Same.
I don't love this set, nor do I hate it. Was more of a fan of neo
― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 2 June 2022 05:40 (one year ago) link
if you get several of the 1W 2/1 that's not a bad idea, but everything else is 3+
personally I like just getting 4-5 of those sac lands in my pool and running a splashy 18 land deck. it's nice to be able to just thin your deck out that way.
agreed that NEO was better. kind of obnoxious that this is the current Limited format for nearly twice as long. same thing happened with those Innistrad sets, where the 1st was way more dynamic and fun than the 2nd.
― frogbs, Thursday, 2 June 2022 13:20 (one year ago) link
Yeah pretty average format. It's funny that I thought it was a slow format two weeks; I think people figured out quickly that the tempo decks are not just viable but actively good so the whole format speed increased. I end up in straight 2-color decks about the half the time, and I seem to win most with BR and UW, which to me is kind of a design failure for a tri-color set but *shrug*
― Vinnie, Thursday, 2 June 2022 14:53 (one year ago) link
Two weeks ago*
― Vinnie, Thursday, 2 June 2022 14:54 (one year ago) link
new format is giving me some flashbacks to Invasion block. dunno how it'll play in draft but in Sealed this domain stuff looks like it may be a wee bit too powerful. maybe having 10 common duals wasn't a great idea.
― frogbs, Friday, 2 September 2022 14:20 (one year ago) link
even in sets without domain the 10 common duals thing tends to make draft smoother at the expense of sealed turning into 5 color mush, it's unfortunate but you have to balance for one format or the other and sealed is kind of fundamentally skewed towards certain strategies no matter what you do so balancing for draft is better
― ciderpress, Friday, 2 September 2022 14:48 (one year ago) link
true but it's a particular issue in this format since not only can you splash all your off-color rares and Tier 1 uncommons but also just having those things in play makes the cards in your deck better. in some decks its worth it to play them just to get more land types out there even if you don't have anything of that color
― frogbs, Friday, 2 September 2022 17:30 (one year ago) link
I'm having a hell of a time drafting this set. I played a lot of the Arena-only Baldur's Gate set and found it really fun, especially after the rebalancing; but Dominaria United just feels like every draft I'm getting rolled by domain decks. My last draft, I was trying to do a URw spells thing, and I thought I was in great shape when I got passed a Temporal Firestorm (the rare red sorcery that does 5 damage to everything, but lets you phase out your creatures first). But every time I drew it, I was facing some sick domain deck full of 4/6 treefolk and 8/8 or 10/10 Maros.
So ultimately I decided to shift my focus to Standard for the time being. I built a B/U/g Titan reanimator deck that just goes over the top of a lot of the obnoxious midrange planeswalker stuff, and it's been a lot of fun. I'm also trying to make some form of Suicide Black aggro work, using Stronghold Arena for card draw, and a neat little engine of Cult Conscript + Mukotai Soulripper + Jadar, Ghoulcaller to keep the pressure on.
― Sonned by a comedy podcast after a dairy network beef (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 7 September 2022 03:48 (one year ago) link
I've been pretty busy lately but I did get in 8-10 Dom United drafts and didn't find the set very fun. Like Bernard, I also mostly lost to Domain decks, except when I drafted Domain, in which case I lost to aggro decks. seems a very stupid thing to complain about - one of the fundamental principles of gameplay - so probably the set is fine and I'm just losing interest in the game
I've never paid much attention to the collectible aspect of the game but it seems WotC is very much in a capitalize-on-whoever's-left-of-the-whales phase (the idea of the $250 proxy boosters astounds me) and it doesn't give me much faith in the company. so maybe it feels like things are winding down in general. even here it's been almost two months since the last post!
― Vinnie, Monday, 31 October 2022 07:53 (one year ago) link
suspect that their ROI on Arena is pretty immense though
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 31 October 2022 12:20 (one year ago) link
Oh, no doubt, they've said as much. By all metrics, they're doing better than ever. Writing this out, I realize I don't have much of a case for things winding down except for a vaguely negative vibe in the mtg subreddit
― Vinnie, Monday, 31 October 2022 13:12 (one year ago) link
the MTG 30 thing sounds insane but I suspect those cards will be worth a fortune in a decade
feel like they should just bite the bullet and get rid of the restricted list. the game's expensive cards are so entrenched where they are right now and just leaving open the possibility might drive prices down to a more reasonable level. just let me sell off my collection first :)
― frogbs, Monday, 31 October 2022 13:14 (one year ago) link
theres definitely the feeling of a winding down among the long time players what with major irl events scaled back and new products being increasingly focused towards commander and collectors, the question is how much of the new audience arena brought in get attached to the game enough to stick around for 2+ decades like we did
in the meantime i will continue to draft each new standard set a dozen times or so to get the general set experience and otherwise not engage
― ciderpress, Monday, 31 October 2022 14:11 (one year ago) link
I'm at a weird crossroads with it. For me Magic was a really great social thing and a lot of the friendships I still have are a result of that. I think Theros was the last time I actually physically drafted MTG and I remember it kinda feeling like it was the twilight years of the whole scene I'd grown up with. I have kids now so I don't have the time to hang out at the shop, nor do I think that scene even exists anymore. Been thinking about selling out multiple times but I'm not really sure where to start. My son is gonna be 8 soon and I think there is a really good chance he gets into Magic, so I've been thinking about saving my stuff for him, but all my cards are gonna be like 10-15+ years old by that point, so what's the point? When I get together with my friends one topic that always seems to come up is "wish I hadn't sold out, have you checked the prices lately?" But surely things can't keep going up at this rate...?
