Board 8 > Magic the Gathering: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

(+) Yeah! (+)

I didn't like them at first glance, but the more I look at them those full art lands look dope as hell. It'd be much cooler if you could pimp out an entire deck like that, though. Just everything in the deck all B&W except the one thin boarder indicating the color would be amazing.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

I didn't like them at first glance, but the more I look at them those full art lands look dope as hell. It'd be much cooler if you could pimp out an entire deck like that, though. Just everything in the deck all B&W except the one thin boarder indicating the color would be amazing.

Now every set can have regular, foil, borderless, borderless foil, etched foil, borderless etched foil, showcase, showcase foil, B&W, and B&W foil!

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TomNook posted...

Now every set can have regular, foil, borderless, borderless foil, etched foil, borderless etched foil, showcase, showcase foil, B&W, and B&W foil!

Yeah... a lot of those could go. Any non-etched foil can go, they tend to be really poor quality anyway. Borderless could also come in non-foil only and showcase in etched foil only. B&W should totally be non-foil only since foil makes no sense there anyway. There, regular, etched foil, borderless (maybe foil), showcase (etched foil), and B&W. That's half as many options and they all make much more sense and are the best options for collectors.

Edit - you could even replace the borderless with B&W only so then you could have regular, (etched) foil, borderless, showcase (etched). Now we're talking.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Borderless could also come in non-foil only

Nah! Most people I know that like pimping out decks typically go for borderless foils.

ChichiriMuyo posted...

B&W should totally be non-foil only since foil makes no sense there anyway.

Maybe, but I find that a lot of the best looking foils happen to be ones with some of the smallest color pallets. Things like Mycosynth Lattice and the judge promo Sol Ring look excellent as foils. So we don't really have much to go on in terms of black and white yet, but could potentially look really nice as a foil.


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i think i'll have to see the full arts in person before i can judge whether i like em

i do feel fortunate to have never cared about foils, even when they were introduced (to compete with pokemon iirc)

some of the recent showcase cards have just looked fantastic, though. i appreciate that they have been making alt art/border commons and uncommons, so they're not so daunting to collect

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Oh also the pumpkin plains is my favorite

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So far we have:
- strictly better Shock
- Surveil Opt
- unconditional 2 mana instant black removal (with a drawback against aggro)
- Zombie version of a Modern Humans staple
- flashback which tends to be inherently strong

Now, I'm not gonna judge the entire set by so few cards but these kind of blow away my expectations from the lower power of more recent sets

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Played in the Mythic Qualifier Weekend event today. Made a last minute decision to run Naya Winota despite literally never having played the deck before. Partially this was because some recent tournament results made me expect a lot of Gruul decks which I think do poorly against Winota, but also because I just really was not in a mood to have to think about my plays today. Ended up going 6-3 which doesn't qualify me for day 2 but does guarantee my entry into the next qualifier weekend event, which I guess is relatively good considering I was basically just phoning it in today anyways.
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Free drafts.

Helpful tip: Amonkhet is ultra aggressive so if you want to play your greater sandwurm you need like 6 2 mana removal spells.

I opened Kefnet who is undoubtably not playable, but ran it anyways because I had 5 unquenchable thirsts. It was pretty funny

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I did so bad in my Amonkhet draft haha. I had no idea what I was doing, it's been so long, so that I ended up 2:3.

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Sunset pyramid and Edifice of Authority seem fantastic.

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Free drafts, you say? I may need to load up arena for the first time in a month.

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The Mana Sword posted...

Free drafts, you say? I may need to load up arena for the first time in a month.

Yeah, first draft is free once a format for the next three weeks/formats I believe

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sunset pyramid is definitely a card that is a victim of its format. Similar to Kefnet, its just too slow for most decks.

Because Exert and afflict are themes that only matter when attacking, there is a lot of attacking in this set, and blocking is super punished. You have to have absurd amounts of cheap removal before you can start considering those cards because stupid common two drops like gust walker and nef-crop entangler will just destroy you.

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I dont know anything about the set, any tips for drafting Amonkhet?

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my tip for drafting amonkhet remastered is not to draft amonkhet remastered

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The Mana Sword posted...

my tip for drafting amonkhet remastered is not to draft amonkhet remastered

If it wasn't free I probably wouldn't have done it yeah. I'm not a big fan of aggressive tilted formats in general

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

I dont know anything about the set, any tips for drafting Amonkhet?

White Aggro is extremely good, and any color combination can be aggressive. Hooded Brawler in Green, and the 2/1 afflict 2 in blue for instance are both extremely good aggressive cards. Red obviously has a ton of them.

If you aren't aggressive you need as much cheap removal as you can get to stay alive.

Oh, and having 1-2 deserts is extremely important as there are several cards that pay you off from having at least one desert. In red there is an uncommon that is either a 3/3 for 4 with no deserts, to a flame tongue kavu if you have one.

