Magic the Gathering Arena

[anvi]

Maybe turn 4, could use polymorph and maybe some black card to return from the dead.

 

[anvi]

How do you guys have so much gold?!

 

[spectre]

Well, there's that family living under my floor. I kinda forgot to tell them the war is over.

 

[Uncreation]

Maybe turn 4, could use polymorph and maybe some black card to return from the dead.

I remember playing standard back then and i don't remember any such deck. The big Emrakul was in Rise of the Eldrazi and that means when it first entered standard Alara was the old block so the dominant deck was Jund. After Alara rotated and Scars of Mirrodin entered standard, the big bad became UW control with Jace which went through several changes as cards came in until it finally became the menace known as CawBlade. I remember also some monored, monoblack aggro vampires, some Bant midrange thing with Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Eldrazi Conscription. Maybe it was some fringe deck. Anyway, people back then were complaining about Jace, the mind sculptor and cawblade, not Emrakul.

 

[new fucking guy]

turns out the best way to deal with dream trawler is agonizing remorse

Spoiler

Deck
4 Cauldron Familiar (ELD) 81
2 Temple of Abandon (THB) 244
4 Gilded Goose (ELD) 160
3 Korvold, Fae-Cursed King (ELD) 329
4 Mayhem Devil (WAR) 204
4 Agonizing Remorse (THB) 83
1 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger (THB) 221
2 Garruk, Cursed Huntsman (ELD) 191
4 Witch's Oven (ELD) 237
4 Trail of Crumbs (ELD) 179
4 Blood Crypt (RNA) 245
2 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
4 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
2 Swamp (DAR) 259
1 Massacre Girl (WAR) 99
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
4 Stomping Ground (RNA) 259
3 Forest (DAR) 267
3 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove (THB) 169
1 Mountain (DAR) 263

kroxa has been impressive today. making 2 food with oven is good vs a bunch of decks.
naked man of the ilysian grove is basically a failsafe. sometimes you'd draw like 6 lands from trail of crumbs triggers. now you can actually play them!
I've given up on the mono red matchup. way too hard to deal with. list's waiting for better times. I wish I had cards for a sideboard.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

turns out the best way to deal with dream trawler is agonizing remorse
I've given up on the mono red matchup. way too hard to deal with. list's waiting for better times. I wish I had cards for a sideboard.

It's basically like this in Bo1, when you have decent game vs. control, RDW will roflstomp you. Those Agonizing Remorses that are doing lord's work are becoming a liability.
The only things that look questionable are Garruks. If you really want a 'wanker in this slot, I'd go for good ole vraska. It's still decent removal and a small lifegain.
Massacre Waifu is probably dropping too late to have any real effect, have you considered adding some beef to help with the problem of xanax getting too hard about the embercleave in the forge?
I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of Wicked Wolf, Lovestruck Beast or Thrashing Brontodontist? The latter can block and still eat a 'cleave to deny a whole lot of damage.

I would use one naked man, waifu and garruk slots to make that happen.

From what I played today, upper Gold was nothing but RDW today, so I don't think it's wise to just roll over to this matchup. Xanax made quite a bit of difference in keeping this competitive.

I was exploring the possibility to revive reclamation with the new shit from throne and theros. Sadly, I'm out of mythic wildcards so I'm stuck with only one Urologist, but I think it shows promise as a ramp-flash-combo hybrid. Previously it just rolled over and died to mono red, but Uro gives it a repeatable lifegain option, it also got the wrath effect at four mana to replace the flame sweeps which were lacking range at times.

Here's a list. It obviously gets fucked by Teferi, but you can still fry the time pimp with wrath or scorching dragonfire.

