Some neat uw stuff out there - im nowhere near familiar enough with the meta yet to play it though.
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Magic the Gathering: Arena |OT| Tapped Out of Witty Titles
- Thread starter Nirolak
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Some neat uw stuff out there - im nowhere near familiar enough with the meta yet to play it though.
Fucking Niv is tough man. There are just not enough board control options. Are there any enchant kills besides counters or returns on all of red and blue? I mean it's like it's not even fair to be honest. One enchant comes out and you can do nothing about it.
Might have to think about doing a tri color if this continues. I'm single-handedly losing 80% of matches to the white enchant exiles. I have no answer for them.
Losing to mostly dudes just casting creatures for the most part. I've got my deck sorted pretty well, I just can't really ever seem to get board control down. And like I said whenever they exile something it's usually after a full mana cast. I almost never have enough to counter back. And it's basically over cuz blue red has no enchant kills.
Might have to think about doing a tri color if this continues. I'm single-handedly losing 80% of matches to the white enchant exiles. I have no answer for them.
Losing to mostly dudes just casting creatures for the most part. I've got my deck sorted pretty well, I just can't really ever seem to get board control down. And like I said whenever they exile something it's usually after a full mana cast. I almost never have enough to counter back. And it's basically over cuz blue red has no enchant kills.
This article from a few years talks about how they try to manage the power level in Standard: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/latest-developments/standard-power-level-2016-02-05
Given the large number of Standard bans that have happened in the last few years kind of suggests they haven't done a great job of this since the articles printing. It does specifically address Wrath of God.
I'm just playing silver and bronze. But I need cards not rank.
And I meant 80% of my losses lately. All to white for the most part. I still win about 50% of the time.
It's funny thinking back at how normal it was at the time. Perhaps because we had so few other game options the imbalances seemed quaint. I particularly miss cards like Tithe. One mana for that?!? So fair!!
Overall spell power is much lower and creature efficiency not even comparable. Almost none of the early 'efficiency' creatures would be good these days.
I LOVED playing hand discard, but can totally understand why its not a thing anymore.
Nut draw - dark rituals - hymm to tourach - hypnotic spectre - pass turn
Then add in necropotence? Ooooof
AMAZING when its you playing it, not so fun the other way around.
And yea, juzam djinn used to be THE creature. Now look at him...
You're on a 17 game streak and haven't got silver yet? I feel like I got silver pretty quick, around 15 wins and some losses.
Left field question: does anyone have a URL to a collection of what the decklists are for the free decks you *can* get in Magic Arena?
It might be more helpful for us more experienced players to help the "new to magic" community do some recommended cheap edits (common/uncommon wild card changes) to those than lecture new players on just how and why Magic works, especially in a standard meta. If I can find some time this evening, I might make some recommended changes and share in thread.
EDIT: a coworker linked me this - gonna try to take a stab at some recommended edits this week if I can get a free moment!
It might be more helpful for us more experienced players to help the "new to magic" community do some recommended cheap edits (common/uncommon wild card changes) to those than lecture new players on just how and why Magic works, especially in a standard meta. If I can find some time this evening, I might make some recommended changes and share in thread.
EDIT: a coworker linked me this - gonna try to take a stab at some recommended edits this week if I can get a free moment!
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Speaking of this, here are my super new player opinions from the 3 I've gotten post reset:
Chaos and Mayhem (red/black): Good
Auras of Majesty (white/green): Bad
Eternal Thirst (white/black): Good
Chaos and Mayhem:
10x Swamp
10x Mountain
4x Cinder Barrens
1x Dragonskull Summit
3x Shock
3x Doomed Dissenter
2x Reassembling Skeleton
3x Goblin Instigator
2x Swab Goblin
3x Murder
3x Ravenous Harpy
4x Act of Treason
2x Blood Divination
1x Demon of Catastrophe
1x Gravedigger
1x Goblin Trashmaster
1x Rekindling Phoenix
3x Brawl-Bash Ogre
1x Open the Graves
1x Siege-Gang Commander
1x Gravewaker
If people are interested I'll type up the other two decks I have tonight.
