Magic the Gathering Arena

[spectre]

After that I want to duplicate my control deck and then turn it into a Fae of Wishes deck. I have 4 of them and I saw a deck which used them to pull out endless perfect solutions... I love the idea of answering anything in play, and I like the challenge of making it work cuz it is mana expensive.

There are only two ways to pull it off with the current cardpool, I think.
One is the fires of invention deck, it's pretty solid and I am happy that it crushes all the midrange adventure nonsense.
I only made four changes to the netdeck - up the count on Prison Realm to 4x then add one more Conclave Tribunal to have flexible permanent removal (you absolutely need this becaue of the Oko everywhere and in the mirror).
I also added one Ral and one Mobilized District. You need plenty of activated abilities to do stuff with your mana.

The upside is that you can pretty much put anything in the wishboard, because mana colors are irrelevant. So if you feel like having Parun, Elderspell and Casualties of War, it all fits.
The only thing I dislike about this approach is no instant speed interaction and your play pattern gets quite repetitive. There were times where I was actually glad when the opponent blew up Fires
so I could play stuff with Teferi.

There's also the variant which uses black instead of white, I believe it has slightly better matchup versus control.

Another approach, though I'm not sure how competitive, is to make a Gates deck that ramps just like Fields of the Dead. You should be able to get 10+ lands out easily giving you a similar mana output.
Biggest problem is not dying to aggro, before you take off, both decks can have similar tools - Deafening Clarion is very important - the lifelink part as well to stabilize.
Gates might be more effective cause it also has Gates Ablaze at 3 cmc and you can soak some damage when ramping with Grazers.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Gates is really weak imo but I guess it's kinda cheap to make. I do have a soft spot for RNA cards because that was my favorite draft :/

If yall need a deck for fast easy wins I recommend something like this:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/standard-mono-red-aggro-101387#paper

Except drop the fucking footlight fiend and rimrock knights and chandras IDK wtf whoever made this deck was thinking when they put those cards in. Replace with skewer and experimental frenzy. Slaying fire, castle embreths, and bonecrush giants should probably be 4 ofs as well.

5 wins in under 20 minutes with that deck easily. I DON'T recommend calamity decks because they're way too inconsistent and rely very heavily on getting a good draw, which is antithetical to what an aggro deck should be.

That's my thoughts anyway..

 

[anvi]

Torbran is OP. I am averaging about 5 or 6 wins now in Standard Event with my control deck. Sadly it takes me HOURS.

 

[spectre]

Well, the good thing about Gates is that most of the shit is common and uncommon, with exception of Plaza of Harmony, which is a shitty thing to spend wildcards on, although having at least three does wonders for your early game survival.
Another major weakness is Narset, who shits all over your main draw engine, but you should be packing 3cmc 'wanker hate anyway if you want to get anywhere in this meta.
It's pretty much the only way to play with 3+ color mana base without blowing your bank on shocklands.

I would agree, the honest RDW is much better than cavalcade, because it's more reliable. With cavalcade, you'll probably lose if you don't draw the enchantment, with RDW you'll probably not win when going second or when you
meet a hate-deck. The odds are slightly better.

Though, Rimjob Knight did nothing wrong. It's a decent turn two-three drop whichever mode you play. And it's nice to have a 1 mana thing option when you're growing your steam kin. Robin Hoods are probably better overall,
but it goes against my fundamental beliefs to throw mythic wildcards at this deck.
What actually offends me about that list is running 22 lands. I suppose it facilitates Sarkan sideboard (whatever for).
Just add another 1 drop (I mean, whichever, Grim Initiate, Tin Street Dodger, even the Footlight is fine cause it gets the damage in even when blocked) and up the count on LuTS, ffs.

Damn, the brawl event was pretty crappy. Pretty much all I saw was: Oko, Oko, Torban, Oko, Turban. I was actually excited to see Persistent Pertitioners.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Damn it. I got an M20 pack from the mastery track today, and got a glint-horn buccaneer in it. Which then made me want to play some Izzet alliance shit with that 2 mana enchantment. And then I liked it, which is now making me want to spend rares and mythics to get more scions and the jumbo pyromancer, though honestly I'm leery on the pyromancer. Deck seems like it may be stronger if you basically just ignore the creature game entirely and fuck around with spells and making billions of faeries and presumably run some red castles to pump them up, since the enchantments are harder to interact with (Note, mainly thinking BO1 here since in BO3 you'd likely get your shit slapped hard). Probably the biggest issue would be questing beast though since you can't chump block with faeries.

