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Magic the Gathering: Arena |OT| Tapped Out of Witty Titles

Boogiepop

Boogiepop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,966
Control is waaaaaaaaaaaay the hell out of control on Arena, at least in ranked BO1 (trying to grind up the last bit till Platinum). It's like 70% of my matches right now at least, and I haaaaaaaaaate playing against it so much. It's just Teferi (and Bolas to a lesser degree) far as the eye can see, and I really can't stand it. :/

Edit: And naturally, 99% of those matches have stupid Thought Erasure turn 2. It's ever present enough that I just assume I will always lose my best card in hand on turn 2.
 
Carthago Delenda Est

Carthago Delenda Est

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
6,119
Boogiepop said:
Control is waaaaaaaaaaaay the hell out of control on Arena, at least in ranked BO1 (trying to grind up the last bit till Platinum). It's like 70% of my matches right now at least, and I haaaaaaaaaate playing against it so much. It's just Teferi (and Bolas to a lesser degree) far as the eye can see, and I really can't stand it. :/

Edit: And naturally, 99% of those matches have stupid Thought Erasure turn 2. It's ever present enough that I just assume I will always lose my best card in hand on turn 2.
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Run an aggro deck.
 
The Adder

The Adder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,085
Wall deck!
Walls.png
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Hell, while I'm at it: Hand Control Aggro
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fuzzyset

fuzzyset

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,555
Just saw Day9 play someone in Mythic that was 76%. That means almost a quarter of Arena players hit mythic this month? That seems so high for only midway through the month.
 
fuzzyset

fuzzyset

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,555
Lemstar said:
it's percentile within mythic rank for players outside of the top 1k, who have their numerical rank shown
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OK. I've seen people say it's both so I wasn't sure. I've never seen anyone below 70-80% so that's why I thought it was overall population.

After going 0-3 on my first WAR Ranked draft (as predicted earlier in the thread), went 4-3 and then 7-1 with

QHFdP6M.png


I'm not even sure I cast Vivien, but Domri always felt good to put down. I didn't realize the wording on Bioessence Hydra meant that PWs coming into play get loyalty counters put on them. Imagine my surprise when my naked Hydra suddenly became a 9/8 after drawing Domri one game. I've always been wary of drafting 3 colors, but my mana was surprisingly fine basically every game.
 
Sande

Sande

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,973
I like the idea of draft (and enjoy similar formats in other games), but I have absolutely 0 consistency here. 7 wins, 0 wins... feels like I'm not at all in control.
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,236
Sande said:
I like the idea of draft (and enjoy similar formats in other games), but I have absolutely 0 consistency here. 7 wins, 0 wins... feels like I'm not at all in control.
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That's drafting soemtimes. There's some pretty big bombs in the set this time around too. Oppenent drafts them and you don't, you're kind of screwed.
 
divisionbyzorro

divisionbyzorro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,771
I highly recommend drafting a playset of Evolution Sage. It's fantastic.

Try not to flood out though. That deck was sick but went 4-3 losing with 5 lands in hand (saving for when I drew a Sage).
 
Izzy

Izzy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
683
Troll said:
When can I play this on mac
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It feels like WOTC got super quiet about any non windows platform lately, so we've got no clue about when they'll offer a Mac client. I'm honestly just considering loading boot camp back up on the MacBook so I can jam some games away from my desk.
 
NoirSuede

NoirSuede

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
414
I just started playing Arena and I bought the welcome pack, but unfortunately I've ran out of gems bc i'm bad at drafting. Rn I have 3500 Gold, is there a chance for me to play draft again?
 
Wamb0wneD

Wamb0wneD

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,735
LMAO I managed to get a 25/25 haste and trample on turn 5.
T3 Kiora
T4 Nissa
T5 Finale of Devastation for X=11, for a 25/25 Bioessence Hydra with haste and trample.

My Nissa got attacked for 2 the turn before, so my Kiora was on 5 and Nissa was as well. 10 from their loyalty counters + the base 4 + the 11 from Devastation. Would have been a 27/27 without the attack on Nissa. On turn 5. This is hilarious. What's even more funny is that I had to discard 2 cards until I got there and didn't even get my T1 Arboral Grazer, I could have pulled this off Turn 4 if I had one lmao.

NoirSuede said:
I just started playing Arena and I bought the welcome pack, but unfortunately I've ran out of gems bc i'm bad at drafting. Rn I have 3500 Gold, is there a chance for me to play draft again?
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As Irate Bandit said, you need 5k gold for a draft. Not sure if you played sealed, traditional or ranked draft before though. The former gets you 6 packs and you build from that, the other 2 give you 3 and you need to pick cards in a rotation.
 
