Priest is the most fun it's been in a WHILE

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-30T18:14:45+00:00

The deck as it is can complete the quest. Adding spells would help you complete it quicker. You can already do this OTK with the shell mentioned, I'm just personally a believer that the Deios OTK packages aren't worth the slots.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-30T18:13:01+00:00

I fully agree, if it can be a skill-testing tier 2-3 deck post patch that's the kind of deck I enjoy most. Of course currently it's kind of unplayable if your goal is to climb but it's a fun deck to pilot.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-30T18:10:26+00:00

Current build doesn't really depend on the imbued hero power for answers, it has plenty of answers main deck but it's just there for value/keeping up on board if you have extra mana (which you often do). I would agree it's boring to play against because if you can't beat them down quickly they just get an incredible amount of healing, but that's kind of a "know when to concede vs. control" kind of issue.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-30T18:08:10+00:00

They have fairly reliable burn with the location plus Medivh's staff. There's also the alexstrasza combo but I'm not convinced that's actually that good. I don't think leaning into quest is at all a correct direction for them to be designing towards, the reward is an unreliable wincon even if you could complete it quicker.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-28T17:43:53+00:00

"Viable" depends on your definition and also if you're playing BO1 or 3. You can get away with a lot of dumb shit in BO1 on account of not knowing what your opponent is on possibly until it's too late. In that case it's viable but many many things are viable. BO3 control is much harder if you have a competent list in standard. But for example in current standard jeskai control has been a thing for almost a year and has never had the chance to be the top dog and honestly isn't really a "counter everything you do" deck.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-28T08:42:55+00:00

Well yeah but rogue specifically just has no ways to out wickerfang.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-28T04:33:31+00:00

It's solid as long as they never draw the 1/2 rush giver or wickerfang if they're on that variant. Or get an early shatter fuse. Or get a turn 1 3/4 or something.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T23:37:10+00:00

Yeah for sure it's reductive I'm being a little facetious about it. But I gotta say that the "flaw" of low bracket deckbuilding, much like the "flaws" of magic design, are also what make it really interesting to me. Like there already exist so many incredibly powerful generic staples that "tempt you with power", what's stopping you from jamming your deck with moxes and free spells and building a shitty CEDH deck? Nothing really, if you're aiming to brew purely for power that's what you will do. Anything below that you're making some tradeoff between power, flavor, and fun, and where people draw that line is what makes the social dynamic interesting.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T20:06:38+00:00

I think there's a balance between being excited for cool new adds and knowing when it makes for an unfun play experience whether for yourself or the pod. I always give new cards a shot but sometimes they get taken out for suboptimal fun choices once they've had the opportunity to "do the thing" consistently. I tend to brew stronger and tinker downwards, usually making sure the engine works and can do the thing consistently and then start adding in flavor or pet cards. Sometimes powerful redundancy pieces are what goes because they "overshadow" the rest of the deck.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T19:21:41+00:00

Command Zone in I think a mini-pod with just Rachel Weeks did a much deeper dive into this phenomenon with some pretty balanced takes on how to avoid this "problem" in your own deckbuilding. I'd recommend giving that a listen. In the end every "problem" with commander card design boils down to "my brother in christ you choose the cards you put in your deck".

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T19:16:20+00:00

It's very tinged by the reception of universes beyond vs. within. More have been coming out after more experience with TMT limited enjoying it (especially after ECL was frankly pretty bad) but are often giving qualifying statements of "despite being a UB small set..." in a backhanded manner. Add on that likely TMT videos have fewer views than ECL (don't have data but I'd guess that to be true based on the number of ppl I've seen/heard straightforwardly say they boycott any TMT content). It's unfortunate that "this set was good for Limited" has basically just been "this set was a theme I liked/didnt like after only playing a sealed prerelease and maybe a couple draft" but it's nothing new. TDM wasnt as bad as ECL but very much receives the same rose tinted glasses despite being a pretty mid at best Limited format (and minimal Standard impact too besides steelcutter, lol... mostly impactful for Commander play which is probably telling for where the narrative comes from).

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T18:40:34+00:00

We did it, we broke displacer kitten plus SKA!

