Bluetracker
Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.
Why does Mythguard's arena mode have an entry fee?
I've been playing the game for a few days, and there's much to like. There's tons of depth, and the card-burning mechanic is fantastic. I'm not sure yet whether I find the level of complexity enjoyable, though. Also, the existence of 100 mythics in a 400-card set, when only 1 in 10 boosters contain any and yet they're absurdly powerful, feels pretty predatory. Losing with a feature deck to cards like Armageddon Angel, when these decks don't have enough value to play around sweepers, was not a good feeling. It doesn't help that the thumbs-up button makes you call even such an outcome a "good game" T_T.
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Anyway, I come from an MTGA background, and there you keep cards you draft plus get extra rewards for winning over normal constructed / ranked play, so it's obvious that the mode would cost something.
In contrast, in Mythguard's draft / arena mode, the mode costs a significant entry fee (1800 coins = 1.5 packs!), and yet:
- you don't keep the drafted cards
- there are technically rewards for each win, but no more than you get for normal ranked play
- due to lower card quality and players being less used to the cards, matches seem to take far, *far* longer than in normal ranked play, so the coin EV per time spent is abysmal
As a result:
- even if you win 9 matches, according to the rules description, you're still down 1800-9*120 coins = 720 coins; and if you consider that you could've played PvP ranked instead for the same match win rewards, you're just down 1800 coins
- queue times are long and I frequently get matched back-to-back against the same players
- the 9-match arena takes *forever*
- I don't see any arguments why anyone should ever pay the entry fee
So what gives?_? Even with a free entry, the mode is absurdly less profitable than normal ranked play, so why is there an entry fee in the first place?
I love drafts in card games - they were the only format I played in Hearthstone, I enjoyed them in Eternal for the brief time I played that, and nowadays I play an absolute ton of them in MTGA (averaged over the last year, about two thirds of a draft per day) - but the event structure in Mythguard means I see no incentives to play this mode. Seems like a missed opportunity - though given that the game is still in Early Access, one that can still be rectified.
paxton
The design of the arena mode is to give players who prefer drafting a way to play for free, even if they aren't strong players. The arena entry fee is only there to discourage redrafting, rather than finishing your run. If you complete your arena runs (or wait some extra time) you never have to pay the entry fee. If you do pay the entry fee, it's refunded when you win at least 5 matches. Most draft modes in other games have a gambling aspect where you are essentially earning rewards from the entry fees of the players you defeat. We didn't do it that way, because we want the mode to feel available to all players regardless of skill. Since the rewards are essentially the same as constructed play, you should only play arena if you enjoy draft modes.
The mythic rate is pretty much comparable to MtGA's mythic rare rate, if you correct for set size and the fact that you can only play one of each mythic in your deck, rather than 4. We like the trade off between power and consistency, and think that leads to more interesting and varied games.