Damn, the brawl event was pretty crappy. Pretty much all I saw was: Oko, Oko, Torban, Oko, Turban. I was actually excited to see Persistent Pertitioners.

Early on people were actually having fun, but then the tryhards sidled up and you get a bunch of Oko, Niv reborn, and dorf. Selesnya's decent against Oko in brawl as long as they don't get a nut singleton hand of turn 1 once upon a time and ramp, turn 2 Oko though. Which they will. Every single time EVEN THOUGH IT'S SINGLETON AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH JESUS

 

[spectre]

Early on people were actually having fun, but then the tryhards sidled up and you get a bunch of Oko, Niv reborn, and dorf. Selesnya's decent against Oko in brawl as long as they don't get a nut singleton hand of turn 1 once upon a time and ramp, turn 2 Oko though. Which they will. Every single time EVEN THOUGH IT'S SINGLETON AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH JESUS

Yeah, I figured in a mode with no actual reward beyond the five wins, the tryhards will just snag the cards and be done with it.
After a few games I just put Negate, Quench, Mystical Dispute and Tale's End in the deck. Made two of cunts immediately concede when Oko didn't come through.
I guess singleton just doesn't click with me. I think it would be much cooler as a 40-45 card format for just the right amount of variance, but then Petitioners would be way too broken.

Also, this boggles me. You ban a fucking Sorcerous Spyglass in the format, which is a one-off answer with plenty of counter-play (one of the more obvious being, just don't use a 'wanker commander.
I think they even broke an original commander rule here by allowing them), yet you can still allow a commander that immediately turns your kosher-kreature-kommander into an elk.

By the way, in comparison to the previous block, I think they've started to inflate the number of must-get mythic rares in Eldraine. Some of the stuff - Robber of the Rich, Questing Beast, Brazen Borrower don't seem to have any business being in the mythic slot at all
other than pushing pack sales... which seems like I just answered my own question here.
Still, people used to complain that rares are a bottleneck, so maybe they're silently trying to push it in another direction.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Also, this boggles me. You ban a fucking Sorcerous Spyglass in the format, which is a one-off answer with plenty of counter-play (one of the more obvious being, just don't use a 'wanker commander.
I think they even broke an original commander rule here by allowing them), yet you can still allow a commander that immediately turns your kosher-kreature-kommander into an elk.

Yeah, regularly you can't use walkers as commanders, but since brawl is limited to cards in standard I assume they included walkers just because the pickings for legendary creatures is a bit thin. Which wouldn't be as obnoxious if you didn't have fucking Oko at 3 mana and can somewhat believably come down turn 2. Even annoying cheap walkers like 3feri aren't as obnoxious. And banning sorcerous spyglass is odd considering cards like frogify and Kasmina's transmutation exist to do essentially the same thing only to creature commanders. I guess the difference is creature commanders can commit honorable sudoku by chump blocking while walkers can't. At least until your opponent is playing Oko and decides to "Your commander? ............................ My commander" and steal your fucking commander. That's the one bright point of playing Vraska, zapping Oko's ass.

I also agree that the mythic slot as a whole seems more pushed in Eldraine. Don't know if that's going to be the new normal or if Eldraine's just going to be a fluke. Maybe they were leaning heavier on the mythics since they didn't have really juicy rarelands to sell packs, even though there are a ton of fucking rares in Eldraine that people want anyway.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[anvi]

Game is buggy as fuck for me since the last update. I keep winning games and getting no reward.... which makes me really angry seeing as my matches can take 30 minutes I am going to become a big nuisance to their support staff.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Dawkinsfan69 Pony sleeves are now available at $4 each. Please report to your nearest MTGA client of choice to purchase your pony. Compliance is mandatory.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Dawkinsfan69 Pony sleeves are now available at $4 each. Please report to your nearest MTGA client of choice to purchase your pony. Compliance is mandatory.

YES!

