Magic the Gathering Arena

[anvi]

That's pretty good. It will seem less grindy once I get some better cards and can make more interesting decks. I made one which is pretty good but it is just using a mixture of all the noob deck cards. I am winning about 70% but it can be frustrating playing vs decks full of legendaries and planeswalkers and stuff. But I'll be able to do the same soon. I hoarded a lot of wildcards but I wanna spend them when I have an idea what I want to make.

 

[spectre]

meh it is better to find friends to play with instead of going full rat race on latest meta deck.
It it a lot of fun to play around with your cards, trying to come up with interesting decks and test them out.

One problem here. You aren't brewing shit if you don't have the cards. You get more cards faster if you assume the play to win mindset, and for that... it's hard to beat a meta deck.

Cool thanks. Gold is slow as hell and I can't find 'constructed' that people talk about. But I started on ranked standard and it sped up the rewards a bit.

It's called "standared event" now, but people call it constructed out of habit.

There are two versions of it, one is played with sideboards and has a 1000 shekel entry fee. The reward structure is a bit better than the other one if you can get some wins consistently, but you get utter bollocks if you can't come home with at least two wins (and this is best of three matches).
The other version os best of one and hass a 500 shekel entry fee, even if you do fairly poorly, you're still getting at least three uncommons out of it, which isn't a terrible deal if you, say, got three wins and only lost 100 gold.
In this variant, it's a bit more difficult to get random rares as a reward, but your losses won't be as big if it all goes tits up and you're on zero wins.

It'll take you some time and a good deck until you can earn a profit on those events, but it's still a decent way to build your collection. Once I get out of gold in ranked, I pretty much only play those.
Keep in mind, if you'll be losing too much gold on it, it might hamper your plan of saving up for drafts.

All in all, there's more than one way of growing your collection in this game, I am sure some youtuber autiste has it's all figured out with tables and numbers and whatnot, but it boils down to this - in which game mode you're able to move past the default 50% winrate with the most consistency.
It evens out in the end, so even if you just do your dailies and spend everything on boosters, you will be getting way more wildcards than a drafter, which means you'll get there faster if you want to build a specific deck.

For example, Traditional Draft is supposedly the hottest shit when it comes to the reward structure, but the entry it's gems only, which means you need to grind ranked drafts before you access it on free to play.
Also, from what I've seen, it's mostly filled with people who actually know what they're doing when it comes to draft, so it's not something I would just jump into.

-Qwinn

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

For example, Traditional Draft is supposedly the hottest shit when it comes to the reward structure, but the entry it's gems only, which means you need to grind ranked drafts before you access it on free to play.
Also, from what I've seen, it's mostly filled with people who actually know what they're doing when it comes to draft, so it's not something I would just jump into.

I see that a lot but I absolutely refuse to believe that traditional draft is any good for someone who isn't top tier pro. Like, unless you're top 100 mythic in ranked draft I'd imagine you'd mostly just get hosed in traditional.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

It's called "standared event" now, but people call it constructed out of habit.

ACKSHUALLY people just saying "Constructed" could be referring to the general format. There's constructed (Making a deck out of your own cards), draft (Drafting cards out of packs and then making a deck), and sealed (Getting a set number of packs and making a deck out of just those). The general catchall terms in MTGA being constructed for ranked/unranked play using your own collection and limited to cover draft/sealed play (Since you're playing with a limited set of cards rather than in constructed where you potentially have access to everything).

Basically boils down to the same though, since the constructed and traditional events (BO1 and BO3) have you playing constructed decks. But if people were using it casually I'd assume they were talking about ranked/unranked play instead.

 

[Perkel]

One problem here. You aren't brewing shit if you don't have the cards. You get more cards faster if you assume the play to win mindset, and for that... it's hard to beat a meta deck.

I think you are not thinking it through. Generally there are two kinds of people who play cards like in every game:

* competitive types
* casual fans who don't care about being the best

If you want to be competitive then for sure you will be fucked out of money.
But even then you can still play sealed format which removes wales collection.

Then there is me. I just want to play around with friends, maybe some randos creating crazy decks.
The worst fun there is, is to follow some meta deck someone constructed. Getting new free cards daily

I just like what dude sung:

"If you like to gamble, I tell you I'm your man
You win some, lose some, all the same to me
The pleasure is to play, makes no difference what you say
I don't share your greed, the only card I need is the Ace of Spades
The Ace of Spades"

 

[Doktor Best]

I am both of those types. And no you are not forced to spend money in order to be competitive. F2P players can build a few meta decks pretty easily if they know how to manage their ressources.