Spoiler

Deck
3 Nightpack Ambusher (M20) 185
2 Mountain (MIR) 346
1 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath (THB) 229
4 Opt (DAR) 60
3 Scorching Dragonfire (ELD) 139
1 Forest (THB) 287
4 Wilderness Reclamation (RNA) 149
3 Thassa's Intervention (THB) 72
4 Growth Spiral (RNA) 178
4 Storm's Wrath (THB) 157
3 Brazen Borrower (ELD) 39
2 Gadwick, the Wizened (ELD) 48
4 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
4 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
4 Stomping Ground (RNA) 259
2 Temple of Epiphany (M20) 253
2 Temple of Mystery (M20) 255
2 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242
3 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
3 Expansion // Explosion (GRN) 224
2 Island (MIR) 336

Sideboard
3 Aether Gust (M20) 42
2 Negate (RIX) 44
4 Mystical Dispute (ELD) 58
4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World (WAR) 169
2 Flame Sweep

It's presided for Bo1, I'm still toying with the idea of taking it to Bo3. The plan is to improve the anti-aggro game and switch between being and not being flash deck when it feels like a good idea.
I'll be upping the count on uros, of course, once I get more. Should get good at two, target number is three.

 

[new fucking guy]

The only things that look questionable are Garruks. If you really want a 'wanker in this slot, I'd go for good ole vraska. It's still decent removal and a small lifegain.
Massacre Waifu is probably dropping too late to have any real effect, have you considered adding some beef to help with the problem of xanax getting too hard about the embercleave in the forge?
I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of Wicked Wolf, Lovestruck Beast or Thrashing Brontodontist? The latter can block and still eat a 'cleave to deny a whole lot of damage.

I think vraska doesn't have enough impact. It's a shitty removal spell for the most part. Garruk is a real way to go over some matchups, though I'm not too sure about him either. I just took him from some 5-0 list.
If I had wolves or lovestruck beasts I'd be playing bo3. Always thought brontodon is kinda crap. And even with these, I don't think the matchup would be very fair. That's why I'm just hating on everything else with kroxa. She's the easiest cut if I wanna deal with red at all.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

4 Cauldron Familiar (ELD) 81
4 Witch's Oven (ELD) 237

you son of a...

related: I have a 100% BO3 WR against oven decks because they always run their clock to 0 and lose by time out

 

[anvi]

I'm clawing my way back up through platinum and it was almost entirely rdw too. They are harder than before, I got to a point before Theros where I could beat red decks about 90% of the time, but now I am winning about 35%. My homebrews aren't doing too well in general, and they aren't easily boosted with Theros cards. Tried an Azorious Control net deck and it was super shit as always. I think all the net decks are rated by wins in silver rank or something because in higher ranks and even unranked they get whooped. It is doing ok with a bunch of changes though but not great and is pretty boring to play. Even after buying Dream Trawler it doesn't help. It usually gets a couple of attacks in but it doesn't hit very hard and always ends up nuked after a turn or two. It seems kinda over rated. I would rather try to make a combo with Emergency Powers or something to draw a shit load of cards and boost it. But I don't have any more wildcards and wouldn't blow them on a wacky idea anyway.

Oven decks used to be a hassle for me but they are so easy to beat now. The main difference is that Banishing Light can target the oven unlike the prisons I used to love. And again, Revoke Existence can exile them. I haven't been beaten by cats for ages. Although it comes close, mostly if it runs Yarok's Fenlurker to screw my early hand, and then that Nightmare Shepherd is so deadly when it brings everything back. I usually have a couple of board wipes to make stuff stay dead but it depends on all the discard.

I've tried Wilderness Reclamation 100 times and I can never get it to a good place. Main problem is I don't have any Nightpack Ambusher which is pretty essential, but still, I don't like getting overrun early and not having any board wipes. I've got 1 storm's wrath, if I had more I would give it another go. It is uber once it takes hold, but not going first and no board wipes was painful.

I think I am close to having a gruul deck that is really good, not there yet tho.

 

[spectre]

I've tried Wilderness Reclamation 100 times and I can never get it to a good place. Main problem is I don't have any Nightpack Ambusher which is pretty essential, but still, I don't like getting overrun early and not having any board wipes. I've got 1 storm's wrath, if I had more I would give it another go. It is uber once it takes hold, but not going first and no board wipes was painful.

It's a deck that keeps coming back to me when the ladder moves away from aggro towards control. All those wraths, uros and ambushers are there to help stabilize the aggro matchup and give you some fighting chance.

But yeah, you pretty much need four storm wraths to make it happen. You can diddle with Flame Sweeps and even expand them for a bit more reach, but wrath is the real deal here, the bit about hitting 'wankers is not to be underestimated.
Felt good when I took out a teferi and Kaya in one game.