Taking advantage of the topic are there any magic game for PS4 or iOS? Or any other good card game? I love card games but the options seems scarce.
LOL I was just about to put down a multi colored deck trying to ixalan bind the shit out of me. Was just about to attack and kill and bam gone. Hehe. Well I can say my Niv deck is getting better and better.
Maintenance usually is only an hour or two but who knows.
Demanding Dragon is a fucking amazing card to play if you correctly ramp to 5 with a red/blue. I have two phoenix atm, but sometimes I think about 4 of the former. Man, this deck has been hard to tune, but thanks to myriad losses it's starting to take shape.
Losing is definitely necessary to build elite decks. I understand it isn't fun, but there is no other way.
Well yeah they have the Duels series. Single player actually is not too bad. I recommend Duels 2013 and 2014.
I've been mainly getting Ixalan packs in order to build up my dino cards, but I haven't been getting many yet. SHould I instead be using my cash towards another pack?
The Merfolk are becoming more interesting to me after playing against some of these decks.
The Merfolk are becoming more interesting to me after playing against some of these decks.
It takes a long time to get it going. IMHO Niv decks--blue/red--need to be toned and then toned again against a wide variety of enemies. I just spent the last 3 hours tuning my deck, and overall it is doing pretty well now.
You aren't going to be able to put much draw in your deck I think unless you make a tri color deck and plan on waiting your opponent out. I did see one guy with 3 or 4 colors just stamp me out, but he drew a planeswalker early and it's hard to get rid of them when they have first turn and a god hand.
Blue red basically has no enchant kill right now, so it is EXTREMELY important you build around this as white will swallow up your creatures and you can only really disperse or counter them.
As for burn there is definitely plenty of cheapish burn, but no real cheap clears. So I been using the counter Ionize along with dragons to back up my deck. I'd say Niv is pretty hard to use and not for beginners.
Thanks... I will check it on iOS... I couldn't find on PS4.
Dominaria for dual lands and dinos too. And green in general. Ixalan is fine though it has Carnage Tyrant. One of the best cards in the game.
Posting this again. Complete card lists for each set:
Dominaria: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/dominaria
Ixalan: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/ixalan
Guilds of Ravnica: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/guilds-ravnica-2018-09-19
Core 2019: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/core-set-2019-2018-06-22
Rivals of Ixalan: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/rivals-of-ixalan
Dominaria: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/dominaria
Ixalan: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/ixalan
Guilds of Ravnica: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/guilds-ravnica-2018-09-19
Core 2019: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/core-set-2019-2018-06-22
Rivals of Ixalan: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/rivals-of-ixalan
There's that jump start one that can deal 4, if opponent declines you draw 3, I've seen the Izzet people playing that, one guy drew his whole deck against me playing it 8 times and new enigma drake.
Er, if my account looked blank immediately after coming out of a game and then maintainence started, should I be worried or no?
Also, got the White/Blue Artifact themed deck today, and even swapping in Tefari, it's baaaaad. There's in theory some synergy, but it seems like unless things turn out just right, it's nothing but throwing out weak little creatures and so-so draw.
Also, got the White/Blue Artifact themed deck today, and even swapping in Tefari, it's baaaaad. There's in theory some synergy, but it seems like unless things turn out just right, it's nothing but throwing out weak little creatures and so-so draw.
Also, I want to say that there is clearly match rigging/shaping going on. On the forums and all throughout closed beta they talk about it. I guess it helps some newer players, but I have noticed playing a lot more mirror burn matches now that I am playing Niv. Not too big a deal, but there certainly is a weird algorithm going on here too.
