Magic Arena OO talk

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:00 pm

Any Overlords playing Magic the Gathering - Arena beta ?

I'm Pyperkub there.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 6:28 pm

I know at least 1 OO'er who is playing it, but I'll leave it to him to speak up.

I have a browser tab open to the website. Haven't taken the plunge yet but I might. I'll read along in this thread if you get any takers. I assume you will.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 6:55 pm

I've been playing a lot of it - it's a lot of fun and I find that you can easily play without spending much - I bought the $5 intro pack and that's it.

I think the rewards you can earn by doing the daily quests are generous and I like that they only require playing a certain number of cards rather than winning games.

I've put together a pretty good Saproling deck based on the premade deck they give you. I win about 2/3 of the time and it's a lot of fun to play

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:17 pm

Pretty sure I'm the guy Greengoo is referring to.

I've been playing for a couple of months and have unlocked (I think) all of the decks.

As has been mentioned above, the quests are easy to complete (they don't all require winning) and they will give you at least 10 pre-made decks (you have to unlock several of them, but it's not hard) and then you can do with those what you wish, including deleting the deck and using the cards to make whatever you want.

The rules are well implemented this time around and IMO it's much more user friendly than that old beast Mtg: Online.

You can draft and play constructed for 'fun' and also ranked play.

Any time you draft the cards go into your collection so you could easily rare draft if you wanted.

Finally, you are given a few wild cards of each rarity that you can use to make whatever you want, and you unlock more as you play. It is entirely possible to build a very competitive deck without spending much money at all, in fact you can play forever without ever paying a dime---some of the quests will award the odd booster pack so your collection is always growing.

It is still in beta so there isn't a friends list yet, however, last week they did just add direct play functionality and it is entirely possible to play with friends without much difficulty, especially with the availability of the OO discord server .

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:21 pm

Installing now...I am a sucker for CCG and particularly Magic.

Funny story...my niece and her husband from Korea visited my wife and I last month, and while we were helping them put away their luggage in the closet my nephew-in-law saw some binders I have of old magic sets. He about lost it, telling me how he loved to play when he was younger (probably around 14 yrs old). I showed him the boxes and boxes of cards I still have and he spent many evenings at my dining room table combing through them. We even played a couple evenings. I guess not really a "funny" story.

Stuie · Post by **Stuie** » Mon Nov 26, 2018 12:03 am

MTGA has been eating up a ton of my time. Cheapish Magic drafting? Hell yeah! No smelly card shop? BONUS.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Nov 29, 2018 11:28 pm

I'm your huckleberry. Downloading now. The model for pricing isn't clear from the page nor is what happens when they move out of beta, I'm guessing all will be revealed by the download.

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 2:59 pm

If you hangout in the Discord channel and want to play just drop a line in chat and if I’m on and available I’ll be happy to oblige.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:14 pm

Stuie wrote: Mon Nov 26, 2018 12:03 am MTGA has been eating up a ton of my time. Cheapish Magic drafting? Hell yeah! No smelly card shop? BONUS.

In fairness to the shop, it's the nerdy MTG peeps that create the smell.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:18 pm

I took the plunge last night and spend a few hours I shouldn't have playing constructed decks. I'm not sure where it goes from there or what happens if I edit them or why I have cards I haven't revealed yet. I'll give it more of a run tonight, I'm sure. It looks like there is quite a bit of "constructed level" incentive to play every day. We'll see how that works out. I don't need to get on another Marvel match 3 tread mill in the form of a long long dormant MtG addiction. (I quit playing before The Dark was released)

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:43 pm

LordMortis wrote: Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:18 pm (I quit playing before The Dark was released)

I started playing after The Dark had sold through. You were the wise one.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 4:19 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:43 pm
LordMortis wrote: Fri Nov 30, 2018 3:18 pm (I quit playing before The Dark was released)
I started playing after The Dark had sold through. You were the wise one.

