MArcomage

TL;DR: I want the site to make it easier for a player to play all 4 modes.

I've thought about this a lot, and while I don't care about stats or achievements, the odds are heavily stacked against me as I simply create games in sets of 4 in the pattern "Random deck; 1 of each mode-combination". This gives me variety, allows me to play vs everyone, and creates an extra challenge of making decks that can handle (hopefully) all 4 versions of game mode, short, long, hidden short, hidden long. If anyone else out there does the same, I'm sure they'd agree that it's REALLY difficult.

The simplest solution to this is that in the Deck Editor, I can choose which types of games a deck is intended for. So I can choose that a deck can be played in all modes, or only in short hidden mode, etc. This will encourage players to make use of all play-styles, further the meta-game, and maybe even promote more variety in the cards without complaints of imbalance. Add to this that achievements can become more interesting when you have things like "Win a game with no Far Sight-keywords in deck in a Hidden Cards-game", making you develop decks fitting each type of game mode to gather achievements, instead of just gaining control of a game and dragging it out forever because you want some arbitrary achievement anyone can get.

instead of just gaining control of a game and dragging it out forever because you want some arbitrary achievement anyone can get.

... Which is done by how many people, to be exact? I have not seen anyone do anything of the sort.

Achievements here do not matter much. You aren't given a flash of light or a bar to signify the results for everyone to see.

... You've only played one versus game? To answer your question, it doesn't happen that often, but I've had games against several players where their deck gains an incredible advantage against mine (i.e. two destruction-decks meet, they reduce my magic to 1 and keep it there), and even if they can win at round 30 the game goes on forever.

Besidies, even though I think this adds a lot to the achievements-part of the site, they are just a side-note. What I want is to advance the game, by way of creating 4 meta-games, so that I can have 1 deck of rushing Beasts and 1 of defensive Unliving etc. To make it easier for players to try out all game modes, and therefore meet more players (as some ONLY play one type of mode).

Perhaps one small thing we can do to encourage playing more modes, if the achievements are in fact contributing to a problem here, is to add achievements that count the number of games completed in each distinct mode. That way, achievement hunters are given their incentive, and those who don't consider the achievements to begin with remain unaffected.