Mtg arena open beta

[Primarch]

Last night I finished off my last Sealed game of Eldraine, I went 5-3 again, thanks mainly to the Lochmere Serpent. Being able to make a 7/7 unblockable is pretty potent, especially in slower games like Sealed where you are likely to have built up a substantial mana base to feed it.
My last (winning) game went:
Play Serpent,
Block opponent's big 7/5 monster with the Serpent, both creatures die.
Exile the best cards from opponent's graveyard and recast Serpent.
Opponent quits.

Just need to wait for Ranked Draft to open now.

[me_in_japan]

indeed. I've been using a single copy of the serpent in constructed with reasonably effective results. I'm finding that as the meta for eldraine starts to solidify, my poor little esper control is struggling. It's just not fast enough to deal with the other good decks, most of which win or lose on turn 3 or so (I mean, ultimately it may take a few more turns, but there are several decks that can have the winning pieces down by turn 3 or so). The main issue I have is the variety of wincons. eg

bant ramp - wins via Oko (a pw), or nissa (also a pw)
cat pie - wins via graveyard recursion/artifacts
golos fields - wins via land
rakdos aggro - wins via weenie assault
etc

I can build to combat one or two of these, but as soon as I fiddle my deck, I see nothing but the other decks. I guess now is not the time for esper to shine. None of the strong decks really appeal at the moment, though. Also, I lack a lot of the good eldraine cards. Looking forward to drafting and seeing what I end up with. I still have gems for one more sealed, but I'll hold off for now. No rush

[Primarch]

A wide variety of viable decks is a good thing though, right? If there were only a couple of top decks, then you'd see nothing else except them, and all games would just be carbon copies of each other. Plus, anything that discourages Esper Control is aces in my book.

I don't know if Ashiok's graveyard hate would be fast enough to shut down the kitty kitchen deck, but it could help. It also neatly prevents the Golos deck from searching for the land it needs, potentially buying you time to smash it's face in with your Thieves of Sanity and whatnot. Plus it fits in with your colours.

The more I play, the more I'm enjoying Limited games. Less meta-decks and more "Hey, I've never seen that before!"

[me_in_japan]

Have you tried draft yet? I'm having an abysmal time of it. 1-3, 1-3, 0-3, 2-3 so far. Blooming embarrasing, tbh. I've tried gruul aggro, blue/white flyers, and blue/black mill. I actually managed to mill one guy out, and came damn close the rest of the games. But not close enough, clearly. I'm mid-draft just now with a gruul/knight aggro deck with 3 grumgullys in it. So far, it's 3-1, so it's at least beating my average

[Primarch]

I've tried two drafts so far. I went 6-3 with a mono-white deck. There were no real bomb cards in it, just Flutterfoxes and Bartered Cows. My second draft was an average 3-3 in Rakdos colours. I'll probably try another draft this weekend.

Last night I tried to clear my quests down with a few games in basic Play mode using a primarily Blue deck with Black splashed in. The deck is built around 3 Agents of Treachery and has a few Thieves of Sanity for early card theft. One of my opponents had a deck consisting of nothing but rares/mythics, Arboreal Grazers and Thought Erasures. All of their lands were M20 rare Scrylands and Lotus Fields. Around turn 5 they dropped Jace and proceeded to mill me until I got an Agent out and stole Jace. They quickly killed Jace with a Hydroid Krasis (which I then Murdered) and used Casualties of War to destroy my Agent and my land.
By the end of the game they had hit Finale of Revelation 4 times, drawing nearly every card in their deck (with no hand limit). At this point they had about 30+ cards in hand, 20 open mana and a couple of 0/3 grazers on the table. I had 4 Islands, no creatures and 11 life. On their turn they drew a card, leaving them with 6 in their library, then cast a 14/14 Hydroid Krasis without having Jace in play.

[me_in_japan]

dear god, I have never been so close to throwing my pc out the window in frustration. I eventually managed a 5-3 result, but feeeeeeeething 'ell that last game was an exercise in frustration. I swear he cast 4 of those mill merfolk, so-tiny'd me twice, run-away-together twice, flipping two millfolk back (and recasting them) while flipping my attackers into my hand, Charmed Sleep my giant, and also had Syr mill-a-lot on the table. It was...the ultimate perfect mill deck, with perfect card draw. By the end of the game I had my 3 best beaters on board, all of which were either -6/-0 or asleep. For the last 3 or 4 turns, mind you, once the board is locked and I'm clearly doomed, he plays crappy creatures. Where were they turns 1-4, eh? eh? EH!?!

Just...so annoying.

grr.

[Primarch]

Some games are better off conceded, it sounds like this may have been one of them.

[me_in_japan]

meh, I'm usually the first to scoop and move on if the game doesnt matter but in draft (and when I'm annoyed) I tend towards the stubborn.

On the plus side...


YAY!



I've never done a 7 win draft before. Lor' bless ya, gruul aggro. (It's funny, for all I tend towards esper control, which could reasonably be described as the antithesis of gruul aggro, I got my first ever sealed 7 wins with gruul, too. I guess in limited it's best to just hit the opponent in the face as quickly as possible?)

1 Dwarven Mine
7 Mountain
9 Forest
1 Redcap Melee
2 Edgewall Innkeeper
1 Rimrock Knight
2 Curious Pair
1 Garenbrig Squire
1 Merchant of the Vale
1 Raging Redcap
1 Rosethorn Acolyte
1 Sporecap Spider
1 Grumgully, the Generous
1 Heraldic Banner
2 Embereth Paladin
1 Fierce Witchstalker
1 Garenbrig Carver
1 Signpost Scarecrow
1 Garenbrig Paladin
1 Escape to the Wilds
1 Feasting Troll King
1 Tuinvale Treefolk
1 Sundering Stroke

[Primarch]

Congratulations on winning your draft. I went 1-3 last night in one draft and I'm currently 2-0 in a second one that I started after failing abysmally in the first.
I'm quite liking Gingerbrute in draft as it can evade a lot of stuff. I have 4 in the current draft and they have been my main damage dealers in the two games so far.

[me_in_japan]

Aye, gingerbrute has been good for me, too (and killed me a few times - I’ve seen people put that thorn halberd thingy on him then repeatedly thump me with unblockable attacks.)

Despite that win, I’m still finding Eldraine draft to be very challenging. I don’t really have a feel for what works and doesn’t. The only reason I did well with the gruul deck is the silly number of green/red rares I pulled (and on that note - that troll king is awesomesauce. Once he hits the board it’s pretty much game over.)