Board 8 > Magic: The Gathering - New Capenna and Explorer incoming

(+) Yeah! (+)

Behold the Multiverse is a common anyways. I was talking about Behold the Multiverse as a budget alternative to cards like Memory Deluge or Reckoner Bankbuster which are rares.

Yeah, what I was saying is it's a good substitute. If you have to hold off on spending WCs Memory Deluge, for example, isn't that much better. I do wonder if it really subs in for the bankbuster though, since that could be your finisher and Behold cannot.

If anyone is curious to look at the starter decks they're all here:

https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_Arena/Preconstructed_decks

Each one has 6 rares and 1 mythic rare but only 1 copy of each

Yeah the Bankbuster substitution is definitely sketchier for that reason. I've been playing a very similar Grixis list and crewing the Bankbuster doesn't come up often though, at least. I almost always win either with Hullbreaker Horror or by using the Fable 3rd chapter to spam Wandering Mind tokens every turn

Well it was a fun month but I'm already feeling myself falling into the same negative energy that made me quit Hearthstone too. I already uninstalled and reinstalled Magic once during this month but I think I'm officially done now.

I get too frustrated when I lose matches and that's not a good recipe for card games where the absolute best decks will still lose 4/10 games.

So thanks for all of the advice everyone gave me over the last week but I'm out!

https://twitter.com/HipstersMTG/status/1549373734393417728

Hm, I really don't need Arena on consoles but I guess the question is, what will the platinum trophy be like?

Gold Trophy - finish a game without roping

it would be really interesting to see where exactly the revenue is coming from, although they'll never share it.

physical vs digital, draft vs set vs collector boosters vs commander decks, geographic regions of sales, etc

i don't understand who is shelling out. the last time i paid money for mtg was when i went to a pre-release, and that was pre-covid

I wonder how much they get from in person events. The events booth at pax a few months ago was constantly swarmed every time i went by.

Did my one draft of Baulders gate. Went 7-2 beating up on players I shouldn't have been playing against with honestly what should have been a 2 win deck.

Back to Modern Rotisserie draft. Way more fun

I'm ready for the return of Kamigawa draft

I am so ready for standard rotation, even though I know it won't fix my issues

it's not like the metagame is in a terrible place, it's just that none of the top decks feel my style

Problem is, I think the major archetypes are going to be supported through rotation

I've been playing so much Explorer I haven't really been thinking about standard that much. It seems like its in a relatively healthy place, but kinda boring.

ChichiriMuyo posted...

I'm ready for the return of Kamigawa draft

yes please

my gems are ready

Ended my second Modern Rotisserie draft 4-3. Bit of a disappointing end.

My Abzan Super Friends deck lost to a UR Control Deck where my removal was garbage, a mill deck where I didn't have enough mill hate in the sideboard and a 60 card Yorrion blink deck which top decked a Karmic Guide to combo off right before I won that otherwise was a really winnable matchup.

Learning from that deck was that while walkers are good, they aren't aggressive enough to get under unfair decks and unfair decks are easy to build in Rotisserie

I've been playing Alchemy lately because that is what this month's qualifier is, and holy moly this format sucks. Even if you set aside all the baggage with the Arena economy, getting your card's nerfed, etc, the actual gameplay is also really bad. I definitely had more fun playing with/against stuff like Cauldron Familiar/Witch's Oven and Alrund's Epiphany than I did with this.

Yeah, Alchemy is a trash fire. I dont think theres anyone who actually likes that format.

Huge reveals today. I want that new Ajani card.

https://i.redd.it/zs0dcydg2ii91.jpg

return to ixalan ooyeah

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/7/6/AANqGkAADk4E.jpg

apparently this is real and NOT a MCU parody like I initially assumed

Which ones are stand ins for core sets?

I don't think there is a core set stand-in, it's laid out like this year's standard cycle was - 4 real sets, plus the supplemental (aftermath) set at the end. Where Baldur's Gate was this year, they're doing a Lord of the Rings set in the same way, with an Alchemy version on Arena.

Bump for dominaria hype

I dunno about how it'll play in limited but yeah, it feels like a core set. It seems like a toolkit set with a lot of stuff that will get play in standard but few things that will drive those decks. I really want to try Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief + Vesuvan Duplimancy, though.

when spoilers were coming out I thought it was looking pretty strong

like a lot of creature seem to have an extra stat point or line of text compared to what they might have in previous sets

but maybe Im just letting some specific strong cards obfuscate the set as a whole or something, I dunno.

its got strictly better wind drake! until now its just been 2/3 fliers with a minor downside, but we got the totally superior version this time! crazy power creep

oh and yeah, Meteorite is definitely a junk core set card, but they downgraded it to common for the first time here, so thats... something

Theyve got the cycle of common dual lands with basic land types for fixing, which might be enough. I think the expectation is that a normal deck should be able to consistently hit 3 for domain effects

but yeah, no wilds or common artifact land searcher thing is an interesting choice

it looked to me like a bunch of the common/uncommon kicker stuff could be pretty strong. my instinct right now is its probably at least a higher power level than Dominaria was, but I dunno. Im looking forward to checking it out.

