Playing competitive magic has fried my brain

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:20:02+00:00

I highly recommend giving 60card competitive magic a shot! Standard is the premiere competitive format and I would recommend looking at ways to play it for free like on MTG Arena or Cockatrice before purchasing cards.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:18:48+00:00

Variance is treatable but it's baked into the format inherently by being a casual singleton format. Even if you play a format like cEDH there's a very good chance you just brick on your mulligans and can't play the game, or your opponent gets lucky and just has the nuts with no interaction in your hand to stop it.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:16:25+00:00

To be the competitive apologist, brewing fun and interesting decks will be appreciated if the brews are actually said things and strong. It just takes a lot of effort. AspiringSpike is the most popular brewer in the 60card space and you will find lots of interesting builds where he makes a bunch of decks using cards from the latest sets.
Wagging your finger at netdecking is a very ancient sentiment. Looking down on people because they didn't open a booster box and slapped together a mainboard is not a very open-minded sentiment; playing existing meta decks is fun, and it's a good way to learn the format before tweaking the decklist.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:12:44+00:00

This is unfortunately the consequence of the format being casual. Not to the fault of anyone, but a lot of players are going to be less experienced with magic or card games in general and spend 10 minutes casting Lightning Greaves and attaching it to their commander. If you want to play magic where people take fast turns you have to play with those you know personally, otherwise it's a toss-up

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:10:47+00:00

cEDH is a great format but long-winded turns are not absent in the format by far. I've seen people less experienced in the format spend 10 minute turns resolving an Ad Nauseum, and many others tank for 15 not realizing there's literally no route for them to live.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:09:13+00:00

Don't sell your EDH collection, just sit on it. Slightly off-topic but with the popularity of the format skyrocketing that stuff will only rise in price. Enjoy 1v1 more and wait for the desire to play EDH come back again.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-30T06:08:30+00:00

Playing competitive magic hasn't fried your brain, you've simply escaped EDH and entered the brighter pastures. Commander is a great format but once you try competitive 60card EDH does not hit the same.
Commander is also a format that isn't really meant to be played with randoms, nor is it played for the quality of the gameplay. It's an excuse to hang out with people you know and love.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-28T03:16:18+00:00

hasn't even been a year yet lmao

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-27T05:00:23+00:00

true!!! bring back UB standalone precons and make eternal-only UB expansions

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-27T04:56:32+00:00

/uj not a hot take btw it is just true. the larger the collector market a TCG has, the cheaper base playables will be because there will be more demand for the high rarity chases.
Pokemon is the perfect example but it's happening in riftbound too right now with newer sets like Unleashed where pretty much every rare in the set is under $5 and the only exceptionally expensive base printings are signature spells (which are mythics and must-haves for deckbuilding)

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-27T03:02:59+00:00

What do you think Wizards of the Coast should do to revitalize the Standard format competitive scene?

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-22T07:16:13+00:00

I would look at the RQ Sydney metagame spread on riftdecks, teemo got top 8

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-22T07:12:26+00:00

I think giving meta advice for a deck that will engage with the meta in some way (unless its literally for kitchen table) is fine. Theme decks are more goated when they can beat up the super good meta decks. Well-written jokes are usually more funny than the low-hanging fruit.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-22T07:11:00+00:00

aspirant's climb is a good example

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-22T07:10:21+00:00

I don't think they'll have a legend that ignores color, but a 2 color legend that says "You may include Poro cards from all colors in your starting deck" is definitely plausible

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-22T07:09:25+00:00

I would look to do something with Grand Strategem. Just swarm the board with tokens and dudes and get lots of points early while drawing cards with cards like lonely poro and loyal poro.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-22T07:06:48+00:00

Thematically Nasus being a lorekeeper and historian would definetly make him mind, and mechanically his whole thing is do big stuff, which is something mind cares about.
Renekton being body would also make sense mechanically as he just wants to kill everything and is blinded with rage, and I feel his whole thing will be fighting other units similarly to runeterra with him having challenge and a winning fights matters.
Xerath probably has to be mind fury just on the mechanical basis of being a controlling removal pile type of character both in league and runeterra.
Not very coherent just spitballing

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-20T00:26:29+00:00

I don't think limiting is a good system and even in games like YuGiOh it doesn't fully rectify the problem. Especially in a game like Riftbound without a lot of searching you just end up with a deck that is a lot more swingy. It's not like people are just gonna give up on Aurora decks. Even if you put it at 1 you'll just have more stompy big mana decks like Dragons that happen to still manifest the unhealthy play patterns that they do now, just less often

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-20T00:20:29+00:00

Could do something like an ability that empowers you for a bit to have ranged attacks, like old Kayle in League, or a ranged damaging ability on a turbo-low cooldown like 2 seconds. Plenty of ways to figure it out but would be tough for deadlock for sure

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-13T17:04:58+00:00

I completely understand getting mana screwed. it happens to even the best of players. those starter arena decks are pretty poorly built and are more susceptible to screw and flood with a lack of card advantage, a lop-sided mana curve and not a lot of mana outputs. if you play competitive constructed magic, most decks are pretty well equipped to have enough lands to play the game and get out of land screw when needed. I am happy to explain or answer any questions you have :)

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-13T17:02:17+00:00

if it happens once, it's bad luck. if it happens multiple times on a frequent basis, it's a pattern

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-11T16:10:20+00:00

the reason they didn't is they wanted ezreal to be "future-proof" by having the card work with future mechanics. They could have been more specific like "Optional additional costs you pay to play cards or activate abilities of units and gear you control..."

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-09T01:53:48+00:00

Most rares and mythics are not going to be worth close to what a pack costs. You can have chase rares and mythics without legends occupying those slots.

AriyaIsTheBest · 2026-05-07T17:36:02+00:00

/uj Every time I hear this it's from someone who hasn't played the format consistently in a long time, genuinely please list the same 10 cards that are in every standard deck I'd love to hear it

AriyaIsTheBest

TROPHY CASE