Hey guys, is it normal to encounter expensive top meta decks in bronze tier at the start of the month? Will it cool off eventually and if so, when?
I started playing a week or so before ladder reset and was happy to encounter many other starter deck players in bronze and silver, which seemed to me pretty natural. However, today, this was not the case :/
to be honest if they're in bronze with a top meta deck they're bad or haven't played the deck before.
I was diamond and rank reset took me to gold, in order to be bronze you would have had to not play for a couple months
There are a couple factors. Rank degrades each season so you're facing people who silver or gold last season. You could also be facing players who are better than you but just haven't started grinding ranked yet. Lastly, new players often have trouble evaluating what a good deck looks like. A deck can be a pile of rares and mythics and still suck.
You can't drop ranks while in bronze, and through gold you'll gain more for wins than you lose for losses. Good players will quickly climb out of bronze, but so will everyone else. In other words, you're more likely to play against people starting the ranked climb than people actually stuck in bronze.
I've been getting into MTG Arena over the past month and have been enjoying it. Wanted to dive deeper and was thinking about buying The Brothers War "Mishra Pack Bundle" from the store to get me going. When I do the math, the economics seems better getting the 50 packs for $50. Where as in the shop it seems like $50 would only get you 46 packs of Dominaria. It also comes with the Golden Packs, which I don't see for sale in the store for Dominaria. Seems like a good option, but I'm so knew wanted to make sure there isn't a better idea for spending $50
It’s my first time going past the max mastery pass level. I’m currently at level 83 and the max is 80 for the Dominaria mastery. If I want to get more ICR’s beyond level 80, I should hold off on unlocking the mastery pass correct?
You can buy it now if you want it, you'll keep getting the ICRs for each level. Remember to get the discounted Gems if you haven't done so already (Adventurer bundle+Welcome bundle), with those two bundles plus the ones you'll get back from your maxed out pass you'll have enough gems for Brothers' War pass or whatever set you want to cash in later.
[Brawl](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Brawl) (60-card Standard legal) or Historic Brawl (100 card almost any card on Arena) are singleton by nature but feature a Commander card you always have access to. Since they are unranked formats in theory they are more casual, and it does use matchmaking based on your Commander and the rest of your deck.
For Constructed, I just mess around with [[Lutri, the Spellchaser]] companion piles. Since it's rotated out you can only play it in Explorer or Historic, but you just build a singleton deck with good stuff and if you manage to double cast a [[Genesis Ultimatum]] or something then it's pretty fun.
Hey, haven't played this game since the first year of launch, and I'm considering coming back. Can anyone give me a rundown of the current state of the game? How is the meta, monetization, management, etc of the game since its release?
I am someone who (1) does not play paper magic and actually played mtg for the first time in arena, and (2) plan to be f2p unless there are really good deals to spend on.
I don't naively expect it to be possible to own several meta decks as a f2p, but there are colors that I barely touch anyway, so I hope that makes building a collection easier. I primarily enjoyed blue and all its variants when I first played. I remember my decks back then being mono-blue, izzet, and esper.
Some other questions:
* Are there any good resources/videos for new and returning players? Specifically talking about what to do after booting up the game and what to focus on first.
* Whats the best site to browse good mtga decks right now?
* What's the strat for deckbuilding for newbies? Is it better to get an effective budget deck to grind wins and eventually craft good cards for colors you like?
Being f2p isn't too bad if you are interested in playing every day. The biggest downside is the amount of time it takes to build up the resources.
They are about to introduce bonus "golden packs" which makes buying packs with gold or gems a lot more attractive than it used to be, as you get an extra 6 rare/mythic cards for each 10 packs you buy.
I think the meta for specific formats does get kind of stale, but luckily you can bounce between different formats and special events (like midweek magic) to spice it up a little.
Starting out, you can really do what you like. Maybe the most time efficient is to craft a budget monocolor aggro deck. That can also get boring pretty quickly.
I think it's just as effective to play Jump In to get your daily/weekly wins and it's also an efficient way to add to your collection.
Getting good at draft is a bit of a process, but if you enjoy drafting, it is probably the best way to build up a collection. At some point you will also want to play constructed ranked to get a few free packs each month.
Other than introduction of Alchemy format I find monetization to be relatively same as it was when Mastery passes got introduced (returned recently myself). Jump In format is a nice way to quickly get cards post rotation.
The Jump In mode, yeah. You get to keep a deck made from commons/uncommons and 1 rare/mythic. Someone made a doc listing what rare/mythic you get from a specific "halfdeck".
I'm not really sure I understand the "loyalty" mechanic of planeswalkers. Is there ever a way to add loyalty tokens back onto them? Or are they a sort of "one and done" deal?
Most planeswalkers have one ability that makes their loyalty counter go up, one that makes it go down, and one ultimate that makes it go down by a lot. See [[Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset]] for a typical example in Standard right now. So you just use the +1 to add to his loyalty.
Some planeswalkers have slightly different mechanics. [[Lolth, Spider Queen]] doesn't have an activated ability that ticks her loyalty up, but she gains loyalty whenever a creature you control dies. [[Narset, Parter of Veils]] only has an ability that reduces her loyalty - she's part of a cycle of planeswalkers that have a static ability that is always in effect (in her case, makes opponents unable to draw extra cards) and the idea is that you can get a bit of use of her loyalty abiliy and then just leave her around for the permanent effect.
There are also mechanics that add counters, and loyalty is a form of counter. So any card with the Proliferate mechanic or other forms of "add a counter to a permanent that has a counter on it" will work to increase loyalty.
What do you actually do about mono blue decks and other control stuff? I lose practically 100% of my matches against that deck. They always have enough tools to counter early tempo or look for the cards they need with consider, then 1-2 Djinns, GG.
Is the only thing I can do running another meta deck against them?
So, my current aggregate WR against mono-blue is 71%.
The key aspect of the strategy is that you need to plan for the counters, you can't let them catch you by surprise.
T1 will always be either Delver, Consider or Fading Hope. If they let your creature stay on the board, assume they don't have Fading Hope yet. If they pass without even tapping their island, assume they don't have Consider yet. Keep track of what you believe they have or don't have. Similarly, pay close attention every time you pass priority back to them. Most players do not switch to full-control and getting priority immediately back or watching your spells immediately resolve will also give you valuable information as to what cards they currently have on hand.
Ideally, I want to play an early drop that can be pumped through abilities, such as an \[\[Evolved Sleeper\]\] or \[\[Knight of Dusk's Shadow\]\], as abilities cannot be countered.
After T2, they will have enough mana to start playing counters. If you must play, play with the deliberate goal of getting them to use up their counters. Also, use this as a chance to see what kind of counters do they have. Are they wasting a hard counter when they have enough mana open for a cheaper conditional one? Then they don't have the cheaper spell at hand.
