Board 8 > Magic the Gathering: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

(+) Yeah! (+)

7-1 Fun deck



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Kick in the door was the biggest overperformer in that deck. Reminded me of first day of class but one mana cheaper so actually good

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ChaosTonyV4 posted...

I somehow pulled three Demiliches

I had a similar experience where I pulled the three non-planeswalker black mythics

it didnt turn out well somehow
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playing against a guy now who got the green planeswalker, and hes venturing into the long dungeon

so at least one person has done it
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If you think you can get past four ventures in a game and you don't really have anything that is boosted by finishing a dungeon it's the better choice. There's a lot of card advantage to be had there if you can deal with it taking a little longer to get rolling.

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I just won a game where I completed Tomb of Annihilation. Then I started it again (YOLO) and was one venture away from a twofer.

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I'm on draft 5 I think and I can already solidly say I like it less than strixhaven. Strixhaven filled me with wonder of all cool stuff going on and trying to see what was good.

Ive drafted

UB control
WG life
UR dice
RG 6 powe
UB evasive threat payoffs.

UB deck full of evasive payoffs is one of the theoretical sweetest and its been .. fine. I have 2 of the rare payoffs so it should feel sweet but it doesnt really feel different

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My draft went terribly and the first 2 people Ive played had perfectly flowing decks and Im 0-2 rn looool

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I had two drafts tonight, a 2-3 with UW fliers/control and 4-3 with BR aggro.

Format feels...weird. It's very much like a core set with very little removal and lots of creature combat, but there's also a lot of quirky cards and incremental snowballing and extremely obnoxious bombs. Not sure if I'm a fan yet. I loved Zendikar and Strixhaven and I don't think it's on that level.

Spectated a few friends though and one of them completed Mad Mage with the UW uncommon out that doubles your adventure triggers...completely insane value for that archtype, although I don't know if it's one of the best ones.

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for context, i don't draft often. i learned early on that i didn't feel like subsidizing the grinders at my LGS

but as a dirty f2p player i will draft in arena to generate gemz when i want a mastery pass. i think this pretty much guarantees i'll get to farm some bronze leaguers or however the matchmaking system works. so take my observations with a grain of salt

masterplum posted...

UB deck full of evasive payoffs is one of the theoretical sweetest and its been .. fine. I have 2 of the rare payoffs so it should feel sweet but it doesnt really feel different

yeah, some of the evasion payoffs are really scary but feel too slow. i'm thinking of "rogue class" in particular (i've never played it, only faced it)

i drafted a low to the ground evasion + die rolling deck, and quite frankly, the U and B evasion commons (guild thief, soulknife spy, thieves' tools, trickster's talisman) were a set of workhorses on their own. a couple copies of grazilaxx were gravy

die rolling is fun. i think they nailed the idea of critical hits without making them too swingy. i freaked out when my opponent got a natural 20 on something, but it wasn't that bad

i think "you find some prisoners" holds the honor of "most fun card relative to its power" so far

i'm not a great drafter, so i appreciate how simple and straightforward the synergies are in this set. i'm sure that means it isn't as deep for someone on their 20th or 50th go

... i'll be completely honest, i love the flavor and art of this set. the cards make more sense to me in play than they did in previews. i'm not much of a collector, but some of these dragons and beholders...

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white red with that haste flying lifelink dragon seems pretty good as well

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Oh yeah, I think Rogue class is just straight garbage. I was thinking of payoff cards like the 2 mana 1/3 that makes your guys unblockable or the 5 drop that makes 2/1 spiders on hit

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Yikes. Apparently Book of Exalted Deeds+Faceless Haven is a game-winning combo in Standard 2022 now unless the opponent is running land destruction, which no one is.

(It works in actual Standard also but Field of Ruin is a common-ish answer to it.)

To be clear they can also kill the Haven the turn you make it a creature, which you have to do in order to put the counter on it from the book, but presumably you are going to run protection or wait for them to tap out. Obviously this is realistic counterplay though.

Edited for clarity (hopefully)
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game-"winning"

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The Mana Sword posted...

game-"winning"

The opponent will deck themselves eventually!
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Theres a 2 drop blue that makes any creature a 4/4 flying, feels bad to suicide fun creatures against a token.

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pyresword posted...

The opponent will deck themselves eventually!

Except when both players are playing the combo and no one can win or lose!

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Im gonna turn my angel deck into that, lol.

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Alright, I have used Tomb of Annihilation once.

World first.

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Another 7-win run with the GW deck. Paladin Class is OP. Icingdeath is also pretty good. So is Froghemoth.

