Board 8 > Magic the Gathering Topic: Zendikar (Almost) Rising

(+) Yeah! (+)

I disagree. The problem with this card is it goes in so many decks, but on power level it isnt close to sol ring, crypt, or mana vault

people see the word lotus and freak out, but the problem isnt what it seems

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banananor posted...

has there been enough time for standard to settle?

it's easy to call a standard 'best ever' when it's only been around for two weeks and is completely unsolved. all we have to do is ban the best deck every two weeks

Settle? No, not at all. Every few days the consensus "best deck" changes. The difference between this and recent standard formats is that this is happening naturally with no bans. Also, no one said 'best ever.' This is just, for the first time in a long time, a format where nothing needs to be banned.

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People arent bawwwing over Embercleave any more?

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Aggro is never the bad guy!

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

This is just, for the first time in a long time, a format where nothing needs to be banned.

i was going to disagree, but then i realized dominaria/grn was a long time ago

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Speaking of Embercleave, I just went 7-2 in the Arena Open with RDW. Since I paid my entrance fee with gold that leaves me up 2k gems and a shot for more tomorrow.

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embercleave is redonkulous, but RDW is so weak at the moment that everyone acknowledges the card is the only thing keeping the archetype viable

had it come out in amonkhet it would've been a different story

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

Speaking of Embercleave, I just went 7-2 in the Arena Open with RDW. Since I paid my entrance fee with gold that leaves me up 2k gems and a shot for more tomorrow.

Wow, congrats! Good luck tomorrow

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Nice, one of these days they need to do a cash prize draft event

Im Diamond in draft but dont play nearly enough standard to feel comfortable

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https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/jnbxtn/cmr_sakashima_of_a_thousand_faces/

I love this guy. Simple, but so much potential.

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They're definitely in no hurry to do a draft open. Draft was losing popularity before the pandemic and certainly hasn't been helped by it. WOTC is also trying to sell the game as a esport, and constructed is much easier for viewers to actually understand. I think the push is going to keep being for constructed formats, even though there are more than enough people who want draft tournaments.

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Kaladesh Remastered is out on MTGA now. TRYKALADESH for a free pack.

It's been a while, what was the draft format like again?

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BlackDra90n posted...

Kaladesh Remastered is out on MTGA now. TRYKALADESH for a free pack.

It's been a while, what was the draft format like again?

There were some aggressive decks, but they were often powered by Renegade Freighter, which isn't in Kaladesh Remastered. Untethered Express is still around, but the format might be a bit slower. Format speed could vary, but midrange was just fine. I remember green being excellent.

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Yeah, best Kaladesh strategy is just to draft 4 Longtusk Cubs.

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Turn 3 Ugin8 is kind of bullshit.

Energy is dumb and I hate it

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My draft deck has two skywhalers shots, three of the 3/2 flyers for 4 and two cloudblazers.

I am pretty sure I was the literal only white drafter

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bump

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Ok so I don't normally like Secret Lairs but these are really cool.

https://secretlair.wizards.com/us/product/615001/party-hard-shred-harder

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Theyre neat, but not really my style. Definitely picking up the Bob Ross set though.

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Those are amazing

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So the MTGA redemption code on the Bob Ross set doesn't even give you all of the card arts in the games, just half (and only 2 total for MODO). It costs them nothing, really, for people who bought physical copies to get digital ones but they just can't help themselves.

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They were giving Arena codes out on social media for the other 5 lands for free.

• DelightfulMeadow (Plains)
• MoveMountains (Mountain)
• IslandWilderness (Island)
• HappySwamp (Swamp)
• TreeFriend (Forest)

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Yeah, I learned about the free codes 2 hours after my post. I'm glad they did it, but they're still being awfully greedy with their products lately. There's a difference between trying to run a profitable business and trying to take your customers for everything they've got and they're definitely moving to the latter.

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I guess I can post here but I don't know how regularly people in this topic post or play or what.

I've been getting into Magic for the past month. Or sort of back into idk. I did play Magic for about a year with friends in college back in 2015 so I already knew how the game plays. I've also spent enough time playing other card games competitively (Yu-gi-oh, Duelmasters, and Kaijudo--the latter two of which have a lot of similarities to Magic) that I can pretty comfortably say I know what I'm doing.