So guys, I finally decided on which deck I want to go for and I'd like to know from the pros here if it would be viable or what they would change (I didn't play for a while) . I'm playing f2p so my options are a bit limited (which is why I want to get this right on the first try) but I might actually get to a T2 or even T1 deck in a months time with this so here it goes:
Grixis Bolas
Creatures:
4x Nicol Bolas
3x Thief of Sanity
Instants/Sorceries:
3x Lightning Strike
3x Thought Erasure
4x Notion Rain
3x Blink of an Eye
2x Vraskas Contempt
2x Mission Briefing
3x Sinister Sabotage
2x Ritual of Soot
Enchantments/Planeswalker
1x Ral, Izzet Viceroy
3x The Eldest Reborn
2x Time of Ice
2x Firemind Research
Curve:
1 mana:0
2 mana: 13 (the 2 mission briefings are useless on their own though)
3 mana: 10
4 mana: 10
5 mana: 4
6 mana: 0
7 mana: 4 (Bolas flip)
Now hear me out for some choices here:
I think Thief of Sanity is a very good midrange option that can act as a removal magnet before I drop Bolas and if I get through once it's already very good value.
Firemind Research acts as a Arguel's Blood Fast replacement. It's almost the same manacost, I don't pay life and it has a finisher/control option, meaning it's really versatile and with 22 spells in my deck I shouldn't have problems getting counters (also it's rotation proof).
Now to my questions:
- Should I go 4 Vraska's Contempt and what should I ditch for that? Mission Briefing is too versatile to give up I think.
- I also don't have any Cast Down in the deck, which might be a problem but Lightning Strikes can go to the face.
- Snister Sabotage is great but I see a lot of Essence Scatter which is cheaper and trades well with higher cost minions. It's easier to play in a three color deck I suppose but then I can't counter all the exile shit targeting my Bolas. Should I swap?
- Overall I don't have many finisher options sadly. I mean the goal obviously is to get bolas going but if my opponent knows that and saves all his Conclave Tribunals, Vraska's Contempts and Assasin's Trophies only for him I'm screwed.
Only other things I have is the Firemind Research and Lightning Strike burn, which probably isn't enough.
Also I'm at 22 lands with this build, which probably isn't enough.
I'd need 2 more mythic, 1 rare and 3 uncommon wildcards for the deck as it is now. (ok some more rare ones for the lands)
If you read until now, thanks, much apprechiated.
Grixis Bolas
Creatures:
4x Nicol Bolas
3x Thief of Sanity
Instants/Sorceries:
3x Lightning Strike
3x Thought Erasure
4x Notion Rain
3x Blink of an Eye
2x Vraskas Contempt
2x Mission Briefing
3x Sinister Sabotage
2x Ritual of Soot
Enchantments/Planeswalker
1x Ral, Izzet Viceroy
3x The Eldest Reborn
2x Time of Ice
2x Firemind Research
Curve:
1 mana:0
2 mana: 13 (the 2 mission briefings are useless on their own though)
3 mana: 10
4 mana: 10
5 mana: 4
6 mana: 0
7 mana: 4 (Bolas flip)
Now hear me out for some choices here:
I think Thief of Sanity is a very good midrange option that can act as a removal magnet before I drop Bolas and if I get through once it's already very good value.
Firemind Research acts as a Arguel's Blood Fast replacement. It's almost the same manacost, I don't pay life and it has a finisher/control option, meaning it's really versatile and with 22 spells in my deck I shouldn't have problems getting counters (also it's rotation proof).
Now to my questions:
- Should I go 4 Vraska's Contempt and what should I ditch for that? Mission Briefing is too versatile to give up I think.
- I also don't have any Cast Down in the deck, which might be a problem but Lightning Strikes can go to the face.
- Snister Sabotage is great but I see a lot of Essence Scatter which is cheaper and trades well with higher cost minions. It's easier to play in a three color deck I suppose but then I can't counter all the exile shit targeting my Bolas. Should I swap?