I think vraska doesn't have enough impact. It's a shitty removal spell for the most part. Garruk is a real way to go over some matchups, though I'm not too sure about him either. I just took him from some 5-0 list.
If I had wolves or lovestruck beasts I'd be playing bo3. Always thought brontodon is kinda crap.

Could be right about Vraska. To be honest, I haven't played her in ages, because there's always something better.
My reasoning for brontodon (apart from it being an accessible uncommon incontrast to beasts and wolves) is that you get 4 toughness on the board which may well block some damage. RDW usually tries to punch through this fat
with infuriate (might no longer be an issue cause the kosher build that everyone's been copying appears not to run it) and embercleave. Now, without embercleave, you can still block xanax all day with the cat oven combo
and stall the game enough to take over with multiple Devil triggers to dismantle the board. So what you get with the Brontodontist is an option to instantly respond to cleave and fuck up their money shot.
The question remains if that's enough to seize the initiative, or is it merely staying a bit longer in an already lost game.

 

[anvi]

Maybe turn 4, could use polymorph and maybe some black card to return from the dead.

I remember playing standard back then and i don't remember any such deck. The big Emrakul was in Rise of the Eldrazi and that means when it first entered standard Alara was the old block so the dominant deck was Jund. After Alara rotated and Scars of Mirrodin entered standard, the big bad became UW control with Jace which went through several changes as cards came in until it finally became the menace known as CawBlade. I remember also some monored, monoblack aggro vampires, some Bant midrange thing with Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Eldrazi Conscription. Maybe it was some fringe deck. Anyway, people back then were complaining about Jace, the mind sculptor and cawblade, not Emrakul.

There were a bunch of decks that did it. Polymorph on an eldrazi token and out comes Emrakul. Or Elvish Piper which could play it from the hand for 1 mana which you could do on turn 4. There was also Hypergenesis. Both got banned just after I quit the game for having such op shit.

 

[new fucking guy]

4 Cauldron Familiar (ELD) 81
4 Witch's Oven (ELD) 237

you son of a...

related: I have a 100% BO3 WR against oven decks because they always run their clock to 0 and lose by time out

*flips cats for 3 minutes to kill your dude and maybe draw a card* yep, now that's Magic: The Gathering.

 

[Doktor Best]

Only got around to play 2 sealed and one ranked draft so far but i am fucking loving it. Probably due to the fact that i did exceptionally well (6-3 and 7-2 in sealed and 7-1 in draft).

Normally i am a pretty average limited player so lets see if i accidently built some bombshell decks or if i am just getting better.

 

[Uncreation]

There were a bunch of decks that did it. Polymorph on an eldrazi token and out comes Emrakul. Or Elvish Piper which could play it from the hand for 1 mana which you could do on turn 4. There was also Hypergenesis. Both got banned just after I quit the game for having such op shit.

Both what got banned? And hypergenesis and Emrakul were never in the same standard format, maybe you're thinking of extended. As for Polymorph and Piper those were just casual/tier3/kitchen table decks, they were never serious contenders in standard. Good luck untaping with an elvish piper, lol.

 

[anvi]

Got a new deck that is climbing the ranks again but it is pretty boring to play. I really wanted to make an Athreos deck but it seems jankier than I thought. Against aggro it is quite good, against control it sits there doing nothing. Not had much luck with Thassa either. Great once she is bouncing useful stuff but by the time I am ready to bounce an agent, the opponent is ready to nuke the agent or the Thassa itself. Also surviving that long isn't easy. I tried and it doesn't seem that good when there are better late game stuff. Also the decks themselves seem a bit crap. Lots of Thassa decks are using Risen Reef and Elite Guardmage to ramp and give some early bounce targets, but I beat them 99% of the time so figured I wouldn't bother trying to improve my own version unless some better idea comes along. I had some success bouncing Cavalier of Dawn but it is kinda janky and slow.

There were a bunch of decks that did it. Polymorph on an eldrazi token and out comes Emrakul. Or Elvish Piper which could play it from the hand for 1 mana which you could do on turn 4. There was also Hypergenesis. Both got banned just after I quit the game for having such op shit.

