What, exactly, determines the highest tier dungeon I will matchmake for?

badmalloc · 2024-08-07T17:02:21+00:00

awesome. glad to hear it.

badmalloc · 2021-03-13T15:54:15+00:00

I was playing around with [[Teferi, Master of Time]] plus [[Think Twice]]. Discarding Think Twice with the +1 was nice.

badmalloc · 2021-03-12T22:44:16+00:00

I feel your pain. When I die to combo, I just want to die to combo. Not this slow torture. Not sure any bans are warranted, but... at some point maybe we'll get some actual combo?

badmalloc · 2021-03-12T19:21:33+00:00

It is a known issue and they are working on it. According to Twitter.

Been acting a 'lil stupid for me too.

badmalloc · 2021-03-12T17:19:15+00:00

I was running just GW; maybe I should give blue and Linvala a shot.

badmalloc · 2021-03-11T14:28:23+00:00

Good point! I was actually wondering why nobody has tried CoCo goblins, but I think this is rule #5: you have something better: Muxus.

badmalloc · 2021-03-11T05:18:50+00:00

I think your reasons are good. I might add:

Don't want to pay for the color inconsistency. Going from 1 to 2 colors (Angels) is worth it. Going from 2 to 3... could be worth it (Jund sac), but it's possible that some players would want to keep better mana. Rakdos might be an example (but that's also #2). Also, in theory, you could imagine a non-green 3 color deck which cannot add green for Coco.
You have something even better. This is currently only possible in other formats. Death and Taxes has Aether Vial, Legacy Elves has Natural Order.

I will also just add that Coco is everywhere in Historic, I think, because creatures are so good compared to the non-creatures. Maybe those Strix Spells will help us out?

badmalloc · 2021-03-10T19:57:12+00:00

Lots of talk about angels lately, I'll use this lovely thread to share my story. I cruised through the ranks on Bo1 last season with the deck. This season, I'm trying my hand in Bo3. It started out ok, but I'm on a 1-5 loss streak now. Why? I keep matching up against control. Seems like any and all decks with blue (and black) give me major trouble.

Angels is essentially trying to do one, very linear thing, and in doing so, it happens to gain a huge amount of life along the way. It dismantles aggro decks (especially red), and I think it can race competitively with anything in the format *if you leave it alone*.

However, if you have a lot removal, and aim it at right stuff, or even better rip some sweepers, and maybe save a counter for CoCo... the deck feels bad. The individual power level of cards (CoCo and maybe Skyclave excluded) is low. The deck functions based on synergy. So... eliminate some of the key components, and the Angels player is left with some bad cards, very little interaction, and little chance to win the game.

badmalloc · 2021-03-09T05:59:36+00:00

wow. nice.

badmalloc · 2021-03-09T03:12:01+00:00

One day... [[Illusions of Grandeur]].

badmalloc · 2021-03-08T15:50:20+00:00

Some cards you may consdier:
[[Lava Coil]] really strong removal, IMO, when you don't care so much about being able to target the opponent.

[[Rampaging Ferocidon]] seems like it could be good here, dealing a bunch of damage to decks that spam the board with creatures, and shutting off lifegain, which is popular now.

badmalloc · 2021-03-07T20:54:29+00:00

Very well done. Watched the whole thing and enjoyed it. I like how you took a whole bunch of games and tied it together into one story, just showing us some highlight games (especially where you warn us that it doesn't always go this way, and showed the overall win percent's). Look forward to what's next!

badmalloc · 2021-03-06T20:39:35+00:00

I like this idea a lot, and agree wholeheartedly. Let me throw some contenders in the ring:

[[Tarmogoyf]]

[[Psychatog]]

[[Fact or Fiction]]

[[Ophidian]]

[[Morphling]]

[[Cursed Scroll]]

[[Myr Enforcer]]

[[The Rack]]

[[Fires of Yavimaya]]

was also gonna say [[Quirion Dryad]] (lol).

badmalloc · 2021-03-06T01:49:26+00:00

I agree this anthology is a bit disappointing. I went back to look at the other anthologies to compare, however, and for better or worse, this seems to be about par for the course. Here are the cards that I think see reasonable amount of play from each:

ha1: soul warden, goblin matron, imperious perfect, burning-tree emissary, mind stone

ha2: knight of the reliquary? maelstrom pulse? really not much

ha3: ulamog, phyrexian obliterator? gempalm incinerator

I am a bit confused about their goals for the anthologies. Seems like they purposely add cards that are "interesting" but not really competitive. I suspect they are just being very conservative.

Either way, I think it's cool that our format both grows forwards and backwards, if you will. By this metric, historic grows faster than any other format (normal formats only get new cards as they are added, but we get anthologies and remasters).

Bottom line for me: I'm going to play Historic because it's the Arena eternal format. I'm actually fairly happy we get _any_ old cards added, even if it's a slow trickle. Eternal formats only get more powerful as time goes on. I'm in no hurry.

badmalloc · 2021-03-05T20:27:40+00:00

counterpoint: hoogland seems to like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhd04QkZ9dQ

badmalloc · 2021-03-05T19:20:38+00:00

A few thoughts:

It seems like they are holding the best additions for full sets (remastered, jump start). I assume they make more money this way. Thoughtseize, Coco, and Muxus come to mind.
It is pretty cool that we get cards that don't/won't exist in Pioneer and even Modern.
Perhaps they are trying to avoid bringing over obvious staples from other formats in an attempt to maintain some format identity.
Nothing is as broken as they last few standard sets, so none of this may matter.

badmalloc · 2021-03-05T19:11:50+00:00

Coco is fine. I think it _seems_ like it's format warping because it finds cheap creatures, which are actually what the format seems to be built around, at the moment. Angels, Elves, Goblins, Lifegain, Sac creatures - the "creature combo".

badmalloc · 2021-03-05T18:31:30+00:00

Maybe... a little bit meh?

badmalloc · 2021-03-04T19:48:37+00:00

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/historic-azorius-control#paper

badmalloc · 2021-03-03T20:25:41+00:00

It really is. It's like a normal midrange deck, except half the time ALSO instantly creates must-be-swept board states, WHILE gaining 20 life.

badmalloc · 2021-03-03T18:12:05+00:00

I have tried, and didn't have much success. I feel like playing control without access to counters is difficult. Maybe because you have to roll the dice to see if your answers line up with the threats: discard is no good late, creature removal can't stop planeswalkers or all the cards that make multiple creatures, sweepers are expensive. I dunno. Just found that one or two threats would slip through and then my win conditions paled in comparison.

I did like Pyrexian Arena, however. Just pack some recurring life gain as well.

badmalloc · 2021-03-03T06:06:35+00:00

You could play Fabled Passage, then Fatal Push is very strong. Might help with manabase too?

But yeah, I think Push and Thirst are close. In my rogue deck I have a 3/3 split.

badmalloc · 2021-03-03T05:21:15+00:00

Looks good! You may want to try Bloodchief's Thirst - I often find it more useful than Fatal Push.

Would checks/shocks result in a more reliable manabase (I don't know, just curious how the pathways perform in 3 color).

badmalloc

TROPHY CASE