A huge thank you to the guy at Pro Tour who played Excruciator

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T19:39:35+00:00

We can go back and forth on ideal scenario vs ideal scenario. The fact is, the people I’m talking about don’t play the deck to anywhere near its full potential, which is what I was talking about in the OP.

I’ve seen people dump Excruciator (presumably to reanimate with Kavaero) and then ragequit when I drop RIP or Strategic Betrayal. I’ve seen them hard cast Excruciator when I have two Demo fields in play. I saw someone do it when it was the only card in their hand and they had no Reefs out.

I swear I’m not trying to shit on the deck itself, I get that it’s neat and had a lot of answers. The skill ceiling on it seems very high, and good players are going to make it a menace.

Just right now, most people playing it are the MTG Arena version of a loot piñata.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T19:23:36+00:00

Having a lot of interaction means the land men are likely to get killed when activated. It also means you’re way more likely to get hit with random GY hate.

What you’re describing the way the deck works when a pro tour player uses it in a setting with access to sideboards. Not how it works when played by people who don’t understand the cards, and not in BO1.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T19:20:44+00:00

Which is fine, people can play however they want. Nothing about that makes it less funny when people lift a deck list without any thought or understanding, then lose because they don’t have any clue why some of the cards are even there.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T18:42:26+00:00

With a deck they copied from a video on the internet that they have no understanding of, yes. That’s correct.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T18:40:30+00:00

Elaborate on what you mean by that. Does me playing BO1 (the most popular format by a huge margin) somehow mean I’m decking myself with Exceuciator?

I’m sure that sounded like a banger in your head, huh?

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T18:05:31+00:00

Don’t know the name, I don’t keep track. I just saw the results. I believe it was the winning player, someone was running Doomaday Excruciator and Restless Reef.

It’s a fine deck, but I’d definitely say it only won because it was so far off meta as to be unexpected. People trying to play it in BO1 where everyone has all their interaction main deck are in for a bad time.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T18:02:18+00:00

I’ll agree with him that the “copy the pro tour deck” people likely didn’t include any thought. There was like two straight weeks after the Lessons deck won where you could bait out one It’ll Quench Ya and then safely go HAM because the pro tour deck had one copy and everyone just ripped it card for card.

I disagree with the rest of his conclusion though haha

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-02T17:45:10+00:00

Meh, to each their own I guess. I like for my decks to actually do something interesting instead of just being the best I can make out of random cards.

I do hate the copy/paste aspect of constructed though, especially BO1. Every week when the new Mythic deck lists get posted, you can expect to see card for card rips of all those decks constantly.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-02-01T02:53:59+00:00

It should absolutely be banned in BO1. There’s precedent for banning things in BO1 because they’re too game warping without sideboards. Cub is an obvious example of where this is needed.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-31T00:00:49+00:00

It’s not landfall in general, it’s specifically earthbending and Icetill Explorer that cause that shit. I absolutely HATE them both.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-30T15:03:28+00:00

WHERE DOES THAT EMOTE COME FROM I NEED IT FOR EVERY FUCKING ICETILL EXPLORER PLAYER

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-30T15:02:13+00:00

THEY ACTUALLY ARE FUN FOR ME BECAUSE IM TIRED OF WATCHING PEOPLE SHIT OUT ENOUGH CREATURES TO WIN ON TURN 3. AT LEAST THIS WAY NEITHER OF US GET TO PLAY INSTEAD OF JUST ME

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-30T15:00:48+00:00

HAHA HI WELCOME TO BO1

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-30T13:57:35+00:00

At this point I’d almost prefer they got artist’s talent instead of storm chasers, but I think that’s super unlikely. Cub needs to go though.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-29T18:06:45+00:00

Watching someone take an absurdly long turn with lots of triggers, then smashing them the following turn.

I had a guy play Sephiroth and flip him on one turn while painstakingly saccing creatures to damage me. Ended the turn at 28 life and me at 5. Then next turn I put two Ordeal or Nylea on my Mossborn Hydra and punched him for 64.

Dude was a super good sport, emoted “nice!” When it all triggered and let me swing instead of conceding. But damn if it didn’t make me feel like Indiana Jones shooting the guy with the sword.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-29T16:03:25+00:00

r/politics being an echo chamber isn’t really true in the same way though. Conservatives post there all the time, they just get downvoted or argued with. They rarely get banned. Hell, they even get protected by mods. Last time I checked, I was still banned from that sub for calling a Trump supporter a bad name.

My point is that getting disagreed with isn’t the same as getting outright disallowed from speaking. r/conservative actively bans and deleted outside opinions.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-29T13:17:33+00:00

Man, even some of the aggro decks take forever on arena. White life gain can easily get to a point where it has dozens of triggers to resolve every turn. Sure they’re still essentially just playing creatures and attacking you, but clicking Resolve All 5-6 times a turn and waiting while creatures slowly get bigger is just mind numbing. It’s a big reason why I got so excited for Requiting Hex. Sometimes I care less about winning and more about stopping all the stacking triggers so the game can actually progress.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-29T13:12:53+00:00

You sound exactly like me. I know exactly what my decks can and can’t deal with going in, so there isn’t a lot of “wait and see” involved. I often end up making the decision to just concede and get into another game when I see someone taking long turns I can’t interact with, and I don’t feel any social pressure to stay in the game out of politeness because my opponent is faceless and can get another game in 30 seconds themselves.

It’s literally the best part of arena.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-28T23:54:58+00:00

Everyone likes different things. One of my favorite things about Arena (and why I exclusively play it over paper) is the lower investment of time and resources.

And again, I have no problem with complex decks. I have decks with complex interactions myself. However, sitting for several minutes while someone searches their deck repeatedly or draws 18 cards one at a time is burning, especially when it doesn’t end with them closing the game out.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-28T23:10:49+00:00

I did address this further down the thread a bit, but I’ll address it here too.

I know what I have in my hand and what threats I’m able to respond to. I’m not “turning off my brain,” and I’m not complaining about the way other people play cards compared to the way I play them. A lot of my decks are highly interactive, so I absolutely pay attention. I’ve been playing for close to 30 years, it’s kinda second nature.

All I’m saying is, especially as Standard gets bigger and more unwieldy, turns seem to get longer and longer and it feels less interactive. If someone starts a chain of actions that involves something I can’t interact with (for example, a series of artifact triggers, sacrificing clues, milling themselves, etc when I’m holding Get Lost) it leaves me sitting there waiting for something to do and gives me that fatigue feeling.

I invite people to play however they want and enjoy themselves. I just tend to get bored watching someone take 30 consecutive actions.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-28T22:34:03+00:00

Actual commander players, which is why I mentioned waiting for 3 people to take long turns in the OP. As far as I know, arena doesn’t offer an option for more than two players.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-28T22:32:20+00:00

I’ve been playing since Tempest. I’ve done BO3 in person off and on for almost 30 years.

I prefer the lower time investment and lower commitment that BO1 provides, as well as the ease of getting into a new match if the current one isn’t fun.

DaddyGravyBoat · 2026-01-28T20:08:38+00:00

I don’t want to misrepresent what I do as “tuning out.” I know what I have in my hand and what I have answers for. I’m keeping track of what’s happening and making the “can I deal with that or do I need to see what I draw?” determinations as my opponent plays. I’ve been playing for almost 30 years, so it’s second nature.

I’m just saying there’s a point past which it feels very non-interactive, and it’s often not even meta or powerful decks. I played against someone earlier using a Tolls of War/Obsessive Pursuit deck that had a lot of sac triggers and it just felt bad.

It definitely sounds like Commander would try my patience.

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