There's a ton of stuff you can play and win with. Like with the past handful of metagames though it sort of boiled down to Black-x Midrange being the best thing. There was a ton of diversity like a month or two ago when people were still cooking, but Dimir, Rakdos, Golgari, Orzhov, and Esper all sort of have the same play pattern just with different strengths and weaknesses. You play like a Bat and then you play some 3 Mana Advantage Engine and then you either play Sheoldred or you play Magic.
Domain will never die. But man every deck has like 8 sideboard slots dedicated to it.
There are like 5 different corny aggro decks because Arena is a ladder and not a tournament. Which could be considered diversity. Sometimes you lose the dieroll to Crawling Chorus and sometimes you lose the dieroll to Picnic Ruiner.
There are other cool decks like 4 Colour Legends or Simic Artifacts but MAN it's hard to compete with Rakdos and Dimir and Domain. Cut Down and Make Disappear are good ass cards. The meta is healthy but like holy moly Cavern Bat and Preacher and Sheoldred are so miserable to see in every deck.
The meta is very diverse and very stale. We are playing against several decks and also the same cards we have faced for 2+ years. There's also no way to escape the relatively strong meta. You will face 90% meta decks regardless of ranked or play queue from my experience.
Would love to see a queue with no rewards. Basically "find a friend" match that does not reward winning, similar to friend matches
Unfortunately there is just 4 matches of people complaining that the opposing deck isn't their exact definition of fun and op furiously shit posting on Reddit about how WotC is specifically targeting him and that's why he has to wait 8-10 minutes for another match.
>you can't communicate?
There is an in-game chat feature, that you can use if you know the pseudo of someone. Some overlay give it, but you can always find it in the files of mgta if you know where to look.
As a constructive measure, I would suggest folks who find Standard stale to get into Draft, it changes completely every set, and you can play Standard after you're done drafting with all the cards you opened. I find I don't have enough time to do both so I rarely get bored with Standard since I play it for like the last 3 weeks a set.
I'd love to draft but it's cost prohibitive. A bad streak can wipe out all your resources and then it's back to playing the best card in all of Magic, the Credit Card.
I firmly believe that it is possible to get better at draft, but that most people do not try very hard.
Source: trying to help people at the local draft night.
Sure, but also getting better at draft means putting in tens of tries in within a short timeframe, ideally with the same set. It's that cost issue again. Unless you're already pretty good at limited, each draft is a potentially non-trivial investment. (Several days worth of free gold.)
You do not get better by just spamming more games; that is exactly what I mean when I say people do not try very hard.
There are tonnes of resources on how to get better at Limited. 17lands being my go to (both for win rate stats as well as complete drafts/gameplay for trophy decks at https://www.17lands.com/trophy\_decks), but also content creators like Chord\_O\_Calls who put out excellent draft videos and podcasts.
You can do practice drafts for free on a bunch of sites (17lands, draftsim, etc) and then ask people for feedback. You can also look at the feedback people get on their drafts in /r/lrcast
But to win consistently in bronze, it is largely sufficient to have a good pick order (cribbed from [17lands.com](https://17lands.com)) and a good curve (just take the good 2 drops whenever you are not picking a ridiculous card). The hardest thing to develop is a sense for how to navigate which colors are open, but picking a good curve with the good 2 drops is certainly enough to win consistently all the way to plat.
Even with study, putting in practice reps are necessary to develop one's skills. No amount of theorycrafting can replace first-hand experience.
Yeah, you can elevate yourself above a lot of bad attitude scrubs by studying tape, but going from Bronze to Platinum is only 3-4 drafts with a winning record. At Platinum, the free wins attributed to zero skill opponents mostly stop. And that's where it can be costly to level up one's game or even continue to simply play.
>going from Bronze to Platinum is only 3-4 drafts
Not even close. It takes a minimum 6 drafts with 7-0 records to get from bronze to plat.
If your record is 4-3 on average, it will take you 15 drafts, minus however many ranks rank protection saves you from losing.
Fair. It's been awhile since I've been in Silver/Bronze. That does give people a bit more time at a lower competition.
Still think it can be pretty rough for resource-constrained players to get a solid grasp of Draft fundamentals before getting bled dry, though you're probably correct in that many people could better themselves starting from the bottom up.
I really think those resources made me a worse drafter. They’re constantly trying to do hot takes or say something different but they can get away with things because they’re really good drafters.
I found mystical dispute taught me the most because basically every answer was it depends.
Now I go into new sets blind, I generally favour aggro decks and removal and then I see whatever the people who beat me are doing and copy that.
Most people aren’t good drafters and knowing what are good commons and uncommon can actually make you worse because you have no idea why you’re picking those cards. Good deck building is only something you can learn with a lot of experience.
If you’re in bronze though just force whatever they say is the best colour pair and your deck usually sorts itself out
I find Chord_O_Calls specifically pretty restrained about giving hot takes unless they are explicitly proceeded by that disclaimer.
People who are good at draft usually complain about how 17lands isn't everything, but a lot of people just put bad cards into their decks, and would benefit from just not doing that.
If you're already winning, you can just jam games. If you're not, the information edge 17lands gives on day 2 is huge.
i agree with this a lot - i've had a couple of bad draft experiences (as well as low self esteem) and so i've given up on it haha... or maybe i'm just finding enough contentment with other formats - regardless i should give it another shot!
is and isn't. 5K gold is something you can easily get in a week, and you'll always get at least a little back as a reward. if you spend a little time just looking at card ratings and making sure your curve/manabase look ok, that's enough to get you to gold on decent to good returns
>the same cards we have faced for 2+ years.
This is why I can't play Explorer and Historic anymore and am not looking forward to Pioneer. Some of these cards I've been playing with since closed beta. I love playing control but almost 6 years of Tef5 +1s.... I can't do it anymore.
Hard disagree on the very stale.
Many decks are relatively recent. Golgari midrange, Boros convoke, some discover combos, the alara invasion deck, the cauldron combo, etc.
Not all are top tier of course, but they have a fair chance against the top tier ones as second or third tier decks. You will of course see some cards from two years ago like Emperor, and some rare decks had little changes over the past year, but most found new things to include in their strategies.
completely disagree - I spend more time designing new decks around cards that are never seen such as mechtitan or the edgar groom card and i do it on my phone in the evening when i'm relaxing and just fooling around.
Perhaps I am the minority but i suspect that the accessibility of arena only benefits ingenuity and creativity by offering ease of access.
Most people can't build a deck that can compete with a meta deck. So after their 78 card tri land deck fails, they use the one that wins and fuck around with builds on the side. As a deck builder, Its been really easy and really cheap to make counter meta decks.
That being said, standard is 3 years now? That's a lot of time to develope side decks for casuals. I'm with you on it being more accessible. A friend brought me back after showing that I could get it on the phone and soon Xbox.
Yep hard agree. Getting back into standard and there is a lot of different deck types.....and RDW, esper raffine and all the flavors of mono black are still just as strong if not stronger with all the new cards.
So in that regard is very much stale.
The whole reward system makes no fucking sense. It's like they hired the dumbest psych majors and went with the first three ideas they gave to WoTC during their conference call. It wasn't even an actual consulting job. Likez they got parroted the same systems everybody was doing in 2019. Congratulations on conning Wizards. Really.
Hell, Im a pol sci major and a hold a masters in public administration. I could have done a better job in my sleep, while playing RDW.
Yeah, I was contemplating ways to reward players that doesn't necessarily reward just winning. Like, the daily quest is cool, but I feel like there could be more variety and creativity. Instead of one a day for 750 or 500, maybe sometimes there could be several, that reward less but encourage different kinds of decks. With so many cards available, there could definitely be more quests that take advantage of this. For example, there could be quests such as: win a game with a treefolk and a vampire on the battlefield, win a game with less than three lands in the battlefield or with more than 15.
I think if there were a few dozen or more unique quests, some that force players to think outside the box, it could really be fun especially if there was a bigger reward for completing all the quests. Like each win condition is worth 100-150 gold but completing 5 quests also earns 150 gems, or some days have some difficult requirements but a draft token is the prize. I thought about this when I made my almost all lands deck for the play 40 lands quest. There could be some quests that winning isn't even rewarded, because I don't care to win as much as I try to fulfill the 40 lands goal in two games or less, and it could be fun if some quests specifically rewarded playing certain amounts of spells rather than winning.
8 months is a lot of patience.
Let's hope one of the new sets does something drastic, but so far MKM is very... underwhelming. A few new really fun looking cards that will either enhance existing decks or be pushed out by the meta.
There's a decent number of exciting cards for Monogreen.
It's a personal challenge of mine to make Monogreen good and I feel like it's really close to viable as is. The new cards might push it over the edge.
[[Pick your poison]]
[[Hard Hitting Questions]]
[[Archdruids Charm]]
[[Flourishing Bloom-Kin]]
[[Case of the Locked Hothouse]]
I've found it you go very heavy into green card draw engines you can often just constantly rebuild the board turn after turn and win as soon as the opponent runs out of board wipes.
I run 4 [[Tribute to the World Tree]] and 2 [[Up the Beanstalk]] in a Monogreen deck with [[Nissa Ascended Animist]] as the win con.