- Overall I don't have many finisher options sadly. I mean the goal obviously is to get bolas going but if my opponent knows that and saves all his Conclave Tribunals, Vraska's Contempts and Assasin's Trophies only for him I'm screwed.
Only other things I have is the Firemind Research and Lightning Strike burn, which probably isn't enough.
Also I'm at 22 lands with this build, which probably isn't enough.
I'd need 2 more mythic, 1 rare and 3 uncommon wildcards for the deck as it is now. (ok some more rare ones for the lands)
If you read until now, thanks, much apprechiated.
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I enjoy the game currently a lot. I really hope that they can keep or pull in people who aren't uber power level as long as possible. As soon as those disappear, multiplayer games like these become these really niche games for the few ultra hardcore types left.
Ya, currently out of uncommon wildcards so that doesn't help either. I need 4 for chart a course and that 3 cost goblin which deals 1 damage to everything seems pretty good. But yea, while there's some good single target clear, there's a severe lack of AOE burn this season. Which means you'll be losing against token decks pretty easy. Also, I don't think we have a good X cast burn card which means you just lose late game most times.
While it's a pretty good card, it does nothing for you early game. As no one is gonna let you draw 3 at that stage.
That red/black starter deck is pretty good. Some minor tweaking will allow for a decent deck
There 100% is. I've encountered too many mirrors to make me think otherwise
Is there a deck with niv mizzet going on?
Banefire is pretty good though?
Thanks ill look at them to decide my.next paxk purchases
Ahhh, was looking for something like that. Only saw x RR so far. X R is pretty good tho.
While you're at it, would you like to give feedback to my long ass post a bit further above? :P
I've made my own Niv deck to try and match the tokens. The one they gave me was garbage. Because there is no AOE burn, you just gotta pick and choose wisely and see how it plays out. Niv is of course an amazing dragon, and so are a couple of the others like Demanding Dragon. At 5 cost he comes in and burns for 5 to face or the sack a creature. One of the best 5 cost around IMO. I went a little higher on the range with a couple 6 cost creatures, Sarkhan and Ral PWs, and a whatever else that fits and synergizes.
Niv to me needs the higher end because without it you are just going to suffer. To me Demanding Dragon is 100% needed because you need to burn tokens and then get to your bigger creatures ASAP to get their life down. I use one banefire right now. Looking to replace maybe one burn spell for another that targets the face. Still, I got plenty of burn. Spit Flame is decent as is the one that exiles.
Banefire is a big ender when it works. But having too many of those means you are depending on late game wins. Not quite sure I can support two of them in my deck, though, I am thinking about it.
Before the game went down I was 17-2 with this deck, both losses to grixis, hmm....
Ajani's is my attempt to replace Authority of the Consuls.
Ajani's is my attempt to replace Authority of the Consuls.
Before the game went down I was 17-2 with this deck, both losses to grixis, hmm....
Ajani's is my attempt to replace Authority of the Consuls.
I played a deck like this during my tuning phase. He would have lost but my deck wasn't done, and he had a really nice hand plus had the first play. I made a horrible mistake too, but it was very close. He got his PW out, and from then on it was tough for my Niv to keep up. But it was a great match for tuning my deck.
To be honest white is the only deck I have not taken a good look at so far.
Against my Golgari deck though I was winning against these ones a decent amount. I think though that when Teferi gets out before you can do anything against blue red you are done unless a big creature sneaks in turn after turn.
Sounds good. I got one Niv myself and was playing with the thought of going in that direction but I try to go for something else for now. (I'd really like to hear your feedback on it, it's like 10 posts further up. The long as fuck one. :P)
Also what do you think of beacon coil?
I didn't get the saproling deck sadly... got the vampire one though at least.
Fiery Cannonade from Ixalan is a pretty good option for this need.
In some games (e.g. Hearthstone) people sometimes suspect it happens conspiracy theory style, but as far as I'm aware they explicitly acknowledge trying to work it into the matchmaking algorithm here -- "deck quality" matchmaking? I wonder how they do it.
