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This is not correct: the paper does have to do with optimal strategies. They even say as much in the abstract. >In this paper we show that optimal play in real
by stellaathena 7y ago
This is not correct: the paper does have to do with optimal strategies. They even say as much in the abstract.
>In this paper we show that optimal play in real-world Magic is at least as hard as the Halting Problem, solving a problem that has been open for a decade
- manifestsilence 7y agoThis is an important distinction, as I've found that the optimal strategies in Magic are very rarely the most intricate ones or the ones involving recursive constructs. Occasionally a trivial infinite loop becomes part of a top deck, but you definitely aren't going to see someone doing the equivalent of calculating pi to win. I think the Turing completeness is definitely still part of the appeal of Magic, because the bizarre edge cases and complexity occasionally do creep in to even serious play and add a lot of interest, but the complexity is of the iceberg variety, where most of it rarely makes itself visible most of the time.
- simonh 7y agoOK that's fair enough, but it's not saying anything about what optimal strategies might actually be, just examining their potential complexity in an extreme edge case scenario.