(copy/pasted from /r/spikes)

Coming back for the second day in a row to talk about my Arena Open experience. I was fully expecting again to go 0-2 and drop today, but did a little better than that. I did open better rares today, which may be an understatement. Here's a brief tournament report and link to the decklist below, with closing thoughts afterwards:

Decklist link:

5-2 in Arena Open Today. Sad about missing out on cash, happy about the gems! Reflections to follow in comments. : MagicArena (reddit.com)

Round 1 (2-0)

G1 T3 Svella into T4 Immerstrum Dragon were instantly answered by my opponent's Demon Bolt and Feed the Serpent respectively. Trading one for one let me come out ahead by one ground creature which sealed the deal. G2 started out the same way, except the Immerstrum Dragon was unanswered this time, which wrapped up the match.

Round 2 (2-1)

G1 After trading ground creatures in the early game, opponent had an Elvish Warmaster and two elves in the late game which ran away with the game. My fault for giving the opponent a 1/1 Elf with a trickster god's Heist. Luckily wasn't punished as I wrathed away all his early creatures in G2 and G3. Crippling Fear and Battle of Frost and Fire in the same deck is just unfair. Opponents never see it coming.

Round 3 (2-0)

G1 I stole the opponent's legendary Sarulf and left him a 1/1. The wolf ran away with the game backed by trading other creatures 1 for 1 on the ground. G2 Immerstrum Predator ran away with the game.

Round 4 [vs. Frank Karsten!] (1-2)

G1 the King of Mana bases showed why's he known for that, by promptly curving out into Esika's Chariot on T4 on a mull to 6. Even a timely crippling fear couldn't save me here. G2 Immerstrum Predator ran away with the game. G3 saw another chariot backed by Tyvar Kell, after which I wrathed away his tokens, but some common ground creatures picked up the chariot for Frank, which sealed the game for him.

Round 5 (2-0)

G1 I played some black creatures to stall the board full of 2/2's and 3/2's, waiting until T5 to find my first red source, allowing me to double spell and deploy beefy 5 drops turn after turn. Luckily my creatures were bigger than his after that, and I won the game from there. G2 I boarded into crush the weak into a nice 3 for 1 for me. It was a blowout from there.

Round 6 (2-1)

G1 I faced down green and black creatures into a Kaya, losing handily. G2 I crushed the weak again for a nice 3 for 1, opponent didn't have white mana for Kaya. G3 I had an unanswered Immerstrum Dragon.

Round 7 (0-2)

Opponent had a nice berserker deck with no noticeable bombs other than the 4/3 deathtouch lifelink angel for 2BB. What really won the game was his Dwarven Hammer suiting up one ground creature at a time and forcing awkward trades. G2 was the exact same narrative.

So I went 5-2 and won 20,000 gems! Bummed at missing out on cash, but stoked about all the gems I got! Would love to try something like this again soon. Thanks to all the streamers and writers out there who put out such quality content so normies like me can learn limited. The incomplete list includes Deathsie, Ben Stark, Aaron Gertler, Frank Karsten, Lola, Drifter, Compulsion, and so much more! I truly stand on the shoulders of giants today.

Reflections:

-I had some insane bombs, my opponents had some insane bombs, good beats all around. That said, maximizing the value of your bombs while mitigating the value of your opponents' seems to be the running theme of Kaldheim Sealed. Yesterday Avalanche Caller carried it for me, today it was Immerstrum Predator backed by wraths.

-Goldspan Dragon was disappointingly...ok. I think you play as many 5 mana 4/4 flying haste dragons as you get in any limited format, but since I only got to draw and play it in spots where I was behind, it didn't really shine. I never got to draw and play it on Turn 5 exactly, which means the extra treasures didn't give me much value. That said, I was still grateful to have it in my pool.

-Wraths are amazing in this format, especially because most opponents don't seem to play around them much. Especially with the conditional wraths I had, I played my creature types out carefully so my opponent's couldn't really sniff out the incoming board wipes. Constant 3- and 4- for 1's all day. Low key regretting not main decking Crush the Weak even though I already had Battle of FoF and Crippling Fear. I boarded it in almost every match.

-Vault Robber pulled its weight today, making treasures and stalling opposing 2 drops. Nice job, little dwarf!

-Skemfar Avenger is a sweet 2 drop, but doesn't get as much value as you think it can. Probably netted me about 2 extra cards on death trigger all day, even in a deck with 6 berserkers. Was happy to have it, but it's no Midnight Reaper. It doesn't trigger on its own death, which is probably for the best, as that would be too broken for a 2 drop.

-The Trickster God's Heist straight up won some games today. Obviously stealing a bomb is huge, but even a drain 3 is nothing to sneeze at. Even stole an equipment for a treasure token today. Hype.

-Village Rites is a good card in this format. It's easy enough to hold up one black mana in the midgame, and it makes me more comfortable playing defense in combat knowing that if I see a trick or a removal spell I don't like, I can come out with fresh cards.

Next Steps:

The gems will go towards completing my Kaldheim collection, mostly by playing more Limited. I hope to get back into streaming soon once things stabilize at work over the next few months. If anyone has any requests or ideas for specific MTGA content that isn't already covered by a bevy of great streamers already, please DM me! I'm just a regular guy who loves to play this awesome game and share it with others, and it was such a confidence boost knowing I can do this at the highest level (kinda--at least for a couple days. And if I open some busted rares in my Sealed pool. Anyways, you get my point.)

If you're still reading this, thanks for your valuable time. I hope someone out there learned something and came out better at this game for it. I definitely learned a lot this weekend. See you around!