A suspected way to stay on top of the arena by screening your opponents

[Doubleshoe]

I was under the impression that the red thumb had no impact on arena matchmaking, but in rereading the FAQs I have no evidence for this. Definitely something that should change if not.

It has been discussed (and complained about) frequently. In one of those threads I believe there is confirmation by a BGA admin that arena matchmaking is unfortunately indeed affected.

I can confirm that red thumbs do indeed affect the arena. I went 25 or so days in this arena season not facing one of the other top contenders for Railways of the World AT ALL, and was very confused until I remembered I gave them a private red thumb because I (strongly) disagreed with how they handle players who run short on time but still play the game. Now, PERSONALLY, my reaction to this was to go back and remove my many months old red thumb. But considering I matched with this player on the very next table I joined, I can confirm that you will most definitely not meet people who have gotten the red thumb from you in the arena.

Edit: one thing you could do is report the player for red thumb abuse. If you believe there's sufficient evidence of it being deliberate, that *might* bear fruit.