Magic: The Gathering C/D

yeah one of my cards was like "Professor Bear" or something, incredibly cute

also dig Tome Shredder, literally "dog ate my homework"

hah i didn't catch thats what that card was representing

professor bear is good, top 3 common in the set imo along with frost trickster and the 4 damage red spell

thus far the format seems to be pretty slow so Rise of Extus is probably up there as well

its good but its 6 mana so you cant really play too many copies so you cant value it that much higher than the crowd

wait scratch that I misread it, I thought it returned an instant or sorcery to your hand

huge disconnect between MTGO/Tabletop prices on Magma Opus & Prismari Command, wonder why that is. neither of those cards seem very good to me but rn the Command is worth 27 tix which is insane for a normal rare

might be some modern application, thats the main constructed format on mtgo these days

no standard play means the entire set value gets shifted into the modern/eternal cards

sure but why is that card any good in Modern? seems worse than Kolaghan's Command and probably worse than Electrolyze...either way I've got one so I'm gonna try to finish this league ASAP so I can unload it for 42 tix (!!!)

utility card for UR decks that aren't playing black for k command. depends how important killing artifacts is re: electrolyze comparison. it doesn't have to be great in a vacuum, just has to be the highest interest rare in the set

magma opus plays cleverly with torrential gearhulk which is already used in pioneer so maybe that's whats going on there

ah yeah I was wondering what the 'reanimate spell' card was that would make Magma Opus work. I think of Gearhulk as a Cube card, sometimes need to remind myself those are real cards too

anyway I 9-0'd my first Sealed which is funny because I don't think I ever did better than 7-2 in Kaldheim. as someone who naturally gravitates towards U/R spell archetypes I think this set may be good for me (obviously I got tremendously lucky, but still). btw is it just me or do there not really seem to be streamlined aggro decks in the recent Limited formats? since taking up MTGO again with Ikoria I've noticed every format has been pretty grindy and time intensive, much less of the solitaire style matches where two good cheap creatures + two removal spells could win you the game by itself.

i haven't played any of the recent formats besides kaldheim and this but i'm told M21 was quite fast

if you only play sealed though then it's possible the answer is that there's been none

WR and WG aggro were the best decks in kaldheim draft once the snow lands became contested and stopped wheeling

yeah those archetypes were nearly nonexistent in Sealed now. whereas back around RTR there always seemed to be a good R/W archetype based around 3 power 2 drops. M21 was definitely faster than other recent formats but it was also prone to those 20+ turn topdecking wars

whipping ass at sealed and dying at draft so far in this one. my constructed half kaldheim/half strixhaven deck that leans hard on Koma & Ascended Spirit w/all snow lands just rolls over everybody.

Aggro is still common in recent draft formats but the nature of sealed formats has always made aggro difficult. you need a very specific set of cards. I can count on one hand the sealed formats I remember where aggro was often viable - Zendikar, Gatecrash, Ixalan

I'm liking Strixhaven so far (three drafts in). UG has been the most fun, tons of synergy cards and huge tokens. In UR, I had some bonkers turns with Storm-Kiln Artist. LSV on stream pulled off a Grapeshot for five, wiped the opponent's board, and attacked for 11 with it!

yea I really dig how the nuts things you can do in this set are fundamentally different than what you get in most other Limited formats

Yeah it has a different feel. The Mystical Archive cards also contribute to that - unexpected moments because I haven't learned all the cards they brought back yet. Very Time Spiral in feel

love the artwork on those

I'm currently playing a U/R deck in Sealed with 4 creature cards in it, it's pretty wild. No clue if it's good or not but I can definitely say I've never played a deck like this in Limited before. Also my deck contains both a Shock and a Lightning Bolt. I love this set

two of those creatures don't really attack much either. the other 2 are Storm-Kiln Artists. I mostly win by using Learn spells to generate tokens

