Magic the Gathering Arena

[anvi]

What is that event? I played "Ranked Draft Core Set 2020" but I only won 2 before getting whooped.

I don't think I can grow a deck because it lacks the key stuff, but if I could get maybe 6 rares I could play a ghetto version of it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

What is that event?

Click the little Arena symbol in the upper righthand side of the main menu so it says "All play modes" next to it. Then click the play button and scroll up and pick either "Standard event" or "Traditional standard". They renamed them at some point. Standard event best of one and costs 500 gold with the chance to win 100 to 1000 gold and 3 wildcards (The uncommons can occasionally roll into rares/mythics, and guaranteed rares on the higher end of the wins), play until 7 wins or 3 losses. Traditional standard is best of three and costs 1000 gold with the chance to win 0 to 2100 gold and 3 wildcards, play until 5 wins or 2 losses.

Edit: It's worth mentioning that constructed event usually refers to the BO1 standard event since that's what it used to be called. Plus that's just more forgiving for new players anyway since even if you whiff and go 0-3 you get 100 gold and 3 wildcards back for your 500 gold entry, which certainly isn't good but it's far less of a kick in the teeth than getting just 3 wildcards for a 1000 gold entry in BO3.

Second edit: And I also just realized I had a stroke, so every time I said wildcards there I meant ICR (Individual card rewards)

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

If you want some advice on potential substitutions, you can post a decklist here and we'll see what can be done. A lot of the shit cannot be substituted, like you can't have Dance of the Manse without at least 3xDance, 3xDoom, Magic Negro and the boardwipes.
And we're not even at the manabase. But that's true for almost every deck that aspires to be competitive. You need a pool of rares to work with.

When I started playing, I went over my collection and the starter decks and tried to determine if I had any useful rares. The popular choice back then was Mono U tempo, cause it was pretty much all uncommons and four rares (none of which were lands), one of which was in the starter deck. This approach may not steer you to the deck you want, but you need something that looks competitive enough to give you wins without too much pain.
Otherwise, you're back to grinding the play queue with starter decks.

Rares are the main bottleneck, unfortunately. You can make do without rare lands if you go monocolor, two color decks are doable, but good luck building a control deck without boardwipes, and most of those are rare, or the good 'wankers and win conditions.
Midrange also needs all those high-value rares and mythics, Aggro can be more forgiving because all you need here is to curve out reasonably well, and as long as it dishes out damage effectively, you might get results.

Though I agree, you'll need pretty much everything at the beginning. A lot of the uncommons are the meat and bone staples that can be good enough to throw together a budget brew. Even the simple Cat in the Oven needs eight.
Standard Event is a good source of those, but you'll still need a decent deck over there - should at least be capable of getting three wins. Otherwise you're just throwing gold at the uncommon casino.
The environment might be a tad friendlier than Gold Ranked, depends on the time of the day. You should expect mostly aggro, but I would make two variants of the good deck I had - one good vs. aggro, another good vs. control,
and swap them out if it felt today was the Chinese botnet was having a RDW Tuesday.

If your goal is to get specific cards, fastest way is note which cards you need, sort them by expansion. Check which expansion has the most cards that you need and buy packs from that expansion.
10 000 shekels should get you around two rare wildcards (sometimes they pop randomly), and if you get lucky, maybe also a rare that's on your wanted list straight from the packs.
You can definitely count on getting specific uncommons this way.
This gives you your baseline rate of acquiring rares that you need. The faster you can get a 10 000, the better for you. The game's a grind when you're F2P, but it gets easier as your collecton grows.
I like to set the goal at 10 000, cause it gives you a decent chunk of cards and you will genuinely feel the progress. It's also the price for two draft entries, and as I said earlier, it's a nice goal to be working towards.

It's a grind, but that's life as F2P. You can try and fork cash, but I reckon you'd be disappointed if you just buy packs with gems. For best pay-off, you'd have to draft... which means your nose goes down to the grindstone
in one way or another.

