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Dawkinsfan69

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Sealed seems p fucking stupid in this format. There's crazy ass cards like ugin, any of the fucking god eternals, ajani, liliana, butcher, etc... that win games on their own and a ton of completely worthless garbage. Control is for the most part awful besides a few rares (4cc quench?? lol waht??)

Amass is a trash mechanic unless you have dreadhorde invasion. Proliferate is super gimmicky and isn't really effective in a limited format. A lot of this seems to come down to "did you get a few of the broken game winning cards or not?"

Meh
 
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spectre

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I was kinda tempted to try sealed this time, seems like it's good I didn't. Last time I played sealed was on Shandalar and shit was pretty dope.
Blew all my gems on competitive draft instead... yeesh, that one was a mistake. Think I'll stick to freebie draft until I'm better at this shit.

So I tried goldfish Sparky again today, this shit is hilarious. They spent resources giving it the ability to use emotes (it'll event talk back at you),
but it keeps making retarded decisions like blocking a 3/2 with a 2/1 AND 2/1 with no untapped lands on my end. Or sacrificing a 4/3 vanilla over 2/2 with vigilance.
 
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Even though I've been playing this like a goddamn fiend nothing's really jumped out at me as something I enjoyed playing. Until esper-mill. All the bullshit of esper with a far less obnoxious wincon, because Ashiok exiles your opponent's entire graveyard as well as mills them, and Kaya's ultimate is based off of cards in exile and they work great together. It's honestly probably worse than regular esper because you're sacrificing control in favor of not killing your opponent by milling him 1 card a turn, but shit. I kinda dig it. Even running wall of lost thoughts for a tiny bit of additional mill and some early game face protection, and the new sweeper of "Time wipe" lets you clear the board and pick up your wall so you can plonk it back down, which ends up happening fairly often. It's way more successful at milling people than my experiments with Jace self mill which keep being a disappointment.
 

spectre

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Makes the Shandalar AI seem like a stroke of genius
Yeah, while that one didn't have a particularly big X value, at least it had some self preservation. Sparky will happily throw its flying creature at your face for free damage, even if it means giving you an opportunity for lethal.

It could be a semi-useful goldfish tool if they gave it an autopilot deck, mono red, mono white, mehrvolks, maybe some proactive discard deck. Even Duels had AI tiers, with small but fair pay-offs. Would shut the trap on the casual lot a little bit.
 

Dawkinsfan69

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Even though I've been playing this like a goddamn fiend nothing's really jumped out at me as something I enjoyed playing. Until esper-mill. All the bullshit of esper with a far less obnoxious wincon, because Ashiok exiles your opponent's entire graveyard as well as mills them, and Kaya's ultimate is based off of cards in exile and they work great together. It's honestly probably worse than regular esper because you're sacrificing control in favor of not killing your opponent by milling him 1 card a turn, but shit. I kinda dig it. Even running wall of lost thoughts for a tiny bit of additional mill and some early game face protection, and the new sweeper of "Time wipe" lets you clear the board and pick up your wall so you can plonk it back down, which ends up happening fairly often. It's way more successful at milling people than my experiments with Jace self mill which keep being a disappointment.

That sounds p cool. There's probably a way to proliferate Kaya to 5 loyalty on the same turn that you drop her and ult the opponent for 20.

Just thinking.. You'd probably want like

4x Wall of lost thoughts
4x Ashiok
3 or 4x Kaya
3 or 4x Flux Channeler (?)
4x Spell pierce
4x Revitalize (to trigger flux??)

T2: Wall (4)
T3: Ash -1 (8)
T4: Flux + Ash -1 (12)
T5: Another Flux + Ash -1 (16)
T6: Ash -1 (20) + Kaya + Any spell to trigger Flux + Kaya ult for 20 dmg

something like that maybe?
 
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That sounds p cool. There's probably a way to proliferate Kaya to 5 loyalty on the same turn that you drop her and ult the opponent for 20.
This is what I'm running currently, but this is also messy because I'm still experimenting and trying the new cards, I'm limited by what cards I own (I absolutely would run more than one Kaya if I had 'em), and this is probably the second revision of the deck where I only did some super slight tweaking.

