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Magic the Gathering: Arena |OT| Tapped Out of Witty Titles
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Haven't we had the "massive decks aren't as strong as you think" conversation twice this year already?
They have set a deck size limit. It's 250. In paper Magic you can play as many cards as you want.
I never even notice the size of other people's decks unless mill shenanigans start happening. But yea, this is definitely deja vu.
We can have it 12 times this year and I would still think that 250 card decks shouldn't be allowed in ranked.
"I don't like playing against big decks" isn't exactly a strong argument for stricter universal deck-building constraints.
holy shit just played a game that made me want to quit magic. Was against a fires player and destroyed every threat they threw out. had the board. then they draw literally 4 fae of wishes in a row and proceed to bring in literally 10 cards in their sideboard 1 by one while bouncing their faes back to their hand to negate the last 8 damage I neede to kill them. Truly nothing I could do, they always had fires, they always had free mana to cast the wish side and bounce them back to their hand. I fended off all fires. 10 fucking sideboard cards. The last one? Ashiok dream renderer when I was down to 10 cards left. What a waste of fucking time, if you can't win with your shit deck, so glad that standard lets you just durdle about with 15 extra cards so you dont actually need to win.
There's a bit more to it than that. The 250 card decks in my opinion go against what Magic is all about. Especially in ranked. I've only been playing for a few months now but as I understand it the basic point of Magic is to take a style of play (life gain for example) or a set of cards that work well together and then build a deck around them that has a particular win condition. These massive decks goes against all of that. They have no real strategy. No real win condition. It's just play and pray. Which makes it a really annoying and unfun deck to play against because they have no real strategy to speak of. There is no planning. They could be land starved and lose in 6 turns or they could pull a billion removal cards and force the game to last 36 turns all while make little to no progress of their own towards a win. And don't get me wrong when I first started playing my decks were like that. I had 100-130 card decks oiled high with just removal card or just my best cards in general because I thought that I could play that way and be okay, but the more I did it the dumber and cheaper I felt so I made an effort to learn how to make a proper deck. Now my largest deck is 66 cards and that was just because I couldn't bring myself to take out some cards to make room for new ones. I plan on bringing it down to 60 as soon as I decide what can go. And to take that time required to make a proper deck, test it, refine it, and then take it into ranked only to come across someone who just threw their collections into a pile is frustrating. And I know I keep saying that word, but it's the best way to describe how I feel.
This haphazard and random way of playing goes against the spirit of a ranked game mode in my opinion. The point of an organized ranked mode in a game is to play said game at a high level seriously. If people wanna faff about in regular play with a pile of cards and no strategy then that's fine, but that lackadaisical attitude is why I avoid casual modes in games in general. I stopped playing in casual mode in Rainbow 6 Siege because people would routinely not play seriously or would rage quit at the first sign of difficulty because they had nothing to lose by doing so. I did the same thing for the same reasons in Apex. And while not as severe I have seen the same in Magic's standard play mode. People just messing around and/or leaving at the first sign they are losing. That's not a fun way to play the game for me. So when I took myself to ranked and saw that most people actually took it seriously and had cohesive well thought out decks I knew that's where I would likely spend all my time and it is. But I still come across these hodgepodge decks that make no real sense and it's just annoying to try to play seriously against someone who clearly doesn't care. It just sucks all the fun out of the experience.
If you disagree that fine, but it's just how I feel.
I come across them all the damn time it feels like. I'd say probably 25% of the deck I play against are 200+ card decks. I had 5 in a row and the last one was literally nothing but land cards and removal cards as far as I could tell. It's what made me mad enough to bring the subject up again.
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I don't the the difference to any other durdly low power level deck. If you want to play against meta decks you probably have to rank up or just take the free win.
I'm in platinum 2. I don't have much more ranking up to do lol
And the difference is even low power level decks have a strategy. It's fun to recognize the strategy that your opponent is using and then try and figure out how your strategy matches up to theirs. What cards you have in your deck that work well against it and what doesn't. That mental aspect of the game is why I enjoy it so much. But massive decks have no strategy at all. It's just random. So there is no planning. It's just waiting and seeing what they play next. And that's just not a fun way to play for me.
Yeah, but I don't think I have ever seen one? Every 60 card deck I have come across have some kind of strategy behind them. Even if it's just a bad one.
