Catch up with the latest info and events on MTG Arena.

In this edition:

  • Modern Horizons 3 Streamer Event June 5
  • Modern Horizons 3 Historic and Brawl Pre-Bans
  • MTG Arena Matchmaking and You
  • Card Styles Button Returns
  • Explorer Best-of-One Play-In This Weekend
  • Currency Update for Players in Japan
  • Event Schedule
  • EvuOPEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    The article says:

    the matchmaking we’re discussing today only applies to the Best-of-One play queues … and does not apply to Ranked play, Best-of-Three play, premier events, or events that have win/loss targets.

    Interesting that they exclude casual Bo3. What exactly does that mean? I could see an argument that deck weighting is less important in a format where you have access to sideboards. But they must still do player-skill-based MMR, right? Casual play would surely be a nightmare without it.

    We know from the Reddit spreadsheets that they have separate weighting for Standard Brawl and Historic Brawl. I’d bet that each format – Standard, Explorer, Alchemy, etc. – has its own set of weights. The reason we only know the weights for Brawl is because only commanders can have negative weights. So no Explorer deck, for example, can ever fail to validate because of a negative total weight.

    • MikeMA
      2·
      6 months ago

      I think they have to be doing some player-skill-based matchmaking in those queues. I think it would just be really un-fun if they didn’t, and I’d bet Arena is optimizing for player hours over anything else. Nothing ends an Arena session like getting dunked on multiple games in a row in a ranked queue lol.

      I’d bet that each format – Standard, Explorer, Alchemy, etc. – has its own set of weights.

      I never thought about that but I’d bet you’re right and I’d hope they’re getting updated a lot more regularly than the Brawl ones.