I consigned chaosraven to sell my entire set for the about $1000 I put in to the game. I got $30 a piece for something like four or five black lotus. There was no difference in price between Alpha/beta and unlimited. I got $5 a piece for more than 30 moxes. He couldn't get people pay more than buck for 100+ dual lands. He sold one set of Arabian Nights for $50. He couldn't get rid of the 2nd or 3rd set. He did manage to get my $1000 back and keep a few thousand cards but the value took off several months later. I don't remember when. Sometime after Antiquities, maybe well, well after antiquities, where the $30 Lotuses jumped to $150 and then $300 Lotuses. I quit paying attention to my my wisdom at that point. CR still like to rub in the fact that was hoarding alpha beta boxes figuring "all I gotta do is hold on to these $80 boxes for a year and I bet they'll double in price" only to sell them off at face value to friends within a few days with caveat they they open the pack in front of me that they give me any card I didn't have (a total of five when I broke down. I never did get an alpha beta thought lace.) Besides. If I had all these cards in opened pack and boxes, who would I play with?

Wisdom. Not my strong suit. I'd like to say I have the whole learn from my mistakes thing figured out after nearly 50 years, but I don't. I'm still as impatient and impetuous with my blinders up as I ever was. My closest proximity to wisdom is having learned to recognize I dig the bride from under my own feet, even as I hold the shovel in hand. Wisdom will one day be when I learn never to pick the shovel up or at the very least learning to deceive my self that falling is flying.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Nov 30, 2018 11:55 pm

Redfive wrote: Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:17 pm As has been mentioned above, the quests are easy to complete (they don't all require winning) and they will give you at least 10 pre-made decks (you have to unlock several of them, but it's not hard) and then you can do with those what you wish, including deleting the deck and using the cards to make whatever you want.

Looks like you can pretty get far with the premade decks alone.

http://magicarena.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Decks

it looks like one of each basic color and one of each two color combo... So that means I'm likely to collect about 9 more decks before I start thinking about really customizing my decks or spending my wildcards on ideas. I dig the wild card concept but it looks like players are generally unhappy after about 2 seconds of my trying to learn more about the UI from reading.

I'm sure I'll give them the five dollars because I'll have my $5 in fun this weekend alone. But I'll wait to spend my crystal forever and maybe even my gold, always feeling like we'll see what this next thing gets me before I move on.

And I'm not sure how far I'd need to get to feel comfortable doing a draft or constructed pay to play tourney.

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:51 am

I did a draft after probably 5-6 hours of play. That’s pretty meaningless I guess except to say that in that time I began to get a familiarity with the latest mechanics and the card pool overall.

I drafted what I thought was an ok G/W deck with some removal and some lifelink synergies. I wound up going 7-1 with it and got the max reward.

All I have spent so far is the $5 welcome to the game pack.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:59 am

Redfive wrote: Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:51 am All I have spent so far is the $5 welcome to the game pack.

Same, and I usually don't feel like I"m at a huge disadvantage to those who spend money. I mostly just play games against random opponents - I'm sure I'd get stomped in the constructed events but I don't want to spend the currency to play those anyway.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat Dec 01, 2018 12:27 pm

Damn. I have my plate pretty full and I'm already not getting enough time with everything.

Also, even though I have a thousand (maybe more, maybe less. Don't remember) physical cards and have played multiple planeswalkers games solo, I'm a bit intimidated about figuring things out and entering multiplayer.

Red has made some progress alleviating that, but I'm not there yet. In any case, I'm reading along with interest.

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:44 pm

There’s almost zero commitment other than your time, which is probably the biggest factor, I get it.

Find me in Discord and I’ll talk you into it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:05 pm

Redfive wrote: Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:44 pm There’s almost zero commitment other than your time, which is probably the biggest factor, I get it.

And the time commitment and conquering the learning curve (I realize it's probably not more than a speed bump, given that I am already familiar with the material) is what I'm referring to.

