Magic the Gathering Arena

[Jason Liang]

Orzhov's strength is control, not a gimmick like Divine Visitation

Raja Suleiman's 1st place deck from SCG Indianapolis. It's Esper but you can see the heavy Orzhov elements in it. Notice that for 1st match he is creatureless but he boards in up to 10 creatures.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1613382#paper

Planeswalkers (6)
2 Karn, Scion of Urza

4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Spells (26)
3 Cast Down

2 Moment of Craving
1 Negate

4 Thought Erasure

4 Absorb

3 Mortify

4 Kaya's Wrath

3 Vraska's Contempt

2 Precognitive Perception

Enchantments (2)
2 Search for Azcanta

Lands (26)
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Godless Shrine
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
4 Isolated Chapel
1 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
Sideboard (15)
1 Moment of Craving

3 Negate

1 Invoke the Divine

4 Thief of Sanity

3 Basilica Bell-Haunt

3 Hostage Taker

The plan is to bait the opponent to overcommit by dropping a wall like Basilica Bell-Haunt, use discard to kill their removal, sweep the board and finish with Seraph of the Scales or Lyra.

Focus on what each color offers you-
WHITE- removal like Conclave Judgment, sweepers like Settle the Wreckage and Cleansing Nova, life gain like Revitalize, flying threats like Lyra, Shalai and Resplendent Angel
BLACK - discard like Duress and Drill Bit, more removal like Vraska's Contempt, Moment of Craving, Cast Down and Chucacubra
ORZHOV - Kaya's Wrath, Mortify, Basilica Bell Haunt, Seraph of the Scales, the two split cards

If you want to do tokens, try Hero of Precinct One

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Steezus]

Orzhov's strength is control, not a gimmick like Divine Visitation

Debatable.

Thanks for the list, but I have absolutely zero interest in playing Teferi or counterspells.

I switched over to Abzan midrange and it's performing pretty well, so I'm aware that splashing other colors does the trick, but I'm specifically asking for a BW deck using the new cards.

 

[Squid]

Out of curiosity, are any of you spending money in this game? Do you play ranked or just the normal mode? I haven't spent anything in it and don't plan to and I've only been playing the normal mode. I feel like if I go into ranked it'll be kids who dumped money into it. If you're doing F2P do you spend most of your in-game currency on packs or events?

 

[Jason Liang]

Orzhov's strength is control, not a gimmick like Divine Visitation

Debatable.

Thanks for the list, but I have absolutely zero interest in playing Teferi or counterspells.

I switched over to Abzan midrange and it's performing pretty well, so I'm aware that splashing other colors does the trick, but I'm specifically asking for a BW deck using the new cards.

If you look at that list, the backbone is b/w and it's not getting that much from blue. They're only splashing blue since it's not hard now that we have access to so many shocklands. The only thing blue is really offering is card draw (replacable with Karn and Blood Fast) and Thought Erasure (replacable with more Duresses, Drill Bit, Kitesails and simple Mind Rots/ Arterial Flows).

 

[Steezus]

I didn't say I don't want to play blue. I said I have zero interest in playing Teferi or counterspells.

And again, I'm running an Abzan deck right now, which is performing just fine. I'm aware that splashing other colors is a thing. I was wondering about an Orzhov only deck using the new cards.

Out of curiosity, are any of you spending money in this game? Do you play ranked or just the normal mode? I haven't spent anything in it and don't plan to and I've only been playing the normal mode. I feel like if I go into ranked it'll be kids who dumped money into it. If you're doing F2P do you spend most of your in-game currency on packs or events?

I used to be 100% f2p, but I started to spend a little bit here and there, nothing major tho. I usually use almost all my currency on drafts and sealed since those are the modes I have most fun with. Other than that I play the constructed events to clean up quests. Grinding ranked is pretty pointless and gets boring quick, when you play against the same 3 decks over and over.

 

[Scruffy]

only bought the welcome pack here

 

[Jason Liang]

I want to put together Orzhov too, waiting to open more Kaya Wraths and the Orzhov split cards.

Obviously the problem is balancing creatures and other spells. Again, Orzhov's strength is the monstrous removal suite

Creatures ~
Adanto Vanguard
Dusk Legion Zealot
Basilica Bell Haunt
Benalish Marshal
Chucacubra

Spells ~
Arterial Flow
Kaya's Wrath
Vraska's Contempt
Mortify
Conclave Judgment
Duress
Drill Bit
Cheap removal like Cravings
the split cards

Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice are also interesting/ annoying if one goes for a knight rush with History of Benalia

problem is that glut at 4cc. Also lacking a great finisher, a BBBWWW Niv Mizzet or something. Lyra I suppose

Vicious Conquistador's pretty good for triggering Spectacle for Drill Bit

Or just go creatureless, half their life total a few times and burn them out with Sovereign's Bite/ Creeping Chill

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I've only done the welcome pack too. The temptation's definitely there to chuck more money at it but I dunno. I chucked some money at Hearthstone and Gwent over the years and got sick of Hearthstone's new sets and CDPR drove Gwent off a cliff (Although they've ever so slightly salvaged a little bit of it with patches) and then I'm just left with my dick in my hand. I guess the upside to MTGA is it's fairly unlikely that WotC will kill it since it sounds like it's really popular, and since Magic itself has been an institution for so long it's not too likely that there'll be anything more obnoxious than nexus decks for the foreseeable future. And though I got out of paper Magic decades ago since I didn't want to keep chucking money at it, dumping a pile of cash on MTGA wouldn't be as shabby since I'd still gradually accumulate shit from F2P anyway so I could kinda keep up from that point even if I haven't got physical cards to love and stroke and roll around on.