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Playing Azorious control will be all the sweeter with pony sleeves! You'll probably cause a few brain aneurysms along the way.

And on a complete unrelated note, god damn it playing around with Izzet is fun. I like being a Dimir asshole for mill/hand hate but I also like digging through cards like a fiend. Does seem like ignoring creatures and acquiring faeries is the way to go. Had a close game against a RDW player with a nut draw (Of the one drop, cavalcade, cavalcade, spitfire, spitfire, 3cmc Chandra variety) and managed to win because he went face instead of attacking Ral Viceroy which let me get my ult, which meant infinite 4 damage pings forever. I don't blame him going face though, I was on 8 life, but I was also drawing/cycling like 5 cards a turn so after that I always had instant speed flamesweeps to keep myself safe. Current version of the deck which will still call for a lot more refinement, but it's been fun to play around with:

Spoiler

Deck
1 The Royal Scions (ELD) 199
8 Mountain (ANA) 64
8 Island (ANA) 62
4 Improbable Alliance (ELD) 193
1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun (GRN) 192
1 Ral, Storm Conduit (WAR) 211
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy (GRN) GR5
2 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
2 Temple of Epiphany (M20) 253
1 Swiftwater Cliffs (M20) 252
4 Opt (XLN) 65
1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242
3 Negate (M20) 69
4 Chemister's Insight (GRN) 32
1 Cavalier of Gales (M20) 52
2 Castle Embereth (ELD) 239
4 Thrill of Possibility (ELD) 146
4 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
4 Flame Sweep (M20) 139
4 Merchant of the Vale (ELD) 131

Biggest issue (And it's a really fucking big one) is planeswalkers, unsurprisingly. The 3 negates are to help with that, and as long as all 4 copies of improbable alliance aren't in the bottom 30 (Like that RDW game) they can help nibble walkers down, but it's still a glaring weakness since all decks need to be running 10+ walkers. Thinking about dropping Ral Storm since the scry isn't that important, and the spell doubling is nice but unnecessary. Replacing him with a second scion would be good if I had one. Viceroy's a little questionable too, his uptick doesn't count as drawing so he doesn't trigger alliance, but his ult's a dangerous ticking clock if you can protect him and his downtick can be useful large removal, but he might be better replaced with another Niv Parun since Niv's basically a win condition if you untap with him and he triggers alliance. Bonecrusher giants may be acceptable too, just because they're good spot removal and plonking down a 4/3 body's solid. Should probably try electrodominance too just because I've never fucking played that card before, but not sure if I even want to be running a pseudo-fireball in here since I often want mana up on my opponent's turn for extra alliance triggers with insight/thrill. Moral of the story is it's nice when you find some goofy shit you enjoy toying around with.

 

[spectre]

Do you have the lands to splash green for Wilderness Reclamation? It's quite fun when you have all the fucking mana in the world then go off with the Storm Conduit. You'd probably need two Expansion // Explosions,
but they're pretty nice when you can double the output on stuff like Flame Sweep. Thought that's probably an entirely different deck.

If you have any Kefnets, I'd play them there.
Also, have you considered additional second-card draw pay offs? You seem to have an abundance of ways to trigger it. Faerie Vandals are inexpensive and can grow quite steadily if you get multiples on board.
Might help you with the 'wanker problem a tiny bit. They might not bring down an Oko straight away, but they're not good targets for elkification.
As you probably know, Narset will shit all over you. Especially when you try and drop Cavalier of Gales. You basically need to peck it down with faeries or negate the cunt.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

I kept running into pussy lovers all the time, who really took their sweet time with all the activations and triggers. You mustn't overdo the cat baking, or it leaves a bad taste in eveyrone's mouth.
Made me took a break to fondle faeries and fires of invention I recently got.