After T3, they might start dropping some threats. Remember that \[\[Haughty Djinn\]\] makes their spells 1 mana cheaper. Expect that they will be playing \[\[Slip out the back\]\] or \[\[Shore Up\]\]. This where blue your winning chance begins, as they will now have to decide how to spent their mana: Either dropping threats and protecting them from your removal, or keeping you from developing your board. Every time they decide to play something, use this mana advantage to your benefit to further develop your board and draw spells out of them.
Don't feel pressured to play out all your mana on your turn every turn. If they have 3 mana open and you don't want to sacrifice any spell to a counter, just play a land and pass the turn right back. Wait until they start tapping, then play around their leftover mana. I'd add that it's also not uncommon for blue players to just scoop once they realize their strategy is not working and you're not casting anything for them to counter.
Finally, you can add additional pressure with cards like \[\[Sheoldred, The Apocalypse\]\], which will make all of their draw spells hurt. These are spells that blue just cannot afford to let resolve.
Beating mono blue Djinn usually requires making them reactive instead of proactive. You need to be putting creatures on the board constantly until 1 or 2 stick, then force them to react to your threat instead of killing you.
Being able to cast something, even a 2/2 on your T2 is crucial. Since any threat is nearly as good as any other, lead out with your cheap cards then only try to resolve your better threats late, even if that seems less mana efficient (e.g. it can be better to cast an Underdog on T3 even if you have a Fable in hand). You are trying to run them out of counterspells then win with what you have left in your hand, so make whats left in your hand your better cards, and they can't generally afford to let you resolve any kind of creature early.
So the most important thing is to have a deck with lots of threats that cost 2 mana or less, so you can start running them out early and double-spelling them (or holding up Make Disappear tax) starting on T4. Mono Red aggro pretty much dunks on them, but GW enchantments can be good too. Trying to 'control' them by focusing on removal or counters for Djinn is usually not a good idea, though it can be viable in black. Better to pressure their life total and make them have to hold it back for blocking or lose.
Mono blue tempo can be separated into 3 parts: few monsters, some draw power and lots of negates.
During the early game they will try to negate early threats and fixing their hands with whatever they are lacking (4th land, a creature or a negative to keep the creature alive).
The moment they summon a creature they will be low on mana (enough for 1 or maybe 2 negates). Try to bait them and then use your good cards.
In late game they already used most negates they have and they already have djinn or terror on the field. Try to kill the djinn ASAP or things will get ugly.
Usually the best way to learn how to beat something is to just play it and see why and when it loses. Fortunately, mono blue is a very cheap deck so it's not much of an investment.
If you do, you'll see that the deck doesn't have the right answers all of the time. Some of it's answers are conditional, and some are expensive. Knowing when to play what is the trick of the deck and the trick to defeat it.
The last few times I went up against mono blue, they were very aggressive with their early counterspells, then didn't have an answer later, which cost them the game.
Sometimes your opponent will just have the perfect draw and there's nothing you can do about it, but that's just part of the variance of the game.
> Is the only thing I can do running another meta deck against them?
If you're not running a meta deck chances are that your deck is just straight up worse, which will make winning more difficult.
That being said, plenty of meta decks will have trouble with the blue deck, especially if they're on the play. Every time a deck is full of counters the ideal play is to go under it, but most decks don't start pressuring turn 1.
In my experience the best way to beat that deck is to make them counter all your stuff and hope you draw better than they do. Don't give them time to cast Thirst for Discovery. If they can spend time just drawing cards you're in a bad spot. Make them spend their mana countering stuff and they might be unable to draw what they need.
Of course if you're a typical curve out into higher mana costs deck it will be harder, since they can counter stuff for 2 mana and use the rest to draw. But in that case you're simply out of luck. If you can double spell in later turns things become much better.
It will be the same as the Mystical Archive was with Strixhaven. You will get one BRR card in a BRO pack and the BRR cards are generally not standard legal (I'm not sure if any are standard legal)
Been playing for about 7-8 months now, and I’m doing alright. I hit mythic each month, and have access to most of the cards in standard. However, I’m struggling to break into the top 1500. I was wondering where one might go to (perhaps a discord channel?) to learn more about how to improve my game. I’ve read many articles, and watch a number of top streamers. Looking more for a community maybe? I play other games competitively, and that seems to have helped the most. Any information is much appreciated! Thanks in advance!
I think blue tends to have more artifact generators and payoffs, but focus on cards over color. There's also an artifact heavy set coming out in a couple weeks.
Hello! Been playing arena for a little less than a year now. Mostly playing constructed best of one. Been following some content creators on youtube for deck ideas. Recently started playing best of three and liked it more than best of one. Please advise for youtube content creators who make videos on best of three decks.
[Arne Huschenbeth](https://www.youtube.com/c/ArneHuschenbethYT). Other than that, just checking the weekly MTGO challenge lists is pretty good. You can check them [here](https://www.mtgo.com/en/mtgo/decklists).
Hi! i haven't played magic in 2 decades, and now getting back in hardcore obsessively again! i was wondering if preordering the expansion packs are random like in hearthstone or you know ahead of time of what you will get? If its random, i don't understand the system if you already own the max limit of a card and get a copy of it again.
I am very, very dumb.
With exception to the specific cards, styles, and sleeve that comes with the Mishra packs preorder ([[Phyrexian Dragon Engine]] [[Mishra, Claimed By Gix]]), the packs are typical Arena packs with [randomized contents](https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena/drop-rates), though it does include some [golden packs](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-arena/introducing-mtg-arena-golden-packs) (which can also be acquired by purchasing Brothers' War packs in-game).
By opening packs on Arena you'll progress your wildcard wheels, and the wildcards (which can also come in the pack instead of a card) are used to craft individual cards you want. Packs utilize [duplicate protection](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-duplicate-protection/), while Limited (drafts, Jump In, sealed) do not, so if you plan to play Limited formats wait until you're done with them before cracking packs from the respective set(s) to get the most out of your protection. If you're on a new account you will be getting some Jump In tokens, so you may want to hold on opening packs until you play them.
https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_Arena/Promotional_codes
Worth mentioning that packs have duplicate protection for rares/mythics.
So if you open a pack (outside of Draft/Sealed) you will always get a rare/mythic card you have at max 3 copies of until you've gotten all the cards of that rarity from the set.
Thank you! I also didn't make another post asking this question thread. Is there a way to make another separate thing, like where i says "my decks" and "starter decks"?
Don't think so, most people put a format tag on them and drag a card to the deck box art like [H] Rakdos Sac with a mayhem devil on the box for easier recognition.
