Author Topic: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread  (Read 1847 times)

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The Sceneman

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Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« on: March 09, 2021, 04:02:37 PM »
Thought we could use a Magic vidya topic here on the gaming side.

So I recently got back into Arena as I have decent work laptop that can run it now. Had some gems and stuff from the Beta, so I drafted about 8 times (got a couple 7 winners :freeze) and built up an ok collection of wildcards. The wheels fell off once I got to gold tier as I was facing better players. I don't wanna buy any gems right now, so I'm grinding Standard for gold.

I looked at some top tier decks but they are super rare/mythic heavy (of course), I drunkenly burned a ton of wildcards on Boros stuff. I like brewing so I'm trying to see how low to the ground I can go. I was inspired by seeing Clarion Spirit make a zillion tokens so I leaned into that for my 'Sligh' style 19-land pump spell deck. I took this bad-boy to Gold-tier, but now Im facing 'real' decks so I'm having a harder time of it. May need to take my Giant Killers out of the board and into the main to kill the big beasties.

Wheres the BO3 option though? BO1 is ass-cheeks and so dependent on play or draw.

Deck
4 Faerie Guidemother (ELD) 11
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
4 Rimrock Knight (ELD) 137
6 Snow-Covered Mountain (KHM) 282
4 Gingerbrute (ELD) 219
2 Fervent Champion (ELD) 124
7 Snow-Covered Plains (KHM) 277
4 Needleverge Pathway (ZNR) 263
3 Infuriate (THB) 141
4 Clarion Spirit (KHM) 6
3 Frost Bite (KHM) 138
3 Sentinel's Eyes (THB) 36
3 Escape Velocity (THB) 132
1 Basri Ket (M21) 7
4 Robber of the Rich (ELD) 138
2 Showdown of the Skalds (KHM) 229
2 Shatterskull Smashing (ZNR) 161

Sideboard
4 Redcap Melee (ELD) 135
4 Giant Killer (ELD) 14
1 Phoenix of Ash (THB) 148
4 Shredded Sails (IKO) 136
2 Karametra's Blessing (THB) 26
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Human Snorenado

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2021, 06:35:31 PM »
The problem with playing BO3 is that you're going to be playing far too much Magic. I play whatever dumb aggro option I can so I can just get to my 10 daily wins asap in BO1

:yeshrug
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naff

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2021, 06:43:51 PM »
there is a BO3 tournament option for draft and constructed. at least there was. look at all play modes or whatever.

i agree that BO1 fits Arena better in that you want as many matches a possible because of the way the games rewards are structured. tl;dr, arena is trash and is killing what made magic great, though also obviously the game is more popular than ever so what do i know. now that paper tournaments are dead i have basically stopped caring about the game and im in the process of getting rid of everything. fortunately edh/casual constructed is so popular all my cards continue to rise in value. weird shit.

i can see myself getting back into modo legacy/modern/pauper one day and i still dig casual cube and paper drafting with bros.
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naff

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2021, 06:48:59 PM »
the new era of magic is extremely dry and soulless to me. down with arena  :brain  :hmph
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2021, 08:35:44 PM »
The problem with playing BO3 is that you're going to be playing far too much Magic. I play whatever dumb aggro option I can so I can just get to my 10 daily wins asap in BO1

:yeshrug

And thats part of the problem with Arena lol. They needa take away daily win incentive
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2021, 08:36:22 PM »
the new era of magic is extremely dry and soulless to me. down with arena  :brain  :hmph

yeah magic is total anus lol
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naff

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #6 on: March 09, 2021, 09:38:03 PM »
The problem with playing BO3 is that you're going to be playing far too much Magic. I play whatever dumb aggro option I can so I can just get to my 10 daily wins asap in BO1

:yeshrug

And thats part of the problem with Arena lol. They needa take away daily win incentive

maybe? they could just make a bo3 win count as 2 games. imo they need to disproportionately reward playing "real" magic ie best of 3. bo1 should be for scrubs only
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Human Snorenado

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #7 on: March 09, 2021, 09:42:18 PM »
I've sunk maybe... $30 into it over about 2 years now? I dunno. I bought one $20 bundle of stuff that was a really good deal and I think maybe also spent $10-15 at another point.

