Magic the Gathering Arena

[anvi]

I love this now, it is way better than last year. All the obnoxious and OP shit is gone and now I am getting decent matches every game, and lots of variety too. Did wotc fire someone or something? There is still some stuff that seems brutal but it is not like it was with Oko/Fires/Torbran shitting up every game. I had a few match ups against that Torbran deck but it seems a little bit less spicy so at least I have a chance now as long as I get a decent draw. Also I've only seen it 2 or 3 times out of like 30 games. The only scary stuff I've seen so far are the rogue which can swap in during an attack and then it hits for 4 ish but makes you return a permanent or something. Kinda harsh getting hit with that on turn 5 or whatever. But the rest of that deck looks a bit meh to me. There was also an Eldrazi card for about 10 mana which was a big problem, kills 3 permanents on attack etc. That guy is hard because some decks can ramp up to 10 mana in no time.

Other than that I've been mostly kicking ass. Also that Standard ranked mode seems different now, like they rotated more out of that than in the normal Play mode. So play I can use some of my old fun decks, but ranked I had to make a whole new deck because most of my stuff had rotated. I miss some stuff! I think they are crazy to kill gates, I had so much fun with those decks. But gates are gone and so are the key cards, sad. I kinda miss some spells too like that board wipe which bounced a creature. But there are plenty of new cards too and they are fun and pretty balanced. I'm impressed!

 

[anvi]

Seriously though, not having rdw 99% of games and not having those obnoxious counterspell decks where you barely get to cast a single card... And the cat oven having to watch that stupid process for hours on end... Whoever decided this was how people should play, really needs to not be working at that company. And whoever got it to the state it is now, needs to be promoted. Just imo.

 

[spectre]

yeah it might just be too weak an archetype in this meta

Post your progress. I think it's not a bad pile, but it tries to do a lot of things at once.
Bo3 would let you dump shit that doesn't work for all matchups, e.g. Durex, Remorse won't do crap vs Gruul, Aracnir will be disappointing vs. non-rogues, etc.

If you insist on making these colors work, Mythos in particular, I've seen a rather promising thing based on GW +1/+1 counter engine, splashing black for mythos, ploukranos, grakmaw and a bunch of things.
Personally, I think the lack of GB pathway is the biggest hurdle.

 

[Gyor]

Seriously though, not having rdw 99% of games and not having those obnoxious counterspell decks where you barely get to cast a single card... And the cat oven having to watch that stupid process for hours on end... Whoever decided this was how people should play, really needs to not be working at that company. And whoever got it to the state it is now, needs to be promoted. Just imo.

Yeah way too many counter spells.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Scruffy]

yeah but that's only if you want all the cards, come on, I play for free just fine

 

[[UCHIHA]XxDarkSasuke420xX]

I don't think mtg is really the game to be basing your streaming career around if you're worried about money
it's like not even in the top 70 games on twitch right now lmao

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

they were recently complaining about wildcards and bills, nice to see actual numbers.
Interesting to see whales that cant get mythic cards they want/need

It is kind of outrageous, but like Scruffy said that's only if you're going full jankmeister and want to have ALL the cards to play ALL the decks. Thus far I think I'm still only about $65 total into MTGA (That one newbie bundle and then the one preorder on packs for War of the Spark) and I've got a fuckton of wildcards from being a hoarder. WotC should make it more forgiving for whales since if you're dropping near $2,000 a year on Arena you should have all the cards and be blinging out all your cards in styles, though.

The mythics being more vital probably factors in to jank a lot too. For a lot of the cards there are clear winners that are either auto-include in decks running that color or at least MOST decks running that color/archetype. But then you get some weird-ass mythics that are build arounds so you want a full playset just to play one particular deck even though they're kind of useless in just about anything else. Tinybones from Jumpstart would be an easy example. Not very easy to crack from packs since you have to play a lot of Jumpstart, you kinda want a playset of him if you're running him (Outside historic brawl of course), and he's only really important for discard decks and the vast majority of decks playing black don't want him and/or aren't running enough discard to warrant playing him. Though again, I do easily agree WotC should be more generous when it comes to spending money on Arena because unlike paper and MTGO your cards can't be traded/sold so they should be absolute rock-bottom cheap compared to any other form of Magic. I kinda feel the same about paper Magic but that ship has sailed.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

well... yeah... but then if you take into account how you are pushed into getting daily wins and have enough wc for single competetive deck in given standard, you end up with everyone playing same shit

Single competitive deck is exaggeration ofc, make it 2 in case something gets banned.

