How much money are you spending on MTGPQ?

Ertai Planeswalker

Personally, I feel all the paid content is seriously, seriously, seriously overpriced (given that it's just digital content, the "micro" part of micro transactions seems to be lost here) ), so other than the starter pack when I started, I haven't spend any actual money on this game. I figured not many people would at these prices, but then here on the forums I hear people saying that they have over 100K runes and hoards of crystals, are immediately able to level pw's to lvl 60 etc so obviously not everyone agrees with me (Or I am playing it wrong, in that case enlighten me please).

Therefore I wonder: How much money do you spend on this game?

Pqmtg-

Ertai Planeswalker wrote:

Personally, I feel all the paid content is seriously, seriously, seriously overpriced (given that it's just digital content, the "micro" part of micro transactions seems to be lost here) ), so other than the starter pack when I started, I haven't spend any actual money on this game. I figured not many people would at these prices, but then here on the forums I hear people saying that they have over 100K runes and hoards of crystals, are immediately able to level pw's to lvl 60 etc so obviously not everyone agrees with me (Or I am playing it wrong, in that case enlighten me please).

Therefore I wonder: How much money do you spend on this game?

If you play regularly in qb and events, you can store up crystals and runes. It's just a a matter of grinding.

Take the weekend qb. You have to average 200 wins or so to reliably win it. That's 60k runes and 500 crystals.

Shaidar

I've bought the starter pack as well and I think not more than 30-40 euro on crystals since I wanted to get some mythics in order to get a bit better start. But after opening 3 big boxes and getting like 5-6 rares decided it's totally not worth it and won't spend money on the game anytime soon.

speakupaskanswer

I've said it before, I spend zero dollars on this game and still enjoy it immensely. I have a big, satisfying collection without ever having spent any money.

Edit: I own 577 cards out of 727, including 15 mythics.
I also have 8 planeswalkers, with Sorin the only one not maxed out (but working on it).

zolesz

I play since ~April and haven't spent any money on the game.
I currently have 609 cards out of 727 and 9 planeswalkers maxed out, including Kiora and Sorin.
Platinum level for all 5 colours.
I usually end up in the top 50-150 in the events without grinding too much. For me this is just fine.

MaxMagic420

zolesz wrote:

I play since ~April and haven't spent any money on the game.
I currently have 609 cards out of 727 and 9 planeswalkers maxed out, including Kiora and Sorin.
Platinum level for all 5 colours.
I usually end up in the top 50-150 in the events without grinding too much. For me this is just fine.

And I'll just add that if the prices were a third or less of what they are now, with a vastly improved drop rate, you'd have people like this who haven't ever spent money possibly spending money. If a fat pack was like three bucks, people would be far more inclined to support the game. And it's not as if it costs them anything to produce either. No materials cost, no manufacturing and production costs, no transportation costs, no distribution or marketing cost. If you're selling air in an invisible jar, it really doesn't matter if you charge 2 bucks or ten, you'll make money 100% of the time. They'd be swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck if they'd realize that very simple fact. People don't buy candy bars because they need them, they buy them because they want them, and most importantly because they're cheap. If a snickers cost 15 bucks, people would just eat potato chips instead.

Omega Red

MaxMagic420 wrote:

zolesz wrote:

I play since ~April and haven't spent any money on the game.
I currently have 609 cards out of 727 and 9 planeswalkers maxed out, including Kiora and Sorin.
Platinum level for all 5 colours.
I usually end up in the top 50-150 in the events without grinding too much. For me this is just fine.

And I'll just add that if the prices were a third or less of what they are now, with a vastly improved drop rate, you'd have people like this who haven't ever spent money possibly spending money. If a fat pack was like three bucks, people would be far more inclined to support the game. And it's not as if it costs them anything to produce either. No materials cost, no manufacturing and production costs, no transportation costs, no distribution or marketing cost. If you're selling air in an invisible jar, it really doesn't matter if you charge 2 bucks or ten, you'll make money 100% of the time. They'd be swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck if they'd realize that very simple fact. People don't buy candy bars because they need them, they buy them because they want them, and most importantly because they're cheap. If a snickers cost 15 bucks, people would just eat potato chips instead.

If cards were cheap everyone would have all the mythics and this game would be unplayable. It's not about selling as much as possible, but staying in business for as long as possible as well, you don't want to run out of content to sell after a couple of months.