Don't be too hell bent on just one deck. For one, that deck might just prove to suck. Also, you might accidentally get cards to build a working version of another one, and that's cool as well. Even if it's just a BW lifegain thing with white pride mates, aerialists and the cat in the oven combo,
you might grow to like it as a change of pace. A good approach is to note which deck appers the most often, and gear your budget builds to pick it apart is as well as possible. As for now, the flavor of the week seems to be Feld of the Dead,
so you can pick a deck which can maindeck 4x Flame Sweeps (an uncommon craft) and Demolish and have a fighting chance against a decent part of the field.

 

[anvi]

Thanks

If you want some advice on potential substitutions, you can post a decklist here and we'll see what can be done. A lot of the shit cannot be substituted, like you can't have Dance of the Manse without at least 3xDance, 3xDoom, Magic Negro and the boardwipes.

That was exactly what I wanted to make lol. I have the boardwipes but I don't have all the rest. I actually started looking for a Manse deck and ended up finding an cheap Esper control deck that basically just uses Teferi to keep bouncing Oath of Kaya which seems uber. The rest is just removal, counters, and a few blockers and it is all uncommons which I have. But 4 Oath and 2 or 3 Teferi is a long road :/ I wish I could trade my mythic for some rares or something.

And we're not even at the manabase. But that's true for almost every deck that aspires to be competitive. You need a pool of rares to work with.

I think I got really lucky with lands so far, I got a lot of them in the packs I've opened so far. Not enough to make a big multicolor deck but I could make a 3 color deck ok.

Rares are the main bottleneck, unfortunately. You can make do without rare lands if you go monocolor, two color decks are doable, but good luck building a control deck without boardwipes, and most of those are rare, or the good 'wankers and win conditions.
Midrange also needs all those high-value rares and mythics, Aggro can be more forgiving because all you need here is to curve out reasonably well, and as long as it dishes out damage effectively, you might get results.

That's exactly what I'm learning now too. I have a decent control deck with mostly uncommons and I have board wipes but I need a few PWs and few high value rares which are really holding me back. I guess I just gotta be patient. At least I am hovering around Gold Tier 3 which has decent players so I get fun matches. The matches go all day though because my deck is all control and it sucks to hold off the Field of the Dead decks for 30 minutes and then lose. I should probably just start conceding if that pops up... I do ok against everything else.

Standard Event is a good source of those, but you'll still need a decent deck over there - should at least be capable of getting three wins. Otherwise you're just throwing gold at the uncommon casino.
The environment might be a tad friendlier than Gold Ranked, depends on the time of the day. You should expect mostly aggro, but I would make two variants of the good deck I had - one good vs. aggro, another good vs. control,
and swap them out if it felt today was the Chinese botnet was having a RDW Tuesday.

I did the standard event 3 times, first two was a terrible experience, I got bad draws and got ass kicked. I won 1 or 2 games in each attempt but barely breaks even. Third attempt was better, I went up against a lot of noobs that made ridiculous mistakes and made life easy for me. But I won 3 games and only got 1 pack which seems terrible value for 5000 gold. It also gives 300 gems which I guess are worth something though. I am learning drafting though, I know a lot more about how to win now so hopefully next time I can do better.

If your goal is to get specific cards, fastest way is note which cards you need, sort them by expansion. Check which expansion has the most cards that you need and buy packs from that expansion.
10 000 shekels should get you around two rare wildcards (sometimes they pop randomly), and if you get lucky, maybe also a rare that's on your wanted list straight from the packs.
You can definitely count on getting specific uncommons this way.
This gives you your baseline rate of acquiring rares that you need. The faster you can get a 10 000, the better for you. The game's a grind when you're F2P, but it gets easier as your collecton grows.
I like to set the goal at 10 000, cause it gives you a decent chunk of cards and you will genuinely feel the progress. It's also the price for two draft entries, and as I said earlier, it's a nice goal to be working towards.

