Just wondering if anybody plays and if there is a thread for this that I missed. I just got into Magic online. It is pretty sweet. I was also hoping someone had a magic arena code for me . Just wanted to start a thread and get a discussion going though.

 

You just wanted a code.

I might check out M:TG online when it comes out, but I don't know about playing two card games at once. Seems expensive.

 

Lol. I most definitely wanted a code but also it never occured me to ask you guys if you played. Seems like it would be something this board would love.

 

Out of curiosity, anyone on DLP up for playtesting on MTG Arena post Throne of Eldraine release? I have a few archetypes I suspect will be strong and legitimate testing is always better when you can get feedback from the opponent.

At the moment the archetypes I am looking to test are:

Gruul Midrange-Between Questing Beast, Once Upon a Time, Bonecrusher Giant, Wildborn Preserver, and The Great Heng I believe this deck received too many tools to ignore. It is very likely that I will test the aggro variant as well.

G/B Midrange-It has access to many of the good cards listed above, a good selection of planeswalkerw, Sideboard cards, removal and hand hate options. Murderous Rider alone gives the deck a much needed creature at the 3 slot and a very flexible answer.

Various flavors of control/tempo-I am a control player at heart and Jeskai seems pretty strong going into the new standard. Esper lost big Teferi and the check lands, and while that is a massive loss, I believe the mana base is not completely undoable and 90% of the cardbase is still legal. I also have a few ideas for U/W, U/B, and U/R on their own that aren’t worth going into the specifics for at the moment.

Not sure how large the MTG community is here, but I figured asking was at least worth a shot.

 

I guess the conclusion of this thread was that not many here play magic. Arena is great though.

I mostly play limited but I'd be up for some standard testing @Medfly.

 

I should be okay for testing, just not in the pre-release weekend.

 

I mostly mess around with janky meme decks in Arena but I'm down for testing. Signed up for the prerelease and I really enjoyed the brawl precons when they previewed a couple of weeks ago, particularly the faerie/artifact/flyer deck.

There's this ancient thread with a lot more posts but I'm certain most of those users have found greener pastures and less expensive hobbies.

@Dullahan isn't really active on this board anymore but he's one of the few players I know and has a fair amount of experience, I'd wager he'd be down to theorycraft and bounce ideas around.

 

Due to the age of this thread, even three people to test with was more than I could hope for. I try to keep a decent supply of deck staples, so if there is an archetype you want to test against, I should be able to put it together and pilot it at least semi competently. Not being able to test on the pre-release weekend is probably for the best, I am 90% sure I will be working mandatory overtime that weekend. So how do you guys want to arrange testing? I know DLP has a IRC and think it has a discord channel, and if not I have one. On steam I can be found as either Medfly or medfly88 and on arena I am Medfly#02633. If anyone would prefer to do so by email, shoot me a message and I will send my email to you.
--- Post automerged ---
For those of you keeping up with spoilers, they just spoiled a card that enables Izzet Phoenix to be a deck again.

Thrill Of Posibility

R1

Instant

As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card.

Draw two cards.

Between that, The Royal Scions, Brazen Borrower and Castle Embereth, I think Pheonix might be stronger than it was pre-rotation. Taking all that into account, I wanted DLP’s thoughts on a few card choices I am considering for the deck.

With the current toolset available to Izzet Pheonix, I actually think Dreadhord Arcanist is just better than Goblin Elexctromancer. Due to Royal Scion’s and Castle Embereth’s pump effects Dreadhorde can now cast any Instant/Sorcery in your graveyard that is 3CMC or less free, which not only makes triggering Pheonix easy, but serves as a card advantage Engine. There is also the question of how it will interact with the Adventure attatched to Brazen Borrowers, which has the potential to be all kinds of busted.

Due to not having Goblin Electromancer, and having less Sorceries in general than previous iterations, I do not believe the deck needs or wants Finale of Promise. Especially when Dreadhorde Arcanist and a 1 of Kefnet can serve the same role while generating much more tempo, card advantage and provide a clock/board presence independent of Pheonix. What makes it more absurd is that if both are out you need literally one spell to recur Pheonix, and get 3 for 1 card value.

