Middling Magic vs. The Meta Deck

May 14, 2020

maleficent – adjective : causing harm or destruction, especially by supernatural means

Having covered Arena’s shoddy matchmaking in a previous column, I’m going to turn to the second reason for my recent disappointment with casual play on Arena:

• Meta decks in the unranked “Play” queue

If Arena’s matchmaking was better, I wouldn’t be grumpy about this. But it’s not, so I am.

The obvious question I have – that a number of people have, based on the occasional but regular posts about it on the Arena subreddit – is simply: why?

Why bring a tier 1 (or near-tier-1) deck into the unranked “Play” queue – the queue that is sometimes referred to as the casual queue? The queue that, one assumes, the Arena developers created for players disinclined to play super-competitive matches or “climb the ladder”?

Let me take a moment to explain what I mean by “meta deck.” There are likely better “official” definitions so I will preface this by saying this is my own view – quibble as necessary.

Meta decks are those that consist wholly, or largely, of powerful and popular strategies, and are built to be competitive against other popular/powerful decks. Individual builds will obviously vary, so decks that employ similar strategies are generally grouped together. The popularity and power level of an archetype or general strategy will result in decks filling various tiers. At any given time there may be 4-6 “tier 1” decks – those that win consistently at the highest levels of competitive play. Less popular or successful deck types will slot into lower tiers, often described as 1.5, 2, or even 3 (anything under 2 is unlikely to see much representation or sustained success in competitive play.)

When I see a deck using the cat/oven synergy of Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven, I will consider that a “meta” deck, as those two cards form the backbone of a variety of different decks that use sacrificing their own permanents as a means of winning the game. I’ve played against decks that use the Familiar without the Oven, and decks that run Oven without the Familiar, and I wouldn’t consider such decks meta decks based purely on the presence of one card or the other. It’s the combination of the two that matters. How a player builds around those two cards can vary significantly, and the resulting power level will therefore vary as well, but it’s very rare to see a cat/oven deck that doesn’t run some combination of a specific subset of cards: Mayhem Devil, Priest of Forgotten Gods, Nightmare Shepherd, Lurrus of the Dream-Den, etc.

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Can a player build a non-meta cat/oven deck? I suppose, though I don’t know that I’ve personally played against such a deck. Every time I see cat/oven, I can reliably predict a large portion of the rest of the deck, based on the colors being played.

Similarly, Fires of Invention decks are currently taking a variety of forms, but they all employ the same basic strategy: play a turn-4 Fires whenever possible, and then start dropping large threats that cannot be easily answered. I’ve seen at least half a dozen substantially different Fires builds in the “Play” queue, and all of them were meta decks in my eyes. Undoubtedly their power levels were not equal – some would assuredly not have been considered tier 1 builds – but all were capable of explosive play that most casual decks couldn’t hope to match or answer.

A final example I’ll quickly mention: Yorion, Sky Nomad decks. There are highly competitive versions of these that are decidedly tier 1, but I’ve also faced a version in the “Play” queue that resembled an 80-card pile of draft chaff with no discernible synergy with Yorion itself. I don’t consider any deck with a Companion, or running a single good card, a meta deck.

With that established, let’s return to the original query:

• Why run a meta deck in the Arena unranked “Play” queue?

Answers I have seen people give to this very question:

1. They’re trying out a new deck
2. They’re testing changes to an existing meta deck
3. They’re practicing with a meta deck before taking it to the ladder
4. They’re running a subpar version of the meta deck
5. There’s no rule that says you shouldn’t
6. Playing in the ranked queue is stressful (or anxiety-inducing, or unfun, or uninteresting)
7. Winning is how they have the most fun
8. They’re trying to meet their daily quests as quickly as possible

The first few are the most common replies, though it should be noted that people who actually engage in the meta-decking behavior don’t tend to answer the question. The replies are almost universally from people who appear to be speaking for others and are likely postulating.

