2017: A Year of Puzzling in Review

Happy Holidays everyone, and thank you for making 2017 a fantastic first year for us! We’re big stats nerds over here, and over the last few weeks we’ve been running the numbers to show you some interesting things about the past year. Let’s keep the preamble nice and short and jump to the data!

Puzzle Overview

Puzzles published: 42
Total answers graded on Patreon: 912 (684 of which were correct – not bad!)
Approximate total puzzle views: 612,000
Full list of platforms: Possibility Storm Facebook and Twitter, Reddit posts from /u/taptwo and in subreddit /r/mtgpuzzles, MTGCanada.com, MTGGoldfish.com, and of course here at PossibilityStorm.com

Difficulty Data

From our 912 Patreon competitor answers, we have all sorts of fun data that helps us see just how hard puzzles of each difficulty are. While these certainly vary widely puzzle-to-puzzle, the averages line up right around where we expected them to. (Note that % correct only includes people who made the attempt and got it right on the first try, and doesn’t include those who couldn’t solve it and therefore didn’t submit.)
Uncommon # of puzzles published: 13 Average “Top 5” time: 13 minutes 51 seconds Average % correct: 86%
Rare # of puzzles published: 15 Average “Top 5” time: 19 minutes 39 seconds Average % correct: 80%
Mythic Rare # of puzzles published: 10 Average “Top 5” time: 26 minutes 31 seconds Average % correct: 72%

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Most “fun” puzzle: 4.71 / 5 (Ixalan Puzzle #3)
Puzzle with fastest correct answer: 4m 52s (Ixalan Puzzle #4)
Puzzle with longest correct answer: 34m 27s (Amonkhet Puzzle #9)
Most incorrect puzzle:: 39% (Hour of Devastation #2)

“Overkill Damage” Claims

# of competitor “Puzzlebreaker” claims: 45
# of Redditor/Youtuber/Facebooker “Puzzlebreaker” claims: ~3 bazillion
# of puzzles successfully broken: 1 (Ixalan Puzzle #7) *breakable version is attached at the bottom of the post in the above link

Dollars Spent, Prizes Sent

Total value of prizes sent out: $2,155 USD
Types of prizes won: Booster boxes, bundles, Planeswalker and Duel decks, Possibility Storm promo tokens, dice, and playmats
Total $ spent on puzzle testing, graphic design, and other services: $984 USD
Portion of help hired from within MTG community: 100%!
Join the Possibility Storm Community! None of this would be possible without YOUR help, and we are extremely grateful for all your attention and support. If you’ve been enjoying our puzzles, please consider contributing as little as $1/month to our Patreon campaign. We have a lot of fun doing this, but it’s also expensive and time-consuming. Every small contribution adds up and helps us be able to continue making more and better Possibiity Storm content! In addition to our eternal gratitude, our Patrons also get access to some pretty sweet perks at various levels, such as:
  • Early puzzle access
  • Automatic entry into weekly prize draws
  • Access to view and comment our Patreon stream, participate in polls
  • Compete head-to-head vs other Patrons and take home juicy leaderboard prizes (RIX season starts January 16)
  • And much more constantly in development!
Patron or not, we sincerely appreciate the time and interest you put into Possibility Storm. We do this for you, and it’s extremely rewarding watching it come to life. Thanks again for a fantastic 2017, and happy holidays!