Thanks! I am gonna look into that. I didn't think about paying yet because I figured the 20,000 gems one was the only decent value one and I didn't wanna commit that much. But if I got enough from the cheaper option to make 1 strong deck, I would probably be happy to grind the rest f2p.

It's a grind, but that's life as F2P. You can try and fork cash, but I reckon you'd be disappointed if you just buy packs with gems. For best pay-off, you'd have to draft... which means your nose goes down to the grindstone
in one way or another.

Thanks I'm gonna do that. I was scared of drafting but I've done a few now and I'm getting more confident at it.

Don't be too hell bent on just one deck. For one, that deck might just prove to suck. Also, you might accidentally get cards to build a working version of another one, and that's cool as well. Even if it's just a BW lifegain thing with white pride mates, aerialists and the cat in the oven combo,
you might grow to like it as a change of pace. A good approach is to note which deck appers the most often, and gear your budget builds to pick it apart is as well as possible. As for now, the flavor of the week seems to be Feld of the Dead,
so you can pick a deck which can maindeck 4x Flame Sweeps (an uncommon craft) and Demolish and have a fighting chance against a decent part of the field.

I made a combo deck in my first week which can beat anything as long as I do ok with draws, but that Field of the Dead deck totally screws me :/ I'd give anything for some land destruction But I cant fit it in this deck. I guess every deck has a nemesis but it sucks cuz in Gold Tier 3, that Field deck is almost every game.

 

[anvi]

What is that event?

Click the little Arena symbol in the upper righthand side of the main menu so it says "All play modes" next to it. Then click the play button and scroll up and pick either "Standard event" or "Traditional standard". They renamed them at some point. Standard event best of one and costs 500 gold with the chance to win 100 to 1000 gold and 3 wildcards (The uncommons can occasionally roll into rares/mythics, and guaranteed rares on the higher end of the wins), play until 7 wins or 3 losses. Traditional standard is best of three and costs 1000 gold with the chance to win 0 to 2100 gold and 3 wildcards, play until 5 wins or 2 losses.

Edit: It's worth mentioning that constructed event usually refers to the BO1 standard event since that's what it used to be called. Plus that's just more forgiving for new players anyway since even if you whiff and go 0-3 you get 100 gold and 3 wildcards back for your 500 gold entry, which certainly isn't good but it's far less of a kick in the teeth than getting just 3 wildcards for a 1000 gold entry in BO3.

Second edit: And I also just realized I had a stroke, so every time I said wildcards there I meant ICR (Individual card rewards)

Ahh damn, I played the one that cost 5000g and it wasn't so good. I need to find the 1000g one. I click that play modes button but I keep missing that, I need to learn the UI better.

edit: Ahhh I found it. I wish I figured that out before I wasted so much gold

 

[anvi]

That mode is much better! Wish I didn't waste so much gold on the other one :/ I still get owned by the net decks but I usually manage to win 1-3 times which gets me some cards and gold back. I am gonna live in there now to build up my collection. I gotta work towards a netdeck of my own so I can win more and earn more.

 

[Doktor Best]

You probably dont want to hear this but Mono Blue Tempo and Red Calamity is very cheap and effective.

 

[anvi]

Thanks I really didn't want to play that kind of deck but the temptation to win a lot of matches (and quickly!) and get a lot of cards is too big. I am gonna make one of those I think. I already have a lot of the cards so I should. And at least it will help me get cards for a more interesting deck.

 

[anvi]

You probably dont want to hear this but Mono Blue Tempo and Red Calamity is very cheap and effective.

