Magic the Gathering Arena

[Ranselknulf]

Honestly I've never played against a deck just like my main deck, Purphoros Brawl deck. A couple that had him in their deck, but none with him as the Commander.

It took me a long time to perfect this deck, alot of getting my ass kicked, but while I still get the occasional nasty losing streak, I also get a fair amount sweet winning streaks, it runs very hot and cold.

Agreed, and part of breaking the losing streaks is understanding how your deck works.

When to mulligan, even down to 3 or 4 cards and how to come back and win.

My deck can often function on 2 or 3 land cards all the way through to a win. It's all about how you play your dirty tricks and what you hold back, then hit them with something that makes them question what the fuck your strategy is.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Hovering around 88% Mythic rank right now, I could probably improve that rank if I stream lined my deck, but I have more fun with the "everything and the kitchen sink" nature of my deck right now.

 

[anvi]

I've been trying lots of goofy stuff.

 

[Jason Liang]

I've been playing Yugioh Duel Links for 5 months and it's genuinely great, even as f2p. The gameplay skill and deck construction level is off the charts. It no contest puts Arena to shame.

Now is also a great time to start, as you should get 3 or 4 UR Dream Tickets to begin.

There's some newb traps though so let me know if anyone wants some advice for starting.

 

[anvi]

I've been playing Yugioh Duel Links for 5 months and it's genuinely great, even as f2p. The gameplay skill and deck construction level is off the charts. It no contest puts Arena to shame.

Now is also a great time to start, as you should get 3 or 4 UR Dream Tickets to begin.

There's some newb traps though so let me know if anyone wants some advice for starting.

I do! I am really enjoying this game again although I can't find a deck that really does it for me. I mostly played a Gates deck which they have killed off I also liked bouncing stuff around, casualties of war, etc. a lot of stuff I liked is gone. Look at the options today is like... rogue decks?! Zzzz! Or some janky red or white weenies. Not a lot else. Some annoying counterspells decks with sharks n shit. I haven't seen anything that interesting yet.

 

[Scruffy]

made a couple very slight changes, works much better now:

Deck
3 Mythos of Nethroi (IKO) 97
2 Swamp (ZNR) 272
4 Bloodchief's Thirst (ZNR) 94
2 Elspeth's Nightmare (THB) 91
2 Elspeth Conquers Death (THB) 13
1 Plains (ZNR) 268
3 Agonizing Remorse (THB) 83
3 Realm-Cloaked Giant (ELD) 26
2 Beanstalk Giant (ELD) 149
4 Chainweb Aracnir (THB) 167
2 Polukranos, Unchained (THB) 224
1 Cling to Dust (THB) 87
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (M21) 1
3 Mazemind Tome (M21) 232
2 Elder Gargaroth (M21) 179
4 Indatha Triome (IKO) 248
2 Temple of Malady (M21) 253
4 Temple of Plenty (THB) 248
2 Temple of Silence (M21) 255
2 Temple of Malady (M20) 254
2 Temple of Silence (M20) 256
1 Castle Ardenvale (ELD) 238
2 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
2 Forest (ZNR) 279
3 Feed the Swarm (ZNR) 102

This incarnation is not bad if they don't bother you with the lands. You scry a lot and draw a decent amount, you have enough resets to hang in there and then the big boys do their work. I haven't had a lot of time to practice, and games are slow as shit, but for now it's behaving ok, I'll keep developing it and see what the weak spots are but I have to say, it does feel like playing old school Rock decks, hanging by the fingernails and then beating down with the big sticks.

 

[Ranselknulf]

When you need to buy a little time.

 

[anvi]

I miss my deck that could exile several cards on turn 6 or so :/ From their hand/permanents. And my gates deck was so cool and now it sits unused. I made a new deck that is kinda fun though and wins a lot. But I'm still looking for something more fun. I had to resort to creatures this time.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I miss my deck that could exile several cards on turn 6 or so :/ From their hand/permanents. And my gates deck was so cool and now it sits unused. I made a new deck that is kinda fun though and wins a lot. But I'm still looking for something more fun. I had to resort to creatures this time.

You could exile their entire hand by turn 4.

There are lots of discard cards that cost 3 mana and less, and toss a tormod's crypt in there for fun.

Ruin of Inscription for example is a 3 black that makes the opponent discard two cards. If you get it late game is also has a kicker for more butthurt.

 

[anvi]

My version would exile their lands too. I would play Nicol Bolas with Fires, and then use Repeated Reverberation twice which copies itself, and then use Bolas's +1. So it came out about 7 exiles and 7 cards drawn and if you board wiped before that, the 7 exiles was usually enough to clear out their hand and half their lands. I think it disgusted a lot of people which was fun. I'm kinda tempted by the new Unmoored Ego type card which lets you exile a named card from their hand/deck/whatever. I think the guy used that on me twice and completely disabled the deck I was playing.