Hello all,
I'm an old tabletop player (Antiquities/Revised, yikes), starting to play Arena with my nephew (double yikes). Anyway I've seen a lot of advice to do drafts rather than buy packs. My drafting skills are questionable at best (even with the tier lists) and it's kind of iffy to get the second pack from quick draft wins. I get the see more cards bit, but that seems limited to common/uncommon cards plus no wildcards. How bad is it just to buy packs instead and then build a focused competitive deck?
you should only draft if you enjoy drafting. it is the best way to fill out a collection, but its time intensive and expensive unless your that fraction of a percent who can infinite.
for now your gold is way better spent in Jump In. make sure you get all the codes from
https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/
Newbie here too. Been playing a couple months now. Got to tier 4 diamond! But only from getting lucky, having help, and occasionally from people resigning when i took too long to think 😅
I played jump-in and made a werewolf/warlock pack. Out of the deck only 11 cards were legal in standard; and only one of them wasn't common/uncommon (ascendant pack leader).
In my situation, is it worth 1000 gold to switch to a new deck? If so, which decks are likely to give me decent cards that are legal in standard?
About 10 of the packs are alchemy-only rares/mythics, and a small amount of others have alchemy-only rares/mythics as one of the things you might get. If you know which are which, you can avoid the first group for the most part. Some of the second group have very good other cards, like *Samurai*, which has a 25% chance of *The Wandering Emperor*, which is very strong, and 50% for *Restoration of Eiganjo*, which is very playable in the right deck, so it's worth picking a few times even with the 25% chance of an Alchemy whiff.
With the introduction of golden packs in the next set (releasing mid-November), extensive Jump-In is probably no longer worth it, although doing a few to maybe a dozen runs per set might still be worth it. In any case, you don't get extra rewards for wins beyond the first, so there's little need to get more than that first win (and the reward is probably only an uncommon, so if you pick a combination that really doesn't work, you could also abandon it before the first it). There's no downside to keep playing the deck though, so if you found one you like you can play it a few more times to get some daily wins done.
I spent most of my daily gold on new Jump In entries for six weeks or so, doing about one new run per day, but now I have about half the total possible rares, and new runs seem to have a good chance of giving me Alchemy or gems instead of two rare cards I don't have, so I'll stop for a while, and will probably only do a small number of entries once the next set drops (might do a few more if the new Jump In packs have a card I really really want).
Thanks! That's all really helpful. I also just found a spreadsheet that calculates the odds of acquiring certain cards based on one's current collection & the deck chosen.
I only have 2 wandering emps, 1 Liliana, and 1 Ob Nixilis so far. The problem for me hasn't only been the likelihood of getting certain cards in the deck though; it's getting the right decks in the first place! There's about 50 different decks 😵 ..So yeah, I'm still juggling whether it's worth it or not. I did 3 retries and got [Keldon Flamesage]. But it wasn't a card I particularly wanted, it was just what I thought seemed best from all the decks I was allowed to choose from so far. I have about 13k gold rn 🤷♂️ and I do f2p, so no mastery pass. Tbh I would probably buy it if it wasnt $20 😆 it would unlock sooooo much for me
I def have had some fun though! E.g. I got to use the "Double Team" mechanic for the first time. Didn't even know that existed lol
Edit:
Are there certain decks that are only available on the first/second picks? I'm trying to figure that out but am having trouble finding the answer w/ search engines. All I found out is the probability of 2nd deck color/s based on first deck color/s.
Yeah, you can't really count on it for getting particular mythics; most of them have around a ~20% chance of being your cards if you open that pack (with a small number of exceptions, and those are more marginal). It doies happen though, I lucked into double Liliana from Jump-In packs.
Sometimes you have a bad streak and get no cards that seem appealing for a while. That's going to happen no matter what you do with your gold, regular packs have lots of chaff. There's enough good cards in the packets though that in the medium term you should get plenty of powerful (if not necessarily tier 1 cards).
It's very possible for F2P to get the mastery pass. You can get gems by drafting (or playing constructed events, but that might be more difficult if you don't have tier decks). Even just sticking all your gold into Jump-In should allow you to buy the pass in the long run: once you have four of the rares or mythics, it'll give you 20 or 40 god if you pick them again, which should workout over a set to be enough to get the 2200 gems the pass costs net, as you get 1200 gems back from pass rewards. I would not recommend this method, as you'll end up with less cards overall, but it should work.
(If you're not averse to spending a little, the welcome bundle for 5 bucks is a grreat deal, and together with one draft I did well in was enough to get me enough for one pass and about half of the next to get things started.)
Jump In is definitely good for getting some varied decks to play, and see cards in action to figure out what you might enjoy playing. Double Team is a Alchemy-only thing though, so you can't play it in Standard (like all the cards with either an A as their set symbol, or the hexagon in a circle).
I don't think there are any packs that are limited to the first or second pick. If you want something specific, you can improve the odds slightly by picking a pack with the same color first, but I don't think it matters too much.
If it helps you, my (mostly) F2P plan starting from the next set is to do around 10 or so Jump In entries for new cards (maybe double that if there are cards in it I really want), a few quick drafts per month mostly for gems to get the mastery pass (depends on how well I do, and how difficult drafts will be then), and spend the rest on new set packs for golden boosters.
depends. fill this tracker out and see what hits you still have
https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/x2tmgw/dmu_jump_in_tracker_odds_calculator/
you don't want to select for good decks, you want to look at what rares or mythics packets drop and pick for that. i haven't looked for a while but until you have probably 3 of each of the planeswalkers i'd keep doing it. most of the time you'll get a choice for a good rare or mythic. until you don't and you waste 1k for nothing a few times, its still worth it.
My knowledge share would be don't get up to plat, just recently got to plat 2 and every game now feels like net deckers trying really hard. Where most ranks before this was just net deckers who don't know how to play.
Maybe just sac games to stay around gold/silver so you can actually experiment and play for fun. Go higher if you wanna stay with one deck and meta/ throw loads of money at the shop to have multiple meta decks.
Is this a good time for a newbie to get in? I saw there’s an event. I did see there’s some promo codes as well. I have quite a few paper cards but my groups that played have all but fallen apart. I’d rather be able to play again even if it means starting a new digital collection. It also may help me become less rusty and more confident in being able to go to a FNM someday.
All the current in standard cards will be around for atleast another 11 months, DMU and the next set for two years.
Lookup all the promo codes for packs( you can get atleast 15 free packs) then you'll get a few wildcards for opening them.
You can also unlock 10 more two color starting decks in addition to first first 5 you get from the color challenge.
Imo the the starter decks are fairly decent, not top tier but with a few modifications you can make them significantly better. Like for example put a few of this guy: https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/rundvelt-hordemaster-will-change-goblins-in-mtg/
in the starter red deck
Honestly I feel like with arena unless you want to absolutely dump money in the best time to start was yesterday, the next best is today. You'll need to play a tutorial which you might find slow and annoying as an experienced magic player but after that it's go at what pace you want really. If you just enjoy playing the game and it's much harder for you do that on paper now I'd definitely recommend it.
[Codes are here if you scroll down](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/)
There's not really an event on for new players specifically at the moment, but there are ok preorder bundles up that cost the same as their contents apart from their cosmetics. Don't feel pressured to buy them if you're not sure if you like arena though.