9WpVdaJ.jpg


The 4 walls, fairly solid. The mill isn't completely insignificant and they usually safe you some life and/or protect your walkers. They still are PROBABLY unnecessary but I like mill so I dunno.
The negates probably should be more vetos, they're a bit easier to cast but eh.
Azcanta because it's Azcanta.
Veto since it's a nice counter and almost never a brick.
Despark sounded really good but it hasn't been as widely useful as I would've hoped. The contempts could probably be desparks but I haven't crafted more desparks yet.
Prison realm, wanted to try it. It's not the worst thing in the world but you'd probably be better off with Kaya's wraths instead, especially if you're running the walls to help protect your ass early game.
Baby Teferi is sort of cool but after playing with him a bit it feels like he either needs to be a 2 or 3-of or relegated to the sideboard to help protect you against control. In this deck in particular casting sorceries at instant speed isn't super relevant so he's on the chopping block for me right now, just haven't adjusted the deck more.
Absorbs, more counters.
Kaya, all around great. 1-drop removal, potential life gain, and bigass finisher if she reaches ult since Ashiok's dumpstering their library at a rapid rate. She'd be a great 2-3 of especially in place of baby Teferi.
Mortify, removal and enchantment hate.
Ashiok, 3 of him seems pretty good. You're going for a "Slow mill" rather than trying to race, so plonking him down every once in a while as you protect him and get maybe 1-2 activations before he's removed is the general idea. He combos great with Kaya too of course, but blasting someone for 20+ damage with Kaya isn't your only win condition since with the walls and Ashiok you're removing not insignificant numbers of cards from their deck.
Ixalan's binding, more being a big asshole. It's actually a little less vital given you'll be binning a lot of your opponent's cards anyway, so cockblocking with binding isn't 100% critical, but it's still useful to have.
Chemister's insight, help keep you stocked up on counters/removals. Might be excessive running 4 of them but it helps so fucking much.
Vraska's contempt, as mentioned despark might be a decent alternative.
Cleansing nova, probably going to get trashed in favor of another time wipe or a Kaya's wrath or something else. Stuck it in when I was throwing cards together and never got around to removing it since the enchantment removal's a bad idea with the binding cards.
Teferi, 'cause I've got one of them and he's completely busted. Probably could stand running more of them. Immortal sun wouldn't be a bad alternative either.
Time wipe, as mentioned it's an expensive sweeper that you can use to pick up a wall so you can play it again. It's PROBABLY more cute than good and you'd be better off with Kaya's wrath/ritual of soot/whatever, but again it's playing with the new cards to a degree.

I think flux channeler would probably be worse overall. You could potentially hit the dream combo faster but I think you could more reliably get there by going slower and more controlling. Elderspell would probably be a slightly better option simply because you could throw a Kaya down, kill your own existing Ashiok you've been downticking with elderspell to boost Kaya to 5, then fire the Kaya laser. And elderspell would give you the advantage of controlling opposing planeswalkers too so it feels a little more flexible than flux channeler for this kinda memery.
 

spectre

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I'd replace the negates with Syncopate. It's important to start interacting with shit as early as possible and four total negates main seems a bit overkill.

Overall, the whole black component feels a bit superficial. You could easily lose it and gain a bit of consistency imo.
Running two colors could perhaps let you get away with utilizing one or two of the new rare lands? Blast Zone and that 3/3 manland?

If you want to keep black around, you could maybe put a single Elderspell in there (instead of despark or elder realm) to harvest your nearly depleted 'wankers and get straight to business with the Magical Negro?
 
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Replacing the negates with syncopates does sound like a good idea. Was a bit iffy on them anyway, and cheap and early counters like that which can nail creatures too sounds excellent.
I wouldn't be wild about the manland, but blast zone would be a possibility except that I almost always want to have a fuckton of mana available at all times, plus blast zone just sorta covers up an area that black also helps (Since after taking that picture and commenting on it I did cut cleansing nova and baby Teferi and added two Kaya's wraths for some earlier sweepers, even if they do nail my own walls). Cutting black would be a little more viable now just because of shit like time wipe to provide sweepers without black, but mortify's really important too. Nails Azcanta, if your opponent Ixalan bindings your walkers, etc.
Black does seem useful since you need it for Kaya, and while she isn't COMPLETELY vital she does get work done and let you have fun with her ult. I do agree elderspell would be good but I haven't got one and haven't gone wildcard spending yet (Much, I did make a few Jaces because as mentioned I like mill because I'm a retard) so I'm living without, even though it 100% would slot into the deck well. If the deck starts feeling stronger and more competitive I might go for it, but currently it's in the comfortable "Kinda bad but doesn't go on 5 game losing streaks" range where I'm still content just because it does things I like.
 

Jason Liang

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I've ran against quite a few Blast Zones with pirates and not cared one bit about them, which should tell you something about blast zone. Go ahead, pay 4 mana to turn my Buccaneer into a free Stone Rain.

