Magic the Gathering Arena

[Jason Liang]

spectre Jeskai (w/u/r) control discussion on ChannelFireball:

https://www.channelfireball.com/art...avnica-brews-dimir-dredge-and-jeskai-control/

Lands4 x Sacred Foundry4 x Steam Vents2 x Clifftop Retreat3 x Sulfur Falls4 x Glacial Fortress5 x Island5 x Plains
Creatures2 x Lyra Dawnbringer
Spells4 x Deafening Clarion4 x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria2 x Ionize3 x Sinister Sabotage4 x Essence Scatter1 x Syncopate1 x Settle the Wreckage4 x Chemister’s Insight3 x Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin1 x Blink of an Eye1 x Ixalan’s Binding1 x Seal Away2 x Justice Strike
Sideboard3 x Negate1 x Karn, Scion of Urza4 x History of Benalia1 x Settle the Wreckage2 x Cleansing Nova1 x Disdainful Stroke1 x Sorcerous Spyglass2 x Shalai, Voice of Plenty

I realized that I pulled a full playset of Death Barons already, guess I will try to make zombies work in Golgari.

Also, I'm starting to like the Dimir cards more and more. Muldrotha's going to be hard to trim down.

UPDATE: Put together all of my u/b/r legendaries together and made a historic dragons deck after realizing that I've basically pulled all of the u/r legendary dragons. Did pretty well with it today, for some reason people often concede after I cast either Bolas or Nev-Mizzet. Nev-Mizzet is not hard to hard cast at all. Only loss was to double The Eldest Reborn, after my own Eldest Reborn had been Thought Erasured. Fuck that card. Also finishing people off quickly with Punches! In this deck I've only punched for 13 (Traxos with the Blackblade) but I can see making a Dino punch deck as well. See, Punch is a WAY better direct-to-dome damage spell than Risk Factor.

 

[Projas]

ez

Edit: I did it again today lmao. That's 2/2. Wish they let you choose the packs tho, got enough Ravnica by now.

 

[Jason Liang]

Hot Golgari on Golgari intercourse

 

[you know what time it is]

Why some people play them cancer blue and teferi decks, who hurt them. Honorable second place in this autism race goes to White token players, that take about 10 minutes each turn to resolve every single proc they get.

Good thing I don't play paper magic I guess, I'd probably end up fighting people playing this Nexus of fate bullshit. Speaking of which, I already got meself a proper mono-green rape wagon with hexproof and shit, now I need something to wreck them Teferi decks with, I'd imagine some variation of U/B should do the trick with duress and all that jazz? Anyone got any ideas or resources where I can check out relevant info on current meta and whatnot.

 

[Jason Liang]

Teferi and planeswalkers are easier to deal with now since its a lot easier to jam 4 Assassin's Trophies into your deck than Vraska's Contempt. Then there is always Socerous Spyglass, the pre-emptive solution, which can also shut down those cunt lands like Azcanta and Journey to Eternity. I really like the Abzan control deck that 5-0 MODO Competitive league:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1384170#paper

Creatures (4)
4 Knight of Autumn

20.96
Planeswalkers (4)
3 Karn, Scion of Urza

90.03
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker

13.00
Spells (13)
3 Assassin's Trophy

71.10
2 Cast Down

2.00
2 Mastermind's Acquisition

2.46
2 Ritual of Soot

3.10
2 Vraska's Contempt

32.46
2 Cleansing Nova

4.02
Artifacts (3)
1 Azor's Gateway

4.47
2 Treasure Map

8.44
Enchantments (11)
3 Seal Away

3.00
4 Gift of Paradise

0.64
4 The Eldest Reborn

1.72
Lands (25)
1 Arch of Orazca
1.73
1 Forest
0.00
4 Isolated Chapel
13.44
4 Overgrown Tomb
31.92
1 Plains
0.00
4 Sunpetal Grove
15.32
2 Swamp
0.00
4 Temple Garden
27.56
4 Woodland Cemetery
23.80
Sideboard (15)
1 Banefire

1.60
4 Duress

0.56
1 Silent Gravestone

0.83
1 Amulet of Safekeeping

0.49
1 Arguel's Blood Fast

1.99
1 Assassin's Trophy

23.70
1 Sorcerous Spyglass

3.82
1 Golgari Findbroker

0.20
1 Vraska's Contempt

16.23
1 Trostani Discordant

3.50
2 Carnage Tyrant

42.22
75 Cards Total

That's a no fucking around non-blue control deck. 4 Eldest Reborn as the main win condition, LOVE IT.

 

[spectre]

Your instincts are probably all right. The Magic Negro likes a full set of Duress and Thought Erasure. Follow up with Unmoored Ego for bonus points.
Or just go with Plaguecrafters. It's a nice, versatile and conveniently priced uncommon.

Mono Red pretty much rolls over every teferi deck out there, unless they preside heavily (Shalai, Lyra, additional lifegain), so there's that.