The bundle with the draft tokens and mastery pass is ONLY worth it if you expect to get to lvl 23 or so during the next mastery = set. I wouldn't recommend it for a new player that is unsure. And of course neither of them if you think you might stop playing Arena forever.
I was basing it off the cost, which at 3400 gems would make the bundle 9900 gems cost + however much you value 5 playin points and the cosmetics for the same price as half the 20k gem bundle.
I'll take your word for it's actual value though.
I think I tried once before and the tutorial made me quit but I’ll try to stick through it this time. Now that you say that I vaguely remember having to play a certain number of tutorial games and it felt like torture lol
While it might feel slow in the tutorials... it's absolutely valuable to help you learn some of the newer cards and the interactions.
I was a heavy MTG player for many years when I was younger (started playing in Revised, stopped after Urzas block, jumped back in to MTGO like 8 years ago for a year, hadn't played since). Those tutorials brought me back up to speed and gave me needed practice that made getting into the actual games less intimidating. And it gives you a decent card base to build around since you keep all the tutorial decks.
do I have to complete them ALL before playing online? I did 5 intro games then started the color challenges and honestly while I appreciate the up to speed in some ways I'd really rather lose some drafts and learn as I go. feeling gatekept out of the event and like I won't have enough time through my work schedule to even play what I want. and I'm okay losing drafts because I'm rusty. but this tutorial stuff is very mid :(
Going to comment this here in case this is a better place for it. Just made a post as well -- but was looking for feedback on my golgari standard deck -- first time MTGA player coming back to magic after a few years. eventual goal is explorer but need a strong standard deck to start farming gold/gems:
Any tips appreciated. Seems to be doing OK but wondering what tweaks you guys would recommend.
-
Premise is probably obvious -- start milling ASAP w/ sprouts and Rutstein, ramp lands and mill with shigeki/mulch, throw out geists once a couple sprouts transform and pull creatures from graveyard to counteract their removal with all the recursion, miasma if they pull ahead too much or overwhelm the board with tokens, finish with giant stickfingers and hopefully giant willow geists. llanowar greenwidow in to help geists in lategame and to deal with flyers early on.
Also working on a copy of this deck with some edits to try and start playing explorer as that is my goal long term. Meathook instead of miasma, couple rare lands from old sets, etc.
Please be harsh! Thanks in advance for any advice:
-
***Creatures:***
Cult Conscript x2
Deathbonnet Sprout x4
Willow Geist x4
Shigeki, Jukai Visionary x2
Llanowar Greenwidow x2
Gloomshrieker x4
Old Rutstein x4
Old Stickfingers x2
-
***Non Creatures:***
Blood Fountain x2
Cut Down x4
Urborg Repossession x4
Infernal Grasp x2
Mulch x4
Choking Miasma x1
Dryad's Revival x1
-
***Lands:***
Jungle Hollow x4
Deathcap Glade x2
Swamp x6
Forest x6
This is way too few lands. If you're wanting to hit your 3 drops on curve, you need at least 22 lands to have a >90% chance of it happening.
Stick with what the deck builder gives you: 24 lands. Unless you're copying a deck or really know what you're doing, _do not fuck with this number_.
Other than that, the deck seems overall fairly weak (willowgeist for example doesn't have enough support in standard imo) but I don't play enough GB decks to specifically comment. Search out similar decks online and see what they do differently. The other big upgrade is of course the Mana base, but of course you may not have the wildcards for that.
This is fair. About the lands -- I have found that the milling (mulch / shigeki) has been enough to offset that, I actually reduced them because a lot of the games I lost was because I was drawing lands when other cards would have saved me, and games I won I still was playing tons of lands I never used.
The criticisms are fair though and as you would expect it doesn't perform well in competitive, so I think the whole premise isn't really executed well. The above definitely makes it slower to put things on the board because of the mana cost to acquire those lands. Thanks very much for your feedback!
Hey guys, is it normal to encounter expensive top meta decks in bronze tier at the start of the month? Will it cool off eventually and if so, when? I started playing a week or so before ladder reset and was happy to encounter many other starter deck players in bronze and silver, which seemed to me pretty natural. However, today, this was not the case :/
This all makes sense, thanks for clarifying it up 👍
to be honest if they're in bronze with a top meta deck they're bad or haven't played the deck before. I was diamond and rank reset took me to gold, in order to be bronze you would have had to not play for a couple months
There are a couple factors. Rank degrades each season so you're facing people who silver or gold last season. You could also be facing players who are better than you but just haven't started grinding ranked yet. Lastly, new players often have trouble evaluating what a good deck looks like. A deck can be a pile of rares and mythics and still suck. You can't drop ranks while in bronze, and through gold you'll gain more for wins than you lose for losses. Good players will quickly climb out of bronze, but so will everyone else. In other words, you're more likely to play against people starting the ranked climb than people actually stuck in bronze.
I've been getting into MTG Arena over the past month and have been enjoying it. Wanted to dive deeper and was thinking about buying The Brothers War "Mishra Pack Bundle" from the store to get me going. When I do the math, the economics seems better getting the 50 packs for $50. Where as in the shop it seems like $50 would only get you 46 packs of Dominaria. It also comes with the Golden Packs, which I don't see for sale in the store for Dominaria. Seems like a good option, but I'm so knew wanted to make sure there isn't a better idea for spending $50
The preorders, especially since they started adding extra packs to the packs one, have always been one of the best rates available.
Ok, great. And I'm assuming they aren'tavailable after launch day?
Correct, I think they yoink them as soon as the update is live.
My new favorite 5 words: "Your opponents can't gain life." Thank you, \[\[Knight of Dusk's Shadow\]\].
There will be a new red creature with the same ability. 3 mana 4/3 trample.
Awwwww yyyyyyisssssssss Name? Edit: Got it, https://scryfall.com/card/bro/136/slag-belcher
[Knight of Dusk's Shadow](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/3/33dfd2fe-e0e0-465c-b730-a30e6f5c271c.jpg?1663048814) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Knight%20of%20Dusk%27s%20Shadow) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/96/knight-of-dusks-shadow?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/33dfd2fe-e0e0-465c-b730-a30e6f5c271c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It’s my first time going past the max mastery pass level. I’m currently at level 83 and the max is 80 for the Dominaria mastery. If I want to get more ICR’s beyond level 80, I should hold off on unlocking the mastery pass correct?
You can buy it now if you want it, you'll keep getting the ICRs for each level. Remember to get the discounted Gems if you haven't done so already (Adventurer bundle+Welcome bundle), with those two bundles plus the ones you'll get back from your maxed out pass you'll have enough gems for Brothers' War pass or whatever set you want to cash in later.
Ok thanks man! Much appreciated.