Sometimes just the thought of taking on something new is tiring. The old and familiar are safe with no effort required.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sat Dec 01, 2018 10:05 pm

Redfive wrote: Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:51 am I did a draft after probably 5-6 hours of play. That’s pretty meaningless I guess except to say that in that time I began to get a familiarity with the latest mechanics and the card pool overall.

I drafted what I thought was an ok G/W deck with some removal and some lifelink synergies. I wound up going 7-1 with it and got the max reward.

All I have spent so far is the $5 welcome to the game pack.

Ploughed through my $5 in drafts. Didn't rare hunt. Didn't do well either. I enjoyed myself. I got my $5 worth but I'm not likely to pay $20 for the same non 4x experience. Still, I'll be they'll do sales and when they do I'm likely to bite. After a single day's experience I found drafting to be more fun (something I never did with the real game in the way back machine)

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Sun Dec 02, 2018 1:11 pm

Have not played Magic in years and years. This thread will probably change that.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Dec 02, 2018 5:16 pm

Got the B&W unlock. Used it's backbone to build a Vampire Deck Life steal deck that was very successful at my bronze level. Won the daily 15 games of small free stuff too quickly... I suppose that's you end up spending more than $5.

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Sun Dec 02, 2018 7:59 pm

If you are talking about the deck called Eternal Thirst I agree. It’s pretty good just as you get it without modifications.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Dec 03, 2018 11:05 am

Redfive wrote: Sun Dec 02, 2018 7:59 pm If you are talking about the deck called Eternal Thirst I agree. It’s pretty good just as you get it without modifications.

That is the one. I already had some good card to throw in and then I wrecked my wilds making it better, otherwise I was going nowhere on the daily play to win 15 times or 3 day challenges. The basic 5 didn't do anything coming out of the beginner tier. RedBlack and GreenWhite did not prove to be much better. My cards were suited to build a GreenRed speed deck... but not suited enough. Maybe they'll be better when I unlock the RedGreen deck.

But again, my fun hasn't so much been with the constructed ladder but with the drafts that I don't want to pay for. So, I'll experiment with building constructed decks to hoard gold so I can play the drafts mostly free, rather than using gold to buy packs. The constructed ladder and tooling decks from volume of cards you quickly build up out the gate isn't unfun, so it's not grind,, but drafting (poorly) is what has drawn me in. Again, when sales happen, If their really good, I'll bite to play more drafts.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:30 pm

I tried it during closed beta but couldn't get into it. However, I gave it another go once open beta hit and I've been playing it heavily ever since.

I don't think the economy's "bad" (other than the fifth card problem), it's just not nearly generous as Eternal (and Gwent, I've heard). If your game mode of choice is draft, it can really be frustrating as a F2P player compared to something like Hearthstone, where if you're halfway decent at Arena you can play it almost constantly if you factor in daily quest rewards. Now of course, in MTGA's draft you get to keep the cards--not so in Hearthstone's phantom Arena drafts. But in my case, I just find the game mode so much more fun than constructed (especially as a F2Per with limited cards), and you can really only afford 1-2 drafts per week off gold gains. Now that I've started to get decent at drafting it's a bit of a different story, but I'll still have bad drafts where I bomb out at 0-2 wins and make hardly any gems.

The rest of my time is spent grinding with the same few budget decks, and it gets exhausting. I've spent the most time playing variations of mono green, budget Dimir surveil, mono red aggro, and Boros mentor. I've upgraded the decks slowly along the way, but sometimes I'll just hit stretches of losses against better decks and I'm surprised it hasn't made me throw in the towel.

Even though I've started to build up my collection, I'm not the kind of guy who enjoys building decks from scratch in constructed. I prefer to make small alterations to meta netdecks. But the standard meta decks tend to require Ixalan cards, and those haven't rotated into draft, so I've struggled to acquire them. The only other way I have to get the cards is to buy packs (bad value), or craft (takes forever as F2P).

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:39 pm

GreenGoo wrote: Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:05 pm
Redfive wrote: Sat Dec 01, 2018 1:44 pm There’s almost zero commitment other than your time, which is probably the biggest factor, I get it.
And the time commitment and conquering the learning curve (I realize it's probably not more than a speed bump, given that I am already familiar with the material) is what I'm referring to.