Taking that into account the current “must include” cards I am looking at:

4 Arclight Pheonix
3 Brazen Borrower
3 Crackling Drake
2-3 Dreadhorde Arcanist
1 Kefnet, God-Eternal

4 The Royal Scions

4 Opt
4 Thrill of Possibility
3-4 Shock

Possible inclusions/non 4 of cards
Radical Idea
Discovery/Dispersion
Beacon Bolt
Lava Coil
Scorching Dragon Fire
Ionize
Essence Capture
Negate
Flame Sweep
Anticipate

2-3 Castle Emberlain


Ideally I would like the fit 3 Dreadhorde Arcanist, but if I did, I am not sure I could run any counterspells in the mainboard, especially as I am further diluting my Instant and Sorcery count with The Royal Scions. At the current set up I am confident I can get away with running 22-23 land, which leaves me room for about 20 instants/sorceries, not including the Adventure on Brazen Borrower. The adventure effect on Brazen Borrower, Dreadhorde’s ability to recur spells and the current guarenteed card draw suite should allow the deck to function despite the relatively low instant/sorcery count. This strategy also enables me to sideboard into a U/R control shell, a strategy that worked very well for U/R twin.

Look forward to hearing any thoughts or things/cards I blatantly overlooked.

Edit:
Unintended automerge.

 

I love magic, but I hate standard. There doesn't seem to be any reason for me to play standard, since every standard deck I'd like to play is just a worse version of a modern deck I play. And even in a less powerful format, the decks I love (but aren't viable) are still not viable because Wizards hates the color white (weenies, lifegain, etc.). There was a short time in standard where RW or UW weenies was actually pretty good, but then midrange got huge cards that are almost impossible to deal with (like hydrodroid krasis) effectively and it basically killed the deck.

The new set also demonstrated they're not interested in bringing it back either. There's some kind of durdly lifegain deck possible in WB with the 2 Ajani's Pridemate, and Ajani Pridemate, the planeswalker, but otherwise I'm not really interested in playing a color that is specifically designed to get shit on.

White is supposed to be the color of efficient beaters, and the new green mythic is a 4 mana 4/4 with haste, vigilance, Deathtouch, can't be blocked by power 2 or less, damage from creatures you control can't be prevented, and if ~ deals damage to a player deal that much damage to a PW that player controls.

How the fuck does anything I get in white compete with that?

 

Not going to lie, white's been pretty weak these last two sets in Limited as well - definitely the colour I least like to play, barring a few exceptions. It's mostly supportive in Bant/Esper/Jeskai varieties in Standard atm - and Jeskai is the only one that looks to survive rotation of those. (Of course, there's also the fucking Kethis deck and Vampires, but those are completely dead in the new Standard.)

Re: Arclight decks - how's Finale of Promise in there these days? I know it was a 2 or 3-of previously, but Phoenix has completely fallen off the map for a bit.

 

Phoenix looks like it has potential, but with the new Tormenting Voice variant being an instant and one of U/R’s best draw/discard engines being a planeswalker, I am a bit dubious of Finale. I was trying to balance that out through Dreadhorde Arcanist and Kefnet, but I am still not sure that is the optimal variant of the build. The new hate card they introduced in white also is a major Achilles heel for the deck.

Though if I am being objective, I think G/B and G/R variants will be the strongest decks going into the new format.

 

The new standard has gotten rolling and while it is early, it seems like it is going to be about as grindy as Khans standard was. And my results reflect that. Here are the most successful decks I have tested.

1. Yarok Field:
This deck hasa better long game than most decks in the meta at this point, with Esper Stax, and Golos variants being the only decks that can try to out grind it. Both are luckily destroyed by sideboard Ashiok. When you get Risen Reef+Yarok on like the deck begins to ramp up fast. Even without those two, it can generate back breaking value quickly by ramping into Cavaliers. It does have a noticeably bad match up against Simic flash(my only loss so far), but if you can stall out long enough to get field online, or ramp quickly enough you can run away with the game.

