They're relatively unlikely in single game terms but not exactly astronomical in Magic terms. They're probably happening to multiple people every second and these times it happened to you. It really only matters if you saw this literally every time. Otherwise variance being what it is, in a run of matches you might see it happen more often than not - and it will obviously be noticeable when it does.

The first screenshot for example, having three of a card in hand by T3, should happen nearly every 1/100 games (.90% on the play or 1.27% on the draw). If you play on average 2.5 games per match you might expect to see it happen more often than 1/40 matches. And then there's mulligans on top of that meaning you're seeing even more hands. How many games do you play a day? It's going to happen pretty often, certainly within recent memory. Also Magic players tend to have a better ability to remember these things than others because the game itself trains us to recall these sort of things!

I don't think rand() being called in quick succession matters because you're generating a value from probably the floating memory and it changes far too fast. As in clock speed and not the ms it takes for the shuffle process to loop around and generate the next value. Try this yourself, put rand() in an empty loop that simply records the seed that you're using each time. Also 101 of using rand() is to feed the random number back in (re-seeding), to avoid any potential problems. Most libraries do this by default. I would guess it's probably impossible to generate the same seed in a loop unless you're running at the hardware level, and even then, maybe not, given how fast memory is and how active the OS might be. Not to mention when you remove a card the index of its neighbour (and every subsequent card) changes. The shuffle is agnostic to what the cards represent.

Really it's just more noticeable and memorable when these kind of patterns happen, so even though you're also playing dozens or hundreds or matches after making changes to a deck where those cards don't appear or not in multiples, you don't remember those ones.

You can test this yourself simply by swapping cards out and note if you see them in the very first game. You'll have to gather quite a lot of data to check how often it really occurs (impossible amount for a single user, really), but you should at least be able to disprove that it's happening 'too much'.

Hi,

The reason I'm reporting this is because I've seen this happening enough times.

Whenever I modify or create a new deck, including new cards. Those new cards often show up on my first hand (without Mulligan).

As you can see here in the screenshot there are multiple pairs of repeated cards that came on my first hand.

This happened to me certainly multiple times.

I'm a developer and I suspect that the shuffler algorithm is based on a random library that is probably problematic (ie. if rand() is called multiple times in a short period of time it might return almost the same index entry as almost all random libraries are time-based).

From a statistics perspective the chance to have such replicable problem is very very low.

Please double check your code and please improve it.

I am suffering a disproportionate amount of non land draw. I am playing explorer with 24 lands in a standard 60 card deck. 7 out of 10 games i get 2 lands with no land draw until turn 3 or 4. there has to be something wrong mathematically or functionally in code for this to mathematically occur. Please review. It is not normal.

Why is it every time I get to platinum my deck totally stops coming up?
I’ve been playing magic for 25 years and know what I’m doing. Suddenly my deck goes from having a good mix of mana and spells to completely useless draws of all mana or spells of a different colour to the mana I draw.
Appreciate a tough game but you are making the game feel like a scam.

"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)??"

Optimal deck design in most cases will find two or three lands in your starting hand, with two being much more likely. Having 33% mana is too high unless you're running a lands matter deck and you will indeed make flooding out far more likely.

Remember that '***** beats flood', it's far better to have too few lands than too many, because when you hit a land or two you'll have a hand full of spells to cast, versus relying on topdecks to cast maybe a single spell.

In 2+ colour deck if your opening hand is for example 2 lands of 2+ colours, that is a perfectly keepable hand. You're about 50% likely to hit 4 lands on T4 (less on the play, more on the draw).

Please fix the shuffling algorithm. These type of games SHOULD NOT HAPPEN if a deck is shuffled amply. Its only 40 cards which makes the improbability even MORE unlikely.

Please fix it. This shouldnt happen to a properlu shuffled deck of 40 cards.

just curious as to how you justify a shuffler that gives completely impossible odds especially when it's supposed to be preventing mana screwing. Last 6 games I have been mana screwed and with my current deck the odds of that happening are approximately 5874 to 1, 6 games in a row it becomes approximately 2, 746,531, 668. My deck is 74 cards with about 85% geared to getting mana . So if you are not intentionally modifying the out comes of games maybe you should be eliminating the hand smoothing algorithm as it may give more lands in opening hand but becomes self defeating when you get flooded or screwed more often during the game. The only decks that benefit from this out come are mono aggro decks as they can usually function off the 2-3 lands at start while all other deck formats suffer. So in summary hand smoothing just doesn't work as intended and actually gives a deck archtype a huge and unfair advantage. What I want to know is what are you going to do to fix this situation as it really is not a good reflection of your company. If you guys want I have collected enough data I can prove just how broken hand smoothing is and why it needs to be removed from ranked play at least.