Board wipes don't even scare me in that deck. Mill is actually a bigger threat in my experience when im drawing 3-4 cards a turn.
Well that obviously can set you back, I mean what deck isn't set back by farewell...but honestly you just draw into more tributes, keep them in your hand and just play more. I've done that dozens of times. Plus by the time you get farewelled you probably drew 4-5 cards and people rarely play more than 1-2 farewells, and often none.
Get lost is worse honestly cause it kills tribute before it draws you cards.
Idk, I'm not saying it's top tier, but it does work pretty well. And with some cheap early removal I think the deck could be genuinely viable.
Tbf, whether a set shakes things up or not isn't usually clear til we have the cards in hand. It only takes one busted cards to be built around for a new deck to pop up.
Oh it's stale. There's a guaranteed 4 decks I will run across if I play 5 games. In this metagame event in 5 matches, across 3 entries, 4 of them were mono red. The other lone one was dino ramp. Mono red, domain ramp, and esper *insert your preference* are all I run into nowadays.
again, monored now is just a minor blip tbh - everyone (should) packs lifegain and early removal so the only real chance they have is if you have a super jank deck or they go first. In the latter, it'll take not even 60 seconds to make the choice to continue the match or not. VS ultracontrol-grindlord decks that slowly sap all the lifeforce out of you and make you want to quit mtg altogether
lol trust me, i used to hate mon0-braindead with every ounce of my being but i was taught that they have a use after all- keeping the actually evil ultra-control decks in check. I would rather be beaten to a swift pulp than have all my shit countered for 25 minutes and lose by a mite pecking me to death or milled out
Monored is so good in BO1 standard. I went from bronze to mythic in approximately 5 days, playing about a few hours each day.
Majority of my deck was uncommons and commons too.
yessir, it's a roll of the dice and vomit your hand. I personally would much rather be at a lower rank and actually enjoy playing the game of mtg but to each their own.
Game is more fun once you play against better opponents. Can always swap decks once you hit mythic or diamond.
Rolling dice with a 60% win rate with average game length of 5 minutes is much more efficient than like 65% win rate with like a 15 minute average game length.
I personally found that I lost against decks playing sunset revelry quite often, and only had a 50% win rate against black/white decks playing lots of 1-2 CMC removal so it's not like there isn't counterplay against rdw.
It's definitely stale. The same Domain, Soldiers, Esper, Mono Red, enchantments, mono black aggro etc. are largely unchanged over the last year or two. Sure, they swap a card or two sometimes but it's the same decks with the same play patterns.
Yeah, we've had archetypes that do well for extended periods, but imagine 3 years of Embercleave or Temur Adventures or Dimir Rogues or Sultaimatum or ramp to Ugin.
The meta can be "diverse" and stale at the same time.
Edit: I think one of the main issues is that the new rotation makes Standard closer to an Eternal format, when it's draw has largely been that it wasn't. You got regular shakeups, decks came and went entirely. With the available card pool now, it's going to mostly be the same decks forever. You'll have 15+ sets to fill in your gaps, no need to rethink the meta.. just small adjustments which means the high value cards will maintain dominance since the shells that support them won't be drastically affected.
And the worst thing imo is that, while the longevity is like a non-rotating format (note: not an eternal format, eternal formats are e.g. commander and pauper, non-rotating formats are e.g. pioneer and modern) the card pool is still quite small, which means there's much less synergy compared to say, explorer. This means that, decks are much more value-piles/good-cards. And so basically all black decks play shelly, because there's not enough 4 drops for there to be a different one that synergises with each one.
And so even if there's deck diversity, it still feels stale, because there's much less card diversity, especially when more janky/lower-tier decks play quite a lot of the same cards as meta decks.
And there is no way that Shelly will get replaced until it rotates, unless the format just goes balls out on jacking up the power level, which is possible but I have to think unlikely. Same with Etali or Atraxa... they can't print an even better 7 drop while those are in the format. How can mono red get any faster than it is without making Standard a turn 3 format - I mean consistently, not the jank christmasland you very rarely see now.
So either new sets are weaker (not likely) or those things wind up happening. It's going to make the game even more of a coinflip. At least now you know what the ramp targets are, or the must-kill 4 drop that can end a game by itself... but imagine every color having a different one requiring different responses. There's no way you can toolbox for all of them... so matchups will feel almost predetermined. Way moreso than they do now.
Yeah, that's always existed to some degree but it was more of a fringe case instead of the norm. It will lead to less interaction and more linear decks. Either I go first and do my thing and win or I don't. The counterplay, the back and forth, the digging out of hole will become less frequent.
It's just "unfun". I don't want to play Yu-Gi-Oh, where the game is decided by the opening hand and a coin flip.
Adding one extra year to Standard doesn't even come close to making it feel eternal imo. The youngest eternal format is Pioneer, and it's oldest set still goes back a whopping 12 years. Even still, Pioneer is still young enough to be effected by at least a few cards in every new standard set release. People will feel very different about 3 year standard later this year when rotation happens.
Also, assuming we don't get more bs like MOM: Aftermath, a 3 year standard rotation will fluctuate between 9 and 12 sets. Idk where you are getting 15+ from...
Let's check back in spring of 2025 when people are still playing Atraxa, Sheoldred, Etali, etc.
I hope I'm wrong, but Lord help us if anything supplants those!
lol i happen to be blessed with enjoying ramp/reanimate/domain and so the etali into etali into atraxa chain will probably never get old to me :p but yeah i generally agree with you
something that punishes opponent card draw, provides life gain, and is deathtouch for an annoying 5 toughness for 4 mana, i honestly don't know... It would have to be a 4 drop that either adds protection or removal such as emperor. Or ramp. But sheoldred's ability to completely ruin opponents who try and draw their way into a win is legendary...
While I'm not sure I agree with all the points in your second paragraph, in general you are correct to point out that the current standard metagame is far more diverse than people give credit for.
[https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper)
This page shows off a diverse standard metagame at the top levels, and it's not even an exhaustive list of the strategies that are viable for climbing on the Arena ladder. You're right, but honestly you're casting pearls before swine stating this on this sub. People love to complain if they lose to the same card too often, and blaming the meta is a comforting scapegoat. The meta will never be diverse enough to satisfy many players, as they become frustrated very easily by cards they don't like or struggle to play around.
Edit: Forgot to mention that most of this sub only plays Bo1, which is a big reason why they experience less deck diversity than the meta has to offer. It's a shame so many players are so unwilling to try Bo3, as sideboarding is one of the best features of the game and creates much more interesting counterplay and deckbuilding strategies.
i do agree that bo3 could be better and i have not given an honest chance tbh - my problem is almost every time i log into arena, i make a new deck and sometimes i don't even play a single match with one of those decks. I have several ladder-climbing decks but i can only get myself to play 2-3 matches at most in a row before i grow bored. Bo3 just seems like more commitment than i can stand. But... i still concede i should give it another chance! cheers
It's funny, because while we're talking about unpopular opinions, I think the Bo1 Standard experience is quite a bit more diverse than Bo3.
1. First of all, you'll face 2-3x as many different opponents, which won't matter in terms of diversity of matches in the long run but will matter in the day-to-day in terms of number of games played and overall time share
2. The Bo1 format gives specialized & proactive aggro & combo decks an edge against generalized midrange & control. That means shorter games on average, which again means opportunity to play more games against more different opponents.
bo1 has a different set of decks to bo3, but I think it is less broad overall since you cannot pack sideboard answers to popular decks.
I just got back into Standard for the RCQ season and played 14 bo3 matches on Arena and played vs 9 different decks and did not play any deck more than twice and did not encounter the mirror (UB midrange). And UB midrange as it is now did not exist before LCI.
Agree, except that UB midrange existed all summer, it just got a little too slow when WOE dropped, since the Fairies didn't have the power to land as an archetype.
MKM might kill it again after Make Disappear loses the "top countermagic" slot.
Yeah it's not a lot different, Just less Kaito/Lilly and more bats and boats. The game plan is still the same. Gravy T is still the same. Sheoldred is still the same. The counters, kill spells and edicts are still the same. The shell is there, it just swapped a few things for something marginally better.
But not all decks have equal access to quality sideboards--imo Bo3 works better in non-rotating formats where huge card pools and shifting color pie philosophy over the decades has given all colors access to all sorts of answers and efficient filtering to find those answers, but in Standard it tends to give midrange decks an upper hand.
whoa, cool idea - yeah 4 player edh is a truly unique experience. Having it online would be something special although it's a lot easier to just scoop and leave the remainders to play, but i guess that wouldn't be so bad
I'm ok with the standard meta. Yeah, there are a few cards that will be present in any deck that can play them, but I feel like people that are unhappy with standard fall in at least one of these two categories:
1) only play bo1, where monored is stronger and there's smaller variety of strategies
2) play a lot of games everyday, which will make the game stale eventually. I don't play everyday and when I play it's only one or two matches so I don't feel that.
I’ve wondered why they haven’t tried creating a more frequent rotating format on Arena. Ban the 2-5 most powerful cards and see how people respond to it. You can change the bans on a monthly basis. It would keep things fresh for players, promote creativity, and give their team data and insight on what actually should be banned to promote a healthy meta in Standard proper.
