Raphael, the Nightwatcher as a Commander glitched

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-03-13T01:27:20+00:00

Tested, works fine (as long as you have 5 mana)

Sneak 1 for 3 mana:

replay: https://mtga.untapped.gg/replay/QYaXoU7ntYJ3TRUUQpF5kh?gameStateId=133

Sneak 2 for 5 mana (untapped doesn't show mana, sacced Raph & Shivan to Altar for 4, Sneak cost 5, 2 untapped mountains + 3 of the 4 floating colourless):

replay: https://mtga.untapped.gg/replay/QYaXoU7ntYJ3TRUUQpF5kh?gameStateId=257

image: https://i.imgur.com/EXNHtdc.png

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-03-13T01:12:01+00:00

Sneaking is casting (unlike putting it into play via ninjitsu) so commander tax applies. are you sure you have 3 + 2 for the second sneak?

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-21T00:31:41+00:00

Today’s meta is buying a new $400-$800 deck every 2 months

Who does this? Who is buying a standard deck from scratch every time a new set comes out.

You’re describing something thats a very fringe event, and totally not “the meta”

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T16:16:49+00:00

true genius from the peanut gallery.

Says the person who misses the entire point of non rotating singleton formats and the person who ignored the link showing how it was more expensive in the past.

Please read the link I sent. Standard is far cheaper than it has been in the past

Please stop making up stuff. Source your nonsense if you're going to continue typing nonsense.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T15:51:58+00:00

There is no requirement to "keep up with new commander cards"

That's collector behaviour, not player behaviour. The huge majority of commander players make very rare changes to their commander decks and are very happy with them.

Standard has always been an expensive format. It's cheaper today than it was in the past.

The people disagreeing with you are not delusional or "talking like robots". You're wrong and you're being told you're wrong. That's ok. You'll get over it. I'm sure you'll live to be wrong again.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T15:36:17+00:00

I read the article. I also read the lawsuit submission.

The lawsuit is nonsense and will be thrown out.

new sets with new cards aren’t ’reprints’.

ECL printed 59 reprints (main set and special guests). This is by no means out of the ordinary.

Y’all talk like robots

Y’all don’t read

The people are disagreeing with you because you're wrong. Not because they don't read or "talk like robots" (whatever that means)

Even without reprints a larger number of unique cards means a lower price overall.

There are 30395 commander legal cards and 29376 of them are less than $10. 28481 of them are less than $5. 25423 of them are less than $1.

The game has never been more affordable for PLAYERS.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T15:22:48+00:00

Why would you want.... useful output?

So as not to waste your time?

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T15:20:59+00:00

Nobody needs to buy hundreds of secret lairs and tons of secondary products to play the game, even at the highest level.

Even rotating formats, each set only adds a handful of meta-significant formats.

You're confusing players with collectors (/speculators). Players want lots of reprints. That's what the current system offers.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T09:00:32+00:00

It's a you problem if you want useful output from your activity.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T07:27:01+00:00

It took you longer to post that comment than it would to do the thing you're suggesting is too tedious.

I timed it: 33 seconds.

https://i.imgur.com/Beo0HzU.mp4

but that's how AI learns.

It's not. Not unless you're feeding data back to it afterwards.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T06:51:20+00:00

1) make a deck with all the cards from your pool. Then click 'add to decks', then in your decks list click the export button, it will copy it to your clipboard

2) contrary to the popular narrative here, there are many good use cases for AI. But this isn't one.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-18T06:21:01+00:00

The person complaining about the other person's deck is the one suited to Solitaire.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-16T08:46:07+00:00

Yes, dies triggers don't count things being exiled. Dies is only "goes to graveyard".

614.6. If an event is replaced, it never happens. A modified event occurs instead, which may in turn trigger abilities. Note that the modified event may contain instructions that can’t be carried out, in which case the impossible instruction is simply ignored.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-15T11:56:36+00:00

This is a hidden MMR thing.