Yeah creature-light decks are viable this time around. I thought Codie, Vociferous Codex would be straight up unplayable in draft but if turns out to be amazing if you're in that spell-heavy type of deck

idk about draft pick orders but I feel like Environmental Sciences is a card every deck wants to have. it's saved my ass so many times

you will be pleased to learn that it is the highest pick common then in draft (or should be, dunno if everyones on board yet)

it may be boring but adding mana fixing to 20 cards in the set lets you draft a much more powerful deck and the earlier you have it the earlier you can act on that

I've also found it's hard too have ~~too much~~ land in this set

idk if I'm just connecting with this format but my results have been insane so far: 9-0, 8-1, 7-2, 4-5, 8-1, and 7-2. I'm 3 place in trophies through only 6 leagues.

how many people are in those friendly leagues? i started a competitive league yesterday and theres only ~500ish people and the wait times for matches were like 5 minutes

it says 750 at the moment. wait times are not bad now, usually after 4-6 weeks they get pretty brutal

biggest downside of those leagues is having to play 9 matches but there's so much you can do in this set that I don't mind at all. that U/R deck I mentioned earlier I'd gladly play another few leagues with.

ok sounds about the same then. i've been in a sealed mood but arena is not really an option for the format

btw Quandrix Apprentice is pretty busted, even though it only gets you lands the sheer card advantage this thing can very quickly generate is insane

yeah terrific card. blue green generally really strong in draft imo

can't say I've ever wound up at this particular life total before

https://i.imgur.com/CzUEXCJ.png

Starting to get sick of this format. I kinda forgot how these five deck draft formats have shorter lifespans, and this time around, I'm ready to call Lorehold a trap. I've never had a successful Lorehold deck, and rarely find I lose to them either. I like Learn as a mechanic but it also leads to a lot of similarity in games, e.g. I've lost count of the number of games someone goes turn 3 Field Trip, turn 4 Elemental Summoning

yeah i think putting learn in a 5-faction format was a big mistake, its 2 things that severely narrow the ways in which games can play out in the same set

I assumed Lorehold probably worked better in draft, but yeah. I'm not really sure what the theme is there. The guy that makes spirits every time something is exiled from your 'yard can be pretty insane though.

I still like the format a lot though I'm finding in Sealed I'm pretty much going RUG every time. Dunno if it's the best choice always but they're fun decks to play. Side note I just now found out that Learn actually allows you to discard/draw, after accidentally clicking on my hand and thinking I'd just experienced some very bizarre glitch. One side effect of playing only MTGO is that I don't really read the cards anymore.

one card I've really began to appreciate is Test of Talents - not only are there a lot of targets for it but getting a free peek at your opponent's hand in such a spell-based format is really useful

Yeah there are some bomb rares/mythics that push you into Lorehold like the one you mentioned or the Elder Dragon, but overall the commons/ uncommons are very weak and the deck lacks a cohesive strategy. White didn't get a Pacifism effect this time around, and only one good evasive creature (Combat Professor)?it's hard for the deck to get around a 5/5 fractal. Silverquill performs much better

I end up UG splashing B or R probably half of all drafts. Coincidentally, it was the same experience in Kaldheim!

Test of Talents is great. I originally picked Negate over it, because why wouldn't you, but it's so rare to run into artifacts, enchantments, and PWs, and the peek is valuable

lorehold is fine, it's not as good as silverquill or quandrix but it's in the second tier with the other two. you need to stay pretty aggressive with it though, building around the graveyard stuff is a trap, just treat it as an incidental bonus. i see so many people posting their lists that have stonerise spirit in them and that card is just embarrassing unless you have a bunch of 4+ power creatures to jump, which you usually don't in WR.

most decks in Sealed tend to be 3 color so Lorehold generally "works" as part of a W/R/B deck that's mostly built to take advantage of certain bombs. the decks just don't have the kind of synergy you want, I feel like I'm just playing a bunch of disconnected cards and attempting to cobble together some form of card advantage. when it's strong it's generally because you cleared the way for Ardent Dustspeaker.

