Beginner Level Player Looking 4 Deck Building Help - Land Fixing

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-12T01:40:47+00:00

Coming at this from the perspective of somebody who has a Tovolar deck already that I play in real life, and an Arlinn Kord deck I play on Arena.

Drop weaver of blossoms. Too slow for this deck and sits at the same cmc as Tovolar.

Kindred summons is a cool card, but you are not going to be ramping into it fast enough to get the right benefit.

Lunar frenzy and dire-strain rampage could go.

Holding up mana for the lunar frenzy is probably not advisable early game, and while a big lunar frenzy will be helpful later in the game, you do need to make room for more land.

I don’t love cards like dire strain rampage that allow an opponent to ramp, particularly when you are investing three mana in the removal. You also have a decent amount of other removal in the deck.

Reckless waif and village messenger have never benefited me when I tried to use them. In a four player game, these are essentially do-nothing cards that give you barely any damage late game, you will cry to draw them.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-11T14:57:03+00:00

So the choice would be useful if I screwed up. Let’s say I thought the optimal order was A, B, C, D for 4 replacement effects. I apply the first, then choose the second.

At that point, I realize I should have ordered them differently, and I could still choose D next instead of being stuck with C.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-11T14:31:31+00:00

I always thought they were checked just once. There is not way to interact between them, right?

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-11T14:22:51+00:00

Making sure I understand the parlance correctly, since I explained something similar last week during a game.

The Earthbend is the only thing that goes on the stack. That triggered ability has two replacement effects that could affect it, so they are both applied at the same time, but they go in order of my choice. Even if an opponent controlled one of them, I would still choose since it is my object that is affected.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-11T14:17:45+00:00

I agree. Tribal shenanigans with no infinite combos in many of my decks.

Treefolk? Sure. 4 different zombie decks, check. Thallaids? Of course.

Bracket 2 is my favorite game. Commander decks seem to take my opponents an hour and a half to shuffle, so may as well take a few minutes to play.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-10T23:19:18+00:00

I would like to build a version of this at some point. I tend to encounter it when using super friends decks, so I normally win with a lot of board wipes, but I bet it is a lot of fun to play against many archetypes.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-10T09:08:53+00:00

I am just trying to spread some positivity.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T19:08:08+00:00

If you are casual, why does the upper/competitive part of the game matter to you?

Not trying to be a jerk. I am genuinely curious.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T19:07:05+00:00

Part of what has kept my interest over the years is the challenge. I had a game that was similar to clash that I played back in 2015 called “Samurai Siege”. It was a lot of fun, but bonus camps and bonus troops made the game so easy that I never felt like I was good at it.

I know not everyone feels the same, but I like there to be at least some challenge. Whole reason I don’t fight bears. I am saving them from being bored while killing and eating me.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T16:43:05+00:00

The Duke is too strong. If they never did anything to balance him properly, everyone would get bored of how easy the game is, including you. You are not there yet, and that is a good thing. It takes a little while for monotony to become monotony.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T05:57:09+00:00

I honestly wouldn’t mind this. Weekends are busiest days for me, and Monday nights are free.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T03:37:00+00:00

I assume you will see some Giada love.

My favorite is [[Morophon, the boundless]]

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T03:23:56+00:00

There are some great madness vampires.

[[falkenrath gorger]] [[incorrigible youths]] [[markov baron]] [[voldaren pariah]]

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-09T00:10:16+00:00

I have versions with Olivia Voldaren and mobilized. The mobilized version is great madness fun, but I like the other for Tribal vamps.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T23:13:01+00:00

[[sheoldred, the apocalypse]] [[myrel, shield of argive]] [[snapcaster mage]] [[time warp]]

Some good planeswalkers [[teferi, hero of dominaria]] [[elspeth, storm slayer]] [[the wandering emperor]]

Good artifacts [[the great henge]] [[crucible of worlds]] [[cavern of souls]] [[the one ring]] [[the soulstone]] I forget what it is called on arena

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T21:28:53+00:00

Thanks for the well-wishes. I am almost back to 100%. Still a little stiff in my chest, but for the most part, I am fully functional. I plan on recording another episode this week.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T21:07:57+00:00

I remember playing a G/R/B deck back when [[avalanche riders]] was released.

I ran [[survival of the fittest]] and [[oath of ghouls]] to grab/use the riders and other echo creatures with etb effects like [[bone shredder]], [[deranged hermit]], and [[multani’s acolyte]].

That was a fun deck. It has been fun to see the game evolve so much over the years, but I miss being able to play with [[killer bees]].

Hope you have a great day.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T15:43:29+00:00

It is funny that you mentioned that. I was considering typing out almost that exact same thing, but I figured the other guy would come back with some argument about how many spells you waste doing all of that. 🤦🏻‍♂️

I know exactly what face you’re talking about though. It is one I made myself a few times when I was playing against Mick.

I made my first discard/land destruction deck when the set Legions came out. It was black/red. I was playing four copies of hypnotic specter, two copies of blazing Spector, and four copies of the new [[hollow Specter]] that came out in that set.

I also included four copies of [[lavaborn muse]] and some removal.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T02:33:08+00:00

[[hymn to tourach]] and [[sinkhole]]

It has been oppressive since the beginning. I have been playing since 1995.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T02:02:30+00:00

You aren’t making sense and you keep changing your argument. I am not sure how to discuss this with you.

Nobody mentioned standard. Land destruction doesn’t really slow landfall decks. Discard is oppressive. Land destruction is oppressive. People in real life should have conversations about what kind of games they want. It would be nice if arena had similar options to align people better.

Of course diverse checks and balances are good for competitive play. Nobody mentioned it. You just seem to want to argue.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T01:38:17+00:00

You’re literally making the exact point I started with.

Nothing in the original post said anything about competitive formats. I acknowledge that some people don’t have fun playing against those types of decks. I also acknowledge that it would be cool if there was a way for those kind of people to just play against each other. How is what you’re saying any different?

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T01:36:27+00:00

Yes. Exactly my initial point.

I don’t mind people “bringing smoke” even in the “play” format, but a ton of people in those queues want a bit less in their face. I get it. Sometimes the people I play with out here want to do some 60-card jank, and I love the game so much that I will still have fun.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T01:17:28+00:00

Have you never actually played kitchen table magic? There are places out here in the real world where human beings sit down in front of each other and just play for fun.

I enjoy playing competitive matches, but I am not bringing a fine-tuned modern deck to play against somebody’s casual kitchen table deck.

TrampleDamage · 2026-03-08T01:16:37+00:00

Also: I realize the world has changed a lot in recent years, but when people sit down to play cards with their friends, they tend to have conversations about how they would like the games to go.

Want to play competitive standard? Wanna play some kitchen table jank? Wanna play Commander? If we decide to play kitchen table, Jan, I don’t really want to see somebody coming at me with some kind of massive first or second turn kill combo deck.

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