Magic: The Gathering

[naff]

   YARGLE 

[Kara]

I ironically love that we have an expansion now.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why are all the cards referencing actual sports blue?

[close]

[archnemesis]

This weekend's draft set in MTG: Arena is Hour of Devestation. Tonight I went 6-2 with a GW deck containing no bombs, but plenty of solid creatures and a fair amount of removal. It's a really fun set to draft and I hope I will have time for another round tomorrow.

[naff]

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I ironically love that we have an expansion now.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why are all the cards referencing actual sports blue?

[close]

Battlebond looks like really good fun.









Nice crop of new cards with solid reprints.

[archnemesis]

Despite drafting what felt like I really strong deck with Glorybringer and Samut, I ended up 3-3 in my second HOU draft. Maybe it would have gone better with BO3. Well at least I earned enough gems to afford another round.

[Kara]

Battlebond looks like really good fun.

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Nice crop of new cards with solid reprints.

Not posting the new Morphling.



Anyway, in general it looks like a fun set and I'm going to try to go to a pre-release event, but the keyword mechanics are very uninteresting and there's just too much EDH shite coming off Dominaria which was full of EDH shite.

[Joe Molotov]

Not posting the best reprint of the set.

[Kara]

My favorite sub-game in Masters 25 drafts was "who's the sucker that's going to pay Iwamori of the Open Fist's mana cost?"

 

[Kara]

Drafted the silliest deck ever and it rules.

This was turn 6.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

Next game, my opponent thinks they've stabilized at 6 life when...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

And for those of you who think I've forgotten my roots by building a deck with game winning interactions, it still has 3 Vicious Offerings and a Settle the Score.

[Joe Molotov]

Went to an MM17 win-a-box tournament yesterday, borrowed my friend’s tier 1 Human deck and got blown out by Elves and Jund. I should have just played Skred like I wanted to, smh. Why would you ever not just play your pet deck in Modern? The proof was when I opened my pity pack of M25 and it was Blood Moon.

The universe was like

[Kara]

Not only were you not playing your pet deck, you were trading in a one color deck for a deck that makes Czech Pile look like Death and Taxes because picking colors is a feel bad or whatever.

[Human Snorenado]

Played an Arena (HOU/HOU/AKH) draft earlier and tried to force U/R prowess, but after a mediocre first pack (1 Fireshot Archer and a couple Thorned Moloch, random spells) I never saw the staples in pack 2 so the deck was sour ass and I was shocked to even win 2 games with it, but I luck sacked into 2 bonus packs so mission accomplished I guess.

[archnemesis]

I wish there was a simple way to export deck lists.

If Arena ever becomes popular with casual players then I'm going to love the draft mode even more. Playing four drafts every weekend is probably more than I have time for anyway. My third deck was zombies (6-2, thanks to 2 copies of Unraveling Mummy, Crested Sunmare, and Ammit Eternal) and now I ended up with a UR deck with no real theme. I picked both Nicol Bolas, God Pharaoh and Torment of Hailfire, but without mass removal and some kind of acceleration I don't think I would have enough mana to cast them.

[thisismyusername]

Finally got around to opening my Dominara packs for new accounts:

Pack 1: [[Shield of the Realm]], [[Siege-Gang Commander]], [[Cast Down]], [[Llanowar Scout]], [[Gaea's Protector]], Common Wildcard, [[Stronghold Confessor]], [[Short Sword]].

Pack 2: Uncommon Wildcard, [[Karn's Temporal Sundering]], [[Knight of Grace]], [[Caligo Skin-Witch]], [[Homarid Explorer]], [[Blessed Light]], [[Fiery Intervention]], [[Feral Abomination]]

Pack 3: [[Slimefoot, the Stowaway]], [[Yawgmoth's Vile Offering]], [[Wizard's Retort]], [[Keldon Raider]], [[Opt]], [[Ancient Animus]], [[Befuddle]], [[Drudge Sentinel]].

I can't fap to this I can't build a deck with this.jpg

I guess I can use the Wildcards that I've collected so far for more Dominara stuff, but with the next block on the horizon... :/

[naff]

Battlebond looks like really good fun.

