MTG: Arena

a_skeleton_02

<Banned>
8,130
14,248
gatebreaker ram is my fav creature of the set easy, it's just fucking nuts

here's my bo3 deck - i've tried a number of variations and like this one the best

4 Circuitous Route (GRN) 125
2 Forest (XLN) 276
4 Gate Colossus (RNA) 232
4 Gatebreaker Ram (RNA) 126
4 Gates Ablaze (RNA) 102
4 Gateway Plaza (GRN) 247
3 Gift of Paradise (M19) 184
4 Growth Spiral (RNA) 178
4 Gruul Guildgate (RNA) 249
4 Guild Summit (GRN) 41
4 Hydroid Krasis (RNA) 183
1 Island (XLN) 264
4 Izzet Guildgate (GRN) 251
1 Mountain (XLN) 272
4 Plaza of Harmony (RNA) 254
4 Shimmer of Possibility (RNA) 51
4 Simic Guildgate (RNA) 257
1 Banefire (M19) 130

1 Banefire (M19) 130
3 Fiery Cannonade (XLN) 143
2 Mass Manipulation (RNA) 42
4 Negate (RIX) 44
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun (GRN) 192
2 Pelakka Wurm (M19) 192
1 Expansion // Explosion (GRN) 224


My list was for Ravnica Constructed, but your standard list is a good start. However, there are problems.

4 Guild Summits seems overkill, same for 4x of a 4 drop ramp spell when I already have a 4x of a 2 drop ramp spell. The other problem with Guild Summit is you don't want too many on the board, because the draw portion is not optional in the late game.

Gift of Paradise seems awful.

Ral, Izzet Viceroy is so good. I really like the idea of putting an Expansion/Explosion in the deck,

I'm not putting 4x of any card in my deck that I don't want to see 2-3 of in my opening hand.

I think Gift of Paradise is fine for Standard, Too much burn in the meta right now so a pop of Lifegain/acceleration can be fine. I agree with Mist that the 4 drop ramp is overkill as well as a play set of guild summits I'd drop it down to 3 as well with Krasis down to 3 and maybe play a main deck Pelakka wurm or a Carnage Tyrant. Expansion//Explosion would also be a solid main deck choice it's almost always useful in every matchup both sides.

Expansioning your opponents Light the Stage or growth spiral to drop a land feels good.


Mist Mist It seems everyone is playing gates in the constructed events and that fucking Ram is everywhere he's obnoxious. I'd play it but i'm allergic to decks that all their lands come into play tapped.

I decided to hedge my bets and went with Orzhov tokens, It's pretty resistant to Gates Ablaze and can go wide around rams. In a format without Chain Whirler it's pretty nice.

4 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
4 Tithe Taker (RNA) 27
3 Orzhov Enforcer (RNA) 79
3 Teysa Karlov (RNA) 212
2 Plaguecrafter (GRN) 82
4 Venerated Loxodon (GRN) 30
2 Vindictive Vampire (RNA) 90
4 Mortify (RNA) 192
3 Kaya's Wrath (RNA) 187
1 Unbreakable Formation (RNA) 29
1 Divine Visitation (GRN) 10
1 Dawn of Hope (GRN) 8
4 Seraph of the Scales (RNA) 205
8 Swamp (XLN) 268
8 Plains (XLN) 263
4 Godless Shrine (RNA) 248
4 Orzhov Guildgate (RNA) 252

Just need to watch out for Lava Coil on your angel it's a beating.
 
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pharmakos

soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
<Bronze Donator>
16,306
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I decided to hedge my bets and went with Orzhov tokens, It's pretty resistant to Gates Ablaze and can go wide around rams. In a format without Chain Whirler it's pretty nice.

