The Chromecast with Google TV^™

It seems like most of your issues are not with the Magic Arena client, but with the formats being played on Arena (namely Historic and possibly Timeless?).

If you’re into a slower, more methodical format, look into playing bo3 Standard and Explorer. Decks can still be explosive, but not as ridiculous, and typically the level of threats is about equal to the level of answers available in the format.

Alternatively, lean into limited formats. Draft decks will always require some personal thinking, every set is like a brand new format, and in limited, Tempo is key. Card advantage is key. Threats are key. Answers are key. Everything matters, and most people aren’t going to even have 4-ofs in their deck, so there’s a wider variance in cards seen. Plus, it’s a place where commons and uncommons can shine!

Also, I don’t mind when people copy decks. Some people are trying to learn how to play well and efficiently, rather than express themselves with deck building. One Standard deck I was playing last year was based on a Gruul Haste deck I saw on YouTube, and then I made it and modified it based on what I had and how many wildcards I wanted to spend. I ended up doing the same for a different deck I built in paper: start with a deck list, modify it based on what I have and how expensive buying the remaining pieces would be. I still brew my own silly decks, but there’s a reason that a meta can exist. Fine-tuned competitive decks are typically more consistent at winning than random brews.

As for my personal dislikes…

• The timer should exist in best of 1

Not just the rope system, but the chess clock. Maybe have it set to 20 minutes per player or something. It drives me nuts when I touch bo1 and realize that I’m spending so much time waiting, but I can’t quantify it. In bo3, I can hover over the timer and see that I’ve used up 3 minutes while my opponent has used 7, and at least feel justified in my impatience.

• Better deckbuilding and deck categorization options

Deckbuilding is frustrating. When I want cards that are green, it gives me all cards with green in their color identity, which I wouldn’t play in a mono-G deck. The search feature is slow and makes me wonder if my game froze up each time. Trying to move multiple of a card into the sideboard is multiple click-drags. The crafting interface feels barely slapped on, and makes it too easy for new players to accidentally spend their wildcards. And overall, while we have space for tons of decks, I really wish I could just save all of my decks, or at least a revision history of each deck so I didn’t feel the need to duplicate it along the way to have something to turn back to if my tweaks are bad. I turn to third party trackers for this functionality, but it should really just be part of the client.

• As a newer player, Draft was intimidating because it required a gem (money) investment every single time

I know this is how it works in paper Magic, but I really wish there was a way to draft and practice for free in the client. I know there’s DraftSim and you can get a group together on Discord, but that’s too much to ask of a new player. I don’t mind dropping a few bucks now and then, but the “stakes” of it all get me anxious and pushed me away from even trying it for the first year.

For a Master of Keys, he doesn’t really help with unlocking doors or playing rooms, huh?

Title drop card

Plus it synergizes with the Survivor archetype in green/white this set.

Is it covert if you know it’s happening and have agreed to it?

I agree, this feels like the worst of the leylines shown so far this set. Does literally nothing until maybe turn 3 or 4, depending on format, and hitting WUBRG is fairly difficult in Standard, Pioneer, and Pauper. It’s unusable in Mono-G Commander decks due to color identity.

There’s a reason Jodah, Archmage Eternal isn’t a factor in competitive formats.

That’s true of a majority of commons.

I was trying to see if this could fit into Insidious Roots, but it’s 2 mana instead of the 1 mana that helps the combo go off, and its power is too high to trigger Gorehound. The fact that they haven’t already slotted Thespian into those decks means this won’t fit either.

I really like Bloomburrow, but I haven’t found a good way to make Squirrels work in constructed. In limited, they just accept tons of value and overwhelm with that in the long run. In Standard, I just don’t see any squirrel-based finisher, instead having to resort to Ygra or the big 6-mana snake. How do you tend to win with your squirrel deck?

Aw dang, Special Guest. For a second I thought it was coming to Standard.

That’s valid! I think Standard is a place both for the uber-competitive as well as the casual brewer. I have a janky MonoG deck I’m running in paper and on Arena, and while it won’t win an RCQ, it’s good enough to have a winning record at local FNM-like events, and that’s good enough for me!

Neat decks! Is there a reason these are more Kitchen-table rather than Standard? Cuz they look Standard to me at first glance.

So… This allows you to get some attack triggers without risking getting killed by blockers?

For deck building purposes, I always have Scryfall up, and if I’m doing EDH, EDHRec is something I like to reference to see if I’m missing something obvious.

I want to build a deck largely out of cards I have, and I want it to be my deck, not just what people consider to be the best shell for my commander. But, I can always use a very powerful search tool, and sometimes my knowledge of cards is pretty limited, so seeing what other people are doing can help inspire me to look for similar lines or concepts in my own deckbuilding.

I wish I liked this art treatment more, but man it sucked to play against in paper.

Compare [[Drivnod]]'s and [[Phyrexian Obliterator]]'s inkblot arts. Just not easily distinguishable across a table, unfortunately.

I think the things look cool as art prints, but aren’t clear enough when shrunk to half of a playing card to appreciate.

I almost bit the bullet on an order of cards for Gruul Ramp, but held off since I rarely find Pauper firing off here, and would rather spend a bit on getting a decent Standard deck for some local events.

Do y’all think anything can unseat Affinity as the primary tempo-setter of the format? It feels like it defines what decks can or can’t succeed.

As a quick question, is this the single largest B&R announcement in Magic history? Bans/restrictions in 4 of the 5 major formats (Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage), each hitting serious meta decks? I’m a relatively newer player, so I don’t know if they’ve ever shaken up so many formats at once.

I know about the Great Designer Challenge question, and I agree that while such a creature would technically fit into those 2 colors, it’s not doing a thing that those 2 colors specifically want to do together.

The value of a flyer is to get in around something, and the value of vigilance is to be able to attack and still safely block. Golgari’s approach to those goals is usually good removal in black and big creatures (with trample) in green.

Beyond that, you’d have to consider the rate of the creature. 2 mana 2/2 w/ flying and vigilance? Banger in Azorius, but doesn’t do jack squat for Golgari. If you go over rate (because green and black both have a number of creatures that are over rate) and get a 2 mana 3/3 w/ flying and vigilance, is that just broken? Even if it’s great, does it see play?

Pioneer player here. Thank GOD Sorin and Amalia are gone.

Definitely agree that banning Sorin is a better move than removing Vein Ripper. Sorin existing basically means that they can’t print any powerful/high cost vampires ever, and so removing him gives more creative freedom for the future.

And removing Amalia is great because of how the counterplay to the combo was sometimes just pushing for a draw. Not fun for anyone, and the draws just end up pushing the match into turns every dang time.

I feel like I would have been fine with them banning Treasure Cruise and Fable, but I guess they didn’t want to just shatter the format, just shake it up gently.

It’s 9/3 (in America), which makes sense as Yargle Day.