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fuzzyset

fuzzyset

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,555
Did anyone watch the MPL stuff this weekend? We joked how boring Duo Standard was at MC1 cause it was Bo1, but it was a bummer to see Bo3 MPL still basically all Esper, WW, RDW. I see so many decks doing well over at ArenaDecklists on Twitter. I was hoping to see some of the pros tweak and surprise people with them.
 
i hate cheaters

i hate cheaters

Member
Feb 16, 2018
2,679
fuzzyset said:
Did anyone watch the MPL stuff this weekend? We joked how boring Duo Standard was at MC1 cause it was Bo1, but it was a bummer to see Bo3 MPL still basically all Esper, WW, RDW. I see so many decks doing well over at ArenaDecklists on Twitter. I was hoping to see some of the pros tweak and surprise people with them.
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i think that twitter is intentionally posting a variety of decks instead of the same ones over and over again

anyways anything can do well on ladder and report success to arenadecklists because the quality of players/decks is extremely low, even at high mythic. unless someone says they get in the top 10 with a deck, it's basically useless data at this point. maybe that changes in the last few days of the season when people are trying to qualify for something though

as is usually the case with anything related to competitive play, wotc screwed it up. by having best of 1 and best of 3 in separate queues, it artificially created a metagame where you don't need to build your best of 3 deck properly because you can structure it so that all the decks you would be weak to (eg. monored/monowhite) are the ones that get played way more in the bo1 queue. there's also a separate banlist, so all the nexus solitaire players are overrepresented in the bo3 queue because they literally aren't allowed to play in the bo1 queue

in theory this stuff would be self-correcting and the ladder bo3 metagame would be somewhat close to competitive play. but in practice because there are zero stakes to the matches, so there's no real incentive to play a better deck
 
voOsh

voOsh

Member
Apr 5, 2018
1,664
i hate cheaters said:
in theory this stuff would be self-correcting and the ladder bo3 metagame would be somewhat close to competitive play. but in practice because there are zero stakes to the matches, so there's no real incentive to play a better deck
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Great post -- big agree. Nothing so far has convinced me that bo1 is benefiting competitive MTG in any way.
 
fuzzyset

fuzzyset

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,555
i hate cheaters said:
in theory this stuff would be self-correcting and the ladder bo3 metagame would be somewhat close to competitive play. but in practice because there are zero stakes to the matches, so there's no real incentive to play a better deck
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But that would be even worse, if MPL is any indication. 3 decks were overwhelmingly represented in the first week of the MPL matches. That was kinda my point. People joke that Bo1 ladder is all Esper Control and Red or White Aggro, but that's exactly what the pros brought to MPL for these Bo3 games.
 
Izzy

Izzy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
683
It's incredible how when you have four (4!) creatures left in the "Destroy 25 Enemy Creatures" quest, you get queued into 5 control/creature-less superfriends in a row. Bless that last Mardu Hero player for releasing me from that torment.
 

Deleted member 29682

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
12,290
fuzzyset said:
So free events all the time? That's kinda cool. If you're f2p I guess you can just grind em for minimal rewards?
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There will be story-focused events around War of the Spark, and with them you can unlock stained-glass planeswalker card styles. Can't get access to the page but here's a screenshot from Twitter. I don't know if these are the free events mentioned elsewhere or something else entirely (EDIT: These are the free events).

D6sgrbVX4AArQhX.jpg:large
 
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Deleted member 29682

User requested account closure
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
12,290
Huh, looks like you use a preset deck for the events, you don't bring one in. And you only need cumulative wins for rewards, not consecutive. That certainly seems pretty newcomer friendly.
 

Deleted member 16657

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,198
Hey all, just started playing this. I beat the mastery tree but I didn't get a quest for the remaining 5 starter decks, how do I get it?
 
Bigkrev

Bigkrev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,293
Wait... the format for the Stained glass walkers is Mormir but "...we'll provide a deck for you to play consisting of basic lands and the 36 WAR planeswalkers"
that sounds.... nightmareish
 

Deleted member 29682

User requested account closure
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Nov 1, 2017
12,290
Bigkrev said:
Wait... the format for the Stained glass walkers is Mormir but "...we'll provide a deck for you to play consisting of basic lands and the 36 WAR planeswalkers"
that sounds.... nightmareish
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I think the relaxed conditions for getting the rewards, lack of entry fee and that everyone is using the same deck means this'll just be some casual, low stakes fun. I'm not too worried about the goofy gimmicky deck. It'll be random chaotic nonsense but that can be fun in its own right.
 
Happy Puppy

Happy Puppy

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,477
PogChamp said:
Hey all, just started playing this. I beat the mastery tree but I didn't get a quest for the remaining 5 starter decks, how do I get it?
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Howdy! Welcome.

when you say you beat the mastery tree, that means you achieved level 25? You can check the progress on the homepage. If you click on the blue orb on the bottom left.
If no orb is there then it means you completed and received all the rewards. The game doesn't really tell you what decks you get, but check https://magicarena.fandom.com/wiki/Starting_Decks to see if you own them.
 