4 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
4 Tithe Taker (RNA) 27
3 Orzhov Enforcer (RNA) 79
3 Teysa Karlov (RNA) 212
2 Plaguecrafter (GRN) 82
4 Venerated Loxodon (GRN) 30
2 Vindictive Vampire (RNA) 90
4 Mortify (RNA) 192
3 Kaya's Wrath (RNA) 187
1 Unbreakable Formation (RNA) 29
1 Divine Visitation (GRN) 10
1 Dawn of Hope (GRN) 8
4 Seraph of the Scales (RNA) 205
8 Swamp (XLN) 268
8 Plains (XLN) 263
4 Godless Shrine (RNA) 248
4 Orzhov Guildgate (RNA) 252

Just need to watch out for Lava Coil on your angel it's a beating.

i've been running something similar, with Glass of the Guildpact being my secret weapon. buffs all my Spirit tokens, caught a few opponents off guard with it in close matches... they wipe out all my Afterlife creatures thinking they can take the 4 damage or w/e next turn from the remaining Spirit tokens, then i drop the Glass and end up hitting them for 8 instead. Ethereal Absolution is nice too, buff and more Spirit token generation.
 
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Hachima

Molten Core Raider
884
638
In my case the shortcut disappeared but the installation was still there and then after launching it directly it recreated the shortcut.
 

Delly

Trakanon Raider
2,981
622
So I'm not a new MTG player, but new to MTG Arena. I've been following this guide Beginner's Guide to Magic Arena but is there anyway to speed this process along other than just spending a bunch of money? I was going to make a cheap red deck and run the CE like the guide suggests. Is that still the best way to get started?

Is there anything I should be shooting for in terms in daily or weekly goals? Are there any game modes that have better returns then others? I see that the season is ending soon, should I try to get to a certain reward level before it ends or just wait?
 
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Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
14,570
10,064
the game is pretty generous.

If just starting, play the precons, and do the daily unlocks for all the free precon decks. 2 quests per day. first unlocks a precon deck, second, asks you to use the spells from that deck to unlock a core set pack.
Jungle secrets, walk the plank, and eternal thrist are the 3 best precon decks.

Then weekly you get 3 packs from the most recent set. ravnica allegiance.

There are two kinds of dailies. the 500g/750g ones that stack up to 3. and the daily wins one.
Each day you can Reroll the 500g daily once, hoping for a 750g. so do that. if you have a 500g one, try rerolling it, in hopes for the 750g.

Daily wins provides rewards stacking up to 15 wins.
1w-250g, 2w-100g, 3w-100g, 4w-100g, 5w-1ICR, 6w-50g, 7w-1icr, 8w-50g, 9w-1icr, 10w-50g, 11w-1icr, 12w-25g, 13w-1icr, 14w-25g, 15w-1icr

daily 500+daily win 550from 4 wins is 1050gold/day. 1 booster, or 2 CE (with some extra gold left over)

as you can see, the first 4 wins in a day, is very worthwhile. An individual card reward, [icr] is worth about 100g. so, loses value, but ICR are still great. And, considering you can get 6cards/day from this. 15w/day might be a considerable time investment however..

Just saving gold from those dailys and buying packs is a solid choice. this will give you wildcards, to allow you to pick and choose what cards you grab. While other gold sinks are more random.

CE aka constructed event is the second option. The better you winrate, the better it is. you can even straight up WIN gold and "go infinite" potentially.
Even at 2 wins, 3 losses however, its arguably cost effective.

The special events sometimes are worthwhile, other times not. Currently, Ravnica event, is not worthwhile, poor rewards, very tough to compete without a strong card collection.

Draft. you keep every card you pick. card per gold this is comparable to boosters, but you get no wildcards. so its a tough choice. Also choosing to make a competitive draft, or picking cards you want for your collection..

tl/dr.
do your daily/weekly quests. get at least 4wins/day.
Alternate CE and just buying booster packs from sets that might have cards you want.
 
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Tmac

Adventurer
<Gold Donor>
9,371
15,918
tl/dr.
do your daily/weekly quests. get at least 4wins/day.
Alternate CE and just buying booster packs from sets that might have cards you want.

Well derp.

