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[Urist McScoopbeard]

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From a cursory search, we do not yet have a topic on this game.

I do not know enough about Magic to really COMPARE Arena to MTG:O, but I have to say it is both extremely fun and considerably more accessible, and has honestly led to me actually spending a couple hundred on real cards (fuck me, lol). Very similar to Hearthstone from what I can see. Collection of 2019-2020 cards, unfortunately I do not think there are any plans for older releases/decks/cards so if you're a fan of modern you might be out of luck here. However, Standard play is quite good, and you can pretty much just jump right in.

I imagine there are a couple of players around here, so hopefully we can use this topic to set up some matches, talk deckbuilding, and answer questions about the game and Magic in general.

[MrRoboto75]

I love spending all of my rare wildcards on real estate.

[AlStar]

I got into this fairly recently when it was mentioned on a different board that I frequent.

One thing I'd like to emphasize (since the OP might scare people away) is that the game is really quite doable on a free or cheap budget. I spent $5 on the newbie package, since it's a great deal, but have otherwise not wanted (or needed) to spend cash to get the things that I want.

Drafting can be done either for free currency (gold) or premium (gems), but always pays out in gems, with anyone able to win 6 or 7 games (out of 7) before they lose 3 able to go infinite. Eventually, even the poorest player could (theoretically) turn their gold into gem-exclusive events and avatars/card backs/etc.

Also check out this wiki page: https://magicarena.fandom.com/wiki/Codes for free stuff you can redeem.

[Folly]

Arena was discussed here: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=167447.30

But I don't see any harm in giving Arena it's own thread.

[MCreeper]

Two major diffirences from hearthstone:
1) Near-zero random inside cards themselves (i know just two cards with coinflips).
2) It's still not a vile and bloated Thing. 
Anyways, two "fun" decks i made. "Fun", because even basic Orzhov deck appears to have higher winrate than the better one. Probably because it gets thrown to other basic decks more, and it's the best one of them, but still.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I already posted about this one, actually.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Speaking of !!!FUN!!!

does anyone have advice on deck building? I'm just not sure how to start building around a small set of cards you want drawn.

[Folly]

I only played Arena briefly after launch...it seemed like the bulk of the game consisted of tournaments that you pay real money to enter, for the chance to play and almost certainly lose against other people who have spent more money to acquire better cards.

Honestly, the last decent MTG digital game I played was Shandalar. Everything since then feels extremely pay-to-win.

[AlStar]

Speaking of !!!FUN!!!

does anyone have advice on deck building? I'm just not sure how to start building around a small set of cards you want drawn.

While I don't claim to be an expert or anything, what I do is take a theme, then build around it - I'm rather proud of the current deck I've been running: I just went 4-0 with it on the "2-wins in a row" XP event that's currently running.

Spoiler: The Deck (click to show/hide)

2 Temple of Silence (M20) 256
1 Scoured Barrens (M20) 251
4 Orzhov Guildgate (RNA) 253
1 Godless Shrine (RNA) 248
4 Corpse Knight (M20) 206
7 Swamp (ANA) 63
7 Plains (ANA) 61
4 Cruel Celebrant (WAR) 188
2 Revival // Revenge (RNA) 228
4 Mortify (RNA) 192
2 Teysa Karlov (RNA) 212
1 Kaya, Bane of the Dead (WAR) 231
1 Ethereal Absolution (RNA) 170
4 Ministrant of Obligation (RNA) 16
3 Orzhov Enforcer (RNA) 79
2 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
1 Bounty Agent (GRN) 2
2 Take Vengeance (M20) 313
2 Prison Realm (WAR) 26
2 Rising Populace (WAR) 29
4 Blood for Bones (M20) 89

Spoiler: Where I go on at some length, talking about the thoughts going into making the deck (click to show/hide)

This one's theme is killing and creating creatures. I started with that base, taking Corpse Knight (deal 1 damage to opponent when a creature comes into play), Cruel Celebrant (When something you own dies, deal 1 damage to opponent and gain 1 life), Rising Populace (when something you own dies, it gets +1/+1) and Teysa Karlov (if a creature dying causes a triggered ability, it happens twice; also, all creature tokens get lifelink and vigilance). I then paired that with the best creatures I could find that checked those boxes: Orzhov Enforcer (deathtouch, when it dies, it spawns a 1/1 flyer), Ministrant of Obligation (when it dies, it spawns two 1/1 flyers), and Hunted Witness (when it dies, it spawns a 1/1 lifelink soldier). To improve hardiness, I also added in Blood for bones, which allows me to turn a single creature token into two creatures back from the graveyard, one of which goes straight into play.

If left alone, these can quickly overwhelm anything. Of course, since your opponent is rarely so kind as to just sit there, I also added a bunch of removal: Mortify (creatures, enchantments), Take Vengeance (creatures), Prison Realm (creatures, planeswalkers), Bounty Agent (anything legendary) and Kaya (creatures - even ones with hexproof).