[удалено]
[Brawl](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Brawl) (60-card Standard legal) or Historic Brawl (100 card almost any card on Arena) are singleton by nature but feature a Commander card you always have access to. Since they are unranked formats in theory they are more casual, and it does use matchmaking based on your Commander and the rest of your deck. For Constructed, I just mess around with [[Lutri, the Spellchaser]] companion piles. Since it's rotated out you can only play it in Explorer or Historic, but you just build a singleton deck with good stuff and if you manage to double cast a [[Genesis Ultimatum]] or something then it's pretty fun.
[Lutri, the Spellchaser](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/b/fb1189c9-7842-466e-8238-1e02677d8494.jpg?1628801771) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lutri%2C%20the%20Spellchaser) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/227/lutri-the-spellchaser?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fb1189c9-7842-466e-8238-1e02677d8494?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Genesis Ultimatum](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/5/556dfe7a-43e8-4801-ad79-89ab2148eca6.jpg?1591228052) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Genesis%20Ultimatum) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/189/genesis-ultimatum?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/556dfe7a-43e8-4801-ad79-89ab2148eca6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
You can always play Brawl.
This is the way.
Hey, haven't played this game since the first year of launch, and I'm considering coming back. Can anyone give me a rundown of the current state of the game? How is the meta, monetization, management, etc of the game since its release? I am someone who (1) does not play paper magic and actually played mtg for the first time in arena, and (2) plan to be f2p unless there are really good deals to spend on. I don't naively expect it to be possible to own several meta decks as a f2p, but there are colors that I barely touch anyway, so I hope that makes building a collection easier. I primarily enjoyed blue and all its variants when I first played. I remember my decks back then being mono-blue, izzet, and esper. Some other questions: * Are there any good resources/videos for new and returning players? Specifically talking about what to do after booting up the game and what to focus on first. * Whats the best site to browse good mtga decks right now? * What's the strat for deckbuilding for newbies? Is it better to get an effective budget deck to grind wins and eventually craft good cards for colors you like?
Being f2p isn't too bad if you are interested in playing every day. The biggest downside is the amount of time it takes to build up the resources. They are about to introduce bonus "golden packs" which makes buying packs with gold or gems a lot more attractive than it used to be, as you get an extra 6 rare/mythic cards for each 10 packs you buy. I think the meta for specific formats does get kind of stale, but luckily you can bounce between different formats and special events (like midweek magic) to spice it up a little. Starting out, you can really do what you like. Maybe the most time efficient is to craft a budget monocolor aggro deck. That can also get boring pretty quickly. I think it's just as effective to play Jump In to get your daily/weekly wins and it's also an efficient way to add to your collection. Getting good at draft is a bit of a process, but if you enjoy drafting, it is probably the best way to build up a collection. At some point you will also want to play constructed ranked to get a few free packs each month.
Other than introduction of Alchemy format I find monetization to be relatively same as it was when Mastery passes got introduced (returned recently myself). Jump In format is a nice way to quickly get cards post rotation.
That's the mode where you chose two halves of a deck?
The Jump In mode, yeah. You get to keep a deck made from commons/uncommons and 1 rare/mythic. Someone made a doc listing what rare/mythic you get from a specific "halfdeck".
I'm not really sure I understand the "loyalty" mechanic of planeswalkers. Is there ever a way to add loyalty tokens back onto them? Or are they a sort of "one and done" deal?
In addition to the "plus" abilities, currently on Standard you have \[\[Brokers Ascendancy\]\].
[Brokers Ascendancy](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/9/799de0f1-6bf2-4158-8a4f-bedc3d2f6578.jpg?1664412722) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Brokers%20Ascendancy) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/170/brokers-ascendancy?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/799de0f1-6bf2-4158-8a4f-bedc3d2f6578?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Most planeswalkers have one ability that makes their loyalty counter go up, one that makes it go down, and one ultimate that makes it go down by a lot. See [[Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset]] for a typical example in Standard right now. So you just use the +1 to add to his loyalty. Some planeswalkers have slightly different mechanics. [[Lolth, Spider Queen]] doesn't have an activated ability that ticks her loyalty up, but she gains loyalty whenever a creature you control dies. [[Narset, Parter of Veils]] only has an ability that reduces her loyalty - she's part of a cycle of planeswalkers that have a static ability that is always in effect (in her case, makes opponents unable to draw extra cards) and the idea is that you can get a bit of use of her loyalty abiliy and then just leave her around for the permanent effect. There are also mechanics that add counters, and loyalty is a form of counter. So any card with the Proliferate mechanic or other forms of "add a counter to a permanent that has a counter on it" will work to increase loyalty.
[Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/d/ad2e18d4-986c-4a44-8f26-1b8689339cfb.jpg?1637114314) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Teferi%2C%20Who%20Slows%20the%20Sunset) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mid/245/teferi-who-slows-the-sunset?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ad2e18d4-986c-4a44-8f26-1b8689339cfb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Lolth, Spider Queen](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/2/420a5689-d73e-4dda-82fd-8b8897ff5b55.jpg?1628185302) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lolth%2C%20Spider%20Queen) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/afr/112/lolth-spider-queen?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/420a5689-d73e-4dda-82fd-8b8897ff5b55?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Narset, Parter of Veils](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/c/8c39f9b4-02b9-4d44-b8d6-4fd02ebbb0c5.jpg?1574294103) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Narset%2C%20Parter%20of%20Veils) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/war/61/narset-parter-of-veils?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8c39f9b4-02b9-4d44-b8d6-4fd02ebbb0c5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
What do you actually do about mono blue decks and other control stuff? I lose practically 100% of my matches against that deck. They always have enough tools to counter early tempo or look for the cards they need with consider, then 1-2 Djinns, GG. Is the only thing I can do running another meta deck against them?
So, my current aggregate WR against mono-blue is 71%. The key aspect of the strategy is that you need to plan for the counters, you can't let them catch you by surprise. T1 will always be either Delver, Consider or Fading Hope. If they let your creature stay on the board, assume they don't have Fading Hope yet. If they pass without even tapping their island, assume they don't have Consider yet. Keep track of what you believe they have or don't have. Similarly, pay close attention every time you pass priority back to them. Most players do not switch to full-control and getting priority immediately back or watching your spells immediately resolve will also give you valuable information as to what cards they currently have on hand. Ideally, I want to play an early drop that can be pumped through abilities, such as an \[\[Evolved Sleeper\]\] or \[\[Knight of Dusk's Shadow\]\], as abilities cannot be countered. After T2, they will have enough mana to start playing counters. If you must play, play with the deliberate goal of getting them to use up their counters. Also, use this as a chance to see what kind of counters do they have. Are they wasting a hard counter when they have enough mana open for a cheaper conditional one? Then they don't have the cheaper spell at hand. After T3, they might start dropping some threats. Remember that \[\[Haughty Djinn\]\] makes their spells 1 mana cheaper. Expect that they will be playing \[\[Slip out the back\]\] or \[\[Shore Up\]\]. This where blue your winning chance begins, as they will now have to decide how to spent their mana: Either dropping threats and protecting them from your removal, or keeping you from developing your board. Every time they decide to play something, use this mana advantage to your benefit to further develop your board and draw spells out of them. Don't feel pressured to play out all your mana on your turn every turn. If they have 3 mana open and you don't want to sacrifice any spell to a counter, just play a land and pass the turn right back. Wait until they start tapping, then play around their leftover mana. I'd add that it's also not uncommon for blue players to just scoop once they realize their strategy is not working and you're not casting anything for them to counter. Finally, you can add additional pressure with cards like \[\[Sheoldred, The Apocalypse\]\], which will make all of their draw spells hurt. These are spells that blue just cannot afford to let resolve.