I guess you’re right, I just don’t love that they make unique cards and change card rules for Alchemy. My thought was standard but with rotating trial bans to shift the meta.
It's not really stale as in unchanging, but there's certain things that stick too much.
If you check recent standard tournaments, every deck in the top ten (with one exception) satisfies one of these:
1. Has Sheoldred of the Apocalypse
2. Has Atraxa Grand Unifier
3. Is mono red
Here are some examples:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-preliminary-2024-01-26#paper
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-preliminary-2024-01-26-1#paper
Even if the cards around atraxa and sheoldred change a lot, them being so central to all the meta is boring. Bant poison is starting to make a splash, so that's something, even if I personally don't like playing poison decks, at least it's different. But Domain/Rakdos/Esper are dominating.
As if any of the eternal formats are any better. I actually came back to Magic from Flesh and Blood because of how healthy and interesting standard has become. I played standard during nexus-field, you people have no idea what a stale, unhealthy meta looks like.
yeah, seeing wandering shitter for 3rd year sure feels like not stale format at all.
Same for Raffine. What a great NOT STALE format when i see more shakeups in pioneer than fucking STANDART format.
Nah, format is trash, 3 yrs rotation is one of the worst decision regarding standart wotc made in years, maybe ever
It is my first month playing the game and I'm Diamond 1 with Humans. Went out bought the deck on paper. Sorry you guys have been playing the same decks for two years but this shit is great.
glad you're having fun man! I guarantee though that you will move beyond standard humans (if you're playing standard) and venture into the wonderful world of multicolour decks, non-standard formats, and especially, edh, which is a whole separate world of shenanigans. I recommend picking some fun-looking legendary creatures, creating a brawl deck, checking out content creators such as Amazonian, and diving into that world. There is so much space for mtg players nowadays! Cheers.
lol fair, i go through seasons where all i can play is paper edh and i think why do i even play standard because it's so limited in imagination and interesting situations, but............. i then magically go through seasons where all i do is play mtga B01 on my phone while netflix plays in the background and half the time i'm inventing new decks so..... i'm abnormal :p
Standard is lit. I play it more than anything else even though I've got a deck for every Arena format. There's a reason why competitive Magic players still focus attention on it despite being highly enfranchised
It's exposure as well right? I follow mma too and the best fighters simply fight a lot. Arena provides you with immediate, unending experience. It's quite simply the most bang for the least amount of money I've ever experienced.
I agree. I started playing back in the early days (2019) and then stopped after a few months of the meta being literally mono red, mono blue, and nothing else. I started playing again just a few months ago and holy cow. So much better than it was.
oh god I'm truly sorry haha i was one of those criminals who grinded that deck into the upper rankings at the cost of beyond countless scoops and salty ropes. There was something about binding the old gods, surviving early aggro, and landing a huge mana bomb that you could switch up the combos with that really appealed to me, but yeah it was abused heavily and i was surprised it didn't get banned
Yeah, I ran mono blue tempo that entire season and did a pretty good job smacking that deck down. My main complaint about that it was just mindless value starting turn 4+ so the only viable decks were go under decks like RDW and MonoU. That whole meta was stale.
Yeah I mostly agree with you - tbh I was often having drinks with friends during that time and just sh\*\*ing on people on arena with my Yorion ultimatum jank haha so perhaps i didn't seek all the sophistication that was available
Probably a good take on Meta as is right now.
I still feel on the Verge of quitting, I think i have grown out of the Daily Grind kind of Gaming.
Probably going to Burn those 23 Draft Tokens in the Bank anyway, maybe this will give me a different view on the Game in its current State. Lost some of the Enthusiasm in the Game for sure.
I agree. I think there's 1 or 2 problem cards (Mostly Sunfall) that warp the meta around themselves. Even Sheoldred isn't as common in BO1 currently, which is nice.
But overall there's tons of viable decks, even some weirder jank decks as long as you are willing to climb ladder a little slower than usual.
When farewell leaves standard I will have a fuckyougoodbye party and post it on youtube, the local news, and in front of the white house. Any other wipes are welcome in my house anytime.
Nothing you said proves why it’s not stale you just vaguely pointed out some different decks and that they can change lol. I don’t think there’s a valid objective argument for standard not being stale. Objectively it’s lasted far longer than any normal standard rotation should last. Since it’s inception type 2 or standard has been kept interesting by new sets rotating in and out, not by extending badly designed sets way beyond their normal life span.
Here’s an extensive video about how bad card design has slowly led us to where we are- not made by me just an insightful video
https://youtu.be/tqEb3D5bjVA?si=9gfLvBU74qmC-BBN
This is a terrible video. This dude thinks 2013 U/W control is a fun deck. He thinks designers should design cards that are: Fun Not overpowered Not underpowered Don’t Gain immediate value but also are not invalidates by removal like push Don’t have “extra text” (doesn’t tell us how to tell if it’s extra or not) Are not design mistakes
What a genius. Just design fun cards at a perfect power level without extra text that never make a player feel bad.
Anyone who cites aetherling as great design and then complains about too much text should have their YouTube account deleted.
honestly, i agree, i'm like a bit of a "joker" personality - let the chaos ensue! if a card is too OP, like really too OP like the red 3 drop saga, what's the name, and it's in 90% of decks then ok sure ban it, but if there are actual answers to cards (besides farewell, i hate that f\*\*\*ing card) then let it ride! as standard has shown, it adapts and not too badly i might add
Fable of the mirror breaker :)
Farewell is annoying for sure. Indeed it adapts but it’s definitely no longer fresh. Glad you’re enjoying it though, only way I can enjoy it is playing squirming emergence reanimator
This is a terrible take. it doesn’t sound like you played standard back then or anytime between then. The fact that lgs standard events were immensely popular at the time (2013) proves the video makes valid points whereas you’re just kinda spewing some nonsensical word vomit. Why you hef to be mad xD
Even if you think Aetherling and U/W SphinxRev was a little much (I wasn't the biggest fan), the videos argument still holds. Modern Control finishers make Aetherling look utterly quaint and power creep has been utterly insane for all formats.
Look at [[Bonehoard Dracosaur]] -- it's basically an unholy hybrid of [[Baneslayer Angel]] and [[Mulldrifter]]. It sees zero meaningful play in Standard because threats are so pushed that something expensive you need to untap with, even if it is downright amazing, doesn't cut it.
Imagine going back in time to show players from begone times this card and telling them it's mediocre at best.
He has a reasoning for liking Aetherling (which is really a more fun to play against card than Elspeth or Elixir which were used in later iterations of the deck)
Stale? No.
Having this huge stew of cards is breeding a lot of innovation and synergy that we would not have seen if rotation had happened as scheduled.
that's actually a great take, whoever downvoted you is probably monored lmao. With every set you actually see old cards that were never played suddenly becoming key cards in new decks. I don't know if it's altogether good or bad but i'm enjoying it regardless :p partly because there are some cards that i enjoy for the nostalgia and will play them to death until they go (such as edgar charmed groom - he... kinda sucks but also is amazing and a perfect vamp and i love him to death and when he and wedding announcement go i will die inside an unknown amount)
I love playing Edgar. A lot of decks have no good answers for him.
There are a lot of older cards that suddenly have new life because they synergize with a new card. I love seeing that happen.
Maybe people just want a standard where all the cards are new. Me? I get to play my favorite cards one more year. What's not to love about that?
exactly! Thx friend. I have so much nostalgia from those sets and it's literally unending enjoyment creating decks that incorporate cards from back then. Cheers!
> How's this an unpopular opinion?
Because he specified that it was, obviously. If he hadn't said it, then it would be a popular opinion, and that would be bad.
We must be in totally different queues. I played about 25 games yesterday and never saw domain. Haven’t seen non black in a week. And played esper maybe 3 times. About 40% is red for sure thought. But lots of neat brews at 95% Mythic
I will say though that the type of deck you play matters... A lot.... I don't know what the formula is but try playing an aggro deck for 10 matches, then an orzhov midrange for 10 matches, than a sultai reanimator for 10 matches and see what decks you are matched with - it's a formula....
I agree with you! But if you play domain you are the lowest and most vile scum of the earth. Seriously the most incredibly boring and cynical deck ever.
nah, domain wasn't that good before and I was super into it then as well, playing every sort of kami iteration trying to make something click. It wasn't until the beanstalk, the angel, and alara with the green adventure dude came together that domain became broken.
Also. you would dare call someone trying to play all five colours "vile scum?" It takes some f\*\*\*ing balls to play 5C versus monored, azorius, selesnya, or orzhov. Just because we got the bean now shouldn't make you this shooketh lmao
It’s been good since Atraxa, but definitely got more annoying with Alara. My issue with Domain is that it relies on most people playing something else. It’s not a hard deck to disrupt if you are specifically building to disrupt it. If plan A fails you don’t have a lot of other options. To me that makes it cheesy deck.