Imho the best way to learn a card game is to look up metadecks when youre absolutely new and learn to play those decks for a bit and then when youre starting to become an intermediate player you start to homebrew as soon as possible with the knowledge youve gained.

Always look for inspiration in the jank corners of the game, but also learn what makes the difference between those and the successful decks and try to make your homebrews as competitive as possible.

 

[spectre]

Nothing wrong about playing casual. Loads of fun if you can find like-minded people.
It's good that you only need the Ace of Spades, I also like to have and ace of clubs and an ace of diamonds. I can maybe live without the red Joker, but I definitely want all the Jacks and Queens.

 

[Perkel]

Imho the best way to learn a card game is to look up metadecks when youre absolutely new and learn to play those decks for a bit

Worst advice ever. Usually meta-decks are heavy on synergies and trigger abilites. Last thing you want as newb is to follow those complicated triggers when they still don't grasp basic details about game. Instead noob should pick up just simple deck with almost no triggers and just play with friend or bot. Just fuck around.

I also don't understand people following metabuilds. Where is the fun of researching yourself stuff, getting "aha" moments etc ?
Where is the excitement of getting some new card that can completely change how you play ?

By researching you might be great competitive player but you kill all the fun from game itself.

 

[anvi]

I wish all the modes and things were easier to see and understand. I am beginning to understand it but I still have 5 tabs open explaining it.

 

[spectre]

Worst advice ever. Usually meta-decks are heavy on synergies and trigger abilites. Last thing you want as newb is to follow those complicated triggers when they still don't grasp basic details about game. Instead noob should pick up just simple deck with almost no triggers and just play with friend or bot. Just fuck around.

And new players can do plenty of fucking around when they're completing their NPE to get all the decks. There's different kinds of fun and some people want to start playing with the big boys as soon as possible... because that's fun for them

Netdecking gives you one thing - a deck that is proven to work, so if you're not getting anywhere with it it's entirely PEBKAC. You can focus on playing, mulliganning, sideboarding and understanding the interactions - improving as a player, instead of
wanking over a pile that doesn't even have the right mana ratios because you don't yet know what the Magic(tm) numbers for colored mana sources are.

And I've seen my share of this, you get noob that durdles with deckbuilding, then cry all over twitter that the there's no creativity in the game, and the gaem is rigged because you're mana screwed all the time.
That's fine, but so is playing to win, problem with MTGA is that doesn't give you much safe space and you progress much faster by winning, so unless something fundamental about MTGA changes in the future,
one is better off by assuming the competitive mindset at some point in the long run.

I also don't understand people following metabuilds. Where is the fun of researching yourself stuff, getting "aha" moments etc?
Where is the excitement of getting some new card that can completely change how you play ?

You get plenty of those moments in Limited. Netdecks are always useful, because they give you an idea what works, and what people believe works in this game.
That's even useful if you want to blow your own horn about how creative and innovative you are, you won't be getting far with a deck unless you at least consider what is going to be played by the majority of people you go up against.
Also, some people don't like to durdle. Let's not pretend that homebrewing is some sort of an esoteric art that you kharma points or anything.
Most of these "aha" moments will result in you building something that shares a good chunk with a recognized netdeck. I mean, the card pool in standard isn't that big.
The process of refining a build can also be arduous, especially when at one point you realize it's a dead end. It's okay to not like deckbuilding.

-Qwinn

 

[anvi]

I don't like these cards that wont die. Some over powered legendary bullshit card comes out on turn 4 or 5, big creature that is like 6/6 flying, deathtouch and trample or some shit, or even worse, one that comes out and spawns another creature. So you kill it or even exile it, yet it goes back into the players deck 3 from top or whatever. That seems ridiculous to me.

I really need to make myself a strong deck now that I have unlocked most things available from progression. But I still don't know what to make. I don't have much of anything good that points me towards a deck. I think I am gonna have to just spend all my wildcards on a deck idea but I need to play some more and figure out what is powerful. It kinda sucks to be an old school player because the game seems familiar yet everything is new. There are only about 2 cards I know the names of, everything else I need to learn. And once you think you are getting a handle on the meta, some entirely new deck comes along with a bunch of new cards I've never seen before and even a whole new mechanic I've never seen before.