Deleted member 16657

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
10,198
Happy Puppy said:
Howdy! Welcome.

when you say you beat the mastery tree, that means you achieved level 25? You can check the progress on the homepage. If you click on the blue orb on the bottom left.
If no orb is there then it means you completed and received all the rewards. The game doesn't really tell you what decks you get, but check https://magicarena.fandom.com/wiki/Starting_Decks to see if you own them.
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Thanks. The tree was filled out but I'm not level 25 yet so I guess that's the problem.

I also checked the link and my decks are slightly different from the ones listed. For example my mono green deck doesn't have a Verdant Rebirth. Do I get that later on or were the starter decks nerfed?
 
Happy Puppy

Happy Puppy

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,477
PogChamp said:
Thanks. The tree was filled out but I'm not level 25 yet so I guess that's the problem.

I also checked the link and my decks are slightly different from the ones listed. For example my mono green deck doesn't have a Verdant Rebirth. Do I get that later on or were the starter decks nerfed?
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Yeah same thing happened to me and my ex. I started playing 2 months ago and he started a month ago. We got samey decks but slight variations *shrugs
 
Ultron

Ultron

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,763
Arena works pretty well with the Steam Link app on iPad and the touchscreen. So that's a cool way to get mobile going before it really happens.
 
Draggyrider

Draggyrider

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,335
Any one has any decks that have a good matchup against all the superfriends decks that are popping up? I think more than half my games were Esper/Grixis/Bant planeswalker.dec, with many of the rest being RDW.

Feels like they drop more walkers than I can handle (trading one for one is to their advantage) and the incidental lifegain due to hitting their walker instead of their face gets them ahead enough for them to stabilize. Little Teferi is basically bounce a creature, draw a card, gain 3 life, which is a lot for 3 mana even if you handle him immediately.

Also I tried Gates for a game, and all the Narsets running around made it impossible. RDW I think has an ok matchup (not sure on this), but I would not play it if there's an alternative.
 
SubvertedTrope

SubvertedTrope

Member
Sep 14, 2018
4,615
Yeah, Esper. And whatever can get away with Angarath's Rampage, but not Grixis which is somehow still not good even though it keeps getting great cards. It may be how people build it but it's so sorcery speedy at it's core so you know good luck figuring that one out.
 
Boogiepop

Boogiepop

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,966
Okay, is there any way to control what floating mana you're using? In draft, New Horizons was my only source of black, and I really needed to use both of the black mana I was getting separately to cast two different spells, and even in full control mode, the game just NOT letting me. :/
 
Xequalsy

Xequalsy

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
386
Boogiepop said:
Okay, is there any way to control what floating mana you're using? In draft, New Horizons was my only source of black, and I really needed to use both of the black mana I was getting separately to cast two different spells, and even in full control mode, the game just NOT letting me. :/
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Click the mana in your pool to pay for something.
 
Joni

Joni

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,508
I like the current limited event. I went 4-2 just now, including one victory against a blue player that immediately gave up when he saw I had Gaia's Blessing. I can guess what the trick of his deck was.
 
Arkanim94

Arkanim94

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,095
SubvertedTrope said:
Yeah, Esper. And whatever can get away with Angarath's Rampage, but not Grixis which is somehow still not good even though it keeps getting great cards. It may be how people build it but it's so sorcery speedy at it's core so you know good luck figuring that one out.
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Grixis is in a good spot, with Eugene the deck finally has enchantment removal.
 
Draggyrider

Draggyrider

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,335
Arkanim94 said:
Grixis is in a good spot, with Eugene the deck finally has enchantment removal.
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What's Eugene?

Also, played the weirdest game in Arena so far. Facing mono-blue and totally beat on board facing down 2 Tempest Djinn and a trickster with just a Evolution Sage and an Llanowar elf (I was playing a home brew deck centered around Spark Double) and down to 8 life. Opponent says GG to me and I GG back, because Monoblue probably has a counter for my (fairly obvious) Settle the Wreckage since they have tons of cards in hand (why else would they GG?). He attacks, I cast the Settle, he has Spell Pierce, which I can pay for, then he apparently has none left since he Opts to dig for more and doesn't find it. Oops I guess? Since he tapped out to play another Tempest Djinn I got to resolve Vivien Reid to kill it. Spark Double Vivien to kill the next one. Then Ajani to give everyone counters, while Viviens took turns to dig for more land to proliferate. Spark Double is awesome whenever it copies a halfway decent Planeswalker/Creature. Copying Oketra to make two 4/4 Zombies with a Llanowar is pretty good
 
f0rk

f0rk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,692
Arkanim94 said:
Grixis is in a good spot, with Eugene the deck finally has enchantment removal.
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It's not a top deck, people just always try and force Grixis for some reason. I'm playing UB and the red doesn't add anything of real consequence, it's just more flavours of removal. 4 mana Bolas is a trap that doesn't do a lot most of the time, while 5 mana Bolas is a bomb but there are plenty of those around. Meanwhile you have to play a 3 colour mana base like Esper (but worse given some of the coloured symbols involved) and miss out on things like consistent turn 3 Narset and Blast Zone.
 
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