 

[Gyor]

What kind of crack are the devs on to put so insanely many blue counterspells and bounce spells into the game? Do they think it's fun to play against the kind assholes who run those decks? There needs to be more anticounter spell cards in all the other colours.

 

[Ranselknulf]

What kind of crack are the devs on to put so insanely many blue counterspells and bounce spells into the game? Do they think it's fun to play against the kind assholes who run those decks? There needs to be more anticounter spell cards in all the other colours.

I don't know, it doesn't feel like THAT many, but I don't run a 60 card deck either.

Most people in mythic seem to be running about 90 card decks, probably because of that. Just keep casting spells until they are burned out of counters.

Before putting these counters back in, the game seemed entirely aggro oriented, and it seems kinda boring playing against aggro decks and the one off combo deck that seeks to kill you with a single stupidly powerful combo.

 

[anvi]

I thought Counter decks were screwed since a lot rotated out, but yeah, I am coming up against a lot of them too. And I also hate them. Not letting the other person play is just not good game design. There are plenty of ways to be evil without making it completely unfun for some people. Also I think counters are a bit under rated by the devs. I suspect they see a counter like a removal spell but it is way worse because you don't get the enters the battlefield effects which is the best part of the creatures I use. You also don't get a chance to sacrifice the permanent that was getting removed. And you can't let it even interact with anything first, like some cards provide hexproof or something so removal wont work. But counters fucks everything :C

Also there seems to be some sort of tipping point when playing against counters too. Like if they manage to counter everything you play, even just for 5 turns or something, that water tight seal is enough to really dominate. But if you can slip through even just a creature or low cmc pw or something, it is sometimes enough to fuck with their momentum and as they kill that one thing, you manage to sneak out 2 things or whatever. There are some downsides to using counters vs removal but imo counters are basically op. And sucky to play against.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Splash a counter spell into your deck also, or cards that make your creatures / etc uncounterable. There are quite a few red green cards that have that ability now.

Alternatively, if you are getting really annoyed I sometimes toss this into my deck, haven't felt the need lately though. I like just brute force exhausting counter decks.

 

[spectre]

Duress is still legal last time I checked, so is agonizing remorse. Take a peek at their hand and you'll see there usually aren't as many counters as you think. There's stuff that lets you easily outvalue counterspells. Skyclave Shade is one,
and having to counter it time and time again after every landfall should school them enough. Stuff with cheap escape cost (with regards to the number of cards) also works.
Crawling Barrens is my go-to solution, fits pretty much anywhere, though it helps if you ramp a bit so it starts rolling a bit earlier. it ends the game rather quickly once it does and completely dodges sorcery speed. Sucks to run into deathtouch, or an eternal blocker from the white castle, but you can't have it all.

 

[Gyor]

Any advice of beating counter spell bullshit with a mono red Purphoros deck?

 

[Scruffy]

I thought Counter decks were screwed since a lot rotated out, but yeah, I am coming up against a lot of them too. And I also hate them. Not letting the other person play is just not good game design. There are plenty of ways to be evil without making it completely unfun for some people. Also I think counters are a bit under rated by the devs. I suspect they see a counter like a removal spell but it is way worse because you don't get the enters the battlefield effects which is the best part of the creatures I use. You also don't get a chance to sacrifice the permanent that was getting removed. And you can't let it even interact with anything first, like some cards provide hexproof or something so removal wont work. But counters fucks everything :C

Also there seems to be some sort of tipping point when playing against counters too. Like if they manage to counter everything you play, even just for 5 turns or something, that water tight seal is enough to really dominate. But if you can slip through even just a creature or low cmc pw or something, it is sometimes enough to fuck with their momentum and as they kill that one thing, you manage to sneak out 2 things or whatever. There are some downsides to using counters vs removal but imo counters are basically op. And sucky to play against.

Duress is still legal last time I checked, so is agonizing remorse. Take a peek at their hand and you'll see there usually aren't as many counters as you think. There's stuff that lets you easily outvalue counterspells. Skyclave Shade is one,
and having to counter it time and time again after every landfall should school them enough. Stuff with cheap escape cost (with regards to the number of cards) also works.
Crawling Barrens is my go-to solution, fits pretty much anywhere, though it helps if you ramp a bit so it starts rolling a bit earlier. it ends the game rather quickly once it does and completely dodges sorcery speed. Sucks to run into deathtouch, or an eternal blocker from the white castle, but you can't have it all.

there are definitely ways around counters, but counterspells as a concept are, in fact, bad design. The other colors don't get a free for all treatment, they can't stop every kind of spell, while blue can. Red kills artefacts, green kills enchantments and flyers, etc, why does blue get a "stop anything" pass?

counterspells should never say "target spell", but always something like creature-noncreature, or some such distinction. Blue shouldn't be able to stop anything and everything. If you put them in the same color that has card draw as well, they become just wrong.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Any advice of beating counter spell bullshit with a mono red Purphoros deck?

