Magic the Gathering Arena

[Jason Liang]

Since I'm buying back into paper, I decided to recategorize the most famous cards in Magic. Basically with all the upheaval and reorganizing in the past year, it's time to re-evaluate "Power 9", "Pillars of Magic" etc...

Vintage
Jewelry
- Black Lotus
- Mox Sapphire
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Jet
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Ruby

Blue Primus (blue spells restricted in vintage, banned in all other formats, played universally)
- Ancestral Recall
- Time Walk
- Tinker
- Dig Through Time
- Treasure Cruise

Blue Secundus (blue spells restricted in vintage, banned in all other formats)
- Mind's Desire
- Gush
- Flash
- Windfall
- Mystical Tutor
- Mental Misstep
- Gitaxian Probe

Alpha Magicks (the five famous spells from Alpha, restricted in Vintage, banned in all other formats)
- Balance
- Timetwister
- Demonic Tutor
- Wheel of Fortune
- Channel

Inventions (artifacts or artifact-related cards, restricted in Vintage, or banned or unplayable in other formats)
- Strip Mine
- Tolarian Academy
- Karn, the Great Creator
- Lodestone Golem
- Time Vault
- Sol Ring
- Mana Vault
- Mana Crypt
- Memory Jar
- Mystic Forge
- Chalice of the Void
- Trinisphere
- Thorn of Amehyst
- Blightsteel Colossus
- Sensei's Divining Top
- Bolas' Citadel

Forbidden Magicks (black spells restricted in Vintage, banned in all other formats)
- Necropotence
- Yawgmoth's Will
- Demonic Consulation
- Vampiric Tutor
- Imperial Seal

Pillars of Vintage Firma (The three unrestricted lands, banned in other formats, that define Vintage)
- Mishra's Workshop
- Bazaar of Baghdad
- Library of Alexandria

Pillars of Vintage Communa (The unrestricted spells that define Vintage)
- Wren and Six
- Paradoxical Outcome
- Mana Drain
- Doomsday
- Bridge from Below
- Dark Ritual
- Dark Petition

The 6 Green Elders (The 6 most powerful green enchantments ever printed, 3 banned in Legacy)
- Fastbond
- Survival of the Fittest
- Oath of Druids
- Sylvan Library
- Food Chain
- City of Solitude

The Circle of 9 (The 9 blue planeswalkers played in Vintage)
- Narset, Parter of Veils
- Jace, the Mind Sculptor
- Dack Fayden
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
- Teferi, Time Raveler
- Ashiok, Dream Render
- Tezzeret, the Seeker
- Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

The Hateboard (The most famous sideboard/ hoser cards played in Vintage)
- Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
- Energy Flux
- Hurkyl's Recall
- Leyline of the Void
- Dystopia
- Pyroblast
- Red Elemental Blast
- Veil of Summer

Spell Lands (Lands played for their effect in Vintage)
- Mystic Sanctuary
- Bojuka Bog
- Dryad Arbor
- Forbidden Orchard
- Glacial Chasm

Legacy

Pillars of Legacy Firma (lands that define Legacy)
- Wasteland
- Ancient Tomb
- Cavern of Souls
- Mishra's Factory
- Dark Depths
- Fetchlands

Pillars of Legacy Blue Tertia (blue spells, restricted in Vintage, unrestricted and defining in Legacy)
- Brainstorm
- Merchant Scroll
- Ponder

Pillars of Legacy Blue Quatro (blue spells, unrestricted in Vintage and Legacy, illegal in Modern)
- Force of Will
- Stifle
- Daze
- Intuition
- Meditate
- High Tide
- Mana Short
- Cunning Wish
- Show and Tell
- Preordain

Pillars of Legacy The 6 Blue Sages (the most famous blue enchantments ever printed, illegal or unplayed in Modern)
- Stasis
- Mystic Remora
- Standstill
- Back to Basics
- Dream Halls
- Counterbalance

Pox (black spells, unrestricted in Vintage and Legacy, illegal in Modern)
- Dread Return
- Sinkhole
- Hymn to Tourach
- Cabal Therapy
- Reanimate
- Entomb
* technically could include The Abyss, Nether Void, Chains of Mephistopheles, Hatred and Phyrexian Negator

Pillars of Legacy Communa (non-blue or black spells used across multiple decks that define Legacy and illegal in Modern)
- Swords to Plowshares
- Enlightened Tutor
- Burning Wish
- Faithless Looting
- Crop Rotation
- Green Sun's Zenith
- Natural Order
- Living Wish
- Glimpse of Nature