Then you get historic... and all the fun in historic comes from playing jank :/

And now you see the true enemy of Magic Arena, HISTORIC!
Which I typed that up as a bit of a joke but stewing on it for a moment really does drive home how historic is the primary guilty party. Arena's standard-focus worked fine with the monetization scheme they've got going on, but backloading cards into historic without the stack of free boosters from the mastery pass (Previously weeklies) for each standard set makes it dramatically more difficult to get that jank. I wonder how well packs of Kaladesh and Amonkhet have been selling. If they're doing well then WotC probably won't bother trying to improve shit.

 

[Gyor]

Does anyone else just play 90% of the time Brawl. I dabble in Standard for daily quests that are green & blue, but that is really it. I don't play historic at all.

 

[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

 

[Ranselknulf]

Seriously though, not having rdw 99% of games and not having those obnoxious counterspell decks where you barely get to cast a single card... And the cat oven having to watch that stupid process for hours on end... Whoever decided this was how people should play, really needs to not be working at that company. And whoever got it to the state it is now, needs to be promoted. Just imo.

Wait until you reach diamond / mythic rank.

95% red/green rules (with another color splashed in sometimes).

I'm the only retard who plays white blue black although I noticed a couple other people starting to copy my deck.

 

[spectre]

A lot of the time it's RG, rogues or control, but even in upper diamond (still not sure if I can be bothered to grind mythic this season) I still bump into an odball deck every now and then, like mono blue tempo with greatsharks, or mono green with Ozolith and Mechagojiras.
It had this cool trick where you can play two Yolo lord of Gardenbrig in a row with Ozolith out to get a 9/9+ on turn four.

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

Glad it's taking shape. Be sure to try 26 lands. Check out on sparky which one flows better. I think you should see an improvement (although I suspect you get by by scrying a lot).
It should specifically help with getting to 5 lands for gargaroth and giant, as well as making Ugin more castable.
Easiest fit is 2x Feed the Swarm -> Hagra Mauling + Pelakka Predation. All in all, I like the idea of Feed the Swarm, but in practice it's often underwhelming. I find myself not liking the life loss or the sorcery speed, depending on matchup.
I think the only remaining questionable choices left are aracnir (I recognize the need for it, though you already have polukranos, ECD and cling to dust to exploit milling) and beanstalk giant.
There's nice synergy with realm-clad, but playing only two means that neither the adventure part nor the giant part will be too relevant. At the most you can expect him to be a 7/7 or 8/8
which is all right, but not terribly spectacular. I'd consider putting something cheap but versatile in these slots (for 1 aracnir and 2 giants) - Blacklance Paragon does a lot of things,
Lovestruck Beasts are a great roadblock if you're getting buggered by aggro. If this were Bo3, I'd totally side these things in.
For a more odball choice, Lithoform Blight is often overlooked but it can be an interesting choice. It replaces itself and can fix your mana as well as kill an opposing utility land.
I played this a lot in limited, and actually had a guy shut off my crawling barrens with it.

Now, all this leaves you with the problem of too much shit coming into play tapped, while you're obviously fine doing nothing on turn one, you most definitely want to play that tome on turn two,
and you can't really afford missing a turn three play. Not to mention land drop #5 for Realm Clad. The obvious solution is to upgrade some of the temples to pathways, perhaps 1-2 fabled passages.
If you have any other triomes, I'd replace some of the temples (as long as 2 out of 3 colors match) to increase the odds of the castles coming into play tapped.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[anvi]

I started climbing the ranks again, it reset me to bronze or something so I've been playing for fun and climbing. I feel kind of shitty killing people so brutally sometimes but the game is too cut throat to goof around. I do the Play thing sometimes which is fun. Nothing at stake and anything goes decks. I love gaining ranks too but its nice to play with old favorites again like Ashiok.