I've then got some cards that usually end up being "win more", but have pulled my ass out of the fire a couple times: Revival // Revenge (bring back an important creature from the graveyard or double my life to stay in the fight) and Ethereal Absolution (stronger creatures for me, weaker for opponent (autokilling 1 toughness) ... and, perhaps more importantly, grabbing creatures out of his graveyard to turn into 1/1 flying tokens)

Add in enough land to make it so that I can pretty much guarantee what I need - in this deck, 3 mana (or heck, two mana, as long as it's white and black, in a pinch) is really needed for 75% of it, which is usually long enough to pull that needed 4th mana for Karlov and/or Blood for Bones.

As far as getting what you want out when you want it out of your deck, you've basically got three tools - put more of them in your deck (obvious, but two cards make it twice as likely to be drawn, and four makes it twice as likely again), raw card draw (the more cards you're drawing, the more likely you'll get lucky) and "tutors" - cards that allow you to search for what you're looking for. The deck I just talked about basically runs entirely on the first - I've put in a lot of the cards that I think I'll need. I also cheat a bit - using Blood for Bones, I re-use the same cards over and over, so even if I don't draw new ones, I'm not stuck.

[MrRoboto75]

I've heard a really basic way to slap together a deck is to pick 9 different cards that make up a game plan, and have four of each of those cards.  Then the other 24 cards are your lands / mana base.

[Flying Carcass]

Currently mainly playing a very fun mono green elf spam deck (which unfortunately is going to be relegated to historic format soon). The idea is to get enough mana producers and a card with card draw (Beast Whisperer, Vanquisher's Banner, Immortal Sun) into play to get a bunch of elves on the board, go wide around my opponent. Artifacts and Elvish Clancallers buff my elves and Rhonas often provides a finishing punch (and with all the card draw, is easy to find). Very strong in many match ups, though it loses to board wipes and flyers give it a hard time if Rabid Bite isn't in hand.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Prior to my elf deck, I had been mostly playing a Feather deck. Of course don't let Feather's mana cost fool anyone, it's really a 4 cost because as soon as it hits the board it's a primary target and therefore it shouldn't be played without Gods Willing or Sheltering Light on hand (GW is usually better, but it doesn't protect against untargetted board wipes so I keep a copy of SL in the deck).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of course I'm currently miffed about the whole upcoming 2:1 wildcard conversion rate for historic cards, making Historic's barrier to entry higher is going to kill the format.

[Stench Guzman]

The only MtG game you need is the one by Microprose from 20 years ago.  I'm surprised that they haven't made another game of that style since.

We need some kind of open world game where combat is resolved through card games.

[Teneb]

The only MtG game you need is the one by Microprose from 20 years ago.  I'm surprised that they haven't made another game of that style since.

We need some kind of open world game where combat is resolved through card games.

MtG: Battlegrounds was pretty fun, if janky as hell.

[Frumple]

The only MtG game you need is the one by Microprose from 20 years ago.  I'm surprised that they haven't made another game of that style since.

We need some kind of open world game where combat is resolved through card games.

There's a couple out there, actually. Don't even ask me what they're called, but there's more in that rough style around nowadays. Some fairly recent, iirc.

... any case, I think I tried arena at some point. Not very long, though. For some reason the whole hearthstone aesthetic thing is like deeply repulsive to me and is about the fastest way to get me to uninstall a game in existence. I literally don't know exactly why but it's a gigantic negative for me. Kinda' unfortunate when I do quite like card game style games.

[AlStar]

I'm doing amazingly well in the 2020 event. I think I'm at roughly 20/6 win/loss. Even though I had some losses last night (including two after a win, which is actually the first time that's happened), they were learning experiences. Made some minor changes to the deck I posted above:

Spoiler: The new deck (click to show/hide)

2 Temple of Silence (M20) 256
1 Scoured Barrens (M20) 251
4 Orzhov Guildgate (RNA) 253
1 Godless Shrine (RNA) 248
4 Corpse Knight (M20) 206
7 Swamp (ANA) 63
7 Plains (ANA) 61
4 Cruel Celebrant (WAR) 188
2 Revival // Revenge (RNA) 228
4 Mortify (RNA) 192
2 Teysa Karlov (RNA) 212
1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General (WAR) 97
1 Ethereal Absolution (RNA) 170
4 Ministrant of Obligation (RNA) 16
3 Orzhov Enforcer (RNA) 79
1 Hunted Witness (GRN) 15
1 Bounty Agent (GRN) 2
2 Take Vengeance (M20) 313
2 Prison Realm (WAR) 26
1 Rising Populace (WAR) 29
4 Blood for Bones (M20) 89
1 Syr Konrad, the Grim (ELD) 107
1 Cavalier of Night (M20) 94

The change from Kaya to Liliana was made after an opponent got off a Mass Manipulation, stole Teysa Karlov, and started drawing two cards on each creature death. Cavalier of Night also works great - kill one of my own creatures (which I mostly want to do anyway, to get death triggers) to kill something of his, get a good body out of it, and - if it dies - I just bring it right back with Blood for Bones do it again. Syr Konrad is just fun, since he triggers off of anything dying and things coming back out of the graveyard - meaning a Blood for Bones causes three triggers (the initial sac, then the two creatures coming out.)

[AlStar]

Bump:

There's an event going on for the next ~24 hours that lets you create a deck out of any card currently in standard, and, should you win 12 games before you lose 2, you win a card of every single set.

I managed to go all of 1 win before my 2 losses - first game went perfectly, but I got massively mana screwed on the next two. Shame, but I got some cards out of it.