Better if you are doing some Proliferate I guess.
 

Dawkinsfan69

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Elderspell would probably be a slightly better option simply because you could throw a Kaya down, kill your own existing Ashiok you've been downticking with elderspell to boost Kaya to 5, then fire the Kaya laser. And elderspell would give you the advantage of controlling opposing planeswalkers too so it feels a little more flexible than flux channeler for this kinda memery.

HOLY SHIT ur totally right I forgot all about elderspell! So good here

9WaXmOk.jpg

5CXrHDX.jpg


The deck kinda worked w/ flux channeler but it was really hard to pull off:

B2rr7G7.jpg

I'm going with more of a rush/get the combo off ASAP approach here's what I have now:

mVTncLF.jpg


Could probably be optimized some more but Anticipate and Shimmer especially do so much to get this to work fast
 

spectre

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That thing actually looks pretty cool. Shame I'm out of rare WCs to give it a go.
Only Homarids look a bit crap. Do you actually havea wishboard for it, because those Masterminds Acquisitions look a bit overkill.
Perhaps Oath of Teferi could give you some speed here.

I've ran against quite a few Blast Zones with pirates and not cared one bit about them, which should tell you something about blast zone. Go ahead, pay 4 mana to turn my Buccaneer into a free Stone Rain.

Better if you are doing some Proliferate I guess.
Well, it doesn't have to be useful everywhere and all the time (especially not when it comes to off-meta decks, but I reckon it could still cause you some grief when set to two).
It's still a land and comes into play untapped. That's solid enough to consider as a specialist tool.
Only time I came across it was in a control mirror, and it was relevant. It was set to 4, and we both had a Teferi/Ixalan's Binding and Gagging standstill going on.

I was actually thinking if it were possible to do a reverse-proliferate without too much hassle and lose that one counter. Seems like Soul Diviner is the only card to pull this off, but not too reliably. Still, that would make it possible to hit tokens with it.


Geez, those people... 3 days left till end season, I'm sitting on the last notch before limited gold tier and they don't put up any ranked draft events. Why the fuck won't they end the season together with the launch is beyond me.
 
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Congrats on landing the Kaya, Dawkins!

Geez, those people... 3 days left till end season, I'm sitting on the last notch before limited gold tier and they don't put up any ranked draft events. Why the fuck won't they end the season together with the launch is beyond me.
They've got ranked RNA draft running right now, it's just not listed on the front banners. Click play and then look at the events tab on the righthand side of the screen, you can snag RNA draft there.
 

Dawkinsfan69

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Congrats on landing the Kaya, Dawkins!

Hey, your idea was great. Best thing about it is that nobody ever sees it coming, I imagine they're like "wtf is this garbage deck" then they get otk. Been working pretty well

k7jYWyl.jpg

K2xmzOS.jpg

B30C9KP.jpg

tjxPaYz.jpg

o8CFaNx.jpg

fDxlMGJ.jpg

DnMDgWg.jpg

That thing actually looks pretty cool. Shame I'm out of rare WCs to give it a go.
Only Homarids look a bit crap. Do you actually havea wishboard for it, because those Masterminds Acquisitions look a bit overkill.
Perhaps Oath of Teferi could give you some speed here.

Oath is a good idea. Homarids seem alright because I'm usually literally one turn from being killed when the combo goes off and they mill 4 cards and can block a bit but yeah replacing with something like oath might be good. I don't have a sideboard but I just use mastermind to fetch whatever remaining part of the combo i need. They could probably be swapped out for something also, but I'm not sure what.. It's kinda tricky because I really only want to draw really specific cards and anything else just slows it down
 
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It's kinda tricky because I really only want to draw really specific cards and anything else just slows it down
That's why I went so heavy on the chemister's insights. They don't tutor combo pieces like the acquisition but then again I'm not focusing on the combo as heavily either. Since you're already running 4 shimmer and 4 anticipate the insights may be a decent option just because they give card advantage and can be a mana dump if you keep mana up to counter then don't feel the next to counter anything. That's another advantage they've got on mastermind's, one being instant and the other being sorcery. Although that's another difference in our decks too since I'm going heavier on the counters so keeping mana free's more important for me, so I could be completely wrong in your case.