Most of my hands-on experience with Gruesome Menagerie comes from mono black, it puts decent value back on the table when you had, say, Lazotep Reaver and Plaguecrafter to pick from.
I don't typically go above 4 mana in the cat bakery (my curve stops at two Rankles with 22-23 lands currently, mostly because I'm running extra fetches for sac triggers and still want to play shit on curve).
Then there's the matter of two drops which is the deal-breaker when evaluating GM. As for now, I keep juggling angarth's rampages, noxious grasps and dreadhorde butchers, depending on how many Okos and Questing Beasts I keep running into.
(swear, whoever put that cannot be blocked thing on it was a massive faggot), so I can't always guarantee having a decent target in this spot.
Still, when it all goes off, bringing back a cat, butcher and Devil/Judith/Rapist puts you right back on track.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Do you have the lands to splash green for Wilderness Reclamation? It's quite fun when you have all the fucking mana in the world then go off with the Storm Conduit. You'd probably need two Expansion // Explosions,
but they're pretty nice when you can double the output on stuff like Flame Sweep. Thought that's probably an entirely different deck.

If you have any Kefnets, I'd play them there.
Also, have you considered additional second-card draw pay offs? You seem to have an abundance of ways to trigger it. Faerie Vandals are inexpensive and can grow quite steadily if you get multiples on board.
Might help you with the 'wanker problem a tiny bit. They might not bring down an Oko straight away, but they're not good targets for elkification.
As you probably know, Narset will shit all over you. Especially when you try and drop Cavalier of Gales. You basically need to peck it down with faeries or negate the cunt.

I definitely could splash green for wilderness rec, and having infinite mana could be handy, but I'm not sure if I'd want to go that route. Wilderness rec and explosion is a solid win condition though so it might be worth considering.

I do have a pair of Kefnets and a blue cavalier, all of which would be solid in there, except I'm trying to lean harder into the alliance-plan. Initially started dicking around with second-card payoffs and other creatures (Since crackling drakes would get huge with all the card cycling) but that just enables my opponent's removal cards, whereas if I rely entirely on faeries then most removal is pretty bad/useless against me. It's also why I'm running a couple red castles, for giving +1/+0 to a swarm of faeries when needed. I kept the blue cavalier in there because his ETB is useful even if he gets killed, and his death effect can be useful too. Even he may be worth cutting though, I could benefit from running some ionize in there for additional counterspells and more face damage to make work easier for the faerie tokens. And yeah, Narset's a huge fucking problem if she resolves. That's one of the instances where Viceroy's uptick not being "Draw" can help. I suppose another point in Kefnet's favor is with all the draw/cycle available it's easy to get back to Kefnet after a kill.

Edit: After toying around with it more, probably should try to stick some more creatures in there just because relying on drawing alliance, even with all that cycle/draw, is a pain in the ass. Too many games boil down to "Well, drew all your removal" against control and "Well, drew all your counters" against aggro.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[new fucking guy]

my kittens finally gave me plat. Stormfist crusader > light up the stage/midnight rapist

this has to be wrong
the point of the deck is the combo, which is hard to disrupt and also scales with crits like midnight rapist and the demon dude to ridiculous effects. luts digs for the combo. crusader is just like a 2cmc dude. maybe he's a good 2 drop but definitely not a replacement. 4x luts 4x reaper it is
unless you think of the combo as just a bonus in a rb aggro deck. which may be reasonable considering the presence of the shirtless breadmaker

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[new fucking guy]

judith is slow? you're playing murderous riders!
that list does look more like a regular rb aggro deck, except you're playing footlight fiends instead of the good 1 drops for some reason. here's my pile

Spoiler

Deck
2 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame (M20) 126
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva (RNA) 185
4 Cauldron Familiar (ELD) 81
2 Gutterbones (RNA) 76
4 Mayhem Devil (WAR) 204
4 Midnight Reaper (GRN) 77
1 Blacklance Paragon (ELD) 79
2 Priest of Forgotten Gods (RNA) 83
3 Angrath's Rampage (WAR) 185
3 Claim the Firstborn (ELD) 118
4 Light Up the Stage (RNA) 107
1 Mask of Immolation (M20) 151
4 Witch's Oven (ELD) 237
4 Blood Crypt (RNA) 245
1 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
4 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
7 Mountain (ANA) 59
7 Swamp (ANA) 58
2 Knight of the Ebon Legion (M20) 105

Sideboard
3 Flame Sweep (M20) 139
4 Drill Bit (RNA) 73
4 Noxious Grasp (M20) 110
2 Theater of Horrors (RNA) 213
2 Blacklance Paragon (ELD) 79

 

[spectre]

@up, so the Blacklance Paragon Questing Beast tech? Looks promising. I'd have to give it a go.

lukaszek
Midnight Rapist is your insurance from boardwipes and critter removal, which from what you write is a problem.
He draws attention away from the important pieces this way, replacing himself. I admit I wasn't a fan at first, but consider it a necessary evil for control matchup.