FUCK IT I'D BE A FOOL NOT TO SPEND $500 ON MTGA RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT

 

[Squid]

I've been staying free to play so far. Thought about the welcome pack though. I just see Arena as a way to play some more casual games when I don't feel like meeting up with people for EDH. My deal with staying free to play on this is that if they ever shut it off, I don't have anything. If they decide to close up shop on paper Magic, my cards are still usable and my friends and I can still play the game. Cards would be more collector worthy too, to a point and as the years go by. I know both are a money sink and card games are the OG loot box but at least they can't just shut down a server and take it all away from me. But like you said Cow, you can also get a majority of your crap on Arena for free which is something you can't reliably do IRL. You can probably ask older players for junk commons and uncommons and maybe a few rares but they won't be standard either.

Apparently, Arena helped get people into paper Magic too which is probably exactly what Wizards has been trying to do with the games. I've only played one of those Duel of the Planeswalkers or whatever from 2014 because I got it in a bundle or someone sent me a key. It was okay but Arena is nice. It's pretty and has bells and whistles to attract Hearthstone and Gwent players. Never did Online because that's just paper magic without the paper as far as I was told.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jason Liang]

Top Level Podcast gushing about Orzhov (despite the episode title being about RDW)~

http://120.52.51.16/traffic.libsyn...._Critics_and_other_spectacular_Spectacles.mp3

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Apparently, Arena helped get people into paper Magic too which is probably exactly what Wizards has been trying to do with the games. I've only played one of those Duel of the Planeswalkers or whatever from 2014 because I got it in a bundle or someone sent me a key. It was okay but Arena is nice. It's pretty and has bells and whistles to attract Hearthstone and Gwent players. Never did Online because that's just paper magic without the paper as far as I was told.

I just hope they stick with arena for a long long time, WoTC kinda has a bad track record with releasing games and abandoning them the next year.

Also didn't realize that people even play paper magic. I literally never see anyone playing that.. Sometimes I'll see nerds playing paper pokemon though.

 

[Scruffy]

I've only done the welcome pack too. The temptation's definitely there to chuck more money at it but I dunno. I chucked some money at Hearthstone and Gwent over the years and got sick of Hearthstone's new sets and CDPR drove Gwent off a cliff (Although they've ever so slightly salvaged a little bit of it with patches) and then I'm just left with my dick in my hand. I guess the upside to MTGA is it's fairly unlikely that WotC will kill it since it sounds like it's really popular, and since Magic itself has been an institution for so long it's not too likely that there'll be anything more obnoxious than nexus decks for the foreseeable future. And though I got out of paper Magic decades ago since I didn't want to keep chucking money at it, dumping a pile of cash on MTGA wouldn't be as shabby since I'd still gradually accumulate shit from F2P anyway so I could kinda keep up from that point even if I haven't got physical cards to love and stroke and roll around on.

FUCK IT I'D BE A FOOL NOT TO SPEND $500 ON MTGA RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT

the temptation is strong
i got burned with magic duels though, and while i don't think arena will follow the same fate, fuck wotc and their shitty practices, i'm not giving them money yet

imo, if they did, like, a "once a month" equivalent of the welcome pack, i'd buy that, but right now i'm doing ok without spending money on it, plus it's not like i have all that time to spend on it anyway

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Squid]

Also didn't realize that people even play paper magic. I literally never see anyone playing that.. Sometimes I'll see nerds playing paper pokemon though.

Yeah but I only see people play it at shops though. There's one in each city near me that let's people walk in and play. I know a bunch of punks and partyheads that I used to hang out with that still play casual magic in their apartments.

Once you've got a lot of cards for an eternal format (or more than one), it's usually easy to hop back into, especially with something as casual as EDH. Most of my old friends that used to play still do if anyone asks them too. They just don't spend much time or money on acquiring new cards.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Top Level Podcast gushing about Orzhov (despite the episode title being about RDW)~

http://120.52.51.16/traffic.libsyn...._Critics_and_other_spectacular_Spectacles.mp3

Never listened to MTG podcasts but I might do it since I'm a dirty RDW player (Actually said fuck it last night and crafted skewer and light and scooped out my steamkins and shit and... It's actually way stronger now. More of a burn deck than an aggro deck, but importantly it can kill nexus players before they get their bullshit online so I'm content) and I kinda want Orzhov to be good since a lot of their cards look cool as hell.

imo, if they did, like, a "once a month" equivalent of the welcome pack, i'd buy that, but right now i'm doing ok without spending money on it, plus it's not like i have all that time to spend on it anyway

That's actually a really good point. Depending on what exactly the offer was I'd be tempted to do something like that too. A happy middle ground where it's more bang for your buck like the welcome pack but at a slower pace.

