Magic the Gathering Arena

[Thac0]

I hate to sound like a doe eyed little bitch all the time, but what are your thoughts on "Thief of Sanity?" I just unlocked House Dimir, the NPE blue-black deck and looking over its effect that seems like it could be really nuts.

Thief was really good when it had its high time. It fell out of favor as Dimir control doesnt really exist anymore and Esper control has much better threats by now.
It should still make for a strong bomb if you drew a few. But it will rotate soon.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

I see now what you're all saying, especially with it being a card you would likely play in the midrange side of things and for some reason I thought it was a bit beefier and didn't realize it being a 2/2. But that effect if it does go off well seems like it would be pretty cool, I'm assuming if you get the exiled spell then even if the Thief of Sanity dies you still control it, right? It only mentions if the card stays in exile and not that if the Thief dies it is no longer under your power.

Also I forgot to open one of the redemption code booster packs from a few days back and like GOD himself designated, I somehow pulled Arasta of Endless Webs. The dream is coming together.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Snorkack]

So, my first quick draft was a sad 1-3 disaster. Draw the red 8/8 cycle turtle and committed myself to red/white cycle too early, I guess. 2 snare tacticians, one prickly marmoset and 41 garbage cards to follow.

In other news, I'm climbing the ladder fast with the premade Niv Mizzet deck. So far, I have a 80% winrate without any modifications* of this deck and 100% if Goblin Electromancer is in my opening hand. This deck seems to be so much more powerful than all the other premades.
I guess the next Draft entry fee will be farmed together rather quickly.

*speaking of modifications - Is there any reason why I should run four Izzet Guildgates when I have four Swiftwater Cliffs in my collection as well? Guildgate seems like 100% inferior, or does the "gate" keyword have a benefit I just fail to see?

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jason Liang]

tappedout.net is a good site for IDEAS but a lot of the decks posted are raw and haven't been tested and refined

 

[spectre]

The gate keyword pretty much only benefits the dedicated gates deck featuring shit like Gates Ablaze, Gatebreaker Ram, Guild Summit etc. etc.
Used to be a thing one year back, before Spiral of Growing Debt and Titan Urologist became the ramp package of choice, so it's not something you should be compelled to pursue.

The thing about 8 duals is a good starting point, but in actuality you may need more than that.
If you split it all evenly, with 8 duals, 8 islands and 8 mountains you get 16 mana sources for U and R, which should let you comfortably pay 2UU and 2RR mana costs (and should be more than enough to pay U, R, 1U, 1R and UR).
However, to pay both 1RR and 1UU on curve, you need more duals to achieve 18 mana sources for those colors. If you want to be able to pay UU for Essence Capture you
will need total 20 sources of blue mana.
Obviously, there's a balancing act involved: the slowdown from coming into play tapped vs. the number of lands (easier to achieve 18 colored sources on 24 lands vs. 22 lands, getting 4 lands out may be problematic on 20 lands, etc.).
So, you want all the triomes, temples, fabled passages you can get your hands on. Evolving Wilds also works in a pinch, cause it only takes common wildcards.

There's actual math behind it:
https://www.channelfireball.com/art...-cast-your-spells-a-guilds-of-ravnica-update/
https://www.channelfireball.com/art...you-need-to-consistently-hit-your-land-drops/
Really handy to unfuck your deck building and stop complaining about the shuffler. I've been following these two articles and the math seems to check out.
Sure, sometimes the game will be hell bent on screwing you over, but turns out when you give yourself enough lands it... suddenly starts to work.

where can I search user decks properly to scout for ideas?
normally I just look at goldfish but it sucks. Can't grab multicolor selection properly. Cant filter specific cards if I want to nor title of deck(which could help in some cases).
Couldnt care less about stats or stuff like that, picking arena standard/historic format is a must

How about this:
https://mtgarena.pro/decks/
It's aggregated data mined from people running trackers, but has a bunch of search options, bo1 and bo3, also shows you the win% with sample size, so you can immediately tell if it's any good.

 

[Snorkack]

*speaking of modifications - Is there any reason why I should run four Izzet Guildgates when I have four Swiftwater Cliffs in my collection as well? Guildgate seems like 100% inferior, or does the "gate" keyword have a benefit I just fail to see?

you want at least 8 dual lands in dual color deck, hence why you have two types. Once you commit to favourite color combination, start getting rare dual lands to replace those.
When I started playing I committed all my wildcards into dual lands of choice(dimir and izzet). yes, they are that important and you can reuse them in every deck of those colors. I was also buying packs instead of drafts at a time to maximize wildcards. At a time card base was way smaller though

The thing about 8 duals is a good starting point, but in actuality you may need more than that.

The "pay 2 life or enter tapped" lands like Steam Vents are faded out soon, right? I'm hesitant about using my precious rare wildcards on Ravnica stuff although everyone seems to tell me that dual lands is the most important stuff to craft.

