Magic the Gathering Arena

[Multi-headed Cow]

Phantdom draft for Tuesday night Friday night Magic, neat!

 

[lukaszek]

apparently i overslep arena issues and there is we are sorry code to redeem: COURIERBAT

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Guess I missed those issues too. This set felt like a suspiciously stable launch by MTGA standards even though it still ran like a complete pig on day 1.

Edit: Damn, bit of a whiff on my goodies. Two of the ICRs turned in to gems, got the Japanese electrolyze art for one cosmetic which isn't one I much care for, and the other cosmetic was that sparkly merfolk constellation sleeve which is alright. Did also get suspicious stowaway as the third ICR and gold and XP is always nice.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Multi-headed Cow Thanks for the Jump In! recommendation. I stopped playing the game for a bit because I don't want to pay cash if I'm not going to play it much (and besides, with my Magic card habit back in the day, I'm sure I put some WOTC exec's kid through college already), don't have many cards, and didn't want to spend days reading all the cards to try and make a viable deck. I was literally playing the colour challenge decks repeatedly against people and then spending gold on boosters.

With Jump In, I have an even playing field against other people, don't have to worry about anything other than what cards I have in hand, etc. I took two green-blue deck halves and curbstomped all the matches I've played so far. Already made more than the entrance fee back + packs and the Jump In choice. That's pretty solid.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Multi-headed Cow Thanks for the Jump In! recommendation. I stopped playing the game for a bit because I don't want to pay cash if I'm not going to play it much (and besides, with my Magic card habit back in the day, I'm sure I put some WOTC exec's kid through college already), don't have many cards, and didn't want to spend days reading all the cards to try and make a viable deck. I was literally playing the colour challenge decks repeatedly against people and then spending gold on boosters.

With Jump In, I have an even playing field against other people, don't have to worry about anything other than what cards I have in hand, etc. I took two green-blue deck halves and curbstomped all the matches I've played so far. Already made more than the entrance fee back + packs and the Jump In choice. That's pretty solid.

Yep, it should be a good use of gold both for accumulating cards to play with and just generally being a solid place to play and knock out dailies and quests to earn gold since like you mentioned the playing field's fairly even. Should absolutely make sure you use that code Luka posted up there too, 2k gold and 2k XP would be a few more freebies. And speaking of codes lemme throw a wall of them at you. Not sure what's still functional and what isn't but you can go to the store in MTGA and enter them and will (Hopefully) pick up some packs. Playing around with Jump In and earning some wildcards from cracking packs and such might start moving you closer to being able to shoot for a standard deck assuming you feel like playing more Magic. It'll be a nightmare for you to try to catch up for the historic format but standard is within reach if you keep playing it regularly, especially if you focus all your gold on getting cards from sets that'll be legal after the NEXT rotation, because once that hits then you'll basically be completely caught up.

- "PlayZendikar" for 3 Zendikar Rising packs
- "TryKaladesh" for 1 Kaladesh Remastered pack
- "PlayKaldheim" for 3 Kaldheim packs
- "RockJocks" for Lorehold sleeves
- "ArtClub" for Prismari sleeves
- "MathWhizzes" for Quandrix sleeves
- "DebateDuelists" for Silverquill sleeves
- "SwampPunks" for Witherbloom sleeves
- "PlayStrixhaven" for 3 Strixhaven packs
- "PlayDND" for 3 Adventures in the Forgotten Realms packs
- "PlayMid" for 3 Innistrad: Midnight Hunt packs
- "PlayVow" for 3 Innistrad: Crimson Vow packs

Shamelessly stolen from Mount Gag.