 

[Perkel]

I don't like these cards that wont die. Some over powered legendary bullshit card comes out on turn 4 or 5, big creature that is like 6/6 flying, deathtouch and trample or some shit, or even worse, one that comes out and spawns another creature. So you kill it or even exile it, yet it goes back into the players deck 3 from top or whatever. That seems ridiculous to me.

This is why i like to play with black cards plenty of cheap deathtouch which makes all those 21/11 useless and there are some few enchaments/planewalker killers.

My favorite part is watching people spend themselves on building various combos to me destroying those combos key creatures/planewalkers/enchacements. If you play it right people just quit in 3-4 turn.

Here is good tip: Never try to spend all your cards. Let yourself at minimum 1 card in your hand with 1 untapped mana. This keeps people guessing and hesitating which in return buys you time, as people usually won't risk breaking combo over unknown factor.

 

[anvi]

I like ganking huge pumped creatures, a Murder ruins their day. But the ones I hate are like a 6/6 flying that spawn a 4/4 when they come into play. So you use Murder on the 6/6 and still have to deal with the 4/4, but then 3 turns later the 6/6 comes back with another 4/4, and even if you kill it again, it will come back forever. It is OP. It would be ok if exile did what it is supposed to but some of those cards have a rule that says even exiled, put them 3 from top. Sucks. I like deathtouch too but they seem to be all non-flyers which sucks because half the games I play I am up against strong flying creatures, either big ones or a hundred small ones that nibble me to death. In classic/extended I often used to use Deadly Recluse which has reach and deathtouch, but in Standard I can't.

Still gonna take me a while to figure out what to make as my first 'real' deck.

 

[anvi]

Could use some advice. I made a deck that is really cool but it is a control deck so makes matches take ages which I am thinking is not good for making progress? So I can either spend my big stack of wildcards and make the control deck super strong and start pounding up the ranked standard. Or I could spend it all on some net deck that is a fast winner and just make it easy and fast for standard matches for gold and dailies?

p.s. Do most of you get the Welcome Bundle? I wanna play f2p but figure I like the game enough now to get that.

 

[spectre]

Common MTGA wisdom is if a deck has decent win rate and lets you get more matches in a lower amount of time, it's usually the better choice. This way you can make your 5 wins quickly (or 11, depends on your tolerance for diminishing returns) and you're free to do other things.
Which is why you see so much aggro everywhere.

Biggest investment at the beginning are the rare lands - castles, but more importantly shocklands, temples, fabled passages, not possible to pull a three color deck without them. Only way to avoid them really is to go monocolor, which is an option.

You will want to make more than one deck just to keep swapping them around not to get bored out of your skull. Depends on your wildcards and what you have in your collection, but by all means keep your control deck, get a few nice things for it and start building towards an aggro deck, you will welcome that change of pace.

When I was starting out, I liked to keep my decks slightly unfinished, crafting at the most 3x of the rares and making substitutions (unless they were absolutely critical to make the deck work). This way I can have one more playable deck, and I have something to work towards. It always nice when you get the missing card from a pack or get to pick it in a draft. Not much of an issue since they have all thouse mechanisms to reimburse you for getting 4+ copies.
At first I focused generally on cards that go into more than one deck. For example, Teferi goes pretty much into everything WUR, WUB and WUG, Knight of the Ebon Legion and Murderous Knights will most likely go into everything that is black. Golden Goose and Once Upon a Time will most likely go into everything that vaguely smells green.

When it comes to actual decks, the meta is quite rich these days. Maybe because there wasn't a major event yet. Cavalcade of Calamity is the beginner's delight and not terribly expensive to craft. It's fast and it gets wins when it goes on curve, but you'll be probably bored out of your skull after a few games. Same can be said about WU flyers, all it does is play creature, tap creature. I imagine in time those will get pushed out of the meta. BR is the aggro deck I like, but is fucking expensive to craft from scratch. Pretty much everything there is a rare. People report good success with mono black, but this one uses cards that aren't used anywhere else, so if you dump all your wildcards there and it's a dud... oh well. Knights aggro (there are a few flavors - white red, white black, or tri-color) got a lot of support in the recent expansion, so it might be worth it to have a look at it. Elementals were the poster child of the M20. I don't like them myself, because they rely on a 1/1 creature that is easily killed to get off, but there was quite a lot of different possible builds. Some aggro, some more controlling , some comboed off by drawing the entire library and winning with Jace. For control, there are various builds based on planeswalkers, the UBR variant based on Fires of Invention is also quite good, there are a few breeds of WUB - one based on creatures and Hero of Precinct One, a more traditional planeswalker build and a combo variant with Dance of the Manse. Field of the Dead decks are a bit slow, so they lose hard to aggro. Not something you want to do. I've also seen people have success with different GB builds. There are also various ramp decks, blue and green, usually with added white or black. Myself, I am a big fan of UG Flash and I think it might be a solid contender. Up to you what you want to play. It's possibly best to play a bit more and see if there's something you keep being beaten by that looks interesting.