I think that's why I couldn't get into the game in closed beta. Learning an MTG set (or sets) is a lot more daunting than Hearthstone (lol) or something. Especially as I never played paper, and one of my few previous experiences with the game was a halfhearted stab at Duels of the Planeswalkers and one of the old yearly editions. But I'm glad I finally made the effort. The added complexity has made me finally give up Hearthstone after that being my daily go-to game ever since beta. Though I was mostly doing Eternal for several months earlier in the year, and its friendly economy has frequently had me considering dropping MTGA for it. Then there's Hex, but that seems like an extra-bad choice for a F2P player.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:41 pm

Isn't Artifact the new Valve CCG? Any word on it? Separate thread maybe?

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:47 pm

Check out MTArena Pro if you haven't already. I lament that mine recently broke without my realizing it, causing some of my best drafts not to get tracked.

I was shocked to go 7-0 in draft with the lifegain deck the other day. I really underestimate the synergies sometimes. And I forget that the 20-point life total is a lot easier to hit than, say, Hearthstone's 30 is. Some of those games ran long, slowly whittling away at the opponent's life total with Epicure of Blood.

GreenGoo wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:41 pm Isn't Artifact the new Valve CCG? Any word on it? Separate thread maybe?

I ain't paying $26.99 CAD to find out if I like it or can tolerate its economy.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:46 pm

Sudy wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:47 pm Check out MTArena Pro if you haven't already. I lament that mine recently broke without my realizing it, causing some of my best drafts not to get tracked.

I'll second this - I love all the tracking but it breaks easily. I've learned to check before playing MTGA and verify that my installed version of MTArena Pro matches the current version - if they update the old version stops working.

I've spend a lot of time playing my Saproling Deck

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 12:51 am

GreenGoo wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:41 pm Isn't Artifact the new Valve CCG? Any word on it? Separate thread maybe?

I like it but I'm not going to invest in it until there's an iOS app for my IPad. The thing is it's a much longer game than either MtG Arena or Hearthstone. If I were going to play it regularly I'd assume 20-30 minutes for a game. At first I wasn't too happy about the monetization for it but I'm coming around to really appreciating the fact I can at least sell the cards I don't want, and buy the ones I do.

I'm terrible at drafting so I don't know if the free draft is for me but I'm looking forward to constructed.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:11 am

Sudy wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:47 pm Check out MTArena Pro if you haven't already. I lament that mine recently broke without my realizing it, causing some of my best drafts not to get tracked.

Gave it a looksee without downloading last night. How does it work? I get nervous about something being intrusive to my network.

Exodor wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:46 pm I've spend a lot of time playing my Saproling Deck

My vampire elf deck spends a lot of time eating saporlings. Only I'm still in the bronze tier 4, occasionally jumping up to tier 3 and then getting knocke back down, so that's not saying much.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:16 am

LordMortis wrote: Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:11 am
Sudy wrote: Thu Dec 06, 2018 10:47 pm Check out MTArena Pro if you haven't already. I lament that mine recently broke without my realizing it, causing some of my best drafts not to get tracked.

Gave it a looksee without downloading last night. How does it work? I get nervous about something being intrusive to my network.

Best I can tell MTG Arena writes a log of each in-game action (Games, packs bought, cards won, etc). MTG Arena Pro runs on your PC and syncs that with a database on their side so you can track it on their site. It doesn't ask for your MTG account information - when you create an account on MTG Arena Pro they give you a unique token number that you enter in the MTG Arena Pro client and it uses that to identify your account.

When it works it's great. It was really finicky a few weeks ago but seems a lot more stable now.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:03 pm

So, I've finally been playing a bit more - Pyperkub#47432

Mostly just playing the starter single color decks (though I did spring for the $4.99 starter gold/gems/cards), not sure how much I like the deck construction yet (could be that I'm playing on a Surface Pro tablet - may need to install and fire it up on the desktop with the 26" monitor). I've been able to win a few matches with them, and I did update one with a couple of artifacts I got thus far. They're pretty good for the quests I've gotten (cast x black or white spells, etc). I'll usually look at the quests and figure out which single color deck hits the most quests.

I did have to uninstall, nuke directories and re-install. this could be because I didn't finish all 5 tutorial matches to unlock the store, etc, or it could be that it allowed me to create a password at install which didn't meet the online password complexity rules. Not sure.

I also redeemed the GameAwards and PlayRavnica codes (think they may be case-sensitive) for some extra cards.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:51 pm

Pyperkub wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:03 pm I also redeemed the GameAwards and PlayRavnica codes (think they may be case-sensitive) for some extra cards.

Do you have extras

My most successful deck to date is a green black zombie/skele/deathtouch/regen deck. I used some wilds to fill out my dying critters deal one damage to oppoent elves and spend some time retoolling it to get faster. It still fails against the merfolk deck. Nothing in my library can stand up to someone who wilded or drew or bought the cards to make a good Merfolk deck. Still I play constructed to rebuild my understanding and collect enough gold to play in the draft, which I enjoy but wholly suck at.

I'd say my most fun deck is my "every pirate I own and nothing else" in a Blue/Red/Black deck but the truth is I don't actually understand my deck so to play it I need to take my time and I hate slow the pace of the game down, much like I hate when the other player seems to take forever for even the simplest decisions, like there is money on the line and we're doing 200 level college math.

When you play through six rounds of New Player quests or whatever they're called you get a pretty good stable of cards but that stable is nothing compared average competition even on the lowest (Bronze 4?)

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:53 pm

LordMortis wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:51 pm
Pyperkub wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:03 pm I also redeemed the GameAwards and PlayRavnica codes (think they may be case-sensitive) for some extra cards.
Do you have extras

My most successful deck to date is a green black zombie/skele/deathtouch/regen deck. I used some wilds to fill out my dying critters deal one damage to oppoent elves and spend some time retoolling it to get faster. It still fails against the merfolk deck. Nothing in my library can stand up to someone who wilded or drew or bought the cards to make a good Merfolk deck. Still I play constructed to rebuild my understanding and collect enough gold to play in the draft, which I enjoy but wholly suck at.

I'd say my most fun deck is my "every pirate I own and nothing else" in a Blue/Red/Black deck but the truth is I don't actually understand my deck so to play it I need to take my time and I hate slow the pace of the game down, much like I hate when the other player seems to take forever for even the simplest decisions, like there is money on the line and we're doing 200 level college math.

When you play through six rounds of New Player quests or whatever they're called you get a pretty good stable of cards but that stable is nothing compared average competition even on the lowest (Bronze 4?)

Those are the codes

No spaces, capitalized...

GameAwards
PlayRavnica (make sure this is spelled correctly, I typed from memory).

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:59 pm

Ty!

Will try when I get home.

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:08 am

Thanks for the codes. It's always fun opening packs.

Then I played a round to do the quest and get a new deck. Ran into some guy's optimized deck that crushed my standard single color deck. Great matchmaking. /sigh

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Dec 13, 2018 8:15 am

Baroquen wrote: Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:08 amRan into some guy's optimized deck that crushed my standard single color deck. Great matchmaking. /sigh

I picked this up last night since I had a "free" code to replicate the deck I recently bought inside the game and was curious. Rackminster#98371

It's MTG, alright. A game that's best played with heavy cash investment.

I'm playing free (well, free as in I buy decks in real life and redeem codes on them to duplicate them), though, and still find it enjoyable - I don't get too wrapped up in wins or losses and just play. I racked up a few wins, and an almost equal number of losses. I understand how to build a deck, but don't have a good feel for my cards yet. I've set aside the stock decks in my list and named them "Stock" so I can "restore" a deck if I need to.

My best luck has been with a modified White deck - Lifelink/Draw Card When Gain Life with generally low cost cards. My soundest drubbing was against a black & blue custom deck that just shut me down and ripped me apart. I've had a couple rounds where I thought I was dead, but a lucky draw turned the tables and I won. I've also had a few people simply quit on me in Round 1.

Lucked out with a Booster pack and picked up a White Planeswalker who's +1 ability is to put +1/+1 counters on two creatures.

The Vraska, Regal Gorgon deck I imported from reality is a pile of ass against even the basic decks in this game. It takes too much luck to draw the right cards to become actually effective and/or takes too long to get rolling. It's okay, though, when playing at a table with my sister and eldest kid.

I'll have to tap in those codes listed above, too. Thanks!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Dec 13, 2018 10:04 am

1) Thank you for the codes. They worked as advertised.

2) I do have to wonder about the matchmaking as well. I still sit at bronze tier 4 and I end up fighting all over the bronze tier and spectrum and occasionally fight the next level up and get more than a few of the new players in training to fight. I don't get why I get so many fights against bronze tiers two or three levels above me, all of which seem to be playing the exact same merfolk deck.

3) I did have some success against said deck with the slow accumulation of haste and mentor red/white goblins, it can sometimes overwhelm that cloned by every one above me deck.

4) I'm finding I'm not great at interaction here. I guess I forget what it's like to be around people and I get impatient. If someone makes me wait 30 seconds a pop again and again to play lands and then a spell and not react with an instant when I play a land while I slowly come to the realization that this is another merfolk clone I can't beat I sometimes don't concede. I sometimes open another tab and start reading stuff on the Internet and force them to win by timeout. I don't like being a griefer and yet I find myself doing it form the combo of sore losing and being impatient. If that trait starts become a thing with me, I'll end up walking away. That's a passive aggressive ugliness in me that doesn't need to be proded and exposed. If you're a new player, I get it. If you have played and won enough to sit about the lowest bronze tier, I just don't have the patience for it. I'm old and antisocial.

5) I still don't have a planeswalker in my possession. I spend my wilds on my white/black vampire deck that was very strong out the gate... but is way too slow for the merfolk deck and got put away for the time being. I'd think about playing the three round matches but if I'm matchmaking so high above me already, I can only imagine the three round matches would be an exercise in frustration.

... Looking forward to my drafts over the weekend. It seems like like just playing enough to collect your daily quest is about enough to gold to get you in one draft a week. So I poorly explore my constructed decks and then really enjoy sucking at the draft.

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:12 am

What do you have in the way of creature removal?

The merfolk deck seems to rely and win on the unblockable creatures so to me the answer would be Murder or the other card from one of the previous sets that kill any non legendary creature--sorry I'm forgetting the name.

I have what I think is a pretty solid G/W deck that does a lot with life link. I went toe to toe with Merfolk last night where he received probably the best draw he could possibly get as he was dropping unblockable creatures on turns 1, 2 and 3. I was able to respond with cheap lifelink critters. There was no defense as I couldn't block his and he was using all of his to attack so we were just trading shots. He wound up winning the turn before I would have killed him on my next go.

I have no removal in my deck and sometime it shows in a bad way.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:44 am

There aren't enough Murders in the game to deal with rampaging Merfolk.

I think the best run I had against one was a Green landspawn (Elves for +Forests) Deck with a few big creatures mixed in. I had 6 mana before he had 4, and I was able to start fielding 5/5's and 6/4's before he could get enough Merfolk up to kill me.

I'm currently tinkering with a white/black deck that I've invested some of my Wildcards into. The key cards in the deck are:

Spoiler:

If I can get a few of those in my hands, I think I can roll with it. My one test run went up against a custom green/black deck and by the end I had a 17/17 Ajani's Pridemate (my kingdom for some Trample) who'd been out since turn 2 and I was at 35 health. I was being as agressive as I could be without being wasteful, but he was continually spawning Saprolings to absorb my attacks. It could use more Murder (I only have 2 in there), or some other way to directly damage a creature.