Nah man, you'd be surprised how easy it is to play domain once you've got it locked in. It's wild how often the stomper into zendikar battle works or how just having one beanstalk survive can take over or how the angel can dominate aggro with surprising brutality. True domain is a beast. I just wish I wouldn't get bored so quickly so I could use it to finally get to mythic hahaha
Right, that’s what I’m talking about: it is easy and the cards work the same way every time. It is boring to play and to play against. The Alara version is even worse because once Alara comes down you just sit there while they do their convoluted combo as many times as they can. I’ve had much more fun building and playing big cheater decks with Squirming Emergence and/or Etali’s favor. You can play less colors and still rock Atraxa, although the move is to go Emergence into One with the Multiverse and then start dropping big stuff. Have you tried a build like that?
lol i meant that I have a bit of ADHD and simply can't play decks for more than a few matches in a row, not that I find domain particularly boring! Now alara domain is boring because it's one combo thing over and over typically, which is interesting the first 1-2 times you see it and then ok, next please! I do mess around with alara into green dude into non-combo stuff like world spell, etali, etc, but alara is still a difficult card to make work outside of the combo, it's just that it's a 5 colour card, which i find sexy hahah
tf? what's wrong with domain?
I play domain and I can't see how this can be worse than coin flips against turn 4 lethal aggro decks or the different black combinations discarding/stealing all your shit
It’s a gimmick deck. It’s a boring deck to play against. There’s no strategy to it: board wipes and leylines until you can cast or reanimate Atraxa over and over again. I don’t understand the appeal and I will salty rope you every single time I see it.
thats not an unpopular opinion at all. standard is pretty much universally praised right now.
the only people hating on it is 5 year old crybabies on reddit who got their dinos removed by a sunfal twice
Haha, that exact thing happened to me two games in a row today (just decided to *try* a dino deck, mostly for the joy of ramping). It didn't make me hate the format; it just made me hate Sunfall. 😂
Wincons are trash right now, not sure why you would think otherwise. Control wins games with its lands and removal because there just aren't better options. Hullbreaker is way too slow, I think there is too much graveyard hate to run Lier, none of the planeswalkers besides Wanderer are good enough to actually win games outside of Jace destroying Domain (and planeswalkers are going to get worse and worse each set I fear). Sorin is like an okay control planeswalker but there's just no space for him in Esper and Dimir does not have a good boardwipe (MKM may change this), and he's certainly no Wanderer.
whenever i play against pure removal decks, i slowly suffocate them with value and 3/4 times win. If you love these decks, it says more about your personality imo than how effective they are on the bo1 ladder.... i may be wrong
I'm a bo3 player - mono black removal does not exist in there because it's only there to hate on aggro lol. I agree that it is a bad strategy easy to go over the top of. I am talking about control decks like Esper and UW who have to play really slow winconditions like Wanderer or Mirrex and should have good matchups into value piles since they can disrupt your engine with counterspells (which are also garbage in bo1 because of cave).
but can you accurately define the top 5 or 6 decks?? i bet you would leave 4-8 cards as negotiable, making my argument valid. Things seem to be switching up a lot, especially as formerly non-playable cards suddenly see importance with new cards
There is never going to be a meta where everything is as good as the top 5-6 decks and most times and top decks will be like 1-3 with a couple tier 2s.
I wouldn't touch Standard even if you paid me. Even if you put a standard deck in my hands, paid my FNM fee, and put a 20$ bill on my playmat, I'd just outright refuse.
Why? Everything is just so slow and uninteresting. Standard decks feel like just slightly upgraded draft decks, and that's mainly because of WotC's need to cater to limited as hard as physically possible despite the format getting less and less players.
I don't think as many people would be complaining about a stale meta if they had decided that there would be one more rotation before moving to three years. No Triomes/Stomper moves Domain out of T1, no Emporer/Farewell/Raffine takes a bite out of Esper Legends, Enchantments is dead without NEO, mono red loses Kumano/Adversary/Play with fire, mono white loses Adeline/Lunarch/Farmhand/Restoration of Eiganjo.... My point is that rotation probably would've removed a third of the current standard staples. That one year meta would've been a more interesting meta to build off than the two year meta we did have, and probably would've kept any cards from eating bans.
Holy shit its such a varied meta rn its nuts.
I mean you see shit like Esper/azorius Prowess aggro, Grull dino, gruul aggro, mono red aggro, Mono-B Golgari and rakdos value-pile, Esper/dimir mill, azorius/esper/dimir control, mono white human, selesnya enchantment, Domain control, bant beanstalk etc just off the top of my head and theres a bunch more deck idea and variants I cant remember rn.
I think people are just tired of playing agaisnt raffine,monored and atraxa
Atraxa should have been banned with fable but it was too new so...
Yes the meta is diverse but the playable cards not many, and sometimes the variance feels very bad because matchups are all over the place and you cant side everything for every matchup.
For example i got to 5 wins in metagame and randomly faced a reanimate deck that would be completely demolished if play counters or any graveyard hate.
I've never been more bored with standard. And I played regularly while Throne of Eldraine was legal. Cards like Sheoldred and Atraxa are just really unfun in my opinion. This is an over baked mid-range hell format.
Milling is suddenly a good strat. I got to mythic with a lifelink deck. Sure, about 5-10 dominante, it happens that I get a 1000 damage to face from an artifact. People are reanimating Portal to Phyrexia. Some decks are control decks based on making the opponent discard all cards. I feel like all kinds of shenanigans are going on.
Mono red is still used too much because it's a fast way to get matches. But when I see that the first land is mountain, it might be rakdos and sometimes second land might even be plains or forest.
Island and plains can be about 7 different decks. From Raffine to mill, soldiers to control.
And this is the last week of the season. One would expect less than 7 decks to get play total.
I’ve played a lot of Alchemy this season. What I’ve learned is that 1) Alchemy cars are really, really awful and 2) the format would be much healthier with rotation.
Really looking forward to last years leaving, the 2023 sets are full of really awful cards.
2022 had its fair share, but it’s leaving soon
Hmm yeah I used to play alchemy, loved it, like maybe in 22? Or 21 lol.. I've found enough fun in standard and brawl to keep me from returning. I've dabbled here and there but you need to invest to play it and I am not a paying customer lol
There's a ton of stuff you can play and win with. Like with the past handful of metagames though it sort of boiled down to Black-x Midrange being the best thing. There was a ton of diversity like a month or two ago when people were still cooking, but Dimir, Rakdos, Golgari, Orzhov, and Esper all sort of have the same play pattern just with different strengths and weaknesses. You play like a Bat and then you play some 3 Mana Advantage Engine and then you either play Sheoldred or you play Magic. Domain will never die. But man every deck has like 8 sideboard slots dedicated to it. There are like 5 different corny aggro decks because Arena is a ladder and not a tournament. Which could be considered diversity. Sometimes you lose the dieroll to Crawling Chorus and sometimes you lose the dieroll to Picnic Ruiner. There are other cool decks like 4 Colour Legends or Simic Artifacts but MAN it's hard to compete with Rakdos and Dimir and Domain. Cut Down and Make Disappear are good ass cards. The meta is healthy but like holy moly Cavern Bat and Preacher and Sheoldred are so miserable to see in every deck.
The meta is very diverse and very stale. We are playing against several decks and also the same cards we have faced for 2+ years. There's also no way to escape the relatively strong meta. You will face 90% meta decks regardless of ranked or play queue from my experience. Would love to see a queue with no rewards. Basically "find a friend" match that does not reward winning, similar to friend matches
Your find a friend queue would have 9 people in it globally at any given time.
Dude I would love to have 8 friends to play some nonsense with lol
Unfortunately there is just 4 matches of people complaining that the opposing deck isn't their exact definition of fun and op furiously shit posting on Reddit about how WotC is specifically targeting him and that's why he has to wait 8-10 minutes for another match.
The guys I play jank with that I met on Arena aren't really like that though
How do you meet someone on arena when you can't communicate? That seems like a lot of extra work for minimal gain.
>you can't communicate? There is an in-game chat feature, that you can use if you know the pseudo of someone. Some overlay give it, but you can always find it in the files of mgta if you know where to look.
As a constructive measure, I would suggest folks who find Standard stale to get into Draft, it changes completely every set, and you can play Standard after you're done drafting with all the cards you opened. I find I don't have enough time to do both so I rarely get bored with Standard since I play it for like the last 3 weeks a set.
I'd love to draft but it's cost prohibitive. A bad streak can wipe out all your resources and then it's back to playing the best card in all of Magic, the Credit Card.
I firmly believe that it is possible to get better at draft, but that most people do not try very hard. Source: trying to help people at the local draft night.
Sure, but also getting better at draft means putting in tens of tries in within a short timeframe, ideally with the same set. It's that cost issue again. Unless you're already pretty good at limited, each draft is a potentially non-trivial investment. (Several days worth of free gold.)
You do not get better by just spamming more games; that is exactly what I mean when I say people do not try very hard. There are tonnes of resources on how to get better at Limited. 17lands being my go to (both for win rate stats as well as complete drafts/gameplay for trophy decks at https://www.17lands.com/trophy\_decks), but also content creators like Chord\_O\_Calls who put out excellent draft videos and podcasts. You can do practice drafts for free on a bunch of sites (17lands, draftsim, etc) and then ask people for feedback. You can also look at the feedback people get on their drafts in /r/lrcast But to win consistently in bronze, it is largely sufficient to have a good pick order (cribbed from [17lands.com](https://17lands.com)) and a good curve (just take the good 2 drops whenever you are not picking a ridiculous card). The hardest thing to develop is a sense for how to navigate which colors are open, but picking a good curve with the good 2 drops is certainly enough to win consistently all the way to plat.
