Mtg arena open beta

[me_in_japan]

I spent yesterday evening playing EDH with Koji and a surprise mystery guest who we'll call Badmiral Adruck to preserve his anonymity.

aaahhhh. All becomes clear. Said admiral may have emailed me today asking if I had any spare commons/uncommons he could use in his commander deck. Very intriguing, so it was.

Incidentally, on a completely unrelated (yet still magic-y note) - I only really watch 3 youtube channels (well, listen to em, really, on my morning drive to work). For the first time (so far as I'm aware) all three are as of one mind. VIP Masters is an abomination. Not just bad. REALLY BAD!.

Pleasant Kenobi (who has also recently re-taken up 40k. It's actually rather nice getting a dose of 40k once a week, especially as he comes at it from a slightly bemused yet reasonably intelligent perspective.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVT5-lSrIpQ&t=4s

Tolarian Community College. The Prof is always reasonable and well-mannered (unlike Kenobi, despite them actually doing a once-a-month youtube thing together. Kenobi has a mouth like a sailor on shore leave). This is the closest I've ever seen the Prof get to actually looking angry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGYZxiDzq8s

Alpha Investments. Rudy (who is such a tremendous parody of a dodgy salesman it's a joy to behold) focuses exclusively on the finance aspect of magic. He used to work in actual wall street finance (or so he says, and based on his more in-depth videos, I'm inclined to believe him). He's just a number cruncher, and rarely actually plays the game, although he clearly loves the cards. He made a video last week about how he reckons a VIP Master pack is probably (statistically, going forward a few years) undervalued. But he still hates em. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-jilaV3__w


Just my evening's viewing. Thought it might be interesting to share.

Also, on an even more side note, this is a really useful vid if you're drafting M21. Even more so than their card/set review ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omdI2kD8Ub0

[Primarch]

Since I have no intention of buying any Masters cards anyway, the cost is a moot point for me. Either lots of people will buy them and encourage WotC to push the envelope further, or the packs won't sell and the idea will be dropped.

Jumpstart however, I am really enjoying. I'm about 7 or 8 games in so far and I've been having a blast. The cheap buy-in, reasonable reward structure, and the somewhat balanced nature of the format really do it for me. That plus the gotta-catch-em-all thrill of a large new set of course. I like it more than regular draft because there are so many different combo's to face, rather than the half dozen archetypes you mentioned back up the page a little.
I just need to figure out how to get 100 or so games in before Amonkhet drops.


Also, the number of people who don't read Kira, Great Glass Spinner properly is hilariously high.

[me_in_japan]

I’ve been enjoying jumpstart. I’ve had Phyrexian twice now, which while a definite winner, is a bit meh as I already have the schnazzlands and the rares from it, and I don’t really see myself using them outside of Brawl (where I certainly will use em.)

Still, can’t complain - it’s a fun format, and the rewards seem reasonable.

Also, looking through it, I’m starting to seriously consider Spirits as a tribal deck for historic. Probably not competitive, but I’ve seen similar things do good work in the past.

[Primarch]

I haven't picked up Phyrexians yet, it was an option last night but I took Rainbow instead. I'll probably get a pack of Phyrexians next time they come up, unless there is a better option.

I enjoyed the Rogues theme pack, so I may try to put together a deck with that theme. There are so many new Tribal/Brawl options coming up and only so much time. I doubt I'll be able to remember what I planned to brew by the time I have all of the cards.

[me_in_japan]

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... nouncement

Teferiiii!!!! Noooooooooooooooooooooo

On the plus side, that damn cat got hit with the ban hammer, too, so I suppose we must be thankful for small mercies.

Truth be told, these don’t surprise me. What does surprise the hell out of me is the absence of any mention of Muxus. I mean, do they think he’s...ok? Whut?

Also, as a minor update, I am now playing mono black zombies, and doing...ok, I guess? And I’m bored with Jumpstart. Too many dud combos in there, and when you get em, it’s a draaaaaag. Looking forward to Amonkhet, though

[Primarch]

Is it Christmas already? Control is going to need a new Turn 3 drop. Nothing to disagree with there in my biased-against-control, jank playing opinion.