 

[mediocrepoet]

- "PlayZendikar" for 3 Zendikar Rising packs
- "TryKaladesh" for 1 Kaladesh Remastered pack
- "PlayKaldheim" for 3 Kaldheim packs
- "RockJocks" for Lorehold sleeves
- "ArtClub" for Prismari sleeves
- "MathWhizzes" for Quandrix sleeves
- "DebateDuelists" for Silverquill sleeves
- "SwampPunks" for Witherbloom sleeves
- "PlayStrixhaven" for 3 Strixhaven packs
- "PlayDND" for 3 Adventures in the Forgotten Realms packs
- "PlayMid" for 3 Innistrad: Midnight Hunt packs
- "PlayVow" for 3 Innistrad: Crimson Vow packs

Shamelessly stolen from Mount Gag.

For the record, all of these still work. Thanks a lot. :D

 

[Reapa]

is there a reason why there's no crimson vow quick draft? or any other edition other than zendikar rising?
how does wizards of the coast decide which quick drafts to put on offer? any patterns there?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

is there a reason why there's no crimson vow quick draft? or any other edition other than zendikar rising?
how does wizards of the coast decide which quick drafts to put on offer? any patterns there?

The reason there's no Crimson Vow begdrafting is because they leave new sets for 2-3 weeks in expensive limited formats first before opening the floodgates. It's scheduled to be cheap drafting this weekend and then run for a few weeks. Outside of that the pattern is just whatever they feel like, heavily favoring standard sets (Not positive they've done historic cheap drafts but I feel like they've done it rarely) and even more heavily favoring the most recent standard sets.

 

[lukaszek]

I think they do only player drafts for historic sets now. Also they merge sets into blocks while doing so

 

[Newfag-er]

I think they do only player drafts for historic sets now. Also they merge sets into blocks while doing so

Historic is for Preiumum MtG player after all. AKA suckers. Use to be for people who only want to use rotated card

They usually allowed begdraft 2 weeks after the release so all the impatient player will spend more resource to draft. Well impatient or good players, as there are players who can actually go hard infinite on those things.

Meaning they can get there with only the resource they put into the draft, without even using the free resources.

 

[Scruffy]

Do you like to pound face? Perhaps doing so with a tribal deck? What about zombies?
Do you want to eat through those fucking white weenies and white lifegain and monogreen decks like a boss?
Do you want to occasionally counter a fucking Epiphany WITH A ZOMBIE?

Then rejoice, because I have been ranking super easily with this pile, and even having fun with it!

I don't have a lot of time to play, so a good meta-deck with a decent win/loss ratio is paramount, and this one has been doing fine in ranked for me:

If I had the time I believe I could get to Mythic relatively easy, Diamond was an absolute breeze.

So, without further ado, I present to you, Standard Aggro Zombies:

Spoiler

Deck
4 Champion of the Perished (MID) 91
4 Tainted Adversary (MID) 124
4 Bladestitched Skaab (MID) 212
4 Headless Rider (VOW) 118
3 Shambling Ghast (AFR) 119
3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia (MID) 108
3 Fell Stinger (VOW) 112
2 Archghoul of Thraben (VOW) 93
2 Overcharged Amalgam (VOW) 71
2 Ebondeath, Dracolich (AFR) 100
2 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
2 Eaten Alive (MID) 99
1 The Meathook Massacre (MID) 112
1 Agadeem's Awakening (ZNR) 90
9 Swamp (THB) 252
4 Island (THB) 251
4 Clearwater Pathway (ZNR) 260
4 Shipwreck Marsh (MID) 267
2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant (AFR) 258

 

[lukaszek]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/december-2021-arena-open-draft
tl;dr; arena is leaking money, tournaments will cost more now

 

[Newfag-er]

Inflation etc

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

tl;dr; arena is leaking money, tournaments will cost more now

HACKSHEWUALLY they say it's to filter out shitters with a higher cost to entry and higher top-end rewards but worse low-end rewards. I guess they were getting too many newbs cluttering stuff up and want it limited to gud gitters for their dumb cash tournaments. You had me worried they were actually trying to say Arena was leaking money after they've been talking about how MTG's been more profitable than ever and they're making money hand over fist.