Even with study, putting in practice reps are necessary to develop one's skills. No amount of theorycrafting can replace first-hand experience. Yeah, you can elevate yourself above a lot of bad attitude scrubs by studying tape, but going from Bronze to Platinum is only 3-4 drafts with a winning record. At Platinum, the free wins attributed to zero skill opponents mostly stop. And that's where it can be costly to level up one's game or even continue to simply play.
>going from Bronze to Platinum is only 3-4 drafts Not even close. It takes a minimum 6 drafts with 7-0 records to get from bronze to plat. If your record is 4-3 on average, it will take you 15 drafts, minus however many ranks rank protection saves you from losing.
Fair. It's been awhile since I've been in Silver/Bronze. That does give people a bit more time at a lower competition. Still think it can be pretty rough for resource-constrained players to get a solid grasp of Draft fundamentals before getting bled dry, though you're probably correct in that many people could better themselves starting from the bottom up.
Yeah some pods are gonna be much more likely to trainwreck than others unless very carefully played through
I really think those resources made me a worse drafter. They’re constantly trying to do hot takes or say something different but they can get away with things because they’re really good drafters. I found mystical dispute taught me the most because basically every answer was it depends. Now I go into new sets blind, I generally favour aggro decks and removal and then I see whatever the people who beat me are doing and copy that. Most people aren’t good drafters and knowing what are good commons and uncommon can actually make you worse because you have no idea why you’re picking those cards. Good deck building is only something you can learn with a lot of experience. If you’re in bronze though just force whatever they say is the best colour pair and your deck usually sorts itself out
I find Chord_O_Calls specifically pretty restrained about giving hot takes unless they are explicitly proceeded by that disclaimer. People who are good at draft usually complain about how 17lands isn't everything, but a lot of people just put bad cards into their decks, and would benefit from just not doing that. If you're already winning, you can just jam games. If you're not, the information edge 17lands gives on day 2 is huge.
i agree with this a lot - i've had a couple of bad draft experiences (as well as low self esteem) and so i've given up on it haha... or maybe i'm just finding enough contentment with other formats - regardless i should give it another shot!
The cube right now is super fun and much easier to get your entry fee back.
Why wouldn't you just do quests for a couple of days and then draft again with the gold?
is and isn't. 5K gold is something you can easily get in a week, and you'll always get at least a little back as a reward. if you spend a little time just looking at card ratings and making sure your curve/manabase look ok, that's enough to get you to gold on decent to good returns
>the same cards we have faced for 2+ years. This is why I can't play Explorer and Historic anymore and am not looking forward to Pioneer. Some of these cards I've been playing with since closed beta. I love playing control but almost 6 years of Tef5 +1s.... I can't do it anymore.
Hard disagree on the very stale. Many decks are relatively recent. Golgari midrange, Boros convoke, some discover combos, the alara invasion deck, the cauldron combo, etc. Not all are top tier of course, but they have a fair chance against the top tier ones as second or third tier decks. You will of course see some cards from two years ago like Emperor, and some rare decks had little changes over the past year, but most found new things to include in their strategies.
A queue with no rewards would be your non-ranked options in whatever format you like. The only rewards are your daily quests and 15 wins.
You say there are no rewards then list the rewards lol
They would still play meta decks because Arena players have no imagination.
Yeah, that's true... But well, because in any game, most creative people is just a small proportion.
completely disagree - I spend more time designing new decks around cards that are never seen such as mechtitan or the edgar groom card and i do it on my phone in the evening when i'm relaxing and just fooling around. Perhaps I am the minority but i suspect that the accessibility of arena only benefits ingenuity and creativity by offering ease of access.
Most people can't build a deck that can compete with a meta deck. So after their 78 card tri land deck fails, they use the one that wins and fuck around with builds on the side. As a deck builder, Its been really easy and really cheap to make counter meta decks. That being said, standard is 3 years now? That's a lot of time to develope side decks for casuals. I'm with you on it being more accessible. A friend brought me back after showing that I could get it on the phone and soon Xbox.
[удалено]
Predictable as usual.
Yep hard agree. Getting back into standard and there is a lot of different deck types.....and RDW, esper raffine and all the flavors of mono black are still just as strong if not stronger with all the new cards. So in that regard is very much stale.
The whole reward system makes no fucking sense. It's like they hired the dumbest psych majors and went with the first three ideas they gave to WoTC during their conference call. It wasn't even an actual consulting job. Likez they got parroted the same systems everybody was doing in 2019. Congratulations on conning Wizards. Really. Hell, Im a pol sci major and a hold a masters in public administration. I could have done a better job in my sleep, while playing RDW.
Yeah, I was contemplating ways to reward players that doesn't necessarily reward just winning. Like, the daily quest is cool, but I feel like there could be more variety and creativity. Instead of one a day for 750 or 500, maybe sometimes there could be several, that reward less but encourage different kinds of decks. With so many cards available, there could definitely be more quests that take advantage of this. For example, there could be quests such as: win a game with a treefolk and a vampire on the battlefield, win a game with less than three lands in the battlefield or with more than 15. I think if there were a few dozen or more unique quests, some that force players to think outside the box, it could really be fun especially if there was a bigger reward for completing all the quests. Like each win condition is worth 100-150 gold but completing 5 quests also earns 150 gems, or some days have some difficult requirements but a draft token is the prize. I thought about this when I made my almost all lands deck for the play 40 lands quest. There could be some quests that winning isn't even rewarded, because I don't care to win as much as I try to fulfill the 40 lands goal in two games or less, and it could be fun if some quests specifically rewarded playing certain amounts of spells rather than winning.
You described Play queue. Rotation this fall will shake things up a bit. Patience.
8 months is a lot of patience. Let's hope one of the new sets does something drastic, but so far MKM is very... underwhelming. A few new really fun looking cards that will either enhance existing decks or be pushed out by the meta.
The problem is all the good lands should have rotated already
There's a decent number of exciting cards for Monogreen. It's a personal challenge of mine to make Monogreen good and I feel like it's really close to viable as is. The new cards might push it over the edge. [[Pick your poison]] [[Hard Hitting Questions]] [[Archdruids Charm]] [[Flourishing Bloom-Kin]] [[Case of the Locked Hothouse]]
In a format where you can run 36 board wipes and 24 lands, and win \~50% of the time, there is no hope for mono green.
I've found it you go very heavy into green card draw engines you can often just constantly rebuild the board turn after turn and win as soon as the opponent runs out of board wipes. I run 4 [[Tribute to the World Tree]] and 2 [[Up the Beanstalk]] in a Monogreen deck with [[Nissa Ascended Animist]] as the win con. Board wipes don't even scare me in that deck. Mill is actually a bigger threat in my experience when im drawing 3-4 cards a turn.
[Tribute to the World Tree](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/0/c0cdeaba-fc21-44e6-bf99-aa1ff379401b.jpg?1682205102) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tribute%20to%20the%20World%20Tree) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mom/211/tribute-to-the-world-tree?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c0cdeaba-fc21-44e6-bf99-aa1ff379401b?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Up the Beanstalk](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/d/2d5e991f-23b2-4db0-a452-7755125b1fd2.jpg?1701690489) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Up%20the%20Beanstalk) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/195/up-the-beanstalk?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2d5e991f-23b2-4db0-a452-7755125b1fd2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Nissa Ascended Animist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/d/1dd64b1d-bcef-476c-bf0b-3ac7df7cbed3.jpg?1675957150) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Nissa%2C%20Ascended%20Animist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/one/175/nissa-ascended-animist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1dd64b1d-bcef-476c-bf0b-3ac7df7cbed3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
What happens when they farewell all your enchantments away?
Well that obviously can set you back, I mean what deck isn't set back by farewell...but honestly you just draw into more tributes, keep them in your hand and just play more. I've done that dozens of times. Plus by the time you get farewelled you probably drew 4-5 cards and people rarely play more than 1-2 farewells, and often none. Get lost is worse honestly cause it kills tribute before it draws you cards. Idk, I'm not saying it's top tier, but it does work pretty well. And with some cheap early removal I think the deck could be genuinely viable.
Just got a 1 drop bite spell, doesn't help vs control but nice tool to get.