At 6 CMC Muxus is a game ending card. If a mono-red deck is getting him out unopposed, then he will be trouble. I guess he can be cheated out faster with Skirk Prospecter generating extra mana? As he is relatively new, there probably aren't a lot of decks running him yet.

I think there is a difference in how we as players think about bans compared to WotC. Players dislike cards because they are too powerful and/or interfere with our preferred play style. WotC bans cards because they are used in too large a proportion of top rated decks. So, until Muxus is in 25%+ of top Historic decks, he won't be going anywhere. You can blame/thank all of the net-deckers for any cards that got banned.

As for JS. Yeah, there are some bad combos. With the exceptions of the Mill and Teferi packs, I'm finding Blue to be unimpressive. Generally speaking, I like it, but it can be a drag if the packs don't gel.
Some of the combo names can be fun. Predatory Tree-Hugging is my favourite so far.
I'm planning on grinding as many games as I can until Amonkhet drops.

In the meantime, "See you, Tef. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!"

[me_in_japan]

Have you not come up against a tuned Muxus deck yet? From my own experience (and also based on the massive amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth on Facebook) the historic meta is crawling with goblins. FWIW, he don’t never come out on turn 6. Turn 3 is more likely, and when he does, he wins from an empty board (at least, it’s empty once the skirk prospector has sac’d his buddies to the big red grandee in the sky). It’s gotten so bad I now sideboard 4 copies of grafdigger’s cage, just in case.

Brrrrrr...

[Primarch]

Is this what you're on about?

https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/com ... _the_game/

[me_in_japan]

that's the one

Also, my poor zombies are having troubles dealing with...well, a variety of things, tbh. Interestingly, the one card that seems to be doing good work is grafdigger's cage. It's gold against Muxus, but also shuts down Kethis combo and any kinda graveyard/golgari shenanigans (which I've come up againtst a couple times today already). It's been struggling against ramp decks, though. There's not much it can do about stuff like Ulamog (although I've started putting the elder spell in the sideboard, just in case I come up against a superfriends, or even nissa -> ugin ramp deck). I wonder if I should take out something and put in some exile-y spells?

out of interest, any thoughts?

Deck

4 Cryptbreaker (EMN) 86
4 Diregraf Ghoul (M19) 92
4 Lazotep Reaver (WAR) 96
3 Midnight Reaper (GRN) 77
4 Death Baron (M19) 90
2 Murderous Rider (ELD) 97
4 Phyrexian Obliterator (NPH) 68
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel (THB) 99

4 Cemetery Recruitment (JMP) 217
1 Agonizing Remorse (THB) 83
2 Heartless Act (IKO) 91
1 Cry of the Carnarium (RNA) 70

18 Swamp (JMP) 56
2 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
2 Phyrexian Tower (JMP) 493

1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General (WAR) 97

Sideboard
1 Duress (M21) 96
2 Cry of the Carnarium (RNA) 70
2 Phyrexian Arena (8ED) 152
2 The Elderspell (WAR) 89
4 Grafdigger's Cage (M20) 227
2 Spark Harvest (WAR) 105
2 Finale of Eternity (WAR) 91


I have another version with Gisa, Liliana Untouched by Death, and 4 gempalm polluters, but it's currently in trial mode. Also, someone on a forum pointed out: Gempalm Polluter is phrased in such a way that it'd be absolutely fabulous to play it against Fields of the Dead. I look forward to this happening some day

[Primarch]

Maybe something to knock out the Skirk Prospector ASAP. Fungal Infection perhaps, kills the Skirk at instant speed, it's cheap and it leaves a blocker behind.


State of the Game is up.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... st-2020-04

Hmm.
Amonkhet Remastered - Yay, but also no quick draft available, so Boo! Hopefully that changes sooner rather than later.

Standard 2021/Rotation/Renewal/New Player Decks - Since I've been playing Historic since Bo1 Ranked became available, this doesn't really bother me all that much. The free cards from Renewal will be nice.

Brawl - Again, it's not a format I've been playing, with the exception of direct challenge. Changing the weighting of Niv and Nicol so that they play against each other more often is going to really rile the 'Arena is Rigged' crowd.

So overall it seems like a solid if uninspiring update. I was hoping that Amonkhet would have a bit more fanfare, but it seems like you either need to burn cash or gems to get any real volume of cards.