Magic: The Gathering Arena - Catch All

Mr Eko wrote:

I had a lot of fun with Jeskai Fires of Invention deck, with the Fae of Wishes sideboard. Went 8-2, but missed winning the Sealed Deck token by 1 win.

Here's the deck list with some slight changes
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetyp...

I scrubbed out early in the event, but I'm loving Jeskai Fires (and really, any fire deck) for my dailies. Dropping big flashy planeswalkers never gets old for me.

It looks like Ranked Draft opens up tomorrow so I can finally start grinding out a play set of the ELD rares. Really looking forward to getting back to Limited for a bit.

You got it.

Played my 1st limited draft today. I'm 1 and 1 so far. Not too bad. I wonder if they rig the packs if you pay in gold because I opened 3 packs and got ALL commons.

PWAlessi wrote:

Played my 1st limited draft today. I'm 1 and 1 so far. Not too bad. I wonder if they rig the packs if you pay in gold because I opened 3 packs and got ALL commons.

Do you mean the packs in the draft? The upper left pick in the first pack is always a rare, regardless if you payed gold or gems.

Badferret wrote:
PWAlessi wrote:

Played my 1st limited draft today. I'm 1 and 1 so far. Not too bad. I wonder if they rig the packs if you pay in gold because I opened 3 packs and got ALL commons.

Do you mean the packs in the draft? The upper left pick in the first pack is always a rare, regardless if you payed gold or gems.

Yep. Maybe I just missed it.

The draft packs are different from the ones you buy in the store. In the store you get 8-card packs that have one rare, two uncommons, and five commons. When you draft or play sealed you use packs that are identical to what you would get in a physical booster: 1 rare, 3 uncommons, and 10 commons*. The higher proportion of commons to rare can throw you off if you’re not used to it. Also rare cards don’t glow in the draft view like the do in the pack cracking scene.

*Some sets will have a guildgate or some other sort of common dual land in a 15th slot. In sets that only have basic lands in that slot Arena just leaves them out.

I wish they had their social features more in order. I've been thinking we should try to hang out and play some games next weekend for International GWJ Day. But inclination would be for us to, like, generate simulated sealed pools or simulate a draft, on another site and then build and play some matches in Arena but that doesn't seem to be supported. Can you even direct challenge with a 40 card deck? I guess we could just bash some standard decks against each other, maybe with a tournament bracket of some sort?

The friends list is probably coming the week after IGWJ Day, judging by their schedule. They adjusted the banned and restricted list announcement schedule to accommodate their digital teams, and that's on the 21st, so I expect some sort of Arena update shortly thereafter.

Everybody thinks that means they're going to ban Field of the Dead in Standard. I think that means they want to make sure Brawl doesn't crash and burn when it launches on Arena, so they're going to ban the problematic cards ahead of time. And the friends list is on the road map for this month between Eldraine and Brawl.

The one thing they do have is some sort of Discord integration. We might be able to get something together that way. I'm not 100% sure how it works though.

Last night I spent some time hanging out in Discord with some WoW friends and I managed to get Arena integration to work. I was able to host the game and then go over to Discord and post an invitation in a text channel. Then one of the players would share their screen through Discord so other people could watch. It was a pretty cool way to hang out and play Magic.

That sounds relatively promising, Vargen. I'm happy to pick a time and hang out for a bit and bash some decks together if folks want to do a low-key thing.

My assumption with the impending ban is that they just don't want to have two big tournaments in a row (one this weekend and one in a few weeks) where this hard to interact with, hard to follow deck that plays long, grindy mirror matches crowds out a lot of the field.

So apparently there is a limit to the number of decks you can make, and that limit is 75. I guess it’s time for me to delete some decks that are no longer standard compliant.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHpZFuIUUAAatU-?format=jpg&name=small)

This is purely boastful, but I'm really proud to have finally hit platinum. I changed my old bant ramp list to include 4x Wicked Wolf 2 x Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves and 2 x Questing Beasts. The shift to a more mid-range style of play made a huge difference. Deputy of Detention is the only other card I don't see used in a lot of other games, and I'm not sure it's as relevant after Field of the Dead being banned, but I'm never unhappy to see it.

I still use 4 Hydroid Krasis and 2 Vocarious Hydras, and that honestly feels like enough.

Full list below. Some of the numbers are wonky because I don't have enough wildcards!