I didn't realize you could reroll dailies or that CE was that beneficial. Just played CE, won a deck and several cards, and it only ended up costing 100 gold!

The trick to CE, for me atleast, is to not play anything competitive, bc then I'll just get wrecked by mono-red.
 
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Siddar

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
6,345
5,881
So sad went through and checked if I can make a gates deck. I only have about a third of cards need to make one. Oh well back to grinding with mono red deck it seems.
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
14,570
10,064
Well derp.

I didn't realize you could reroll dailies or that CE was that beneficial. Just played CE, won a deck and several cards, and it only ended up costing 100 gold!

The trick to CE, for me atleast, is to not play anything competitive, bc then I'll just get wrecked by mono-red.
CE was nerfed. but honestly its still very rewarding. 4w/3l is pure profit. And as noted, even 50/50 with 3w/3l is still 3 cards "at least uncommon" for 100g. And given, the daily gold, you can certainly play CE for a very long time, if its only costing you 100g.

Matchmaking for CE is not the same as matchmaking for "play" as well.
Constructed Event (Best of One)
Current System: Win/Loss Record
0.10.00.00: Win/Los Record

There is no deck matching, no MMR. it puts you up against other decks with similar win/loss ratios in CE itself. Essential a tournament. If you lose your first game, your second game will be versus a deck that is also 0/1.

It was said before, but I'll say it again. mono-red does not have a high win ratio. its not that strong. its just fast, easy and cheap.

Here is my monoblue, if you want something that is not monored. and is pretty cheap.
monoblue | MTG Arena Deck List | MTG Arena Pro

The tempest djinn are the only expensive item. I have even played around with dropping them, in favor of 2 favorable winds, and 2 arcane flights.
The deck is built upon the divedown/curious obsession combo. which is super powerful, and very strong in any deck running blue. Ideally mist cloaked herald for unblockable. and protection from sirens. But, if required sirens, or the duelists can work as the curios obsession. cheap fliers often have free evasion.
Hold your mana open for counterspells, drop duelists on your opponents end step or to shut down attackers.
Holding your man open for counterspells, is actually where the "drop the djinn" idea comes from. they can be rough to play, without opening yourself to a big play. a 2 mana, favorable winds is much easier to safely play, while still having wizards retort ready to go. While giving a nice pump across the board, vs one big flyer. Arcane flight then can be put on the heralds, tricksters or surge mares. a 2/7 flying surge mare is pretty good.
 

Tmac

Adventurer
<Gold Donor>
9,371
15,918
It was said before, but I'll say it again. mono-red does not have a high win ratio. its not that strong. its just fast, easy and cheap.

Here is my monoblue, if you want something that is not monored. and is pretty cheap.
monoblue | MTG Arena Deck List | MTG Arena Pro

I think my biggest problem right now, is that early on I spent a lot of wildcards building a for-fun dino deck and now that I'm playing more competivively I don't have the wildcards to support more deck creativity.

I've also shot myself in the foot a few times by finding decks online that were a bit off of the meta, so I ended up buying cards that weren't that great for me. So, I'm pretty much stuck playing with a couple of not-so-standard decks.

I imagine there's a need for a website that can cross-reference the cards I already own in MTGA, with the cards I need to complete a deck I'm wanting to build. A quick way to see the path of least resistance for poor nubs like me.
 

Kiroy

Marine Biologist
<Bronze Donator>
34,642
99,980
I think my biggest problem right now, is that early on I spent a lot of wildcards building a for-fun dino deck and now that I'm playing more competivively I don't have the wildcards to support more deck creativity.

I've also shot myself in the foot a few times by finding decks online that were a bit off of the meta, so I ended up buying cards that weren't that great for me. So, I'm pretty much stuck playing with a couple of not-so-standard decks.

I imagine there's a need for a website that can cross-reference the cards I already own in MTGA, with the cards I need to complete a deck I'm wanting to build. A quick way to see the path of least resistance for poor nubs like me.