Probably what you already know, just brute force through it.

Increase the size of you deck so you can deal with the occasional counter / mill deck.

 

[anvi]

I always figured it was ok for each color to be OP at one thing because it all works out in the end, like rock paper scissors. Green is stompy, black is necromancer-ish, white is a pita, red is an aggro lil bitch, blue is cock blocky pansy who gets smacked around once you get past all his irritating counters.

I think they balance it really well but they should learn to just... make it fun They create whatever gameplay they want people to have with each set release. So they release a cat and an oven and you get cat oven. Or a 4 mana enchant that lets you cast anything and twice, you get fires decks all over. So like, have someone think up something better than counters p.s. Currently there are 12 different counterspells just on the first two pages, and you can have 4 of each. So obviously they are gonna be everywhere.

But blue could be way cooler than that. Fae of Wishes is awesome, like card up your sleeve that is perfect to fuck your opponent. And they have badass stuff like the clock which gets to 12 and draws a whole new 7 and shuffles gy, or the Magic Mirror, or Spark Double to have multiple Legendary Planeswalkers, Cavalier of Gales was awesome too., and my favorite is Kiora Bests the Sea God. I made a deck all about that jank and it was the funnest thing. But it was hard to make it pay off and without the Agent... it's not good enough. So 39 counterspells it is then..... So one dimensional. If I was king of MTG, I would just phase out counterspells and replace it with something funner, like anything. And I'd do the same to mill too. The current black is so boring to me. They got rid of that Liliana Dreadhorde General chick and now we get.... mill.

 

[Ranselknulf]

I always figured it was ok for each color to be OP at one thing because it all works out in the end, like rock paper scissors. Green is stompy, black is necromancer-ish, white is a pita, red is an aggro lil bitch, blue is cock blocky pansy who gets smacked around once you get past all his irritating counters.

I think they balance it really well but they should learn to just... make it fun They create whatever gameplay they want people to have with each set release. So they release a cat and an oven and you get cat oven. Or a 4 mana enchant that lets you cast anything and twice, you get fires decks all over. So like, have someone think up something better than counters p.s. Currently there are 12 different counterspells just on the first two pages, and you can have 4 of each. So obviously they are gonna be everywhere.

But blue could be way cooler than that. Fae of Wishes is awesome, like card up your sleeve that is perfect to fuck your opponent. And they have badass stuff like the clock which gets to 12 and draws a whole new 7 and shuffles gy, or the Magic Mirror, or Spark Double to have multiple Legendary Planeswalkers, Cavalier of Gales was awesome too., and my favorite is Kiora Bests the Sea God. I made a deck all about that jank and it was the funnest thing. But it was hard to make it pay off and without the Agent... it's not good enough. So 39 counterspells it is then..... So one dimensional. If I was king of MTG, I would just phase out counterspells and replace it with something funner, like anything. And I'd do the same to mill too. The current black is so boring to me. They got rid of that Liliana Dreadhorde General chick and now we get.... mill.

Idk, I think counterspells and mill keep people from building mathematically perfect decks and making the game boring.

Some fagtards out there go with statistics calculators and build the optimal 60 card deck for damage or likelihood of pulling an OP combo.

Counterspells and mill is the anti-sperg tactic.

 

[anvi]

Lol maybe that's it. I remember when I could just have a Kozilek in my deck and it shuffled the whole library automatically. Or that cool Gaea card. I remember a guy using Painter's Servant to then mill my entire deck next turn.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Lol maybe that's it. I remember when I could just have a Kozilek in my deck and it shuffled the whole library automatically. Or that cool Gaea card. I remember a guy using Painter's Servant to then mill my entire deck next turn.

I think land destruction is way more OP than counterspells though.

Having dozens of land destruction cards can shut down any deck.

There are still a couple options though, and not too much to make it crazy imo.

The main reason I haven't built a serious historic deck yet is I know i'm gonna have to deal with the land destruct fags. I might get around to it eventually though.

 

[anvi]

Yeah both are just not letting the other guy play. Not very sporting.

 

[Axioms]

Lol maybe that's it. I remember when I could just have a Kozilek in my deck and it shuffled the whole library automatically. Or that cool Gaea card. I remember a guy using Painter's Servant to then mill my entire deck next turn.

I think land destruction is way more OP than counterspells though.

Having dozens of land destruction cards can shut down any deck.

There are still a couple options though, and not too much to make it crazy imo.

The main reason I haven't built a serious historic deck yet is I know i'm gonna have to deal with the land destruct fags. I might get around to it eventually though.

You shut your facehole. Thoughts Of Ruin was a totally fair and legit card that totally took a lot of skill to play how dare you.

 

[Gyor]

Any advice of beating counter spell bullshit with a mono red Purphoros deck?

Probably what you already know, just brute force through it.

Increase the size of you deck so you can deal with the occasional counter / mill deck.

It's brawl you I can't increase the size of my deck.