Magic Arena OO talk

[LordMortis]

Fell into this addiction again. Keep thinking about new deck ideas but only have two really reliable ones. My Adventure based deck needs optimizing.

How big is your collection? This is the Adventure Deck I have been working on, if you want to import it and play around. I don't buy cards beyond the $15 total I've spent but I do play enough (and draft explicitly to expand my set using the Magic Tool) that I have probably 60% of the whole standard set.

Green/Black, Adventure Destruction with a bit of night power. The rarest thing in it is 3 rare Dread Presence. Not sure if I would go to 4 if I had 4. I would throw in more innkeepers if I had them, though I'm not sure what would get removed. I also might pull the witches cottages. I seem to need the mana not being tapped early more often than I appreciate pulling a critter from the graveyard to the top of the deck.

It also needs work but in single shot competition, it's slightly above 50% so far.

Deck
4 Lucky Clover (ELD) 226
10 Forest (ANA) 65
7 Swamp (ANA) 63
1 Edgewall Innkeeper (ELD) 151
3 Foulmire Knight (ELD) 90
2 Reaper of Night (ELD) 102
4 Order of Midnight (ELD) 99
2 Murderous Rider (ELD) 97
1 Lovestruck Beast (ELD) 165
4 Beanstalk Giant (ELD) 149
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
1 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241
3 Dread Presence (M20) 96
4 Witch's Cottage (ELD) 249
1 Nissa, Who Shakes the World (WAR) 169
4 Deathsprout (WAR) 189
1 The Great Henge (ELD) 161
4 Smitten Swordmaster (ELD) 105

Black really seems to be the power in this round. I have a couple of reasonable black/green and black/red decks. I tend to stay away from blue because I don't want to slip in to playing a thinking man's game when I'm not paying attention and then become hypocrite.

My most fun deck is a death deck also Black/Green but it is much more rare intensive. It needs a 4th embodiment of Agongies and probably other stuff too.

Deck
7 Swamp (ANA) 63
1 Knight of the Ebon Legion (M20) 105
4 Vampire of the Dire Moon (M20) 120
1 Orzhov Enforcer (RNA) 79
3 Embodiment of Agonies (M20) 98
3 Rabid Bite (M19) 195
2 Sedge Scorpion (M20) 192
1 Kraul Stinger (WAR) 165
1 God-Eternal Rhonas (WAR) 163
4 Leyline Prowler (WAR) 202
1 Pitiless Gorgon (GRN) 218
4 Vraska, Swarm's Eminence (WAR) 236
1 Oakhame Adversary (ELD) 167
1 Midnight Reaper (GRN) 77
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General (WAR) 97
1 Vindictive Vampire (RNA) 90
2 Moldervine Reclamation (M20) 214
7 Forest (ANA) 65
1 Foulmire Knight (ELD) 90
1 Ayara, First of Locthwain (ELD) 75
1 Syr Konrad, the Grim (ELD) 107
1 Questing Beast (ELD) 171
1 Storrev, Devkarin Lich (WAR) 219
4 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244
1 Witch's Cottage (ELD) 249
4 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
1 Castle Locthwain (ELD) 241

[LordMortis]

I really want to be a fly on the wall for their matching algorithms. I really do feel like they are testing how deck types match up. I face the same type of deck five times in a row. I get annoyed. I switch decks. Then I face a different deck type multiple times.

[Paingod]

There's still a lot of meta crap in this game - seeing the same things, but there seem to be more things to see at least.

A coworker started talking this up and I dove back in a night ago - collecting my 30+ freebie packs of cards from every expansion since the last time I played.

I bumped into a gross combo that only takes two cards and a trigger to win. The trigger could be simply putting down a land that gives you 1 life when played.

The cards: Any "deal damage when you gain life" cards (a lot to choose from) plus Exquisite Blood. Gain 1 health, do 1 damage, gain 1 health, do 1 damage, repeat until end of game. Someone did this to me and I wasn't expecting it. So I did it to someone else and I felt dirty.

I had no idea this existed and the only counter once it begins appears to be having out a "You can't lose the game" type card, which results in a draw.

I know this is old news to a lot of regular players, but it was a surprise to me who's been out of the game for years. If you left because the game had too many "instant win" scenarios, you'll be relieved to know they're adding more.

[Zarathud]

My favorite instant win deck was a friend who played counters, draw, land acceleration, Sliver Queens and Coalition Victory: Win if you have lands of all 5 types and a creature of every color. Sliver Queen is all 5 colors and lets you draw another Queen in case of board wipe. You just play defense while accelerating land/draws, then play the Queen to keep her alive one turn.

We’d play 2 headed Giant where I’d bring any deck to draw aggro while he countered anything threatening, then jump in with the instant win. We’d joke that his deck only existed to say no and win, while I did all the misdirection.

[Paingod]

There's a lot of quick ways to die. I remember Slivers as a theme. I liked it.

The game persists in being one of "If you haven't either invested a ton of money or a ton of time, you're not going to win" - default decks aren't good enough and meta decks require a lot of specific cards. Custom decks are fun but ultimately outgunned consistently.

Still - It fills time gaps adequately without a huge time or attention expenditure. I just only win one in 10 matches.