It's hard for me to comment without seeing all the cards. I have to look them up. I don't remember all descriptions. It looks like the deck could use some tuning in game against opponents. Just keep subbing stuff out that you think does not work. Not sure about Sinister Sabotage. I think you really need to be sure you have blue land out. That might not always be consistent. I don't use that counter even in a red/blue deck.
Not quite sure about Soot outside of singleton. My Golgari deck would probably pound that deck pretty hard unless you got those sagas out. I tried Ice saga out but didn't like it in my Niv deck. But it just depends you know on what you are playing. I love elder saga. I also use Phyrexian saga to clear in my golgari deck. To be honest if you can get Phyrexian replace that ice one at least one of them.
Beacon bolt? Anything that depends on having instants and sorcery in the grave I don't particularly find useful as you need a lot of crap in there for it to work, and sometime it just isn't going to work. But sure they can work in decks that are constantly drawing or discarding people. But I would not put too many in.
I usually don't go over 2 X cost cards in a burn deck. As the game shouldn't really last that long. Best scenario is an X cost with flashback or jump-start. Def gonna look into adding bigger monsters and some harder hitting spells. As once you hit top deck mode grabbing shock is not ideal.
Beacon coil seems good, but I think it kinda suffers due to how many monsters the red/blue decks run. Meaning there's not as many as you would like in the graveyard most times.
Yeah I forgot about that one. I will have to think about it. I have been building my deck to combat the tokens outside of AOE, so not sure 2 damage will do what I want, but for sure it is something to think about.
Before the game went down I was 17-2 with this deck, both losses to grixis, hmm....
Ajani's is my attempt to replace Authority of the Consuls.
I'm actually thinking about working toward something like this, though I was thinking red might be preferable so that you can get Aurelia. Right now I'm just burning onward toward a mono white Angel deck, though I realized I might have gone for a deck with far too many Mythics after I started spending wildcards towards it.
Yeah I use one Bane for end game where it cannot be countered. I think two is just too much for me atm. As for top decking yeah it was a problem, and I pretty much solved it with the 5 cost dragons and the 4 cost phoenix I think.
Notion rain seems pretty good, but don't hurt yourself too much! You never know when you will need that life. Do you want to discard people more at all? I think the weakness of this deck is if something like a good Golgari deck sneaks out a Hex big. You will have trouble ridding it if they have another creature out, and with trample one of them can end you pretty quick. I know some people are pretty surprised when I drop a 12/12 on turn 5, but the sagas should help you there I would hope. Still, your deck there would need a lot of testing. It is too hard for me to tell how it will work out just reading it to be honest. It's a very specialized build. Cool though.
Hm well then I'll change that counter out.
Phyrexian sriptures is great yeah, but I'd need more mythic wildcards for that haha. Maybe later on then.
My logic was to use Soot for the cheaper stuff and hard removal for everything that's bigger, but I lack hard removal lol.
Maybe the lightning strikes out, one banefire in instead and then some cheap hard removal.
And yeah I'm not sold on the whole graveyard spell mechanic either (outside of Ral because he can do it himself).
Do you play Firemind research though? I don't know if I just got lucky for now but in my cheap af izzet deck it served as a pretty good engine.
Yeah I only play 3x Thought Erasure for discard, not sure if I should paly 4 or put some duress in... And yeah I made sure Notion Rain is my only card I lose life over. Maybe I should go for 3x Vraska's contempt since it gives me 2 lif back.
Going for a banefire as a finishing option would be wise though, I think' ill do that.
Also yeah, hexproof screws me over good. Vinemare is awful for this deck lol. Some people play this nightmare sphinx to bounce stuff, but it's 6 mana so you can't counter what you bounced.
Need two more mythic wildcards before I can get going anyway though haha.
Mind sharing your Golgari decklist?
