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Magic the Gathering Arena

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Thac0

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I think anything red should run 4x of spikefield cave atm. The opportunity cost feels so marginal, and it answers cobra for 1 at instant speed. You can deal with the cobra even on the draw without losing tempo with a mountain and a spikefield in hand.

Like maybe not RDW, idk I don't play that deck, but stuff like Izzet, Guul, Temur.
 
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Dawkinsfan69

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ayy they refunded my draft entry cuz I complained that I couldn't play the land side of the dual side card
mwahaha

why cobra isnt 1 mana 0/3. wtf were wizzards thinking?
should be 1/3 deathtouch cuz cobras are poisonous
just make half your deck removal to deal with a t2 game ending threat bro

I think it is just really really good and comes together easily. In Sealed it is insane and almost every pod can play a medium cleric deck when all other colours suck.

yeah I've done 8 drafts so far and from what I've seen clerics have the most synergy, best statted creatures, best uncommons, they're in the colors with some of the best removal, AND they have a theme of lifegain which is an absolute bitch to play against in draft.
it seems like a pod can support at least 3 decent cleric decks because again I play against cleric decks way more often than any other deck type.
probably going to be even worse in quick draft because I'm assuming everyone will just force clerics

kinda sad because similar to ikoria, I like so much of the draft environment but people just metagame the fun out of everything and we end up with an archetype that's clearly better than everything else that everyone just forces
well whatever, since everyone's forcing clerics they're still passing me SHITLOADS of rares and I always end up with a hilarious 3 color pile of goofy shit
 

spectre

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I think anything red should run 4x of spikefield cave atm. The opportunity cost feels so marginal, and it answers cobra for 1 at instant speed. You can deal with the cobra even on the draw without losing tempo with a mountain and a spikefield in hand.

Like maybe not RDW, idk I don't play that deck, but stuff like Izzet, Guul, Temur.

Well, coming into play tapped will be a big deal from the perspective of aggro. If it means the difference between casting and not casting embercleave or turban on curve.
Heck, even if it screws your curve on turn 2 and you end up not playing anything, if this leads to not threatening a lethal on by turn 5-6... this fucks up the whole aggro business.

Let me just tell you, I only put that one mythic land that can come into play untapped into a UGR flash/ramp list I'm currently using in historic,
even with the land count at 27, it still doesn't feel entirely seamless whenever it turns up. Obviously, this being a three color deck and using ramp is also a factor,
but it does take some thinking to get the ratios right.

As to the spikefield cave, I've seen a RDW list that uses it, it's running 4 hazards on top of 23 lands, which feels excessive, but I suppose the guy did a good bunch of testing.
The plan was to abuse landfall for Akoum Hellhoud, to consistently have it as a 2/3, sometimes scoring double landfall from Fabled Passage or Field of Ruin.
See below for reference:
Deck
4 Akoum Hellhound (ZNR) 133
4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge (THB) 125
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
4 Castle Embereth (ELD) 239
4 Embercleave (ELD) 120
1 Fabled Passage (M21) 246
4 Fervent Champion (ELD) 124
1 Field of Ruin (THB) 242
3 Kargan Intimidator (ZNR) 145
4 Rimrock Knight (ELD) 137
4 Robber of the Rich (ELD) 138
4 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell (ELD) 147
17 Mountain (MIR) 346
Bottom line is: coming into play tapped is a real cost, perhaps some liberties can be taken for slower decks, but especially for aggro, you still want those 20-21 lands coming into play untapped.
I'm not sure if any real math was done an published, but while the mythic lands can be considered as more or less full-time land, you can't do the same for the ones coming into play tapped.
 
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Thac0

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I think anything red should run 4x of spikefield cave atm. The opportunity cost feels so marginal, and it answers cobra for 1 at instant speed. You can deal with the cobra even on the draw without losing tempo with a mountain and a spikefield in hand.

Like maybe not RDW, idk I don't play that deck, but stuff like Izzet, Guul, Temur.

Well, coming into play tapped will be a big deal from the perspective of aggro. If it means the difference between casting and not casting embercleave or turban on curve.
Heck, even if it screws your curve on turn 2 and you end up not playing anything, if this leads to not threatening a lethal on by turn 5-6... this fucks up the whole aggro business.

Let me just tell you, I only put that one mythic land that can come into play untapped into a UGR flash/ramp list I'm currently using in historic,
even with the land count at 27, it still doesn't feel entirely seamless whenever it turns up. Obviously, this being a three color deck and using ramp is also a factor,
but it does take some thinking to get the ratios right.