 

[lukaszek]

tl;dr; arena is leaking money, tournaments will cost more now

HACKSHEWUALLY they say it's to filter out shitters with a higher cost to entry and higher top-end rewards but worse low-end rewards. I guess they were getting too many newbs cluttering stuff up and want it limited to gud gitters for their dumb cash tournaments. You had me worried they were actually trying to say Arena was leaking money after they've been talking about how MTG's been more profitable than ever and they're making money hand over fist.

ahahaha

it would make sense if... they didnt decide to merge tournament queues and casual
in other words, traditional tournament people can play against traditional draft.

this move is all about upping the cost while lowering avg rewards. *puts tinfoil hat on* and now they will be able to pair people on day 2 against top decks from 'casual' queue. Especially those who are getting awfully close to cash payout.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

ahahaha

it would make sense if... they didnt decide to merge tournament queues and casual

Wait wut
"Note that only draft pods are combined. Matches will always take place against opponents in the same event."

You had me worried there. YOU KEEP WORRYING ME. They just group up with randos for the draft itself, the matches are all tryhards. That's still kind of fucky because what cards get passed will be different if people are just playing it regularly for funsies instead of tryhard tournament nerds but that's not quite as bad as actually playing against them.

Edit: In fact if you wanted to play high-roller drafts that might be the best time to do it since if you get some tournament dorks in your draft they almost certainly won't be raredrafting.

 

[lukaszek]

problem with current set draft is high number of bombs and weak synergies

 

[Newfag-er]

in other words, traditional tournament people can play against traditional draft.

this move is all about upping the cost while lowering avg rewards. *puts tinfoil hat on* and now they will be able to pair people on day 2 against top decks from 'casual' queue. Especially those who are getting awfully close to cash payout.

Interesting theory.

It shouldnt even be a queue. There should have been pod drafting like the way the game is suppose to be. Even without the theory casual queue mixing. The higher end decks usually end up pairing with other higher end decks.

There are still room for skill granted but it is more about being careful then any actual substantive meta decisions

 

[Scruffy]

Do you like to pound face? Perhaps doing so with a tribal deck? What about zombies?
Do you want to eat through those fucking white weenies and white lifegain and monogreen decks like a boss?
Do you want to occasionally counter a fucking Epiphany WITH A ZOMBIE?

Then rejoice, because I have been ranking super easily with this pile, and even having fun with it!

I don't have a lot of time to play, so a good meta-deck with a decent win/loss ratio is paramount, and this one has been doing fine in ranked for me:

If I had the time I believe I could get to Mythic relatively easy, Diamond was an absolute breeze.

So, without further ado, I present to you, Standard Aggro Zombies:

Spoiler

Deck
4 Champion of the Perished (MID) 91
4 Tainted Adversary (MID) 124
4 Bladestitched Skaab (MID) 212
4 Headless Rider (VOW) 118
3 Shambling Ghast (AFR) 119
3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia (MID) 108
3 Fell Stinger (VOW) 112
2 Archghoul of Thraben (VOW) 93
2 Overcharged Amalgam (VOW) 71
2 Ebondeath, Dracolich (AFR) 100
2 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
2 Eaten Alive (MID) 99
1 The Meathook Massacre (MID) 112
1 Agadeem's Awakening (ZNR) 90
9 Swamp (THB) 252
4 Island (THB) 251
4 Clearwater Pathway (ZNR) 260
4 Shipwreck Marsh (MID) 267
2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant (AFR) 258

So, I used the thanksgiving weekend and its slow workload to try to rank.

First time mythic ever, the deck works.

Obviously, the win% plateaus the upper you go, but it's a solid meta deck.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

problem with current set draft is high number of bombs and weak synergies

Yeah, haven't really been enjoying playing limited with either of the Innistrad sets. I think this vampire set might be a smidge more enjoyable than the werewolf set but I'm not all that hot on either of them. Not "Oh Jesus I don't even want to play this at all"-tier but sure as hell not knocking out draft after draft.

First time mythic ever, the deck works.