 

[Jason Liang]

Just play mono

 

[Thac0]

*speaking of modifications - Is there any reason why I should run four Izzet Guildgates when I have four Swiftwater Cliffs in my collection as well? Guildgate seems like 100% inferior, or does the "gate" keyword have a benefit I just fail to see?

you want at least 8 dual lands in dual color deck, hence why you have two types. Once you commit to favourite color combination, start getting rare dual lands to replace those.
When I started playing I committed all my wildcards into dual lands of choice(dimir and izzet). yes, they are that important and you can reuse them in every deck of those colors. I was also buying packs instead of drafts at a time to maximize wildcards. At a time card base was way smaller though

The thing about 8 duals is a good starting point, but in actuality you may need more than that.

The "pay 2 life or enter tapped" lands like Steam Vents are faded out soon, right? I'm hesitant about using my precious rare wildcards on Ravnica stuff although everyone seems to tell me that dual lands is the most important stuff to craft.

Yes they will all be gone soon. They are incredibly powerfull and every 2 colour deck that can play them legally usually wants 4x of the appropriate shockland. This extends up to modern where they slowly get replaced by even more bonkers stuff like fetchlands.
They make for a decent super long term investation since they will be reprinted eventually and they will rules the Historc format, but there might be one or two years upcoming where none of them are standard legal. I wouldnt craft them just yet, but you have to accept that every deck you build until rotation will be strictly worse than it would be with fetches.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jason Liang]

*speaking of modifications - Is there any reason why I should run four Izzet Guildgates when I have four Swiftwater Cliffs in my collection as well? Guildgate seems like 100% inferior, or does the "gate" keyword have a benefit I just fail to see?

you want at least 8 dual lands in dual color deck, hence why you have two types. Once you commit to favourite color combination, start getting rare dual lands to replace those.
When I started playing I committed all my wildcards into dual lands of choice(dimir and izzet). yes, they are that important and you can reuse them in every deck of those colors. I was also buying packs instead of drafts at a time to maximize wildcards. At a time card base was way smaller though

The thing about 8 duals is a good starting point, but in actuality you may need more than that.

The "pay 2 life or enter tapped" lands like Steam Vents are faded out soon, right? I'm hesitant about using my precious rare wildcards on Ravnica stuff although everyone seems to tell me that dual lands is the most important stuff to craft.

Seriously, as soon as the shocklands rotate, pretty much all of the multicolor cards in Standard will become trash.

 

[spectre]

The "pay 2 life or enter tapped" lands like Steam Vents are faded out soon, right? I'm hesitant about using my precious rare wildcards on Ravnica stuff although everyone seems to tell me that dual lands is the most important stuff to craft.

You still have three months to play with them, not sure how it sounds to you. You have one of each "shockland" from starter decks, depends if you're planning on playing Historic anytime soon. If you do, crafting an extra one of each (maybe three, for color combinations that you particularly like) doesn't sound too bad as you will want to get them eventually.

For now, I would focus on the triomes. Cycling isn't super important but is nice to have this option in the late game. The important bit is they have basic land types, so stuff like eldraine Castles will come into play untapped. They're obviously must have if you want to run three color decks, though I consider them good enough to be used in two color decks. Temples are nice, but I never felt compelled to run a full set. A lot of the time when I scry, I just put the top card back where it was. Fabled Passage is also good to have.

So, if you're crafting this shit from scratch, I'd start by getting 2x Fabled Passage (maybe three, though I rarely use more than two in my decks), 2x of each Triome (prioritizing the color combinations that interest you), 2x of each castle (unless you want to play mono red, then just go 4x embereth and ask no further questions) in colors that interest you (e.g. the green one was pretty worthless to me, so I got it last), let the rest come at you "naturally" from boosters and card rewards. Fill in the blanks with Evolving Wilds and Lifeduals (all common crafts, so you can spend rares on the good stuff) and you shoud be able to craft two color decks with little trouble, three colors should be doable as well as long as you accept that sometimes coming into play tapped will cost you an occasional game (because you needed that boardwipe on turn four).
ONE gateway plaza is an acceptable substitute if you can't do better, you shouldn't really be running more than two, cause it slows you down to a crawl if you draw multiples.

If you want to play BR aggro or GR aggro, you kinda need the shocklands. Ain't nobody got time for shit to untap in aggro.

 

[Snorkack]

wow, from a horrible 1-3 Quickdraft run straight to a 7-2 blast with General Kudro & Obosh Preypiercer.

Guess I stop worrying about crafting dual lands for now and just play draft instead.

 

[Thac0]

wow, from a horrible 1-3 Quickdraft run straight to a 7-2 blast with General Kudro & Obosh Preypiercer.

Guess I stop worrying about crafting dual lands for now and just play draft instead.