I swear to god historic pauper is some sick form of a new shuffler or something. Every game goes to me or the enemy top decking exactly what they need to end the game. All evening. every. game.
Guy draws 4 warbriar blessings in a row to kill each of my creatures, i draw murder, he draws karametras blessing, etc etc. rinse and repeat. No one just draws lands unless it's a cycle land to get said dues ex machina.
Guy draws 4 warbriar blessings in a row to kill each of my creatures, i draw murder, he draws karametras blessing, etc etc. rinse and repeat. No one just draws lands unless it's a cycle land to get said dues ex machina.
Could use a bit of advice. I am working really hard on this Golgari deck I have and its been going great. It got me all the way to Plat 2 and I am pretty sure I would have made Diamond if the season hadn't ended. My problem is that I know that it could be better, but I can't decide if I should go ahead and upgrade it now or should I wait for Ikoria?
Specifically I have a Mythic wildcard and I wanna use it to get another Polukranos because its such a ridiculously powerful card in my deck the way I have it built. But Some of the Ikoria stuff has also looked pretty great. I can't decide. Thoughts?
Specifically I have a Mythic wildcard and I wanna use it to get another Polukranos because its such a ridiculously powerful card in my deck the way I have it built. But Some of the Ikoria stuff has also looked pretty great. I can't decide. Thoughts?
wait a week before deciding
ikoria should be revealed by then
I think you are right. I'll wait a bit. Maybe snag a few Theros packs and see if I get lucky.
What part of that post was salty? I was asking for advice.
Grow up.
I'll be honest, I haven't played much since Theros came out, mostly because the two new decks I spent my wildcards on fell flat on their face and I've had a stressful enough time in my professional life to make me avoid any 1v1 multiplayer games since. I think I'll start again sometime soon with my old Rakdos Aggro deck that's barely changed, and hope Standard isn't so high-powered that I can't squirm my way back to my old ranking.
Any good alt win con decks floating around? Im looking for some good unexpected lawyer game stuff. Vraska maybe? Or perhaps Thassa's Oracle?
Good is debatable.
But Monoblue Devotion with Thassa's Oracle / Jace is a Deck. I think there's also a Simic Version. Sadly they are all pretty heavy on Mythics.
The FNM event that just passed was good for testing these out since everything was unlocked.
My machine gun deck didn't work all that well. (Basically take pingers, add a Torbran and see what happens)
V1. Rakdos with good old Footlight Fiend, Mayhem Devil and Judith. Killed too fast for Torbran to make a difference
V2. Mono Red with Glint-Horn Buccaneer, Teneb and Cavalier of Flame. Not enough cards to discard by the time i got there
V3 Izzet with Niv-mizzet. Couldn't reach late-game well.
Cube Sealed looks like a terrible value proposition but I'm morbidly curious enough to sink 3k gold for a try.
I played around a bit with Glint-Horn Buccaneer and had some success with risk factor and heartwarming reunion. The deck was Mardu colors with Bond of Revival making use of discarded creatures and the like. Had Battalion Foot Solder in to mill and give Heartwarming Reunion and, by extension, Glint-Horn Buccaneer more value. Worked well enough for me, although I haven't updated it since Theros came out.
Edit: Here's something I threw together for an approximation.
Mardu Discard Deck
Mardu Discard deck list with prices for Magic: the Gathering (MTG).
www.mtggoldfish.com
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While my life hasn't been as stressful, I definitely haven't enjoyed Theros as much. I made the same mistake of spending a bunch of wild cards early on before the meta shook out. I hadn't intended on it, but I was losing so often in the early days that I felt it was needed to just be competitive again. Unfortunately, I kinda bet wrong and had to fall back to a tweaked RDW (I'm a monster, I know). I can't really afford to dump money into the game right now, either. I'm not going broke, but with the CAD being 70 cents on the dollar, it does add up.
My plan right now is to just suffer through Ikoria's early days and see where it goes.
Most new sets shift up the meta enough that I could get a bit of success with some new nonsense for the first few weeks, but with Theros it was immediately clear that what I'd cooked up was actually shite, and not a single one of my favourite new cards ended up being very impactful in the meta. The Ikoria spoilers look fun and I've got some interesting ideas, I just hope Standard ends up being a bit of a Wild West of random junk a bit longer this time.