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Not shocked



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HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Except when both players are playing the combo and no one can win or lose!

https://twitter.com/SaffronOlive/status/1413163639159328770?s=19

Just played against someone who finished Tomb of Annihilation right away, and I immediately put his creature token in a Portable Hole. Lot of effort for nothing.

MrGreenonion posted...

https://twitter.com/SaffronOlive/status/1413163639159328770?s=19

I feel like this is the new Nexus of fate where Arena isnt built to handle this. I expect some sort of action by wizards to address this if this deck becomes popular.

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Time to start playing cleansing wildfire

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This was a fun 7 win sealed deck

Deck
1 Jaded Sell-Sword (AFR) 152
1 Unexpected Windfall (AFR) 164
2 Swarming Goblins (AFR) 162
1 Hoarding Ogre (AFR) 146
1 Delina, Wild Mage (AFR) 138
1 Valor Singer (AFR) 165
1 Chaos Channeler (AFR) 136
1 Plundering Barbarian (AFR) 158
1 Dragon's Fire (AFR) 139
1 Price of Loyalty (AFR) 159
2 Magic Missile (AFR) 154
1 Vampire Spawn (AFR) 123
1 Tiamat (AFR) 235
1 Eyes of the Beholder (AFR) 101
1 Baleful Beholder (AFR) 89
1 Herald of Hadar (AFR) 108
3 Grim Bounty (AFR) 106
1 Skullport Merchant (AFR) 120
1 Power Word Kill (AFR) 114
8 Swamp (AFR) 273
9 Mountain (AFR) 277

Sideboard
1 Arcane Investigator (AFR) 46
2 Spare Dagger (AFR) 250
2 You Come to a River (AFR) 83
1 Ranger's Longbow (AFR) 203
1 Find the Path (AFR) 183
2 Paladin's Shield (AFR) 30
2 Mordenkainen's Polymorph (AFR) 65
1 Ranger's Hawk (AFR) 37
1 Iron Golem (AFR) 247
1 Ray of Enfeeblement (AFR) 116
1 Gnoll Hunter (AFR) 185
1 Half-Elf Monk (AFR) 19
1 Silver Raven (AFR) 74
1 Devour Intellect (AFR) 97
2 Deadly Dispute (AFR) 94
3 Devoted Paladin (AFR) 11
2 Delver's Torch (AFR) 10
1 Pixie Guide (AFR) 66
1 Hama Pashar, Ruin Seeker (AFR) 224
2 Warlock Class (AFR) 125
1 Oswald Fiddlebender (AFR) 28
1 Kick in the Door (AFR) 153
1 Circle of the Moon Druid (AFR) 177
1 Armory Veteran (AFR) 130
1 Keen-Eared Sentry (AFR) 22
1 +2 Mace (AFR) 1
1 Rimeshield Frost Giant (AFR) 69
3 Compelled Duel (AFR) 178
1 Steadfast Paladin (AFR) 38
1 Druid Class (AFR) 180
1 Divine Smite (AFR) 12
1 Cave of the Frost Dragon (AFR) 253
1 Bar the Gate (AFR) 47
1 Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade (AFR) 128
2 Arborea Pegasus (AFR) 2
1 You See a Guard Approach (AFR) 85
1 Shocking Grasp (AFR) 72
1 Rally Maneuver (AFR) 36
1 Moon-Blessed Cleric (AFR) 26
1 Wizard's Spellbook (AFR) 82
1 Neverwinter Dryad (AFR) 195
1 Underdark Basilisk (AFR) 208
1 Owlbear (AFR) 198
1 Shambling Ghast (AFR) 119
1 Secret Door (AFR) 71
1 Cloister Gargoyle (AFR) 7
1 Ingenious Smith (AFR) 21
1 Sudden Insight (AFR) 77
1 Orb of Dragonkind (AFR) 157


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oh, yeah. Arena is annoying as fuck like that. IIRC you don't have to complete the whole thing to draft though.

As for the Angel Haven combo... I actually first learned about it day 1 and thankfully haven't seen it yet. My guess is that the book gets suspended in std 2022 since there are so few answers in that format, but in regular standard (especially bo3) there are a fair number of answers, you'll just need to make some changes to deal with it. Either that, or wotc decides a two card, six mana nigh indestructible platinum angel is okay.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

oh, yeah. Arena is annoying as fuck like that. IIRC you don't have to complete the whole thing to draft though.

As for the Angel Haven combo... I actually first learned about it day 1 and thankfully haven't seen it yet. My guess is that the book gets suspended in std 2022 since there are so few answers in that format, but in regular standard (especially bo3) there are a fair number of answers, you'll just need to make some changes to deal with it. Either that, or wotc decides a two card, six mana nigh indestructible platinum angel is okay.

