Magic the Gathering Arena

[Jason Liang]

Not bad enough that you play a different game.

actually, i have, for extended periods
this might be the beginning of one of those, depending on the bans

I started playing Urban Rivals again! They fixed the economy, also fixed T1/ T2 formats, pretty easy to get back into (if you played many years ago, half of your collection is now CR), and playable on your phone! Feels great playing with old friends again (I mean cards).

Game was dying, but mobile saved it. Used to be super hardcore but now there's a bunch of scrubs to get easy wins off of.

 

[anvi]

What rank do you guys get to in the ranked mode? I can't get past gold 3. I need a better deck for matches without sideboards. Do people just use tournament decks even though there is no sideboard in ranked?

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

What rank do you guys get to in the ranked mode? I can't get past gold 3. I need a better deck for matches without sideboards. Do people just use tournament decks even though there is no sideboard in ranked?

I usually get to gold in ranked then just play unranked for the rest of the season. Ranked is like playing against the same 2-3 decks every game and it's just boring to me. In unranked though I play against all sorts of weird shit.

actually, i have, for extended periods
this might be the beginning of one of those, depending on the bans

I've been wanting to get into elder scrolls legends just because the art looks cool but it seems like that game's dead so I don't really want to get invested at all.. Hearthstone can be fun especially when mtg meta is trash but I usually get bored pretty quick cuz it lacks depth.

That new league of legends card game looks like complete shit but I bet it'll take off just because riot's behind it. Anyway at least with MTG, even if the meta sucks, I can still have some fun fucking off in unranked

 

[spectre]

I usually go to Platinum, but the grind feels hella tedious. I prefer to just grind shekels in standard event and convert them into gems, that gives you actual value.

Yeah, it's pretty much all netdecks throughout Gold (copied verbatim from whatever site has the most up to date tournament results) - most of the homebrews tend to orbit around Gold 3-4, usually guys who crawled out of silver.
If you really want that extra pack and a card style, you need persistence and a deck that can pull above 50% winrate and get to the grindstone. I suppose it might get slightly easier in Bo3, depends if you have the stomach for it.

 

[anvi]

Yep, my deck is homebrew and I hover around gold 3, but I finally managed to tweak my deck to beat all the field of the dead decks which is like 90% of what I play in gold3. Or it was... since I changed my deck I've had different types of opponents and they pwn me But it is fun to try something different finally. Grinding the standard event is much better for my progress but it bores me :/ I can't wait until I have a deck that is good enough to win that consistently but isn't that boring Cavalcade deck.

 

[anvi]

Do you buy decks with the gems or use them for more drafts?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

What rank do you guys get to in the ranked mode? I can't get past gold 3. I need a better deck for matches without sideboards. Do people just use tournament decks even though there is no sideboard in ranked?

I'm in the same boat as Dawkins. I get gold since that's basically the gimme-rank and then I just fuck around. I understand people who Spike and keep playing good decks to climb because there is some interesting gameplay in there, but I usually have a better time just fucking around either making my own decks or playing netdecks of odd stuff that looks cool. Especially mill. And reanimator's fun even though it's dead simple, at least the "Can you counter my spell? If not I win" type.

Do you buy decks with the gems or use them for more drafts?

I save all my gems to buy cats/dogs/other woodland creatures, but I'm also a weirdo that isn't fond of limited so I might only play a single draft a month for the bronze welfare pack for limited ranked.

 

[spectre]

I start by saving up enough gems for mastery to stay f2p, then just buy whatever catches my fancy. Packs for gems isn't really a good deal, especially since you don't get any discounts over the base rate and the extra card tends to be a bit of a joke.
Draft runs is the only thing that looks like it's worth it.

And reanimator's fun even though it's dead simple, at least the "Can you counter my spell? If not I win" type.

Which is why I like wrapping it in the discard package. When in doubt, Durex to check if they have anything. Or Thought Erasure, then Thought Erasure again with Tamiyo, you can never to be sure.
I tried BR, and while it does have fantabulous self-discard options, I can never win anything with it. UBG can maindeck any number of Ass Trophies, which feels good in the current meta.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Brawl's coming by the way. Apparently it's going to be a weekly (Free entry) event every Wednesday starting in November. But we're getting a launch "Event" this Thursday (The 24th) that has a 1,000 gold entry fee and lets us play brawl every day for the rest of October. I guess the general plan is brawl is a once a week format (Maybe to try to keep it more casual? Judge the interest in this event and then maybe make it an always available thing? Fuck if I know) but itz coming. You do get some brawl specific cards and styles for that 1k so it's not a complete kick in the balls.

 

[Doktor Best]

https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arena-budget-standard-decks/

Mtgazone just released a list of actually pretty viable budget decks that are all only containing rare/mythics that are included in the starter decks. All of those decks are also upgradeable.

Should be more fun to play with them than only grinding calvacade and all of those decks should be as effective as an unoptimized calvacade deck.

 

[Doktor Best]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articl...-21-2019-banned-and-restricted-announcement?s

So its solely FOTD that gets the ban hammer. Oko will remain a dominating card but i think with the resurgence of control decks i dont think it will warp the meta as much as FOTD did.

Lets see how things develop.

 

[spectre]

I for one will start by upping the count on Mystical Dispute to 4x in my UG Flash.
Oko, baby, the things I'm doing for you.

I also wonder if the Golos Shell is salvageable. It did manage an impressive ramp and I enjoyed nabbing everything that wasn't bolted down with Agents of Treachery.
I reckon it'll simply devolve into some kind of a WUG Nissa + Oko + Krasis bullshit.