Both what got banned? And hypergenesis and Emrakul were never in the same standard format, maybe you're thinking of extended. As for Polymorph and Piper those were just casual/tier3/kitchen table decks, they were never serious contenders in standard. Good luck untaping with an elvish piper, lol.

Hyper and Emrakul got banned. I am probably thinking about Extended for Hypergenesis though. Pretty sure the polymorph combo was standard though. I think they were probably tier 3 but it was gg once it landed. I hated Emrakul. I think Kozilek and that other one which steals stuff that gets sacced should have been the top creature.

 

[Jason Liang]

There's a Legacy deck that uses Polymorph though.

Obviously in Vintage you'd just use Oath.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Standard bogles is kinda fun. It's simple as hell but it's enjoyable for glazing my eyes over and playing on auto-pilot. I have to apologize to Luka for playing wh*te though.

 

[Jason Liang]

White has been by far the worst color in a long, long, long time

Instead of hate, one should pity white

the reason to not play white are practical, not ethical

 

[Uncreation]

Hyper and Emrakul got banned. I am probably thinking about Extended for Hypergenesis though. Pretty sure the polymorph combo was standard though. I think they were probably tier 3 but it was gg once it landed. I hated Emrakul. I think Kozilek and that other one which steals stuff that gets sacced should have been the top creature.

I don't remember Emrakul the Aeons Torn ever being banned. And from what i checked, it never was: https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Banned_and_restricted_cards/Timeline
There was never any reason for it tbh. Yeah, i does a lot, especially if you cast it, but if you play a 15 mana card you kind of expect it to win you the game. Decks that snuck it into play existed but they were never that amazing. The best one that i know is the Through the breach one in modern. I think it's also played in Sneak and Show in legacy but i only heard about that because i don't know or play legacy. Anyway, my point is that it's not a card that ever dominated a format. You don't ban a card because it's played in a tier3 deck in standard that versus good decks does something once every ten games but just dies the rest of the time.

Do any of you play Historic? I like it better than standard, but then i almost never liked standard much. I'm playing Gruul Aggro right now but i could also make a variant of Esper pretty easily. I hope they introduce more cards, maybe even the full sets that were in the beta.

 

[anvi]

Must have only been banned in EDH. I don't mind it when casted for 15 but it sucked to get cheated out on turn 4 in Standard. There is better stuff to do in Legacy.

 

[anvi]

White has been by far the worst color in a long, long, long time

Instead of hate, one should pity white

the reason to not play white are practical, not ethical

White was weak but seems really strong now since Theros. Although I still miss how it was a few years ago when I used to play Standard. That Emeria land was uber.

 

[spectre]

Do any of you play Historic? I like it better than standard, but then i almost never liked standard much. I'm playing Gruul Aggro right now but i could also make a variant of Esper pretty easily. I hope they introduce more cards, maybe even the full sets that were in the beta.

I played plenty of Historic last season when you could rank up with it. Bo1 seems pointless, so I'm mostly sticking to Bo3. It sucks balls that we only have paid-in events to work with.
With the current cardpool, it plays like pre-rotation standard, so I'm really hoping they get their shit together and start releasing cards. Sadly, the Anthology pack didn't seem to make any major impression on the meta.
I ended up blowing a bunch of wildcards on it... an never using them in the end.

Gruul was a fine aggro deck that served me well even with the Oko bollocks running around, but I've moved to vampires since, which lets me pack more varied interaction.
I also have an Esper list which I really like playing, yet I never seem to get the cards exactly right to get consistent results.
I use Nexus when I'm playing to win, and it delivers solid results even if I can't be assed to spare a WC for the fourth Nexus.
Then there's Kethis Kombo Kontraption when I feel like playing solitare (Nexus is actually quite interactive in comparison to this).

 

[new fucking guy]

I liked historic before suspensions, fotd bullshit was fun. Couldn't find a deck I liked ever since, settled for vampires and now I'm working on rdw. Anax rules.

 

[anvi]

Shame the audience isn't big enough to support vintage, modern, etc. I'd pay extra to play 2 Headed Giant :C