As to the spikefield cave, I've seen a RDW list that uses it, it's running 4 hazards on top of 23 lands, which feels excessive, but I suppose the guy did a good bunch of testing.
The plan was to abuse landfall for Akoum Hellhoud, to consistently have it as a 2/3, sometimes scoring double landfall from Fabled Passage or Field of Ruin.
See below for reference:
Deck
4 Akoum Hellhound (ZNR) 133
4 Anax, Hardened in the Forge (THB) 125
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
4 Castle Embereth (ELD) 239
4 Embercleave (ELD) 120
1 Fabled Passage (M21) 246
4 Fervent Champion (ELD) 124
1 Field of Ruin (THB) 242
3 Kargan Intimidator (ZNR) 145
4 Rimrock Knight (ELD) 137
4 Robber of the Rich (ELD) 138
4 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell (ELD) 147
17 Mountain (MIR) 346
Bottom line is: coming into play tapped is a real cost, perhaps some liberties can be taken for slower decks, but especially for aggro, you still want those 20-21 lands coming into play untapped.
I'm not sure if any real math was done an published, but while the mythic lands can be considered as more or less full-time land, you can't do the same for the ones coming into play tapped.

Pretty sure Akoum is much worse than people think. But this is an interesting deck.
I play Spikefield in an Sprite Dragon storm deck and it's such an incredible addition. Barely playable 1 cmc spells are autoincludes anyway, and like this it even stops my mana from spoiling.
I wouldn't play any taplands in BO1 currently. I have heard the hidden hand smoothing algorithm is confused by them and deals you really crappy hands atm.

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/ivvv3w/frank_karsten_on_bo1_handsmoothing_i_currently/

Main article paywalled so I linked a comments section.
 
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Thac0

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God those green Creaturelands are strong. I am thinking of playing 4x Kazandu Mammoth and 4x of that fight land and playing 18 lands. I think you have to calculate those fliplands as if you were playing Xerox, two of them are worth a normal land when cutting.
 

NJClaw

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God those green Creaturelands are strong. I am thinking of playing 4x Kazandu Mammoth and 4x of that fight land and playing 18 lands. I think you have to calculate those fliplands as if you were playing Xerox, two of them are worth a normal land when cutting.
The mammoth is broken, there's almost no reason at all not to play 4 of them instead of 4 forests. But that's also true for most of those lands: why would you not play them when the opportunity cost is basically zero? But I wouldn't say that two of them are worth a normal land, because, well, the card already has a land attached to it: it's more similar to a cycling land than to a cantrip.
 
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Thac0

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God those green Creaturelands are strong. I am thinking of playing 4x Kazandu Mammoth and 4x of that fight land and playing 18 lands. I think you have to calculate those fliplands as if you were playing Xerox, two of them are worth a normal land when cutting.
The mammoth is broken, there's almost no reason at all not to play 4 of them instead of 4 forests. But that's also true for most of those lands: why would you not play them when the opportunity cost is basically zero? But I wouldn't say that two of them are worth a normal land, because, well, the card already has a land attached to it: it's more similar to a cycling land than to a cantrip.

I tried replacing them 1to1 in limited and it was a horrible idea. Taplands are usually unplayable in constructed, even the super potent temples are barely playable there. You still want 75% or more of your manabase to etb untapped. I use the card sides of my fliplands most of the time, but the extra insurance is soo good. Opening 1 Forest, 2 Fliplands and a good curve is a keep, while it would be a mulligan before. Opening 2 Forest and a Flipland feels much safer than playing on 2 lands alone.
 

NJClaw

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I tried replacing them 1to1 in limited and it was a horrible idea. Taplands are usually unplayable in constructed, even the super potent temples are barely playable there. You still want 75% or more of your manabase to etb untapped. I use the card sides of my fliplands most of the time, but the extra insurance is soo good. Opening 1 Forest, 2 Fliplands and a good curve is a keep, while it would be a mulligan before. Opening 2 Forest and a Flipland feels much safer than playing on 2 lands alone.
I wouldn't call always-tapped lands unplayable in constructed: cycling lands were staples in standard back then, as were old Theros temples. I'm not completely up to date with the game though, so maybe now everything is too fast? Still, the ones that allow you to pay life should be an auto-include everywhere, even if you don't care about their other effect. But maybe I'm too out of touch with the game.
 