 

[Scruffy]

Not bad enough that you play a different game.

actually, i have, for extended periods
this might be the beginning of one of those, depending on the bans

I started playing Urban Rivals again! They fixed the economy, also fixed T1/ T2 formats, pretty easy to get back into (if you played many years ago, half of your collection is now CR), and playable on your phone! Feels great playing with old friends again (I mean cards).

Game was dying, but mobile saved it. Used to be super hardcore but now there's a bunch of scrubs to get easy wins off of.

`

I've been wanting to get into elder scrolls legends just because the art looks cool but it seems like that game's dead so I don't really want to get invested at all.. Hearthstone can be fun especially when mtg meta is trash but I usually get bored pretty quick cuz it lacks depth.

That new league of legends card game looks like complete shit but I bet it'll take off just because riot's behind it. Anyway at least with MTG, even if the meta sucks, I can still have some fun fucking off in unranked

oh no, fuck that, more power to you guys and may you find fun games, but i'm definitely not investing any more time in any other card game. Right now what i do is quickly rank to gold in draft and constructed in 3-4 days and then just float on 4 wins a day, i'd rather play kenshi than find antoher simic and another golos and another oko

they managed to make the meta even less fun than when it was all esper control

 

[anvi]

I am glad field of the dead is going away! I hate that deck... Everyone plays it and there are so few answers for it. I made a deck which kicks its ass but it is weak against everything else so it is not ideal... I will be glad to see it go. It seemed OP too when it was combined with the likes of kraxis and some builds with lots of PWs.

 

[Scruffy]

Oko of course is still there, they need to sell those boosters!`

edit
and now let's all gather around and watch the meta become 60% decks with Oko

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'm actually a bit disappointed they're killing FOTD since that was competitive with relatively few rares/mythics compared to a lot of other competitive decks. And Oko will still run rampant despite being a 3 mana walker that's strong against aggro, midrange, and control. Ah well. I guess historic remains the realm of FOTD until/unless they unban FOTD like ferocidon. Maybe next set they'll reprint field of ruin so FOTD can come back.

 

[anvi]

Amazing how many people concede at the first sign of danger. I notice using discard gets some concedes even on turn 1 or 2. There are even people who could have beat me but conceded too.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Amazing how many people concede at the first sign of danger. I notice using discard gets some concedes even on turn 1 or 2. There are even people who could have beat me but conceded too.

Yeah people just don't like playing against discard or like super counterspell heavy control. It's actually an easy way to get wins in unranked because a lot of players will just say "fuck this" after getting hit by a couple discard spells.

 

[Jason Liang]

Are they going to compensate us wildcards like they did with Nexus of Fate?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Are they going to compensate us wildcards like they did with Nexus of Fate?

I would assume so, considering they gave wildcards for nexus and it was only banned in BO1. If they ban FOTD flat-out from standard entirely and don't give wildcards that'd be some real fucking shit.

 

[spectre]

https://forums.mtgarena.com/forums/threads/60956
Looks like it's settled, they compensate for banned cards with wildcards, but the card stays in the collection for playing outside of standard.
Not bad. Seems like I'll be sleeving up Fires of Invention a bit earlier than expected.

I wonder what's the deal with the Pioneer announcement with no mention of Arena. Will they be using this to keep MTGO afloat? Does this mean Historic in MTGA is even deader? Will they actually be working towards implementing in in Arena (I always said I'd like them to go back to Origins).

 

[Jason Liang]

Yes I just saw that. Yea? Glad to have some free wildcards and Fields of the Dead was something I wanted for Historic anyway, but this does set a terrible precedent of encouraging players to wildcard the most broken stuff that is bound to get banhammered. Any bets on Oko?

Regarding Player Collections
Players who have Field of the Dead as a part of their in-game collection on MTG Arena prior to 1.01.00 game update on October 24 will receive an equal number of rare Wildcards to their collection as part of the update. These additional rare Wildcards will be automatically added to player collections, and there will be no in-game notification of this grant.

Players can still redeem rare Wildcards for Field of the Dead for play in non–Standard formats. There will be a confirmation message reminding players that the card is currently banned in Standard.

Makes it sound like you have a window to wildcard a set of Fields of the Dead for free. That wasn't the case for Nexus.

 

[new fucking guy]

Makes it sound like you have a window to wildcard a set of Fields of the Dead for free. That wasn't the case for Nexus.

I'm pretty sure it was actually, I clearly remember people saying "craft those 4 for free mythics bruh" and having 0 mythic wildcards.

 

[spectre]

Makes it sound like you have a window to wildcard a set of Fields of the Dead for free. That wasn't the case for Nexus.

I'm pretty sure it was actually, I clearly remember people saying "craft those 4 for free mythics bruh" and having 0 mythic wildcards.

Yeah, same here. Always pays to have one or two in reserve... which I never manage to have.

Oko is the mythic poster-boy who sells packs, just like the two iterations of the Magic Negro. I'd doubt they'll ban it.
They also seem hell bent on printing more annoying 3 mana 'wankers (like those 1UR guys), so I would only expect this trend to continue.
Supposedly, the unspoken reason for FoTD getting the bananna wasn't its power level, but that it increased the match time.
Not unlike Nexus, it seems that slow play is the only proven way to make WotC step in.

By the way Oko + Bioessence Hydra looks like a sleeper hit. Add in Behemoth Beckoner and the haste-giving Smut and it just might be a tad bonkers.

 

[Jason Liang]

AHHHH I just saw that they backed out of 1:2 Historic redemption. AHHH I blew my entire trove of wildcards... (still have 30 mythic wild cards left)