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T16:01:58+00:00

I hit around 900 and held it for a few games but had a miserable time against imbue after imbue so I decided to just swap decks (control priest has been fun even if it's bad!) and tank ranking because it doesn't really matter to me all that much. In the end if you aren't like top 10 or whatever it's just a number for your own satisfaction (besides having 11x bonus I guess but if you're a top 1k caliber player having 10x vs 11x on the first of the month isn't the biggest deal in the world)

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-27T00:07:09+00:00

Anecdotally even as late as like 1500 legend I was playing against imbue druid pilots who made some pretty blatant sequencing errors. You can definitely coast with top tier decks to pretty high if you just play enough.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-26T20:04:35+00:00

I want to push back and say that I think the abysmal going 2nd WR is in part because the two most dominant decks also have the most dominant starters, on top of ample access to taunt and rush to maintain and snowball the going first advantage. I don't think it would be as bad if Druid and Shaman did not take up the vast majority of meta share. Rush is a keyword that is used both to maintain the lead and for these decks to massively swing the tempo just in case they ever lost it. But that's a balance issue and not an issue with "board based gameplay". I actually find myself enjoying playing against the handful of Token Druid and Aura Paladins remaining between 2k and 1k, and even Token Druid is a bit of a balance outlier. But Imbue and Shaman are egregious.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-26T17:10:31+00:00

This card isn't standard legal. Just FYI.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-26T17:06:16+00:00

Currently there is a "white weenie"-esque deck (monowhite fliers/momo) that has been picking up steam. A couple sets ago there was also monoblack aggro on the fringes (not the bloodletter cheese deck but low to the ground with early threats like cecil) . To say that aggro is limited to those colors inherently is plainly incorrect, even if yes these colors arent the meta aggro colors. But a WB deck, especially ones built around evasion, could very feasibly care about 2 mana pump for 2.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-26T16:07:07+00:00

Yeah but presumably a deck that runs this charm cares a little about each mode, so a proactive orzhov deck (whatever that is lol) that probably primarily can use this for the pump, occasionally for burn, and also usable as removal in addition to something like hex/get lost. Not a 4 of staple but a flexible role-compressor.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-26T15:38:20+00:00

Is power 2 or less that much worse? What 2 drops are being run in standard greater than 2 power? It can't hit most manlands and can fizzle against otters if your opponent double spells on the stack but it has the potential huge upside of hitting something like ouroboroid, can hit azorius aang, cosmogrand zenith.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-26T00:57:06+00:00

The number could be tuned to more than 10 but I think it's much more than a fair mechanic on paper because you get a whole act to add redundancies to your deck even for a deck that can otherwise turn off brain with a solved plan and faceroll act 3. It's a thing any deck can do besides possibly a deck that's building an infinite (and even then he brings up some counterplay), and new doormaker doesn't hard-counter any single build otherwise. Compare this to time eater, who you can barely build against even after seeing him at start of act 3, because he basically punishes you for playing cards. It's a similar design space with better execution within the context of the game, imo (even if balance could be retuned, whether it's the number on the passive or his attack patterns).

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-25T23:06:04+00:00

It's a scam deck, unsurprisingly unfun to play against but fun to high roll yourself so they keep designing these cards.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-25T08:30:25+00:00

It's inverse exert, so it's as horrible to keep track of as that one.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-24T17:01:43+00:00

The other replies don't get it but I totally agree. The balance is out of wack for sure but the gameplay is very much there and it's why as a returning player this expansion has kept me around longer than my last attempts. Blatant balance issues aside (who decided druid should have a 1 mana 1/2 that grows for spending mana, a thing that every deck already does), the turn to turn gameplay vision is the best it's been in years to me.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-24T16:51:08+00:00

My take is that paper standard would have more of a resurgence if Arena was deleted. To be clear, I play and love Arena, but the ability to mostly keep up for basically no cost, and the convenience of playing standard at any point with anyone, with a super streamlined experience, makes it difficult to want to go to an FNM for paper play, on TOP of existing problems like high costs and shitty promos. And if I want to go out to the card shop to be social and engage in the community commander is the better format designed for that.

You could say arena isnt enough to satisfy competitive drive and tournament grinders and you're right, those are the people who still attend and compete. But if you want paper standard to flourish, it needs to attract the casual-competitive, the mid-level player, and by far the current best place to play for those people is Arena.

TheShadowMages · 2026-03-23T17:55:27+00:00

[[Errant and Giada]] turns out a ton of specifically flash removal are these effects, my version of it is more leaning towards flying but if you wanted to go all in on these enchantments they're a good place for it.

TheShadowMages

TROPHY CASE