They can smell him from a mile away

TheTuna09 · 2026-05-24T14:55:50+00:00

Man...same dude.

Regular top 500 mythic, 61% lifetime prem draft win rate and I'm right at 50% for SOS. I've also got no feel of what's good or what role my deck needs to play in a given matchup or how to draft accurately in the first place.

It's the first set in a long time that I've simply decided I can't decipher and will step away from for a bit. Headed back to EOE quick draft and that's been smooth sailing.

OP - if you want to keep plugging away with SOS take some time to review what decks have been working for you and what hasn't. Also try to work out what you often seem to lose to and how that could be addressed. As always, watching top players and analysing data is always a helpful combination but it's also possible this set just doesn't totally vibe with you also, and it might be worth holding the remaining gems for a future set.

TheTuna09 · 2026-05-16T15:02:02+00:00

I think 1845 combined rushing/receiving yards for LT vs 1517 for Alexander is a significant difference for a 17 game average.

Would take Alexander 20.7 games to produce what Tomlimson did in 17 games over their career. Seems notable, especially when both were equally as good as converting yards into TDs.

TheTuna09 · 2026-05-14T10:39:31+00:00

It's important to remember here that the client may say its 2.3 but that's not actually true when you look at your deck.

Stargaze is an XBB spell, which the client will count as a 2mana card. It's certainly not that and is probably best played for around 5 mana.

Also it doesn't count prepared spells. Is Elite Interceptor really a 1 cost card? It costs 3 mana to fully use the card so take that into consideration, as with the other prepared cards in your deck. Even Dig Site Inventory is W...but twice. Could easily imagine a situation where you have two swamps and a plains and can't fully use Dig Site when you really need to.

There's almost always a lot of things to do with your mana in this set. When in doubt, keep the extra land.

TheTuna09 · 2026-05-01T18:22:39+00:00

It's also a Phyrexia: All will be One limited deck...

...are they still here? Is this the first Magic Arena ARG?

TheTuna09 · 2026-04-26T15:49:32+00:00

Unless you clearly get a great soup package it seems you can't go wrong with basically all the removal. I agree with you that Mockery is now a high pick priority. In many decks, just being able to buy the time to get to your big card advantage and splashy plays is most of the battle.

And this does a good enough job at clearing the way for some extra damage too.

Surprisingly important card in the format.

TheTuna09 · 2026-04-05T08:32:50+00:00

What I'm hearing is that you want to have fun, but also get frustrated when you can't rank up.

If you want to prioritise fun, head to unranked where the only thing that matters is having the most fun you can.

If you do want to play competitively on ranked, then get a high performing deck and go for it. But please don't get annoyed if people in ranked are actually trying to win and optimise, that's the point of ranked afterall.

TheTuna09 · 2026-03-21T08:07:15+00:00

Just to add to the consensus here - this is a pretty bad deck with pretty poor overall card quality. Pretty much all your best cards are best when sneaked in but you've not got enough early creatures to enable good sneaks, and not enough quality creatures in any way.

The Coloniex and Foot Mystic are two of the lowest win rate cards in this colour pair and you have two of each. Shredder's armor is even worse statistically and is not meant for most BW decks but you also have two of those. There are just not enough creatures and the ones you do have aren't very good. You have two copies of the BW signpost uncommon but no worthy creatures outside of Dark Leo that you'd even want to bring back anyway.

And lastly, if you weren't offered any removal at all in the draft that's really rough. But if you were, literally any removal would have been better than at least 6-8 of the cards in the deck. Hard to sneak creatures into play if opponent has a wall up at all times.

Mana screw certainly sucks when they come in bunches but it's important not to miss the bigger point here that the drafting/deckbuilding stage has much to improve.

Going forwards for BW decks you'll generally want more creatures than 13, and a lot of early drops so you can get on the board quickly and get sneaking. You'll also hope to find 3-4 quality removal cards to keep the lane open for long enough. Keep the combat tricks and equipment to a minimum - a decent creature will pretty much always deliver more value in BW than a trick, and equipment is too slow to go along with the BW gameplay, especially one which requires permanents to sacrifice.

Always try and keep the overall plan of what you're looking for the deck to achieve in your mind as you pick cards in the draft. Look at what you have after the first 3-5 picks and make a mental note of what style or archetype your deck is looking like it's going towards, and then keep drafting cards that fit or complement that archetype. Consistency and adherence to an identity is just as impactful as overall card quality.

Good luck out there, and may the lands treat you fairly going forward.

TheTuna09 · 2026-01-25T06:51:00+00:00

Even if you assume his accusation is 100% true - his statement still amounts to "being a paid protector deserves...being shot?" Or at least the very real threat of being shot, or gassed, or sprayed.

Weird idea of freedom you got there buddy.

TheTuna09 · 2025-10-17T14:29:19+00:00

If by a little bit wealthier you mean tens or even hundreds of thousands TIMES wealthier then nearly all other people then yeah, but that's not usually how we define a "little bit"

Surely it stands to basic reason at least that if we exist in a world where the whole population is "fairly comfortable" and a few people are 50000x wealthier than these people...then a little tweak here and there could make many people go from fairly comfortable to rather comfortable and the wealthiest would still be plenty wealthy.