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Nice crop of new cards with solid reprints.

Not posting the new Morphling.

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Anyway, in general it looks like a fun set and I'm going to try to go to a pre-release event, but the keyword mechanics are very uninteresting and there's just too much EDH shite coming off Dominaria which was full of EDH shite.

I pretty much only play EDH now I have a few modern decks, and used to play standard. But i realised i would rather just draft occasionally and play 100 card singleton. I was always so derisive, but played a lot because i had some old friends who have played since the 90s and i just borrowed their decks. Now i've built a few (Sygg Merfolk, 8 1/2 tails, Saskia and Animar), i see how fun the format is.

Dom and Battlebond being edh feeder sets .

[naff]

Playing even semi-competitively is such a drag compared to getting playing against a consistent meta, and getting ripped with people i love. Great format for stoners. I would be a lot more into competitive constructed if there were solid tournaments like SCG + WOTC RPTQs and GPs in my area, but our lgs is pretty much the only place to go. A lot of investment, little return. I don't have the time for that shit. EDH rulz.

[Human Snorenado]

Finally got around to opening my Dominara packs for new accounts:

Pack 1: [[Shield of the Realm]], [[Siege-Gang Commander]], [[Cast Down]], [[Llanowar Scout]], [[Gaea's Protector]], Common Wildcard, [[Stronghold Confessor]], [[Short Sword]].

Pack 2: Uncommon Wildcard, [[Karn's Temporal Sundering]], [[Knight of Grace]], [[Caligo Skin-Witch]], [[Homarid Explorer]], [[Blessed Light]], [[Fiery Intervention]], [[Feral Abomination]]

Pack 3: [[Slimefoot, the Stowaway]], [[Yawgmoth's Vile Offering]], [[Wizard's Retort]], [[Keldon Raider]], [[Opt]], [[Ancient Animus]], [[Befuddle]], [[Drudge Sentinel]].

I can't fap to this I can't build a deck with this.jpg

I guess I can use the Wildcards that I've collected so far for more Dominara stuff, but with the next block on the horizon... :/

They're going to do another wipe when it transitions to open beta, my guess is that will be right around when Kaladesh rotates out so they don't have to fuck with putting that and Aether Revolt on Arena for awhile (if ever) so just go wild and do whatever in the meantime, nothing has any meaning just like real life

[Transhuman]

I only play extreme competitive EDH

[Joe Molotov]

I only play extreme competitive EDH

[Transhuman]

Pissing off people playing EDH side events at a GP by winning turn 1 is what I live for

[Kara]

I pretty much only play EDH now I have a few modern decks, and used to play standard. But i realised i would rather just draft occasionally and play 100 card singleton. I was always so derisive, but played a lot because i had some old friends who have played since the 90s and i just borrowed their decks. Now i've built a few (Sygg Merfolk, 8 1/2 tails, Saskia and Animar), i see how fun the format is.

I know that it's fun*; it is still (nominally) Magic, a game that is fun. I'm just over every product having to cater to the format, especially since it often shits up limited (and will only do it more so now that Masters sets are no longer format specific) with paint by numbers commanders.

*Fun of course as defined by the unwritten rules of your group of friends who oftentimes implement them ex post facto.

[Human Snorenado]

lol or just ignore me, Standard (KLD and AER) dropping June 7th

[Human Snorenado]

I might actually just ignore the game until KLD rotates. I loathe the energy mechanic on a fundamental level and have never wanted to play with or against it.

[Kara]

Half of the appeal of Arena constructed to me is that it doesn't have that block.

[Human Snorenado]

My Ramunap Ruins are all soon to be useless

[naff]

I pretty much only play EDH now I have a few modern decks, and used to play standard. But i realised i would rather just draft occasionally and play 100 card singleton. I was always so derisive, but played a lot because i had some old friends who have played since the 90s and i just borrowed their decks. Now i've built a few (Sygg Merfolk, 8 1/2 tails, Saskia and Animar), i see how fun the format is.

I know that it's fun*; it is still (nominally) Magic, a game that is fun. I'm just over every product having to cater to the format, especially since it often shits up limited (and will only do it more so now that Masters sets are no longer format specific) with paint by numbers commanders.