My personal favorite is blowing up teferis with Banefire. If they take their sweet time setting up the perfect counterspell backup, the magic negro lands on turn 7 with 5 loyalty counters,
which means if you keep up with the mana drops, there's nothing they can do about it. It's also a way to get back at them after a big settle the wreckage.

 

[Zer0wing]

Really starting to hate the client because it's so easy to accidentaly run two executables of MTGA.

P.S.
Is there any way to modify basic decks to make them more competitive btw?

 

[illuknisaa]

Yes. You just take the bad cards out and put good cards in. Personally I recommend that you make a new deck because that way you skip the "take bad cards out" -step.

 

[spectre]

P.S. Is there any way to modify basic decks to make them more competitive btw?

You mean the starting starters, or thouse you get from quests? The starter ones are all crap (not sure which one sucked the least cause I threw them overboard immediately, perhaps the green one),
the quest ones are okay if you're starting out and want to get the feel of the game.

Your first step is to check the lands. IIRC some moron put 24 lands there, not counting the shenanigans pulled by the shuffling algorithm in best of one games.
Anyways, you're not really losing anything by going down with the land count to 22. If the deck has lots of expensive shit in it, go up to 26.

Second step is making sure you wont get mana screwed too often by this shit. Whipping out those sweet sweet wildcards and craft a bunch of Evolving Wilds (common), or Unclaimed Territories
if you like the tribal shit with MehrVolksgrenadiers or Vampires.

Don't spend any rare wildcards on this crap, because it's only good to lose some gold in Constructed, at best. It's all right to spend some common and uncommon ones to flesh it out a bit so you can grind a bit better with it
(e.g. if they didn't give you a full set of Legion's Lieutenants or stuff like that).

Look up a real deck on the internets and spend your wildcards there. If some of that cardboard is useful in the starter jank, more power to it.

 

[Suicidal]

Even though I don't particularly like card games (except for Etherlords, which is like a card game + HoMM style turn based strategy), I started playing this a few days ago and I'm enjoying it for some reason. Also feels weird to play MTG after playing so many games that it spawned beforehand.

 

[Jason Liang]

Magic is fun, at first

A related aside, yesterday I mulliganed 1 land (7 cards) into 0 land (6 cards) into 0 land (5 cards) into 0 land (4 cards) into 1 land (3 cards). Same deck also drew 12 lands, 2 spells by turn 7.

 

[Suicidal]

The default merfolk deck you get from playing the daily quests seems broken as fuck. So far I haven't lost a single game with it out of 10 or so and the only game I came close to dying was against an identical merfolk deck. By turn 3 I usually have several little shitters that buff eachother while my enemy has 1-2 mobs that are weaker than any of mine. Is this MTG's noob killer or something?

 

[Projas]

It's probably strongest of the prebuild decks you get for free. If you are using basic prebuild deck, you often get matched against people who also use the basic decks because the matchmaking algorithm takes deck strength into consideration. I don't think this is the case for the events though, so you could try taking it to one of the constructed events and see how you fare there.

 

[Jason Liang]

Merfolk is the strongest of the Ixalan tribes, but there's so many sweepers in the current meta that they're not going to be viable.

 

[Zer0wing]

Vampire tribe starter deck isn't bad either, managed to win an unwinnable game (the opponent that has way bigger board presence and a wincon on the table right there unwinnable) by a healer card topdeck and combo-ed it with Epicure of Blood.

 

[Suicidal]

It's probably strongest of the prebuild decks you get for free. If you are using basic prebuild deck, you often get matched against people who also use the basic decks because the matchmaking algorithm takes deck strength into consideration. I don't think this is the case for the events though, so you could try taking it to one of the constructed events and see how you fare there.

I tried that today and only won 2/7 so I guess it's only good vs noobs after all. 2 of my losses were due to horrible RNG however (didn't draw any mana for several turns).

 

[Projas]

If you have something to sideboard it's better to play the Competitive Constructed Event, so you can mitigate the bad RNG losses since it's BO3. Also you only need 2 wins to get your entry fee back.

 

[Jason Liang]

Where did all the rat decks go in singleton I ended up having a great record against rats after I put some knights into my deck

 

[whydoibother]

I've been playing this for a few days, never played the printed on paper version.
I have gathered some of those wildcard tokens that I can use to craft any card, but I can't figure out what to spend them on.
What are some solid cards that I want to craft with my wildcards, that would fit into more than one deck, and are useful for strong decks? How do I budged my wildcards if I don't intend to ever spend any money on MTG Arena out of principle?

 

[Jason Liang]

You'll eventually fill out your collection with some patience. Once you finish the New Player Experience rewards, you'll earn 3 free packs each week and 1250-1500 gold per day, roughly between 12-13 packs a week which will also give you 2 rare/ mythic wild cards each week. That might seem slow but thats roughly 50 packs each month.

