Magic the Gathering Arena

[lukaszek]

what beat you?

a bunch of aggro, like elves

 

[Reapa]

what beat you?

a bunch of aggro, like elves

yeah, i also needed several mass removal spells against elves.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Drafted the new set, haven't played yet but ended up in Orzhov artifacts/enchantments. Got the signpost uncommon and the other people at the table kept passing me goodies so fingers crossed that two copies of Eater of Virtue or one copy of mechtitan core will do something cool. Have some doubts since I'm lighter on creatures than I'd like but it should be a hoot. Got a cloudsteel kirin as well, just to be more annoying. Four artifacts to activate Voltron sounds a little iffy but I've got 9 other ones so I'll hope I can pull it off. Come to think of it I may cut imperial oath and stick in network terminal for a bit of ramp/potential looting/another artifact for Voltron. Deck's cheap as it is, and 6 mana making 3 2/2s probably won't cut it if things are stalling out.

 

[Reapa]

PLAYNEO for 3 free kamigawa packs

 

[Thac0]

This set drew me back in, luv me muh Japan.
Have played a bit of Vow limited in the past few weeks to prepare my collection again, is it just me or was Crimson Vow a really shit limited set?
Red/Black was absolutely dominating, every run where I had a halfway decent Red/Black deck I got 7 wins. Meanwhile I struggled to break even on 3 wins with all other colours, except maybe Red/Green.
I missed the Innistrad and the DnD set, but looking back they seem pretty shit. Anything I missed there?

 

[Reapa]

This set drew me back in, luv me muh Japan.
Have played a bit of Vow limited in the past few weeks to prepare my collection again, is it just me or was Crimson Vow a really shit limited set?
Red/Black was absolutely dominating, every run where I had a halfway decent Red/Black deck I got 7 wins. Meanwhile I struggled to break even on 3 wins with all other colours, except maybe Red/Green.
I missed the Innistrad and the DnD set, but looking back they seem pretty shit. Anything I missed there?

they're all shit

but in all seriousness, some cards are just way too powerful. it feels like if you draft 1-2 overpowered cards and manage to play them it's gg and instawin. like the mythic blue dragon Lymrith. it's not enough it's big and flies, it has to have ward 4 untapped and draw you 1-3 cards when attacking on top.
i had a few games where i just played it and the opponent just conceded immediately.

then there's the hullbreaker horror which is even from crimson vow and doesn't belong to red-black so there goes your argument. a fucking 7/8 with flash that doesn't care what cards you play, it uses any of them to bounce whatever you want, even instants and sorceries.

then there's the fucking lands that turn into creatures that you can only kill on your turn with sorceries otherwise you need instants. with the blue one being again the most ridiculous with its 7/7 and ward 3 followed by the red one that spawns tokens that remain in play.

then there's enchantments you play once and they just generate tokens every fucking turn or boost you creatures every fucking turn and there's basically no hope in hell to remove them at all or without falling behind, because by the time you remove them you are already in deep shit.
and with kamigawa they went batshit crazy with the enchantments. at least they don't seem too powerful, but there still doesn't seem to be any red enchantment removal or blue enchantment removal.

and if you think limited is bad, good luck with the upcoming enchantment combos in standard where you can play enchantment removal but it will fuck you up against anything not enchantment related.
stuff like hallowed haunting, moon-blessed cleric and enchantment creatures.

 

[Dr1f7]

last good limited set was WoTS like 2 years ago and RNA just before that
finally realizing that WOTC just got lucky with those two sets somehow and MTGA is actually just a garbage game 95% of the time

they're lucky they've managed to hang on to 2 or 3 decent artists, but that won't save them

Spoiler

paper is an exception because if someone plays 'netdeck' in paper I can kick them in the face

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

GANGRAT RISE UP, WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY

So far so good. Deck feels shaky as hell but that damn sword soaking up abilities (Or worst case scenario, being a 1cmc 1equip +2/+0) does get some work done. I do wish I had the white shrine, I saw one during the draft but I took something else over it. I think one of the rare artifacts. Bumped the deck's artifact count up a little more both by adding that network terminal and a mukotai ambusher which I didn't notice before was an artifact. Kinda sucks since the deck isn't well suited for ninjas but it's another creature and another artifact, and lifelink is fairly relevant if I can get it on the sword. Sad news is I have yet to bring home the rats with tribute to Horobi. I think I'll be safe playing against Rakdos or something and then the dude pulls a mukotai soulripper out of his ass to eat the rats to make me sad, but then I stuck the sword on my 3/3 hasty flier making it a 5/3 hasty flier with lifelink and everything was fine. Dude scooped just as reckoner raid flipped and the art came up so I can only assume he was yiffed into oblivion by those damn dirty furries.