I also haven't dicked with sideboarding yet, but odds are I'd be putting the usual tools in. More early removal for aggro (Craving, cast down, cry, etc) and hand hate for control (Duress, thought erasure, etc). Could also absolutely see running cards like Narset and baby Teferi in the sideboard since they'd shit on esper control matches fairly well, assuming they resolve of course.
 

spectre

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Oath is a good idea. Homarids seem alright because I'm usually literally one turn from being killed when the combo goes off and they mill 4 cards and can block a bit but yeah replacing with something like oath might be good. I don't have a sideboard but I just use mastermind to fetch whatever remaining part of the combo i need. They could probably be swapped out for something also, but I'm not sure what.. It's kinda tricky because I really only want to draw really specific cards and anything else just slows it down
I think the most relevant part of Oath is that is can accellerate the Kaya kill by a full turn with no good Elderspell setup. Reusing the wall mill isn't bad as well.
The question of Homarids boils down to how relevant is the body. 3/3 doesn't block a lot and dies to most burn. If it's more mill you're after, I'd say 2x Drowned Secrets and some opts or Discovery//Dispersal would be a good bet as it lets you mill as you tutor for stuff.
I can't think of any decent creature choices that fit the theme (unless we consider Thief of Sanity to be a mill card), maybe the treasure generating pirates if you want more aggro roadblocks, and there was that dominaria historian who mills when a historic spell was cast.

On the matter of Mastermind Acquisition, I think I'd start by putting one Elderspell into the sideboard (unless you'd rather have more of those). Overflowing Insight is a cool option to have in there, because it cuts the game short quite well. (Not sure if it makes the cut for the main deck, but having it wishable is nice).
 

Jaedar

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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
So, spark looks pretty cool, so I'm giving limited mtga a try. So far did one sealed got a terrible pool and went 4/3.

What's the least expensive way to play limited in this, how to go infinite etc?
 

Jason Liang

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Testing Dreadhorde Invasion in the pirates deck (replacing a Theater of Horrors and a Grasping Scoundrel). It's... very underwhelming. It does tend to not get blocked but in that case it's not going to get much higher than 3/3 or 4/4 before it actually does get killed. I suppose it's a good insurance against getting swept, and it is not bad against control. It's also not hard when it's competing with deck space with Grasping Scoundrels. Will test some more, but 2cc is tough to make the cut in this deck.
 

Jason Liang

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priest of forgotten god did grow on me. Ive burned some wildcards and started rolling with this golgari graveyard mill
7 Swamp (RIX) 194
8 Forest (RIX) 196
2 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed (GRN) 180
3 Gutterbones (RNA) 76
4 Reassembling Skeleton (M19) 116
1 Woodland Cemetery (DAR) 248
1 Assassin's Trophy (GRN) 152
1 Underrealm Lich (GRN) 211
4 Stitcher's Supplier (M19) 121
4 Glowspore Shaman (GRN) 173
4 Molderhulk (GRN) 190
4 Necrotic Wound (GRN) 79
3 Priest of Forgotten Gods (RNA) 83
2 Midnight Reaper (GRN) 77
2 Rhizome Lurcher (GRN) 196
3 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
2 Find // Finality (GRN) 225
4 Memorial to Folly (DAR) 242
1 Storrev, Devkarin Lich (WAR) 219

you were suggesting doing it in past but i was dead set on zombies at a time. now im ready to accept feedback and go further in this direction. While im out of rares I got 7 mythic that are burning my pocket

EDIT: i removed lol giant as not a single time he won a game for me

You probably want one if not two more Find // Finality. Journey to Eternity is also a good card but you have to play it smart. Now that you are focused on Priest instead of Undergrowth, I would lose the Glowspore Shamans.

I would rather have Planeswalkers like Ugin, Vivien Reed and Vraska instead of Izoni. Priest can accelerate those out fast.
 

spectre

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Off the top of my head:
1. Ditch Rhizome Lurchers, they're only decent in limited imo. The Molderhulks should do most of the heavy lifting.
2. Four memorials will slow you down. I tend to run two and it proves sufficient (and you have ways to re-use them).
3. Plageucrafters are your friends. Get some.
4. The numbers on Gutterbones / Ass Skeletons could use some tweaking. i'd start with a 3:3 split,
4x Gutter / 2x Ass probably will be be most optimal, perhaps ditching the skeletons entirely
5. A bunch of Fungal Infections would be nice. Lets you fuck with fish and rdw
6. Maybe a baby vraska or two for cycling engine and a further sac outlet?
7. Not too keen on Izoni, but it's nice to have a swarm option.
8. Lololoth Giant is a nice finisher for this type of deck. If they counter, do it all over again with memorials.
 

Venser

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Made some shitty dinosaur themed deck and I have so much more fun playing with the deck I created and improving it along the way than with some net deck. Wonder if I can make it into Mythic with it.
 

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