You can import full decks into the client and it will show you the cards you dont have
 

Tmac

Adventurer
<Gold Donor>
9,371
15,918
You can import full decks into the client and it will show you the cards you dont have

Well fuck me. When I imported a White Weenie build, it told me that I need X, Y, and Z wildcards to complete the deck, so I was like, sure! My deck view was bottom aligned and in this view the number of cards needed to complete the deck is not immediately apparent. This only became obvious to me after it told me I didn't have all of the cards in the deck (after using the wildcards) and changing the view of deck layout.

When the deck view is left-aligned, the number of required cards is very obvious. When the deck is bottom-aligned it's impossible to tell what cards you don't have.

UI fail = epic lulz.
 
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Pyratec

Golden Knight of the Realm
320
155
Well fuck me. When I imported a White Weenie build, it told me that I need X, Y, and Z wildcards to complete the deck, so I was like, sure! My deck view was bottom aligned and in this view the number of cards needed to complete the deck is not immediately apparent. This only became obvious to me after it told me I didn't have all of the cards in the deck (after using the wildcards) and changing the view of deck layout.

When the deck view is left-aligned, the number of required cards is very obvious. When the deck is bottom-aligned it's impossible to tell what cards you don't have.

UI fail = epic lulz.

In a similar vein, if you put like "4x Rekindling Phoenix" into the search bar and you only have two, it will create the other two from your wildcards without a confirmation box. Found that one out the hard way.
 
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Tmac

Adventurer
<Gold Donor>
9,371
15,918
In a similar vein, if you put like "4x Rekindling Phoenix" into the search bar and you only have two, it will create the other two from your wildcards without a confirmation box. Found that one out the hard way.

Yeah, I feel like the "Beta" pieces of MTGA like the two examples we've mentioned should be refundable.
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
14,570
10,064
I think my biggest problem right now, is that early on I spent a lot of wildcards building a for-fun dino deck and now that I'm playing more competivively I don't have the wildcards to support more deck creativity.

I've also shot myself in the foot a few times by finding decks online that were a bit off of the meta, so I ended up buying cards that weren't that great for me. So, I'm pretty much stuck playing with a couple of not-so-standard decks.

I imagine there's a need for a website that can cross-reference the cards I already own in MTGA, with the cards I need to complete a deck I'm wanting to build. A quick way to see the path of least resistance for poor nubs like me.
pick one.
MTG Arena | Live Tracking and Decks for Magic The Gathering Arena
https://mtgatool.com/
 

dvoraen

Lord Nagafen Raider
515
181
First come first serve Arena codes because I only have one account:

Guilds of Ravnica
One of these I already used; can't remember which one.
> fz3-un3k-tyd
> hru-wy3q-aq1

Ravnica Allegiance
> cFt-xcHA-Fq2
 
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Brand

Molten Core Raider
1,159
313
4 Basilica Bell-Haunt (RNA) 156
4 Deputy of Detention (RNA) 165
4 Discovery // Dispersal (GRN) 223
2 Dovin, Grand Arbiter (RNA) 167
4 Drowned Catacomb (XLN) 253
4 Glacial Fortress (XLN) 255
4 Godless Shrine (RNA) 248
3 Hallowed Fountain (RNA) 251
4 Hero of Precinct One (RNA) 11
2 Hostage Taker (XLN) 223
4 Isolated Chapel (DAR) 241
2 Lyra Dawnbringer (DAR) 26
4 Mortify (RNA) 192
3 Seraph of the Scales (RNA) 205
1 Swamp (XLN) 268
3 Thief of Sanity (GRN) 205
4 Thought Erasure (GRN) 206
4 Watery Grave (GRN) 259


2 Consecrate // Consume (RNA) 224
1 Disdainful Stroke (GRN) 37
3 Duress (XLN) 105
2 Karn, Scion of Urza (DAR) 1
1 Moment of Craving (RIX) 79
3 Negate (RIX) 44
1 The Eldest Reborn (DAR) 90
2 Vraska's Contempt (XLN) 129
 
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