*Fun of course as defined by the unwritten rules of your group of friends who oftentimes implement them ex post facto.

I would love a 75 card casual constructed group who messes 'round with Vintage and Legacy consistently, but I've found it tough to get people interested. I used to play a monthly casual legacy event with proxies, but it's morphed into proper wotc paper tournaments which seems dumb. Yes, Legacy is preferable to me over EDH, but they're incredibly different, and brewing casual EDH, trawling for oddities that wouldnt be viable anywhere else that can be huge in multiplayer games is a pretty great spin on the usual brewing process for me. My group evolves very organically anyway. We just submit to whatever the EDH committee rules are, playing whatever we want with a lot of oddball commanders. There's far too much hate for dumb decks like Hermit Druid and ANT to work consistently. Definitely get props for coming correct with some oddball shit, and you'd def face a fair amount of derision for just consistently using 2 card combos as finishers eg kiki jiki x exarch, this can be a motivating factor though too, like i enjoy using 2 card combos like that sometimes to incentivise more 1-1 removal and interaction.

Pissing off people playing EDH side events at a GP by winning turn 1 is what I live for

I've played a few cEDH events, can def be fun but i'd much rather play legacy or vintage for this sort of degeneracy.

[Human Snorenado]

Thee's no reason not to play mono-blue Azami wizards Palinchron combo if you're going to play EDH. For one, if you can play mono-blue, you do. For another, killing all your opponents by decking them is intensely satisfying. Finally, "flash in Teferi at your eot, take a 10 minute turn where you all just have to sit and watch me durdle, win" is the rudest possible thing you can do, so you might as well do it.

[Human Snorenado]

The whole "state of the MTG Arena economy" thing is so hilarious. It's obvious that switching from Wild Cards to dusting would solve all of their problems but they're so committed to this dumb Wild Card strategy they'll never do it.

[archnemesis]

This weekend it's DOM drafting in Arena. My first deck was UR tempo wizards. I lost once because I kept a poor starting hand and twice against Baird, Steward of Argive who really screwed up my tempo. Most of the other games were quick wins where I bounced heavy blockers while dealing damage with my cheaper creatures. I ended up 6-3 and I can afford drafting at least four more times this weekend. These F2P mechanics are fine, although I would definitely prefer a dusting system over the wild cards.

2x Arcane Flight
Artificer's Assistant
Shivan Fire
Short Sword
Blink of an Eye
Ghitu Chronicler
Fight with Fire
4x Ghitu Journeymage
2x Keldon Overseer
Squee, the Immortal
Valduk, Keeper of the Flame
Jhoira's Familiar
3x Academy Journeymage
Fiery Intervention
Firefist Adept
Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
7x Island
9x Mountain
Zhalfirin Void

[Joe Molotov]

I went 5-3 with a durdley Wizard deck, where my wincon was either Verix Bladewing or the 4/5 hexproof durdle turtle. In the last game I kicked a Blink of an Eye on my opponent's 8/8+ Multani on three consecutive turns, but lost to a Pierce the Sky.  :'(

[Kara]

The Battlebond prerelease is the same weekend as the Pro Tour? (This weekend.) Wizards please.

[Joe Molotov]

SCG is doing Regional Championships this weekend too because 

[naff]

Thee's no reason not to play mono-blue Azami wizards Palinchron combo if you're going to play EDH. For one, if you can play mono-blue, you do. For another, killing all your opponents by decking them is intensely satisfying. Finally, "flash in Teferi at your eot, take a 10 minute turn where you all just have to sit and watch me durdle, win" is the rudest possible thing you can do, so you might as well do it.

 

[thisismyusername]

The whole "state of the MTG Arena economy" thing is so hilarious. It's obvious that switching from Wild Cards to dusting would solve all of their problems but they're so committed to this dumb Wild Card strategy they'll never do it.

Honestly, the Wildcard system isn't bad but the rate you get them is so fucking dismal and that you get over 4-ofs that don't automatically turn into Wild Cards, is BANANAS.

[Human Snorenado]

The whole "state of the MTG Arena economy" thing is so hilarious. It's obvious that switching from Wild Cards to dusting would solve all of their problems but they're so committed to this dumb Wild Card strategy they'll never do it.