I've been doing mainly Standard on Arena, which is great for my purposes since I can be competitive without sinking a ton of money into it. I've been playing Dimir Rogues mostly because it's a deck for which the key cards were mostly uncommons and rares, though it's a type of deck I generally like playing also I think. I've also been playing a bit of Draft but I've never been great at that in any game.

Don't really have anything specific to say but I might start reading this topic now >.>
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Welcome! It's been pretty quiet here but there's normally a bit more discussion when a set first comes out.

Speaking of which, Kaldheim spoilers should be starting soon. They seem to be pulling in some "metalness" so maybe they'll have some stuff similar to what we saw with the previous Secret Lair.

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I basically quit lmao

I still have draft tokens and shit but after I stopped the daily grind I found it easy to disengage with arena completely

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I'll keep an eye on Kaldheim spoilers, but I've also basically quit MtG. Maybe when in store play resumes. I've even stopped listening to LR regularly.

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I feel grinding is a good way to burn out.

I played like once last month then cube cane back so I hopped back in.

Speaking of,

Still way too big of a gulf between bad cards and good cards in arena cube.

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I was just talking to my playgroup about this today too. It's hard to stay excited about Magic when you don't play in-person anymore. I mostly just play Arena for dailies but it definitely isn't a good replacement for paper Magic.

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I think you guys are not interested because we haven't had a set release in 3 months

Just stop playing until the next set. You don't have to play

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I used to do regular kitchen table drafts with friends, only ever went to a single prerelease (the set that oko was in).

I've been less invested in standard since a lot of cards i enjoyed playing were rotated, and even though I'm playing a modified version of that knights deck it's just got way less legs in the stronger format. Even my consumption of day9's mtga videos has substantially declined.

I still log on once or twice a week and knock some dailies out, but I'm mostly just saving gold for drafts. I really enjoyed drafting in ikoria and the ravnica allegiance sets, but didn't bother with either of the remastered sets.

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Im waiting for the mobile release to (finally) come out. I never have any time to sink into this when Im at a computer.

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Every time I see elspeth conquers death or crystalline giant 6th pick or later I wonder if people dont understand how cards work

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Pack 3 Pick 8 Elspeth Conquers Death

How do people do this

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There's been so many times in my life where I get burned out on Magic, then stop for a while, then the passion returns. I don't think it's anything to worry about. Probably best not to sell all your cards as long as you aren't dying for money. I made that mistake once.

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masterplum posted...

Pack 3 Pick 8 Elspeth Conquers Death

How do people do this

Maybe no one was in white?

That seems unlikely but what do I know
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Not sure how I feel about the potential leaks.

I really want a return to Mirrodin and to see what the Phyrexians are up to. But I don't really want them to kick it off in the Norse plane.

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Yea, pulling another Amonkhet is not really what I want. We'll see I guess.

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I dont think the phyrexians are going to be a huge part of the set. Its probably just Vorinclex and his posse, presumably brought into Kaldheim by Tibalt doing some shit with that magic sword Theyre probably not going to just destroy the Norse plane immediately, although it would be sort of appropriate to just Ragnarok it.

also I had no problem with the Bolas stuff on Amonkhet. The plane was still plenty Egyptian for me, and he was integrated into the plane in an interesting way. I dont want sets to be like Arabian Nights where its just a straight forward adaptation of the source without really relating to the multiverse at large.
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Fun fact, Ive done 15 cube drafts or so so far and have gotten 5 or 6 wins 0 times.

Im about 50% 7 wins and 50% 4 wins or less.

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Speaking of, I just went 7-0 in a Standard Event, which I think is my first time? I'd gotten 7 wins before but I don't think I've ever done it without getting either 1 or 2 losses.

Rogues vs Cycling (which was my r7 match) is an absolutely nutty matchup. Zenith Flare is basically an "I win" button sometimes as soon as turn 4, but thankfully the Rogue deck also has counterspells. Won by countering his Zenith Flare and using Cling to Dust to barely put myself out of death range of his Dranith Stingers on the final turn before I swung for game.
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