Cheap Jewelry (weaker versions of Jewelry unrestricted in Legacy)
- Lion's Eye Diamond
- Lotus Petal
- Mox Diamond
- Mox Opal
- Chrome Mox

The 4 Red Cardinals (The four powerful Red enchantments played in Legacy and Modern)
- Blood Moon
- Sneak Attack
- Fires of Invention
- Experimental Frenzy

Zoo (The best 1cc and 2cc creatures in Legacy)
- Stoneforge Mystic
- Snapcaster Mage
- Dark Confidant
- Dreadhorde Arcanist
- Young Pyromancer
- Tarmogoyf
- Argothian Enchantress
- Wild Mongrel
- Baleful Strix
- Mother of Runes
- Giver of Runes
- Delver of Secrets
- Kird Ape
- Wild Nacatl
- Basking Rootwalla

Burn All-Stars (The best burn spells ever printed)
- Lightning Bolt
- Fireblast
- Chain Lightning
- Rift Bolt
- Price of Progress
- Goblin Grenade
- Shrapnel Blast
- Galvanic Blast
- Abrade
- Smash to Smithereens
- Wizard's Lightning
- Skewer the Critics

Legendary Realms (the best and most famous Legendary lands ever printed)
- Dark Depths
- Phyrexian Tower
- Eye of Ugin
- Karakas
- Flagstones of Trokair
- Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
- Serra's Sanctum
- Gaea's Cradle

Modern
The Ark (The best green creatures played in Modern)
- Bloodbraid Elf
- Icefang Coatl
- Primeval Titan
- Hooting Mandrills
- Vengevine
- Steel Leaf Champion
- Eternal Witness
- Managorger Hydra
- Collecter Ouphe
- Elvish Reclaimer
- Nimble Mongoose
- Birds of Paradise
- Noble Hierarch
- Glistener Elf
- Deathrite Shaman
- Slippery Boggle

Blue Novus (The most powerful blue spells legal in Modern, not legal in Pioneer)
- Mindbreak Trap
- Gifts Ungiven
- Fact or Fiction
- Thirst for Knowledge
- Flusterstorm
- Force of Negation
- Serum Visions

Green Novus (The most powerful green spells legal in Modern, not legal or not played in Pioneer)
- Leyline of Abundance
- Force of Vigor
- Once Upon a Time
- Scapeshift
- Life from the Loam
- Regrowth
- Ancient Stirrings

 

[spectre]

Jason, luv, perchance you're looking for the other MTG thread, the one about paper?
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/magic-the-gathering.74575/page-35

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[spectre]

I think they're aware changing already established prices would cause an uproar, but It does look like they're testing the waters for what they can get away with elsewhere. For example, the brawl thing is barely worth it (unless you're super into brawl) from the perspective of what's offered. For 10 000 sheklels I could just buy boosters and, guy by redeeming the wildcard and still get extra value. I admit, I'm a sucker for all the alt art business, so I'll probably pay up to get that (unless it's really fugly). But I am not supporting this brawler fleecing. It they want to monetize shit, they should just focus on cosmetics.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[anvi]

we're finally getting deck sorting

omg omg such technology. I am impressed with the performance tweaks they did last time, it used to stutter for me on Low, and now it is smooth on Ultra.

 

[spectre]

Don't laugh mang, drop down lists are no mean feat. They were obviously testing the waters when they implemented it for deck format selection and now we get to see it in its full glory.
Same with the friends list. Still no info on that, perhaps we should curb our expectations and instead keep our fingers crossed for a 'log of acquaintances'.

 

[new fucking guy]

people have been playing brawl all week on https://arenabrawl.net/ , getting extra traffic now cause the price for the event is laughable
on that note, here's my historic brawl deck. It's not great but I love playing it