Do you know a good list anywhere? I found some but they all contain the Djinn which is rotated :/

https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/mono-blue-tempo-decklist-by-elyallo-848734

edit: Nevermind, I just build a red calamity deck Used my remaining wildcards and got 95% of the standard calamity deck, only skimped on a few cards. Hopefully it pays off now!

edit: My fortunes changed Ridiculous calamity netdeck, first 3 games in the Standard Event so far, 3 wins a row... and I won Dovin planeswalker. I disgust myself playing this deck but it really wins and I need it for more cards! Whatchagonnado.

edit: Just won on turn 4 I should have done this ages ago. This "Standard Event" + a Netdeck is much faster gold than screwing around in ranked and the expensive drafts.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Here's what I'm fucking around with mill-wise lately. Like I said, feeling worse than it did before rotation.

4 Thought Erasure (GRN) 206
1 Island (ANA) 62
4 Temple of Mystery (M20) 255
4 Drown in the Loch (ELD) 188
4 Drowned Secrets (GRN) 39
4 Merfolk Secretkeeper (ELD) 53
4 Pause for Reflection (GRN) 140
2 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242
4 Root Snare (RNA) 137
4 Growth Spiral (RNA) 178
4 Wilderness Reclamation (RNA) 149
4 Temple of Malady (M20) 254
4 Chemister's Insight (GRN) 32
1 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
4 Watery Grave (GRN) 259
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
4 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246

Most stuff's pretty strong against it, unfortunately. A resolved 3feri is GG, field you just have to take your lumps as long as possible before relying on fog to try to close out (Which does work better than you'd think if you can dodge 3feri), but I dunno. As much as I like fog and wilderness rec it could be that style of mill is just too inferior now. Again since questing beast is a huge threat although you can at least kill it with drown in the loch unlike 3feri. Merfolk secretkeeper and drowned secrets are so goddamn good together though, fuck. If only I could have the secretkeeper and secrets all for my perverse self without having to have the rest of the flabby body attached. Wilderness rec works well with Vantress too, I gotta mention that. Resolving one or two recs (I typically only want one to keep mana up for fog or counters, but with Vantress there's good reason to have more) to curate the absolute shit out of your draws is nice. Probably should settle my shit down and make some dimir list and give up on the green splash dream though, even though I like having a pillowfort. Probably should give in and craft a playset of murderous riders.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Christ, about pissed myself laughing. Was playing jund adventures and got matched against Golos/gates/field. Game took an entire fucking lifetime but I ended up winning because the other guy was so terrified of attacking with his tokens he missed lethal, since I had Vraska's emblem up and needed to poke him for 1 damage. Fortunately he was too scared to attack with 12 2/2s against my 9 blockers and 6 life total and completely tapped out manabase that the game went long and he ended up running out of cards and decking due to indiscriminate Golos-use on top of drawing from 3feri on top of drawing from circuitous route on top of drawing from me assassin's trophying his fields. Turns out the secret to milling your opponent is play a deck that isn't intended to mill at all.



(Incidentally, trophy's real fuckin' good right now with all the fields. You guys. YOU GUYS)

 

[Doktor Best]

J7

You probably dont want to hear this but Mono Blue Tempo and Red Calamity is very cheap and effective.

Do you know a good list anywhere? I found some but they all contain the Djinn which is rotated :/

https://mtgdecks.net/Standard/mono-blue-tempo-decklist-by-elyallo-848734

edit: Nevermind, I just build a red calamity deck Used my remaining wildcards and got 95% of the standard calamity deck, only skimped on a few cards. Hopefully it pays off now!

edit: My fortunes changed Ridiculous calamity netdeck, first 3 games in the Standard Event so far, 3 wins a row... and I won Dovin planeswalker. I disgust myself playing this deck but it really wins and I need it for more cards! Whatchagonnado.

edit: Just won on turn 4 I should have done this ages ago. This "Standard Event" + a Netdeck is much faster gold than screwing around in ranked and the expensive drafts.

Aggro decks are neccessary to keep the super greedy decks in check, so you could justify your actions by saying youre doing a public service. I also like to play aggro from time to time and i think the notion that they dont require any knowledge/brain to play correctly is not entirely correct. They require less decisionmaking, yes, but those decisions you make are way more crucial to success than typically and there can be quite a bit of nuance on how to read the situation/opponents hand in order to play correctly.