 

[anvi]

Seriously though, not having rdw 99% of games and not having those obnoxious counterspell decks where you barely get to cast a single card... And the cat oven having to watch that stupid process for hours on end... Whoever decided this was how people should play, really needs to not be working at that company. And whoever got it to the state it is now, needs to be promoted. Just imo.

Wait until you reach diamond / mythic rank.

95% red/green rules (with another color splashed in sometimes).

I'm the only retard who plays white blue black although I noticed a couple other people starting to copy my deck.

I noticed people steal decks too, sucks! Kinda looking forward to Mythic again though, it was like a different game. No fun decks... mostly. Just serious brutal decks which is interesting to see. I was burned out once I reached it last time but I'd like to spend some time in mythic trying ideas out.

 

[Ranselknulf]

Seriously though, not having rdw 99% of games and not having those obnoxious counterspell decks where you barely get to cast a single card... And the cat oven having to watch that stupid process for hours on end... Whoever decided this was how people should play, really needs to not be working at that company. And whoever got it to the state it is now, needs to be promoted. Just imo.

Wait until you reach diamond / mythic rank.

95% red/green rules (with another color splashed in sometimes).

I'm the only retard who plays white blue black although I noticed a couple other people starting to copy my deck.

I noticed people steal decks too, sucks! Kinda looking forward to Mythic again though, it was like a different game. No fun decks... mostly. Just serious brutal decks which is interesting to see. I was burned out once I reached it last time but I'd like to spend some time in mythic trying ideas out.

I've only played against 2 people trying to steal my deck style so far, but my deck is so bizarre nobody is gonna have the exact combo of cards in my shit.

Got to mythic yesterday. Took me a while because its exam month.

 

[anvi]

I get kinda REEEEE about it (internally), I played against this girl once once in and her deck had a similar idea to mine but was missing something awesome that complimented the idea so well (Emeria lands with some ramp) and next day I played her again and it was like a carbon copy of the thing I spent ages perfecting >.<

I still kicked her ass =) The last guy I just played 10 minutes ago had a similar deck and I am sure he will copy my deck that time too, after I brutalized him. But he only saw the first half and he only saw a dream perfect draw so he will discover how shit it is half the time

 

[Ranselknulf]

I get kinda REEEEE about it (internally), I played against this girl once once in and her deck had a similar idea to mine but was missing something awesome that complimented the idea so well (Emeria lands with some ramp) and next day I played her again and it was like a carbon copy of the thing I spent ages perfecting >.<

I still kicked her ass =) The last guy I just played 10 minutes ago had a similar deck and I am sure he will copy my deck that time too. But he only saw the first half and he only saw a dream perfect draw so he will discover how shit it is half the time

I think even if somebody had an exact copy of my deck, how its played is kinda crazy. Here, I'll see if I can dump the cards in it here for you to laugh at.

Tell me what other retard plays 2 magic mirrors at the mythic level. So much rage quit lol