Spoiler

Commander
1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds (WAR) 180

Deck
1 Ancient Animus (DAR) 154
1 Llanowar Elves (DAR) 168
1 Mox Amber (DAR) 224
1 Jadelight Ranger (RIX) 136
1 Tendershoot Dryad (RIX) 147
1 Thrashing Brontodon (RIX) 148
1 Crushing Canopy (XLN) 183
1 Deathgorge Scavenger (XLN) 184
1 Ranging Raptors (XLN) 201
1 Field of Ruin (XLN) 254
17 Forest (DAR) 267
1 Druid of the Cowl (M19) 177
1 Daggerback Basilisk (M19) 174
1 Kraul Harpooner (GRN) 136
1 Wilderness Reclamation (RNA) 149
1 Titanic Brawl (RNA) 146
1 Karn's Bastion (WAR) 248
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger (RIX) 130
1 Mobilized District (WAR) 249
1 God-Eternal Rhonas (WAR) 163
1 Blast Zone (WAR) 244
1 Arboreal Grazer (WAR) 149
1 Cryptic Caves (M20) 244
1 Voracious Hydra (M20) 200
1 Veil of Summer (M20) 198
1 Shifting Ceratops (M20) 194
1 Nightpack Ambusher (M20) 185
1 Leafkin Druid (M20) 178
1 Cavalier of Thorns (M20) 167
1 Meteor Golem (M20) 232
1 Sedge Scorpion (M20) 192
1 Arcane Signet (ELD) 331
1 Thorn Mammoth (ELD) 323
1 Keeper of Fables (ELD) 163
1 Once Upon a Time (ELD) 169
1 Questing Beast (ELD) 171
1 Wildborn Preserver (ELD) 182
1 Oakhame Adversary (ELD) 167
1 Stonecoil Serpent (ELD) 235
1 Castle Garenbrig (ELD) 240
1 The Great Henge (ELD) 161
1 Return of the Wildspeaker (ELD) 172
1 Ripjaw Raptor (XLN) 203

 

[anvi]

Anyone else getting a lot of disconnects / Network Error today? It was fine early on but now it is unplayable.

 

[new fucking guy]

The friendlist and some other stuff are up
https://forums.mtgarena.com/forums/threads/62102

 

[anvi]

Woot and the deck sorter!

 

[spectre]

Ok, let me get this straight, a friendlist is there, but no means of communication? Not even a fucking private message inbox? Just a glorified private challenge enabler (which is how it should be working in the first place)?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I'd probably enter that brawl event at 1k. It'd still be a bit of a ripoff, but a single rare historic card I'll never use as well as being able to play brawl easily wouldn't be the end of the world. To absolute hell with them at 10k though.

Card "Suspension" is also a complete crock of shit and is just a way to ban cards without any compensation. Once Upon a Time, Field of the Dead, and Veil of Summer are all banned in fucking pioneer and they're trying to act like they'll be unbanned any time soon in historic. I don't even like historic but for fuck's sake WotC, just give people a double dip on digital wildcards if you print something THAT fucking busted.

 

[anvi]

I still haven't tried a brawl even though I play this game almost every day. I just haven't got a single gold to spare. Deck sorter is good. Some ongoing problem with the game fucking up my internet connection though, even after I close the game, I can barely even browse the web. I need to reboot to fix it.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Theros event live now, with two precons. The precons inexplicably have moxes, black lotuses, sol ring, swords to ploughshares, and a bunch of other shit in them. I'm not really sure why unless the next historic addon is going to have moxes and lotuses just to be retarded.

 

[spectre]

Meh, you can't even open the packs at the moment. I got nothing against playing with parts of the power9, even if it's just one big stinking tease. See, we have this shit coded in, but for some reason you still can't play with all those sets that are already in the game.
Regardless, If you're not having fun quenching an opponent's mox, why do you even bother playing Magic(tm)?
Though it needs to be said, it is fucking offensive to get two moxen, underground sea and a fucking rupture spire in the same deck.

Kids on the official forums complain that the decks are mismatched, and everyone just wants to play Ashiok which makes the queue time obnoxious.
Still went an easy 3-1 with Elspeth. With one free mulligan, you can get an easy mox+sol ring hand for a quick concede.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Alphard]

I have never played MTG. is it worth joining the game now as new player? Can i cath up in a reasonable time? How is p2w here?
Is there a trade system for cards ( i guess not).
Thanks

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I have never played MTG. is it worth joining the game now as new player? Can i cath up in a reasonable time? How is p2w here?
Is there a trade system for cards ( i guess not).
Thanks

I assume you're talking about Arena in particular here. It's a decent time to join up since this is fairly fresh into rotation, which means any cards you get from Eldraine-onward will be good until late 2021, and the card pool is about as small as it'll get so you won't be AS far behind. You'll never catch up to current standard without spending money (Or being a draft savant, but if you've never played MTG that's almost guaranteed not to be the case) however, like I mentioned if you focus on getting cards/packs from Eldraine and whatever comes after then once rotation happens in late 2020 you'll be completely caught up, and you can craft odds and ends from earlier sets to pick up some key staples. P2W is fairly non-existent, it'll feel like it when you start off and don't have a card collection but getting situated isn't too bad. If you like the game it's also reasonable to buy some low hanging fruit (Like the newbie welcome pack) cheaply. There isn't a trade system for cards, and in fact handling extra cards is one of Arena's worst aspects compared to most other digital CCGs.