I know you will never remove it as your shuffler/game "balancing" system is perfectly designed to frustrate and reward just enough to keep people playing indefinitely. Psychology is king and after powering through and putting lots of money into the game, like many others I am ready to jump ship or play way less without ever investing a dime again.

Win-loss ratio is beyond perfect to keep people hooked and hopeful. It doesn't matter what decks I play or even how well or bad Iplay, win/loss balance will remain solidly in place. just enough progress to keep me going. Punish me a bit and when the algorithm believes I am ready to quit, give me some wins to keep me going.
Rinse repeat. I feel conned and cheated by a game I have loved for so many years I even owned a store and participated in all the events. So sorry this is so unreal and disappointing. It is worse than the casinos.

Table top player of 20 years and have never seen anything out of all my games as ridiculous as this clearly rigged system. I have won many tournaments and lost some as well. I do not mind losing games to skilled players and well built decks but im not staying around for the clear patterns of screwing us over to purposely loose due to this rigged system...The sad part is they do not even care that they are losing loyal customers who have supported them for years

So true. I go first 2 or 3 times out of 10 games. In contrast, I regularly had the situation to go second for over 15 games in a row. However, I never could go first for 15 games; max 2 or 3 times I went first, then a loooooong time second again. It’s definitely not a 50:50 chance.
It’s also very strange that your opponent always has the perfect answer for every single card you play (non-ranked, random, and ranked). If you make them discard, they have “draw x, scry y”. If you kill their creature they have 1 mana open and play “hexproof” or “return to battlefield”. If you play a 5 mana card, they have a 1 mana counter but never played or discarded a counter before. If you kill their planeswalker, they have a second version in hand. If you kill that one too, a third one pops up…
Overall, 90% I lose. That’s 100% not relatable to the real card game.
I think if you pay for packs, avatars, diamonds, I am sure you will go first most of the time. Moreover, you always get the right cards to f**** up your opponent. If you play “for free”, just watch and be amazed how obvious it is that this game is completely faked (and pay-2-win). I did not spend a single cent, and I never will. Makers of MTGA have to understand that I was willing to pay money for a game that's fair. But in this setting I am not willing to pay money for a game that does not account for skill or a deck setup, but only money invested.

That's also ALL I'm playing right now. I'm ******* losing my sanity, no matter what deck I pick - bang, counter. I picked a deck with ******* MIND FLAYER and first thing I play is deck with Mind Flayers.
FFS Wizards, have you ever played a card game in your life? Including, I don't know, YOUR OWN? Mirror matches are probably the most stupid, braindead things in card games and your ******* algorithm actually tries to find mirror matches. WTF is wrong with you people?

Complete bullshite

Everyone is sick of the bs Wizards. Why can't you make this a fair game? Please drop the shuffle smoothing algorithm. We want a fair and random shuffle.

Im done I've waited too long for thing to be fixed im tired of the shuffler being broken despite countless attempts on many people pleaing to deaf ears. If you like a game where the devs don't listen this is the number one game for you. Had high hopes for the game

Same exact deck, same exact problem. You'd think there wasn't any red mana in this deck

More often than be coincidence in a multicolored deck I will receive Land of one color and playable cards of every other color. This has become especially problematic with your new multicolored deck emphasis in the latest expansion.

Most recently, in 4 turns I only drew white or green mana, or specifically red cards to play, when all of my starting land was also green or white.

Make it actually random or fix your algorithm, this is just ridiculous.

Come on wizards! Do not be lazy and spend some money to fix your shitty shuffler algorithm.

Oh dang thats wild

I would like to have the same cheat codes that my opponent has for Limited.

They get their 3 colours flawlessly (playing basics) and I'm stuck playing mono red, despite that being my less dominate land (a 8 -- 9 split) which doesnt include the 2 spells that would have made it possible to play my nonred spells that were rotting in my hand.

I get this bloody variance is supposed to be a thing but its time to pick Limited by its bootstraps and vastly improve any kind of ***** situations. I dont expect to be clinging onto turn 7 with 5 mountains in play and a bunch of nonred spells in hand with thoughts of ‘wouldnt it be nice if any of my 11 sources of not red would show up’.

Like once upon a time, bears were playable but that isnt an option anymore. You saw how fast and furious Limited Midnight Hunt was. Miss a beat and you are dead upon arrival.

Maybe its time for WotC to consult some outsiders for how Limited should be. You have the digital client that you can run adjacent Limited with and people can actually play games than sitting on 2 lands while your opponent pops off and smashing their 3 bombs turn 4, 5 and 6 (while you have your 2 lands from your opening hand)