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I dunno why some of y'all hate Amonkhet draft, I freaking love it.

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7-1 R/B in my first Amonkhet draft. I feel like this draft format was made for me. It's aggro heaven with some neat little combos.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

7-1 R/B in my first Amonkhet draft. I feel like this draft format was made for me. It's aggro heaven with some neat little combos.

I generally dont like sets that are misleading.

For instance there is a ton of green ramp, so you would think the 6GG Sandwurm convergence would be an unbeatable bomb, but because the format is so aggressively slanted its only ok. Same with the sweet cycling payoffs.

Adventures in the dark realm has the same problem where blue is so actively terrible that you should pass all but the biggest blue bombs, and all the cool dice rolling cards are pretty much traps.

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Eh, I'm not sure how much ramp there actually is (I'm seeing about half a dozen green ramp cards, half of which cost 4 which is hella slow for ramp), but Sandworm Convergence just looks like super obviously jank non-goodness. I honestly wouldn't look at that card and automatically think "unbeatable bomb" in any draft format, it's just so slow. Compare it to Koma which is cheaper (in a format I'd argue has more ramp), gives you more power on the field, can protect itself and can stop more than just fliers from attacking you. Sandworm Convergence just isn't a good deal. That's not a sign of the set being misleading, if anything it's a sign of you badly missing the mark on evaluating that card.

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... have you ever actually cast sandwurm convergence? The card is unbeatable if you can cast it, and there are more than one 2 mana rampers in the set

Comparing it to koma, the best limited card since dream trawler is a little disingenuous

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Edifice of Authority is so busted, I had the chance to draft multiple but just picked one.

I basically just won with my red-black deck based on that card and rain of hailfire alone.

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Sandwurm Convergence was very strong back in triple Amonkhet with the right deck, but you had to draft around it, and IIRC the UG ramp deck was one of the worst archetypes. The remastered set is even more hostile to the type of deck that would play it.

Card is powerful though.

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It's not disingenuous at all. Both consistently put additional power on the table every turn, so they are similar. You're trying to argue Convergence is unbeatable, but Koma might actually be unbeatable. See how the connection gets made there? And trying to knock the comparison because Koma is the biggest draft bomb since Dream Trawler, a card that's recent enough to still be standard legal? Wow... that's like saying this years new car is the coolest thing since last year's new car.

But the problem is that the Convergence is still too damn slow, and would be in a lot of other draft formats. It doesn't actually get you a body on the table until your next turn, so it's not stopping the opponent from killing you in response. This is also a format with a preponderance of ways to directly damage the opponent, including inflict which can be in parts of the color pie that normally couldn't do that. The format also has a metric ton of ways to make creatures unable to block. There's nothing misleading about the format, you get to see both of those things on multiple commons and you also get to see the endless sea of aggressive 2 and 3 drop creatures.

If anything fooled you it was your preconceived notions, not the set. You assuming that a certain card or strategy has to be great in one format because it is in some others is akin to walking into a kosher deli and assuming they'll have ham because other delis have ham. And next to Ulti, who goes on endlessly about his mana problems, I'm pretty sure you're the person that complains the most when new draft formats come out. Oh, you didn't like Forgotten Realms either because it doesn't draft like you expected it to? Surprise surprise.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

It doesn't actually get you a body on the table until your next turn

It triggers at end of turn, you get one the turn you play it.

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The Mana Sword posted...

It triggers at end of turn, you get one the turn you play it.

Ah, my bad. You're right. That does make it better than my first reading. It still doesn't change the fact that plum dislikes the format because it doesn't play the way he wants it to, which is nonsense. Honestly I'm glad that the stupid "ramp up and play the ridiculoud rare you got lucky enough to draft" strategy isn't a winner. My 7-1 deck had zero rares in it. I didn't win because I got lucky and opened a stupid bomb, I won because I actually drafted to the format better than my opponents.

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Uh

I think *thing being what I like means I like it*

Is pretty much the standard on how anyone decides what they like


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Well, okay, don't like it. But why call it misleading? I don't think it's misleading at all, the set seems pretty straight forward actually. That's really what I thought was ridiculous for you to say.

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Fun Fact: my opponent actually cast Sandwurm Convergence in one of my games.

I almost dislocated my arm I was moving to concede so fast.

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one of the like five Amonkhet drafts I did recently was a ramp deck that went pretty well. it had Sandwurm Convergence, but I dont think I actually got to play it more than like once.
I also had a couple of the actual Sandwurm creature card with cycling which were much more relevant to my wins.

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https://mobile.twitter.com/TolarianCollege/status/1426960447459131392

My new favorite Twitter account/thread

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TCC is great. I don't know if they still do them, but their product reviews (particularly for stuff like sleeves, binders, deck boxes, etc) were helpful to me.