Also, this game costs money. You have to pay programmers, designers, server and hosting management costs, service desk services, accountancy, marketing, office space and supplies, health care for employees, blah blah blah. The product they sell is digital but the cost is very real.

glggwp

spent a ton... 678 cards, 49 mythics, 128 rares, all uncommon and common except inner strugle

Ertai Planeswalker

MaxMagic420 wrote:

And I'll just add that if the prices were a third or less of what they are now, with a vastly improved drop rate, you'd have people like this who haven't ever spent money possibly spending money. If a fat pack was like three bucks, people would be far more inclined to support the game. And it's not as if it costs them anything to produce either. No materials cost, no manufacturing and production costs, no transportation costs, no distribution or marketing cost. If you're selling air in an invisible jar, it really doesn't matter if you charge 2 bucks or ten, you'll make money 100% of the time. They'd be swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck if they'd realize that very simple fact. People don't buy candy bars because they need them, they buy them because they want them, and most importantly because they're cheap. If a snickers cost 15 bucks, people would just eat potato chips instead.

Quoted for truthery.

I'd be willing to spend €5 - €10 on this game each month. But if i do that with the current prices and drop rates, it will hardly make a difference in my deck's strength. So I don't do it at all. Note that I don't expect to be able to have all the cards, just enough to play a decent game.

shteev

I spend a little. Providing a digital service does take cash, no matter how poorly it's run and how appalling it's customer services are, and I've had a good 9 months play out of this game and would like to support it because more often than not it's a fun experience. Buying Avacyn was more money than I'd spent on this game in total beforehand.

I very much appreciate those (I hope very rich, amd not just gambling addicted!) benefactors who spend thousands and keep the game running for us poorer players!

EDHdad

I've spent $0. IMO, the cash prices are about 10 times as much as I consider reasonable. If I could buy new Planeswalkers or my choice of a Mythic for about $3 to $5 each, then I would consider purchasing them. If I could buy my choice of a Mythic for about $3 or my choice of a rare for about $1 or a complete set of cards for about $40, then I would consider that as well. If I could pay 99 cents a month for the ability to save decks, I'd probably subscribe to that service.

My impression is that the people who set the prices are not interested in people spending $10 here and $10 there. They want whales who will drop a few hundred here and a few hundred there. I'm also under the impression that the people who set those prices are different from the developers who interact with us on this board. I think the developers have done an excellent job in being responsive to the community, game-play wise. But my impression is that their hands are tied with respect to the prices set for objects in this game.

I seriously considered purchasing Jace 2.0, if only so I could throw $15 at the game. But even if I did, he would be at level 0 and I'm still leveling up Nahiri and Sorin, so it would take quite a while to get enough runes to level Jace to a point where I'd actually want to play him. Which reminds me that I would probably spend $3 to $5 for enough runes to level a Planeswalker to level 60.

Netatron

643 cards, all planeswalkers but the new Jace, no money spent. The prices are far too high to justify it when you barely even get anything for spending.

EDHdad

If cards were cheap everyone would have all the mythics and this game would be unplayable. It's not about selling as much as possible, but staying in business for as long as possible as well, you don't want to run out of content to sell after a couple of months

TBH, that isn't even remotely true. I'm Platinum in all 5 colors and a member of a top 10 coalition. I expect the decks I face will be tuned to 100% efficiency with every nasty card in the game. But my decks are designed to beat those decks, or at least they beat those decks when they're piloted by the AI.

Right now, I'm 48-0 in the current Nodes event (which, oddly is enough to get me 14th place in my bracket).

My Ob Nixilis deck has 1 Mythic, 3 uncommons and 1 common.

My Ajani deck has 5 uncommons, 1 common, 3 rares and 1 Mythic.

My Kiora deck has 3 commons, 3 Mythics and 4 rares.

My Saheeli deck has 3 uncommons, 5 rares and 2 Mythics.

My Sarkhan deck has 0 Mythics, 6 uncommons and 4 rares.

The idea that you need to bloat your deck with a bunch of Mythics to win at this game is simply untrue, even at the highest level. You win this game with the fundamentals of card evaluation, deck design, card sequencing, gem matching, and so forth. Not by throwing a bunch of money on a 20-mana mythic that dies to a common.

