Magic the Gathering Arena

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

i don't wanna

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

At last until casinos re-open I can fuel my degeneracy in another way.

1v1 Tavern Swindler only me, pussy.

this is hilarious lmao

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Is it normal to wish you were sitting across the table from someone when playing so you could smash your head into their mouth?

 

[lobsterfrogman]

Is it normal to wish you were sitting across the table from someone when playing so you could smash your head into their mouth?

Yeah, Arena is nice and all, but I miss the social aspect of the game too ;-)

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

Fuck those fucking weak faggots.
First they tease spoilers from Jumpstar, making me yearn to reanimate lifeless tissue, then immediately cockblock by saying a bunch of cards won't be included in Arena.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articl...art-cards-being-replaced-mtg-arena-2020-06-17

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Thac0]

This from jumpstart will not appear in historic. Any idea why? I had a few of those irl, they are not even standard playable, far from being dangerous to historic.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Okay after a solid week of actual playing I've been focusing on a heavily modified version of the Mono Black NPE deck. I've been having some decent success with it, especially against decks of similar power. I'm going to spoiler tag it for wall of text purposes from a mentally challenged n00b.

Spoiler

The cards I took off immediately were Vampire Opportunist, Vindictive Vampire, Spinal Centipede and Gravewaker. I also reduced the amount of Swamps down some from the initial 25 down to around 21. I cut Gruesome Menagerie and Agonizing Siphon as well. I also trimmed down the Thirsting Bloodlords from 3 to 2 and Childs of Night from 4 to 2 and Murder from 3 to 2.

I've been putting a focus on the interaction of life gain with the Vampire Aerialist and ways to hit the opponent to enhance both the Aerialist and Savage Gorger (which I've added 2 more of) as well as the Knight of the Ebon Legion being able to constantly smash things. The cards I've gone with are Serrated Scorpions for their death trigger, Ill Gotten Inheritance for its constant life drain at the start of my upkeep as well as a game closer condition with its sacrifice effect, and I've tossed in a couple Blood Burglars for their cheap mana cost and situational lifelink.

I've added in some additional cards that are there for some utility purposes as well. I have a few copies of Duress since I like to use it for knowledge of what my opponent is holding and making them drop key spells. I added in two Murderous Riders for removal as well as Blacklance Paragons to intercept problematic monsters and again add in some free lifelinking. I've also put in a couple Grimdancers for ghetto board wiping with Menace/Deathtouch.

Beyond that I've played with a few cards I've pulled for fun like Inevitable End or Severed Strands to varying degrees of success, but how would you further improve this? I've been looking at things like Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Haunt of Hightower. Sorin seems like a good addition all around but the Haunt looks like you could do some dirty things with cards like Vicious Rumors. My only problem with the Haunt is it's pretty expensive to play and a 3/3 at that stage seems like it's begging to be hit with a removal, but the gambler in me can't help but think how wild things could become if you can have it live long enough to take advantage of its effect.

But at the same time, if Haunt is allowed to spiral out of control then is it considered a simple win more card? Right now Sorin seems like the smarter choice to go with (I know there's the rotation coming in the Fall, but I've also been playing most of my time in the Play vs. mode). Basically I'm looking to go up to the next level in terms of upgrading the deck and would like some pointers on where to go next from here. I've also not looked at many M21 cards coming in and if I should save wildcards for anything there.

 

[Thac0]

Okay after a solid week of actual playing I've been focusing on a heavily modified version of the Mono Black NPE deck. I've been having some decent success with it, especially against decks of similar power. I'm going to spoiler tag it for wall of text purposes from a mentally challenged n00b.

Spoiler

The cards I took off immediately were Vampire Opportunist, Vindictive Vampire, Spinal Centipede and Gravewaker. I also reduced the amount of Swamps down some from the initial 25 down to around 21. I cut Gruesome Menagerie and Agonizing Siphon as well. I also trimmed down the Thirsting Bloodlords from 3 to 2 and Childs of Night from 4 to 2 and Murder from 3 to 2.

I've been putting a focus on the interaction of life gain with the Vampire Aerialist and ways to hit the opponent to enhance both the Aerialist and Savage Gorger (which I've added 2 more of) as well as the Knight of the Ebon Legion being able to constantly smash things. The cards I've gone with are Serrated Scorpions for their death trigger, Ill Gotten Inheritance for its constant life drain at the start of my upkeep as well as a game closer condition with its sacrifice effect, and I've tossed in a couple Blood Burglars for their cheap mana cost and situational lifelink.

I've added in some additional cards that are there for some utility purposes as well. I have a few copies of Duress since I like to use it for knowledge of what my opponent is holding and making them drop key spells. I added in two Murderous Riders for removal as well as Blacklance Paragons to intercept problematic monsters and again add in some free lifelinking. I've also put in a couple Grimdancers for ghetto board wiping with Menace/Deathtouch.