Their youtube channel is a little bit of an acquired taste. The host articulates extremely carefully (speaks slowly) and sometimes overcomplains, but their heart is in the right place- they mean well for the game, and often represent common opinions of a lot of long-time invested players.

Also, do y'all have any good deck recommendations for arena standard 2022?

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Do you really mean Standard 2021? (ie. The format ending in a month or 2) If so I think the top decks right now are probably Sultai Ramp, Gruul Adventures, and Naya Winota.

In Standard 2022, I'm not sure. I think some of the popular decks are Izzet Dragons, mono green aggro, and various black-based control decks.
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Whoops! yes, I meant 2022. Sorry

My mutate and 'fuck u mill' escape cards are going away and I don't know what I'm going to do

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My guess is the inistrad set will mix things up enough to not worry about it till then

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Actually if you want fun, the Bant Party deck looks quite fun and also is maybe a high tier deck in the format right now. I haven't played or looked at the format much myself but Huey Jensen has it at 3rd in his power rankings.

This is the list I found on Channel Fireball https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/decks/898/bant-party/AAQAAQPG1xrNBRAC4tYatQYD0NsaRIcBC8nVGpABJcEFUIS2AhpQrwEjoKcBAAA

Edit: Also yes, "wait until innistrad" has been my personal approach to the format. Though being in a waiting mode for both constructed formats on Arena is a bit frustrating. (Brawl does not count and is dumb)
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thanks for the recommendation, i'll take a quick look. i like fair decks, and that one almost looks too fair! right up my alley.

waiting until innistrad was the plan, but if there is already something interesting in the pipeline i might as well give it a spin

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pyresword posted...

Actually if you want fun, the Bant Party deck looks quite fun and also is maybe a high tier deck in the format right now. I haven't played or looked at the format much myself but Huey Jensen has it at 3rd in his power rankings.

This is the list I found on Channel Fireball https://mtga.untapped.gg/meta/decks/898/bant-party/AAQAAQPG1xrNBRAC4tYatQYD0NsaRIcBC8nVGpABJcEFUIS2AhpQrwEjoKcBAAA

Edit: Also yes, "wait until innistrad" has been my personal approach to the format. Though being in a waiting mode for both constructed formats on Arena is a bit frustrating. (Brawl does not count and is dumb)

I tried to import this deck and I literally only have 3 of the cards.

lol

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Last night I had an absolutely horrible draft experience with Kaladesh Remastered. I'm pretty sure I had a deck that deserved more than one win, but that's all I managed. I had a Cloudblazer, an Aerial Responder, 3 Revoke Privileges, multiple Fabricate creatures and pump all white spells, Baral's Expertise and Illusionists Stratagem... Felt pretty miserable losing so badly with a pile that seemed like it could or should have at least gone 3-3.

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My draft looked good, but the first match I played, around turn 4 the guy proceeded to play a Barricade Breaker for the next 3 turns.

Is there even anything in the set that can counter that?

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

My draft looked good, but the first match I played, around turn 4 the guy proceeded to play a Barricade Breaker for the next 3 turns.

Is there even anything in the set that can counter that?

Lots of removal

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lol ended up 2-3.

I managed to draft a Gonti, but somehow literally never saw him in any of my matches.

One match even went like 20 turns, and I held onto a card to exile and return my own creature to the battlefield waiting for him, and it never happened, was such a bummer.

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Gonti is definitely one of those cards that scales with the powerlevel of the format. I don't actually think Gonti in Kaladesh draft is amazing. It's good, but its not sky sovereign or anything

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I did one Kaladesh draft. Had what seemed like a bad deck but got lucky and went 3-3. Got a Sram which means one less wildcard I need to spend if I ever want to play Auras in Historic so I guess that's good.

Don't really like the format though. Vehicles are an awful mechanic that should never have been a thing and should never be a thing again.
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pyresword posted...

Don't really like the format though. Vehicles are an awful mechanic that should never have been a thing and should never be a thing again.

Well Ive got bad news for you. Esikas Chariot is gonna be around for another year in standard and its hella good.


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Managed to go 7-2 with my draft.
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Had a 5-3 Ikoria draft with R/G that I'm certain could have gone 7-2 on another day. I got Kogla first pick and Mythros of Vadrok second pick followed by a lot of great green and plenty of good red. I even got an Obosh pick 2 pack 2. Added to that a lot of Trample synergy and plenty of removal and I coulda done better. One game I absolutely lost for myself with a misplay, though. That game literally ended with the opponent throwing down a lava serpent on an otherwise empty board, and had I played just a little bit tighter it didn't need to end that way. Another was just some piss poor mana. I had double Humble Naturalist and double Fertilid to, theoretically, make sure I wouldn't have mana issues. Oopsie. Still, not a terrible run.

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7-1 in Ikoria

Cycling still busted

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