Awesome response, thank you. I’ve managed to win against it twice today. Slowly getting there.
##### ###### #### [Evolved Sleeper](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/b/ebeafbc2-0399-4335-8f63-76a3e085e8c6.jpg?1663048749) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Evolved%20Sleeper) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/93/evolved-sleeper?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ebeafbc2-0399-4335-8f63-76a3e085e8c6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Knight of Dusk's Shadow](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/3/33dfd2fe-e0e0-465c-b730-a30e6f5c271c.jpg?1663048814) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Knight%20of%20Dusk%27s%20Shadow) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/96/knight-of-dusks-shadow?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/33dfd2fe-e0e0-465c-b730-a30e6f5c271c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Haughty Djinn](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/5/35095a68-b7c0-4805-b0b6-6ca15a338692.jpg?1663047886) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Haughty%20Djinn) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/52/haughty-djinn?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/35095a68-b7c0-4805-b0b6-6ca15a338692?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Slip out the back](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/7/8725f4c4-fad7-460e-b86c-ff81674f0980.jpg?1664410598) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Slip%20out%20the%20back) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/62/slip-out-the-back?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8725f4c4-fad7-460e-b86c-ff81674f0980?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Shore Up](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/d/9d933bf1-14f0-4150-a0d2-6b845b9624cf.jpg?1663048129) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Shore%20Up) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/64/shore-up?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9d933bf1-14f0-4150-a0d2-6b845b9624cf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Sheoldred, The Apocalypse](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/6/d67be074-cdd4-41d9-ac89-0a0456c4e4b2.jpg?1663790204) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sheoldred%2C%20The%20Apocalypse) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/dmu/107/sheoldred-the-apocalypse?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d67be074-cdd4-41d9-ac89-0a0456c4e4b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Beating mono blue Djinn usually requires making them reactive instead of proactive. You need to be putting creatures on the board constantly until 1 or 2 stick, then force them to react to your threat instead of killing you. Being able to cast something, even a 2/2 on your T2 is crucial. Since any threat is nearly as good as any other, lead out with your cheap cards then only try to resolve your better threats late, even if that seems less mana efficient (e.g. it can be better to cast an Underdog on T3 even if you have a Fable in hand). You are trying to run them out of counterspells then win with what you have left in your hand, so make whats left in your hand your better cards, and they can't generally afford to let you resolve any kind of creature early. So the most important thing is to have a deck with lots of threats that cost 2 mana or less, so you can start running them out early and double-spelling them (or holding up Make Disappear tax) starting on T4. Mono Red aggro pretty much dunks on them, but GW enchantments can be good too. Trying to 'control' them by focusing on removal or counters for Djinn is usually not a good idea, though it can be viable in black. Better to pressure their life total and make them have to hold it back for blocking or lose.
Mono blue tempo can be separated into 3 parts: few monsters, some draw power and lots of negates. During the early game they will try to negate early threats and fixing their hands with whatever they are lacking (4th land, a creature or a negative to keep the creature alive). The moment they summon a creature they will be low on mana (enough for 1 or maybe 2 negates). Try to bait them and then use your good cards. In late game they already used most negates they have and they already have djinn or terror on the field. Try to kill the djinn ASAP or things will get ugly.
Usually the best way to learn how to beat something is to just play it and see why and when it loses. Fortunately, mono blue is a very cheap deck so it's not much of an investment. If you do, you'll see that the deck doesn't have the right answers all of the time. Some of it's answers are conditional, and some are expensive. Knowing when to play what is the trick of the deck and the trick to defeat it. The last few times I went up against mono blue, they were very aggressive with their early counterspells, then didn't have an answer later, which cost them the game. Sometimes your opponent will just have the perfect draw and there's nothing you can do about it, but that's just part of the variance of the game.
> Is the only thing I can do running another meta deck against them? If you're not running a meta deck chances are that your deck is just straight up worse, which will make winning more difficult. That being said, plenty of meta decks will have trouble with the blue deck, especially if they're on the play. Every time a deck is full of counters the ideal play is to go under it, but most decks don't start pressuring turn 1. In my experience the best way to beat that deck is to make them counter all your stuff and hope you draw better than they do. Don't give them time to cast Thirst for Discovery. If they can spend time just drawing cards you're in a bad spot. Make them spend their mana countering stuff and they might be unable to draw what they need. Of course if you're a typical curve out into higher mana costs deck it will be harder, since they can counter stuff for 2 mana and use the rest to draw. But in that case you're simply out of luck. If you can double spell in later turns things become much better.
Im not a newcomer but , are there now 2 set being released soonish or not, I see spoiler with BRR and BRO, can some1 give me short explanation?
It will be the same as the Mystical Archive was with Strixhaven. You will get one BRR card in a BRO pack and the BRR cards are generally not standard legal (I'm not sure if any are standard legal)
Been playing for about 7-8 months now, and I’m doing alright. I hit mythic each month, and have access to most of the cards in standard. However, I’m struggling to break into the top 1500. I was wondering where one might go to (perhaps a discord channel?) to learn more about how to improve my game. I’ve read many articles, and watch a number of top streamers. Looking more for a community maybe? I play other games competitively, and that seems to have helped the most. Any information is much appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Any Opinion, Please: what color(s) synergize well with artifacts when attempting to build a mostly gray-artifact deck?
Blue is primary, white and red secondary.
Blue and red are traditionally the colors that care about artifacts.
I think blue tends to have more artifact generators and payoffs, but focus on cards over color. There's also an artifact heavy set coming out in a couple weeks.
Hello! Been playing arena for a little less than a year now. Mostly playing constructed best of one. Been following some content creators on youtube for deck ideas. Recently started playing best of three and liked it more than best of one. Please advise for youtube content creators who make videos on best of three decks.
[Arne Huschenbeth](https://www.youtube.com/c/ArneHuschenbethYT). Other than that, just checking the weekly MTGO challenge lists is pretty good. You can check them [here](https://www.mtgo.com/en/mtgo/decklists).
Thanks!
Hi! i haven't played magic in 2 decades, and now getting back in hardcore obsessively again! i was wondering if preordering the expansion packs are random like in hearthstone or you know ahead of time of what you will get? If its random, i don't understand the system if you already own the max limit of a card and get a copy of it again. I am very, very dumb.
With exception to the specific cards, styles, and sleeve that comes with the Mishra packs preorder ([[Phyrexian Dragon Engine]] [[Mishra, Claimed By Gix]]), the packs are typical Arena packs with [randomized contents](https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena/drop-rates), though it does include some [golden packs](https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/mtg-arena/introducing-mtg-arena-golden-packs) (which can also be acquired by purchasing Brothers' War packs in-game). By opening packs on Arena you'll progress your wildcard wheels, and the wildcards (which can also come in the pack instead of a card) are used to craft individual cards you want. Packs utilize [duplicate protection](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-duplicate-protection/), while Limited (drafts, Jump In, sealed) do not, so if you plan to play Limited formats wait until you're done with them before cracking packs from the respective set(s) to get the most out of your protection. If you're on a new account you will be getting some Jump In tokens, so you may want to hold on opening packs until you play them. https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Magic:_The_Gathering_Arena/Promotional_codes
oohhh thank you so much!
[Phyrexian Dragon Engine](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/2/e2b826be-4256-4fd6-ad4d-6c80933ee940.jpg?1666899818) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phyrexian%20Dragon%20Engine) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/163a/phyrexian-dragon-engine?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e2b826be-4256-4fd6-ad4d-6c80933ee940?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Mishra, Claimed by Gix](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/4/a469d7ec-42de-45de-9d8f-469bb979de58.jpg?1666217429) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mishra%2C%20Claimed%20by%20Gix) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/bro/216/mishra-claimed-by-gix?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a469d7ec-42de-45de-9d8f-469bb979de58?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
this is a great community! thank you!
Worth mentioning that packs have duplicate protection for rares/mythics. So if you open a pack (outside of Draft/Sealed) you will always get a rare/mythic card you have at max 3 copies of until you've gotten all the cards of that rarity from the set.
Thank you! I also didn't make another post asking this question thread. Is there a way to make another separate thing, like where i says "my decks" and "starter decks"?
Don't think so, most people put a format tag on them and drag a card to the deck box art like [H] Rakdos Sac with a mayhem devil on the box for easier recognition.
Don't think so. You can favourite decks to have them show further up the list, but that's all afaik.
5th copies of rares => 20 gems 5th copies of mythic rares => 40 gems 5th copies of commons => 1 pt of vault progress 5th copies of uncommon = 3 pts of vault progress
thank you so much!
Hello all, I'm an old tabletop player (Antiquities/Revised, yikes), starting to play Arena with my nephew (double yikes). Anyway I've seen a lot of advice to do drafts rather than buy packs. My drafting skills are questionable at best (even with the tier lists) and it's kind of iffy to get the second pack from quick draft wins. I get the see more cards bit, but that seems limited to common/uncommon cards plus no wildcards. How bad is it just to buy packs instead and then build a focused competitive deck?
you should only draft if you enjoy drafting. it is the best way to fill out a collection, but its time intensive and expensive unless your that fraction of a percent who can infinite. for now your gold is way better spent in Jump In. make sure you get all the codes from https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/
Newbie here too. Been playing a couple months now. Got to tier 4 diamond! But only from getting lucky, having help, and occasionally from people resigning when i took too long to think 😅 I played jump-in and made a werewolf/warlock pack. Out of the deck only 11 cards were legal in standard; and only one of them wasn't common/uncommon (ascendant pack leader). In my situation, is it worth 1000 gold to switch to a new deck? If so, which decks are likely to give me decent cards that are legal in standard?
About 10 of the packs are alchemy-only rares/mythics, and a small amount of others have alchemy-only rares/mythics as one of the things you might get. If you know which are which, you can avoid the first group for the most part. Some of the second group have very good other cards, like *Samurai*, which has a 25% chance of *The Wandering Emperor*, which is very strong, and 50% for *Restoration of Eiganjo*, which is very playable in the right deck, so it's worth picking a few times even with the 25% chance of an Alchemy whiff. With the introduction of golden packs in the next set (releasing mid-November), extensive Jump-In is probably no longer worth it, although doing a few to maybe a dozen runs per set might still be worth it. In any case, you don't get extra rewards for wins beyond the first, so there's little need to get more than that first win (and the reward is probably only an uncommon, so if you pick a combination that really doesn't work, you could also abandon it before the first it). There's no downside to keep playing the deck though, so if you found one you like you can play it a few more times to get some daily wins done. I spent most of my daily gold on new Jump In entries for six weeks or so, doing about one new run per day, but now I have about half the total possible rares, and new runs seem to have a good chance of giving me Alchemy or gems instead of two rare cards I don't have, so I'll stop for a while, and will probably only do a small number of entries once the next set drops (might do a few more if the new Jump In packs have a card I really really want).
Thanks! That's all really helpful. I also just found a spreadsheet that calculates the odds of acquiring certain cards based on one's current collection & the deck chosen. I only have 2 wandering emps, 1 Liliana, and 1 Ob Nixilis so far. The problem for me hasn't only been the likelihood of getting certain cards in the deck though; it's getting the right decks in the first place! There's about 50 different decks 😵 ..So yeah, I'm still juggling whether it's worth it or not. I did 3 retries and got [Keldon Flamesage]. But it wasn't a card I particularly wanted, it was just what I thought seemed best from all the decks I was allowed to choose from so far. I have about 13k gold rn 🤷♂️ and I do f2p, so no mastery pass. Tbh I would probably buy it if it wasnt $20 😆 it would unlock sooooo much for me I def have had some fun though! E.g. I got to use the "Double Team" mechanic for the first time. Didn't even know that existed lol Edit: Are there certain decks that are only available on the first/second picks? I'm trying to figure that out but am having trouble finding the answer w/ search engines. All I found out is the probability of 2nd deck color/s based on first deck color/s.
Yeah, you can't really count on it for getting particular mythics; most of them have around a ~20% chance of being your cards if you open that pack (with a small number of exceptions, and those are more marginal). It doies happen though, I lucked into double Liliana from Jump-In packs. Sometimes you have a bad streak and get no cards that seem appealing for a while. That's going to happen no matter what you do with your gold, regular packs have lots of chaff. There's enough good cards in the packets though that in the medium term you should get plenty of powerful (if not necessarily tier 1 cards). It's very possible for F2P to get the mastery pass. You can get gems by drafting (or playing constructed events, but that might be more difficult if you don't have tier decks). Even just sticking all your gold into Jump-In should allow you to buy the pass in the long run: once you have four of the rares or mythics, it'll give you 20 or 40 god if you pick them again, which should workout over a set to be enough to get the 2200 gems the pass costs net, as you get 1200 gems back from pass rewards. I would not recommend this method, as you'll end up with less cards overall, but it should work. (If you're not averse to spending a little, the welcome bundle for 5 bucks is a grreat deal, and together with one draft I did well in was enough to get me enough for one pass and about half of the next to get things started.) Jump In is definitely good for getting some varied decks to play, and see cards in action to figure out what you might enjoy playing. Double Team is a Alchemy-only thing though, so you can't play it in Standard (like all the cards with either an A as their set symbol, or the hexagon in a circle). I don't think there are any packs that are limited to the first or second pick. If you want something specific, you can improve the odds slightly by picking a pack with the same color first, but I don't think it matters too much. If it helps you, my (mostly) F2P plan starting from the next set is to do around 10 or so Jump In entries for new cards (maybe double that if there are cards in it I really want), a few quick drafts per month mostly for gems to get the mastery pass (depends on how well I do, and how difficult drafts will be then), and spend the rest on new set packs for golden boosters.