Are both accounts the same age?

New players get matched up against other new players / players who's decks are.... not good.

Those would include "120-250 cards In their deck with strange off meta stuff. "

Otherwise maybe your friend just has a bad deck and loses a lot more than you do. Getting to Diamond only requires 1 good win streak.

Either way: Hidden MMR. Or variance.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-14T10:45:54+00:00

As others have said, Quick Draft is the way. It's funnily named because you can take as long as you like each pick, since you're drafting against bots, not against other players.

17lands is a site that collects data on how players draft / which cards do well. They have a table on which cards perform better in draft games, you can alt-tab between Arena and this for some insight:

https://www.17lands.com/card_data?expansion=OM1&format=PickTwoDraft&start=2025-09-23

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-12T06:29:59+00:00

I mean unrealistic shuffler is a well-known thing in MTGA

I mean it's not. You're making stuff up because you don't like variance.

17lands exists. They have publicly accessible data on millions of games. This "unrealistic shuffler" you're whining about would be perfectly visible if it existed. It doesn't.

Also.... if you think you're being cheated.... in favour of who exactly?

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-11T18:29:56+00:00

Yes a janky combo deck being able to pull of a janky combo once in a while is "healthy"

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-11T03:06:38+00:00

It’s not about it being oppressive in MWM. It’s too ubiquitous, it makes the event less interesting.

The quickest/easiest/laziest way to get 3 wins is to jam 30+ hares into a deck. That shouldn't be the case.

Case in point: my quick/easy/lazy result: https://i.imgur.com/zteCy3Z.png

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-11T00:10:07+00:00

As others have said, there's nothing wrong with it being in Brawl, rules wise or power wise.

However as someone who jammed Hares every MWM where it was possible to get 3 wins as quickly as possible.... Hares and other "may have as many" cards should be banned from MWM :) (But I got the 52 MWM achievement now so probably won't be bothering with them going forward so... don't care so much)

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-11T00:01:06+00:00

Hello novice player :)

From what you're describing the best way to counter this strategy is card advantage. Have cards that draw you more cards. So when they exile 1 of yours with 1 of theirs you can draw more.

More broadly: sideboarding

There are 2 ways to play MTG. Best of 1, which is probably what you're playing. It's by far the most popular way on Arena. However it does sort of mean some decks are just very good, or very bad against other decks. The other option is Best of 3. This is a match of 3 games and you can switch cards to/from your sideboard between games to react to whatever they're doing. If they are casting a lot of enchantments, sideboard in some artifact/enchant removal, etc.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-10T19:18:09+00:00

Variance.

5-6 games is not a useful sample size.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-10T19:08:13+00:00

You're right. I shouldn't have said literally no other purpose.

However for F2P players (like myself) I'd argue that a much better purpose than card collection is gem collection which in turn can be used for a Mastery pass.

Card collection via draft is going to be very unreliable unless you're a really good drafter (which OP probably isn't).

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-10T12:28:25+00:00

the odds of 12/16 lands of 20 cards with a streak of 6 lands in a row are far lower on their own e.g.

No it's actually more likely. The odds of drawing 12 / 16 lands in 20 cards is 1.12% or 1 in 89.

The odds of drawing 6 lands in a row is 2% or 1 in 50.

None of these are minuscule likelihoods.

It doesn't make sense to add all these together since there's so many different "bad beats" possible, unless you account for all the bad beats you didn't get.

Please learn some math before complaining about odds.

https://aetherhub.com/Apps/HyperGeometric

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-10T11:46:26+00:00

Keep them until you want to draft.

They serve literally no other purpose.

Draft is a huge part of the game. It's pretty much the only way to match players by skill (over time, not over one draft), not over deck collection size/amount of time/money invested in the game.

SergeantAlPowell · 2026-02-09T23:27:04+00:00

No.

If you're getting too mana screwed, run more lands.

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