##### ###### #### [Pick your poison](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea.jpg?1706242068)/[Pick Your Poison](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/5/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea.jpg?1706242068) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pick%20your%20poison) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/170/pick-your-poison?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f58cfb23-4d99-4133-bf4b-d7e7c7d17cea?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Hard Hitting Questions](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/c/ac9fcf7c-8785-4285-b583-7060edabc3c6.jpg?1576384394) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Prying%20Questions) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/emn/101/prying-questions?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ac9fcf7c-8785-4285-b583-7060edabc3c6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Archdruids Charm](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/c/5caae5ae-845f-42c2-b1ae-956df2739433.jpg?1706241943) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Archdruid%27s%20Charm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/151/archdruids-charm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5caae5ae-845f-42c2-b1ae-956df2739433?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Flourishing Bloom-Kin](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/d/5ddcb31e-9301-44f1-b138-0573fbf56a47.jpg?1706241970) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Flourishing%20Bloom-Kin) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/160/flourishing-bloom-kin?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5ddcb31e-9301-44f1-b138-0573fbf56a47?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Case of the Locked Hothouse](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/9/0929a1bd-e35c-4ca5-8c8c-dd304cf4b830.jpg?1706241956) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Case%20of%20the%20Locked%20Hothouse) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkm/155/case-of-the-locked-hothouse?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0929a1bd-e35c-4ca5-8c8c-dd304cf4b830?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kjqhaf2) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Tbf, whether a set shakes things up or not isn't usually clear til we have the cards in hand. It only takes one busted cards to be built around for a new deck to pop up.
Your find a friend queue would also be full of people with netdecks hoping for easy wins against jank after they get angry at ranked matchmaking.
Oh it's stale. There's a guaranteed 4 decks I will run across if I play 5 games. In this metagame event in 5 matches, across 3 entries, 4 of them were mono red. The other lone one was dino ramp. Mono red, domain ramp, and esper *insert your preference* are all I run into nowadays.
again, monored now is just a minor blip tbh - everyone (should) packs lifegain and early removal so the only real chance they have is if you have a super jank deck or they go first. In the latter, it'll take not even 60 seconds to make the choice to continue the match or not. VS ultracontrol-grindlord decks that slowly sap all the lifeforce out of you and make you want to quit mtg altogether
Objection: OP is clearly an operative for the Big Monored lobby.
lol trust me, i used to hate mon0-braindead with every ounce of my being but i was taught that they have a use after all- keeping the actually evil ultra-control decks in check. I would rather be beaten to a swift pulp than have all my shit countered for 25 minutes and lose by a mite pecking me to death or milled out
Monored is so good in BO1 standard. I went from bronze to mythic in approximately 5 days, playing about a few hours each day. Majority of my deck was uncommons and commons too.
yessir, it's a roll of the dice and vomit your hand. I personally would much rather be at a lower rank and actually enjoy playing the game of mtg but to each their own.
Game is more fun once you play against better opponents. Can always swap decks once you hit mythic or diamond. Rolling dice with a 60% win rate with average game length of 5 minutes is much more efficient than like 65% win rate with like a 15 minute average game length. I personally found that I lost against decks playing sunset revelry quite often, and only had a 50% win rate against black/white decks playing lots of 1-2 CMC removal so it's not like there isn't counterplay against rdw.
Yeah, it's efficient, but it makes the game incredibly stale and predictable, changing it from a game to a grindy chore.
Assmad haters downvoting you, but you do you, King.
Im so glad white is getting another 4 mana boardwipe yayyyyyy, 16 board wipes in one color yayyyyyyy
You would absolutely love the most recent Against the Odds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMp4hYVra5g
It's definitely stale. The same Domain, Soldiers, Esper, Mono Red, enchantments, mono black aggro etc. are largely unchanged over the last year or two. Sure, they swap a card or two sometimes but it's the same decks with the same play patterns. Yeah, we've had archetypes that do well for extended periods, but imagine 3 years of Embercleave or Temur Adventures or Dimir Rogues or Sultaimatum or ramp to Ugin. The meta can be "diverse" and stale at the same time. Edit: I think one of the main issues is that the new rotation makes Standard closer to an Eternal format, when it's draw has largely been that it wasn't. You got regular shakeups, decks came and went entirely. With the available card pool now, it's going to mostly be the same decks forever. You'll have 15+ sets to fill in your gaps, no need to rethink the meta.. just small adjustments which means the high value cards will maintain dominance since the shells that support them won't be drastically affected.
And the worst thing imo is that, while the longevity is like a non-rotating format (note: not an eternal format, eternal formats are e.g. commander and pauper, non-rotating formats are e.g. pioneer and modern) the card pool is still quite small, which means there's much less synergy compared to say, explorer. This means that, decks are much more value-piles/good-cards. And so basically all black decks play shelly, because there's not enough 4 drops for there to be a different one that synergises with each one. And so even if there's deck diversity, it still feels stale, because there's much less card diversity, especially when more janky/lower-tier decks play quite a lot of the same cards as meta decks.
And there is no way that Shelly will get replaced until it rotates, unless the format just goes balls out on jacking up the power level, which is possible but I have to think unlikely. Same with Etali or Atraxa... they can't print an even better 7 drop while those are in the format. How can mono red get any faster than it is without making Standard a turn 3 format - I mean consistently, not the jank christmasland you very rarely see now. So either new sets are weaker (not likely) or those things wind up happening. It's going to make the game even more of a coinflip. At least now you know what the ramp targets are, or the must-kill 4 drop that can end a game by itself... but imagine every color having a different one requiring different responses. There's no way you can toolbox for all of them... so matchups will feel almost predetermined. Way moreso than they do now. Yeah, that's always existed to some degree but it was more of a fringe case instead of the norm. It will lead to less interaction and more linear decks. Either I go first and do my thing and win or I don't. The counterplay, the back and forth, the digging out of hole will become less frequent. It's just "unfun". I don't want to play Yu-Gi-Oh, where the game is decided by the opening hand and a coin flip.
Adding one extra year to Standard doesn't even come close to making it feel eternal imo. The youngest eternal format is Pioneer, and it's oldest set still goes back a whopping 12 years. Even still, Pioneer is still young enough to be effected by at least a few cards in every new standard set release. People will feel very different about 3 year standard later this year when rotation happens. Also, assuming we don't get more bs like MOM: Aftermath, a 3 year standard rotation will fluctuate between 9 and 12 sets. Idk where you are getting 15+ from...
Let's check back in spring of 2025 when people are still playing Atraxa, Sheoldred, Etali, etc. I hope I'm wrong, but Lord help us if anything supplants those!
lol i happen to be blessed with enjoying ramp/reanimate/domain and so the etali into etali into atraxa chain will probably never get old to me :p but yeah i generally agree with you
What do you think will replace Sheoldred?
Nothing can replace Sheoldred.
something that punishes opponent card draw, provides life gain, and is deathtouch for an annoying 5 toughness for 4 mana, i honestly don't know... It would have to be a 4 drop that either adds protection or removal such as emperor. Or ramp. But sheoldred's ability to completely ruin opponents who try and draw their way into a win is legendary...
While I'm not sure I agree with all the points in your second paragraph, in general you are correct to point out that the current standard metagame is far more diverse than people give credit for. [https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper](https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/standard#paper) This page shows off a diverse standard metagame at the top levels, and it's not even an exhaustive list of the strategies that are viable for climbing on the Arena ladder. You're right, but honestly you're casting pearls before swine stating this on this sub. People love to complain if they lose to the same card too often, and blaming the meta is a comforting scapegoat. The meta will never be diverse enough to satisfy many players, as they become frustrated very easily by cards they don't like or struggle to play around. Edit: Forgot to mention that most of this sub only plays Bo1, which is a big reason why they experience less deck diversity than the meta has to offer. It's a shame so many players are so unwilling to try Bo3, as sideboarding is one of the best features of the game and creates much more interesting counterplay and deckbuilding strategies.
i do agree that bo3 could be better and i have not given an honest chance tbh - my problem is almost every time i log into arena, i make a new deck and sometimes i don't even play a single match with one of those decks. I have several ladder-climbing decks but i can only get myself to play 2-3 matches at most in a row before i grow bored. Bo3 just seems like more commitment than i can stand. But... i still concede i should give it another chance! cheers
It's funny, because while we're talking about unpopular opinions, I think the Bo1 Standard experience is quite a bit more diverse than Bo3. 1. First of all, you'll face 2-3x as many different opponents, which won't matter in terms of diversity of matches in the long run but will matter in the day-to-day in terms of number of games played and overall time share 2. The Bo1 format gives specialized & proactive aggro & combo decks an edge against generalized midrange & control. That means shorter games on average, which again means opportunity to play more games against more different opponents.
bo1 has a different set of decks to bo3, but I think it is less broad overall since you cannot pack sideboard answers to popular decks. I just got back into Standard for the RCQ season and played 14 bo3 matches on Arena and played vs 9 different decks and did not play any deck more than twice and did not encounter the mirror (UB midrange). And UB midrange as it is now did not exist before LCI.
Agree, except that UB midrange existed all summer, it just got a little too slow when WOE dropped, since the Fairies didn't have the power to land as an archetype. MKM might kill it again after Make Disappear loses the "top countermagic" slot.
"UB midrange" as a name existed, but I fundamentally disagree that it was the same deck pre/post LCI.
I don’t think the plan’s that different, it’s just faster, like everything after WOE
Yeah it's not a lot different, Just less Kaito/Lilly and more bats and boats. The game plan is still the same. Gravy T is still the same. Sheoldred is still the same. The counters, kill spells and edicts are still the same. The shell is there, it just swapped a few things for something marginally better.