Current record with the deck:
Ranked Bo3: 8-1-1(Draw due to my opponent and I being 1:1 and server deciding to crash. Lost game 1 due to DCing when I was already behind on the board)
Unranked Bo3: 6-0

Gruul Aggro:
In a grindy meta this deck attempts to play fast enough to go under everything and pressure them into sub optimal plays. For the most part it seems to be doing that pretty well. Not much to say here other than it does basic Aggro deck things, play efficient beaters, light removal to get them to connect and a few curve toppers to close the game post board wipe. My sideboard for the deck definitely needs work, and on the whole I am unsure whether it is better positioned than Yarok.
Ranked Bo3: 2-0
Unranked Bo3: 6-2

G/B Midrange/Ramp:
This deck was more or less a stock copy of the list Reid Duke posted. It has the typical G/B Midrange style where you have legs in pretty much every match up, but few that are highly favorable. I haven’t tuned this deck much since I played it in a couple standard events, but anything that has a 65% winrate is worth noting.
Record across 2 events: 11-6

Look forward to hearing from anyone else on DLP on either your results or thoughts on what will be strong in the current meta.

 

I'm almost exclusively a limited player these days. I've gone through the whole gauntlet of 'everything's exciting' to 'they changed it and now it sucks' to 'ooh, cube!', so now it's basically the last one with a few drafts of each new format.

My favorite limited format is still M13 draft. I wish they brought the rings back.

 

I honestly have quit and come back to MTG enough times to thoroughly understand that sentiment. Modern is still my personal favorite format, but I play a bit of everything. As far as limited goes, I will always have a soft spot for Shards of Alara Limited, being able to play absurd decks like 5 color cascade tempo, and actually win with it was pretty great.

So what are your thoughts on the current limited? G/B food feals kind of absurd, I 7-0’d the last two drafts I played when I got the cards for it. U/R card draw would be the second most powerful in my experience, other strategies have not even come close to the win percentage I have with the two above. And is it me, or does all in speed aggro feel pretty bad in Eldraine draft at the moment? When I played I usually would close games by the skin of my teeth or stumble and get run over more synergistic strategies.

 

Grindy sounds right - also for Limited. Have had limited luck in Standard with an RB aggro list (10-7 in ranked), and while mono B might be faster, it doesn't have the tools it feels like. There's a Gruul list out there that might be fast enough, though - or I had bad luck when I found it with the Yarok Field deck I pilfered.

 

I've done about 20 drafts worth of ELD (yey for Leagues!). Overall, not my favorite, but I do like the inherent card advantage that adventures buy you, which makes it feel like a pretty high power format, even if it really isn't.

Many games become grindy, especially the food mirrors, but I have also had a lot of success with all-out ramp or mill strategies. My pet card is the black drain knight, but I've not been able to achieve critical mass - the closest deck I had to that strategy only had 3 of them.

 

Both my pre-release Sealed were of the Dimir kind (splashing Oko in round 1), and while you can probably make some variety of extremely fast decks (probably in Rakdos, as usual), food is everywhere, making lifegain easy. My scoresheet/notepad reflects this... Looking forward to either settling in on the GB food decks (Deathless Knight is supremely silly btw) or maybe UB mill at this week's FNM.

-edit after Zerg_Lurker's post below, my Sealeds...

3-1 with Dimir splash Oko and playing 6 of my rare pulls, got beaten by a GW Adventure deck plus minor flood (except no Forests...). Stonecoil Serpent was MVP of the deck, funniest play was to Fae of Wishes into my sideboard game 1 to kill off a Revenge of Ravens with Return to Nature against Mardu Knights.

2-1-1 round 2 with Dimir and Cauldron chicanery. Tied GW adventure because boardstall and mill chicanery, lost to Gx (forgot colour 2) because big dudes were the prime weakness of the deck. Then proceeded to get the two best Covetous Urge I'll probably get all set in the fourth match, first yoinking a Rankle (which was my round 1 promo) and a Syr Konrad (the 3BB Knight) the game after. Then again, I also cast Stonecoil Serpent twice in one (won) game in the drawn match...It's an amazing card if the format is slow enough.

Already foisted off the Oko, though it seems his price has gone up since, so... Eh. Still have a foil alternate art Murderous Rider that I'll probably try to pawn off at the local Magicfest next week.

 

My sealed pool was pretty rough for prerelease as I had no top end finishers in any color and saw my best options were white/blue and white/black knighty aggro but using circle of loyalty to cover for the lack of pump spells. Sleep deprived 9 a.m. deck building decisions are questionable.