Best of three has timers right? I think best of 3 its fine then

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I decided to build the deck. I'm a sucker for cheap, stupid combos. First game I got out raced by mono red. Second I had a long game against the life gain heavy version of Book with cleric class. He actually ran one of his faceless havens into my lurrus + selfless savior. Oopsie. Eventually I had a field of ruin and a haven with counter and he scooped. Next was mono green mutate and this guy really wanted to play it out. I had TWO havens with the counters on them and I even let him knock me below 0 life and he still made me beat him.

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masterplum posted...

Best of three has timers right? I think best of 3 its fine then

Yeah, this is just a terror in Bo1 and more so in Arena's future standard format where there are almost no answers. At least real standard has field of ruin.

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masterplum posted...

Best of three has timers right? I think best of 3 its fine then

I'm not sure. The problem with the timer is that Arena still doesn't allow draws. This means that the "correct" move is for the player with the lower timer to concede and try to win two games. But that's also not quite ideal for the lower timer player, because now they're DEFINITELY down a game. So another play for them could be to try and waste the opponent's timer somehow. In paper, forcing an intentional draw so no one gets the win and moving on to the next game would be an actual part of the strategy, but it's just not possible online.

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

I decided to build the deck. I'm a sucker for cheap, stupid combos. First game I got out raced by mono red. Second I had a long game against the life gain heavy version of Book with cleric class. He actually ran one of his faceless havens into my lurrus + selfless savior. Oopsie. Eventually I had a field of ruin and a haven with counter and he scooped. Next was mono green mutate and this guy really wanted to play it out. I had TWO havens with the counters on them and I even let him knock me below 0 life and he still made me beat him.

I would just keep hitting enter on your keyboard while doing something else. Its like paper, infinite life isnt an auto win so making you play it out is still advancing game states.

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Man people were hyping Standard 2022 but in Gold/Platinum it's about 80% control decks (classifying Izzet Dragons loosely as a control/tempo deck) and I dunno how to feel about that.

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I don't like Standard 2022 too much comparatively, but I'm the guy who unironically thinks that 2021 Standard is a good, diverse, and healthy metagame. It's not awful but feels worse than actual Standard and Historic pretty easily. Though the fact that I'm locked into best-of-1 for the 2022 queue definitely doesn't help.

In Mythic I probably agree with your classification as control being the most played, but I have run into a fair amount of Mono Green or Mono White aggro, and also an Orzhov Angels list. (I don't think the Angel deck is good, but it feels like I've run into it a lot)

I think Izzet and Mono Green are the decks to beat right now though for sure. Mono Green sneakily picked up some really good things this set in Werewolf Pack Leader and Ranger Class which is just actual gas.
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Current standard is diverse and healthy. It's been a bit boring for the last few months, but it has ultimately been very fair with lots of deck options. I think what (some) people have disliked with standard this year is that each set has added incremental changes to the format whereas last year there were several wild swings both from the introduction of new sets and multiple rounds of bannings.

I haven't really put much time into the 2022 queue, mostly because AFR has changed standard a lot more than most people were expecting.

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I had time for my first afr draft last night, went 3-3 with marduk equipment/ treasures. The blue common that taps a creature screwed me over in 2 of my 3 losses.

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And 1-3 in sealed. Most of my rares were meme trash so I tried to make the best of it with a blue/green rampy deck but my finishers were all pretty lame in comparison. Ouch.

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I think I'm done drafting this set in almost record pace.

Not a good sign when less than a week into a new set you want cube to come back

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Other than being suspiciously akin to a core set, what makes AFR boring to draft? I haven't dipped in yet but there do seem to be several fun and (some) unique draft archetypes.

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Mostly that its a core set, and partly that the flavor really doesnt resonate with me. I also find the dice rolling inherently off putting even though none of the dice rolling is egregious in terms of randomness.

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I also realized how after losing 3 games to mana issues, this set has zero mana screw / flood protection after a great wave of sets that had mechanics that helped with that (Cycling / Spell Lands / Learn Lesson)

You don't realize its gone till its gone


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lol I dont know what I did to ruin my decks, but Im on an unprecedented 8 game losing streak.

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Hullbreacher banned in commander

Good riddance

Now do Dockside and Thassa's Oracle

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On a related note it feels good to play EDH with people in person again. Now cards that search other players libraries or things like Gonti actually work. And the boardstate is way easier to read.

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This deck went 6-3 (not the exact list which I think was -2 elementals and subbed a thieves tools for an eyes of the beholder) and is up there as one of my dumbest draft decks. It isn't GOOD but man did it have some blowouts.

This format is mostly unexciting but there is occasionally some wacky shit.

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Book of Exalted Deeds is banned in Standard 2022.

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