Spoiler:

3 Deputy of Detention (RNA) 165
10 Forest (ANA) 65
6 Island (ANA) 62
2 Arboreal Grazer (WAR) 149
2 Plains (ANA) 61
4 Wicked Wolf (ELD) 181
1 Realm-Cloaked Giant (ELD) 26
4 Paradise Druid (WAR) 171
4 Hydroid Krasis (RNA) 183
2 Voracious Hydra (M20) 200
2 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
3 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
1 Temple Garden (GRN) 258
4 Oko, Thief of Crowns (ELD) 197
4 Gilded Goose (ELD) 160
2 Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves (WAR) 224
2 Nissa, Who Shakes the World (WAR) 169
2 Questing Beast (ELD) 171
2 Growth Spiral (RNA) 178

3 Veil of Summer (M20) 198
2 Negate (M20) 69
2 Thrashing Brontodon (M20) 197
2 Mystical Dispute (ELD) 58

Hang on... is there really no way for me to play Brawl without paying an entry fee? How am I supposed to test my deck? I can't even do a bot match with it.

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/469428977749065728/637602426010075136/unknown.png?width=1164&height=677)

Um, I drafted a very silly deck. I got a TONNE of Smitten Swordmasters and just jammed every knight I could find.

It worked. Currently at 5 wins!

Edit:

MY FIRST 7!

IMAGE(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/469428977749065728/637606184911896596/unknown.png?width=1164&height=677)

Nice!
I have been playing off and on since early Beta, and can't wait for proper friends list and custom game integration.
Eldraine is awesome! Big flavour and mechanics win, in my eyes.

Vargen wrote:

Hang on... is there really no way for me to play Brawl without paying an entry fee? How am I supposed to test my deck? I can't even do a bot match with it.

Regular Brawl play will be on Wednesdays only, though you can Brawl via direct challenge.

Also, for this Brawl even, while there is an entry fee, you can then play as much as you want, it doesn't matter if you lose.

Badferret wrote:
Vargen wrote:

Hang on... is there really no way for me to play Brawl without paying an entry fee? How am I supposed to test my deck? I can't even do a bot match with it.

Regular Brawl play will be on Wednesdays only, though you can Brawl via direct challenge.

Also, for this Brawl even, while there is an entry fee, you can then play as much as you want, it doesn't matter if you lose.

I was under the impression that joining the event locked your deck list. At least I was sure enough about it that I didn’t want to risk any gold while I’m just shy of a new draft. I’m not yet sure I have the right mix of spells that trigger Kykar and spells that make the rest of the game work. If I could tune that by beating up on Sparky I’d be good to go. As it is I don’t want to commit to a deck that might not do the thing well enough to be fun to play.

Vargen wrote:
Badferret wrote:
Vargen wrote:

Hang on... is there really no way for me to play Brawl without paying an entry fee? How am I supposed to test my deck? I can't even do a bot match with it.

Regular Brawl play will be on Wednesdays only, though you can Brawl via direct challenge.

Also, for this Brawl even, while there is an entry fee, you can then play as much as you want, it doesn't matter if you lose.

I was under the impression that joining the event locked your deck list. At least I was sure enough about it that I didn’t want to risk any gold while I’m just shy of a new draft. I’m not yet sure I have the right mix of spells that trigger Kykar and spells that make the rest of the game work. If I could tune that by beating up on Sparky I’d be good to go. As it is I don’t want to commit to a deck that might not do the thing well enough to be fun to play.

I just checked and you can change your deck with no penalty. Really it's a good event, play as much as you want, losses don't matter and get 5 rares and their card styles out of it.

I'm surprised to say this but the brawl event is the only thing keeping me playing at the moment.

I never enjoyed EDH/commander in paper magic. It's a format I feel is build towards the combo or designer Johnnies not towards diversity Timmies like myself. But for it's great for completing the play x cards of color y quests and it also takes the competitive edge off because I somewhat care less how the game goes as it is much more luck/draw dependent.

I build a Yorvo deck and enjoy just spamming the board with green creatures.

Over in standard I sit at the bottom of gold 4 and don't enjoy any of the decks that seem competitive enough to carry me towards platinum. I used a janky Kenrith deck to climb to gold but that relied on Field of the Dead to survive long enough to bring out Fires of Kenrith and go completely over the top.

With that gone I tried various flavors of Oko and Adventure themed decks but none of them was fun to play.

Anyone know a blue/black surveil list? I played against something like that and it looked fun.

Or is there a way to look up an opponents deck that I overlooked so far?

Glad everybody's enjoying Brawl. I'd really wish there was a convenient way to meet-up in game...it would be nice to play a few Brawl matches against friendly peeps every once in awhile. Hopefully the November update come through.

MEATER wrote:

I'm surprised to say this but the brawl event is the only thing keeping me playing at the moment.

...

Over in standard I sit at the bottom of gold 4 and don't enjoy any of the decks that seem competitive enough to carry me towards platinum.

I can never find the motivation to grind beyond gold and end up goofing off in unranked if I'm not playing Limited. Brawl will be a nice change of pace.

ThingumBob wrote:

Glad everybody's enjoying Brawl. I'd really wish there was a convenient way to meet-up in game...it would be nice to play a few Brawl matches against friendly peeps every once in awhile. Hopefully the November update come through.