I ran over g/b once by curving out perfectly while opponent was on the back foot stalling with food, then got smashed with a tall as a giant hunter early when I couldn't draw my removal fast enough.

Lost in some other interesting ways, like getting pinged by the black Syr knight in a mardu knights plus mill via eyeball flyer, and the giant that comes back for food.

Garruk is just miserable to play against though, and easily the strongest card in the set.

I've only played so much with the new set but I agree aggro feels pretty bad to run.

Decided to dick around in Bo3 on arena since I only ever play the faster Bo1. Went up against Esper stax and just presenting unmoored ego on turn 3 got a scoop. Hilarious.

 

Due to how much of a pain in the ass Esper Stax can be, I derive way more joy from this statement than I should.

For those who care, Yarok is still overperforming for me, despite the deck looking heavily flawed. Maybe I have gotten match up lottery?
However due to its success I figured I would share the list, the mana base is probably the weakest aspect as I have literally not fine tuned it at all. The sideboard also needs some work, the Shifting Ceratops is literally only in there for the Simic Flash match up and may be replaced with Mystic Dispute. Only have 20 matches with the deck so far, but the overall results look promising.

Current Record/Stats:
Ranked Bo3:
11-1-2
Win Rate on the Play: 93%
Win Rate on the Draw: 64%

Match Losses
Simic Flash
Grixis Fires(This one had heavy variance, so I am not sure whether the match up is good or bad.)

Draw: R/B Knights

Match wins:
Esper Stax 2-0
G/B Midrange: 1-0
G/B Adventure: 1-0
Golos Variants: 2-0
R/B Aggro: 1-1-0
W/B Control: 1-0
Mono Black Aggro: 1-0
Bant Adventure/Ramp: 1-0
Temur Fires: 1-0
Random U/W/B/G Deck I can't remember the specifics on: 1-0

Unranked Match Wins: 6-0
Simic Food: 1-0
U/W Control: 1-0
Sultai Midrange: 1-0
Sultai Food: 1-0
U/B Control: 1-0
G/W Adventure: 1-0

Combined Match stats:
17-1-2

Yarok Field:

Creatures(28)
3 Hydroid Krasis (RNA) 183
4 Arboreal Grazer (WAR) 149
4 Cloudkin Seer (M20) 54
2 Cavalier of Night (M20) 94
3 Cavalier of Thorns (M20) 167
4 Risen Reef (M20) 217
4 Yarok, the Desecrated (M20) 220
4 Murderous Rider (ELD) 97

Planeswalkers(4)
4 Oko, Thief of Crowns (ELD) 197

Land(28)
2 Island (ELD) 257
2 Swamp (ELD) 261
1 Forest (ELD) 269
2 Thornwood Falls (ELD) 313
2 Overgrown Tomb (GRN) 253
2 Watery Grave (GRN) 259
2 Breeding Pool (RNA) 246
2 Dismal Backwater (M20) 245
4 Field of the Dead (M20) 247
2 Jungle Hollow (M20) 248
2 Temple of Malady (M20) 254
2 Temple of Mystery (M20) 255
3 Fabled Passage (ELD) 244

Sideboard:
2 Assassin's Trophy (GRN) 152
2 Massacre Girl (WAR) 99
3 Ashiok, Dream Render (WAR) 228
2 Agent of Treachery (M20) 43
2 Legion's End (M20) 106
1 Noxious Grasp (M20) 110
3 Shifting Ceratops (M20) 194

Hope you guys have the same luck I have with the deck.

 

Going to take it for a spin, though I'm running low on rare WCs (8, 19 MR). Was using a Jeff Hoogland list previously.

I also hate and love you for making me craft commons. (Gainlands.)

Also, 3-0'd FNM, started meh (Tome Raider), then picked up strong Golgari cards, which then dried up and I was torn between that and Selesnya. Got signals Golgari wasn't open to my left pack 2, but the white that was being passed around was garbage at best and through the miracle of getting a good amount of early playables pack 3, I cobbled something together.

This may or may not have involved splashing R for Sundering Stroke and Escape to the Wilds (Light up the Stage on 'roids). God, that card is disgusting.