Mtg arena open beta

[Primarch]

That sounds like a scoop right there.

I have been having a terrible run of drafts recently. No extra rares from the bots, I never seem to draw my rares and get mana-screwed regularly. The RNG hates me bad at the moment. Every game in Play or Ranked seems to be Fires/Cat-Pie/Agent of Treachery.

It's been kind of depressing this past week or so. To try and cheer myself up, I built an Azorius flyers deck with Sephara, Sky's Blade as the win con and finally started to see other decks in Play. Bizarrely I got two mirror matches in a row. At least I now have a better idea what should be in my deck.

[me_in_japan]

I've been on a bit of a downer on draft recently, too. But, I heard a podcast which suggested breaking the standard draft rules and having more than 40 cards in a deck, and having multiple "finisher" cards. eg rather than 1 or 2 creatures with 6/7 stats, have 3 or 4 (because of the amount of removal in this set.) I've had some success with this theory, and am heading more to an average of 3 or 4 wins. Still not spectacular, by any means, but certainly better than 0-3 wipeouts, which is what I was looking at before.

I've been working away on that Hapatra deck, and have narrowed it down to...121 cards I'm really struggling to work out what to pull, so if you have any ideas, by all means let me know...

https://archidekt.com/decks/395292#commander_hapatra

(actually, if you could let me know if that link works, I'd be much obliged. It's my first time using archidekt, and while the interface is nice, I dunno much about the technical side of things.)

[Primarch]

From that link:

Mmmmmmmmm, no.
Sorry, we were unable to find the requested deck. If someone sent you this link, make sure to berate them.

The link then seems to default to:
https://archidekt.com/decks/395292#Sandbox_(No_Save)

So it looks like you didn't save the file??

[me_in_japan]

definitely saved. Maybe this is better? (I changed some settings. Made it public)

https://archidekt.com/decks/395292#commander_hapatra

[me_in_japan]

That last link seems to work on my phone, which I’m not logged in on, so it should be ok for you, too, I guess.

A quick primer on how Patsy works:

Throw down -1/-1 counters all over the place, thus making deathtouch snakes. Use said snakes as sac outlets, blockers, or just, y’know, hit stuff with em.

It’s worth noting that a lot of her “make counters” category of stuff also falls into “kill stuff” or at least “neuter stuff” territory, since enough 1-/-1 can kill off anything, or at least turn it into an ignorable threat. She can combo off with a few things that snipe the opponent whenever a creature is killed. But, she herself is fairly vulnerable, so I’m considering a bit more protective stuff. That said, she’s a 2cmc commander, so she’s easy enough to recast a couple times if necessary.

I’ve been digging into her various deck builds quite the a lot, and tbh I’m rather taken with her. The token generation route is popular, but she can also go down the infect road or just typical Golgari graveyard route, too.

Anyway, if there’s anything you think should be cut, let me know. I need to drop 20 cards, and I gotta do it by Sunday, cos that’s Sean’s birthday

[Primarch]

Hmm, looking briefly through the list, you can probably dump most of the Maybe pile and still be ok. You seem to have all of the bases covered with what you already have in the other piles. That said, unless you already have most of the rares, the price tag is a tad steep. Swapping out some of the higher end cards for something more budget friendly would still leave you with a fairly focused deck.

[me_in_japan]

ah, the maybeboard isnt actually part of the deck. It's currently at 120 cards not including the maybeboard

As for the price, I actually own all that lot. Probably also worthy of a or two


I played trad draft today (with the token you get for reaching level 30 in the mastery pass.) Lost two games in a row. Sometimes I feel like this game is trying to tell me to bugger off and play something else. I mean, game 1, match 1, in the course of the match I pulled 14 lands. And 4 creatures. Then in match 2, I got 3 lands. All game. *shrug* I dunno, you'd think having played dice-based games my whole life I'd know how to deal with variance, but sometimes my computer gets perilously close to getting heaved out the window...