Honestly, the Wildcard system isn't bad but the rate you get them is so fucking dismal and that you get over 4-ofs that don't automatically turn into Wild Cards, is BANANAS.

It's not bad but it FEELS BAD and any solution to the over 4 of problem that makes any sort of sense and keeps wild cards is rife for fuckery- if you're giving out WCs for cards someone already has 4 of, if I'm the end user there's no reason for me to spend gold on packs of anything other than a set I've got mostly completed, as that will end up in more wild cards. Say you give out "wild card shards" for over 4 ofs, that you can piece together to form an actual wild card... at that point you've basically created dusting but you're just so committed to NOT CALLING IT DUSTING that it's absurd.

The real reason they won't do it IMO is that most of the cards are fucking useless and they don't want to highlight that. Everyone would immediately dust all of their trash if they could. It's what I did in Eternal.

[Kara]

SCG is doing Regional Championships this weekend too because 

On the one hand I can see why they thought the events would cater to different markets, but on the other hand two-headed giant was a Pro Tour format.

Oh well, just more money for Dominaria drafts on MODO.

[thisismyusername]

The whole "state of the MTG Arena economy" thing is so hilarious. It's obvious that switching from Wild Cards to dusting would solve all of their problems but they're so committed to this dumb Wild Card strategy they'll never do it.

Honestly, the Wildcard system isn't bad but the rate you get them is so fucking dismal and that you get over 4-ofs that don't automatically turn into Wild Cards, is BANANAS.

It's not bad but it FEELS BAD and any solution to the over 4 of problem that makes any sort of sense and keeps wild cards is rife for fuckery- if you're giving out WCs for cards someone already has 4 of, if I'm the end user there's no reason for me to spend gold on packs of anything other than a set I've got mostly completed, as that will end up in more wild cards. Say you give out "wild card shards" for over 4 ofs, that you can piece together to form an actual wild card... at that point you've basically created dusting but you're just so committed to NOT CALLING IT DUSTING that it's absurd.

The real reason they won't do it IMO is that most of the cards are fucking useless and they don't want to highlight that. Everyone would immediately dust all of their trash if they could. It's what I did in Eternal.

I mean you're right. But the obvious solution to those "Fucking useless cards" is to make alternate formats that actually make them worthwhile, but given how slow Wizards is with this beta (and testing things) I doubt we'll get a new format (beyond Drafting, which honestly: isn't a new format IMO. It's fucking used in every card game now a days) that tries to make non-Standard bait worthwhile.

Also I'm sad that no card game has copied the LCG model yet. I'd pay $20-40 yearly if I had the ability to build a deck I want to build from all the cards currently released instantly. No fucking joke. I get that would kill F2P models, but goddamn there's many other ways they could attempt to nickle and dime folks.

Edit: Also the way to solve the 4-of problem without Wildcards is to make the next 4-of you don't have available at the higher/lower rarity of the pack you complete and once you complete the pack, you can't buy anymore (and if you have extra, they're refunded into gold of at least the pack value or at least 80% of the pack value) of that pack. Move to the next one. The fact you can't trade just makes it dumb you can't complete the sets on your own terms as F2P without jacking over money for Wildcards or lucking out on the boosters.

[naff]

Pro tour is mostly trash anyway. Standard BDM, Rich, Maria, Riley and that other guy SCG coverage is far superior.

Cheon was great today. It would be a lot nicer if the other presenters could hold an interesting conversation about meta analysis, not just try to compensate with bad jokes and laughs.

Cool that Lim did well through the sea of midrange and aggro decks. The deck Lim is playing is clearly very good. A lil surprising esper decks for scarab god into teferi weren't more popular. Look forward to jamming some rb aggro into a bunch of control decks at our lgs (every time it does well at a PT there's a lot of netdeck control lists around my lgs, untuned for the jank shop meta and piloted by scrubs), might as well try collect a few more points this winter ahead of nationals 

[Joe Molotov]

I didn't even know Bogles was an archetype in this draft. 

[Transhuman]

Is $240Aud a good price for a NM Chinese Imperial Seal?