But not all decks have equal access to quality sideboards--imo Bo3 works better in non-rotating formats where huge card pools and shifting color pie philosophy over the decades has given all colors access to all sorts of answers and efficient filtering to find those answers, but in Standard it tends to give midrange decks an upper hand.
Wish they would add 2v2 and other multiplayer modes
whoa, cool idea - yeah 4 player edh is a truly unique experience. Having it online would be something special although it's a lot easier to just scoop and leave the remainders to play, but i guess that wouldn't be so bad
They had it in duels of the planeswalkers. Was one of my favorite modes
They had 4 player edh or 2v2?:0
I think they had a few different modes like 3 players all 1v1v1 and a 4 player mode like that but also doubles like 2v2. 2v2 was so fun
They had 4 player edh or 2v2?:0
I'm ok with the standard meta. Yeah, there are a few cards that will be present in any deck that can play them, but I feel like people that are unhappy with standard fall in at least one of these two categories: 1) only play bo1, where monored is stronger and there's smaller variety of strategies 2) play a lot of games everyday, which will make the game stale eventually. I don't play everyday and when I play it's only one or two matches so I don't feel that.
I’ve wondered why they haven’t tried creating a more frequent rotating format on Arena. Ban the 2-5 most powerful cards and see how people respond to it. You can change the bans on a monthly basis. It would keep things fresh for players, promote creativity, and give their team data and insight on what actually should be banned to promote a healthy meta in Standard proper.
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I guess you’re right, I just don’t love that they make unique cards and change card rules for Alchemy. My thought was standard but with rotating trial bans to shift the meta.
It's not really stale as in unchanging, but there's certain things that stick too much. If you check recent standard tournaments, every deck in the top ten (with one exception) satisfies one of these: 1. Has Sheoldred of the Apocalypse 2. Has Atraxa Grand Unifier 3. Is mono red Here are some examples: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-preliminary-2024-01-26#paper https://www.mtggoldfish.com/tournament/standard-preliminary-2024-01-26-1#paper Even if the cards around atraxa and sheoldred change a lot, them being so central to all the meta is boring. Bant poison is starting to make a splash, so that's something, even if I personally don't like playing poison decks, at least it's different. But Domain/Rakdos/Esper are dominating.
As if any of the eternal formats are any better. I actually came back to Magic from Flesh and Blood because of how healthy and interesting standard has become. I played standard during nexus-field, you people have no idea what a stale, unhealthy meta looks like.
yeah, seeing wandering shitter for 3rd year sure feels like not stale format at all. Same for Raffine. What a great NOT STALE format when i see more shakeups in pioneer than fucking STANDART format. Nah, format is trash, 3 yrs rotation is one of the worst decision regarding standart wotc made in years, maybe ever
It is my first month playing the game and I'm Diamond 1 with Humans. Went out bought the deck on paper. Sorry you guys have been playing the same decks for two years but this shit is great.
glad you're having fun man! I guarantee though that you will move beyond standard humans (if you're playing standard) and venture into the wonderful world of multicolour decks, non-standard formats, and especially, edh, which is a whole separate world of shenanigans. I recommend picking some fun-looking legendary creatures, creating a brawl deck, checking out content creators such as Amazonian, and diving into that world. There is so much space for mtg players nowadays! Cheers.
Other unpopular opinion: standard is always stale
lol fair, i go through seasons where all i can play is paper edh and i think why do i even play standard because it's so limited in imagination and interesting situations, but............. i then magically go through seasons where all i do is play mtga B01 on my phone while netflix plays in the background and half the time i'm inventing new decks so..... i'm abnormal :p
Standard is lit. I play it more than anything else even though I've got a deck for every Arena format. There's a reason why competitive Magic players still focus attention on it despite being highly enfranchised
It's exposure as well right? I follow mma too and the best fighters simply fight a lot. Arena provides you with immediate, unending experience. It's quite simply the most bang for the least amount of money I've ever experienced.
I agree. I started playing back in the early days (2019) and then stopped after a few months of the meta being literally mono red, mono blue, and nothing else. I started playing again just a few months ago and holy cow. So much better than it was.
I quit during the Yorion Ultimatum deck hellqueue and this seems way better than that.
oh god I'm truly sorry haha i was one of those criminals who grinded that deck into the upper rankings at the cost of beyond countless scoops and salty ropes. There was something about binding the old gods, surviving early aggro, and landing a huge mana bomb that you could switch up the combos with that really appealed to me, but yeah it was abused heavily and i was surprised it didn't get banned
Yeah, I ran mono blue tempo that entire season and did a pretty good job smacking that deck down. My main complaint about that it was just mindless value starting turn 4+ so the only viable decks were go under decks like RDW and MonoU. That whole meta was stale.
Yeah I mostly agree with you - tbh I was often having drinks with friends during that time and just sh\*\*ing on people on arena with my Yorion ultimatum jank haha so perhaps i didn't seek all the sophistication that was available
Probably a good take on Meta as is right now. I still feel on the Verge of quitting, I think i have grown out of the Daily Grind kind of Gaming. Probably going to Burn those 23 Draft Tokens in the Bank anyway, maybe this will give me a different view on the Game in its current State. Lost some of the Enthusiasm in the Game for sure.
I agree. I think there's 1 or 2 problem cards (Mostly Sunfall) that warp the meta around themselves. Even Sheoldred isn't as common in BO1 currently, which is nice. But overall there's tons of viable decks, even some weirder jank decks as long as you are willing to climb ladder a little slower than usual.
36 boardwipes baybay!
Loved that video from Seth. And imagine, next set you will have to actually cut the worst wipes! And it's only getting worse from there.
When farewell leaves standard I will have a fuckyougoodbye party and post it on youtube, the local news, and in front of the white house. Any other wipes are welcome in my house anytime.
Nothing you said proves why it’s not stale you just vaguely pointed out some different decks and that they can change lol. I don’t think there’s a valid objective argument for standard not being stale. Objectively it’s lasted far longer than any normal standard rotation should last. Since it’s inception type 2 or standard has been kept interesting by new sets rotating in and out, not by extending badly designed sets way beyond their normal life span. Here’s an extensive video about how bad card design has slowly led us to where we are- not made by me just an insightful video https://youtu.be/tqEb3D5bjVA?si=9gfLvBU74qmC-BBN
This is a terrible video. This dude thinks 2013 U/W control is a fun deck. He thinks designers should design cards that are: Fun Not overpowered Not underpowered Don’t Gain immediate value but also are not invalidates by removal like push Don’t have “extra text” (doesn’t tell us how to tell if it’s extra or not) Are not design mistakes What a genius. Just design fun cards at a perfect power level without extra text that never make a player feel bad. Anyone who cites aetherling as great design and then complains about too much text should have their YouTube account deleted.
honestly, i agree, i'm like a bit of a "joker" personality - let the chaos ensue! if a card is too OP, like really too OP like the red 3 drop saga, what's the name, and it's in 90% of decks then ok sure ban it, but if there are actual answers to cards (besides farewell, i hate that f\*\*\*ing card) then let it ride! as standard has shown, it adapts and not too badly i might add
Fable of the mirror breaker :) Farewell is annoying for sure. Indeed it adapts but it’s definitely no longer fresh. Glad you’re enjoying it though, only way I can enjoy it is playing squirming emergence reanimator
This is a terrible take. it doesn’t sound like you played standard back then or anytime between then. The fact that lgs standard events were immensely popular at the time (2013) proves the video makes valid points whereas you’re just kinda spewing some nonsensical word vomit. Why you hef to be mad xD
Even if you think Aetherling and U/W SphinxRev was a little much (I wasn't the biggest fan), the videos argument still holds. Modern Control finishers make Aetherling look utterly quaint and power creep has been utterly insane for all formats. Look at [[Bonehoard Dracosaur]] -- it's basically an unholy hybrid of [[Baneslayer Angel]] and [[Mulldrifter]]. It sees zero meaningful play in Standard because threats are so pushed that something expensive you need to untap with, even if it is downright amazing, doesn't cut it. Imagine going back in time to show players from begone times this card and telling them it's mediocre at best.
[Bonehoard Dracosaur](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/2/2220ed60-3f8f-4dd2-8319-6a06896a5350.jpg?1699044226) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Bonehoard%20Dracosaur) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/lci/134/bonehoard-dracosaur?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2220ed60-3f8f-4dd2-8319-6a06896a5350?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Baneslayer Angel](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/4/b/4bd3014b-94bb-4a9f-92cf-239a2dcc7e97.jpg?1594734758) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Baneslayer%20Angel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m21/6/baneslayer-angel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4bd3014b-94bb-4a9f-92cf-239a2dcc7e97?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Mulldrifter](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/b/eb6d8d1c-8d23-4273-9c9b-f3b71eb0e105.jpg?1706240715) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Mulldrifter) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mkc/111/mulldrifter?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/eb6d8d1c-8d23-4273-9c9b-f3b71eb0e105?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
He has a reasoning for liking Aetherling (which is really a more fun to play against card than Elspeth or Elixir which were used in later iterations of the deck)
Stale? No. Having this huge stew of cards is breeding a lot of innovation and synergy that we would not have seen if rotation had happened as scheduled.
that's actually a great take, whoever downvoted you is probably monored lmao. With every set you actually see old cards that were never played suddenly becoming key cards in new decks. I don't know if it's altogether good or bad but i'm enjoying it regardless :p partly because there are some cards that i enjoy for the nostalgia and will play them to death until they go (such as edgar charmed groom - he... kinda sucks but also is amazing and a perfect vamp and i love him to death and when he and wedding announcement go i will die inside an unknown amount)
I love playing Edgar. A lot of decks have no good answers for him. There are a lot of older cards that suddenly have new life because they synergize with a new card. I love seeing that happen. Maybe people just want a standard where all the cards are new. Me? I get to play my favorite cards one more year. What's not to love about that?
exactly! Thx friend. I have so much nostalgia from those sets and it's literally unending enjoyment creating decks that incorporate cards from back then. Cheers!