Alve

@EDHdad
And are those just random mythics? World Breaker?

The problem most new players face is not only that they have too few mythics in general, the mythics they have usually don't work well with the decks they could build. And getting rares is not much easier. As a new player (I started playing in August) I had a lot of luck getting a few key mythics and joining a good coalition which got me a few more, but if I was just a bit less lucky, I'd have no fighting chance in any event. No matter how small my collection was, half of the mythics and rares I was (and still am) getting were dupes, which seems pretty weird and annoys me to no end, since just getting a mythic is such a pain in this game.

Even though I'm fortunate enough to be earning enough money to occasionally afford a Big Box, after getting three rares, including 2 duplicates (and I've been playing since August), I'm not repeating that mistake anytime soon. I usually struggle with spending too much on video games, so I'm almost grateful to the developers for taking such a good care of my wallet

In this game rich get richer pretty fast, but new players need a ton of luck to even compete in the Bronze league. I have some friends who've been playing paper MTG for years and I wanted to get them to play MTG:PQwith me, but as it is, I'd never recommend this game to anyone.

EDHdad

@Alve - the point is that, even with my highly competitive decks, I play more commons and uncommons than Mythics. You don't need Mythics to have a decent deck. Some people have the idea that all you need is to jam a bunch of Mythics in your deck and it's tier one. This simply is not true. In Paper Magic, some of the best cards are common and uncommon, and in this game this is the case as well.

Look at the Saheeli Rai preconstructed deck in the recent Event. That deck was filled with Mythics and rares, and to be honest, it was really sub-optimal. At the time, it wasn't even capable of killing a Runaway Carriage (an uncommon) which had been given flying and vigilance by Gideon I's (a 10-crystal planeswalker) first ability. There wasn't synergy. There was anti-synergy. A 14-mana card that draws you extra cards, when your hand is already clogged with cards which require 3-9 color matches to cast? Mirrorpool, which most of the time got an extra Thopter token? Pia and Kiran Nalaar which sacrifice your own supports any time you're unlucky enough to trigger its ability?

Here are some examples of decent commons and uncommons in this game. Some of them might not make the cut as you get more rares and Mythics. Others will remain in your decks even if you have a plethora of rares and Mythics.

Sure Strike, Turn Against, Fertile Thicket, Transgress the Mind, Reclaim, Not Forgotten, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Natural Connection, Murk Strider, Devour in Flames, Demolish, True-Faith Censer, Seek the Wilds, Ondu Rising, Disperse, Chasm Guide, Act of Treason, Wicker Witch, Grip of Desolation, Enshrouding Mist, Encircling Fissure, Sphinx's Tutelage, Serene Steward, Inner Struggle, Gather the Pack, Reckless Bushwhacker, Heir of Falkenrath, Volcanic Rambler, Smite the Monstrous, Scythe Leopard, Sigiled Starfish, Mad Prophet, Breakneck Rider, Akoum Stonewalker, Tower Geist, Silverstrike, Murasa Ranger, Mantle of Webs, Jhessian Thief, Claustrophobia, Sylvan Messenger, Runaway Carriage, Mage-Ring Bully, Kindly Stranger, Fleshbag Marauder, War Oracle, Rhox Maulers, Reflector Mage, Boggart Brute, Scour from Existence, Ulamog's Despoiler, Plated Crusher, Breaker of Armies.

shteev

EDHdad wrote:

@Alve - the point is that, even with my highly competitive decks, I play more commons and uncommons than Mythics. You don't need Mythics to have a decent deck. Some people have the idea that all you need is to jam a bunch of Mythics in your deck and it's tier one. This simply is not true. In Paper Magic, some of the best cards are common and uncommon, and in this game this is the case as well.

Look at the Saheeli Rai preconstructed deck in the recent Event. That deck was filled with Mythics and rares, and to be honest, it was really sub-optimal. At the time, it wasn't even capable of killing a Runaway Carriage (an uncommon) which had been given flying and vigilance by Gideon I's (a 10-crystal planeswalker) first ability. There wasn't synergy. There was anti-synergy. A 14-mana card that draws you extra cards, when your hand is already clogged with cards which require 3-9 color matches to cast? Mirrorpool, which most of the time got an extra Thopter token? Pia and Kiran Nalaar which sacrifice your own supports any time you're unlucky enough to trigger its ability?