 

[Thac0]

I did like Kaldheim and to a lesser extent Ikoria and Eldraine limited before I left. But yeah, limited hasn't been great in a while. Neo looks very busy from my first sealed run, so much shit lying around on the board.

As for constructed: Literally the only non limited queue I play now is historic brawl. Way less degenerate. The only netdecks floating around are out of date 5c lands, Bolas value and red/green commander rushdown piles. Well crafted jank slices through these shit netdecks like butter. Hell I have a positive winrate with mono blue spirit tribal.

As for artists...
Don't check my newest topic in The Gazebo...

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Gangrat knocked out at 5-3, RIP. Final game I managed to flood out despite keeping a 2 land mulligan in a deck with 15 lands but sometimes Nuffle's got it out for ya. First impression with the set in limited is more enjoyable than the Innistrad ones or D&D. Single run's hard to judge it but it's not like always facing Rakdos every single player in D&D for example. As much as the cyberpunk theming feels weird for MTG all the artifacts and enchantments are fun to fuck with. Don't think I'll do more high roller drafts but I'm looking forward to cheapo bot drafts.

 

[lukaszek]

As for artists...
Don't check my newest topic in The Gazebo...

 

[lukaszek]

does it mean his secret lair sleves will no longer appear as daily deals?

 

[lukaszek]

new jump in kamigawa packets. Obviously wizards page doesnt work too well but someone made this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ASSicoUjneR_hoXHCqqH1eb3TZilSYmaUaMV403b_7o/edit

EDIT: spent 1h doing jumpstart... i regret nothing although I no longer consider myself rich

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

new jump in kamigawa packets. Obviously wizards page doesnt work too well but someone made this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ASSicoUjneR_hoXHCqqH1eb3TZilSYmaUaMV403b_7o/edit

EDIT: spent 1h doing jumpstart... i regret nothing although I no longer consider myself rich

Oh, nice. Thanks for the heads up, I forgot about that. I probably should do a few runs to at least pick up single copies assuming it's still doing that new pack guarantee thing, not even sure the last time I did it so it's possible there are packets I'm missing from crimson vow too. I know I got a playset of Florian from it but I believe he was... Uh... Werewolf vow. Also saw we'll get 30 cards for Kamigawa alchemy in a month and WotC's muttering about eternal format without digital-only fuckery so they very well may slip pioneer in. Haven't got any feelings about pioneer other than it'd be nice for alchemy to fuck off, so as long as there are enough players that'd be cool.

 

[Kjaska]

The Cyberpunk ninjas and samurais theme being in MtG is completely retarded, but at least they didn't put in more niggers(although there is one afro samurai in there somewhere) or some other sjw bullshit.

 

[lukaszek]

ninja set had crazy impact on historic brawl deck diversity. Im speaking about actual commanders.
And people create decks around them as opposed to just multicolor value pile.

Past two vampire decks were quite boring in that regard, just replacing/adding some op cards. Especially with alchemy. One can dream for h brawl without alchemy.

You know, mono blue will always be mono blue: add all the ramp and turns. Shift commanders as you get bored to copy turn spells

 

[Thac0]

I am on my 5th sealed run right now. Interesting set. I got two times 7 wins by abusing Invoke the Ancients

Spoiler

. Very unfair card in limited.

There is a lot of outplay potential, but also a lot of games where both players have a bunch of junk artifacts and enchantments laying around the board, not being able to do anything with them and topdecking for a beater.
Okay format, worse than Kaldheim, better than Strix before I left.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

ninja set had crazy impact on historic brawl deck diversity. Im speaking about actual commanders.
And people create decks around them as opposed to just multicolor value pile.

