Mtg arena open beta

[Primarch]

I agree about all of those points, though I'm not all that fussed about human drafting. I'll be happy if they keep the current ranked draft, but make the bots dumb again.
For most of the Theros drafts I did, I received 3 rares, with a couple getting me 4. I tried out the Ravnica draft on Saturday and pulled 8 rares. Little bit of a difference there.

Did you try the Championship decks? I played to 3 wins for the Exp and card sleeves, but those ultra-refined hyper-competitive decks are the antithesis of what I prefer to play.

[me_in_japan]

I tried the championship decks, but found it to be hella predictable. I used one of the UB control decks, and if my opponent was red I lost in turn 5 and if they weren't I won. Every single time. I had a lot of red opponents, mind you, so it was a bit of a drudge. Once I got the sleeves, I stopped. I also backed Javier in the tourney, and since he got clobbered in day 1, no shinies for me Ah well, free is free, I suppose.

[Primarch]

I managed a couple of runs at Ranked Draft for Theros. This time around I went 3-3 and 4-3, so that was an improvement at least. Sadly I still only got 3 rares from each draft. I picked up 8 from my last attempt at the Ravnica draft.

Any thoughts on the next Historic Anthology?
https://mtgazone.com/historic-anthology-2-cards/
At 4000 gems/25000 Gold, it seems a little pricey. I'm tempted just to use Wildcards for the cards I want to build around.

[me_in_japan]

I didn't buy the whole set of the previous historic lot, but I did grab a couple copies of Phyrexian Arena and all the uncommons, as they seemed useful in decks I had at the time. I have a Shissay as well, although I cant recall why. I'm kinda interested in Thalia as a potential stax build, as I havent really encountered such a deck in Arena yet. The presence of the plat angel also kinda forces the meta to adapt, as pretty much any deck has the potential to become a horrible unbeatable blockage without removal. Waste not seems to yet another thing pushing me towards an abominable Dimir hand hate deck (and I dont even have any of those specters from the last historic drop - might grab some...) Dragonmaster outcast has me narrowing my eyes and pondering the workability of a dragon deck. I do have one from the dominaria days, and it might be fun to take it out for a whirl again. Totally janky, but very satisfying when it works. I'm sure there are many more powerful decks that can be built with the new cards, but that's what I'm reckoning at the mo.

How about yourself? Any plans for historic? I do find it to be a far more enjoyable format than standard, and am looking forward to playing it more now that it's back on the menu.

[Primarch]

I think the dragon dude is pretty much an auto-consider-including in any red deck. For a 1/1 for R it's not worth a lot, but mid-game it's a "spend several mana to kill me or else" for R.
I already have a hand-hate deck in mono-black, so Waste Not fits in there perfectly.
I'm currently running a Boros Knights aggro deck in the Historic event, but none of the new cards fit that well.
With the current stuff from Theros and the Nyx Fleece Ram and Empty Throne from this release, an Enchantment/Enchantment Creature themed deck could be fun?
I guess I'll have a play around and see what works.

[Primarch]

New 'State of the Game' is up.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-03-05
Whoo! Historic is worth playing again. Full rewards for Bo1. Guess I'll play Standard again in April.
Anything in there that tickles sir's fancy?

I went 2-3 in a draft the other day, which isn't noteworthy, but I did net 4 rares, which I think was a first for me in Theros. One of said Rares was Labyrinth of Skophos. At first I was a little unimpressed by it, and almost didn't put it in the deck, but by golly it is fun for totally neutering big threats. Dream Trawler isn't quite the bomb when it drops out of combat without doing amy damage. Labyrinth probably isn't a good card for constructed play, but in draft it can really help out with board control.

Have you been up to much?

[Primarch]

Well today was an MtG day and a half.
I picked up some of the new Mystery Boosters in paper and they are awesome! They probably have less appeal for people with solid collections, but it's like they were custom made for people who have few cards and want to play singleton formats.
I caved in and bought the new Historic Anthology on Arena. I then built a mono-white deck around the Empty Throne card and played a bunch of games with it. Sure, it lost to a few Fires decks and the Elemental/Field of the Dead deck that it ran into, but I had some awesome games in Ranked Historic.

Deck
2 Prison Realm (WAR) 26
2 Leyline of Sanctity (M20) 26
3 All That Glitters (ELD) 2
2 Castle Ardenvale (ELD) 238
2 Idyllic Grange (ELD) 246
4 Alseid of Life's Bounty (THB) 1
4 The Birth of Meletis (THB) 5
4 Dawn Evangel (THB) 8
1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned (THB) 18
4 Sentinel's Eyes (THB) 36
4 Transcendent Envoy (THB) 40
20 Plains (THB) 279
4 Sigil of the Empty Throne (CONF) 18
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram (JOU) 18

It could probably do with more card draw and a little more removal to be honest, but it has got a win rate of 9-7 so far, which isn't bad for a first draft.

[Primarch]

So it seems that one Kojibear has decided to give MtG Arena a try...

[Primarch]

Well, after a sh1tty day of Mana screw, Mana flood, RDW, RDW, Azorius Control, RDW, Azorius Control, rinse, repeat, this happened.



Feels good! (It was a 75 card deck to boot).

[me_in_japan]

That's... a lot of eyes

Like yourself, I decided to bite the bullet and get the historic bundle. I find historic to be much more interesting and varied than standard. Or I did. Until Thassa's f*#$%&' Oracle came along. I swear, 50% of the decks I play against are:

1 Thassa's Oracle
3 Treasure Hunt
56 Islands, or variants thereof

It's boring as hell. You draw. They mull. They mull again. They mull until they have a hand with a Treasure Hunt in it. Then they win on turn 4.* Or they mull to nothing, and you win. That's it. That's how the game plays out. Every. Single. Time.

Only once have I beaten the deck (as opposed to watching them mull themselves to death) and that was with an amusingly huge turn 3 Terravore. Still boring as all hell. Even if I sideboard, there's bugger all I can do about it as my deck has no blue, and thus no counterspells. I really hope this deck is dealt with, and soon, as while it probably doesnt have a large win rate, it's bloody everywhere, and most importantly it's booooooooring. I don't mind if someone comes up with a decent solution, or if WotC banhammer it, but either way, it needs dealing with pronto. Or maybe I'm just super unlucky and get matched against the dozen or so barstewards who play it? I dunno...

Anyway, rant over. For now...

*I dunno if you're familiar with the deck. It runs thus:
turn 1: Island, pass
turn 2: Island, Treasure Hunt. Put between 1 and 50something cards into their hand. Keep a treasure hunt, or an Oracle, depending on what they got. Put the rest in the yard.
turn 3: repeat turn 2.
turn 4: play Thassa's oracle. Win.


btw, I don't suppose you (or indeed, ser Kbear) would be interested in a wee game or two on Arena some time this week? I'm pretty much stuck at home all day every day making sure my kids don't murder each other until they go back to school in April, so I'm slowly but surely losing the will to live. A game or two would help remind me that I'm actually a functioning human being.