Gratulations you are addicted now

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Thac0]

my raven nesting deck got some weak spots:
- lots of mana i could have spent on expensive things but I got little idea what should I include. Got syr and find/finality(to kill my dudes mainly). Otherwise im out of ideas
- that nest is mana ability and very wonky to use. Just lost a game I should have won - while in control mode ive skipped remaining part of my turn all the way of allowing enemy sorcery to be cast, all without giving me chance to scroll graveyard and win
- its more annoying than cats deck. Its like cats deck * 3 annoying

Thassa Kiora bests the Sea God is a very expensive big dumb blue win the game spell.
Liliana Dreadhorde General is generally the best black top of the curve.
Green doesnt really have a strong top end atm, Nissa or the new Vivien are probably the best.
Ashiok Nightmare Muse is used by Dimir atm.
Casualties of War is the best Golgari Finisher. The Golgari Garruk is potent aswell
Simic wants to win with Uro Titan of Natures Wrath usually but he doesnt profit from Nest, neither does Jellyfishhydra

Edit: (God damn tell the water bitches apart)

 

[Thac0]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/depictions-racism-magic-2020-06-10

hahahahhahaha

depictions of the cards banned for racism:

Spoiler

Only memorable loss is Crusade imo, would have liked that to come to Arena. If black silver bullets are now racists I see dark times for protection against black.

Also some postivity to counteract the insanity, that is one hell of a Garruk.

1st ability +3/+3 and haste until end of turn
2nd ability create a 3/3 token, gain one loyalty back if your opponent has more creatures than you
3rd ability emblem that lets you fetch one creature from your deck at your end step each turn

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I crafted arclight phoenixes and I'm playing them in historic now. Should've crafted the fuckers ages ago, they're not incredibly good but JUST LIKE ALWAYS Izzet decks are the most fun to play and I'm having a good time with them. I do feel stupid I didn't buy historic anthology 1 when it was on sale though, bunch of cards I'd like in there. Main thing holding me back from trying some mono black is not wanting to craft Phyrexian Arena and shit. And of course I'm jonesing for Serra Ascendant for mono-white fug u luka

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/depictions-racism-magic-2020-06-10

hahahahhahaha

Son of a bitch. Changing the multiverse ID on Invoke Prejudice is criminal. The stars were fucking aligned when it was assigned 1488.

 

[spectre]

Wow.
So the imagery on Jihad is Racist, but Army of Allah isn't? Or did they simply miss that one?
Here's a thought, they should reprint this for the next anthology, seems in line with what all the rage these days:

EDIT:
Okay, I can see why this one is a big nicht nicht in 2020

my raven nesting deck got some weak spots:
- lots of mana i could have spent on expensive things but I got little idea what should I include. Got syr and find/finality(to kill my dudes mainly). Otherwise im out of ideas
- that nest is mana ability and very wonky to use. Just lost a game I should have won - while in control mode ive skipped remaining part of my turn all the way of allowing enemy sorcery to be cast, all without giving me chance to scroll graveyard and win
- its more annoying than cats deck. Its like cats deck * 3 annoying

Yeah, the reason you've got so much mana is that your curve pretty much stops at four for Titan's Nest, which generates extra mana for you,
and you still play plenty of ramp on top of that. I think I'd cut two lands and it'll still run just as good.

You seem to have a hard time making good use of blue, just Titan's Nest and Secretkeeper is eeeeh.
Mnemonic Betrayal should make you a shitload of bats in one casting.

On the whole, I think you you need in there is one extra thing that comes back from the dead and one extra thing that sacrifices for effect.
Here's some ideas:

Do you have any Muldrothas? Seems like a nice fit for the colors.
I think you may also want an Erebos for some extra draw. Also an extra sac engine in case you miss the Oven.
Artisan Fiend might be another good candidate for that slot.
Yeah, these are all mythics, so I'll thing about something that doesn't break the bank.
Maybe Deathless Knight or three? He keeps coming back triggering GH and bats (and would give you an actual discount on GH).
You might just have enough triggers for it with cats and bastions, though otoh he doesn't benefit from Titan's Nest.

Also, not sure if I'm sold on Great Henge in this particular arrangement. Its biggest vice is that it doesn't boost bats. Heraldic Banner would do it.

It's surprisingly hard to find a decent sac outlet, even in the historic pool. Especially something that's free.
I always liked Agruel's Blood fast in my black decks, but it may take a while until you get to the sac part.
Baby Vraska is rather versatile and can cycle all kinds of permanents, Torgaar, Famine Incarnate is rather underused and can give the opponent a rude wake up call if they go overboard with lifegain.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Even in card games I can't escape this dumb shit lmao

 

[Thac0]

EDIT:
Okay, I can see why this one is a big nicht nicht in 2020

Oh I actually missed cleanse in the upload. Its the one that annoys me the most, since nothing apart from the colour black references it is about niggers POC.
Is protection from Black racist now? Hexproof from black? Destroy target black creature? Counter black spell? Those are very fundamental mechanics to the game.