Oh how the times have changed.

Mburn7

I played a few rounds of Rising Tensions and Training Grounds today, plus most of Ravnica at War:  Red this weekend, and a thought struck me out of nowhere:  This is not the same game I used to play.  (sorry, long post incoming)

When I started playing MTGPQ (fun sidenote:  I discovered the game existed in an **** app banner add) so many years ago this is what there was to work with:
5 Origins Walkers, costing 10 crystals each
Ob Nixilis, Tezzeret, and Gideon Ally costing 250 crystals each (citation needed).
Origins and Battle for Zendikar (BFZ)
Story Mode (same as it is now)
Quick Battle (Training Grounds with PvP placement and runes/ribbons awarded per fight based on Planeswalker level)
A rare card for sale (Shrine of Forsaken gods), for like $3.99

The best way to get cards was the Big Box, which had a bit more than double the number of cards currently found in a Premium Pack for 600 crystals (the guaranteed rare had a chance to become a mythic instead).  If you did a lot of QB grinding and were lucky with your QB rankings you could get one of these every 1.5-2 months.  If you were lucky you would get a few non-dupe rares/mythics in a Big Box (the first one I ever opened had 4 copies of the same rare and no mythics).
Duplicates could be turned into Runes if you wanted (same rate they are now, but not done automatically).

And that was it.  There were no events (just a "coming soon" tab).
There were no tiers, no mastery.  A brand new player had to face a top-tier player just as often as they faced another noob.
All cards were either Creature, Spell, or Support.  No Enchantments or Artifacts or Equipments or anything.  Just Supports.
No Planeswalker had a higher mana bonus in any color greater than +3.
A 6/6 Reach for 12 was so powerful it had to be nerfed.
The AI was relatively smart, it would always make a match 4 or 5 if possible, then it would prioritize its color, then your color (remember, no multicolor Planeswalkers back then).  It would only target your creatures with kill spells, and hold loyalty abilities until there was a valid target (most notably Liliana's first would not be used unless you had a card in hand to discard).

Eventually, of course, we got multicolored Planeswalkers (Kiora, priced at 950 crystals), Events (different versions of the Oath of the Gatewatch and Nodes of Power events), Coalitions (which immediately crashed the game), Boss Health PvE events (Avacyn's Madness, which immediately crashed the game and was extremely difficult), Color Mastery (3 tiers), New Graphics (which removed my much beloved loading wheel, and lagged the game like crazy), the most broken card ever designed (RIP Runaway Carriage), an event where you used a pre-built deck with an exclusive walker (which was never repeated again until the recent Duel Decks event), Changes to that walker that started massive forum riots, Support types (Deserts), Massive event reward reductions that sparked a major protest movement (Not. Another. Dime), massive reduction in the cost and number of cards in pack purchases, A premium currency that was very difficult to obtain but would give you a high chance of getting a dupe mythic or a small chance of a new super-powerful card, A new dev studio with high hopes and cool designs (8gon), Flash Spells (Flash, the spell), BOOSTER CRAFTING (hells to the yearh), more support types (Artifacts, Enchantment..ect), Legendary Stuff (except Agrus, sorry dude), an XP system (after 3 horribly failed tries), a VIP system (pay-to-win at its finest), and now Vanguards (which we all thought were impossible to get for years and years and years).

Today, there are:
65 Planeswalkers to choose from, with 2 of them colorless and 5 tri-color (also things we thought were impossible back then)
So many events we are now sick of events.
14 Blocks of cards (16 if you count Duel Deck and Promo sets)
Story Mode (unchanged)
3 different formats (Standard/Legacy/Set-Specific)
4 Mastery Tiers, which is nowhere near enough somehow
Mythics for sale for either $3.99 or $39.99
Booster Crafting and non-dupe packs (allowing people to have literally every card in the game somehow)
Events with super complicated special rules and supports
A 10000/10000 for 16 is being defended as a reasonable card (being facetious don't @ me)
Games that used to take 20 turns and 15 minutes now take 4 turns and 30 minutes.
AI cascades that used to be mildly annoying now instantly end the game
A +4 mana bonus in a color is now seen as "slow"
There are now Planeswalker supports that let you choose which abilities activate when, are really hard to get rid of, and have just sooooo much lag
Playing stuff for free is now the norm, not a super powerful anomaly.