250 card autism here

Spoiler

Deck
2 Murder (M20) 109
1 Elspeth's Nightmare (THB) 91
4 Tranquil Cove (M20) 259
4 Dismal Backwater (M20) 245
1 Swamp (AKR) 338
3 Cloudkin Seer (M20) 54
1 Swamp (ELD) 261
3 Disenchant (M20) 14
3 Stonecoil Serpent (ELD) 235
1 Liliana, Waker of the Dead (M21) 108
2 Field of Ruin (THB) 242
2 Labyrinth of Skophos (THB) 243
4 Didn't Say Please (ELD) 42
1 Angel of Vitality (ANB) 1
2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den (IKO) 226
4 Scoured Barrens (M20) 251
3 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242
1 Mythos of Illuna (IKO) 58
3 Nadir Kraken (THB) 55
2 Frogify (ELD) 47
1 Plains (ELD) 253
4 Realm-Cloaked Giant (ELD) 26
3 Resolute Rider (ELD) 214
2 Folio of Fancies (ELD) 46
1 Wishclaw Talisman (ELD) 110
1 Revoke Existence (THB) 34
4 Epic Downfall (ELD) 85
1 Giant Killer (ELD) 14
1 Goring Ceratops (XLN) 13
1 Sea-Dasher Octopus (IKO) 66
2 Midnight Clock (ELD) 54
2 Drown in the Loch (ELD) 188
4 Castle Ardenvale (ELD) 238
1 Island (IKO) 263
2 Witch's Vengeance (ELD) 111
1 Plains (WAR) 252
1 Glass Casket (ELD) 15
4 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
4 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
1 Vantress Gargoyle (ELD) 71
1 Lithoform Engine (ZNR) 245
1 Elspeth Conquers Death (THB) 13
2 Piper of the Swarm (ELD) 100
1 Island (AKR) 306
1 Island (XLN) 264
4 Murderous Rider (ELD) 97
2 Kenrith, the Returned King (ELD) 303
2 Ashiok, Nightmare Muse (THB) 208
4 Temple of Deceit (THB) 245
2 The Birth of Meletis (THB) 5
4 Temple of Enlightenment (THB) 246
3 Temple of Silence (M20) 256
1 Basri Ket (M21) 7
1 Swamp (XLN) 271
4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53
1 Kiora Bests the Sea God (THB) 52
1 Athreos, Shroud-Veiled (THB) 269
2 Shadowspear (THB) 236
4 Raugrin Triome (IKO) 251
4 Indatha Triome (IKO) 248
4 Savai Triome (IKO) 253
2 Light of Hope (IKO) 20
4 Zagoth Triome (IKO) 259
2 The Magic Mirror (ELD) 51
4 Heliod's Intervention (THB) 19
4 Ondu Inversion (ZNR) 30
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (M21) 1
4 Baneslayer Angel (M21) 6
4 Extinction Event (IKO) 88
1 Sublime Epiphany (M21) 74
4 Foulmire Knight (ELD) 90
4 Crystalline Giant (IKO) 234
1 Demonic Embrace (M21) 95
4 Shatter the Sky (THB) 37
4 Banishing Light (THB) 4
1 Swamp (M19) 272
1 Plains (XLN) 261
1 Plains (IKO) 261
2 Speaker of the Heavens (M21) 38
1 Temple of Silence (M21) 255
1 Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths (THB) 209
1 Lochmere Serpent (ELD) 195
1 Needleverge Pathway (ZNR) 263
1 Plains (ZNR) 380
1 Island (DAR) 254
2 Clearwater Pathway (ZNR) 260
1 Island (ZNR) 381
1 Plains (GRN) 260
2 Maddening Cacophony (ZNR) 67
3 Pharika's Libation (THB) 111
3 Leonin Warleader (ANB) 13
4 Ruin Crab (ZNR) 75
1 Emeria's Call (ZNR) 12
1 Hagra Mauling (ZNR) 106
2 Spinning Wheel (ELD) 234
1 Deathless Knight (ELD) 208
1 Cling to Dust (THB) 87
2 Sejiri Shelter (ZNR) 37
1 Crawling Barrens (ZNR) 262
2 Pelakka Predation (ZNR) 120
2 Agadeem's Awakening (ZNR) 90
1 Pestilent Haze (M21) 118
1 Drana, the Last Bloodchief (ZNR) 98
4 Boot Nipper (IKO) 76
2 Brightclimb Pathway (ZNR) 259
4 Skyclave Relic (ZNR) 252
1 Liliana, Death Mage (M21) 328
1 Nullpriest of Oblivion (ZNR) 118
4 Mythos of Nethroi (IKO) 97
2 Faith's Fetters (M21) 17
4 Nighthawk Scavenger (ZNR) 115
1 Eat to Extinction (THB) 90
2 Soul Shatter (ZNR) 127
1 Glasspool Mimic (ZNR) 60
1 Inscription of Ruin (ZNR) 108

 

[anvi]

Wow nice!! Anyone who gets to Mythic with a homebrew is a legend in my eyes, but doing it with a 250 card deck, wow! I can't even imagine how it works but I bet it is a work of art. Some decks are like that... Some decks I get a good idea and 5 minutes later I am playing it and there is no way to really ever improve it. Some decks are like a life's work

 

[Gyor]

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.