― frogbs, Monday, 31 October 2022 14:24 (one year ago) link
You're probably right, but it's hilarious how much that pack loses value after its opened. I imagine someone spending $250 to open a Chaoslace PROXY. The idea of the set means they don't plan to get rid of the RL anytime soon I imagine, just work around it
But surely things can't keep going up at this rate...?
Unless you're holding RL cards, are they still? I thought a lot of the complaints were about the number of reprints driving down prices (which I kinda like, as a player). My son is a bit younger than yours but I'm also hoping he gets into Magic when he's older. I don't have a collection to give him but I figure we'll probably want to try whatever the new set is
― Vinnie, Monday, 31 October 2022 23:24 (one year ago) link
https://thenib.com/magic-on-deck/
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 1 November 2022 14:37 (one year ago) link
awww, that was pretty cute. I miss when the internet was full of weird creative writing exercises like that. and yeah it's unfortunate that Magic never benefitted from the boom in eSports though I think that comic lays out why pretty clearly. I recently watched a video of a guy I used to play with who made it to the semis in a Modern Grand Prix and it occurred to me a few minutes in that I just had no clue what either deck was trying to do. I even recognized nearly all the cards too. the broader issue is that yeah, as the comic mentions, there's really not a lot of personality in Magic players. those who do have a persona usually have a bad one. all the big tournaments I went to I remember leaving just irritated at how obnoxious half the people were. don't get me wrong you'd meet some cool people but they were always the one who dropped by Round 5. I still remember going to one of my first big tournaments at the age of 14, making it to Table 1, and beating some guy who was apparently a big name pro with a Might of Oaks, which caused him to berate me for several minutes and call me "Random Might of Oaks kid" the rest of the day. I Top 8'd and came away with a couple boxes of sealed boosters but still felt pretty crappy overall about the day.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 1 November 2022 17:02 (one year ago) link
Bet he would have been singing a different tune if it had been a Blazing Shoal
― My name is Mike Cyclops. I work for (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 2 November 2022 18:46 (one year ago) link
didnt even realize there was a new set out. very much feels like a different game, or at least back to the Eldrazi days. but I think this set is a lot more dynamic. lots of reprints w/ old borders too
there is a card called "The Stone Brain" which looks like a potential game changer against certain combo decks
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 16:41 (one year ago) link
The Stone Brain
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:15 (one year ago) link
this set looks really cool on paper i haven't played it yet though. fun to see them return to the 90s storyline (also the one MTG novelization i read as a kid)
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 17:17 (one year ago) link
fwiw I totally called the next set being some artifact thing based on the Dominaria Karn. they love to do that sort of thing.
the Powerstone stuff is interesting, it definitely changes how you view the various mana costs in this set. a lot of the artifacts with activated abilities are probably better than they look.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 20:39 (one year ago) link
well the brothers war set was always going to be an artifact set, the original version of it was Antiquities which was an artifact set
the powerstone ramp thing is a neat way to go though
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 16 November 2022 20:43 (one year ago) link
I'm casually interested in getting into MTG after having played and enjoyed Inscryption on the PS. I've got one friend who plays it and we've been up to Forbidden Planet to buy a starter pack. She gave me a very quick lesson in a noisy pub, but I still need to get my head around the basics. Any good resources?
― Urbandn hope all ye who enter here (dog latin), Thursday, 17 November 2022 10:41 (one year ago) link
MTG Arena is the online free-to-play version, I think you could pick up a lot of the basics from that. I'm sure there's some good YouTube tutorials too but I don't know any specific ones to recommend
― Vinnie, Thursday, 17 November 2022 11:00 (one year ago) link
And yeah, LSV played Brothers War draft today and it looked really fun to play
― Vinnie, Thursday, 17 November 2022 11:01 (one year ago) link
it definitely is. I love sets that seem to tweak the balance of the game in a fundamental way. also think it fixes the problem the Eldrazi set had where you had to figure out how to kill the big mana stuff right away or die within 2 turns. I also really dig slotting in the random artifacts from the past. I have clue what's in there so it's pretty fun to just see random shit like that. less fun when you're starting down a Wurmcoil but still.
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 November 2022 19:32 (one year ago) link
also I really like all the little references to Antiquities in there. some pretty subtle ones in there!!