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Thac0

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I tried replacing them 1to1 in limited and it was a horrible idea. Taplands are usually unplayable in constructed, even the super potent temples are barely playable there. You still want 75% or more of your manabase to etb untapped. I use the card sides of my fliplands most of the time, but the extra insurance is soo good. Opening 1 Forest, 2 Fliplands and a good curve is a keep, while it would be a mulligan before. Opening 2 Forest and a Flipland feels much safer than playing on 2 lands alone.
I wouldn't call always-tapped lands unplayable in constructed: cycling lands were staples in standard back then, as were old Theros temples. I'm not completely up to date with the game though, so maybe now everything is too fast? Still, the ones that allow you to pay life should be an auto-include everywhere, even if you don't care about their other effect. But maybe I'm too out of touch with the game.

I also think the new shocklands are autoincludes if the card side is even vaguely playable. Standard has indeed become fast as fuck since OG Theros. The new Ravnica blocks were massive powercreep, followed by Eldraine which was an insanely OP set.
 
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Thac0

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I just fought literally the saltiest bastard I ever had the pleasure of crushing in limited. Spammed emotes like crazy on the game deciding turn of the game and now taps his manabase around without any cards in hand or outlets to delay his inevitable defeat lol.
 
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Thac0

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The only constant in Wotcs ban behaviour is their greed. So they will try to hit the link in the chain that devalues buying new ZNR boosters least.
So they will never hit Omnath, while he is definitly the problem for the landfall deck. It would be really degenrate if they hit fabled passage, since it is an old rare.

Since they probably really don't want to hit Snecko either it is maybe Uro's time t go?
 

spectre

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I'd be surprised if it's Fabled Passage, they printed this shit two sets in a row which was bad enough (though, I'd gladly take all the 8 wildcards).
As an alternative, Escape to the Wilds is rather lowkey, but it's an obnoxious must-counter card advantage. It'll also slightly fuck with shamrock which is always a good thing in my books.

A lot of people seem to be expecting Urologist to go and I think this just might be the best course (in Historic as well) to abate the Magic the Rampening problem.
I think it's high time they realize their current approach to ramp isn't working, no matter how many Cleansing Wildfires they print, ramp is still tier 1, well above a lot of other decent decks.
Stop fucking around and give us Back to Basics, Price of Progress or a nonbasic Armageddon. if you spam them like crazy, there's a price to pay. I think it's a fair approach.

A lot of people call the problem cards to be Lotus Cobra and Omnath, but are they really? Cobra is obnoxious, but it's pretty much your fault if you're not packing any of the 1-2 mana removals.
Same thing as mono red going overboard with Steam-Kun, with time people just came to terms that sometimes you just need to answer a two drop fucking stat.
I've actually started seeing Omnath in historic and it can go nuts without ever drawing Omnath, so he may be less of a problem.
I'd say if there's a problem with Landfall in general, it was balanced for being triggered once every turn. it's when it's way too easy to consistently achieve 2+ triggers per turn problems start.
I think it's fair when it's enabled by a niche card (evolving wilds) or an easily killable creature (Azusa).
 

NJClaw

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A lot of people call the problem cards to be Lotus Cobra and Omnath, but are they really? Cobra is obnoxious, but it's pretty much your fault if you're not packing any of the 1-2 mana removals.
I think it's pretty much WotC's fault if they are not printing any 1-2 mana removal that doesn't suck big hairy balls.
 

spectre

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You're not wrong. Heres hoping we get Fatal Push soon. Would be cool if we got PtE at some point as well.
Seriously, though,
Black probably one of the best 1-2 cmc removal suites in a while. Bloodchief's Thirst is doing excellent work all round, heartless act, eliminate, grope of darkness.
Shock is still in Standard and so is Scorching Dragonfire to make shit stay dead. Not to mention, you can even use spikefields in the land slot, which are nice tech to make Uro stay in hades.
White can still slot glass casket, and I think I recall they got a few thingies that can deal 1+ damage, depending on what else is on the board.

Only thing that probably won't be able to immediately kill a turn two cobra in Standard is green and blue, and if you're in these colors... you are the one playing cobras.
 
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Thac0

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You're not wrong. Heres hoping we get Fatal Push soon. Would be cool if we got PtE at some point as well.
Seriously, though,
Black probably one of the best 1-2 cmc removal suites in a while. Bloodchief's Thirst is doing excellent work all round, heartless act, eliminate, grope of darkness.
Shock is still in Standard and so is Scorching Dragonfire to make shit stay dead. Not to mention, you can even use spikefields in the land slot, which are nice tech to make Uro stay in hades.
White can still slot glass casket, and I think I recall they got a few thingies that can deal 1+ damage, depending on what else is on the board.