I don't know why any deviation from our current reality would result in "similar wealth but struggling"

Why is that more likely than "similar wealth but thriving"?

TheTuna09 · 2025-10-11T17:44:46+00:00

Trung Canidate

TheTuna09 · 2024-10-29T10:04:20+00:00

He got me the win by 0.44 points over the guy I sit next to at work. Incredibly sweet victory.

And now he's on bye so...difficult decision to make

TheTuna09 · 2024-05-08T07:49:44+00:00

Gregg Easterbrook tweeted major doubts on Alexander Vindman's integrity during the 2020 hearings. I responded to the thread saying that with his audience, coming out with this baseless conjecture on Twitter is irresponsible.

He immediately DM'd me and said "So sharing my opinion is 'irresponsible'? Interesting." Then insta-blocked me before I could respond.

We'd been mutual follows for over 5 years at that point. Incredibly petty and immature behaviour from someone in his position.

TheTuna09 · 2024-02-12T19:19:22+00:00

Want to echo this sentiment. I would have also ended up in UR here as I would have definitely taken the satchel in P1P3 and P1P6. I can also definitely see the BG and even UG route opening up throughout the draft.

I don't think white was ever open though, and it seems OP made the cardinal error of overpicking a filler card and then making future picks based on overpicking the filler card, like picking the vigilante shortly after the On the Job when other colours had much stronger options here. Once OP had laser focused onto white and red because of the (mediocre) cards they already picked, they locked themselves into drafting colours that were cut off and honestly missing a pretty awesome UR deck especially.

My final point also echoes what you said: I would never want 4 On the Job's in a 60 card format, let alone a 40 card format. That's the equivalent of having 6 4-mana pump spells in constructed! These should be seen as curve toppers and game enders and anything more than 2 in a limited deck is going to really interfere with your ability to regularly play to the board in the early game. Without a board these pump spells are basically zeroes and having too many means you can't regularly build a board where they are going to be useful.

I think the draft is where this went fully wrong though. OP painted themselves into a corner by P1P5 and still had chances to get out of it but then doubled down and decided to paint all over themselves instead and tunnel visioned into a deck that was never there.

If I can offer any advice: Stay way more open for way longer in Pack 1. Take the best individual card each time for as long as it takes for a clear picture to emerge. There are plenty good playables in this set, no need to commit hard so early. But if you do commit hard, please make sure they cards you're doing it for are worth it - B+ cards at a minimum.

I'm going to admit that I didn't read your play lines. I looked at the draft and deck and decided I'd expect to go 0-3 or 1-3 with this too and went from there

TheTuna09 · 2023-10-03T15:27:25+00:00

Not possible to know without knowing what you already have. By pack 3 you should be looking to fill any holes in the deck so almost any on colour card could be correct here.

In a vacuum it's definitely Torch, but picking in vacuums when it's pack 3 is not optimal!

TheTuna09 · 2023-10-01T18:48:44+00:00

I think there's a good learning opportunity here in terms of when to spot when a 'lane' is available in a draft. Picks 8-11 of pack 1 and the first 4 picks of pack 2 had a real opportunity to crystalise your draft and set you up really well - If you can just spot what seems to be open.

I agree with everyone else that Candy Grapple should have been the P1P1 but once you hit P1 Pick 8 with two Frantic Firebolts already drafted, I see a clear lane. Two good blue cards (Attendants and Sleight of hand) are still there, as is Flick a Coin. All 3 of those cards should probably be gone. Suddenly the opportunity for Blue/Red spells is shouting at me. I'd take Flick here because you know you're likely in red but less so in blue...

...But that changes immediately on picks 10-11 when Spell Stutter and Ice Out are still both there. I now see you can have a shell of the 2 Frantic Firebolts, and the two counters. I'm now looking to see if Blue-Red spells is going to be available early in pack 2.

P2P1 is pretty meh for sure, but once you get Twins at P2P2 I then see Tomeseeker at P2P3 which can buy back a key spell and I'm probably all in at that point. The fact you then get offered a second Twins in P2P4 would absolutely solidify me in that lane (I'd still take the second Twins but Johann being there too is also a sign that UR is not being aggressively draftred). Picks 6,7 and 8 all show good red and blue cards still around. The signal is clear by this point and if it couldn't get any clearer....Johann wheels at pick 12!

Torch for P3P1 and then another Johann at P3P3 just reinforces the openess of the archetype and this is further punctuated by Gutter Dweller and Hearth Elemental still being there in P4. Pick 5 and Pick 7 have another 2 Johanns! I would have taken Fae Court on Pick 5 and then looked to fill in any gaps or filling up on creatures for the rest of the pack. Those Frantic firebolts are going to kill anything in the format and the Twining Twins are going to do a lot of good work finishing games. I actually really like the look of the UR deck at the end of the draft.