[Kara]

Pro tour is mostly trash anyway. Standard BDM, Rich, Maria, Riley and that other guy SCG coverage is far superior.

Cheon was great today. It would be a lot nicer if the other presenters could hold an interesting conversation about meta analysis, not just try to compensate with bad jokes and laughs.

Da youf love Riley but I find him to be an unbearable meme kid. When he commentates with Marshall the Struggle // Survive has never been more real.

Cedric and P-Sullivan are the best duo but they're in a unique situation of working together forever and P-Sullivan is prone to grouchy grouch rants that don't add very much to the experience. The rest of the SCG Tour crew is just dire though.

Paul and everyone on Play Design (except Melissa) are great at play-by-play. Having them in the Team Super Leagues has improved the experience so much.

[Raist]

I've got a spare key. First to PM is first to get it.

Gone.

[Human Snorenado]

Pro tour is mostly trash anyway. Standard BDM, Rich, Maria, Riley and that other guy SCG coverage is far superior.

Cheon was great today. It would be a lot nicer if the other presenters could hold an interesting conversation about meta analysis, not just try to compensate with bad jokes and laughs.

Da youf love Riley but I find him to be an unbearable meme kid. When he commentates with Marshall the Struggle // Survive has never been more real.

Cedric and P-Sullivan are the best duo but they're in a unique situation of working together forever and P-Sullivan is prone to grouchy grouch rants that don't add very much to the experience. The rest of the SCG Tour crew is just dire though.

Paul and everyone on Play Design (except Melissa) are great at play-by-play. Having them in the Team Super Leagues has improved the experience so much.

Co-sign everything said here. It's weird that Melissa isn't great on commentary considering I find her articles to be really good but I guess stage fright is still a thing. I'd say it's weird to me that so many "pro" magic players tend towards libertarianism (Chapin, Sulli, etc) but I've found that it's a thing in fields with lots of independent contractors.

[Kara]

She seems to think differently (like in a mechanical "this is how my brain parses information" sense) than everyone else does. Sometimes she goes from not contributing anything to giving a one-sided analysis at 400 words per minute that sucks all of the air out of the room.

[Kara]

Elias Watsfeldt locked up 2017-2018 Draft Master casting Invoke the Divine on one of his two (!!!) Icy Manipulators to secure a draw. This Pro Tour rules naff.

[Joe Molotov]

28 Goblin Chainwhirlers in the PT Top 8. Red's bout to catch the banhammer again.

Speaking of Red, I took Skred to the SCG Regional in Dallas today. 290 players, 9 rounds. I did well, 6-3. I think I could have done better, but a lack of sleep resulted in some really sloppy play (that's what I'm blaming it on). Still, I'm happy with my day, even though I didn't quite finish in the money (a win in Round 9 would have netted me $50  ).

#1: W vs Mardu Pyromancer
#2: L vs U/B Control
#3: W vs Jeskai Control
#4: W vs Humans
#5: L vs Jund
#6: W vs Bogles
#7: W vs Skred (the mirror!)
#8: W vs Living End
#9: L vs Grixis Death Shadow

Also I got to play Squee, the Immortal because it's Skred and you can play any card you want as long as it's Red.   

[Human Snorenado]

Good to see that the introduction of the play design team has curbed the dumber tendencies of R&D as intended

[Kara]

The modern era is so weird. Chainwhirler is a good not great card in a vacuum but it's more or less destroyed Type 2.

It rules that you had a Skred mirror in round 7, Joe.

[Kara]

The top 4 is all red-black aggro.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Why aren't you calling it Rakdos aggro, coverage team.

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

I got a bunch of Wild Cards from drafting over the weekend.



No regrets.

[Joe Molotov]

Chainwhirler too stronk, Tefiri abandons ship.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I still lost this match, somewhere around Turn 30, but the Tefiri was at 7 loyalty if you're wondering. Misplays, in my MTG Arena? Surely not.

[close]

[Transhuman]

Is arena any good? I played 2 constructed games, I just wanna draft, but buying crystals?

 

[thisismyusername]

So is this game any good? I keep seeing the thread get bumped, and some cool people post in it. Not trying to spend a bunch of money on anything though. Any way to try it out casually for free or almost free?

