Magic the Gathering Arena

[Jason Liang]

Vannifar

There's also a dino tutor, as well as the four Forerunners

Quartermaster can get equipment and vehicles

Mastermind's Acquisition is pretty good. It'd probably be too good at 3cc

Moodmarker is a decent kill card in Undergrowth. Cheaper than Lotleth Giant.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

trying to build a rakdos discard deck after failing hard trying dimir discard

rakdos is working a bit better but I feel like I always get better results just going mono red face burn. games are taking forever too lol

 

[Jason Liang]

Raider's Wake is pretty good if you can consistently accelerated into it (with treasure tokens or Skirk Prospector or something)

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Yea I'm using that but nothing to get it early.. Problem I'm having is by the time I can get Raiders' Wake out I've got the opponent on no cards and they're usually using everything as they draw.

2 The Haunt of Hightower (RNA) 273
14 Swamp (RIX) 194
4 Fell Specter (M19) 96
3 Raiders' Wake (XLN) 116
2 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90
4 Burglar Rat (GRN) 64
3 Mind Rot (M19) 109
4 Barrier of Bones (GRN) 61
3 Vicious Rumors (GRN) 89
1 Reckless Rage (RIX) 110
5 Mountain (RIX) 195
4 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
3 Banefire (M19) 130
1 Captive Audience (RNA) 160
2 Dragonskull Summit (XLN) 252
3 Cinder Barrens (M19) 248
2 Rogue's Gloves (M19) 243

 

[Jason Liang]

Yea I'm using that but nothing to get it early.. Problem I'm having is by the time I can get Raiders' Wake out I've got the opponent on no cards and they're usually using everything as they draw.

2 The Haunt of Hightower (RNA) 273
14 Swamp (RIX) 194
4 Fell Specter (M19) 96
3 Raiders' Wake (XLN) 116
2 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90
4 Burglar Rat (GRN) 64
3 Mind Rot (M19) 109
4 Barrier of Bones (GRN) 61
3 Vicious Rumors (GRN) 89
1 Reckless Rage (RIX) 110
5 Mountain (RIX) 195
4 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
3 Banefire (M19) 130
1 Captive Audience (RNA) 160
2 Dragonskull Summit (XLN) 252
3 Cinder Barrens (M19) 248
2 Rogue's Gloves (M19) 243

I'd probably go black/ blue, blue gets you thought erasure and bounce spells like Blink of an Eye. Bounce to their hand and then discard.

You are probably working with a limited card pool but I would try to replace:
4 Fell Specter (M19) 96
2 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90
4 Burglar Rat (GRN) 64
4 Barrier of Bones (GRN) 61
3 Vicious Rumors (GRN) 89
As well as the red spells

and go for Drill Bits and Thought Erasures. Counterspells work well with discard since you can see their hand and Raider's Wake forces them to cast their spells or lose them.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

I'd probably go black/ blue, blue gets you thought erasure and bounce spells like Blink of an Eye. Bounce to their hand and then discard.

You are probably working with a limited card pool but I would try to replace:
4 Fell Specter (M19) 96
2 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90
4 Burglar Rat (GRN) 64
4 Barrier of Bones (GRN) 61
3 Vicious Rumors (GRN) 89
As well as the red spells

and go for Drill Bits and Thought Erasures. Counterspells work well with discard since you can see their hand and Raider's Wake forces them to cast their spells or lose them.

I tried black/blue but I kept getting stomped by creatures.. How do u deal with their creatures? Especially once they're down to just playing cards as they draw

that's why I tried red cuz it gives me lightning strikes and stuff

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

these discard decks are funny tho gets me every time opponent rage quits with 20 health and no cards

 

[Jason Liang]

Black's got removal like Ritual of Soot, Vraska's Contempt, Chucacubra or cheaper 2cc removal spells. For your own creatures you can use Pilfering Imp (blow it up before you cast Ritual of Soot) or Blade Juggler (immune to Ritual of Soot). Dispersal to deal with anything bad they topdeck.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

How do u deal with their creatures? Especially once they're down to just playing cards as they draw

4x Moment of Craving is mandatory in UBx discard decks, otherwise mono red or something like Aldente Vanguard will give you a rough time.
Once you got them down to dopdeck mode, you generally want to drop something like Doom Whisperer which gives you a fast clock and can block most of the crap coming your way. The Nico Bolo Lolo in his dragon form can also block some.
Blood Operative usually goes to the sideboard as a multi-purpose card, but makes for a nice eternal blocker that can even put you ahead with life.
I realize all this shit are mythic rares and rares, but it's tough to find something budget that can fill that spot. Maybe Vampire Sovereigns.

 

[Scruffy]

i don't like moment of craving in Bo1 because they're completely dead cards against control. Ideas?

 

[spectre]

Just like any other creature removal. I still believe you should preside heavily against aggro in Bo1, because if you don't and stumble upon une, it's game.
If you meet control decks, they'll probably have as many, if not more, dead cards, so it evens out in a way. I think it's still better to have them together with some form of cycling,
like Azor's Gateway or Chemister's Insight, you can even whirl them away with surveil.