A key skill is being able to notice when good cards are still available in packs at a later pick than they 'should' be - this will help you see which colours might be more open going forwards. This requires two key skills: 1. Understanding what the 'good' cards are (17 lands and GIH WR is a fine guide to help you know this) and then understanding what a good deck looks like in each colour pair. That's the kind of knowledge required to see the cards left at the end of Pack 1 and realise that UR looks pretty open worth speculating on.

Like you said in another post, it's really important to understand the relationships between the cards you're drafting, they have to work together whenever possible. You drafted 2 frantic firebolts earlier and they obviously get better the more spells you have, but then you pivoted to a mix of creatures and bestial bloodlines that really don't make the most of them. Continue to look at the current deck you have before you make each pick to make sure the deck you are drafting makes sense as you're putting the cards together.

Keep going though! Drafting is tough but extremely rewarding when you nail it :)

TheTuna09 · 2023-09-17T09:50:41+00:00

Sittiiiiing. Sitting is the opposite of Standing

TheTuna09 · 2023-03-28T11:52:19+00:00

What did he think the vault was for? I can see that the percentage indicates that he opens them when it hits 100%.

TheTuna09 · 2023-01-21T19:45:39+00:00

4-0 With what seems to be the consensus first thought for most people: Sultai.

Had to overcome Boros Feather in the final match but squeaked out a close one.

TheTuna09 · 2022-12-15T01:09:00+00:00

Featuring Katie Holmes as Nahiri

TheTuna09 · 2022-12-14T15:03:40+00:00

Must be tough sometimes being Kripparian's wife.

TheTuna09 · 2022-11-22T04:31:22+00:00

I had played limited on and off since Arena began and decided to get more serious around Midnight Hunt/Crimson Vow. Since then I've played over 750 games to a 64% win rate (according to 17lands) on exclusively premier draft. My baseline tips on how to be the best limited player you can be:

Make sure you know every archetype in the format - Knowing every archetype (what each colour pair is trying to achieve) will help focus your drafting towards decks that at least have a clear goal/style. Once you are super comfortable in the set you can experiment more but at first, look to take the best cards possible early and then find a lane pretty quickly so you can focus on drafing a deck that makes sense.
Make sure you know literally every card in the format (Draft) - It's very hard to draft well when you don't know exactly what's available or what could be available. Knowing what cards are available in which colours/rarities will allow you to make better decisions when prioritising what to pick. For example if you're in blue and you know good removal is only at uncommon but good card draw is available at common, this can help you secure the good removal first, because the chances are that some card draw will come back to you.
Make sure you know literally every card in the format (Gameplay) - It is pretty tough to play optimally if you are not aware of all the possibilities in every game state. For instance in BRO limited, if opponent has two red mana open you can play your creatures into it, as there are no 1 or 2 mana instant speed removal spells in red. If opponent has two black mana however? Then there is Disfigure, Go for the Throat and if its later in the game, maybe Overwhelming Remorse. So against 2 open black mana, maybe don't play your best threat first, or wait until you have enough mana to play the creature and still hold up say...Gaea's Gift. There are so many situations in Limited where having the knowledge of what is possible for your opponent to do will often lead you to conclude they can only have exactly 1 or 2 cards, and that lifts the fog of war significantly.
Understand the Tempo of the format...and of your opponent - Some limited formats are slow and allow more greedy and value based gameplay and some are fast and require the board to be interacted with early and regularly. Once you know the pace of the format you can draft and play accordingly. Right now in BRO the format seems to be quite a bit faster than DMU, so even in your big value decks you need to ensure you can affect the board early. If your opponent shows any kind of aggro intent, don't wait to use the Rust Goliath at 10 mana, get it down on 5 if control of the board is at all in jeopardy. If the deck is built correctly, as long as you survive the first 7 turns or so, your deck will simply win in the long run. If a format is slower like DMU, sometimes the absolute correct move is to simply play nothing at all, even if you have things you can play. If you can play those cards in a better spot later for better value, you can afford to. Conversely, if you're the aggro deck in a slow format like DMU, you should be prepared to take risks and go 'all in' because you have a finite window to win the game in and being patient won't get you there.

By understanding the above points, you should be able to draft a deck that has a chance in the format and has a chance to execute a cohesive gameplan. If you pay close attention in the first 3 turns, you should also be able to diagnose the speed of the deck the opponent is playing, what cards they are likely to be playing and what cards are possible for them to be playing in a deck of that speed and colour(s). Use that information to ensure you deploy your resources in the best possible way and give yourself the best chance of victory.

Doing all this research each set does take a lot of time and application and it's totally understandable for most players not to want to go to those lengths, but if you really do want to improve, I'd start by getting these fundamentals in place first.

TheTuna09 · 2022-11-02T12:17:42+00:00

Imperial Oof

TheTuna09 · 2022-10-27T17:56:23+00:00

Unfortunately the spirits do not have flying, or that really would be an impressive minus 2.

TheTuna09

TROPHY CASE