Congrats! Both for making the push to mythic and getting there with your own deck and enjoying it.

 

[Newfag-er]

Do you like to pound face? Perhaps doing so with a tribal deck? What about zombies?
Do you want to eat through those fucking white weenies and white lifegain and monogreen decks like a boss?
Do you want to occasionally counter a fucking Epiphany WITH A ZOMBIE?

Then rejoice, because I have been ranking super easily with this pile, and even having fun with it!

I don't have a lot of time to play, so a good meta-deck with a decent win/loss ratio is paramount, and this one has been doing fine in ranked for me:

If I had the time I believe I could get to Mythic relatively easy, Diamond was an absolute breeze.

So, without further ado, I present to you, Standard Aggro Zombies:

Spoiler

Deck
4 Champion of the Perished (MID) 91
4 Tainted Adversary (MID) 124
4 Bladestitched Skaab (MID) 212
4 Headless Rider (VOW) 118
3 Shambling Ghast (AFR) 119
3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia (MID) 108
3 Fell Stinger (VOW) 112
2 Archghoul of Thraben (VOW) 93
2 Overcharged Amalgam (VOW) 71
2 Ebondeath, Dracolich (AFR) 100
2 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
2 Eaten Alive (MID) 99
1 The Meathook Massacre (MID) 112
1 Agadeem's Awakening (ZNR) 90
9 Swamp (THB) 252
4 Island (THB) 251
4 Clearwater Pathway (ZNR) 260
4 Shipwreck Marsh (MID) 267
2 Hive of the Eye Tyrant (AFR) 258

So, I used the thanksgiving weekend and its slow workload to try to rank.

First time mythic ever, the deck works.

Obviously, the win% plateaus the upper you go, but it's a solid meta deck.

Gratz on hitting Diamond 4

 

[lukaszek]

discovered aetherhub to seek janky h b decks - still decent enough so for example if i consider given card must have I can easily add it to the filter.
Keep burning wildcards. Now Im down to 20 mythic wc. The horror!
Id expect that if i were to craft everything in cool colors, id probably have to go down to 10. It appears I do own nearly all cool cards, even for jank purposes. Now I gotten myself again into artifacts. Surprisingly im enjoying 6 mana tezzeret more than 6 mana ugin. It appears that 4 mana tezzeret is more popular but so far I seem reluctant to use him instead...

also got like 4 extra decks waiting to try out. Reason being is i dont want to burn wc on latest set while waiting for quick drafts to finish.

All is cool in hb, i only wished that I had more time to actually craft my own stuff.

Is there in edh mono b artifact commander one can wish to appear on arena one day?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Is there in edh mono b artifact commander one can wish to appear on arena one day?

That'd be a little odd though maybe we'll get some cool Phyrexian shit at some point. I guess we're getting Dominaria again in 2022 and specifically a set about Urza and Mishra duking it out so maybe we'll get something neat. Or they'll reprint Urza lands into standard and everything goes nuts.

Oddly enough I've met more people playing 6 mana Tezz than 4. Always looks cool but they usually end up getting bonked since they tend to go too light on creatures and removal in favor of artifacts to use his zapper arm and I'm almost always playing creature-heavy shit. It'd be a fine line to tread for going artifact-heavy while also protecting yourself and Tezzeret. Maybe go for some normal good shit like mana rocks and also artifact-generating stuff to maximize your artifacts-per-card while keeping room open in your deck for sweepers/spot removal/etc. Stuff like that blood fountain from the latest set since blood vials are artifacts, that mana rock you can kick for extra copies, maybe treasure generation/blood vial generation, etc. Unfortunately a deck like that does start to enter no fun allowed territory but since Tezz is an obvious win condition with his zapper it's not as excruciating as the "Oops all counterspells" azorius decks.

 

[lukaszek]

yeah its somehow easier with ugin commander. Once you are in dimir you get too much cool stuff that you want to include. Indeed right now im trying to find proper number of mass removals

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-game-alchemy-2021-12-02