After sleeping on this incredibly dumb idea I decided I’m a glutton for punishment and managed to find some time to win a few more games of Magic yesterday. I picked up enough Mastery XP to reach levels five and six and continue my quest to figure out if this $19.99 Mastery Pass is worth it for someone like me.
I like to think that I’m pretty representative of the average older Arena player. I’ve got a 9-5 job, a family to support, and a middle-class income to complete my American Dream (TM). I don’t think I’m necessarily the target market for the Mastery Pass but I’m a pretty big fan of fancy cosmetic upgrades in my Magic experience so I’m not not the target market either.
After finishing two quests and picking up three wins I was basically done with meaningful Magic for the day and that was… disappointing. I finished my draft 5-3 after losing some rounds to Orzhov and some really poor play on my part. I had enough gems to fire up another draft and picked two copies of Deputy of Detention en route to an awful Azorius deck. It was good enough to win an Azorius mirror match and then I ran into my first problem with the Mastery Pass.
I didn’t really have a reason to keep playing Magic for the day. I had picked up 1600 experience points by finishing two quests (800 each) and getting three wins (100 for the first win and 50 each for the second and third). So I stopped there after picking up my rewards for the day. Here’s an update on the rewards so far:
Free Stuff:
- 3 Packs of M20 (Promo Code)
- 3 Pack of M20 (Set Mastery) [+1]
Premium Stuff (3400 Crystals)
- 1 Pack of M20 (Mastery Pass)
- 1,500 Coins (Master Pass) [+500]
- Chandra Avatar (Master Pass)
- Elemental Cat Pet (Master Pass)
- Chandra Art Sleeves (Master Pass)
- 1 Mastery Orb
The Mastery Orb is one of the more complicated parts of the Mastery Pass system as its used to unlock card styles on a wheel which requires unlocking certain card styles to unlock others. If you actually reach level 100 of the Mastery Pass you get all the card styles which for Core Set 2020 includes the full cycle of Mythic Rare three-color legends.
In order to maximize your value on the Core Set Mastery Tree I recommend picking which of the mythic rares you’re most likely to play. I chose Kethis, the Hidden Hand, because I love graveyard-based decks and could see myself building around him for the next singleton event, and if I’m going to do that why not try to get a shiny version. The first card style on my journey to unlock Kethis was… well hold on now….
So here’s problem two for the day, once you unlock a node on the Mastery Tree you can’t see what it used to be. I checked my collection and remembered that it was Raise the Alarm, a card that brought back memories of my time as Modern Hero and seemed an appropriate first pick for this new endeavor.
With 6 levels in my pocket I only need 94 more in the next 83 days, a rate of 1.13 levels each day, down from 1.14 as of yesterday. Definitely making progress. Not necessarily seeing value yet.
Are you also embarking down the Mastery path? Let me know how you’re finding it so far by leaving us a comment on Facebook or hitting us up on Twitter!
Progress Log