Boy have times changed.  Now, I'm not some crotchety old man waving my fist at those newfangled support types or anything.  I am just amazed at how many things that seemed completely impossible when I started playing this game are now not only implemented, but seen as completely normal.  Everything about this game other than the IP has changed completely since then (seriously, Chandra was the best walker in the game back then, followed by the Gideons.  Think about that).  I remember playing the Oath event and thinking it was impossible to beat the Cliffhaven Vampire with more than 40 health without a dedicated lifegain deck because it pinged for 1 every turn and had a lot of health.  There was only 1 non-black kill spell and that was Scour from Existence which cost 12 and thus took waaay too long to charge up.  Now every color has a 7 mana or less removal that can be cast off of a single match.  It used to take months to get enough crystals to get enough for a pack.  Now I get 300 a week and I don't even play competitively anymore.

Long story short:  This game has changed so much over the years.  Some have been great, others not so great (some really bad).  But this game and the friends I have made playing it are still the best things around.  I can't wait to see what it'll be like 5 years from now, what crazy innovations we'll have by then (plus, maybe they'll be like 1 more story chapter lol)

Thanks for reading y'all

-MBurn7

Quantius

Yeah, the game is much better now.

I started the day it went live, I got my Jace and grinded through what was "story mode" at the time which was like 10 opponents or something and opened a single booster and got not much. There was no TG, no PvP, no other events, I don't even remember there being a vault. I quit after a few days thinking it was a cool concept but it would be dead in a month since there was no content.

I came back during the AMK block to find a much more robust game, and I took my little Jace with the sad sad cards from those early days and got annihilated by everything. I looked at the prices and looked at how little fun I was having and just left again a couple weeks later.

Then I came back when IXL started because I wanted to give it an honest attempt since it had the type of game I wanted to play on mobile, but couldn't scratch that itch anywhere else. I grinded and had a bit of luck and it made me want to crack some packs, so I got packs and PW's and things just got more and more fun. I ended up collecting just about all of IXL and DOM until I got burnt out on mythic dupes and how impossible Masterpieces were to get. I left thinking they're never make collecting accessible.

Finally, a few months ago I happened to peek on these forums to see what had changed and I saw VIP membership and non-dupe pink packs! what!?! So I gave it a shot and while others might have a negative view (P2W) of VIP, I have a hard time playing CCG's without the collecting aspect, I like to brew and have access to as many (if not all) cards as possible. I'm really happy with being able to actually get the cards now and even though I tried the game early on, I never stuck around and don't have fond memories of what it used to be because it felt impossible to get anywhere and unfinished. Bugs aside, the game is amazing right now. A lot to do in a variety of ways and more interested interactions than ever before, I'm stoked for Throne of Eldraine.

mrixl2520

Mburn7 said:

Games that used to take 20 turns and 15 minutes now take 4 turns and 30 minutes.

I lol'ed

WiLDRAGE

Mburn7 said:

the most broken card ever designed (RIP Runaway Carriage)

an event where you used a pre-built deck with an exclusive walker

Chandra was the best walker in the game back then, followed by the Gideons

I won my Saheeli (2nd point) back in Bronze league off the power of Gideon1's first ability (3rd point) targetting Runaway Carriage (first point).

Those were the days.

KingGrace

I remember grinding to get Kiora at 950... Twice because I started over after realizing OGJace control was the best and cheapest way to win. I still haven't paid for anything because I always felt it was overpriced, but the gameplay was consistent and it combined the two games I love.

 My girlfriend is amazed I've played this game almost nightly for the past 3 years. This game helps me relax and go to sleep! Hahah...

It's also helped me become a better commander player.

greenmeanie

Yes I agree there have been many changes over the years.  I have been playing for over 3 years and as stated by Kings Grace have yet to spend a dime.  Have had to do alot of grinding to get to where I'm at now.   Not trying to be a smarty-pants but Mburn 7 there are 65 pws.  

FindingHeart8

I remember winning Saheeli for being in the top 5 players in the few events she was offered.  I was a f2p player with a (very) limited selection of cards.  don't think I ever tried so hard for an event.  Was almost a year later before she was offered for cash.

Mburn7

greenmeanie said:

Yes I agree there have been many changes over the years.  I have been playing for over 3 years and as stated by Kings Grace have yet to spend a dime.  Have had to do alot of grinding to get to where I'm at now.   Not trying to be a smarty-pants but Mburn 7 there are 65 pws.  

Huh, I counted them of mtgpq.info, I guess some new ones haven't updated.
I'll update then lol.

And I'm mostly ftp, I've bought a couple things here and there over the years (one of the intro packs when I started, Jace 2, Karn, maybe one other thing?), and I definitely respect the grind.