Here are some examples of decent commons and uncommons in this game. Some of them might not make the cut as you get more rares and Mythics. Others will remain in your decks even if you have a plethora of rares and Mythics.

Sure Strike, Turn Against, Fertile Thicket, Transgress the Mind, Reclaim, Not Forgotten, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Natural Connection, Murk Strider, Devour in Flames, Demolish, True-Faith Censer, Seek the Wilds, Ondu Rising, Disperse, Chasm Guide, Act of Treason, Wicker Witch, Grip of Desolation, Enshrouding Mist, Encircling Fissure, Sphinx's Tutelage, Serene Steward, Inner Struggle, Gather the Pack, Reckless Bushwhacker, Heir of Falkenrath, Volcanic Rambler, Smite the Monstrous, Scythe Leopard, Sigiled Starfish, Mad Prophet, Breakneck Rider, Akoum Stonewalker, Tower Geist, Silverstrike, Murasa Ranger, Mantle of Webs, Jhessian Thief, Claustrophobia, Sylvan Messenger, Runaway Carriage, Mage-Ring Bully, Kindly Stranger, Fleshbag Marauder, War Oracle, Rhox Maulers, Reflector Mage, Boggart Brute, Scour from Existence, Ulamog's Despoiler, Plated Crusher, Breaker of Armies.

It is true that there are plenty of commons and uncommons that are great in Platinum Tier decks. Nissa's Pilgrimage and Fertile Thicket, certainly. Rhox Maulers, probably not so much, but as my old friend Pqmtg- likes to remind me, not everyone has my stellar collection of cards and so they have to make do with cards that have appalling abilities like 'Defender' or 'Berserker', at least until they can afford to buy some cards which they know, in all likelyhood, will not have those abilities.

Not all Mythics are created equal, tho. I run 1 Mythic in my Ob deck, but you can't just throw together an Ob deck, play a mythic in it, and expect to beat mine, because it probably won't be Behold the Beyond. I run only 2 Mythics in Saheeli, but they're ones that many would describe as OP. I know for a fact EDHDad that your Kiora features one of the most powerful mythics in the game, because you've beaten me with it many times. Although I can't remember whether off the top of my head whether you combo it with card A or card B, it's been a while since I've played it. Maybe you run both?

So, yes, in general it's a myth that us players with large collections play decks crammed full of mythics. Often we only play one or two. But they're really, really good ones.

khurram

I have not spent any money on the game so far. Been playing since january and have 48 mythics and somewhere around 125-130 rares. Have all the planeswalkers except Jace 2 and all are levelled to max.

I owe a large part of my collection to months of qb grinding and constant placement in top 10. Would i spend money on the game? I probably would and i had every intention of spending money when they offered omnath a couple months ago. But i live in a different country and found out that i had to have a new credit card made in order to make online purchases. Took that as a sign and did not pursue the matter further. But if i spent money it would be on the single card offers only like omnath, kozilek, olivia and avacyn.

The new players who dont want to spend money have fairly decent chance of getting cards from the newest set than the old ones once they join a decent coalition and perform well in the events. And since each set brings a whole bunch of new and more powerful cards this is not a bad thing.

I must add that despite the low drop rates and bugs this game is still fun. Even after all these months of bug riddled play i find myself optimistically looking forward to whats to come rather then thinking of quitting.

Tilikum

khurram wrote:

I must add that despite the low drop rates and bugs this game is still fun. Even after all these months of bug riddled play i find myself optimistically looking forward to whats to come rather then thinking of quitting.

True that. I think the best way to make your money stretch is to get discounted gift cards and buy crystals when they are on sale and right when a new expansion hits. That way you pause to read every common card you get 'cause they are all new to you. The more cards you have, the more of a waste of money each big box is.

Give yourself a budget when each expansion drops and that will usually give you enough of a collection to comfortably farm quick battle (like Pqmtg said) and gather more rares and crystals.

Whenever crystals went on sale, I can't bring myself to buy crystals at full price ever again.

EDHdad

I know for a fact EDHDad that your Kiora features one of the most powerful mythics in the game, because you've beaten me with it many times.

Possibly. But the card is powerful because of the deck it's in, not because it's a Mythic. When Runaway Carriage was terrorizing the format, it wasn't because it was an uncommon. When Mizzium Meddler was unbeatable, it wasn't because it was a rare. When you could kill the most powerful creature in the game simply by casting a Disperse, it wasn't because it was a common.

