Mtg arena open beta

[Primarch]

Kaya can be cast with Black mana too, though she's maybe too expensive. Blue has a few bounce options if you can drop the spear though. Callous Dismissal is nice for 2 mana as it leaves you with a handy blocker.

Every deck should have an Achilles Heel, (some of my decks have an Achilles entire Leg ) or the game would devolve into everyone playing the same thing. For Grixis, Enchantments are a pain to deal with, though the Hexproof on Nine Lives is tough for any colour.

If the game is getting you down, take a break for a few days, try different modes or just play around with different colours. White Weenie, Izzet Spells or Green Stompy can all be fun. I know the game emphasizes competitive behaviour, but stop building decks to win and try just building junk decks to mess around. A change, as they say, is as good as a rest.

[Primarch]

September's State of the Game is up:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-09-15

Obviously it's mainly Zendikar, but it looks like Kaladesh Remastered will be here by the end of the year. Assuming that it is the same size as Amonkhet (ie 2 sets trimmed down to 1.5x a standard release), we'll have had twice as many cards released this year as last year. I'm happy to have new stuff to play with, but just keeping on top of Standard is a full time job.
I will admit to feeling a little burned out by the constant churn of releases. I was looking forward to the long Zendikar season, but now I'm kind of sceptical about it.

[me_in_japan]

huh. kinda surprised that Time Spiral Remastered is paper only. That'll be the first ever Remastered set in paper, and I find it a bit weird, tbh. It opens up aaaaaall kinds of questions about projected card value, reprint equity, and stuff like that. What will happen to the value of cards if they start "Remastering" any old set they feel like? Innistrad remastered? Lorwyn remastered? I feel itd be great for the players in the short term, in terms of increasing availability, but it'll absolutely tank the value of any non-reserved list card, because looming over every single valuable card collection is the likelihood that the cards in it will be reprinted en masse at some time. Not the kind of thing that inspires people to buy tons of packs in the hope of cracking valuable rares and selling them on/hoarding them, which in turn massively reduces the number of packs being cracked, which spikes costs for anyone who does want to buy singles. So, hmmn. Yeah. Short term good, long term disastrous.

Other than that, I'm happy to see Kaladesh come to Arena, and Pioneer masters will be a shot in the arm for Historic, for sure. It'll be Pioneer in no time!

[Primarch]

Looks like Uro is on his way out.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-09-28
Of course, he's still valid in every non-standard format, but I'd like to see anybody try to ramp now...

[me_in_japan]

Yeah, because there’s no other ways to ramp* in standard without ol’ Uro

Incidentally, this is the first ban where I didn’t get a single wild card out of it. Never owned an Uro, and likely never will.

Btw, what do you make of the Walking Dead secret lair? My feelings are...negative. Partly from an aesthetic sense that it just ain’t Magic - crossing the streams is just lazy fanboy-ing, but much more from the sense that for some goddamn reason they’ve made them legal in play for eternal formats. Whether the cards are crap or not, having something available only for a limited time that is legal in actual play is opening the doors for all kinds of shit. Nexus of Fate was a massive problem in paper magic cos nobody could get hold of it, and that was a box topper. Now, there may well be plenty of these guys to go around (it’s a popular franchise, after all) but down the line what happens when they do a Harry Potter secret lair or summation, and Dumbledore turns out to be the key card for the Modern meta in 2025?

It’s a slippery slope, I tells yer. A slippery slope...


*on which note, I made it to the end of my box of m21, and in his last packs Sean pulled a full art rare Cultivate!**

**aaaaand a full art alt Ugin. Ker-ching!

[Primarch]

I had a couple of Uro's I think, so I guess I'll get some wildcards from the ban.
Congratulations on getting the full art cards in your boosters.

I have no real interest in the meta for any version of the paper game. I don't buy expensive cards to build decks with and won't be starting anytime soon. Commander pre-cons, some boosters and whatever I can find in the 10 yen boxes at the local stores suit me fine. If WotC thinks they can make money from tie-ins, it doesn't bother me any. There will always be loads of awesome cards in the game, I'm never going to have them all, so if someone somewhere wants to spend their money on them, or on $100 collector boosters, it's the same as someone paying for cards from Hareruya or similar.
Of course, if the meta is something you're actively participating in, I can see how this could be a big deal for you. It just doesn't register on my radar at all.

[me_in_japan]

fair enough, and tbh after this year is out I'm going to cut down my purchases, mostly because I find myself compulsively building commander decks, and while this is a fun diversion, it's starting to feel a bit futile given the actual game play situation.

As for the walking dead cards, my concern is not so much for what this lot might do now, but where this road might take the game in general. I too have no desire to compete in any kind of competitive meta, but the whole things smells a bit of short term gain for long term loss for the game as a whole, and WoTC as a company. I detect the reek of Hasbro Suits about the whole affair, tbh. But eh, the punters will lap it up, and as you say, it's not really a thing that'll affect either you or me, so I suppose I should just keep my nose out of it, I guess


*edit*

*record skip*
stop the press. Turns out I had 4 Uros, just never used em. I assumed that the ban wouldve come into force last time I played it. I guess not. So, I was wrong. But on the plus side, 4 mythic rare wildcards!

[Primarch]

Given how obviously broken some of the cards in standard have been recently (Oko, Omnath, Uro, Fires, Wilderness Rec etc) I'm not sure what they could print in a limited drop that would be worse.

Apparently I had one Uro, so only one WC for me.

[Primarch]

This week's games so far.

[me_in_japan]

I've been drafting a bit this past week. It's been (as usual) a selection of strikes and gutter balls, but I managed a 5-3, a couple 4-3s, a disastrous 0-3, and a rather spiffy 7-1, which was nice. So far as I can tell, drafting Zendikar basically boils down to: Did you draft WB clerics? If so, you're likely to be fine. If not, better luck next time? Or maybe that's just me?



also, from what i can tell, the mtg "community" (if such a thing exists) is going into complete and utter bloody meltdown over the walking dead secret lair. I've never seen em this pissed off. It's like when folks were all packing in 40k when GW were being asshats and suchlike a few years ago. Pitchforks and flaming torches a-go-go...

So, how's your drafting been going? Any joy amongst the hedrons in chez Prim?