If you want something that stays useful, you're stuck with Vraska's Contempt, Mortify, Plaguecrafter, Hostage Taker, Consecrate//Consume, etc. Most of these are too slow to save you from a Steam Kun Baka that spirals out of control.
As a compromise, you might use Fungal Infection. It's excellent value vs. all the 1 toughness creatures that are popular in RDW and mono white, in a pinch you can cast it on your own shit if it can survive it.
The token can be then used to eat Chapter I on Eldest Reborn for an actually meaningful interaction.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Holy shit I just used my mono red burn deck vs some weird ass simic ascendancy ooze creature deck. IDK what the fuck was going on, literally every card he put out I had never seen before. Looked something like this:

but with weird alien creatures instead of lan elves.. Anyway I had my shitty little 1/1, 2/1 wizard creatures out on the board and he had a shitton of crap with a bunch of tokens on em, literally hit 22 counters on simic ascendancy to win the game, and I used shock for 2 dmg to kill.

Anyway, funny how my dumb little cheap mono red deck beats this crazy crap he prolly spent like 100 rare wildcards to build that

 

[Jason Liang]

Plague Mare is a reasonable 3cc sweeper attached to a 2/2. It's not as sweeping as Golden Demise but it doesn't hit your team either so it can be cast as a pre-combat trick/ combat clean up. Sweeping two Adanto Vanguards or two Viashino Pyromancers with Plague Mare is usually game winning. A 2/2 isn't going to help that much against Nexus though.

You should count Drill Bits and Thought Erasures as removal.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Ok so I've switched to black/blue and I have:

10 Swamp (RIX) 194
4 Thought Erasure (GRN) 206
8 Island (RIX) 193
4 Discovery // Dispersal (GRN) 223
2 The Haunt of Hightower (RNA) 273
1 Drowned Catacomb (XLN) 253
1 Watery Grave (GRN) 259
4 Dimir Guildgate (GRN) 245
2 Blink of an Eye (DAR) 46
4 Mind Rot (M19) 109
3 Ravenous Chupacabra (RIX) 82
4 Dead Weight (GRN) 67
1 Demonlord Belzenlok (DAR) 86
1 Gravewaker (M19) 293
3 Thought Collapse (RNA) 57
4 Persistent Petitioners (RNA) 44
4 Opt (XLN) 65

Mmmmmmm games feel a lot more tense than when I just light people up with mono red burn. The deck works sometimes but idk, it's hard to tell if it's shit or if I'm getting bad draws

 

[new fucking guy]

I'll take a guess and say it's shit since you're running 4x Persistent Petitioners for some reason

 

[spectre]

Yeah, it's all over the place. You mill a little bit, but not enough for a serious win condition, imo.
What you want in there is more nonbasic lands (can't guarantee consistent UB mana on turn for thought erasure with five UB lands, you need at least eight).

Heartless Pillage is a strict upgrade over Mind Rot, but I still wouldn't play it in UB discard when you can Disinformation campaign instead.

Weakest stuff seems to be the Haunts and Petitioners, I realize Demonlord Goldilocks and Grawewanker are simply there for the muscle.

Perhaps you could use pteramanders for some early beatings and a more midrange approach? Depends on how viable would be for you to upgrade it it in a normal course of the game.
Perhaps something like a Fell Specter could run more smoothly? Or beat them to death with their own things? It's a tested approach for UB.

 

[Jason Liang]

So speaking of the devil I just played (and lost) to a Biomancer's Apprentice infinite combo! Didn't realize it was near-infinite or else I could have stopped it with a well-timed Lightning Strike.

The combo is: Biomancer's Apprentice, Ruthless Knave and Slimefoot.

The Knave sacrifices a saproling for b to produce two treasure tokens and you spend two mana to make a saproling with Slimefoot. With one biomancer it's a drain life engine, with two biomancers it's infinite and instant speed. Best part is if you have one combo piece in play you can get back the two other pieces with Gruesome Menagerie. Lazav can copy either Slimefoot or Knave. Pretty neat.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

I'll take a guess and say it's shit since you're running 4x Persistent Petitioners for some reason

They're cheap 1/3 that helps with early aggro flooding plus they synergize with haunt because of mill ability.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Yeah, it's all over the place. You mill a little bit, but not enough for a serious win condition, imo.
What you want in there is more nonbasic lands (can't guarantee consistent UB mana on turn for thought erasure with five UB lands, you need at least eight).

Heartless Pillage is a strict upgrade over Mind Rot, but I still wouldn't play it in UB discard when you can Disinformation campaign instead.

Weakest stuff seems to be the Haunts and Petitioners, I realize Demonlord Goldilocks and Grawewanker are simply there for the muscle.

Perhaps you could use pteramanders for some early beatings and a more midrange approach? Depends on how viable would be for you to upgrade it it in a normal course of the game.
Perhaps something like a Fell Specter could run more smoothly? Or beat them to death with their own things? It's a tested approach for UB.

I haven't been landlocked yet but I can prolly craft some common guildgates and throw em in. Actually feel much safer with land in this deck than my others.

I wanted the win condition to be a big ass haunt, but I've only got 2 of em so I threw in demonlord and grave. Petitioners are actually there to block weak creatures early on and give haunt +1/1 counters later on, not really trying to mill the opponent.

Pteramanders would be good but I don't have any lol.. They'd def be viable to upgrade tho I cast a shitton of spells. I was running Fell Specters earlier but by the time I can cast them the opponent usually doesn't have any cards in hand so all I get is a shitty 1/3 for 4 land

Anyway this deck is winning games but i still dont know how i feel about it

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

ugghhh getting my ass kicked in draft. bye bye gold

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

wow wtf I read meta draft guides and followed suggestions and got my ass whooped in 3 drafts

Now I say fuck it and draft a 4 color gate deck for shits and I'm winning?

 

[new fucking guy]

Picking every gate and gates payoff you see is actually a very viable draft strat on arena from what I've heard. Something to do with bots never taking them.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG