about to post my own. I spent over 4 hours today just trying to get daily wins due to bad algorithms and bad luck. I want to feel I can play because I want to; because it is fun. This is NOT fun. Paper is fun. This is torture. It is all win-oriented at the cost of fun. If you play for fun you will lose over and over which makes no progress towards daily allotments. Even when I play meta decks, it isn't fun as algorithms make bad match ups, mirror matches which get boring, etc. At least if the losses counted as half a win or something, it would make it more reasonable to play for fun and not care so much about winning all the time.

I agree- at least admit that it isn't 50:50

js code
https://github.com/bluelovers/ws-mtg/blob/9518363fca3c0be1e3e05258919878f6fbf08453/packages/mtg-deck-shuffle/src/library.ts#L27-L43

idea is

1. do distribute before shuffle
- distribute lands
- distribute cards and insert lands every 4 cards
https://github.com/bluelovers/ws-mtg/blob/9518363fca3c0be1e3e05258919878f6fbf08453/packages/mtg-deck-shuffle/dist/index.cjs.development.js#L93
2. split to 12 chunk and random merge it
https://github.com/bluelovers/ws-mtg/blob/9518363fca3c0be1e3e05258919878f6fbf08453/packages/mtg-deck-shuffle/dist/index.cjs.development.js#L21

----

optional hack

at begin the match
ask player choose he want at latest has 2 land or not?

if all player choose yes
then will make sure player has 2 land in start
if not all player allow this then random chose yes or not

then draw 7 card, if land < 2, random swap a card into library and pick random land out
if handsize is 6 , then only make sure has 1 land

https://github.com/bluelovers/ws-mtg/blob/9518363fca3c0be1e3e05258919878f6fbf08453/packages/mtg-deck-shuffle/dist/index.cjs.development.js#L134

Wotc just didn't care and they keep The "smoothing"on for purpose
The insolence of this company has reach yet new height and they deleted old thread about this issue.
Here is screenshot from the old thread. They started to get afraid that is why the thread was deleted.

If any of you want your money back file a complain with your consumer protection agency, don't wait. They cite the policy and the policy states they can take your money and you have no rights after that.

"WOTC is located in the US State of Washington. You can file a consumer protection complaint online with the Washington State Attorney General’s office at https://fortress.wa.gov/atg/formhandler/ago/ComplaintForm.aspx. Basically complain that due to a defect in their product, you aren’t getting what you paid for, nor are you getting appropriately compensated, and you feel that is a violation of consumer protection laws."

Also consider to give 1-star rating to the MTGA-app on mobile if you feel disappointed to this game.

I got mine back when I brought this issue up and made order issue ticket and I am sure Wotc has to give it to other players also back because the thing they have cooking isn’t technically okay.
https://mtgarena-support.wizards.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

If unsatisfied customers don't have time or don't know how to phrase yourself here is the form I used:

I want full refund of my spent money of the purchase -- invoice: --. I have the full amount of gems to refund on my account and you can just delete the sleeves and avatar off my account.

I made the purchase in belief that I would gain gems to play digital equivalent of the original paper Magic the Gathering. After some gaming I realized that this is not the case and the MTGA is far cry from the paper MTG. MTGA uses Hand Smoothing and opponent deciding algorithms at a level I consider egregious, which derives the game to be completely different than the original paper Magic the Gathering. Smoothing causes some players to build their BO1 decks in a fashion that exploits it.

This has not been made clear to the players who makes the purchases which can be seen as intentionally action. It is never mentioned within the game!

When you are not fixing the problem and not clearly and openly speaking about it, shows clear intent and is borderline fraud. If the refund request is not responded during week -- I am forced to contact this issue to the PayPal buyer protection, and after that to Competition and Consumer Authority if there is no sign of your side of co-operation.

The real question is why are you wasting your time with a game repeatedly that cheats you. Arena is developed to take a **** on you the second to start winning to much. As you already noticed. And yes you will only see certain types of deck depending on what your playing. Its not a fair system. Hasbro is the worst thing to EVER happen to MTG and MTGA. You want things to change stop being a ***** AND TAKE A STAND STOP PLAYING. If the player base dies maybe they will wake up. That's is the only real power you have as a consumer. Take you business else where.

your hand smoothing algorithim changes the math in a deck. It may help new players but it changes the way an experienced players deck works, ptutting them at a disadvantage, which is a direct violation of your terms of service. I have been tracking your shuffler since before hand smoothing, I build a deck in paper and copy it in arena to test your shuffler. Since hand smoothing has been instituted the results are like night to day. The only real option you guys have is give the option to turn off hand smoothing, If a new player starts playing they have it , but for us experienced players who know how to actually build a deck we can turn it off . It won't put us at a disadvantage like being forced to use it does. your terms of service explicitly sys anything that gives an advantage or puts another player at a disadvantage is strictly prohibited and thus it should effect hand smoothing. I hope you do respond and possibly look at the option to turn off hand smoothing seriously as you violating the TOS yourselves would rend them void. I have been playing magic since beta was released and I really would not want to see it tarnished by something so stupid as lack of actual testing of of your programming before installing.

Seriously as i just finished this i played against 2 decks where my opponent had 3 of the same cards in their opening hand and the next game had 3 of the same cards in their opening hand lol.
meanwhile i got 4 lands in a row so the clumping is legit and the program is drunk again and needs to go home

I came up with a brilliant new product for Wizards of the Coast here..
And here me out.
Fix MTG Arena and then release it after all the bugs and ****** algorithm has been fixed.
Then you can have a product that actually works and is fun to play instead of this hot garbage. Id might actually spend money on it

Hi, I'm contacting you because I'd like to highlight a peculiar characteristic of your shuffling algorhythm. It's a bit complicated to go into the details, but long story short: it's unbearably rigged.
I studied calculus, sure it was some time ago, but I still remember the basics and this constant offense to my intelligence is starting to get on my nerves. This is especially irritating if you take into account that Mtg was originally developed by mathematicians who would imediately understand what's happening seeing the current state of the game.
Or maybe I'm wrong and this is all a misunderstanding - in that case the solution is simple: PUBLISH ON YOUR HOME PAGE THE RULES YOU USE FOR YOUR RNG, or at least add them to your Mtg Arena manual, since Mtg Arena can be easily considered its own version of the game at this point. Remember, you still consider this game to be competitive in nature, so it would be in the interest of everyone to provide as much CLEAR INFORMATION on the game mechanics as possible.
I don't think it's necessary to add screenshots to back up what I'm saying yet, but if I will be ignored because of lack of proper evidence I'll gladly start to collect as much as I can - to help you, of course.
Meanwhile, I'd like to share a Youtube link that will help you understand how there's a limit to how much you can fool and disrespect your customer base:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ko3TdPy0TU

Hoping to hear from you soon,
A long-time fan of this beautiful game (actually, not a fan anymore)