The entry packages are the only ones with decent value for the money, so if you feel like throwing money at them, it's a good bet.
Up to you what to spend it on, drafts and set mastery are decent investments, because you can potentially get some of the gems back. Straight up buying packs isn't, unless you want instant gratification.

-Qwinn

 

[Doktor Best]

Imho the best way to learn a card game is to look up metadecks when youre absolutely new and learn to play those decks for a bit

Worst advice ever. Usually meta-decks are heavy on synergies and trigger abilites. Last thing you want as newb is to follow those complicated triggers when they still don't grasp basic details about game. Instead noob should pick up just simple deck with almost no triggers and just play with friend or bot. Just fuck around.

I also don't understand people following metabuilds. Where is the fun of researching yourself stuff, getting "aha" moments etc ?
Where is the excitement of getting some new card that can completely change how you play ?

By researching you might be great competitive player but you kill all the fun from game itself.

But you gotta learn how to use those mechanics somehow and the easiest way to do this is by using a deck that is known to work in order to take deck building mistakes out of the equation temporarily. I am not saying everyone should netdeck all the time, i dislike that playstyle myself. But if you never look elsewhere for inspiration for your homebrews and you dont know the basics of what makes a deck work you will grow frustrated pretty quickly.

 

[anvi]

-Qwinn

Thanks man that helped a lot! I am gonna buy the Welcome Bundle and then decide which deck to pimp, boring but fast aggro, or slow but fun control. But yeah, aiming for 2 different decks is a nice idea so I don't get bored of one.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

yea pirates got wrekd on rotation

i keep seeing this bru graveyard deck that basically just tries to discard drakuseth and use bond of revival to cheat him onto battlefield with haste, also has blood for bones, agent of treachery, and scholar to steal shit and get cards back from graveyard. Of course, it gets totally shut down by my beautiful white decks HOWEVER seems like it'd be pretty strong especially if they can't stop hasted drakuseth before it attacks.

 

[anvi]

Two more questions for you guys.

You know that MTG Arena Tool, is it safe? It seems good but running it after I put my paypal details into the game makes me uneasy.

Also do you think they will ever add all the old cards into this game? I noticed there is some sort of "Historic" mode which makes me wonder if eventually we could play other formats like Modern/Extended/Classic/Whatever. I can see why they might not want that though.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

Myself, I am a big fan of UG Flash and I think it might be a solid contender.

i hate myself for playing it. Problem is that right now is the only deck i have in standard that works as it was fairly easy to adjust.

Don't hate yourself for it. Embrace it. Become one with the Brineborn Cutthroat as he clutches his spiky member in anticipation of the incoming rape of flaccid knights and puny elementals.
Hard to hate something that's gotten me a fourth consecutive 7:2 standard event run.

yea pirates got wrekd on rotation
i keep seeing this bru graveyard deck that basically just tries to discard drakuseth and use bond of revival to cheat him onto battlefield with haste, also has blood for bones, agent of treachery, and scholar to steal shit and get cards back from graveyard. Of course, it gets totally shut down by my beautiful white decks HOWEVER seems like it'd be pretty strong especially if they can't stop hasted drakuseth before it attacks.

It's possible to make a BRU, GBU and a more vanilla BR featuring Drakuseth, though I think lukaszek really misses the Mirror Image + Cavalier of Night shenanigans. Spark Double doesn't cut it because of the +1 cMc.

Two more questions for you guys.

You know that MTG Arena Tool, is it safe? It seems good but running it after I put my paypal details into the game makes me uneasy.

Also do you think they will ever add all the old cards into this game? I noticed there is some sort of "Historic" mode which makes me wonder if eventually we could play other formats like Modern/Extended/Classic/Whatever. I can see why they might not want that though.