Right now i enjoy Rakdos more than RDW though when i want to play aggro, but its not a cheap deck.

Christ, about pissed myself laughing. Was playing jund adventures and got matched against Golos/gates/field. Game took an entire fucking lifetime but I ended up winning because the other guy was so terrified of attacking with his tokens he missed lethal, since I had Vraska's emblem up and needed to poke him for 1 damage. Fortunately he was too scared to attack with 12 2/2s against my 9 blockers and 6 life total and completely tapped out manabase that the game went long and he ended up running out of cards and decking due to indiscriminate Golos-use on top of drawing from 3feri on top of drawing from circuitous route on top of drawing from me assassin's trophying his fields. Turns out the secret to milling your opponent is play a deck that isn't intended to mill at all.



(Incidentally, trophy's real fuckin' good right now with all the fields. You guys. YOU GUYS)

Happened to me also in my last draft round. I built a pretty subpar deck and was down to 1:2. Started the next game and had to mulligan to 5 because manascrew. The opponent had me in the ropes by turn 4, but somehow he stopped applying pressure because he was overrespecting a single tomebound lich and i was able to swing the game and salvage a pretty mediocre draft run into a 4:3 atleast.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Just drafted a ub deck in eld and.. holy shit this format's slow as hell. I thought sealed was taking forever but damn, when you have more control over deck construction it's actually crazy. One BO1 match can last like 45 minutes :/

Partially my fault for drafting a mill control deck but mostly not my fault because I was passed a bunch of secret keepers and removal and midnight clock ughh I'm getting tired after one match

p.s if control has 7 cards in hand and you're top decking u prolly ain't gonna win just saying

kinda incentivized to try to force aggro in next drafts so I can actually finish games before dying of old age

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Just drafted a ub deck in eld and.. holy shit this format's slow as hell.

Been hearing Eldraine's pretty painful in limited. Apparently it's the abundance of removal and not very many threats. Your mill strategy may be one of the better routes to win, even as slow and miserable as it is. I normally only lightly poke at limited but I'm considering steering clear of Eldraine just because I'm not that fond of limited anyway, and it sounds a hell of a lot rougher than M20 which actually felt pretty good.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Just drafted a ub deck in eld and.. holy shit this format's slow as hell.

Been hearing Eldraine's pretty painful in limited. Apparently it's the abundance of removal and not very many threats. Your mill strategy may be one of the better routes to win, even as slow and miserable as it is. I normally only lightly poke at limited but I'm considering steering clear of Eldraine just because I'm not that fond of limited anyway, and it sounds a hell of a lot rougher than M20 which actually felt pretty good.

Yup there's tons of cheap removal at common and creature stats seem generally low, like everything below 4/5 mana has 2 or less attack plus so many cards give food so control seems to just be the safe bet unless you get some crazy bomb.

I had a lot of fun with M20 especially when you could draft like 3+ heart pierce bows and some sani skellies it was hilarious plus the pacing just felt better in general. Eld games seem exhausting

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

this is what happens like every game. I have like 2 garbage creatures and opp literally can't do anything because the average creature is too weak to get through a 0/4 wall. Then we just wait 20 rounds until he's out of cards.

won my first draft with red-black. Abundance of removal and that card that puts critters on top of library is win.

do you also behave in following way: try to restrain yourself from going full begging mode, do quite well, then on next druft just lose it and end up with trash?

