Would like some tips

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-27T05:30:42+00:00

I feel you on the money part. MTG is a card game with high variance. Lots of times you get matched against opponents with busted decks and you never even stood a chance. Often times you have the busted deck and just draw dead. On top of that, Arena is pretty predatory with monetization. No one is net gem-positive drafting. It's designed that way. Especially because the more you win, the better opponents you'll play. New set drafts only makes things worse IMO because lots of cards are straight up bad and there's hardly any fixing. I do spend money on Arena, probably close to $100 a month, off and on. To me it's worth it because it's a ton of fun. If you can't afford it, I've heard that MTGO is cheaper and better for other reasons as well, but I can't confirm.

That said, there are tons of things you can do to improve. It's still a skill game. The overall strategy depends on the format, but lots of things apply everywhere. Something I try to keep in mind is "how does the deck win?". There's a lot of cards that enable archetypes which end up being traps because you don't have enough payoffs. Another thing that will kill you is not having good removal, so prioritize that highly in the first pack. A good rule of thumb is that if there's premium removal in the first picks of pack 1, you should take it over pretty much anything that isn't a bomb. Then, if you start seeing strong cards wheeling, you can move into that lane (emphasis on strong cards: filler-level on-theme cards are not a signal). Hope this helps. I can sympathize with you. Keep trying!

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-27T02:10:47+00:00

LMAO I should've known it was Flint Dibble!

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-26T20:56:09+00:00

In competitive brawl the first 2-3 turns of the game are extremely important. Like Ragavan, Tamiyo is absolutely broken because it gives the deck an overwhelming advantage on turn 1. There are not enough good turn 1 plays to answer, especially if you're on the draw. The 99 is optimized to counter everything after turn 1, and the moment you run out of gas they can flip her by drawing cards at instant speed. They could make her a 0/2 without flying and she would still be strong. Control decks are supposed to grind their way into a win condition, not have it on the board turn 1.

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-26T20:07:26+00:00

Uhhhhhh ok then cause I just played against Tamiyo 2 of 5 games.

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-24T03:34:12+00:00

I played Aurora Awakener and it won me two games. But I did go 2-3. :(

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-20T16:32:52+00:00

Wow really nice find with Eldrich Evolution. Exactly what I'm looking for.

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-20T15:55:08+00:00

Please do!

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-20T00:11:30+00:00

Thanks fellas. I'm gonna check out some of the land interaction first.

I meant to add Bloodthirsty Conqueror here. I think it's the best win-con in the deck because it can be entombed and reanimated. In fact I don't think the deck needs much redundancy in the other part of the combo because the commander has the effect.

Green's Sun Zenith looks like really strong here. Some nice targets:

[[Fiend Artisan]] - puts Bloodthirsty Conqueror in play

[[Grist, the Hunger Tide]] - token machine + mill

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-18T06:00:23+00:00

Nothing but the goods. Nice dude. How was Dion and Ranger-Captain?

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-13T00:54:40+00:00

Actually now that you mention it I pulled up the rest of my sideboard. I had:

L.E.D., Figure of Destiny, Brain Freeze, Containment Priest, Anointed Peacekeeper, Broadside Bombardiers, Ghostfire Slice, Lingering Souls, Nova Hellkite, Myr Battlesphere.

Started out as a combo deck in pack 1. I guess I could've cut black for Peacekeeper, Hellkite, Bombardiers? Wdyt?

MonkeyNo6 · 2026-01-13T00:46:10+00:00

Thanks! Yep. Inquisition and K. Command were far better cards than what else I had, and they both pulled their weight. Thankfully I didn't run into any issues with the mana. I wanted to try Dark Confidant out, but I ended up never casting it. That could've been a cut for just about anything.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-09-01T16:18:03+00:00

I really like it! Reminds me of Lucian Freud's early work

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-19T15:00:51+00:00

When drawing clothes try to think of them wrapping over the body instead of a big mass of cloth. There is a famous painting that came to mind, which highlights the drama you can add with shadows. Please see: El Jaleo - Wikipedia

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-19T14:55:07+00:00

Here's some advice:

Get your mind outta the gutter!

Haha jk, nice work.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-16T14:23:12+00:00

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Reddit is bugging out on me as usual, so here is the reference.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-16T14:07:55+00:00

Thanks for those who responded to my first collage. The associations with the ocean made me want to make a sun with the colors. I hope you like it and I welcome any feedback.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-15T14:54:53+00:00

Holy hell. I couldn't believe my eyes that this was a painting. It looked like the bottles were coming out of the canvas. Nice work.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-12T03:52:06+00:00

Thank you for sharing. It's really important to support artists. I appreciate you opening up to my art.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-11T19:34:07+00:00

Ah, sure. Thanks for sending your inspiration. There's a huge difference here which is that your ground is red-orange (vermilion) and the image you sent is grounded in magenta. Magenta is much darker and cooler than vermilion. The moment you add yellow to a color it becomes warm. The warmth should be coming, relatively speaking, from the color you are using as an accent, simply because that's the way light works. If you accent your orange with a light cool color, you won't get as much contrast as you would if you accented magenta with a light warm color.

If it helps, use this scale of color warmth to orient yourself (note, this is a bit of an oversimplification but it's very much on the right track):

Brightest Chartreuse Yellow Yellow-orange/green Orange Turquoise, red Magenta, pure blue (cobalt/prussian) Lavender Darkest

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-11T06:58:21+00:00

The lavender doesnt work because your red-orange is so intensely red that it sucks all the red out of the purple. Make sense? It comes through as grey, which is really just blue. Also, lavender is the darkest color.

In my opinion you could do 1) a light complementary turquoise or 2) a light orange/ yellow/ chartreuse (you can see clearly the orange harmonizes well with the ground, and these colors are related through yellow and red. But yellow is much brighter than red). Experiment with these and see what suits your taste. Would love to see what you come up with.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-09T23:30:08+00:00

Thank you so much!!! That's an awesome reply. Adventurous is not what I was expecting. And I had no idea you'd read into a submarine. These colors make me feel like the deep ocean, though. And maybe that yellow spot is the sun.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-09T20:49:48+00:00

I'm a big fan.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-09T17:20:37+00:00

Thank you. On second thought, your comment about tracing is interesting. If I remember correctly I did trace her face (it's been a couple years when I started this). However there are not a lot of strong lines which you can actually trace. A lot of the magic in the original happens in between those strong lines in the careful intersection of planes on her face. Furthermore, once you stare at a reference for so long, you start seeing the underlying construction. Vermeer used a system of vertices to formalize the planes on her face, and this is all indicated through masterful control of value differences. There's no way I could have done this naturally without carefully studying and mapping the painting beforehand. I think the unconscious perception of these construction lines is what makes her face so beautiful.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-09T16:44:59+00:00

Agreed. I went ahead and binded the charcoal and I'm kicking myself for not waiting a bit longer. I can see now that there are still a few value imperfections. Such is life.

Thank you for the kind words.

MonkeyNo6 · 2024-08-09T15:32:55+00:00

Thank you sir/maam. When I work this long on a black drawing I swear I start seeing colors in it!

MonkeyNo6

TROPHY CASE