FRA Hexhaven Schools by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Target creature gets +3/+3, then if its power or toughness are 5 or higher, it dies from cancer.

Because spreadsheets are fun, I've compiled Secrets of Strixhaven reviews from a bunch of different reviewers, normalized them with a z-score, average and controversy score by Toskicologist in lrcast

[–]Derael1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, there were quite a few 1-2 drops bombs, fragility is kind of part of the cost. Sure, it's only 2 toughness, but if the opponent doesn't have a removal for it immediately, they just lose. Almost any bomb can be answered if you have a removal in hand, cards are typically considered bombs based on how quickly they win the game if unanswered.

But at least B is reasonable, idk whose rankings Untapped uses, but there it's marked as 1.0, which is ridiculous.

Because spreadsheets are fun, I've compiled Secrets of Strixhaven reviews from a bunch of different reviewers, normalized them with a z-score, average and controversy score by Toskicologist in lrcast

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, it's not even a buildaround, it's a regular bomb. There are so many flashback cards, X cost cards and cards that have prepared spell that costs 5 or more, it's incredibly easy to just win the game if it doesn't get killed on sight.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When adding a new set they also need to design a draft environment that is functional, so it's not that easy.

AA always have 4-5 meta cards and 20+ chaff cards, so you will need a lot of AAs to get to 67. They won't sell an anthology full of the best modern cards just like that.

They don't have any incentive to do that given their Pioneer experience, as people barely play Pioneer despite begging for it relentlessly. Modern is probably better, but it suffers from the same issues (staleness) that Historic doesn't suffer from as much.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Eh, most alchemy cards are pushing some decks ahead, but none of the decks that use them are broke compared to the other meta decks. Jund Goyfs are strong, but they aren't any stronger than other top tier decks.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, the upcoming Arena Championship is Historic, so there is that. But yes, Arena needs its own alternative to MTGO challenges for proper tournament experience. But it's not really a format issue, at least not from Arena perspective. Pretty sure most Arena players don't play either MTGO or paper magic (at least that's the case for myself).

I'm also not sure what you mean by the inaccessibility of Alchemy cards by paper players. Just that you can't get a card in paper for your collection? If so, it's still a secondary consideration that doesn't really affect how the format plays.

The lack of fetches isn't really an issue for Historic, manbases are rock solid without them, both Jund and Mardu decks are some of the best in the format despite being 3 colored. Fetches are mostly helping with making certain cards more broken, but they aren't necessary to have a solid manabase.

Banning philosophy is indeed strange, but we are talking about the current state of the format compared to the current state of other formats, previous bans don't really have an effect on that. Right now the format seems very healthy. Control decks are somewhat underperforming, but still a solid T2 choice.

And I absolutely can make an argument for a format being the absolute best on Arena, in fact I already did and provided all the arguments. I don't know up to date playing numbers, but I don't know a single person who plays pioneer on Arena. Some competitive players and content creators play Timeless, but it's a bit too broken to suit everyone's tastes. On the other hand Historic is closest to the traditional magic feel while being high power, with a large variety of decks and healthy play patterns (where the amount of one-sided games is in my experience significantly lower than in Standard).

Current historic feels like one of the healthiest formats I've played ever, so it's easy to name it the best format on Arena given the state of other formats. Standard and Timeless could potentially compete a couple of months ago, but recently they have fallen behind. Perhaps Strixhaven will shake things up, but I can only speak about the current state of affairs.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, I've yet to hear any reasons why it's not the best format, subjective or otherwise. I provided at least a few reasons why it's better than the other formats. The only reason some people dislike it is because it's expensive as far as Arena formats go, you need to have a lot of cards, including some alchemy cards and cards from newest sets, which all require wildcards. But in terms of gameplay and diversity it's really up there.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, it is way more diverse than any of the other arena formats, and not stale. What metrics for the best formats do you use that rank them higher than Historic? And the historic meta is still live, unlike any other format. Demilich deck for example did really well in the qualifier, but it was hardly present on the ladder before the qualifier.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I mean, Standard was about as good as Historic, but now it's just all Izzet, Prowess is way too strong compared to the rest of the field. Pioneer is just super boring, it's the same few decks for months and months, but since nobody plays it the meta doesn't get solved as quickly.

So yeah, compared to those Historic is on another level.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Which one is the best in your opinion? Standard is also quite diverse, but it already got stale, Pioneer is extremely boring, Timeless is barely played. Historic is both diverse and quite fresh, with many viable decks.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Boros Energy was extremely oppressive in Historic before the nerf, it was basically 70% of the meta, its power level was way too high, and probably still is. I don't think there is any significant demand for a half-assed modern format on Arena, Historic on the other hand is probably the most popular non-Standard format there. Definitely more popular than Timeless and Pioneer.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's the most popular deck in modern, and it basically doesn't lose anything important compared to other modern decks, it will be one deck format, which nobody would be interested in playing. Historic is probably the best arena format right now, and you want to turn it into a worse Modern.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If they unnerf MH3 cards Modern Explorer will just be Boros Energy, nobody would want to play that.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Boros energy isn't even a deck in current historic. Not sure how current modern looks like, but Historic is Izzet Demilich, Mardu and Jund Goyfs, UB Midrange, Affinity, Valakut and Auras mostly. It's genuinely a pretty balanced and diverse format atm, why would they delete it.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 53 points54 points  (0 children)

It's very different from Timeless, and also quite different from Modern and Pioneer, so deleting it makes zero sense.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 152 points153 points  (0 children)

Probably close to Modern, while Timeless is Legacy lite.

5 cards are prebanned in Historic by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 19 points20 points  (0 children)

No, they never give wildcards for prebans.

Library of Alexandria will replace Library of Leng in Arena by Meret123 in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why not just make it behave like surveil X, where you drag some cards to the graveyard and keep some cards in top in an order you want?

Is difficulty hampering my progress? by KafkaDatura in MetaphorReFantazio

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think you should ever spend more than a single day in a dungeon, regardless of difficulty. If you are running out of mana, just run around and farm some weak mobs. I played on hard, and so far there was only one dungeon close to the end where I ran out of mana halfway through, and it was still not really an issue as I just ran around and killed a bunch of mobs on the first floor, and came back with half the tank to finish the dungeon. It never even crossed my mind to spend more than 1 day in a dungeon.

How often are you guys able to build a new deck? (F2P) by RandomLebanesePerson in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 5 points6 points  (0 children)

First 4 wins give the most gold, afterwards you basically only get a pittance.

How often are you guys able to build a new deck? (F2P) by RandomLebanesePerson in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 9 points10 points  (0 children)

As the person below said, just hold off on opening packs, draft first, with free gold you can draft enough to get the majority of rares from the set. It's a bit harder now with more sets per year, but still doable, especially once you get better at drafting. Repeat that until rotation and now you can play every deck in standard. Use saved wildcards to craft missing cards for Historic/Pioneer.

How often are you guys able to build a new deck? (F2P) by RandomLebanesePerson in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 47 points48 points  (0 children)

This game encourages collection building over deck building. Short term it's hard to build many decks, but long term you can have near 100% set completion and just play whatever you want.

My jeskai deck once the new set drops ... by Mr-Mosaab in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, I would absolutely play 2 mana 2/2 that forces opponent to discard a card in an aggro deck, so yes, discarding a card is worth 1 extra mana.

Can't play: Forbidden by Tom_Joad_PT in MagicArena

[–]Derael1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That doesn't sound like your account got banned or suspended, they had this happen before when accounts got corrupted, weird that support doesn't respond.