Only thing that probably won't be able to immediately kill a turn two cobra in Standard is green and blue, and if you're in these colors... you are the one playing cobras.

As a green main I never had a problem with killing a Cobra. 1 cmc fights, 2 cmc bites and instand, 3 cmc fightlands.
What is annoying about cobra is that it can be used for huge value turns. Dropping it with 3 lands and going Passage > Fetch is a mana neutral play. You end up with 4 mana and a free cobra. It is maybe too good on it's own, but it doesn't need much to keep it in check.
 

Dawkinsfan69

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just about all of white's removal is a permanent that costs 2-3 mana and dies to ugin turn 4 and gives opponent their shit back when it dies. it's godawful
really only black and red has playable removal right now

anyway monday will probably 'suspend' uro with some statement about how they're 'keeping an eye on things'
really they need to ban the following:
  • uro
  • ugin
  • cobra
  • omnath
  • casualties of war
  • fae of wishes
  • zareth san
  • soaring thought-thief
  • mill crab
  • drown in the loch
  • clover OR innkeeper
  • embercleave
 

Gyor

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Okay I started playing Arena literally the day right before renewal. I had bought one of those starter kits, were you get both physical cards and codes for Arena. I shouldn't have bothered, I don't use those cards, they rotated out the next day.

But it was cheap so I don't give a fuck and I'm having alot more fun and learning a lot faster then I thought. I dabbled with MtG card games before, but I sucked so I wasn't expecting anything different.

And at first I lost a lot in the colour challenges. But I got better over time.

I beat the colour challenges. Then I tried Brawl, but didn't have the right cards for that to not suck yet.

Last night with a modified peace keeper deck, I tried I think basic standard at first and I only lost 3 times, I was killing it's, I had an unbroke streak of 15-20 game before my first lost, I won often enough that last time I decided to try ranked standard, thinking it would be harder and it was sometimes, and out of my first 3 games, I lost twice then went on another major winning streak. With a modified peace keeper deck that you get for free, I just added a few things I got from renewel and from free packs, like some Kor clerics, Lurrus of the Dream Den (not as a Companion, just a regular card), that giant moth that raises folks from the dead, and Ugin (but no green ramp, he doesn't pop out until late game, so no Ugin abuse, he only won me 3 games), some of those dual lands that grant 1 life, and Emeria Land (haven't summoned the tokens yet). Maybe a couple others. Monowhite deck.

And I'm killing with a free modded starter deck. This is upsetting the natural order of things. I am a natural born loser when it comes to competition, I'm not used to beating other people so much, all this winning is nice, but its freaking me out.

I me one minute I think I'm fucked because some is milling the fuck out of me until I realize thanks to Lurrus all this does is give me functional a larger hand to play card from because I'm playing milled 2 mana cards right out of my graveyard.

In my brief dabble with brawl I went with a red deck, but I'm thinking of doing a brawl deck with the Moth or Lurrus as commander.

And as I was writing this I got caught on the bus without a ticket, but the guy gave me enough time to buy a ticket with my app instead of giving me a fine. Now that is a winning streak.
 

spectre

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See, you could have tried the casino or lottery instead. But now it's jinxed.

When it comes to ranked, gold and below is basically nublets or people smurfing to be able to play jank combos.
A decent budget deck can get you up to platinum and the real deal (i.e. top tier netdecks galore with odd brews) starts here.

These guys do decent budget deck writeups every now and then, might want to check it out.
https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arena-budget-standard-decks/
 

Dawkinsfan69

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ok so I made a dimir yorion control deck and I literally steamroll rogues now since they can't mill 80 cards and their creatures suck
so I guess I take back my earlier post saying rogues need to be butchered with bans
still it kinda sucks that I'm forced to play an 80 card deck, BUT the yorion deck is actually way more consistent than I thought it would be, ESPECIALLY with the new modal lands (kill land, anticipate land, mythic blue land, etc.. are so insanely good in a slow controlly deck and make up a lot for having 20 extra cards)

also the deck can hold its own against the uro omnath cobra pile which is insane, but it's still a tough matchup (i think it is for any deck)

IF Wotc could just errata uro and omnath to get rid of the "draw a card" etb I think they would be a lot more fair, a huge problem is that the cards provide insane value on their own AND then they replace themselves on top of that.

still think ugin needs a ban though. so ugin and uro for monday with omnath errata is my hope
 

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Do not give WOTC a single dime. You will regret it. Even better don't play this shitpile until they unfuck the client.
 

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