Yeah forever young is insane. And it's common! Like holy shit

I literally just grab every rare that I see, each rare is worth 1000g to me so idgaf if it's a suboptimal pick or whatever, because as long as I get >5k gold worth of shit from each run I'm happy. But yea sometimes you just end up with a garbage deck :/

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Goddamn it Dawkins, I want that sleeve. I know it's some Twitch shit and I basically never watch Twitch so I'm SOL, but it's nice looking and most importantly half the image isn't obscured with MAGIC™ THE GATHERING™ ARENA™ smeared across it. Which is the #1 thing I dislike about almost all of the sleeves.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Goddamn it Dawkins, I want that sleeve. I know it's some Twitch shit and I basically never watch Twitch so I'm SOL, but it's nice looking and most importantly half the image isn't obscured with MAGIC™ THE GATHERING™ ARENA™ smeared across it. Which is the #1 thing I dislike about almost all of the sleeves.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...1313&_nkw=twitchcon+2019+magic+arena&_sacat=0

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Goddamn it Dawkins, I want that sleeve. I know it's some Twitch shit and I basically never watch Twitch so I'm SOL, but it's nice looking and most importantly half the image isn't obscured with MAGIC™ THE GATHERING™ ARENA™ smeared across it. Which is the #1 thing I dislike about almost all of the sleeves.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...1313&_nkw=twitchcon+2019+magic+arena&_sacat=0

I don't like it enough to spend $15+ on it, sadly. I might do the occasional buy a box preorder (Although I've only done that once so far in a year of MTGA) and I did buy a couple of the (One for Eldraine and one for M20 since they're single use) prerelease codes for 6 packs for a buck fiddy, but $15 for a sleeve's too rich for my blood. Even though it is a very nice sleeve.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Goddamn it Dawkins, I want that sleeve. I know it's some Twitch shit and I basically never watch Twitch so I'm SOL, but it's nice looking and most importantly half the image isn't obscured with MAGIC™ THE GATHERING™ ARENA™ smeared across it. Which is the #1 thing I dislike about almost all of the sleeves.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...1313&_nkw=twitchcon+2019+magic+arena&_sacat=0

I don't like it enough to spend $15+ on it, sadly. I might do the occasional buy a box preorder (Although I've only done that once so far in a year of MTGA) and I did buy a couple of the (One for Eldraine and one for M20 since they're single use) prerelease codes for 6 packs for a buck fiddy, but $15 for a sleeve's too rich for my blood. Even though it is a very nice sleeve.

yeah i felt the same but then I got drunk

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Goddamn it Dawkins, I want that sleeve. I know it's some Twitch shit and I basically never watch Twitch so I'm SOL, but it's nice looking and most importantly half the image isn't obscured with MAGIC™ THE GATHERING™ ARENA™ smeared across it. Which is the #1 thing I dislike about almost all of the sleeves.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...1313&_nkw=twitchcon+2019+magic+arena&_sacat=0

I don't like it enough to spend $15+ on it, sadly. I might do the occasional buy a box preorder (Although I've only done that once so far in a year of MTGA) and I did buy a couple of the (One for Eldraine and one for M20 since they're single use) prerelease codes for 6 packs for a buck fiddy, but $15 for a sleeve's too rich for my blood. Even though it is a very nice sleeve.

isnt new eldraine mastery sleve enough for you?

It looks like it'll be a good 'un. Dunno what the animation is but it looks okay. I'm actually fairly happy with the egg/Fblthp/Eldraine sleeves currently, and then I use the Chandra mastery if I'm doing a burn deck 'cause why not. Didn't think I'd ever use sleeves but they're alright.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Alright so I did 3 drafts, 2 were with control decks that went 5-6 wins no problem. 3rd was an aggro deck (because I was passed a bunch of aggro rares so I thought I'd give it a shot) that went fucking 0-3 because, guess what, all the aggro creatures have like 1 health and there's an insane amount of removal. Basically as aggro if you don't kill the opponent by turn 4 you lose, and it's impossible to kill them at turn 4 because the power level is so low.

Anyway, lesson learned. From now on I force ub control/mill every draft. Aggro requires some sort of god draft combined with nut draws to win and midrange straight up loses to control in this format. Pretty shitty but it is what it is :/