I agree Stonerise Spirit is bad, but I did get completely owned by it after attacking right into it not even realizing what the card did

Yeah I dunno, to me it's not even second-tier. There's been times I'm the only Lorehold drafter and it still sucks. A lot of the gold commons/uncommons aren't as good payoffs as they are for the other colors (the Apprentice is laughably bad). I'm sure the deck comes together sometimes but ime I usually lack a way to close the game out after an aggressive start the way I can with Silverquill. Now when I open one of the bomb RW rares/mythics, I usually aim for Prismari splashing W

I wouldn't be surprised to find the Lorehold stuff was nerfed or shifted around at the last minute. It feels like there must have been some Spirit/graveyard stuff yanked at the end.

one card that's sometimes been crazy valuable is Whirlwind Denial - all the instant/Magecraft stuff can result in like 10 things going on the stack and it's really crazy to be able to just counter everything

(And no this is not intended for magic the gathering players, you’re cool w/ me)

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 13, 2021

Ok SO, I finally got MtG Arena working on a device (it was my dj laptop, since all the portable devices in the house are too old be supported, and even that was after a battery of Windows updates that me feel like installing a game in the '90s).

It's really fun so far, so nice to have all the phases and rules automated & set in stone. I'm almost done with the Color Challenge (so far I've won my matches against other humans with starter decks, although somehow I also got matched with a couple people who clearly had 'real' decks and it was just savage). I'd like to keep playing for fun (so I doubt I'll get in deep enough to compete against people with crazy meta decks), and I'm also never going to spend any actual money on this game. Advice???

Should I just keep playing matches and slowly upgrading my starter deck of choice? The draft formats are a little confusing, and all seem to cost some amount of in-game currency...I've never played draft before, but it seems like it could be fun since everyone is theoretically starting out on equal footing, right?

some promo codes for free packs here, some might have expired but most of them should still be working: https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/#MTG_Arena_Booster_Pack_Codes
every new set will also have a code like this for 3 free packs

just try to complete your daily quests (the ones that give 500/750 gold + 500 xp) as much as you're able and willing to play. also try to clear the first 15 wins per week as those give 250 xp each. if you do both of those things you'll accumulate a decent amount of free packs from the xp.

you can save up your gold for drafts or just spend it on packs if you don't like drafting. if you're an inexperienced player you should expect to get wrecked in draft until you improve, but you still get to keep the cards you drafted even if you don't win additional prizes so it's never a waste of gold.

also, sit on all the rare and mythic rare wild cards you get, they're the most valuable resource and you'll need a lot of them if you ever decide you want to build a more competitive deck.

Nice, Jordan! I also decided early on I'm not gonna put money into the game. If you stick to mostly Draft like I do, that's fine. When I don't have enough gold for Draft, I will jump into Arena once every three days and complete the three quests that have accumulated. I find it a bit of a grind tbh but usually the quests overlap and if they don't you can cycle one of them per day. I can finish three quests in 20-30 minutes and it's a means to my end of playing Draft without putting money into the game

As a new player, definitely start with Quick Draft. The main difference is Quick Draft you are drafting against AIs instead of real players, but you play twice as much for the same price as Premier, and thus open twice as many cards. Once you are good enough to break even or better, the prize structures make both queues about the same in terms of expected value, but you still get to play twice as much with Quick Draft

cider is right, Draft is very tough for a new player. There are many guides out there for general draft tips. If Sealed is available as a format, you might have more luck there - it's similar but takes a little less skill imo

Thanks guys!

I wouldn't say I'm a new player, I started playing in the '90s when Antiquities came out and stopped around Ice Age, then my wife & I started playing for fun in the last few years with old cards and some Duel Decks. So while I'm sure I'm not great, I'm definitely comfortable with playing the game. But I've never drafted before and I'm sure that has its own strategies. I wish there was a free AI draft version (no gold) where you didn't keep the cards, just for practice.