It's not TERRIBLE but it also isn't like, super fun or anything. If I couldn't play during work I probably wouldn't bother, and once Embercleave rotates out of standard I'll probably stop playing.
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #8 on: March 09, 2021, 10:21:13 PM »
I may have purchased a $5 intro pack or something. I found BO3, managed to smoke some bozo. Basri Ket emblem is good
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archnemesis

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2021, 03:56:36 AM »
I really like Arena compared to other forms of Magic. It allows me to casually play the game without spending money on it.

There are a few things that I wish they would add (iOS version, F6 skip everything until next turn, BO3 for the ranked standard ladder), but overall it's a huge improvement over alternative ways of playing Magic online.

Human Snorenado

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2021, 11:43:04 AM »
Isn't "Traditional Standard Ranked" BO3 ranked tho?
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2021, 04:32:05 PM »
yeah it is (I managed to find it, theres a silly button you need to toggle to show standard tourneys and BO3 ranked for some reason. Why?!) and you do kinda get rewarded for playing it over BO1 I was gold tier3 with 0/6 pips on the progress bar, pretty sure I went striaght to tier 2 for winning a match (BO1 typically awards 2 pips)
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naff

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2021, 10:31:02 PM »
yeah, I remember playing a lot of it for a while there. idk, I just really loved paper tourneys, am gutted they're gone and feel a lil bitter about it :p
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archnemesis

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2021, 02:40:43 AM »
Isn't "Traditional Standard Ranked" BO3 ranked tho?
Thanks, I haven't played that! I assumed that was a paid event.

I typically avoid the 500 gold constructed events since the payout is poor. I don't care about random card rewards.

Joe Molotov

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #14 on: March 11, 2021, 09:44:43 AM »
I haven't been on Arena in months
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Human Snorenado

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #15 on: March 11, 2021, 02:04:05 PM »
Isn't "Traditional Standard Ranked" BO3 ranked tho?
Thanks, I haven't played that! I assumed that was a paid event.

I typically avoid the 500 gold constructed events since the payout is poor. I don't care about random card rewards.

Yeah events are a scam unless they're free to play. I spend gold on packs when a new set releases (usually 50-60 packs to give a good base of the set and get some rare wildcards) and on drafts if I like how a given set plays in limited (read: if aggro is viable so I can make my investment back easily and quickly)
yar

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #16 on: March 13, 2021, 07:28:50 PM »
Honestly after you've been playing for a while it gets insanely boring. Every draft seems to play out the same, no chat client, zzz. They managed to make playing against real people only marginally more interesting than playing against bots. My friend who has already put in $200 (that I know of), keeps telling me how he doesn't get anything out of playing, but it's "something to do".

The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #17 on: March 14, 2021, 10:59:43 PM »
so my piece of shit brew is up to platinum tier 3 and doesnt stop winning. Just played against someone on the stock Rogues list, who was casting their rogues with flash during their main phas, therefore defeating the purpose of their deck. Useless
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #18 on: March 15, 2021, 10:54:29 PM »
Idk I'm pretty into the grind at the moment, well its less of a grind as opposed to an ASS KICKING FEST. Got 5 consec bo3 wins at platinum so my brew is almost a contender for wotc to publish lol. No chat is good as I don't have to wipe my opponents salty little baby butts. Some idiot cheated out a turn 3 tibalt and I still won. Git gud
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naff

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #19 on: March 15, 2021, 11:09:12 PM »
post your brew
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #20 on: March 16, 2021, 07:19:20 PM »
Naturally becuase of my bragging the magic gods cursed my 6th match with terrible mulligans. Lost to white weenus which is my most feared matchup as I really have to go toe-to-toe with them on the board. Its certainly winnable though.