 

[Steezus]

Are there timestamps or is it the entire podcast? Also, are they gushing over theorycrafted shit or are they talking about a real deck that works in standard?

 

[Scruffy]

yeah, it would be like ,5 dollars a month extra they'd get from people not willing to spend money on it, the welcome pack was really good value after all

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Scruffy]

they do man, i picked up two 3rd pick rares today

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I really should play some draft. Got 10k gold in the tank and I haven't done any drafting on MTGA yet. I'm a bit hesitant just because I'm not sure how wild I am about a lot of the Allegiance cards, but eh, prolly should anyway. What was nice though was last night I slopped together a "What cards I own" Dimir deck and won games with it. Sure as shit not meta or particularly great but being a big asshole with counters and discards and shit is fun once in a while. I also had good luck with my Guilds packs so I had a lot of good Dimir crap on hand already.

For meta-netdecking I was eyeballing lists and my wildcards and I could spend basically all my wildcards making mono-blue, Izzet drakes, and that mono-red arclight phoenix deck. Mostly because there's a lot of overlap in the cards I'd need to craft for mono blue and Izzet drakes they'd go reasonably well together, and that mono-red deck basically just needs some commons and the 4 phoenixes. Haven't done it yet though since I'm leery on them. Mono-blue looks like it'd play an awful lot like RDW, Izzet drakes may be fun but I'm not sure it'd be my cup of tea, and the mono-red deck looks fucking bananas but I'm not sure about using up 4 mythic wildcards for the phoenixes when I could be using those on planeswalkers or something. I'll probably be indecisive and craft nothing and just keep on trucking.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Jason Liang]

If you mean Rekindling Phoenix, don't wildcard those anymore. They're too slow for the new standard, and they have been liabilities ever since everyone got a free set of Lava Coils and a 2nd Vraska's Contempt.

RDW is very cheap to put together, and Pirates is even cheaper since you are basically replacing the Chainwhirlers with Cannonades.

 

[Projas]

Mono blue plays nothing like RDW. RDW is burn/aggro while Mono Blue is tempo. Idk what mono red arclight deck you are talking about, I haven't played with arclight since RNA release, but I'm fairly sure you still want to be in Izzet if you want to play arclight. Most people I see playing drakes these days are dropping phoenix and playing pteramander instead. But then again some people were dropping phoenix even before RNA and I think that was a mistake.

There's this gate deck going around that's surprisingly cheap, effective and fun, only need like 9 rares.

2 Archway Angel (RNA) 3
4 Gate Colossus (RNA) 232
2 Gateway Plaza (RNA) 247
4 Gatebreaker Ram (RNA) 126
4 Circuitous Route (GRN) 125
2 Deafening Clarion (GRN) 165
4 Gates Ablaze (RNA) 102
4 Growth Spiral (RNA) 178
3 Expansion // Explosion (GRN) 224
4 Guild Summit (GRN) 41
3 Azorius Guildgate (RNA) 244
4 Izzet Guildgate (GRN) 251
4 Gruul Guildgate (RNA) 250
3 Selesnya Guildgate (GRN) 255
4 Simic Guildgate (RNA) 258
2 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
4 Plaza of Harmony (RNA) 254
1 Shimmer of Possibility (RNA) 51
1 Island (GRN) 261
1 Forest (XLN) 278

Myself I've been playing this Golgari Undergrowth deck. I've actually been trying something similar even before RNA, but it was missing something. Turns out Priest of the Forgotten Gods might have been that something. The deck is p. fun and seems like it might actually have legs. Struggles against RDW and tokens but other matchups are p. good.

4 Glowspore Shaman (GRN) 173
2 Izoni, Thousand-Eyed (GRN) 180
1 Kraul Foragers (GRN) 135
4 Midnight Reaper (GRN) 77
4 Molderhulk (GRN) 190
3 Plaguecrafter (GRN) 82
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods (RNA) 83
4 Ravenous Chupacabra (RIX) 82
4 Stitcher's Supplier (M19) 121
3 Find // Finality (GRN) 225
6 Forest (XLN) 277
4 Memorial to Folly (DAR) 242
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
5 Swamp (XLN) 269
4 Woodland Cemetery (DAR) 248
4 Reassembling Skeleton (M19) 116

There's a similar list on one of those 5-0 MTGO lists, but I've swapped Gutterbones for Reassembling Skelly. I'd like to do some testing to see how they compare, but I don't really want to spend any more WCs, since I believe Skelly is genuinelly a better fit for what you are trying to do.