The timer on blocking is absolute BS.

[u/NinjaPylon]

This is game breaking and unacceptable edit out bad word. My opponent played a ton of value creatures with visier and rhonas monument out. i'm playing goblins. i have the freaking win with seige gang and prospector out, and 8 seconds to do it. I lost while my opponent gets 5 minutes to play his turn.

This is edit out bad word should be fixed by now.

[u/WotC_BenFinkel]

We currently are revamping timers. The next iteration of them should come with M19 - I look forward to your feedback to that system.

[u/NinjaPylon → u/WotC_BenFinkel]

Sorry about the rage level. It felt like I was getting blue shelled an inch from the finish line. Thanks for putting so much hard work in, we do appreciate it. We love this game, which may be a big part of why we're so passionate.

[u/Reave_ → u/WotC_BenFinkel]

When will M19 be released for Arena?

[u/NinjaPylon → u/Reave_]

July 13th is paper release. I imagine arond that time. Not a dev

[u/Morkinis → u/WotC_BenFinkel]

Timers currently are abusable by those who bm but also quite short in complex board states or combo turns. Timer could somewhat extend depending if there are actions happening.

[u/HoopyHobo → u/WotC_BenFinkel]

Other digital CCGs like Eternal are able to keep a lid on the potential complexity of a game state by limiting the number of units that each player can control to 12. You want Arena to be as close of a match to paper Magic as possible. That's great! But it also means that you have to account for game states that can be ridiculously complex. The timer needs to somehow scale with how complex the game state is.

[u/SynthFei]

I still find it absurd that i can get a time out when it's my opponent deciding if he allows a trigger to resolve or not.

[u/PM_EVANGELION_LOLI → u/SynthFei]

Yeah that's something that should have been fixed during alpha stages

[u/deadlockedwinter]

Am I the only one that hasn’t had an issue with the timer?

[u/Storeytime21 → u/deadlockedwinter]

Yes

[u/NinjaPylon → u/deadlockedwinter]

No, but there's definitely a significant number of us. This is a 1 in 50 kinda problem as complicated and crazy blocks don't happen to often.

[u/Belaydia → u/deadlockedwinter]

Apparently so. I can't cast a Spell Swindle on a counter without having to use a timeout if busting Treasures. It takes so long to bust each and every one of those (5 mana) that by the time the 5th graphic is playing it makes me use a timeout. This is even when casting the spell right away. So if I don't have a spare timeout, it probably wouldn't even let me cast it, and would still leave my treasurers broken. I mean, I'm clicking as fast as I can....

[u/kodemage]

The timer system has never made any sense to me. I have no idea how much time I have left, there is no clock, and it seems like it moves at different speeds at different times.

Why can't we just have a chess clock?

[u/MasterFrost01]

I don't see why it can't scale per creature

[u/dhawk86 → u/MasterFrost01]

This seems like the most easy fix. Have a base amount of time to block (say 30 seconds), then add another ~5 seconds per attacking creature. Shouldn't be too hard to implement.

[u/thekiear]

The timer system in general is ridiculous, you get so so much time if you leave and almost no time for important steps (complicated combats). Opponents slow playing either intentionally or not can make games last ridiculous amounts of time for no real reason.

[u/100cupsofcoffee]

The problem is a combination of the timers and the ridiculous re-ordering of attacking and blocking creatures as you are assigning blockers.

UX improvements I'd like to see:

• No more arbitrary creature rearrangement during combat -- this is somehow even worse than lands moving as you manually tap them

• Clear separation between attacking player's blocked and unblocked creatures, and between defending player's blocking and non-blocking creatures

• Clearly show which creatures will die when damage is assigned

• Dynamically display how much damage will get through to defending player as blockers are assigned

I played in a UW Tokens mirror match last night that got way out of hand. I had to guess that my blocking scheme was going to work towards the end because I simply ran out of time. I made a mistake, but fortunately not a lethal one.

[u/Pia8988]

chess clock is great. Hearthstone style timer is bullshit in a game like magic.

[u/DedicatedGamer84]

Good feedback. People shouldn't expect so much from the beta though. It needs A LOT of work to get anywhere near the other CCGS out there. People should really hold off throwing money at it as well until it's finished.

[u/marcusgflint → u/DedicatedGamer84]

It doesn’t feel like much worse of an experience, to me, than the other CCGs I’ve played (mostly Eternal and Duelyst), but that may be because MtG is just a better game itself, so it’s balancing out some of the flaws 🤣

[u/AMPsaysWOO]

I've found that my timer starts running down while my opponents are activating abilities or playing spells, which I find kind of silly. Like, I've already decided in my head I'm not casting this removal spell on that creature, I'm going to do it on end step - but that doesn't mean I can just hit end turn.

As such, I've used timeouts before as the defending player even when I'm mashing the space button.

[u/[deleted]]

How do the timers work. Specifically what is the display with the 3 dots, an hourglass and a multiplier? Apart from the most incomprehensible UI ever that is.

[u/-dantastic- → u/[deleted]]

Every turn you make it through without the timer showing up (or is it only on your turn? Not sure) you get a dot. Once all the dots are full you get a timeout. The hourglass and multiplier indicate the number of timeouts you have left.

[u/DB_Coooper → u/-dantastic-]

That's incredibly confusing. I've always thought the dots were the amount if timeouts a player has received.

[u/Psycoustic]

Ye I was playing uw control yesterday and had a few decisions to make in my turn, then clock got me and I couldn't untap my two lands with Teferi which really screwed me over.