I'm still reserving my judgement on that. Especially since you of all people can't seem to work with lands, how much could your opinion on a lands matter mechanic really mean? ;p

7-1 on my first draft with a pretty fun domain deck. Much better first impression of the format than Capenna.

I have come to tell you that the 7 black defender deck does not work at all

UltimaterializerX posted...

Defender will never work in limited ever so I am not surprised.

Actually right after I posted that I am 6-0 with a white defender deck

The white defender uncommon is busted

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/8/1/AANz_VAADoMp.jpg

Granted I fell down to silver

I got a couple wins with a black-focused defender deck, but I didnt get enough removal. I got two of the 2 drops that do life loss based on how many defenders you have, and doing four or five unblockable damage per turn is pretty good if you can make it happen.

Defender deck definitely feels like a trap from what I've seen. You need too many uncommon ones to really make the deck tick and it's just not that likely you're going to get a critical mass of the good ones.

Have done most of 3 drafts so far.

3-3 with a Grixis Control deck. This deck was ok but I didn't really have enough quality removal to support this strategy. Think the archetype has potential though.

3-3 with Jund...stuff. This deck was awful and I'm honestly amazed I got lucky enough to scrape together 3 wins. The top end was ok with big Tramplers, but it didn't go quite as big as the dedicated ramp/Domain decks and it was very easy to get run over early.

Currently 6-1 with a domain deck, which is really more like an aggressive RG (U splash) deck with a top end of Herd Migration and the guy who burns the opponent based on your Domain count (this one feels low-key busted in the right deck). It's also got dual lands including off-colors, but only for domain count or triggering the occasional kicker ability like the 3/3 that gives things Menace. This deck actually feels quite good, despite the U splash coming back to bite me a bit.

General thoughts are that right now the tendency is for people to be a bit too greedy trying to work Domain into their strategies. It's good if it works, but there's also just a lot of nice streamlined 2-color decks in the format that ignore that entirely. UR, WB, and WU all seem quite good.

Also if you want to go the Domain route, I think the way to do it is to pick the dual lands early and then commit if you can pick up a few of the Domain payoffs as well.

TheManaSword posted...

Defender deck definitely feels like a trap from what I've seen. You need too many uncommon ones to really make the deck tick and it's just not that likely you're going to get a critical mass of the good ones.

I think its less of a trap, and more you need 2 wingmantle chaplins

Because the rest of the defender cards range from meh to pretty bad which makes them really easy to pick up. Starting base black defender is terrible, and base blue is terrible, but I would absolutely spec on an early wingmantle and then see if you can pick up a second one, because the tutor is common meaning it should be easy pick one up and suddenly you are bird army

Went 7-0 in my first draft of the set. Went black, white, blue with a bunch of kickers and fliers. Benalish Sleepers and Phyrexian Missionaries are a pretty sweet combo, in one game I just kept removing my opponent's singluar big creature turn after turn.

I did get pretty lucky one game though, I should've lost but my opponent forgot to pump his creature so I ended up with 1 life and swung for the win next turn.

Nice, actually managed to get a 7 win draft deck. (The last one I mentioned ended 6-3.)

Turns out when you're passed both Herd Migration and Archangel of Wrath you can usually figure out something.

Edit: Only loss was to the absolute nuts Defender deck and I'm pretty sure it is real. Curved turn 2 Coral Colony into turn 3 Waking Bulwark into turn 4 Shield Wall Sentinel into turn 5 Wingmantle Chaplain and it looked like he had many copies of all of the above.

Went into my prerelease yesterday feeling pretty good but ended up 1-2. Ups and downs I guess.

Built a black, white, red deck that had a bit of a sacrifice theme to it. I had a Squee and a Braids which was a pretty sweet combination, but I think my mana base probably could've been better.

Gonna keep slamming blue until this stops happening

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/5/5/AANz_VAADomz.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/5/6/AANz_VAADom0.png

Talos Lookout is a fantastic card. Five is kinda insane.

It actually ended up not being that good of a deck. 5 was actually too many haha, curve was too high and finished 6-3

But I figured I had to at least once take all of them for laughs.

This set feels like the best core set of all time.

Like I really like it, there is a lot of interesting things going on but none of them seem particularly different from a dozen other sets.

Just had a disgusting T5 win when I didn't play a card till T3

T3 The Weatherseed Treaty to ramp to 5

T4 Kicked Keldon strike team to give the saproling haste and attack for 6

T5 give Keldon strike team +5/+5 Attack for 10, play Meria's outrider to lava axe my opponent.

Granted my opponent was trying to race me but it was still pretty funny. Aggro domain go brrr