Beyond that I've played with a few cards I've pulled for fun like Inevitable End or Severed Strands to varying degrees of success, but how would you further improve this? I've been looking at things like Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord and Haunt of Hightower. Sorin seems like a good addition all around but the Haunt looks like you could do some dirty things with cards like Vicious Rumors. My only problem with the Haunt is it's pretty expensive to play and a 3/3 at that stage seems like it's begging to be hit with a removal, but the gambler in me can't help but think how wild things could become if you can have it live long enough to take advantage of its effect.

But at the same time, if Haunt is allowed to spiral out of control then is it considered a simple win more card? Right now Sorin seems like the smarter choice to go with (I know there's the rotation coming in the Fall, but I've also been playing most of my time in the Play vs. mode). Basically I'm looking to go up to the next level in terms of upgrading the deck and would like some pointers on where to go next from here. I've also not looked at many M21 cards coming in and if I should save wildcards for anything there.

The play versus mode puts you against other historic decks when you have any non standard legal cards in deck. It might make your matchups harder when you decide to play Sorin post rotation. He is the liveblood of Vampire tribal tho.
Haunt of Hightower is a limited card, not even in the same stratosphere powerwise as Sorin.

From your writeup you seem to be focussing on four different strategies atm:

Livegain
Monoblack
Vampires
Aggro

For lifelink the inclusion of white with those Leonin that get +1/+1 whenever you heal yourself and Heliod is really good.
Monoblack needs Grey Merchant of Asphodel and Nightmare Shephard
Vampires needs Sorin
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=25968&d=395002&f=ST this is what Mono Black aggro looks like somewhat

 

[spectre]

Things

Cutting a few swamps was probably the smart thing to do. the starter decks are notorious for giving you a bit too much.
However, don't go overboard in the other direction. At 21 lands you should be able to comfortably cast your 1-3 mana things, but anything more expensive you should probably remove.
As the game drags on you'll get the mana, but why risk having dead cards in hand.
You should be comfortable in the 22-24 mana range with beginner decks that don't want to just dump their hands as fast as possible, of course this depends on the deck's average mana cost.
I linked a bunch of articles for it a few pages back, @ me if you need a quest compass.

Not a lot of tinkering you can do with the monocolored starter decks, the fun starts with the bicolor NPEs because they at least have some kind of a defined theme.
Here's what you can do with just black at the moment (I'm mostly listing Uncommon and Common stuff so you won't break bank, put your rare wildcards away until later):

Discard is one of the perks of playing black. If you feel like you're missing a lot of time with Duress, Agonizing Remorse is a bit of an upgrade. This strategy loses efficiency as the game drags on and the opponent just plays whatever they draw,
but it can be rather effective when you pluck them clean of removal. Drill Bit is never boring and works great if you can ping the opponent reliably.

If you enjoy plinking people with lifegain, another black theme to try out is stuff coming back from the dead - Deathless Knight will keep coming and coming as long as you gain life. Blood For Bones is card that'll let you recycle cards over and over again
so you can use their comes into play abilities again and again (try Yarok's Fenlurkers and Plaguecrafters). There are utility creatures (Sanitarium Skeleton) that let you pay the sacrifice cost over and over agaiin.

The Cauldron Familiar + Witch's Oven combo - recommending this with heavy heart cause this shit is all over the place in the ladder, don't let that discourage you. It's a cheap combo that does a lot of things: gains you life, lets you endlessly block a creature with your cat.
It's a very cheap to craft but viable combo, feel free to explore its other implications as you add more pieces (free draw with your Midnight Reaper, you should have at least one of those, Spectacle every turn for Drill Bit).

Mono black devotion used to be a thing for a brief time, no harm done in trying this out. The basic plan is to accumulate as many black mana symbols on your permanents (Yarok's Fenlurker adds two, Deathless Knight adds four), then drop a Gray Merchant of Asphodel
for a bit of a swing in the life totals.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Discard is one of the perks of playing black.

I actually fought someone using this exact strategy where they'd make you discard a bunch of cards which I found very interesting. Somehow I managed to win in the end, but it was one frustrating ordeal to go up against especially with that Davriel card constantly smacking you about. Very annoying and trolly, so I like it.

Livegain
Monoblack
Vampires
Aggro

Keep in mind this is my sort of "growing pains" deck since I've never played Magic before so I wanted something relatively straightforward to get accustomed and comfortable with before trying out the more crazy decks. Do you think going black/white would be a superior idea, then, for what I'm trying to incorporate here?

https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=25968&d=395002&f=ST this is what Mono Black aggro looks like somewhat

I'm guessing this is the Oven/Cat thing that spectre mentioned above?