I don't really want to save all my wild cards to build a meta deck a month or two down the line when Standard settles, since 90% of the fun I get from this game is deckbuilding some garbage and still managing to eke out some wins against other garbage. I've only been playing since Guilds of Ravnica, and while Eldraine, Ravnica Allegiance and (to a lesser extent) War of the Spark had a fair amount of time where anything went as far as deckbuilding is concerned, I was immediately outclassed in Theros, hence me dropping off the set quite quickly.
This is the main issue anyway. Trying out and buildibg stuff when its new is the most fun thing about the game. If you dont cash in though youll most likely end up with subpar stuff and nothing left to craft something useable down the line.
Yeah - Sealed makes certain cards show up too often, but other than that it's alright. Cube really needs to be drafted to be balanced - I see Archon and big Chandra way way too often.
asking for deck help without posting the deck makes it 100 times more difficult
This is where I hate the philosophy of the new sets, where they dump all the powerful cards at mythic. Used to be you only needed a couple of mythics (e.g Big Teferi) as a finisher, but now a lot of them are 4-ofs. Like in what world (flavor-wise) does Brazen Borrower qualify for Mythic status?
Well I was posting from my phone. I don't usually go on Era from my laptop anymore. I'll try and link it later.
I'm particularly susceptible because I'm a sucker for tribal decks (historic goblins remains one of my favourite decks from day one, for better or worse). So during spoiler season I see all these cards that work thematically with each other and have synergy and think "Yeah, this will totally work" but I forget about all the old cards and not realise A. there are better and faster synergies elsewhere that I'm not seeing, and B. none of this is strong or fast enough to beat existing meta decks that aren't going anywhere (unless the sets are rotating).
And while I'm trying not to fall into this trap again, I'm seeing all the Ikoria spoilers and all I can think is "Man, a mono-blue sea monster deck would be so cool". Maybe I should channel that enthusiasm into a new Kiora brawl deck where I only need one of each, and the meta is a bit more forgiving towards tribal nonsense.
Tell me about it, my first deck was a Kavu tribal lmao. Freaking Kavus. Can't craft tribal decks when Teferi exists lol.
I spent all my stuff on bant enchantment synergy stuff that didn't work out. But hey, at least I won them in paper as a commander deck which shits on most stuff so thats a plus I guess.
The only actually good card I had in that deck lol. And only twice.
11 year old me thought these were all better back then.
This is when I started playing the game. After that in Onslaught I went with Zombies. Man the nostalgia.
My first (and probably best) deck was non-Ravager Affinity, cos that was super cheap and effective. Just about everything was a common / uncommon.
My favorite deck was a creature less deck with
Isochron Scepter and Cranial Plating would probably be Mythic nowadays. Wizards rarely ever print fun cards like these at uncommon and common.
My favorite deck was a creature less deck with
Isochron Scepter and Cranial Plating would probably be Mythic nowadays. Wizards rarely ever print fun cards like these at uncommon and common.
So I've done about four of these cube sealeds and I've come to the conclusion that it kinda sucks. It's so hard to actually get synergy in your pool. The games play out more like Momir than Cube.
hm i was gonna try it but i'm also only at like 75k saved for ikoria what do i do
I enjoyed the cube, but it's not something I'll do more then once with the current payout structure of the event. I'm also someone that loves sealed far more then draft.
my suggestion for cube being good value is to open a dream trawler because it's still unbeatable
I actually went up against a couple of Dream Trawlers in cube. Thankfully they were both played as the last card in hand and I Ate them to Extinction.
Did you ever draft Modern Masters? Both those archetypes were represented. The arcane decks were sweet.My first (and probably best) deck was non-Ravager Affinity, cos that was super cheap and effective. Just about everything was a common / uncommon.
My favorite deck was a creature less deck with
Isochron Scepter and Cranial Plating would probably be Mythic nowadays. Wizards rarely ever print fun cards like these at uncommon and common.
Also I never noticed skullclamp was uncommon lol
Nope. I stopped paper magic for a while cos my LGS closed and I didn't have anyone to play with. Only gotten back into it when Arena released.
If anyone wants to play friendly matches with mostly janky decks, feel free to send me a friend invite. Draggyrider#80185. I mostly play Standard/Brawl but can probably whip out something for Historic/Pauper/Peasant as required. Also I heard friend matches count for dailies now?