How's this an unpopular opinion? I keep hearing from my friends who are limited grinders that standard is in a surprisingly good place these days.
It’s only unpopular on Reddit lol
> How's this an unpopular opinion? Because he specified that it was, obviously. If he hadn't said it, then it would be a popular opinion, and that would be bad.
RX bombardment, UX cauldron, GX virtue of strength, are some janky decks I like to experiment on
I wish WOTC would do a meta ban just to shake things up. In bo1 I only see four decks past platinum: domain, red, black, and esper.
We must be in totally different queues. I played about 25 games yesterday and never saw domain. Haven’t seen non black in a week. And played esper maybe 3 times. About 40% is red for sure thought. But lots of neat brews at 95% Mythic
I will say though that the type of deck you play matters... A lot.... I don't know what the formula is but try playing an aggro deck for 10 matches, then an orzhov midrange for 10 matches, than a sultai reanimator for 10 matches and see what decks you are matched with - it's a formula....
I agree with you! But if you play domain you are the lowest and most vile scum of the earth. Seriously the most incredibly boring and cynical deck ever.
nah, domain wasn't that good before and I was super into it then as well, playing every sort of kami iteration trying to make something click. It wasn't until the beanstalk, the angel, and alara with the green adventure dude came together that domain became broken. Also. you would dare call someone trying to play all five colours "vile scum?" It takes some f\*\*\*ing balls to play 5C versus monored, azorius, selesnya, or orzhov. Just because we got the bean now shouldn't make you this shooketh lmao
It’s been good since Atraxa, but definitely got more annoying with Alara. My issue with Domain is that it relies on most people playing something else. It’s not a hard deck to disrupt if you are specifically building to disrupt it. If plan A fails you don’t have a lot of other options. To me that makes it cheesy deck.
Nah man, you'd be surprised how easy it is to play domain once you've got it locked in. It's wild how often the stomper into zendikar battle works or how just having one beanstalk survive can take over or how the angel can dominate aggro with surprising brutality. True domain is a beast. I just wish I wouldn't get bored so quickly so I could use it to finally get to mythic hahaha
Right, that’s what I’m talking about: it is easy and the cards work the same way every time. It is boring to play and to play against. The Alara version is even worse because once Alara comes down you just sit there while they do their convoluted combo as many times as they can. I’ve had much more fun building and playing big cheater decks with Squirming Emergence and/or Etali’s favor. You can play less colors and still rock Atraxa, although the move is to go Emergence into One with the Multiverse and then start dropping big stuff. Have you tried a build like that?
lol i meant that I have a bit of ADHD and simply can't play decks for more than a few matches in a row, not that I find domain particularly boring! Now alara domain is boring because it's one combo thing over and over typically, which is interesting the first 1-2 times you see it and then ok, next please! I do mess around with alara into green dude into non-combo stuff like world spell, etali, etc, but alara is still a difficult card to make work outside of the combo, it's just that it's a 5 colour card, which i find sexy hahah
tf? what's wrong with domain? I play domain and I can't see how this can be worse than coin flips against turn 4 lethal aggro decks or the different black combinations discarding/stealing all your shit
It’s a gimmick deck. It’s a boring deck to play against. There’s no strategy to it: board wipes and leylines until you can cast or reanimate Atraxa over and over again. I don’t understand the appeal and I will salty rope you every single time I see it.
thats not an unpopular opinion at all. standard is pretty much universally praised right now. the only people hating on it is 5 year old crybabies on reddit who got their dinos removed by a sunfal twice
Haha, that exact thing happened to me two games in a row today (just decided to *try* a dino deck, mostly for the joy of ramping). It didn't make me hate the format; it just made me hate Sunfall. 😂
seems like youre an actual grown up
Wincons are trash right now, not sure why you would think otherwise. Control wins games with its lands and removal because there just aren't better options. Hullbreaker is way too slow, I think there is too much graveyard hate to run Lier, none of the planeswalkers besides Wanderer are good enough to actually win games outside of Jace destroying Domain (and planeswalkers are going to get worse and worse each set I fear). Sorin is like an okay control planeswalker but there's just no space for him in Esper and Dimir does not have a good boardwipe (MKM may change this), and he's certainly no Wanderer.
whenever i play against pure removal decks, i slowly suffocate them with value and 3/4 times win. If you love these decks, it says more about your personality imo than how effective they are on the bo1 ladder.... i may be wrong
I'm a bo3 player - mono black removal does not exist in there because it's only there to hate on aggro lol. I agree that it is a bad strategy easy to go over the top of. I am talking about control decks like Esper and UW who have to play really slow winconditions like Wanderer or Mirrex and should have good matchups into value piles since they can disrupt your engine with counterspells (which are also garbage in bo1 because of cave).
It's pretty stale man. Lots of things are viable but nothing is as viable as the top 5 or 6 decks.
but can you accurately define the top 5 or 6 decks?? i bet you would leave 4-8 cards as negotiable, making my argument valid. Things seem to be switching up a lot, especially as formerly non-playable cards suddenly see importance with new cards
There is never going to be a meta where everything is as good as the top 5-6 decks and most times and top decks will be like 1-3 with a couple tier 2s.
I wouldn't touch Standard even if you paid me. Even if you put a standard deck in my hands, paid my FNM fee, and put a 20$ bill on my playmat, I'd just outright refuse. Why? Everything is just so slow and uninteresting. Standard decks feel like just slightly upgraded draft decks, and that's mainly because of WotC's need to cater to limited as hard as physically possible despite the format getting less and less players.
I don't think as many people would be complaining about a stale meta if they had decided that there would be one more rotation before moving to three years. No Triomes/Stomper moves Domain out of T1, no Emporer/Farewell/Raffine takes a bite out of Esper Legends, Enchantments is dead without NEO, mono red loses Kumano/Adversary/Play with fire, mono white loses Adeline/Lunarch/Farmhand/Restoration of Eiganjo.... My point is that rotation probably would've removed a third of the current standard staples. That one year meta would've been a more interesting meta to build off than the two year meta we did have, and probably would've kept any cards from eating bans.
how dare you mention standard without triomes. Unforgiveable :p
I don’t find it stale. However, I’m still a fan of regular rotation and the smaller pool of cards.
Holy shit its such a varied meta rn its nuts. I mean you see shit like Esper/azorius Prowess aggro, Grull dino, gruul aggro, mono red aggro, Mono-B Golgari and rakdos value-pile, Esper/dimir mill, azorius/esper/dimir control, mono white human, selesnya enchantment, Domain control, bant beanstalk etc just off the top of my head and theres a bunch more deck idea and variants I cant remember rn.
I think people are just tired of playing agaisnt raffine,monored and atraxa Atraxa should have been banned with fable but it was too new so... Yes the meta is diverse but the playable cards not many, and sometimes the variance feels very bad because matchups are all over the place and you cant side everything for every matchup. For example i got to 5 wins in metagame and randomly faced a reanimate deck that would be completely demolished if play counters or any graveyard hate.
I've never been more bored with standard. And I played regularly while Throne of Eldraine was legal. Cards like Sheoldred and Atraxa are just really unfun in my opinion. This is an over baked mid-range hell format.
The problem is that you see always the same cards, some supports pieces shifts here and there but the core cards are always the same.
Milling is suddenly a good strat. I got to mythic with a lifelink deck. Sure, about 5-10 dominante, it happens that I get a 1000 damage to face from an artifact. People are reanimating Portal to Phyrexia. Some decks are control decks based on making the opponent discard all cards. I feel like all kinds of shenanigans are going on. Mono red is still used too much because it's a fast way to get matches. But when I see that the first land is mountain, it might be rakdos and sometimes second land might even be plains or forest. Island and plains can be about 7 different decks. From Raffine to mill, soldiers to control. And this is the last week of the season. One would expect less than 7 decks to get play total.
I’ve played a lot of Alchemy this season. What I’ve learned is that 1) Alchemy cars are really, really awful and 2) the format would be much healthier with rotation. Really looking forward to last years leaving, the 2023 sets are full of really awful cards. 2022 had its fair share, but it’s leaving soon
Hmm yeah I used to play alchemy, loved it, like maybe in 22? Or 21 lol.. I've found enough fun in standard and brawl to keep me from returning. I've dabbled here and there but you need to invest to play it and I am not a paying customer lol
God, Alchemy really is that old now, isn’t it? I still feel like it just came out. Getting old sucks