 

[Jason Liang]

Like I wrote previously, Famished Paladin and Adanto Vanguards are both really interesting vampire pieces in W. B/W aka Orzhov also opens up some cards like Queen's Comission and Call to the Feast as well as the pretty sweet removal and other fun spells in Orzhov.

Red is the third vampire color but Arena doesn't have the red vampires. There are some interesting U/B aka Dimir vampires as well. Etrata has some wacky combos, being her own win condition:

Now, in Modern, this guy is beats -

 

[Thac0]

Discard is one of the perks of playing black.

I actually fought someone using this exact strategy where they'd make you discard a bunch of cards which I found very interesting. Somehow I managed to win in the end, but it was one frustrating ordeal to go up against especially with that Davriel card constantly smacking you about. Very annoying and trolly, so I like it.

Livegain
Monoblack
Vampires
Aggro

Keep in mind this is my sort of "growing pains" deck since I've never played Magic before so I wanted something relatively straightforward to get accustomed and comfortable with before trying out the more crazy decks. Do you think going black/white would be a superior idea, then, for what I'm trying to incorporate here?

Mono White healing is pretty strong in standard currently, in Historic it is one of the best decks in the format since the Soul Sisters package is in there. So yes, going Orzhov lifegain triggers would significantly boost your winrate if you enjoy that playstile. Its also not very hard to play, just slam down a bunch of Healing Hawks, Alseids of Lifes Bounty and Ajanis pridemate (in Orzhov you can also use the Vampire of the Dire Moon), turn them sideways and win the game.

https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=25968&d=395002&f=ST this is what Mono Black aggro looks like somewhat

I'm guessing this is the Oven/Cat thing that spectre mentioned above?

Also no, not really. Cat oven plays Rakdos for 4x Mayhem Devil and 4x Claim the Firstborn.
https://mtgazone.com/deck/rakdos-sacrifice-by-eli_loveman-players-tour-online-2/
Mono black aggro usually puts in the Oven combo aswell for redundancy, but they want to win the game not by infinitly looping the cat and slowly burning your opponent down but by smacking their face in with Knight of the Ebon Legion and Gutterbones.
The deck has fallen out of favor a bit since Rakdos sacrifice is just better, but I believe they played Ayara, First of Locthwain and Rankle, Master of Pranks aswell?

Edit: Fucked my formating to epic proportions and put half my response in the quote

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Thac0

Going back to Haunt of Hightower, what do you think about using Sorin's ability that lets you play a vamp from your hand directly to get him out there quicker (assuming you have done well in baiting removals that it feels comfortable)? Does that up his viability in a vamp centric deck or is he still whatever?

 

[Thac0]

Thac0

Going back to Haunt of Hightower, what do you think about using Sorin's ability that lets you play a vamp from your hand directly to get him out there quicker (assuming you have done well in baiting removals that it feels comfortable)? Does that up his viability in a vamp centric deck or is he still whatever?

I have taken a look at the few standard legal vampires, and he seems to be the best target for his ability. Still I wouldnt include a card that is unplayable on its own just to cast it for free with Sorin. A 6 drop that dies to Fire Prophecy and Deafening Clarion is just not good.
In historic you get much better targets like Vona, butcher of Magan, Champion of Dusk, Sanctum Seeker and Twilight Prophet.

I wouldnt craft any Haunts.
If you play standard you need to move on from Vampires into some kind of lifegain stuff anyway. Core 21 has only one good Vampire and he has that life thing going on.
If you play Historic you dont need Haunt.

 

[Jason Liang]

Heyo, control is dead

 

[Thac0]

Heyo, control is dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDqHoxVHW_s CONTROL IS DEAD

Historic only tho and I am fine if elves get cool toys there. I tried them but they go nowhere currently. Or I am just bad at the game.

 

[spectre]

Speaking of being bad at the game, wanted to see if I can get to Mythic this time round.
Was one pip away THEN I hit a streak of no less than 20 freaking losses, with a streak of at least eight "opponent is going first" in a row. Why was I doing this to myself again?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[DrLocrian]

As I played mono black devotion recently, here is my take: It works best with bolas citadel. Bolas citadel in mono black works best if you can cheat it earlier - priest is the only option.
Thats for standard, I feel it becomes way better in historic once you add obliterators and phyrexian arenas.
Once core21 kicks in, I'll have some fun by trying underworld dreams and

, maybe even ditch half of the critters and focus on black enchantments/artifacts + board wipes at that point.

Without citadel you need shepherd and some way of saccing to cheat merchant into being cast twice

Add Rankle, Foreboding Fruit and Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted. I am running a deck like this and it's 50/50 whether it works 100% of the time.

But it is fun.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Turn 4/5 pirate aggro draft deck:

this just felt mean ‍‍

 

[Gerrard]

In light of recent events I'd like to reiterate my proposal

Just wanted to remind you all that anyone supporting this shit company by playing this game should have the cuck tag.