After that I was happy to tweak my deck as I was scared that will reset my streak. Anyhow I have a plan for white weenus now.

Here's "Big Poppa Pump" (still short one rare wildcard for 4th Fervent Champ):

Companion
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den (IKO) 226

Deck
3 Faerie Guidemother (ELD) 11
4 Fireblade Charger (ZNR) 139
3 Rimrock Knight (ELD) 137
7 Plains (XLN) 263
4 Gingerbrute (ELD) 219
3 Fervent Champion (ELD) 124
6 Mountain (XLN) 275
4 Needleverge Pathway (ZNR) 263
3 Infuriate (THB) 141
4 Clarion Spirit (KHM) 6
4 Sentinel's Eyes (THB) 36
2 Escape Velocity (THB) 132
4 Luminarch Aspirant (ZNR) 24
4 Robber of the Rich (ELD) 138
2 Shatterskull Smashing (ZNR) 161
3 Shock (M19) 156

Sideboard
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
3 Giant Killer (ELD) 14
1 Phoenix of Ash (THB) 148
4 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
2 Showdown of the Skalds (KHM) 229
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den (IKO) 226


The maindeck has 19 lands and plan is to smash hard. Clarion Spirit is the star here and what inspired me to build this, and also Tom "The Boss" Ross' deckbuilding style. Very easy to double spell with all the 1 drops and 1 mana adventures, and of course adventures have 2 spells on 1 card. Fireblade Charger is incredible in this deck combined with Luminarch Aspirant and the pump spells. eg. one game I had a 2/2 charger and opponent attacks with a 5/5 scooze and Questing Beast. I block scooze, cast infuriate on the Charger, gobbo takes out both attackers. 2 for 2 in terms of cards, but they spent 9 mana and I spent 2. All the flying spirits can get pumped FTW, and gingerbrutes evasion is amazing, won a game recently by making brute unblockable, and then loading it with a couple pump spells. Deck beats mono-red as its so much faster as they piss around w/ 3-4 drops. Ofc this deck eats ramp for breakfast.

The single worst thing about this deck is the mana is total ass crack. I'm hoping Strixhaven has a good boros dual land which comes into play untapped.

One thing I've noticed about Arena players is a lot are terrible at knowing who the beatdown is in a certain matchup. So many opponents are sending attackers in on autopilot without any thought of crackback math. Especially red players. Seen people throw games they could've won just becuase they made shit attacks. Magic 101 mang, learn how to adjust your posture
« Last Edit: March 16, 2021, 07:31:02 PM by The Sceneman »
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Joe Molotov

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #21 on: March 23, 2021, 10:13:07 AM »


The new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogstrixwarthaven.
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #22 on: March 24, 2021, 04:53:25 PM »
defo want a copy of this for my Tinybones EDH deck
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Joe Molotov

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #23 on: March 31, 2021, 11:48:49 AM »


Original Deck idea, do not steal!!!
37x Dragon's Approach
1x Velomachus Lorehold
22x Mountains

Turn 6 kill in Standard. :rejoice
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Raist

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #24 on: March 31, 2021, 12:54:24 PM »
So basically 3 turns too late.

Joe Molotov

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #25 on: March 31, 2021, 03:57:24 PM »
It's called midrange, sweetheart. Look it up.
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Human Snorenado

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #26 on: March 31, 2021, 05:11:15 PM »
yeah but then you'd be playing magic for more than 4-5 turns  :'(
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The Sceneman

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Re: Magic: the Gathering - Arena thread
« Reply #27 on: March 31, 2021, 05:24:55 PM »
lol Ive been getting turn 4 scoops quite consistently. My deck is a beast with 2:1 winrate on diamond, but I havent bothered grinding to mythic. Maybe I'll get there in April
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