I'm not using any tracker atm, tried something called Lotus Tracker, and it was pretty shit. The UI overlay immediately went tits up and wasn't usable. Didn't tell me anything useful otherwise, so I decided to fuck it and stick with excel sheets.

Historic mode is currently a joke. You go into the "Play" queue with a deck that contains rotated cards and it'll pair you with other people like this. Doesn't count wins, only good for making quests which means I have zero interest in it. Suppose they didn't want to eclipse the Throne launch with it. I might go back to it once they decide to actually support it and unfuck the rewards system. For the time being, treat it like a casual queue.

It's anybody's guess how far they'll go with Historic. I remember reading a long time ago that they implemented a parser that is able to immediately add cards with simple and evergreen abilities into the game, which means they only really need to focus on the few cards with more complex ability structures. So far, we know that Amonkphtktp and Kaladesh is implemented, tested and working in the game. I think the main thing holding them back is making all those crappy animations and voiceovers for rares and mythics. I don't give a fuck about those as I play with muted sound and would happily turn off the animations, but I suppose that's what puts food on their table.

Theoretically, they could go all the way back to Origins for a nice chunk of cards and a bit of brokenness. Add a touch of Modern Masters, perhaps a few handpicked cards from the days gone by and I'd be quite happy with such a format.

 

[Jason Liang]

I started drafting again IRL last month (Modern Horizons) and actually drafting is a pretty fun way of building a collection (IRL or in Arena) if you aren't too concerned about "going infinite." Since I made the 2nd account, I am definitely building the 2nd account through drafting plan.

 

[anvi]

Cool I'm gonna try drafting soon. How come you have 2 accounts?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

i hate myself for playing it. Problem is that right now is the only deck i have in standard that works as it was fairly easy to adjust.

I've been playing some simic flash too since counterspell bullshit helps keep the obscenely greedy midrange decks in check, so fuck it.

In fact my current 3 decks have been simic flash, dimir reanimator (Technically grixis because I'm running red for Drakuseth and Ilharg, but I don't have red mana for them so I'm saying dimir), and esper dance of the mance memes which are hilariously fun even if it's not super strong. Or rather, it's pretty strong against durdly midrange decks but folds fairly hard to aggro and actual control which is less common these days. I opened up a playset of doom foretold in my packs and that card is really fun with dance. Next on the probable agenda is izzet phoenix/second draw. It'll be an expensive craft due to needing 3 more arclights and one or two more copies of the scions, but the scions should be really fucking good for the deck, as are the second draw payoffs of the 1/1 enchantment and jumbo sized pyromancer. I've been lightly toying with mill as always too, and even though the new dimir mill counterspell/removal card is great mill itself is, as always, an uphill struggle. Especially because I can't rely on fog now with every deck running questing beast.



Edit: Here's the reanimator list I've been fucking with. Currently set up for BO1 and a little experimental since I've been toying with some Eldraine stuff. Neither castle is very needed in the deck at all, but I threw them in for shits and giggles. Secretkeeper and lost thoughts you use to mill yourself to get some of your payoff cards in the graveyard. Vantress is just an experiment (Seems decent though). My gut feeling is I should probably cut the Fblthps and maybe the vantress in favor of 3x shimmer of possibility because getting a needed revival spell is absolutely critical, and shimmer digs for a specific card better than discovery even if it can't bin some of your reanimator payoffs. Ilharg also isn't very necessary and is just for meme fun, if you pull out a Drakuseth with Ilharg you don't get Drakuseth's pings (He's already attacking, he doesn't attack) however if you pull out agent of treachery, since his power is ETB you can immediately jack your opponent's shit. Chain stealing with an agent riding a pig is always a good time.

4 Tomebound Lich (M20) 219
9 Swamp (ROE) 237
1 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
4 Watery Grave (GRN) 259
2 Fblthp, the Lost (WAR) 50
4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53
4 Agent of Treachery (M20) 43
4 Blood for Bones (M20) 89
4 Bond of Revival (WAR) 80
4 Discovery // Dispersal (GRN) 223
1 Vantress Gargoyle (ELD) 71
4 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames (M20) 136
4 Wall of Lost Thoughts (RNA) 59
1 Ilharg, the Raze-Boar (WAR) 133
1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242
9 Island (ROE) 235