That's interesting to hear. Haven't been doing much brawl since I did some limited and have been poking at jump-in since you mentioned it (And I haven't had a terrible whiff yet. Worst case was only a single rare/mythic and the vault progress is huge with jump-in so even that isn't too awful for 1k gold) so the only new commander I've seen is that mythic spider thing. Something like 3/3 trample for 3 mana mono green and if a modified creature smacks the other player you can dig up a basic land from your deck and put it into play or whatever. Was a bit interesting since his plan was stacking counters on it and running protection spells so it was almost like mono green bogles nonsense. I guess I saw a few people playing that 3 color samurai that doubles attack triggers too though it wasn't as memorable (Though probably a better deck).

Maybe shouldn't have been hitting jump-in as much as I have been since the land cycle's so tasty, but eh.

Okay format, worse than Kaldheim, better than Strix before I left.

Sounds about right. Kaldheim was just weirdly fun in limited. Strix wasn't nearly as shit as D&D or Innistrad but it was still a pain in the ass in cases where someone drafts a wonder-deck with perfect lessons and a bunch of learn. Does feel like green with almost anything else is probably the way to go for Kamigawa but still not as dominant as D&D and Innistrad colors.

 

[Akratus II]

Friend of mine got real high up in Mythic with this deck apparently.

Spoiler

 

[Thac0]

Soo my short limited guide:

White > Black > Green > Blue > Red

G/W Enchantments is the best deck
U/B Ninjutsu is very hard to play but can take 7 wins aswell
U/R artifacts is shit

Watch out that you have enough creatures, especially in aggro piles. Many games end because one player has a hand full of buffs and combat tricks but can't play a creature.

Colour fixing is not that good, 2 colour decks are often better than 3 colours, if you splash three colours do not play double pip cards and play only 2-3 cards from the third colour unless your fixing is really good.

Sagas are stupidly strong, and interact well with bouncing cards to hand. Bouncing especially White sagas wins many games.

Aggro does not do so well. There are a ton of really good 1-3 mana removal spells that do 1-3 damage and even a few boardwipes.

Played like 6-7 times Sealed for these findings, managed 7 wins 3 times. Also one premier draft, so this is more for sealed than for draft. Fun format overall.

 

[Athanasios]

3 and 4 mana boardwipes should not be a thing in standard imo

 

[Newfag-er]

Yet they keep appearing almost every set. There was also a 3 mana one in Alchemy that basically function as

It is a shame they missed the mark when it comes to limited. They had a pretty insane streak starting from Theros

 

[Gamezor]

i just dled this but draft mode is freaking expensive! is there a digital ccg with cheap draft/sealed? I dont even care if i keep the cards i just like playing sealed or draft. id happily pay 50 bucks up front for an unlimited draft or sealed mode in a dccg.

 

[Gyor]

what beat you?

a bunch of aggro, like elves

I have a Mono Green Freya Elves deck that is awesome. Freya buffs elves perpetually, untaps them them to the they can be tapped for more mana, she can seek more elf cards, and she conjures a 5/5 creature that draws cards equal to your creatures on the battlefield. I use the elves to ramp up to closers like the Tarraque, and Old Gnaw Bones. Very fun deck. I use Key to the Archives for increased ramp and access to powerful spells that aren't in green like Time Warp and Day of Judgement.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

i just dled this but draft mode is freaking expensive! is there a digital ccg with cheap draft/sealed? I dont even care if i keep the cards i just like playing sealed or draft. id happily pay 50 bucks up front for an unlimited draft or sealed mode in a dccg.

Artifact had free phantom draft. Artifact had loaning friends your deck. Artifact had it all.



To answer your question though (And Artifact does still technically have free drafting, you'd just have to talk friends into playing it since as far as I'm aware bots won't play draft in it) not particularly. Runeterra does/did have cheap and even free drafting but they're removing it apparently, and Hearthstone's probably about as expensive to draft as MTGA depending on how good you are at it. Not sure if Gwent still has their shitty draft mode but Gwent's dead as shit, too. The game Nowhere Prophet might scratch the itch a little, it's a singleplayer deckbuilder but the mechanics of it are closer to a regular CCG than many other singleplayer deckbuilders (X/X creatures with attack and health, etc).
Your other option would be play something like Storybook Brawl, which is a card-based auto battler. It's free to play but the mechanics of it aren't comparable to something like MTGA, but then again since it IS free to play it may be worth trying a few games of it and see if you dig it since there is some draftiness to it. Nothing really comes to mind for multiplayer CCG draft that's cheap/free/single payment that reliably has players other than MTGA and presumably Hearthstone but I haven't touched it in ages so I don't know if they've fucked around with it.