Number 8 is also a relatively common refrain – though again, few people admit to doing it themselves. But I have seen a few people own up to playing tier 1 decks in the unranked queue in order to rack up quick wins. All of this is – let’s be honest here – quite sad. Sad that Arena encourages it by doling out most rewards based on daily wins. Sad that the rewards – which diminish rapidly after the first 5 games – are reason enough for people to engage in the behavior. Sad that people just trying to have fun and fair battles are so frequently subjected to such mismatches.

The most common advice to players looking to play “for fun” who get matched up against a meta deck? Insta-concede and try your matchmaking luck again. You aren’t “out anything” by doing so, people often claim.

Personally, I frequently wait 45-60 seconds to get matched to an opponent, who sometimes then take another 30-60 seconds to decide whether to mulligan or not (or they simply queue up for a game and watch Netflix until they realize they missed being matched.) And after all that, it can take anywhere from a 1-drop to 4-5 turns before it becomes apparent the opponent is packing a meta deck. All told I may have spent 2-4 minutes just establishing that the game of Magic my opponent wants is not the Magic game I’m seeking.

Now imagine that scenario 3-4 games in a row. That’s not an inconsequential amount of time to spend looking for a “fair” game of Magic.

While I could possibly understand reason #6 – ladder anxiety or simply a lack of desire to “grind the ladder” – I haven’t actually seen anyone claim this as why they, personally, play their meta decks in unranked queue. It’s just another supposition made by those either attempting to understand the practice, or who do it themselves but won’t admit to it and frame their answer as someone else’s behavior.

If someone is afraid or anxious about playing for the very limited stakes involved in ladder play, I’d love to see a thoughtful explanation of their resultant choice to take a deck meant for competitive play into a room with no rewards beyond daily quest progress.

Honestly – I would guess that reasons 7 and 8 account for 95% of the behavior I’m examining here. And I have even seen a couple people admit to using the unranked queue to pile up daily win rewards as quickly as possible. A tier 1 deck is going to find little resistance, and some number of instant or fast concessions, in the “Play” queue.

(Not that that would explain people playing disturbingly slow yet powerful control decks in “Play” – I think that’s a case of someone who just enjoys bullying weaker opponents.)

I did even see someone respond to the “why meta deck in the unranked queue” question with this blunt (and perhaps not entirely genuine) answer: “I like to beat up on new players.” Though I would obviously not condone the behavior, I actually hope that person’s answer was truthful. At least that would be a tiny glimmer of courage from someone otherwise engaging in cowardly behavior.

I think a substantial amount of the pubstomping is intentional, and some not-insubstantial amount of it is malevolent. I’ll grant that some people just want to win (winning is fun!), and they simply lack the empathy to consider the faceless opponent they’re crushing. It’s easy to forget that you are, in fact, playing another human and not an AI opponent.

Others, though, are almost assuredly laughing as they steamroll someone running a Welcome deck or a bunch of draft chaff they cobbled together. I used to harbor a faint hope that meta-deck players who win via frequent fast concessions would feel a little guilt or shame and modify their behavior. Now I believe that simply doesn’t happen. Very few people who are pubstomping admit to doing it, and those that do tend to hide behind one of the first 5 responses listed above.

Outside of direct matches with friends (which, unfortunately, don’t reward progress towards daily rewards), there’s little a casual player can do but concede to meta decks and try their luck again. That it comes to that is both unfortunate and frustrating.

If Arena’s matchmaking was worthy, such match-ups wouldn’t happen in the first place. And, perhaps, meta-decking players matching up with their doppelganger in the “Play” queue might tire of such failed attempts to pubstomp and just play ranked (or explore less clearly competitive decks.)

And if Arena’s reward system wasn’t largely based around daily wins, competitive players might stick to playing the ladder. Or they might just try piloting less powerful decks.

Winning is, of course, fun, and some number of players will always elevate that goal above all else. And there will always be players intentionally and happily willing to ruin someone else’s fun in the name of their own. I honestly think Arena could address some amount of this, if they felt it a worthwhile effort. Thus far, it appears they don’t.

I’ll wrap up my initial look at Middle Class Magic on Arena by taking a closer look at pubstompers (and other player types.)