If you're referring to Drowner of Hope, it's not a card that I play in any other blue deck. It's too slow and situational for Jace, Saheeli Rai or Tezzeret. If the proposed changes to Kiora's 2nd ability had gone through, I wouldn't even play it there.

If players could buy single cards for a reasonable price ($1 for rares, $3 for Mythics), then more people could figure this out for themselves, and maybe have fun either playing that deck, or building a deck which beats that deck. If the only way to get the cards to build the deck is to spend $500 and pray to the random number generator, then probably not.

There's really no reason I can see that a person shouldn't be able to purchase every card from an expansion set for the price of a good board game ($10 to $40). I wouldn't pay hundreds of dollars to play Monopoly, Risk, Clue, Scrabble, Checkers, or Chutes and Ladders on my phone. So I don't see why this game should be much different.

shteev

EDHdad wrote:

I know for a fact EDHDad that your Kiora features one of the most powerful mythics in the game, because you've beaten me with it many times.

Possibly. But the card is powerful because of the deck it's in, not because it's a Mythic. When Runaway Carriage was terrorizing the format, it wasn't because it was an uncommon. When Mizzium Meddler was unbeatable, it wasn't because it was a rare. When you could kill the most powerful creature in the game simply by casting a Disperse, it wasn't because it was a common.

If you're referring to Drowner of Hope, it's not a card that I play in any other blue deck. It's too slow and situational for Jace, Saheeli Rai or Tezzeret. If the proposed changes to Kiora's 2nd ability had gone through, I wouldn't even play it there.

I am referring to Drowner of Hope, yes. I can't speak to whether it's only playable in Kiora because I haven't got one, but certainly Kiora's fabulous mana generating spells abilities help it along. I'd have thought it would still be highly playable in Kiora even if her second ability was nerfed as suggested, since the first Drowner usually pays most of the mana cost of the second one anyway, but that's just me. And, yes, Drowner has amazing synergy with another card in the deck, which, as I say, I can't remember is card A or card B. But card A is a specific rare, and card B is a specific mythic. The chances of anyone actually owning both Drowner AND either card A or card B are pretty low without having a very large card collection to draw upon.

I'm not denigrating your deckbuilding abilities, you spotted that synergy, built that deck, and frankly it blew me away the first time I saw it and made me up my game quite a lot in case I ever had to face it again. But people without those cards in their collections just won't get the chance to build to that level of synergy. I've faced mono-blue Drowner decks supported by a bunch of Eldrazi, and they're not nearly as good.

EDHdad

The topic at hand is the monetization of this game, and whether easier access to specific cards would destroy the metagame. I'm happy to discuss the particulars of a specific deck list elsewhere.

Whenever someone suggests that Magic Puzzle Quest could enable players to purchase specific cards, or that they might charge less insane prices, a different person usually responds in panic that if everyone had access to decent cards, it would lead to disaster.

In my opinion, there is considerable evidence that the opposite is true. In this game, the Platinum players routinely win 95% or more of the games they play in events, even though they are facing tuned decks with the best cards available.

In paper Magic, everyone has access to all of the cards, and tournament-winning deck lists are readily available, for thousands of tournaments going back over 20 years. In paper Magic, the maxim is "play the best deck, or play the deck which beats that deck".

If any deck becomes too dominant in the format, then Wizards of the Coast might ban or restrict a particular card in a particular format. In Puzzle Quest, when a particular card or planeswalker becomes too dominant, they can change the card or planeswalker.

Going back to the examples of my decks, I recently removed a Mythic from all of my blue decks and replaced it with a common. (Engulf the Shore was replaced with Disperse). This was a metagame choice. When Runaway Carriage was dominant in the format, non-targeted removal was much more attractive.

So, at the present time, my Saheeli Rai deck has 1 Mythic and 4 common/uncommon. Even though I have 15 Mythics which could go in that deck.

My Kiora has 2 Mythics and 4 common/uncommon, even though I have 17 Mythics which could go in that deck.

If Mythics were more broadly available, good players would still be good, and a fun game would still be fun. My opinion is that the game would be improved if they were trying to figure out ways to get $10 from a lot of people, rather than $500 from a handful of people.