It's well worth loading it up and playing until you unlock the dual color starter decks at least. That'll give you a bit better taste for the game than the single color decks, then you can decide if you want to keep rolling.

 

[Alphard]

I have never played MTG. is it worth joining the game now as new player? Can i cath up in a reasonable time? How is p2w here?
Is there a trade system for cards ( i guess not).
Thanks

I assume you're talking about Arena in particular here. It's a decent time to join up since this is fairly fresh into rotation, which means any cards you get from Eldraine-onward will be good until late 2021, and the card pool is about as small as it'll get so you won't be AS far behind. You'll never catch up to current standard without spending money (Or being a draft savant, but if you've never played MTG that's almost guaranteed not to be the case) however, like I mentioned if you focus on getting cards/packs from Eldraine and whatever comes after then once rotation happens in late 2020 you'll be completely caught up, and you can craft odds and ends from earlier sets to pick up some key staples. P2W is fairly non-existent, it'll feel like it when you start off and don't have a card collection but getting situated isn't too bad. If you like the game it's also reasonable to buy some low hanging fruit (Like the newbie welcome pack) cheaply. There isn't a trade system for cards, and in fact handling extra cards is one of Arena's worst aspects compared to most other digital CCGs.

It's well worth loading it up and playing until you unlock the dual color starter decks at least. That'll give you a bit better taste for the game than the single color decks, then you can decide if you want to keep rolling.

Ty for very informative reply

 

[spectre]

If you never played MtG, I'm not sure if I can recommend Arena - its play vs. AI is very rudimentary which means you will be playing mostly vs. other players. There is a matchmaking algorithm which in theory gets people with similar decks and similar win/lose ratios together,
but I've heard mixed opinions about it (I'm playing competitive modes, so can't really say much about it). There's no dedicated queue for casual/new players, which also can make it rough.
If that makes it sound daunting, you can try earning your stripes on another f2p product, Magic Duels maybe. They dropped support for it, but it should still be playable vs. AI, which is quite terrible, but still better than Arena.

There is some grace period for new players together with the so called "new player experience", so it might not be that bad, just give it a spin and see if you like it, since its free. As a game client, MTGA is pretty handy.

On the other hand, if you don't mind playing vs. people and getting competitive sooner rather than later, there's plenty of good resources on how to start in Arena, what are the good budget decks, how to spend your shekels. Not sure about your definition of p2w, but it mostly boils down to collection size. With some dedication and after redeeming all the freebie codes, a new player should be able to build at least one competitive deck, so you can start rolling relative soon-ish, although you will want to work towards a number of decks eventually just to spice things up.
If you have a clear idea what you want to play, Arena is actually pretty decent in this regard - you gather wildcards at predictable rates, just save them up and redeem them for the cards you want.
Throwing money at it doesn't really give you any advantages, but can ease with the grind. Premium currency is attainable to f2p players, so no content is really barred from you, apart maybe from some limited-time cosmetics.

 

[Alphard]

Well maybe i'll give it a try. I don't mind playing pvp, that's actually the main appeal in these types of games for me. I just want to be able to make a viable deck of my liking in reasonable time

 

[anvi]

You can play against the AI as much as you like, but the AI makes stupid mistakes on purpose, and it also uses decks that aren't very strong. It is good enough for you to play and learn the game, and good enough to practice your new decks against it. But it doesn't provide much of a challenge so when you play against real people, it gets a lot more cut throat.

You get a decent amount of stuff for free after you enter all the codes and win with all the starter decks. There is some achievement or something which triggers once you reach a certain amount of XP and it throws lots of free stuff at you. I think I got to that in a few days. After that, the card acquisition is pretty slow. If you do the daily quests and play some more games, you can get about 1000g a day which is enough to get a small batch of random cards and 1 random rare a day. It isn't much but it keeps your collection slowly growing over the months. The freebies you get at the start are enough to buy 1 strong deck. If you manage to get a deck that is both really strong and something you love to play, then this could last you for ages. Sadly for me I ended up making a deck that wasn't very good and I also get bored of decks quickly. So I wanted another deck, and then another deck... And the only way to do that was spend money, and it is quite expensive. But you don't have to do it if you don't want a lot of different cards, and also once you have a good number of cards you end up with enough to make lots of decks.

My advice is don't do Standard Event. It eats your gold. Just play the unranked games over and over. The gold really starts to build up doing that.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[anvi]

I can't play this for 6 weeks, gonna miss it :/ Hoping I can remember my stuff when I get back and figure out the latest meta.