If Crusaders work for you, all the better, I am fundamentally opposed to the idea od letting the opponent draw cards.
As an aggro, you want them to stay mana screwed if they are, and not draw into anything good.

Yiddith is an extra Mayhem Devil, why you no love her?
I never had any problems with multiples. She was fine as a 4x before devil was a thing. With Devil included, I'd still go 2x at the very least.
She draws removal like mad and if even if you the enemy is slow on the killing, you're still getting at least two ping triggers and an untapped diva out of this play.
Not great on its own, but isn't a terrible play at all vs. Cavalcade.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[anvi]

My control deck is winning 99% against the cat decks since I added Ethereal Absolution, and I'm doing ok against the green aggro deck. My weakness is stronger control decks, and there are a few :/ I need to decide if I am gonna make a Fires deck or a snatchy blue deck with agents. Both seem super strong.

 

[spectre]

Those stronger control decks will usually be fucked by aggro... unless they also spec'd heavily vs. aggro... which puts you pretty much in the same boat in regards to the number of dead cards.
I often just concede this shit if I can't be bothered to lose 30 minutes of my life to just get that one win. Unless I feel like proving something.

Last time I played a snatchy deck with agents, it was a Golos Field and it was butal vs the mirror. If you want a blue-black discard+reanimator thingie, I think it's fundeck territory,
though it was pretty fun back when we could still combo Cavalier of Night with Mirror Images. I think lukaszek used this quite a bit.

Fires I can recommend, the WUR version scratches my itch when it comes to gratuitous control gameplay.
I think I easily went up two full ranks with it when the meta was nothing but those faggy adventures decks.
It gets shat upon by UG Flash and with the Oko+Nissa ramp thingie, you need just the right sequence of cards to curbstomp it.

If you need a good list for it, I was using this one. Might swap a land or two around, because it sometimes doesn't click after I added the Mobilized District, but it did good work for me:

Spoiler

4 Fires of Invention (ELD) 125
3 Fae of Wishes (ELD) 44
1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno (M20) 127
4 Narset, Parter of Veils (WAR) 61
2 Sarkhan the Masterless (WAR) 143
4 Teferi, Time Raveler (WAR) 221
2 Mountain (ANA) 64
4 Deafening Clarion (GRN) 165
4 Prison Realm (WAR) 26
2 Time Wipe (WAR) 223
1 Shimmer of Possibility (RNA) 51
3 Drawn from Dreams (M20) 56
1 Castle Vantress (ELD) 242
2 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
4 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
3 Interplanar Beacon (WAR) 247
2 Sacred Foundry (GRN) 254
1 Plains (ANA) 61
2 Temple of Epiphany (M20) 253
2 Temple of Triumph (M20) 257
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy (GRN) 195
1 Mobilized District (WAR) 249
1 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6
1 Castle Ardenvale (ELD) 238
1 Island (ANA) 62
4 Steam Vents (GRN) 257

Sideboard
1 Casualties of War (WAR) 187
1 Ashiok, Dream Render (WAR) 228
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General (WAR) 97
1 Grafdigger's Cage (M20) 227
1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno (M20) 127
1 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God (WAR) 207
1 Enter the God-Eternals (WAR) 196
1 Unmoored Ego (GRN) 212
1 The Elderspell (WAR) 89
1 Expansion // Explosion (GRN) 224
1 God-Pharaoh's Statue (WAR) 238
1 Conclave Tribunal (GRN) 6
1 Ethereal Absolution (RNA) 170
1 Return to Nature (WAR) 175
1 Clear the Mind (RNA) 34

The wishboard could also use some cleaning up, especially if I wanted to take it to Bo3, I feel that I would need to make room for something like 3x Mystical Dispute and 4x Legion Warboss.
But since I'm sticking to Bo1 for the time being, the plan is to have something for every situation, like God Pharaoh's Statue for the elusive play 1000 instants Arclight Phoenix decks.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG