Magic Arena OO talk

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:28 pm

So ... the game client is updating, and it's telling me I'll be required to reboot the computer after patching?

WTF? This isn't an OS-level service pack. It's a freaking online card game. I can't remember a time when a game update told me to reboot.

*Edit: Seems to be fine without rebooting.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:55 pm

Still installing. Update is for the new set 273 new cards!

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:20 am

Don't forget the Redeem code "PlayAllegiance" to get 3 free boosters of the new set.

So since I started using Gaea's Blessing and tinkering with Green creature decks, care to wager how many Corrosion decks I've faced after running up against half a dozen in one evening? Zero. Not a single one. I've faced up against numerous Counter Spell, Counter Creature, Merfolk, and Red blitz decks, though.

The card has its uses, though, and the longer I use it, the more I like it. Popping three cards from the graveyard back into my deck is nice. Drawing 1 card for 2 mana by itself is nice. Just once I want to have a Corrosion deck burn through my deck at 12 cards per turn and see that thrown into the pit, then reshuffle my deck completely back into place. I want to have him just quit on the spot since his whole premise is to burn me down in cards, not health.

The best game of the night was against a blue/white "Copy & Steal deck" - he had numerous cards to steal my creatures or copy his own. My deck is built around quick spawns that build momentum with a sprinkling of heavy hitters for good measure. Did you know that Hexproof creatures can still be hostilely enchanted? Yup. My Hexproof Legendary Rare dino became his. We played back and forth for a long time. He spawned, I spawned. He dropped a Helm, I dropped a Helm (after destroying his). I cloned "Draw a card when a creature enters the battlefield" and he swapped my original to his side and gave me one of his Drakes. I started cloning the Drake to thwart his Bird cloning. In the end he launched everything at me (we each had like 15 creatures). I killed his biggest stuff, and he slaughtered a lot of mine - and because I had a +1 health when a creature dies Enchantment out, even though he cut me down to 5 health from 25, I went right back to 20. The finishing move was using a Sylvan Awakening to animate all my lands into 2/2 creatures and launching everything at him.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:59 am

Last night most of the Magic part of the evening was spent playing against people who either saved a lot of their gem/gold storage and wilds or spent a bit of money as I was playing against decks stacked in multiple rare and uncommons form the new set.

Saw some new cool blue white that capitalized of flash play, something I've toyed with in the past but didn't like and some poorly executed spirit decks. I'll probably study the Spirit creatures and tokens added this weekend as I wanted to build a spirit deck before but there were too few options and even fewer options in my collection.

On first glance there is a lot +1/+1 token stuff going on. I only imagine that's going to make the green explore decks all the more powerful and common. Again, I simply don't have collection support a good explore deck.

I'll have 10,000 gold and start with 600 gems to get through the weekend. That'll get me in to three drafts, wherein I will get my ass kicked but I'll also learn a lot and pick up 12 boosters worth of cards. I debated saving gold for more drafts for the new set when it arrived but the reality is the drafts are still what I like even if I suck horribly at them.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Jan 18, 2019 10:09 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:59 amLast night most of the Magic part of the evening was spent playing against people who either saved a lot of their gem/gold storage and wilds or spent a bit of money as I was playing against decks stacked in multiple rare and uncommons form the new set.

I played against a brand new Black/Red "Carnival of Chaos" deck that had some really cool artwork. I'm guessing they didn't save Gems, though, and instead bought the deck in a store and redeemed the code in the box for a copy of the deck online (this is a thing); it was clearly a complete theme. I didn't exactly wipe the floor with him, but he couldn't get the momentum he needed to beat me. I had the same issue with a deck I purchased a while back and redeemed in the Arena; it couldn't compete, even against the stock decks they provided.

Speaking of which - the stock decks remain, still, some of the most effective.

My personal preference is the Blue/Black Pirate deck, but the Red/Blue is potent, and I'm constantly squaring off against Blue/Green Merfolk with a 40% chance to beat them.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:22 am

I think I'm ready to get a 3rd party deck management tool. I want to be able to see my collection at a glance, ideally while I'm doing other things (such as concurrent with drafting when I might want to hunt cards in addition to building a deck). Which tool are people settling on? It seems MTGA Pro and ATGA Tool are the two google points to and the two mentioned in this thread. I'm a little leery of a asking an to phone home to work. And to be honest I have work laptop I sometimes play on and I won't be installing this sort of ap on that, which means even if it wanted to, it can't track all of my activity, so it has to be smart enough to understand that.

I think I'm going to go with Tool but by all means someone educate me if I'm going the wrong way.

Edit:

Happy. Tool is exactly what I want!!!

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 7:56 am

I spent hours trying different decks out with variants on existing themes, and thus spent hours getting my ass handed to me with a very close to 100% loss ratio. I tried - hard - to be interesting or unique. It was disappointing and disastrous.

The next day I logged in, my daily challenge was "Cast 20 Blue or Green Spells" so I reluctantly pulled out my Merfolk deck. Before using it, though, I Cloned it and updated it with copies of new Merfolk I had acquired along the way, and stuffed in some useful artifacts, while stripping out some of the less useful cards. The glory of Merfolk is that I don't need any one or two or three of the cards for it to flow and win. I just need to draw hard and fast, which it accomplishes. By stuffing a pair of Gaea's Blessings in there, I guarantee I can recycle my "best" individuals that I only have one copy of after they get smashed. I even dropped in 4 Fountains, because the -one- thing the deck lacks is healing, so 1 point of healing each turn can be the difference between life and death. Yes, it's a 64 card deck. They're so cheap I consider them freebies.

The result was staggering. I played something like 15 matches and lost 2 - and of those 2 losses, one was my fault for miscalculating and getting carried away with "Tap 3 Merfolk to Draw a Card" and leaving myself open. I did so well that I accidentally plowed through my 15 wins for the week to get 3 free packs.

I don't like playing a Dick Deck, but if I can't win with a Fun Deck, what choice do I have?

Fun Fact: I had been playing decks with 2 Gaea's Blessings in them to hose anyone with Corrosion as a theme, because I hate them so much. Any game where I have a Gaea's Blessing in my deck, I do not encounter Corrosion. Only after I pulled a different stock deck without Gaea's Blessing did I run into a Corrosion Deck, and yes - he killed me by dwindling my deck to 0. I go back to Merfolk with Gaea's Blessing in it, and I get NO CORROSION as an enemy. I have not once encountered Corrosion when I'm prepared to deal with it.

This seems to reinforce the feeling that the game is deliberately picking people (or AI opponents; I'm still not sold that everyone I'm up against is human) that can destroy me - and goes out of its way to pit me against something I can easily defeat.

I'd be very curious if others experience a similar theme. Play Green for a while and drop a couple Gaea's Blessings into your deck. Let us know if you bump into a Corrosion deck.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:43 am

I don't think of the Merfolk deck as a dick deck. I hated it when I first started playing because that's all they matched me against. And there was a certain sense of accomplishment arriving at a vampire and red white token deck that beat it regularly.

What I hate are slow decision makers and they seem to attracted to... Merfolk and blue/red and blue/black decks and now you can add the white/blue/green core deck of denial boredom to that list, where if you don't take them out in the first four to five turns through their counterspells, they will stop you with settle the wreckage and the green no damage dealt spell until they take infinite turns and kill you with some trivial means or slow milling you because their infinite turn card shuffles back in to the deck. Losing to that deck. Meh. Losing to someone who has to decide how to play that deck? I'm not conceding. I'm going to do my laundry and make dinner and clean up around the house and surf the Internet. Ironically you're forcing me to productive for a half an hour of my down time while you go through the motions of beating me.

Right now the frustrating thing for me is going up against all new decks and me not understanding the mechanics. There are some amazing red speed decks now that were not possible before and I don't even know whats going on when I play them. It's also crazy how many decks are stocked with all the new cards. I dunno if people were hoarding gold/gems/wilds or if this is much bigger money maker than I would have thought.

And again I was really happy with downloading the Magic Tool posted here. I had enough gold to and gems to run 3 M19 drafts, which won me enough gems to run a 4th. Between those four drafts and the snowstorm that allowed me the leisure to play them, I almost completely filled out my M19 common sets of 4 using that tool to help me make my choices.

I don't see a lot of corrosion decks and when I do, I generally don't have a problem but I mostly play a speed red/white deck, that usually will kill a Corrosion deck in 4 turns. Five or six if they have counterspells to slow me down. No critters and no direct damage to kill my critters usually ends up

Typical draw where I don't draw 3- mana or 8+ mana in four turns or I don't screwed with a single color (I try to make most decks 42% lands due to their Arena's draw twice and take the most average land draw rule). My single biggest vulnerability is mana draw problems. Under/Over mana or only drawing a single color. I am going to mitigate against single color draws by using rare wilds to purchase lands as I get them, I think. I am up three of the rare red/white lands that come in tapped if I don't have plains or mountain. I have none of the red/while lands that count as both plains and forest and either come in tapped or deal you two damage. Those are likely my next five red wild purchases... Only I really really want the red elemental that collects a red mana for every red spell cast.

anyhoo, if I don't get mana screwed odds are this is what happens with a corrosion deck:

nothing turn one
2 damage turn two
between 4 and 13 damage turn 3
14 damage or more on turn 4 is not uncommon either with Heroic Reinforcements (2 1/1 white soldiers, all creatures have haste and +1/+1 for the turn) or an assortment of instants that bump what should be between 7 on the low end and 9 on the high end wimpy critters.

Counterspells slow me down but then they also slow the corrosivenesitude down as well.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:46 am

Anyone mind re-posting the link to the tool? The thread has gotten to be pretty long

.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:10 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:43 amRight now the frustrating thing for me is going up against all new decks and me not understanding the mechanics. There are some amazing red speed decks now that were not possible before and I don't even know whats going on when I play them. It's also crazy how many decks are stocked with all the new cards. I dunno if people were hoarding gold/gems/wilds or if this is much bigger money maker than I would have thought.

Don't forget that as they release decks and boosters now in physical stores, they're coming with codes to duplicate your cards in Arena. So avid players in reality can get their same fix in cyberspace.

I'm still not convinced that I'm facing humans all the time anyway - nor am I amused with how matchmaking seems to consistently pit me against decks designed to defeat mine.

If I play Merfolk, I see a high incidence of Red "quick damage" decks. If I play White/Black Vampires, I see a lot of Blue/Black Surveil/Destroy. When I play Green/Red Dinosaurs, I go up against a lot of Merfolk.

I like getting freebies each day, but that's all I play for now. I'm grinding for cards.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:11 am

This was the one I think redfive recommended. Others recommended the magic pro but magic pro requires you to synch with their server and poking holes in my firewall opensource stuff I don't understand makes me jittery.

https://mtgatool.com/

This one can synch with online accounts and servers but doesn't require it for my purposes. (note, I manually start the tool by shortcut and shut it down from system tray when I am not playing. I don't want it running in the background when I'm not playing)

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:14 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Mon Jan 21, 2019 11:10 am I like getting freebies each day, but that's all I play for now. I'm grinding for cards.

By the time I get 15 wins in a day, it may be as much as two hours of my time. There is no reason for me to play any more than that and if I actually hit two hours, I've already spend too much time on the game... unless I'm doing well in a draft then there's some enjoyment beyond having some mindless downtime.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:25 pm

Kept facing the "you can't do anything" 20 deck of boredom with my white red so I moved to working on my white knight first strike deck. It was doing well enough and the deck of complete boredom disappeared while green explore decks started coming up again. So I switched back the red white token and what viola the deck of boredom comes right back on repeat. Such a strange coincidence but it's frustrating.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:32 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:25 pmSo I switched back the red white token and what viola the deck of boredom comes right back on repeat. Such a strange coincidence but it's frustrating.

This is what leads me to think that the game deliberately picks decks that can defeat you, and because of the limited chat and one-on-one nature of the game, I'm not entirely certain I'm facing people all the time. It wouldn't shock me at all to learn that the game is spawning AI "players" for me with decks made to counter me.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:17 am

From a prolonged, dragged out, slogging fight that I eventually won. My theme is +1 life to me, -1 life to him. After a LOT of back and forth - me down to 4, him up to 40+ and then me back to 30+ he finally caved. This was the second-to-last round. I summoned up 10 4/4 Angel tokens, which hit him for 10 and gave me 20 life

...

He had the Legendary Vampire that grows with each dead creature, has lifelink, and spawns 1/1 vampires when she dies for each */* she has.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:53 am

I love the Divine... card that creates angel tokens. I have two in most of my white decks, wherein I have token critters in most of my white decks. The Legion Landing, Heroic Reinforcements, Call of Blood(?) etc...

Not sure where I am with game right now. Essentially I am currently facing two decks right now. 1) the deck of boredom enhanced to take advantage of all the new gate stuff. 2) Decks with all the gadgetry from the new set, which I own none of and haven't adapted to. I played for my dailies last night and it took nearly hours (including the some passive aggressive time spend not playing against decks of boredom. One match took nearly 45 minutes of me doing work around the house and coming back and clicking a button and then doing work around the house before he finally got his gate artifact critter out). That was too much time and yet I felt like I had to get my dailies done. If I have too many days were I give too much time and yet don't actually enjoy myself or feel the time was a decompression, I'll move on.

I'm sure I totally change my mind, come the weekend when I play in the drafts, which I still enjoy (though not enough to spend the money they ask for)

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:06 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 9:53 am1) the deck of boredom enhanced to take advantage of all the new gate stuff

I don't think I've seen the deck of boredom.

I can continue to verify that as long as I have two Gaea's Blessings in my decks, I haven't encountered a single Corrosion deck. I play a deck without Gaea's Blessing, I face Corrosion somewhere in the next 3 opponents. Put it back in, no Corrosion. Hell, I slid 4 multi-colored lands and 2 Gaea's Blessings into my White/Black deck just so I wouldn't have to face Corrosion. It's been nice not fighting it.

The game is fully aware of what cards you're using and what they counter, and actively seeks to oppose your deck during "random" matchmaking.

I was enamoured with the Enchantment he tossed out from the new set - Ethereal Absolution - that gives all my creatures +1/+1 and all opponent creatures -1/-1, and lets you pay 4 to exile creatures from graveyards to make Spirit tokens ... talk about squashing token decks.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 1:50 pm

The current and more power iteration uses all gates for multi color lands heavy in green mana.

They get as much land as they can out in the first four turns using green spells by whatever means necassary. Turn four is death from speed decks. On turn four they will have their hand stacked with counters/settle the wreckage (white kill attacking creatures)/the green no combat damage/red damage critters for gates in play/(I think ther is black one too but it can't be effective). They will hold you off with these until they have cleared you of any enchantments that mitigate planeswalkers. Then they will put in planeswalkers to set them up with artifact creatures, land untapping, and plinking your permanents. Then it's just a matter of time until get to take infinite turns, get their gate based critters in play, or mill you.

It's variations are the absolute best for the person who has all the cards. I am sure a counterspell deck and possibly a thief deck would counter it easy enough and I might work on one out of spite this weekend. The problem is it is BORING. Again, if I make them play the game out, even being powerless, we have mutually stalled the games to 30 minutes plus. Half of that is me doing other things while spitefully not conceding. Half of it is them playing slowly and having to keep all the moving parts of their engine moving.

Runs to the Internet..

First sample of deck of boredom I could find but this one is low on the boredom scale and I wouldn't stall the game for it.

https://mtgarena.pro/decks/gates-control-4/

If you take this concept and sub in the planeswalkers and multiturns for the majority of creatures and equipment as well as the green card that allows you pick over your own graveyard.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:21 pm

I think I keep running up against the reasons I quit Magic 23 years ago. People with cash to burn and time on their hands make for miserable opponents. Couple that with the game being strictly 1v1 and it's wearing thin.

Every "Fun Deck" I've tried to make over the last couple days has been a miserable failure. I enjoy playing them, but I don't enjoy getting curb stomped battle after battle after battle. I realized that what I was doing was trying to have fun, and not just grind out winning combinations. This isn't a game for fun...

I keep wondering what the game would be like if there were a 4-person setup like the previous two iterations (which are still on sale in Steam). I like to make decks that take time to build up, culminating in strange experiences. For some really odd reason, I love to animate land. I keep trying to make it work, and I keep failing - though one game last night saw me with a 17/17 dual land along with a few others.

I also really love the replicating Ooze. There are two other kinds of Ooze in the game as well. One that dissolves Equipment when it hits, and another is a Legendary Elf Ooze Wizard. I have none of them, but now want to make an Ooze deck.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:29 pm

I'm still waiting for Lemurs to be a viable deck.

And Hyalopterous means glass-winged.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:16 pm

There's ALWAYS a meta in these games. ALWAYS. You need to play sealed deck to get any kind of different game play.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Jan 24, 2019 8:24 pm

annoying deck is annoying but dinner is cooking and I'm cleaning, so there's that. It would seem that's all open play is variants on this. Maybe I'll hop back on the ladder.

You need to play sealed deck to get any kind of different game play.

That's what I'd prefer but rate is too high

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 8:02 am

Lorini wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 7:16 pmYou need to play sealed deck to get any kind of different game play.

The one time I did this, I lost on round 1 and never got further. It seemed a waste of Gold, so I've just been buying boosters since.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:47 am

I have seen those Gate decks in action now, and agree they're tedious. It's the Infinite Turns/Nexus of Fate combo - but without the need for Planeswalkers.

Wilderness Reclamation, a Green Enchantment, lets them untap all their lands at the end of their turn. Nexus of Fate is an Instant, so they can hit it anywhere on the path. Growth Spiral (Blue/Green) lets them draw a card and lay an extra land. Guild Summit lets them draw a card when they put down a Gate. By turn five, they've got 10 Gates out and infinite turns.

There really is no counter. I was playing a strong start and had 6 creatures on the field by the end of turn 5, with some of them getting bigger each turn. I had hammered him down to 12 life. That was the end of the game for me. He took turn after turn after turn, summoned up a pair of 8/8 Golems, and smashed me from 28 life to 0 without a chance to react.

Oddly, I never saw this deck when I was playing my white/black or green/blue decks. It was only after putting together a green/red Riot/Explore deck that I ran into this - back to back.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:31 pm

So it seems it's a 50/50 chance to hit annoying deck for me right now. I happen to own 11 land destruction spells (two are actually lands) and 4 double casts. So far that plus green hunt for mana petty much puts gate deck in its place. It's not very effective otherwise.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:52 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:31 pm So it seems it's a 50/50 chance to hit annoying deck for me right now. I happen to own 11 land destruction spells (two are actually lands) and 4 double casts. So far that plus green hunt for mana petty much puts gate deck in its place. It's not very effective otherwise.

So you play a lot of land destruction, but then leave yourself open to token/small creature decks that only need a few lands to survive.

Man, I swear, the only reason I'm playing daily is because it's not too hard to get enough coins to buy a booster. That's it. I'm not actually sure I'm having fun anymore.

I just like opening things.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:08 am

It's not a very good deck and will lose against most decks but it is all I've got when comes to five turns and concede or let them play their deck of boredom to its conclusion. As I face the deck of boredom more often than not, I just put it out there.

I don't get that deck either unless its being played by bots. If their opponents refuses to concede to their slow play, it can take 30 minutes plus to win and they have to be the ones actively monitoring and playing the game, not their opponent. They encourage me to clean up around the house and read stuff on the Internet but their time, sheesh....

To each their own, I guess.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:33 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:08 amAs I face the deck of boredom more often than not, I just put it out there.

I think we're having wildly different experiences with this game.

I've faced the Deck of Boredom once. I used to face the Corrosion decks until I switched up to having Green in every deck and keeping two Gaea's Blessings in each - and then never saw it again unless I played some other color.

As a footnote, I'm Gold in the regular Ranked and Bronze in the sealed (which I don't play). I don't know if ranking has anything to do with it.

I still maintain that the game is throwing opponents at me that have the best chance to beat me, and keeping me from opponents that I'll crush. I'm still absolutely uncertain that I'm even facing real people. It seems the stranger my deck is, the longer the matchmaking takes - sometimes as long as 45 seconds to find a match.

I did cave a few days ago and threw a bunch of wildcards at Explore creatures, with a Riot sub-theme - a Green/Red deck. Basically, a lot of creatures coming out with +1 counters on them. It's a fun deck, but needs tweaking - and more "Draw a Card" for later stages.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:39 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:52 am Man, I swear, the only reason I'm playing daily is because it's not too hard to get enough coins to buy a booster. That's it. I'm not actually sure I'm having fun anymore. I just like opening things.

You'd get along with gilraen. That is pretty much the only reason she still plays Hearthstone. As far as I can tell, she pretty much despises everything else about it.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:48 am

TheMix wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:39 am
Paingod wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:52 am Man, I swear, the only reason I'm playing daily is because it's not too hard to get enough coins to buy a booster. That's it. I'm not actually sure I'm having fun anymore. I just like opening things.
You'd get along with gilraen. That is pretty much the only reason she still plays Hearthstone. As far as I can tell, she pretty much despises everything else about it.

I can at least empathize...

If I had to pick a single favorite card, it'd be the Helm of the Host. 4 mana to drop, 5 to equip - but then infinite copies of the creature - even if it's legendary. In decks that trigger events when creatures come into the battlefield, it's priceless. I've used it every way I can think of, even to the point of cloning land, but haven't yet been able to get it to copy itself. I need to animate it, create a copy of it while animated, and equip it all before the combat phase. In some rounds, I've even lost everything else except the clones and still won.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:53 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:33 am I've faced the Deck of Boredom once. I used to face the Corrosion decks until I switched up to having Green in every deck and keeping two Gaea's Blessings in each - and then never saw it again unless I played some other color.

As a footnote, I'm Gold in the regular Ranked and Bronze in the sealed (which I don't play). I don't know if ranking has anything to do with it.

I *do* wonder if that is part of it, though I'm only platinum in ranked and silver in sealed (or whatever they call it). They say they are going to change ranking and matchmaking again next season (At least that was in a patch notes I read). We'll see if it's any better. I really have absolutely no idea how match making is done. It is what it is but it sure feels like all I play are people who full sets of cards, even in Alliance, and as a whole they've largely decided the gate deck is the best (and not having a set that is capable of of those kinds of cards, nearly all mythic and rares, I'd agree.) I do wonder if a thief deck would beat it but don't have the cards for thief deck either.

So playing that "control" deck, as it's called I guess, so often, I just figured, I'd attack the gates and it works pretty well. If I were playing decks in three rounds, I would swap in 15 land destruction cards in a straight red deck or in my red white token deck.

I did cave a few days ago and threw a bunch of wildcards at Explore creatures, with a Riot sub-theme - a Green/Red deck. Basically, a lot of creatures coming out with +1 counters on them. It's a fun deck, but needs tweaking - and more "Draw a Card" for later stages.

Heh, I just blew all my commons and uncommons to start working on the famished paladin(vampire untap with life gain)/lifelink enchantment/sorcerer's wand deck (tap to damage opponent). I have a ways to go (as I still need 7 combined copies of the relevant spells and then start rounding out the fastest ways to get to them, of which I have a lot, such as the four copies of the vampire that lets you search for other vampires), and it's cheap boring deck but I think if I get enough commons and uncommons together, I may be able to semi-reliably get it working against a gate deck.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:55 am

I will say that you can open those same packs in Hearthstone and the game is a lot cheaper, which is why I'm still playing Hearthstone and not Magic

.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:50 pm

Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 10:55 amI will say that you can open those same packs in Hearthstone and the game is a lot cheaper, which is why I'm still playing Hearthstone and not Magic .

I've spent $5 on this game - well, $4.99. The intro booster with gems and a few cards. The only thing worth spending money on for the costs they're asking, IMO.

It's hard to beat $5.

It's probably cost me $0.10 per hour to play at that rate.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:59 am

I've been stacking my decks with Green and Gaea's Blessings because I find blue Corrosion decks so annoying - and Gaea's Blessing has actually proven itself quite useful a number of times.

After maybe 60 matches without being paired against Corrosion when I have this single spell in my deck, I finally got an opponent using Corrosion. It went exactly as I expected. He ramped up his burn so I was throwing out 10 cards per turn, and he finally tripped a Gaea's Blessing (I consistently use two). The second Gaea's Blessing shuffled my 30 discarded cards into my library, he quit.

I have to say, it was massively satisfying. To win a game against a Dick Deck by simply having a card in your deck, and not even playing it, is sweet vengeance.

Now all I need is an Enchantment that turns Gates into Plains or something.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:50 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:59 am Now all I need is an Enchantment that turns Gates into Plains or something.

Yes, please or least a basic land of their choice. There is one that removes all abilities of lands except mana but that does not do anything to mitigate against being a gate.

In the meantime, I have one precious uncommon Tithe Tinker, one white one other human soldier that increases the cost of opponent spells and abilities by one other on my turn. Oh, how I love that card. Oh how annoying decks of annoyance hate that card. If I ever get more, I'm going to have to find a way to cut other cards from my white decks (which is most of them as most of my wild buys have been white spells or lands)

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:59 am

That's an interesting - and annoying - concept. Force all opponents spells or abilities to cost more, which would hinder some of the "Lots of Instants" decks.

There's a somewhat annoying combo out with the latest set with a Tithe card, forcing me to either pay 1 or give them a Treasure card with each card I draw. Each time I've faced this, I make them choke on their treasures, with 20+ of them stacked up and me not giving a damn. I mean, it sounds terrible to give them a free boost of 20 mana, but honestly - when their hand is empty, it does them no good. I keep Exploring, they keep collecting Tithes, and sit there with 1 card in their hand...

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:24 am

Continuing to play and I'm not sure why. I play boredom deck after boredom deck after boredom deck, I switch up to my mana destruction deck. Never face boredom deck and get clobbered. Switch to any other annnndddd... Boredom decks. While it has be coincidence, it sure as hell feels like matchmaking.

Oh and btw, field of ruin is uncommon land to mitigate against boredom decks. I have two now and they are in every single deck I own if only because of the ubiquity of the boredom deck. It will stall the red gate killer one turn if you get in your opening three lands. That can be the difference between a win and loss, moving a reliable the five turns if you haven't won then you're done to six.

I'm still playing but less.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Mon Feb 04, 2019 8:27 am

LordMortis wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 11:24 am Continuing to play and I'm not sure why. I play boredom deck after boredom deck after boredom deck, I switch up to my mana destruction deck. Never face boredom deck and get clobbered. Switch to any other annnndddd... Boredom decks. While it has be coincidence, it sure as hell feels like matchmaking.

Your experiences and mine, parallel in so many ways, but are so different. I agree that the matchmaking seems fixated on throwing specific kinds of Opponents at us. I am all but certain that it evaluates your deck and tries to find the most suitable counter to that deck ... or, barring that, whatever deck is generally superior.

I run into very few of what you've called Boredom Decks - and very few of my opponents make me waste huge amounts of time waiting for them. My bane is the Corrosion Deck. If I'm not playing Green/* with Gaea's Blessings in my deck, it seems like 1/3 of my opponents magically come up Corrosion based. Keeping Gaea's Blessings in my deck, I've faced just one Corrosion deck in days of regular play.

I'm not at all convinced I'm always playing against humans - not because the moves they take are obviously bots or anything, but because there's zero social interaction and the game can be boiled down to a set of "Best Moves in Any Given Scenario" - and with it being an Online Game, if there's ever a lack of opposition, the game dies. Creating a battlefield where bots can be fielded without anyone being able to really tell would be a great artificial extension to a game's life.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Tue Feb 05, 2019 12:17 pm

Things I love:

When your first draw is 7 spells and no land. Mulligan. You get 5 land and 1 spell.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:34 pm

Paingod wrote:Things I love:

When your first draw is 7 spells and no land. Mulligan. You get 5 land and 1 spell.

If it's in the game, it's in the game