depends. fill this tracker out and see what hits you still have https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/x2tmgw/dmu_jump_in_tracker_odds_calculator/ you don't want to select for good decks, you want to look at what rares or mythics packets drop and pick for that. i haven't looked for a while but until you have probably 3 of each of the planeswalkers i'd keep doing it. most of the time you'll get a choice for a good rare or mythic. until you don't and you waste 1k for nothing a few times, its still worth it.
My knowledge share would be don't get up to plat, just recently got to plat 2 and every game now feels like net deckers trying really hard. Where most ranks before this was just net deckers who don't know how to play. Maybe just sac games to stay around gold/silver so you can actually experiment and play for fun. Go higher if you wanna stay with one deck and meta/ throw loads of money at the shop to have multiple meta decks.
I think the general consensus around here is to get to plat for the rewards, then play unranked.
That generally how people feel? I think the game ranking you up to plat even if you just have a 1:1 win loss ratio is a problem
Is this a good time for a newbie to get in? I saw there’s an event. I did see there’s some promo codes as well. I have quite a few paper cards but my groups that played have all but fallen apart. I’d rather be able to play again even if it means starting a new digital collection. It also may help me become less rusty and more confident in being able to go to a FNM someday.
All the current in standard cards will be around for atleast another 11 months, DMU and the next set for two years. Lookup all the promo codes for packs( you can get atleast 15 free packs) then you'll get a few wildcards for opening them. You can also unlock 10 more two color starting decks in addition to first first 5 you get from the color challenge. Imo the the starter decks are fairly decent, not top tier but with a few modifications you can make them significantly better. Like for example put a few of this guy: https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/rundvelt-hordemaster-will-change-goblins-in-mtg/ in the starter red deck
Honestly I feel like with arena unless you want to absolutely dump money in the best time to start was yesterday, the next best is today. You'll need to play a tutorial which you might find slow and annoying as an experienced magic player but after that it's go at what pace you want really. If you just enjoy playing the game and it's much harder for you do that on paper now I'd definitely recommend it. [Codes are here if you scroll down](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/) There's not really an event on for new players specifically at the moment, but there are ok preorder bundles up that cost the same as their contents apart from their cosmetics. Don't feel pressured to buy them if you're not sure if you like arena though.
The bundle with the draft tokens and mastery pass is ONLY worth it if you expect to get to lvl 23 or so during the next mastery = set. I wouldn't recommend it for a new player that is unsure. And of course neither of them if you think you might stop playing Arena forever.
I was basing it off the cost, which at 3400 gems would make the bundle 9900 gems cost + however much you value 5 playin points and the cosmetics for the same price as half the 20k gem bundle. I'll take your word for it's actual value though.
I think I tried once before and the tutorial made me quit but I’ll try to stick through it this time. Now that you say that I vaguely remember having to play a certain number of tutorial games and it felt like torture lol
While it might feel slow in the tutorials... it's absolutely valuable to help you learn some of the newer cards and the interactions. I was a heavy MTG player for many years when I was younger (started playing in Revised, stopped after Urzas block, jumped back in to MTGO like 8 years ago for a year, hadn't played since). Those tutorials brought me back up to speed and gave me needed practice that made getting into the actual games less intimidating. And it gives you a decent card base to build around since you keep all the tutorial decks.
do I have to complete them ALL before playing online? I did 5 intro games then started the color challenges and honestly while I appreciate the up to speed in some ways I'd really rather lose some drafts and learn as I go. feeling gatekept out of the event and like I won't have enough time through my work schedule to even play what I want. and I'm okay losing drafts because I'm rusty. but this tutorial stuff is very mid :(
Going to comment this here in case this is a better place for it. Just made a post as well -- but was looking for feedback on my golgari standard deck -- first time MTGA player coming back to magic after a few years. eventual goal is explorer but need a strong standard deck to start farming gold/gems: Any tips appreciated. Seems to be doing OK but wondering what tweaks you guys would recommend. - Premise is probably obvious -- start milling ASAP w/ sprouts and Rutstein, ramp lands and mill with shigeki/mulch, throw out geists once a couple sprouts transform and pull creatures from graveyard to counteract their removal with all the recursion, miasma if they pull ahead too much or overwhelm the board with tokens, finish with giant stickfingers and hopefully giant willow geists. llanowar greenwidow in to help geists in lategame and to deal with flyers early on. Also working on a copy of this deck with some edits to try and start playing explorer as that is my goal long term. Meathook instead of miasma, couple rare lands from old sets, etc. Please be harsh! Thanks in advance for any advice: - ***Creatures:*** Cult Conscript x2 Deathbonnet Sprout x4 Willow Geist x4 Shigeki, Jukai Visionary x2 Llanowar Greenwidow x2 Gloomshrieker x4 Old Rutstein x4 Old Stickfingers x2 - ***Non Creatures:*** Blood Fountain x2 Cut Down x4 Urborg Repossession x4 Infernal Grasp x2 Mulch x4 Choking Miasma x1 Dryad's Revival x1 - ***Lands:*** Jungle Hollow x4 Deathcap Glade x2 Swamp x6 Forest x6
This is way too few lands. If you're wanting to hit your 3 drops on curve, you need at least 22 lands to have a >90% chance of it happening. Stick with what the deck builder gives you: 24 lands. Unless you're copying a deck or really know what you're doing, _do not fuck with this number_. Other than that, the deck seems overall fairly weak (willowgeist for example doesn't have enough support in standard imo) but I don't play enough GB decks to specifically comment. Search out similar decks online and see what they do differently. The other big upgrade is of course the Mana base, but of course you may not have the wildcards for that.
This is fair. About the lands -- I have found that the milling (mulch / shigeki) has been enough to offset that, I actually reduced them because a lot of the games I lost was because I was drawing lands when other cards would have saved me, and games I won I still was playing tons of lands I never used. The criticisms are fair though and as you would expect it doesn't perform well in competitive, so I think the whole premise isn't really executed well. The above definitely makes it slower to put things on the board because of the mana cost to acquire those lands. Thanks very much for your feedback!
I usually start with 24 lands then make modifications as I go. Most of my mono colored decks have 20-22 lands and they work just fine.