[Primarch]

Oh, right.
Well, in that case I'd suggest trying to pull cards that only give your own creatures -1/-1's. If you don't have a lot of board presence then they'll cripple the board further. Flexibility of where you drop the counters is better. Likewise, cards which give all opponents' creatures counters are better choices than cards which give all creatures counters. Also, cards that you only have one of and probably want to put in your own decks.

I got the token for the traditional draft last night, but I haven't used it yet. Since doing well in Sealed (by my standards), I've almost given up on Draft. I mean, somebody, somewhere is drafting mythics and winning games, but it certainly isn't me.

Last night I had a crack at building a Knights tribal deck for Standard. I went 5-6 in Play with it, and as an Aggro deck it played pretty fast. It died quickly to removal, but if it could get a few creatures to stick it did a reasonable job of punching the other guy in the face.

Deck
2 Knight of the Ebon Legion (M20) 105
1 Corpse Knight (M20) 206
1 Icon of Ancestry (M20) 229
2 Order of Midnight (ELD) 99
2 Smitten Swordmaster (ELD) 105
4 Tournament Grounds (ELD) 248
2 Shining Armor (ELD) 29
2 Venerable Knight (ELD) 35
4 Inspiring Veteran (ELD) 194
4 Steelclaw Lance (ELD) 202
2 Embereth Shieldbreaker (ELD) 122
2 Acclaimed Contender (ELD) 1
2 Ardenvale Tactician (ELD) 5
1 The Circle of Loyalty (ELD) 9
2 Worthy Knight (ELD) 36
2 Murderous Rider (ELD) 97
2 Embercleave (ELD) 120
2 Fervent Champion (ELD) 124
2 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
1 Shadowspear (THB) 236
6 Plains (THB) 279
5 Swamp (THB) 283
7 Mountain (THB) 285

Bizarrely I got Shadowspear in nearly every opening hand, but only saw Embercleave a couple of times. My current issues with the deck are:

- No extra draw mechanics, once I've vomitted my hand onto the table by turn 3, I'm topdecking the rest of the game.
- Tournament grounds are great for Knights and Equipment, but no use for anything else, including the Adventure parts of the Eldraine cards.
- I seem to end up with Fabled Passage cards early on, which actually slow the deck down. I'm wondering if the dual colour, pay two life or enters tapped lands would be better.
- Would I be better going more Boros (Flyers and Go Wide options) or Rakdos (Deathtouch and Menace).

Any suggestions. (And no, switching to U/B is not an option. )?

#edit#
The following is an interesting read if you haven't already seen it.
https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arena-developers-amaa/

[me_in_japan]

good point about the preferential token allocation. I hadnt considered that, but it's a very pertinent thing. Also the bit about only having one copy of stuff had crossed my mind. More than once, tbh. I've started pulling some of the less necessary and less available cards out. Still need to drop a good few, though. I'll keep working on it...

As for your kiniggits deck, I realise he's not a knight, but what about that stompy eldraine giant? The 3 drop that goes on an adventure for a 2burn, then come back in as a 4/3. Him. He'd be good, I reckon.

*edit* Oh, or the knight from the brawl decks? Syr...Carah the Bold or something, maybe?

[me_in_japan]

just read the ama thingy. My thoughts...

75% of the number of Wednesday Brawlers are playing Brawler’s Guild Hall

Eeeeediots! *Ren shakes his fist*

Brawl-specific rewards such as a separate Mastery Pass may be coming, but not on the roadmap yet

Agh. No thanks. Already having a hard enough time saving up gems for one mastery pass as it is.

Multiplayer formats “considered” but not likely to happen in 2020

Hmmn. Better than a "never happening", I suppose.

Human drafting to come sometime in the first half of this year, if not by the end

Ooh, there's a new skill I'll have to learn...

Discussions in place to connect tabletop Magic: The Gathering and MTG Arena via codes included in products

Yeah, no brainer there.

all the pioneer/historic stuff

All fine and good. More formats is always good.

Also, deck sharing seems like a good idea. Being able to send your friend a deck then have them play with it (presumably in direct challenge games with you only, i guess) seems pretty cool.