I've had "swap usernames and hang out in Discord" work decently well. Unfortunately they just deprecated their Discord integration so you'd have to type in the username and ID numbers manually. At least Discord screen sharing works pretty well with it so you can have spectators and make it social beyond the two players if you want.

There is a bit of good news though. When they announced that they were delaying the friends list, they also talked a bit about future social features. They mentioned 8-player draft pods specifically as a friends-list feature. I'm not expecting that any time soon, but I'm glad they've got it on the list. Community draft nights would be awesome.

1)Oko as a brawl commander should be banned. Oko in general, should probably be banned. At least this event isn't ranked, so you can just concede against him.

2) My completely untuned Emmara, Soul of the Accord deck has been doing pretty nicely in Brawl. I think it helps to have a very low-cost commander, considering you don't start at 40 life, and...Well, Oko being everywhere. I run lots of convoke and pump spells. It's surprising what you can do when you can consitently drop her turn 2.

3) Brawl is such a weird format for me, being a long-time EDH fan. It contains a lot of what I like about that big goofy format, but the restrictions on card choice make it feel a bit clunky. While it gives me reason to use the cards I'd not consider for competitive standard, I don't want to use wildcards on brawl-only cards...

The Commander people (who are not Wizards employees, interestingly enough) got rid of the "banned as a Commander but OK in the deck" list. They decided that it was much easier to just have one simple ban list. I expect Brawl to follow suit and just have a simple ban list.

Oko deserves a Brawl ban for the same reason they banned Sorcerous Spyglass: it reliably and cheaply shuts down a large category of Commanders. Even if Standard somehow adjusts and finds a way to counter Oko he shouldn't be in Brawl.

I really like the idea of brawl. The one big thing I dislike about it with only having watched matches is planeswalker commanders. Wizards seems to balance their mythic walkers around you only ever having one of then. Too many can generate too much valuable when they are replayable or can be replaced with another copy it always seems like. This is more from a spectator perspective than abby actual play experience though. Most of my Walker experience is limited where they are just busted.

I think it's mostly Oko and, to a lesser extent, the Scions that are problematic. They're really hard to deal with early because their loyalty goes really high while they affect the board. Back when the format was first announced I made a Brawl deck with the XGU Nissa and she was lots of fun but not broken.

Badferret wrote:

I just checked and you can change your deck with no penalty. Really it's a good event, play as much as you want, losses don't matter and get 5 rares and their card styles out of it.

Thanks for the check. I've made like 5 Brawl decks so far and I want to keep brewing. And now I kind of want to put a Vannifar deck together in paper. Actually I don't because I don't want to do that much shuffling, but it's a lot of fun when I don't have to worry about that.

Speaking of Oko, I just had a 7 win draft run with Oko and 6 Merfolk Secret Keepers, 3 Didn't Say Please, 2 Run Away Togethers and 1 Turn Into a Pumpkin.

The one green for Oko was the only green cost in the deck but he's busted even in a mill deck, so running 6 forest for him was completely worth it.

Badferret wrote:

Speaking of Oko, I just had a 7 win draft run with Oko and 6 Merfolk Secret Keepers, 3 Didn't Say Please, 2 Run Away Togethers and 1 Turn Into a Pumpkin.

The one green for Oko was the only green cost in the deck but he's busted even in a mill deck, so running 6 forest for him was completely worth it.

That's filthy.

I'm all over the map with ELD drafts. I'm only 16-drafts into rare-drafting a full set of ELD rares, and I've already got more 0-3's and more 7-X's than in all 35 of my M20 drafts last season.

I seem to always end up drafing Mardu knights or a B/x knight deck and I've only just noticed. I think I'm severely underrating some of the green and blue cards, to the point where I don't even register that they're there and just slam pick stuff I shouldn't.

I really need to take my time and practice draft some more. I usually go 2-3, or 3-3 at best.

ThingumBob wrote:
Badferret wrote:

Speaking of Oko, I just had a 7 win draft run with Oko and 6 Merfolk Secret Keepers, 3 Didn't Say Please, 2 Run Away Togethers and 1 Turn Into a Pumpkin.

The one green for Oko was the only green cost in the deck but he's busted even in a mill deck, so running 6 forest for him was completely worth it.

That's filthy.

I'm all over the map with ELD drafts. I'm only 16-drafts into rare-drafting a full set of ELD rares, and I've already got more 0-3's and more 7-X's than in all 35 of my M20 drafts last season.

The draft bots are particularly bad for this set. I've had a similar problem with my Arena drafts, but my trips to FNM have had much more typical results.

Hope everyone is enjoying brawl day.

With Oko out, Niv Reborn feels like cheating. I ran 13-1 with Niv tonight, and lost with every other Commander I tried.