― frogbs, Thursday, 17 November 2022 19:57 (one year ago) link
ok so after getting trucked by Phyrexian Processor, Wurmcoil, and Sundering Titan in consecutive matches I'm not such a fan of the reprints anymore
― frogbs, Tuesday, 6 December 2022 20:32 (one year ago) link
After my grousing upthread, I actually love this set. Been drafting the hell out of it. Despite the doomsaying, this set and Kamigawa from this year would probably be in my all-time top ten (that might be a fun list to make)
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 7 December 2022 01:28 (one year ago) link
Although yes playing against Processor sucks
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 7 December 2022 01:29 (one year ago) link
speaking of reprints, I opened a Charbelcher and built a whole mono-red deck around it only to realize it does NOT count the land you flip towards the damage it deals, so it can sometimes deal 0! I guess I had never seen the card operate in a fair context
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 7 December 2022 04:49 (one year ago) link
hmm, not familiar with that one
*reads text of card*
Vinnie, we've got to fine tune your reading
― mh, Wednesday, 7 December 2022 16:45 (one year ago) link
not sure how they managed this but phyrexia is empirically the most coinflippy draft format in a long time
https://i.imgur.com/AMC0a6z.png
― ciderpress, Saturday, 25 February 2023 16:00 (one year ago) link
I've only done one sealed league but my impression was that there are a ton of good aggro cards and you often just find yourself needing to put down as many bodies as possible. Also there seems to be a lot of insane rares that can drop on turn 3 or 4 and just take over the whole game
― frogbs, Saturday, 25 February 2023 18:34 (one year ago) link
Bit surprised that it's higher than all other recent sets but it's obv a tempo format. I've had way more success with aggro decks than control ones. I just played against a deck that played a couple cheap toxic creatures, then Mesmerizing Dose for my turn 2, turn 3, and turn 4 plays - I'm never winning that game on the draw, but I might have had a shot on the play
Despite that, I have been having fun with the format, but I don't think it'll have the legs of Kamigawa or Brothers War
― Vinnie, Saturday, 25 February 2023 23:03 (one year ago) link
phyrexia ia some weirdo poison mechanic bullshit we’re all going to have to adjust for in Arena for the time being. honestly, you can go poison or artifact mechanic in the drafts and poison/corrupted is better
― mh, Sunday, 26 February 2023 05:20 (one year ago) link
I've heard a lot more positive stuff about this set than I have in a long time. I started playing not long after the last phyrexia/poison block, so never got to do that whole thing. Not sure if it's enough to get me back into it but it has my attention.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Sunday, 26 February 2023 06:07 (one year ago) link
still feel like I'm learning the format, but RG oil is as good as the poison decks imo, have had a lot of success with it. Blue only seems to work well with white, but I think all the other pairs can be good, as long as you're curving out
― Vinnie, Sunday, 26 February 2023 09:08 (one year ago) link
RG is way ahead of the other decks very OP
― ciderpress, Sunday, 26 February 2023 14:04 (one year ago) link
when it was just Fynn, poison counters were a cool sometimes thing that relied on deathtouch synergies - Toxic is kinda irritating in Standard already just because there's not much you can do against it except "win faste" although Cemetery Desecrator could help out if you make it to T6, also Dramatist's Puppet -- but a lot of these new Toxic creatures get active a lot quicker than T6. in Historic run 4x Solemnity to halt the plague of poison counters deck in Historic imo
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 26 February 2023 14:26 (one year ago) link
Reprint Leeches, you cowards
― Vinnie, Sunday, 26 February 2023 15:06 (one year ago) link
poison is way neutered this time compared to its previous run in standard from 2011. toxic can't kill people on turn 2 like infect could
― ciderpress, Sunday, 26 February 2023 15:15 (one year ago) link
I got into Arena a couple years ago after a nearly 25 year hiatus from the game. I’ve been mostly playing standard but got into alchemy recentlyIt’s nice to win, but I mostly like having fun? I keep creating green/black decks where winning is contingent on milling as many of my own cards as possible
― mh, Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:09 (one year ago) link
lol did you just whip my ass on arena
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:15 (one year ago) link
was the player name “watts”
― mh, Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:42 (one year ago) link
Still haven't gone back to Arena but my Fynn deck was probably my most fun/memorable deck. These new poison/corrupted cards look insane though.
― change display name (Jordan), Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:48 (one year ago) link
I did just finish four or five matches and won a couple. I smoked some blue/artifact guy who for some reason blocked my legendary with deathtouch with his 8/8 trample artifact and ended up in a deadlock with some all-wolves deck
― mh, Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:50 (one year ago) link
I think I snuck in a Dreadhound/Ghoulcaller’s Harvest combo in, too.
Love to damage an opponent by killing my own guys
― mh, Sunday, 26 February 2023 16:52 (one year ago) link
wolves decks are hard to beat and kinda boring, though some of the more bonkers wolf guys are at least funny
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 26 February 2023 18:11 (one year ago) link