Duels of the Planeswalkers (any of the entries, Duels: Origins [the last one] is literally F2P, while the others are like $5-10) if digitaL, Duel Decks (which include the rules) if paper.

Arena when it comes out (since you need a code for it right now), but that's Standard bait currently and that's not good for Beginners.

Apprentice (http://www.apprentice.nu/)/Cockatrice (https://cockatrice.github.io/)/Forge (https://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge) work for free online play, but those have a bunch of pros, so probably not the best in regards to learning.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/316010/Magic_Duels/ <---Here's the 2015-2016 version that stopped mid-block, so it's OLD but lets you play the tutorial.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stainlessgames.D15 <---Here's 2015 that lets you play the first world for free but you have to pay-for to progress/unlock more shit. YMMV.

That said, the game is in a pretty bad place (IMO) currently for new players.

[Transhuman]

It's pretty okay but mtgo still better (and I don't even have mtgo)

[thisismyusername]

It's pretty okay but mtgo still better (and I don't even have mtgo)

MODO isn't new-player friendly. (Edit: Oh, you're talking about Arena.)

Jack: As an alternative to the above there's Eternal that is similar (literally nearly 1:1 with Magic just changed up keywords) for digital free-to-play if you want to explore that over those other options:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/531640/Eternal_Card_Game/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.direwolfdigital.Phoenix

[Transhuman]

So Standard is like you would play with your permanent collection, hence new people would get wrecked by people who actually have a collection with some good cards?

I saw mention of a draft format - that sounds newbie friendly, to the extent that a deep game can be.

Yep. Draft is fairly newbie friendly, but you still need a basic understanding of the game and why some cards are better than others, and general draft strategy.

The most newbie friendly format is sealed, where each player gets a random cardpool to make a deck from, which basically guarantees everyone is playing a pretty bad deck, and you can easily win games off luck alone.

[Kara]

Standard changes every 2 years. It's kind of like college football: a limited number of powerhouses dominate for a small period of time and then either move on to the pros (Modern) or a life of dismal prospects and the looming threat of CTE (EDH).

Draft is kind of analogous to fantasy football except you have no idea what players will be available to draft until you start playing. (You have a general idea what to expect but no absolute certainty.) You draft a set for a few months and then a new one comes out and you switch to drafting it instead.

Standard measures your ability to recognize patterns, claw extremely marginal gains from unclear situations, and read the winds (in our degenerate parlance this is called metagaming). Draft measures your grasp of the game at a nuts and bolts level, situational thinking, and design ability.

I hold both of those lists equal if it sounds like I favor one over the other. I was once a good Standard player and now I'm a perennially middling drafter.

As for learning the game I would recommend one of the Duels of the Planeswalkers games. They have single player modes where you can get your feet wet and learn how to play and tune decks without getting stomped by people who have played for 10+ years. Arena is a new product and still caters to people who already know how to play the game. Magic Online is Microsoft Excel with gambling.

[Kara]

Well it's an ancient piece of software that manages to reasonably implement an incredibly broad body of rules so probably the former, but that description was meant more to convey that it doesn't bother with UX and is meant for people who can get excited about data because it's divorced from the social aspect of the game (you have a chat room but it isn't used for anything other than "gl hf") and the aesthetic quality of the cards. (The cards still have the art but it feels like an impediment in Magic Online when it's very helpful when playing with physical cards.)

[Raist]

So Standard is like you would play with your permanent collection, hence new people would get wrecked by people who actually have a collection with some good cards?

I saw mention of a draft format - that sounds newbie friendly, to the extent that a deep game can be.

Yep. Draft is fairly newbie friendly, but you still need a basic understanding of the game and why some cards are better than others, and general draft strategy.

The most newbie friendly format is sealed, where each player gets a random cardpool to make a deck from, which basically guarantees everyone is playing a pretty bad deck, and you can easily win games off luck alone.

Huh, I don't think draft is particularly noob friendly. But at least you won't get trashed in 3 turns by bullshit decks (which is a huge problem on Arena).

[thisismyusername]

Draft is not newbie friendly. WTF. You need to understand the game and how it works before even DOING draft.