1. Ideally, you will spend your gold on Ixalan, Dominaria and Guilds of Ravnica packs since not only do those packs have good cards, they also have the rare dual lands (lands that tap for 2 different kinds of mana). One long term goal is to collect a full playset of those dual lands - the five allied colored check lands from Ixalan, the five rival colored check lands from Dominaria, and the five "shock lands from Guilds of Ravnica.

2. This means that ideally you should prioritize your wild cards on the cards you want from Core 2019 set and Rivals of Ixalan, since you wont be opening those cards from packs (since you can't get dual lands from those packs).

3. It's also slightly better to wildcard cards that are non-legendary rather than those which are legendary, since you cannot have more than 1 copy of each legendary card in play. Now, people tend to run multiple copies of legendary cards regardless, but there's a small risk to doing that.

Given the above, these are my recommends:

MYTHIC RARE
Karn, Scion of Urza from DOM
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria from DOM
Vraska, Relic Seeker from IXN
Carnage Tyrant from IXN
Vivien Reed from M19
March of the Multitudes from GRN
Sarkhan Fireblood from M19

RARE
Assassin's Trophy from GRN
Search for Azcanta from IXN
Experimental Frenzy from GRN
Hostage Taker from IXN
Remorseful Cleric from M19
Steel Leaf Champion from DOM

UNCOMMON
The Eldest Reborn from DOM
Vine Mare from M19
Merfolk Branchwalker from IXN
Thought Erasure from GRN
Plaguecrafter from GRN

 

[Grunker]

Holy christ this game is good

 

[illuknisaa]

Honestly I don't really get the hype for arena. It's basically just a strictly worse when compared to something like xmage. Then there is paper which is just leaps and bounds better than anything that digital could offer.
People didn't seem that hyped over magic duels and that game at least offered something unique.

 

[spectre]

Well, in Arena you don't have to smell the BO of the unwashed neckbeard on the other side of the table. That in itself is added value.

I've been playing this for a few days, never played the printed on paper version.
I have gathered some of those wildcard tokens that I can use to craft any card, but I can't figure out what to spend them on.
What are some solid cards that I want to craft with my wildcards, that would fit into more than one deck, and are useful for strong decks? How do I budged my wildcards if I don't intend to ever spend any money on MTG Arena out of principle?

Avoid spending them unless there's a complete and competitive deck you really want. I'd leave 4 common and 4 uncommon WCs lying around when I need to craft something on a whim.
I guess it's okay to toss a few to round out a starter deck (like for example, get a few Deeproot Water for the MehrVolks, or get a full set of those dudes that give creatures +1/+1).
Rares are the main bottleneck for serious deckbuilding, so careful about spending those.
I also wouldn't use a rare or mythic wildcard to craft the fourth copy (unless it's something absolutely necessary for a deck to function). It won't feels like a waste when you get the 4th copy from a random reward.

Commons you can spend quite freely - most of the commons are unplayable outside limited, but there's a few evergreens that are nice to have - Negate, Spell Pierce, Opt, Shock (you should have a full set of those by now), Duress, Llanowar Elf, Anticipate, Adventurous Impulse.
Uncommons - you'll spend a lot of those on the bread and butter cards like Legion's Lieutenant, Sinister Sabotage, Seal Away, Ixalan's Binding - building a deck from scratch will eat a lot of those.
Rares - like I said, this is the main bottleneck for serious deckbuilding as all of the good two-color lands are rare. Control decks also eat a lot of those - nearly all the good board wipes are rare.
It's a bit of a chicken and egg dilemma - the adult thing to do is get the lands first, but you really need the wipes to play the control game.
Mythics - these are mostly for planeswankers, and most of the bunch isn't really worth it. Jason Liang's list is mostly good (though I'm not a fan of Sarkan myself), I'd add History of Benalia and Rekindling Phoenix - you'll get a good mileage out of those in a number of decks,
from aggro to control sideboard and you benefit by having 3x or even the full set.

 

[you know what time it is]

Well Idk what changed but I'm constantly being matched against people with gayest decks imaginable (nexus, dimir, izzet etc), during closed beta I played against janky ass decks (like mine) all the time and it was pretty damn fun. Also losing 50% of games due to being manafucked sure is nice, I'm glad Artifact got fixed mana income, rng is a part of any card game, but that shit's just infuriating.

Draft is the only way to play the game I guess, but then again Wizards apparently using bots for drafting so you are pretty much forced to go Dimir or Boros (and playing against them all the fucking time).

 

[Jason Liang]

Sarkhan's 3cc just means he's competing with cards in a whole different league. There's a glut of amazing 4, 5 and 6 cc cards but to get a useful planeswalker at 3cc is amazing. You don't even need to protect him. If he loots for you once or twice and soaks 4 damage, he'll still have been worth 3 mana and a card. He's basically Azcanta excoaant you get 4 dragons instead of an Impulse per turn.